Back into the Swing

My current plan is to get back into the swing of things with my soap-making and crocheting. I will be re-setting my store so that I can stock it again. I'll be offering more customs for animal toys and I even have a pattern for a tea set! I'm going to offer more fibers too, like organic cotton, soft wool, and touch cotton while still recommending acrylic. I'll be doing it for my own sanity. When I'm crocheting and/or soaping, it relaxes me. I need something to help with stress relief with all the tasks I have to accomplish each day. You might think it's adding just more stress, but since I can crochet with something in the background, it really is relaxing. And I only soap at night anyway, for safety reasons. Plus they are activities that I genuinely enjoy. I love watching animals take shape by my own hand, or watching a newly set block of soap being cut into usable bars.

Frustration

There is nothing I dislike more than a subordinate at a place of employment thinking they have an upper hand over their superior. Sadly, this is exactly the case and I am at a loss as to how to rectify the situation. Short of removing myself to an alternate place of employment, which may happen regardless, so I am beginning to try and prepare. I no longer feel comfortable at my place of employment. I feel constantly harangued and threatened by a biased relationship between my subordinate and my superior. As a consequence I don't feel that I can talk with my immediate superior about the goings-on. To top it off I have never been a complainer, to my detriment in most cases I've found since others seem to have no such compunctions and often by the time things come back to me it is too late for me to do anything other than attempt to explain or clarify, which sadly often comes off as being merely making excuses. Then inevitably I'm put on my guard around everyone else. I learned long ago to trust in no one, and that lesson is being quickly hammered in.

I had thought I found the perfect job for me. I'm finding it's not the work but the people with whom I have the most trouble relating. I just don't get drama in the workplace. What precisely does it give a person to bring drama into the workplace? Are they bored? Regardless I will continue my search for a job that I can excel in and enjoy. I hate to say it, but I think I'd prefer to work with primarily men. Not always, but more often there is less associated drama in a primarily male workforce. Sad, eh?

A Garden Update

I'm really very pleased with this year's garden overall. Everything did eventually sprout, including 2 sets of watermelon plants. Today, since I had a day off, I decided to get some yard/garden work accomplished. I tied up the tomatoes (almost waited too long for some of them) and weeded most of the garden. I did lose the cantaloupe plants. Too long out of the ground coupled with too much rain when they first went in resulted in their early demise. I still have not yet planted the fruit trees, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, rosemary, or marigolds. They'll have to wait now.

On the animal side, the ducks are nearly big enough for processing. They now have all their feathers. Sounds like there are actually 2 drakes and 1 hen. The red chicks are half-size to adulthood and appear to be mostly hens, which is good. The nuggets are growing well and almost ready to be separated again. The goslings have had a rough time. They are quite large now and we've had some trouble finding the best way to keep them from harm. Therefore, we are down to 4 with one possibly crippled (it's a long story, his name though, is Speshal). The rabbits are going along at their usual pace. I bred around a dozen does recently. Not sure yet how many of them will take. The previous round of youngsters are almost ready for weaning from their parents. There are several Hollands, Jersey Woolies, Mini-lops, and Havana youngsters.

Boysenberries & Other Interesting Things

It was me neighbor that pointed out my boysenberry tree to me a couple months ago. I hadn't even realized it was there! I had thought it a weed tree and as such tried to kill it repeatedly... and obviously, unsuccessfully. Now I'm very glad for yesterday afternoon I harvested a large handful of the tasty berries from it. I honestly like them very much. They aren't as sweet as most berries, and for me that is a great advantage of them.

Owing to a small catastrophe, we have just 7 baby geese remaining. All of whom are growing large and appear healthy. They now have a large corner of the yard sectioned off for their own personal use and grazing. The ducks and chicks are also growing well, it won't be long now until they are ready for harvesting or being added to the layer flock.

