crankin' into high gear

I got the phone call today. I am no longer a back-up candidate for early elections in Wake County, but have now been moved to staff position. I have a hr staff meeting at 4:30 this afternoon (yes, in 3 hrs), and then will be working for the next 10 days straight, then have 1 day off before gearing up for the main election where I'll go back to my normal job of Coordinator. So next on my agenda is figuring out who to vote for so I can head downtown and cast my vote today, seeing as it's now the only chance I have.  A part of me feels like I've just been handed a curveball. The other part of me says no, this isn't a curveball. My blogger friend who's just been told they have to a) find a new place to live and b) do it by May 26 has been thrown a curveball.

Isn't it awesome that we serve a God who is never taken by surprise?

the project pile

Last year a group of us at church not so brilliantly started the project of giving each graduating high school senior a quilt. They were quite surprised. They were expecting Bibles. :)

This year...we've divided and conquered the list of quilts, we're five weeks away from graduation Sunday, and our progress is quite dismal. Well, we've all picked out our patterns and material, one person has actually started sewing the top, another has hers cut out, but that's about it.

We're learning as we go. There's a family that has come and gone several times over the last two years due to job situations, etc, but last fall I was afraid they would show back up with their senior in tow and we'd be one quilt short. She had made a point to tell us what her favorite colors were. There was a free online, six-week tutorial, so I spent a month and a half learning new techniques, then took those squares and made a quilt top. It's not quilted, but after talking with some of the others, we're going to save it for next year's seniors. It takes about a month to do a quilt, so realistically, if someone has not been actively coming since February, then we're not going to make them a quilt. There's just not enough time to do a decent job, and it's not exactly fair for us to be expected to drop everything for 2-3 weeks for one present. But here's the top I had completed for her: 

 I wasn't overly crazy about it, but it had all the colors she wanted. Bobby said it was pretty. I'm just hoping one of the senior girls for 2013 likes orange and pink.

And I can post this now since my niece doesn't read my blog, but here's the quilt top for my oldest niece Emily. She wanted black and white and one other color. I like the patterns, but I wish I had gone with solids instead of two busy prints.These prints would have looked a lot better in geometric shapes (the modern stripes in quilts as opposed to the "star crossed" stars. Thankfully this one doesn't have to be quilted until the first of August.

And the quilt I hope to cut out this week...will be interesting. I've picked out a pattern with a lot of movement, which will be a first for me. And it's for a boy who likes black and red. I have three solids, red, white and yellow, and a black fire print. If there's time, I may applique a guitar in one corner, but realistically that may not happen.

Meanwhile I have a few other projects that are chomping at the back of my mind, but so far I've managed to refrain for giving in to my thoughts of pulling out the material to "just look at them".  That would be about as wise as buying chocolate 'cause it's on sale and expecting it to still be in the house 3 days from now. Self-control...one of the fruits of the Spirit I'm trying to comprehend.

book review

Last week I had the opportunity to read Three Weeks With my Brother: A Memoir by Nicholas and Micah Sparks.  So far I've never read any of his works, even though I know he's not only very popular but also resides in NC. After reading his memoir, I plan to read his books, and if his memoir writing skills are as good as his novels, then they should be a treat indeed.

Parts of it are hysterically funny...so funny that I was laughing so hard I cried and had to hunt down Bobby to share it with him. Toward the end I hurt and cried as he shared the tragedies within his family, and I inwardly cheered him on as he honestly addressed areas in his brother's life. I won't give you the details, as that would ruin the book, but this is one if I owned it I would pass it on to my Mom to read and would seriously consider it a "keeper".

the chicken update

Our 3 week old babies. Notice their wing and body feathers are in. Next will come the head feathers, leaving the neck down. That will be their ugliest stage. These birds are all mixed breeds, though the 2 grey ones come from 2 modified Easter eggers.

 Our "teenagers".  They're fully feathered (and running towards me 'cause they know I'm bringing food), and are 6-7 weeks old. They're half the size of our full grown birds. (2 Astrolops, 1 tetra tint, 2 easter eggers)

 Our broody hen.

 And the broody hen riled because I'm trying to make her move so I can gather eggs. See how she's fluffed out all her feathers? It makes her twice the size she really is.

And here she's flipped around and wielding her beak at the stick I'm using to prod her out of the nest. I moved her today to the dog pen to "break" her broodiness. She'll have to stay there until tomorrow night or Wednesday, and that should take care of it. It it doesn't, then we'll have to go to plan B.

broody

A broody hen is a hen that wants to nest, but quits laying eggs.
The first time I ever heard about broody hens and how to cure them, I wondered what all the fuss was about. Why bother the girl? Is it really going to hurt losing one egg a day?
And then we got chickens.
Even though we have enough nesting boxes for each hen to have her own, they almost all lay in the same box. Another bird in the box while you need to lay? No problem! Just crawl on top of her.
So now I totally get why broody hens are a problem.
A) She's nesting on ALL the eggs that are being laid. and
B) The other hens eventually get fed up and start trying to lay elsewhere (outside of the hen house).
So sometime this weekend I get the not quite so delightful job of moving the hen from one pen to another (do you want to upset a pecking, broody bird?) to "break her" out of the cycle.
Hopefully pictures will come later.

$10,000

Early voting in Wake County starts this weekend. And sadly, things have turned ugly.

Supporters of the Marriage Amendment act have reported damages to signs and billboards totaling $10,000. They crazy thing is, defacing or stealing a sign that is not yours is illegal, and yet many of them have not only posted about it on twitter, but actually tagged the organization that printed the signs. I hope the attorney general knocks on their door quickly and that judgment will be swift.

I may not agree with the opponents' viewpoints, but I respect their right to speak it or post it. And for me, it just goes to show how critical this vote truly is. Discrimination comes in many forms, and often the ones screaming the word are the guilty perpetrators.

stealing

One of the things I love about America is our public library system. How incredible is it that I don't always have to buy a book if I want to read it. I'm not a student, but there is still a library available to me, free of charge, to read books as often and as much as I want.

Recently I bought and read a book that is very popular. There are more in the series, but to check one out from the library, I would have to go on the waiting list, where I would be number 896. I googled the book to see if I could find it cheaper online (as opposed to Target's hardback only copy) and found where someone had actually posted the book online. I know those books are the authors income. To post something like that online is to essentially steal the book. But I read it anyway.

Since then, I've been pondering that whole scenario. Had I waited and checked it out at the library, that author still would not have earned one penny from me. Had I borrowed it from a friend, that author would not have earned one dime. Had I found it at the used bookstore where I occasionally go and swap books, that author would not have received even a notification. So is it really all that different for someone who has purchased the book to post it online for people to read?  I'm still debating that fact.