Carpe diem

This is going to be short and sweet today folks.  I have two classes and a big test today so I really need to get to work.  I haven't written for a couple of days.  I have been pretty busy.  I had some reading to catch up on, flash cards to finish up and Al came up this weekend.  Al came up on Saturday after hunting for pheasants with his daughter Janet and his brother Bob.  They got 10 birds I believe.  We have 3 in the freezer, ate one and I got the feathers from one of the birds.  Pheasants are good to eat but they can be tough.  I am still learning how to cook these little buggers.  I got some feathers because I am planning on making some masks.  Me and Al have found a few hip bones from dead sheep and they look like a mask already.  I just thought that it would be interesting to add some adornments to the bones and make them look really cool!  I keep thinking about when me and Al go to burning man we will need some costuming and I want to prepare now.  We aren't going until Al retires, which will be in another 18 months.  Anyway more on that another day.

Sunday we took our ritual walk checking out the property.  There is always some sort of change that has happened on 300 acres and we love to check it all out.  Trees are always falling, more fire wood, and there are a lot of mushrooms out there right now.  After the big storm we had there was also a lot of fallen moss.  There are so many different kinds some I have never seen before.  I tried to take some photos of them and some of the photos turned out pretty good but some I just couldn't get clear enough.  I am going to collect some and see if I can't spread it out, dry it and use it in some kind of adornment for a costume.  Some of the moss, (I think that is what it is) looks like lace.  Some of it looks sort of alien, like it dropped down from some other planet.  These are the kind of things we see on our walks.  We were actually on our way to pick some of the oranges we have on the property.  We like to juice them for our breakfast.  The oranges are a bit sour yet but we just add some apples and a few carrots out of our garden and "yum"  tasty juice to drink not to mention the vitamins we are getting with the fresh fruits and vegetables.  On our walk we met up with the vineyard manager, Joe.  We talked for a while and asked him when he would be going to Italy again?  We want some grappa.  It is good stuff.  Powerful!!  He said he would check with his son and see if he had any maybe he could get us some.  We hope so.  After talking for awhile off we were for home, breakfast and we still had cleaning up to do.  We also wanted to hang up our "Merganser" nesting box.  Well actually it would be a nesting box suitable for any of the ducks we have on the property.  We have Mallards, Wood ducks and Mergansers.  We also have Canadian Geese but they nest on the ground.  We had one pair nest last year.  The goose laid 5 eggs.  We only ever saw three goslings and none of the goslings made it past a few weeks.  At least we didn't see any after a while.  We did observe the goose with three babies and then two, then none.  Oh well that is the way of life.  Some make it and some don't.  Well folks I think I will stop here.  Love you all stay healthy and see you later