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18 02, 2022

A Family Affair

By |2022-02-17T18:51:23-06:00February 18th, 2022|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Last weekend was the Texas Music Educators Association Convention in San Antonio.

Thousands and thousands of music educators from across Texas gather and learn, perform, and peruse exhibits. This includes band directors, elementary and preschool music teachers, orchestra directors, and choir directors. It is the highlight of the year for most music teachers, me included.

Catherine, our oldest daughter, and I have gone together for the past few years.

This year, she asked us to help watch Alex while she worked at the Bocal Majority Booth in the exhibit hall since Caleb, her husband, was working and unable to attend. She has worked at this booth for several years in the past helping to sell oboes and bassoons along with the reeds needed for each.

I was already planning to go and since Beekeeper Brian has retired from full-time work, he went with me. It was a family affair.

It was tremendous fun for Catherine to introduce Alex to the people she has been working with since before he was born.

He also got to meet a baby bassoon.

Everyone is making predictions about what instrument he will choose.

Piano is a given as his first instrument. Who knows where he will go from there?

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14 02, 2022

Words of Love are in the Air

By |2022-02-14T06:35:15-06:00February 14th, 2022|Holidays, Valentine's Day|0 Comments

Today’s a romance writer’s favorite day. In case you need some love words to use before the day is gone, let me share a few of my favorite quotes and check back on Wednesdays all through February. I’ll be sharing other quotes in memes you can use.

  • I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward someone who needs help. There is no mistaking love. You feel it in your heart. It is the common fiber of life, the flame that heats our soul, energizes our spirit, and supplies passion to our lives. It is our connection to God and to each other.    -Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, The Wheel of Life
  • “kisses are a better fate than wisdom.”              -e.e. Cummings
    (I love any of e.e. Cummings words. Mostly I love that he doesn’t capitalize words.)
  • “For twas not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart.
    Twas not my lips you kissed, but my soul.”     -Judy Garland
  • “Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.”     -Nora Roberts
  • “Love is the force that ignites the spirit and binds hearts together.”   -Unknown

Lastly, no list of love words would be complete without “How do I love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning,

Enjoy this Peanuts version.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

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11 02, 2022

Embracing Different

By |2022-02-12T15:40:17-06:00February 11th, 2022|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

I have cracked literally hundreds of eggs in my lifetime. As a chicken wrangler, it may be closer to thousands. Our chicken eggs tend to have thicker shells. The duck eggs have a thicker membrane inside the shell.

Most of the time, however, the eggs crack the same way.

We have one chicken whose eggs consistently crack longways:

This was disturbing at first. I was holding the egg and expecting it to crack like all the others. Feeling it crack in a perpendicular manner was totally different.

Many things in the last two years have been totally different. This, too, was disturbing at first.  Teaching remotely, wearing masks, limiting physical contact – it was all strange.

As much as I would like to return to “normal” (whatever that is), I have come to accept that different can be ok. I am learning to embrace different.

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7 02, 2022

Why Valentine’s Day?

By |2022-02-02T15:54:51-06:00February 7th, 2022|A Writer's Life, Holidays, Valentine's Day|0 Comments

Soon many people will be exchanging cards, candy, gifts, or flowers with their special “valentine.” Why do we do that?

Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr Saint Valentine a real priest who lived in 270 A.D. and provided Christians with sacraments outlawed by the Roman Empire such as marriage and ended up in prison.

Saint Valentine is said to have cut hearts from parchment, giving them to the soldiers and persecuted Christians to “remind them of God’s love and to encourage them to remain faithful Christians.”

On the evening before his execution, he wrote the first “valentine” addressed to the daughter of his jailer and signed the greeting “Your Valentine.” And thus began our custom of giving cards and reminders to loved ones on February 14th.

The Greeting Card Association estimates as much as $933 million will be spent on cards and gifts this year. One billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year.

Esther A. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” used “scrap” to make elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons, and colorful pictures. The American Antiquarian Society in Worcester holds a large collection of her valentines.