The garden is coming along very nicely. Though some more intense weeding will need to be done very soon. Everything has sprouted to some degree. Though the amount of rain we've been getting recently has not been entirely helpful. Only one set of watermelon seeds sprouted and the cantaloupe plants are nearly lost. I still need to work the raised garden bed, plant the flower border, get the trees planted, and figure out what to do with some of my herb pots.

The Documentary, Earthlings

This is a very long and in-depth look at all manners of animal uses by humans and potential for abuses. I watched the entire hour and a half movie with voiceover. I have to say, while there were a few places in it where I cringed at the abuse, overall I didn't react. I am not hard-hearted, nor do I condone the mistreatment of animals. However, I took what was being shown for what it really was, minute, singular examples of abuse. Not the norm as was suggested. I was also appalled at the horrendous amount of misinformation being spewed to the viewer. The entire purpose of the movie was to turn people against all uses of animals by human beings in all forms.

Think it over, why would someone carry a hidden camera to a facility that is actually following good practices towards animals? Why would they bother to show people doing the right thing? The average person wants shock factor. They don't want to hear that in reality, most animals are treated beyond humanely, are given quick and painless deaths, and do not suffer as was indicated. Now could it be happening in other countries? Of course, but since I don't study the laws and practices of those countries, I really couldn't say for certain.

Education is the real key to improving conditions and treatment for animals, but most people like the producer of the film aren't interested in educating the public. Only in changing as many as possible over to their side of the issue. That would include showing antiquated clips that had already served their purpose decades ago to change practices.

Now, was some of what he showed true? Yes. Were some of the things he claimed also true? Yes. Was all of it accurate? Absolutely not! I have been in many different processing plants (slaughter houses) and never have I witnessed anything even remotely close to some of the things he showed.

In the end, it's something each person will have to decide for themselves. But remember this: The ones doing most of the yelling are the ones trying to tell you that those who work with animals are evil. Sadly, the advocates for animal welfare are too quiet to be heard much of the time. I will point out though that every person that has ever attended any kind of agriculture classes will have been taught not only about animal welfare, but also ethics.

Size differences

Isn't it interesting how children grow so differently? My youngest daughter went from NB diapers to S in a couple weeks, by 2 months, she was in medium. By the time she was 6 months of age, she wore larges. When she was 2 I had her in XL and was worried she'd outgrow those as well (there isn't anything bigger with cloth diapers than XL, and even those are rare). She's 3 now and wears a size 4T in clothing.

My son, on the other hand, is nearly 12 months of age and still fits into size medium diapers comfortably! I admit, at first I was concerned, he looks small to me. Much smaller than I'm accustomed to seeing at his age. He eats fine, nurses fine, and is otherwise quite healthy, so I stopped worrying about it. It could be that he's just going to be smaller framed. Or it could be that he's growing more slowly. Or it could simply be that he is more average than his older sister, who was above average for growth in her first year.

Garden Update

Yesterday I turned the garden horizontally and created rows. Last night the girls and I removed any living vegetation. Today I neatened up the rows and started planting. I also dug a small 3x3 garden plot for Aydi next to her swing in which she could play. She planted pumpkins in it. I have already planted the tomatoes and sunflowers and laid out the rest of the seeds and plants. We'll have the following:

Sunflowers
Tomatoes (Better Boy, Beefmaster, Sweet 100 cherry, Roma)
Bush beans
Broccoli
Onions
Kholrabi
Beets
Romaine lettuce
Collards
Carrots
Yellow squash
Cucumber (Easy slicer & Burpless)
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Butternut squash
Pie pumpkin

As well as the following fruits:
Apple (golden delicious)
Pecan
Cherry
Fig
Nectarine
Pear
Plum
Rhubarb
Strawberry
Boysenberry
Grape
Black raspberry

I wanted to add some blueberry plants this year, but was too late to get them this time.

I also have some herb pots with:
Lemon and sweet basil
Lemon balm
Lavender
Rosemary
Chamomile

And I may add some stevia or other herbs for which I have seeds.