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 A Journal to impart knowledge and facts |
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July 22, 2015 I'm going to start today to record on a daily basis whatever happens to strike my fancy. So, it is a very cool breezy day. I just posted 5 short book reviews to The Monthly Reading Challenge. I'm suppose to put away some winter wood today from the woodpile outside but I'm playing hookey from work to write so starting this blog will get done. I'm having a daily fight with a flock of English Sparrows that are trying to take over my barn. They are making a terrible mess so they have to go. I have destroyed several nests so far they don't leave but they get out of the barn when I am around. I'm just starting the fight so I guess I don't know how far I have to go to discourage them. I'm trying not to spread myself to thin on WDC because I find so many things that are interesting here and I am trying to work on a new story. I really enjoy sitting at my desk with a cup of tea and reading blogs on WDC. |
Many fairy tales are often based in truth. Research the true story behind your favorite fairy tale and share it with your readers. What lesson or warning was the tale trying to impart?  I really do not have a favorite fairy tale. I don't even like them although, as a child, I remember reading a book with fairy tales in it. Also, the short rhymes like pumpkin eater, Jack Sprat, or Little Jack Horner. One fairy tale that comes to mind I use to see on the TV every afternoon. I looked it up. It came from a Brothers Grimm story. Originally it was called Bears. The TV version I saw was about a man who made a deal with the devil. For seven years he had to not wash, trim his hair, or nails, and in the end he would be a wealthy man, get a beautiful wife, and own land. The part they never showed was the ending of the story. It was never on TV. Then I did see it once. I think it played on PBS in the 1990's. The man got a beautiful wife with two sisters, a farm and land and Money? At the end, he murdered the wife's sisters. The house burned and the devil came to collect the man's soul? I have placed question marks because it was a long time ago this was showing on TV. Late 1950"s or 1960"s and I don't remember all the facts of the story. The original story says he also had to wear a bear skin. The thing I always am disgusted with is the fact that for years they never showed the ending of the story. And, there have been more than one man in this area walking around refusing cleanliness trying to gain wealth from a deal he made with the devil.  It seemed to me the worst evil was done by programmers who left the story hanging, to deliberately entice people into this kind of evil for the sake of monetary gain. At the time this played a lot of families were recovering from WWII type of financial ruin. Fairy tales have changed a lot over the years just like the society we live in. For the better, I hope. Evil comes from the actions of humans. That is why they are called fairy tales. |
If animals could talk, which animal would you want to have a conversation with? What would you ask?  Animals communicate. Some even say words in the spoken language with which they are familiar. I think African grey parrots are the most famous for learning and expressing in English. Alex knew somewhere in the amount of 100 words. There is a famous horse that was exhibited for his knowledgeable abilities to count and reply to math questions and other nonsensical questions. I've owned more than one cat that can say Out. It is an easy word for them to learn, because their vocal abilities are shaped for it. And, prowling outside, sleeping on a sunny porch is something they really enjoy. The bible says animals communicate in a way of silence and speech sets humans apart from animals. Spoken languages are one of the ways humans are set apart from other species. I lived with a lilac crowned parrot who was about 52 before she died. She was always able to talk a bit. One day as I was going out the door to school she asked clearly, "Where are you going." I used to get a picture in my mind sometimes of a coastal forest near an ocean. An extremely wild looking area of land. While in college I decided to research a paper about parrots. I found a coastal area in Mexico known as the habitat for Lilac crowned parrots. It was the picture I had been seeing in my mind on an off for years.(This started before computers, the information age, and WIFI.) At one time these parrots were captured as young birds and transported in crates to ports to be sold as pets. This is illegal today. Lilac crowned parrots, and the coastal area, where they breed, are protected in Mexico. All the animals I keep have had other owners before me. I have a female cat that screams, whenever most other cats come near her or whenever any one picks her up. I have discovered over the years she is quite harmless. I would like to ask her why she does this. I would like to ask my new dog about his life before he came to me. Many rescue dogs do not have any training, when they come to you. You are training and also educating a nearly full grown dog to use words in language and be a companionable friend. He becomes frightened of some things and shakes and shivers when upset. I am in touch with someone who also has a new rescue dog. Their dog and mine exhibit some of the same fright impulses. There are You Tubes about how to work with a new shelter rescue animal. Many of these dogs who end up in a shelter exhibit the same problems. Leash pulling, jumping up, and extreme hyper energy are three of the commonest problems. Dogs who end up in shelters often come from extremely harsh experiences before the shelters get them. A part golden retriever I owned for 16 years came to us with exceptional understanding of English words. Dogs catch on fast. He was so well trained. I always wondered why he was abandoned on a back road near us. He was a very good friend to me but, he always watched for his first owner. Puppies bond to the first owner. After a few years I began to believe his first owner was a capable dog trainer and kind owner and deliberately abandoned the dog when they were finished with it. To me this idea of taking a puppy, raising it to about 1-2 years, and then abandoning it is one of the cruelest types of dog ownership. Hope I stayed on track here. Have a good day. Stay safe.  |
