Long Live PBS

I am so glad that we get two PBS station because I always seem to realize a show I wanted to watch was on with about 15 minutes left. But the PBS station that we get on satellite is one day behind compared to the other PBS station we get. Which means I usually get to watch Frontline on Wednesday because I never can remember at 8:45 that Frontline is on at 9. But I have been watching Frontline episode from previous years. I saw one about the effect of the O.J. Simpson verdict on the law and race is this country. When discussing the trial in a law class, a student summed up the trial saying the LAPD framed a guilty man. The Frontline I saw last night was Frontline World and they had three short stories. The saddest one was about the current situation in Zimbabwe with Robert Mugabe as president. Mugabe was very important in Zimbabwe's war for Independence, and following becoming an independent state, the economy of Zimbabwe was one of the best in all of Africa. But in the 1990s the economy hit a plateau and now there is hyperinflation of the Zimbabwe dollar (inflation rate is about 1000% and the government has started to print a 100,000 bill). And now thousands of Zimbabwians are escaping to South Africa only to be returned. An journalist from South Africa said that most nations around the world aren't sure of how to fix the problems in Zimbabwe because the country has gone from being on of the most stable countries to a country with 80% unemployment under the same ruler. (In the case of South Africa, Mugabe was an integral part in helping ending apartheid, so the government of South Africa is hesitant to use force to remove him from office). I learned yesterday that the Australian Soccer team is know as Socceroos. And that the Queen costs the each person of the UK one pound and sixty pence per year. (Which is an increase of ten pence from last year, the extra ten pence is due to Charles and Camille's increased traveling over the past year).
Tuesday, I helped Natalie with the 4-H roundup on campus. She was doing a workshop about using computers in engineering. So I learned how to use the program that she was teaching to the kids to help them. Even though she told them to follow her so they could learn how to use the program, one kid decided that he understood the program enough and so he work ahead. And then by the end when the kids were supposed to have an illustration of the effect of force on a beam, the kid had it totally wrong. And now I am helping Natalie update/revise the Soil and Water Conservation books. The ones we are working with were written by Natalie predecessor (who is apparently infamous in the case of my parents) and the books are not very good. But, since my Bachelor's degree was in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (with a focus on water quality) the subject is right up my alley. And Natalie is very good about wanting to change the books so the kids using the books can use the books as a starting point and then recommending resources for kids to use as they continue with the subject. Well, I need to get to work (on cherries and cleaning the kitchen!) My mom comes home tomorrow!!

"Who? Who in the media tricked you?"-Bobby Hill to Peggy regarding the beauty of big feet.

Cherries a la Catherine

For the past two days by "after-milking project" has been cherry picking and then cherry drying. Last year, I invented my patented method for drying our sour cherries so they can be eaten alone. So I have been picking, pitting, and sugaring the cherries for use later when everyone is home at Christmas (at some time I am quite sure that mom will make a huge batch of pancakes of several varieties including dried sour cherry, which is a favorite around here). In fact, dried sour cherries are so popular, that I am not making any pie filling. When I was putting the cherries on the trays for the food dehydrator, I got a little suprise. It was not a good suprise like "hey I found ten dollars in my pocket and I managed not to run it through the washer". No it was more like "you left a jolly rancher in your pocket and you dried your pants on high heat, forget ever trying to use this pocket again sucker!" I found that the last person how used the trays not only made jerky using the trays but didn't wash the trays either. On Saturday, I am did some work in the orchard culling peaches and checking on all the trees. Our black raspberries are ready, so I am eating a few everyday. I am planning on checking the other black rapsberry patch some time on Tuesday. There is this black raspberry roulade from Martha Stewart that I really want to try so I need a pint of fresh black raspberries. On Sunday, I checked on the guinea keets for food and water, and of course they were out of both. After I got the waterer filled, I went to the barn to grind some corn for them. I went into the barn through the goats stall, and since I don't fit through a creep gate, I had to unchain the gate so I could get through. By the time I had finished grinding all the corn, all the goats were up in the barn. And Rosalie couldn't figure out how to jump over the chain. But I went back outside and I was chaining the creep gate back when Mr. Strickland decided that he did not like where I was standing and felt the need to ram me into the gate for the lot south of the barn not once but twice. So now I have a nice bruise about the size of my thumb on my thigh were he rammed me with his horn. What makes this worse is that earlier I was able to make the two bulls (who are much larger, and heavier) do exactly what I wanted them to do. I guess I need to show Mr. Strickland that I am the dominant one. Or get rid of him. I vote get rid of him. Although I may move him with the two big bulls, and then maybe he won't be such a jerk. But Sunday night was okay, because I got to see "By the Pricking of my Thumbs" which is a Ms. Marple mystery on PBS, which was very good. It featured Tommy and Tuppence who are two other Agatha Christie characters. And it had Josie Lawerence (who was on the BBC version of Whose Line is it anyway) . So the weekend turned out alright in the end.

"Close the damn door, can't you see that I am knitting"-Peggy Hill, "Keeping up with our Joneses" is on the best King of the Hill episodes ever!

