Scars heal
Chris Cagle sings a chorus that goes like this:
Scars heal… glory fades
And all we’re left with are the memories made, oh yeah
Pain hurts, but only for a minute
Yeah life is short so go on and live it
Cause the chicks dig it
Living at Two Mile has open my eyes to all kinds of things I didn’t see before. Take scars for example.
The first photo below is taken shortly after buying the land. You can see the old fence line and the tallest tree on the left is now at the edge of the deck. The second image is during the trenching for the waterline. We cut a 5 foot trench over 300 feet to bury water and electric and when we were finished, there was a 2 foot hump — a scar — running through the property.
It quickly weeded over, I couldn;t run a mower over it, and the one time I ran along side it with the tractor, the front tire caught the edge of the trnch and burried it to the axles. Unlike the first time I stuck the tractor in the ground, I managed to get it free but adding power when it mattered. So mostly, for four and a half months, I’ve tried to ignore it.
Last night, I walked over the length of the scar and felt the ground was settled enough to run the mower over it and see what shape I was in. The result is below. Looking pretty good, all things considered.
As a side note, in May, I fell 9 feet from the top of a ladder and landed on my left shoulder. I was fortunate, no dislocation, no fracture, and perhaps no rotator cuff tear, but enough pain and discomfort that it has significantly slowed my building.
So as I sit on the deck tonight, I realize that scars do heal. The best cure is nothing at all, but time.
Merlot ‘08
This weekend, my colleagues from two different projects and I participate in a panel discussion at MERLOT
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching.
My co presenters are Becky Hines from The Screen in Flat and Ann York, my co-producer of the podcast series Dispatches from the Graduate Classroom.
This is the Eighth International Conference
MERLOT: Still Blazing the Trail and Meeting New Challenges in the Digital Age
Our discussion description from the program.
The Screen is Flat - Reinventing Libraries for Information Literacy
Track: Track 5 – Reinventing Libraries in the Digital Age
The Screen is Flat panel discussion will converge the viewpoints of a librarian, a graduate school professor, and a multimedia information designer to create a team strategy for transforming physical and virtual library environments to the computer screen. The panelists will engage participants in visualizing libraries in the Web 2.0 world and beyond, outline three critical skill sets for information literacy, and illustrate how personal learning environments will be shaped by collaborations in and out of the classroom. Attendees will leave with tactics, references on best practices, and a network of colleagues to continue dialogue as they implement change.
Steve! The watch rabbit
There was a television show about a popular neighborhood bar called “Cheers” and one of the characters was named “Norm.” And when ever Norm would enter the bar, he would say Hi, everybody”, and the entire bar would yell “Norm!”
Earlier this spring, a very small and skinny rabbit was around he cabin and Noah said “I’m going to name him Steve.”
“Steve”, as it turns out, decided to be a quasi mascot and pet, each morning he would greet me near the car, and many times, would hop down the driveway in front of me before darting into the tall grass. He’s made a burrow in the barn, and –much to his credit and salvation — has not eaten the garden. Most days, he can be found near the pheasant fly pen. One of these days, I’ll update this post to include a photo.
By habit, when I see him, I yell out “Steve” like the folks in the bar in Cheers did for Norm. This seems to have rubbed on my others, as “Steve” has become the mascot of the ranch.
If he could only defend the phesants against preators, I’d plant him his own garden.
Southern Iowa Barn for Sale
Since first settled in the 1850’s, this rugged piece of property in southern Iowa changed ownership every 3 - 7 years until the Andrews family held it for several decades in the early 1900’s. Somewhere in the 1930’s, Art Andrews build this typical wood frame barn, from local timber and boards.
It measures about 20 feet by 50 feet, and the siding is vertical 12 inch board and batten. My original plans were to restore the barn, but in the end, my needs are different and so I’d like to offer the barn to someone who shares an interest in restoring and preserving parts of history.
You can contact me by emailing fritz+barn@digitalstoryteller.com
Other photos and specific measurements can be sent upon request. The barn is located in Decatur County Iowa. Terms of sale and timelines are negotiable. Tear down can be arranged.
CSI: Grand River
Raising pheasants is a challenge.
I began this year’s group on the 14th of June with 52 pheasants from McFarlane. Adjusting the heat in my brooder box proved to be more challenging that I expected and over the first two weeks, I lost about 16 chicks. Which is a much higher mortality rate than expected or typical. 3 of those chicks got stuck, but the others appears to be overheated. A bigger concern is having the chicks too cool, but in the cases of the chicks, I think their heat lamp was too close.
The real excitement began last Thursday when we released the pheasants into the 25 foot by 45 foot fly pen. This is a netted pen, 6 feet or so high on the perimeter with support poles in the center like a circus tent
It is surrounded at the bottom with 1 inch chicken wire and the wire is flared out at the bottom to slow down predators from crawling in. The birds, when released, immediately flew to the far side — they’ve never flown before. Within about two minutes, one bird fond a small gap at a corner post and freed himself. First he walked, then he ran, then he flew into the sunset.
The next day, either another bid escaped, or the first bird returned. My son and daughter, age 11, and I caught it and put it back in the pen.
Saturday, it became interesting….
I woke to find four birds on the outside and several dead on the inside. I captured 3 of the 4 and then I discovered 2 more outside. I captured 1 of the 2. The dead inside were near the side fencing and many had head trauma.
Hmmmmm.
So this time, I put another 2 feet of 1/2 hardware cloth around the inside perimeter, and found some possible escape locations and closed them up.
Sunday was un eventful…Monday morning it was time to call in the good loking lady cops and the one liner delivering CSI team.
Every bird, with the exception of one, was dead. The carcasses were along the perimeter of the fence (inside) most with significant injuries to their heads.
Experienced pheasant raisers by know probably now the answer, but it took a call to the hatchery to learn the news. A predator is digging under the fencing, and probably it’s a mink.
After thinking about this for a few days, it also seems that maybe it is racoons, who kill in a simialr manner. They may have been going over the chicken wire and under the netting.