I have a personal ephemera postcard collection. While not as elaborate as Ms. Howland’s, I love the way these cards speak of romance.

If you don’t want to spend money on cards or have the time to make a card. You can always express your love with these “signs” from Signing Savvy, the online American Sign Language Dictionary.

Moi, I’m not shy about romance or telling the ones I love how much I love them on this special day. My Valentine cards are in the mail.

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4 02, 2022

Hard Goodbye

By |2022-02-03T14:01:12-06:00February 4th, 2022|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|2 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Monday was rough on Miller Farm.  Rachel summed it up best on a Facebook post:

“We said goodbye to Tucker today. The toy hoarding, fetch-loving, snuggly dachshund who started an entire chapter in our lives. He was the first inside dog, the first dachshund, and the first dog to sleep in my parents’ bed. Who knew 16.5 years ago when I asked for a puppy that we would end up with 6 dachshunds!”

It was quite sad.  Even the sky was crying raindrops.

There is some comfort in thinking he will rejoin Bella, who crossed the Rainbow Bridge recently.

Rachel told us yesterday at breakfast she saw a cardinal on the back fence on Tuesday.  It was the first one to appear in our backyard this year.

She reminded us of the tradition that says cardinals represent the soul of a departed loved one.  Whether or not that is true, God used that cardinal to bring comfort to her and thereby to us.

Farewell, Tucker Pup.

Your legacy lives on in your son Max and daughter Penelope.

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31 01, 2022

No New Year Resolutions for Me

By |2022-01-30T10:04:23-06:00January 31st, 2022|A Writer's Life, Writer's Life|1 Comment

After everything that happened in 2020, I had so wanted 2021 to be our return to normalcy. There were moments, but normal didn’t happen.

We had even more COVID variants to put up with. Plus, we lost Betty White and Alex Trebek. Not a good year at all. I was more than happy to turn my calendar and head into a new year.

January always feels like a second chance, a time for fresh starts. To begin again with resolutions for changes, if not in the world, then in ourselves.

Bloggers offer plenty of ideas for resolutions. I usually prepare a goal-setting blog or two myself. Not this year. No blog and no list of personal goals for me this year.

Why? Because resolutions are notoriously unsuccessful. Life always gets in the way. I’m trying something different this year.

I haven’t liked what I’ve seen in the world in the last two years. I haven’t laughed a lot. Some days I haven’t even smiled.

Instead of making a resolutions list, I intend to laugh more in 2022. While I can’t change the past, I’m counting on humor to get me through the present.

I know there will be new challenges in 2022. According to experts, China’s “gift” to the world is entering the endemic phase. That means COVID is never going away. The good news is, having survived the last two years, we have an arsenal to combat an endemic.

Will laughter solve all the issues we face? Of course not.

But laughter will increase oxygen intake and stimulate our heart, lungs, and muscles. Most importantly, laughter will increase the endorphins that activate and relieve stress responses.

In today’s world, that’s a win-win.

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28 01, 2022

Playing Chicken

By |2022-01-28T11:54:16-06:00January 28th, 2022|Friday on the Miller Farm, Miller Farm Friday|0 Comments

A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara

Things have settled into a new routine here on Miller Farm since Rachel moved home with her two dogs.  One of the dogs is Penelope, Max’s sister, who has lived on Miller Farm in the past.  Cooper, however, is the newcomer.  He is an Australian Shepherd puppy and is much larger and busier than the dachshunds.

Cooper gets along with everyone – even the chickens and ducks.  In fact, he enjoys “helping” me refill the duck pond.  By “helping”, I mean he plays in the water coming from the hose as I drag it to the duck pond.

He has even gotten into the chicken yard a couple of times.  After realizing the chickens do not respond well to “herding”, he has given up.

He has been introduced to the chicken on a fencepost game.  He was very curious.  Penelope explained to him that the game involves waiting and watching while the chicken walks along the top of the fence.

Everyone, including humans, waits to see which side of the fence the chicken will choose.

Fortunately, most of the chickens have learned to return to their side.  They don’t yet realize that Cooper would just attempt to herd them back there anyway.

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