What does it mean to be a “grown up”? What do you do regularly as an adult that you dreaded having to do when you were a child? Have you found ways to maintain a sense of childhood wonder or curiosity? If so, how?  1. A grown up? Pay bills, hopefully on time, make and meet budgets, upkeep on housing, family cleanliness, all regular human needs become your responsibility. I think ongoing learning is also important to an adult. It helps you focus on something new. Your mind doesn't spend so much time dwelling on daily, or ongoing problems. 2. Driving in extreme traffic. I'm hopelessly oriented to dirt roads and low traffic areas. As a teenager I learned to rely on my horse for recreation and companionship. Riding a horse give you more senses to rely on to spot pot holes and wild life in your path?  That isn't so funny when you notice how manufacturers are trying to incorporate more automatic auto road senses into their products. Childhood wonder or curiosity? Nature keeps wonder alive. Yesterday I spent time learning more about container gardening. I did not garden last summer or do much of anything. I missed the fresh tomatoes, lettuce, and squash. I don't like weeding and what worked for gardens in days past isn't interesting. I started gardening in raised beds 15 or 20 years ago. Now, I'm going to try some better container gardening. I tried gardening in sacks just did not care for the result. (probably needed more knowledge about it.) Now I am going to try container gardening with watering from the bottom. There are lots of You Tubes about this. I'm also finding a lot of training tricks for dogs. Drifter and char need regular exercise. Char is an older dog and needs to keep up his exercise to stay healthy. Drifter is younger and we need to keep building our dependence relationship and keep the younger member of the family wearing off his energy so we can all take a quiet break afternoons. Lots of fun games to play with both dogs inside and outside. HAPPY TRAILS! |
| What TV show character would it be the most fun to change places with for a week? Why? One of the telephone operators on 911. Years ago, when the 911 system was going into effect, I wanted to train as a worker in the system, which was met by outrageous home resistance. I should have followed through. It is an interesting job that provides service to communities in many different ways.  |
Think back to a time when you felt completely calm. What made you feel that way? Totally helpless in the face of tragedy. |
In your entry today, write about dreams. Do you dream often, or do you rarely remember your dreams? What is the strangest or most memorable dream you have ever had?  I do dream. Some I remember some I don't. I have an odd recurring dream about mobile homes all in a row. A doctor once told me {probably 40 years ago) recurring dreams are something probably stuck in my mind.  Since then I have read some books about dreams and dream interpretation. Recently read something by Stephen LeBerge about Lucid Dreaming. It was a segment in another book so I haven't looked into it in any depth. Apparently, you can walk around in your dreams and direct them yourself and remember that you everything that happened later. This prompt reminded me I need to look up a book or maybe more than one and read about lucid dreaming. There is more than one author writing about this. This sounds to me like something I call spirit walking. There are clinics held to teach people to do this? How safe is it to mess around in your brain like this? How safe is your body while your spirit is walking or playing around outside of it? Science, and psychology are moving into strange areas. Also, a lot of denial out there still about these subjects. What was that saying? "Miracles are something that you never experienced before." And could be something you don't want to experience. ![Merit Badge in Courage
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Congratulations on an honorable mention in WDC Scavenger Hunt 2011! Attached is your GP prize. Thank you for your participation. *^*Smile*^*
Wishing you all the best in future endeavors!](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Courage.gif) Blog On |
Write about a community service or volunteer experience you’ve had in your life that made an impact on you.  Every one made some kind of impact. I liked them all. I taught a women's bible study. I liked doing this because it kept me studying. There is a time spread in today's blog of 1976-1993 give or take a few years? I helped in a Thanksgiving outreach to people, who did not have a family or friends to have Thanksgiving with. After it got started I was surprised how many people were in need of just a friendly place to celebrate Thanksgiving. I worked with an outreach to a town's young people in an after school entertainment. It was in the basement of a large church, because the place was available for a time. There was a drug problem in the town among young people. Even though this closed after I left, it reopened later in the town hall for a period of time. I put in a few hours of time there just as a helper for awhile. I learned a lot from a different group, who had an outreach to young males, who were selling drugs in the same town. The other outreach group came to our group and gave a program about problems with drug addiction in young people. K and I were PTA president for a very short time. One year, I took in some inner city children for two week vacations. It was so they could experience country life? This was also when the boys were younger. When the boys were young I was a cub scout leader. Some of my children raised Goats and were in Dairy goat 4 H. It was a lot of fun. I always attended the meetings and the women who was the leader arranged a lot of presentations. We visited lots of actually goat dairy farms and other 4 H enterprises. All these efforts were at a time when the rural society did not even believe there