Day 580: dumb duckens

Day 580:

I managed to get ponds dug and connected (to the big pond) in all of my fenced-in areas and all the animals are relatively happy now.

The cows didn’t turn out to be too big of a problem. The duckens, however, sheesh. Apparently they like swimming. They especially like swimming in moving water,  like a creek. They most especially like swimming in a creek you’re still digging while you’re standing in it trying to shore up the, well, shore, so that it doesn’t turn the whole pasture into a pond.

They are dumb dumb birds.

And one of them got too close to my shovel so now I’m having it for dinner and, all things considered, I don’t even feel bad about it.

Day 579: Ornery

Day 579:

Have you ever tried to get a cow to follow you with a handful of wheat, but not the sheep standing next to her?

If so, you too have lived my entire day.

The pigs don’t want to be in the pig field, they want to be with the sheep. The cows want to be wherever I am like a pack of 600kg puppies. The duckens are under foot everywhere.

It took allllll day but everyone is in the pen I intend for them.

Now I just need to supply them with some water.

“Just”.

Like digging some ponds tomorrow is going to be a piece of cake.

(And yes, digging is what I do for a living so it’s not that part, it’s the part where I don’t normally have a herd of cows trying to love on me while I do it.)

Ladycastle by Delilah S. Dawson

I love graphic novels. I love fantasy stories. I love stories that twist at tropes. I love a good light bubblegum read when I’ve been reading big heavy things about plagues and death.

Ladycastle by Delilah Dawson (writer), Ashley A. Woods (Illustrator), Becca Farrow (Illustrator), Rebecca Nalty (Colorist), and Jim Campbell (Letterer), is the best type of bubblegum read: a feminist-friendly tale of women defeating a curse brought on by cruel men who never gave them a second thought, with references to Hamilton and many other cultural touchpoints.

Delilah Dawson was one of the co-authors of Kill the Farm Boy, which I loved, so when I saw her talking about this book coming out, it went on my birthday list, and my awesome brother supplied it for me. I inhaled the book, finishing it in less than a day, with more than one peal of laughter resulting.

The only criticism I’d provide is that the men were, well, flat… which is both part of the reason why it’s great bubblegum and why it could be just slightly better. (It also wasn’t particularly long a comic run, so not a lot of time to develop the characters you’re not there to read about.) Characterization was great and I hope there’s a sequel.

Day 578: Sorting the creatures

Day 578:

Like Little Bo Peep, I lost my sheep… sort of.

There were so many pigs and cows and chickens in my giant fenced-in area that I couldn’t find the sheep in the ruckus.

It took me all day, but I used up the extra fence posts I’d had laying around from the last time I extended my “pasture” area. Now I’ve got three pastures, and can put the pigs in one, the cows in another, and the sheep in the third.

The duckens just go wherever the heck they want anyway so I’m not worried about them. Certainly are enough of them.

Day 577: Looking for life

Day 577:

The invisible human and the llamas were long gone this morning.

But last night, they’d been heading toward the hills where I’ve been working.

I climbed them again today and saw nothing that indicated there’s any kind of life in that direction…

but…

in the direction of the big mountain, I saw what just might have been a whisp of smoke, as if there’s a cooking fire, or maybe even a village over there.

So my hope is renewed.

But I’m not yet prepared to climb the mountain. I have sheep now, and their wool is just about long enough to shear off, I think, so I need to make sheep scissors. Shearers. Thingies.

And then I need to teach myself to spin

Fortunately, I know how to knit. One needs something to do between the stars, and pretty much everyone in The Company knew how to turn a heel and bind off a cable stitch when I left.

(I wonder if they’re still out there. I waffle between furiously hoping they are and furiously hoping they aren’t.)

So tomorrow: sheep shearing. And maybe cracking open one of these pumpkins to see if it has seeds.