was a drug problem in the small surrounding areas. Most of the towns and churches were small congregations. The people were close knit and as the 80's and 90's approached still thought progress was not going to impact them much. In the last 20 to 30 years the impact really hit. Farmer's children growing up in the school systems learned and took jobs in other industries. Large dairy farms in the area did not survive children leaving for work in other parts of the country. A lot of the farming done now is on 10 to 50 acres. A lot of hay is done in round bales. Horse farmers find themselves looking at prices of $5 - $7 a bale for hay. Horses prices soared in the 90's. A good quarter horse going for $1500 in the 80's was now $5000 by the end of the 90's. When the market would not take the price jump the horses were dumped because of feed prices into the market and sold for meat to animal food companies. Beef had it's own problems when disease hit. Now you can find horse rescue places trying to save and place horses that should have been good companion animals for families. There are still a few large dairy enterprises around. There are more dairy goat places, than there use to be and prices for a good dairy goat have soared in the last several years. I look back and wonder where it will all end. The USA still needs a base of farming enterprise. I can see different crop options as people, who use to buy milk switch to soy milk, almond milk, and oat milk. Now I've wandered off topic. Volunteer work was part of my social education. I wasn't always good at the job but, I was available because I was a stay at home mom, when other mom's were working to earn more for the family. I treasure the times when my children were growing up. Still, I can see more knowledge as a young mother would have helped my children's own time of growth. Volunteering is helpful but, monetarily does not help the family grow. See Ya! |
If your job gave you a surprise seven day paid break to rest and recuperate, what would you do with those seven days?   If anyone gave me a surprise seven day paid anything I want to know how much I'm going to get? If it's a lot I will spend the seven days shopping. If it's enough I will buy a couple new chairs for the living room. We really need two recliners for the living room. That's enough. I'm still having a about the prompt. I don't need to rest and recuperate. I might need to if I ever have any money to shop. ![Merit Badge in Western
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Hello from Texas, I want to say thank you for reading and commenting on my blog. I appreciate it very much.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Western-2100.gif) Happy Trails |
Write about a movie franchise or book series that you love.  Laurie R. King is my go to for a great series. I have read a lot of the works she published. Her stories draw you in and show you new environments. Who wouldn't love to live on an island building furniture for a living? Folly is a stand alone novel. King also wrote the Kate Martinelli series. I especially like her series starring Mary Russell as Sherlock Holmes wife. Sherlock first met Mary when she was 15. The settings of the stories drop the reader into different periods of history. The characters exhibit different types of talents. Their talents keep them safe and make them great detectives. They take on other peoples problems; solving the problems with efficiency and spying techniques. The history in the books is special. It makes the reader look at some specific event you maybe actually did not hear about in a class at school. You look at history closely from within, as the story unfolds. Inside history, you see the war as it is being fought, you see women who need women,s rights to escalate, and you see politics as they play out in a realistic way. Along the way you learn a little about Oxford and great libraries. Mary Russell may have learned some of her talents from Sherlock Holmes nevertheless, she often stands alone as she detects and solves mystery. How can you not like a character that can throw a swift and quiet knife in her own defense? How she came by this talent is part of a thrilling story. The series starts with a great find of old manuscripts in a worn trunk. The tales are told by the person who comes into possession of the trunk. Here I am writing about this series and I have not read Castle Shade. Something to look forward too. |
What was the best thing that happened in your life over the weekend? Looking at the week ahead, what are your goals and how will you motivate yourself to achieve them?  Over the weekend? Sunshine on Saturday and Sunday. It was in all a good week Changed doctors and had my first wellness checkup in 3 years. All systems go. I liked my other Doctors. This one is OK too. Doctor called me personally to tell me results of blood work. It is always nice when a Doctor personally works with a patient. Sunshine made my dog walks pleasant. Since we walk in yard and fields rain means boots or wet feet for me. Dogs had their monthly bath. Rain is bringing on the apple blossoms and leafing out the trees so the woods are greening up. Winter grayness is changing to shades and shadows of green. I mowed some of my share of yard yesterday. The mowing went well. I finished two library books over the weekend. Goals for this week? 1. Put monthly flea meds on cats.  Sometimes it goes well sometimes its catch, wrap a towel, and hold.2. Finish reading the mystery story I'm reading, an audio book, and play Township, I'm putting a puzzle together on my Kindle might finish it. 3. Try to keep blogging everyday 3. Regular vacuuming, dishes, meals, laundry, etc. (truthfully this will be the hardest to maintain cause I'm 76 years tired of it.) 4. Play my guitar. and I have two new CD's to play and write a story, that is in my mind ,so I quit thinking about it. These are the things I can think of that might get done. If the fourth one gets done that will make me feel accomplished. Motivation for me is if I get up and do what I am thinking of I won't be bothered by thoughts about it anymore. BYE FOR NOW! |
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