The Goat Pyramid Explained

Today when I was getting Kiora from the stall I discovered how a goat pyramid is built. Kiora was standing with her front hooves on the gate and Frappie ran right under her. And Frappie was the right height so that when Kiora took off her front hooves, Frappie was carrying her across the stall. So I imagine Frappie "carrying" Kiora around make the first two levels of the pyramid and then a kid just climbs on Frappie's back and then Kiora's back. So my theory of the goat pyramid is totally valid. I moved Kiora's kids into a stall with a feeder so I don't have to give them hay everyday. And of course Rosalie and Frappie's kids are still at large for a majority of the day. I think they like to escape just to show me that they flaunt any attempt that I make to keep them in a stall. Every time I go out to the barn, there they are lounging in the middle of the barn giving me a look of total satisfaction in themselves. And I figured out another mystery today as well. It seems that every time I turn on the waterer for the meat chickens, it floods about 75% of the coop. I was think that maybe the chickens kept knocking it over so I put some rocks in the bottom to keep the waterer steady, but it kept flooding. So then I watched the waterer fill up to make sure that the float was actually stopping the water from filling and it did. And then when I was coming in from milking I saw it. Those stupid chickens are steadying themselves by placing a foot on the float, thus making the waterer fill. But later when I went out, the float was not turning off the water because the ground wasn't quite level. So I am going to attach the waterer to the wooden platform so the chickens can just rest on the platform and stop knocking the waterer over. I checked on the guinea keets yesterday and filled their feeder. As I was opening their box, one flew out (and directly towards my face) but I was able to corral it into a corner and grab it. Score: Catherine 1 guinea keets 0

"If you admit that you poked yourself in the eye then I can help you, but only if admit that you poked yourself in the eye"- The optometrist in the Mall after Hank goes blind.

Easy Weeder

I spent the majority of the day working in the garden. I weeded all the rows and mowed the walkways. And then this evening, I decided to make some mozzy. I am pleased to announce that I made sucessful mozzy tonight! Making it (and streching it) about a million times last summer meant that I knew the right time to stop heating it. And I was able to find the cheese notebook based on a tip from Rachel, look were you don't think it would be. So I did, and there it was in the beer cabinent. I think it got put there when the table was taken out of the cheese kitchen. And today, while I was making cheese, John stopped by with two kittens for the barn. There is one that is mostly gray with a white rear foot and than a tiger-striped kitten. Both were hiding out under the troughs tonight, but I am hoping that they can resist fresh goat's milk. And I watched the soccer game between England and Sweden (which was in Colgne, I've been there!) which ended in a tie. Here's the rest of my list:

1. If I am addicted to one thing, it’s probably music.
2. Or PBS.
3. Or reading.
4. I love Billy Joel and Elton John.
5. They can tour together and one does not get pepper sprayed by the posse of the other (this means you Jay-Z and R. Kelly)
6. I love the girlish squeal of Bobby Hill.
7. If I every get really rich, I would make a television station that would only show King of the Hill.
8. I love Jane Austen. I have a mental list of the order of her books from my favorite to my least favorite.
9. Persuasion is my favorite. Sense and Sensibility is my least favorite.
10. I have a mental list on my favorite Austen hero to my least favorite.
11. There is a tie between Captain Wentworth from Persuasion and Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey for my favorite.
12. Edward Ferrers from Sense and Sensiblity is my least favorite.
13. I want to read every book by Charles Dickens.
14. My friend Vicky from the Academy once gave me an orange with a face that said “Eat me! I prevent scurvy”.
15. I wish I still had that orange.
16. Once I see an actor as a character, he or she is forever that character to me.
17. I like to think I do that so other people know whom I am talking about.
18. I once made a list of every quilt I wanted to make.
19. I am behind on the list. The only quilts that I have finished are not on the list.
20. I still haven’t finished my first quilt.
21. But I have made four quilts already. Only one was really big. One was a wall hanging and two were baby quilts.
22. I should have at least nine months to work on a big quilt because no one I know is pregnant right now. At least I hope.
23. I love the movie Clue.
24. At one point, my cousin, my sister and I had seen the movie so many times, we started laughing at things other people won’t A) notice or B) think was funny.
25. I miss my sisters.
26. Even though they drive me crazy sometimes.

"Dale, get behind the line of shame"-Hank Hill

Introducing the list

While I was milking today I was thinking about things that make me laugh and unusually things about myself. The more I thought about it, the more I had an urge to make a list of these thing. So here is part of the list:
1. I still love the end of “Dirty Dancing” when they finally do the lift.
2. I think the rest of the movie is a little stupid. But I did watch it ten times in one week.
3. I attribute it to laziness by not removing it from the VCR when I was at the Academy.
4. My friend Fiona T. once did an impression of the lift on the floor of my room my junior year at the Academy.
5. I used to make my friend Sarah watch my PBS/BBC/A&E movies when we roomed together at the Academy.
6. She admitted that she misses those movies now. No one can resist Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy!
7. I love the movie “Strictly Ballroom”.
8. I want Fiona T. to “show me your pasa doubla”
9.I was voted most likely to become a talk show host at the Academy.
10. I still don’t know if I should be offended or not. Do they think I’m an Oprah or a Jerry Springer?
11. I don’t know why I still care. I don’t see about 80% of the people from the Academy.
12. I miss some people from the Academy who I haven’t seen in a while.
13. I feel guilty about losing touch with them.
14. I used to think that a kindred spirit was hard to find. (outside of my family)
15. But when I went to the Academy there were three next door and more down the hall.
16. I buy quilting or science magazines when I need a mental break.
17. I love the band Snow Patrol. If I could have their albums on constant rotation, I would.
18. I wish I had my own personal soundtrack.
19. I like to think the listen to my iPod is my way of creating my personal soundtrack.
20. I love musicals.
21. I have a theory that most musicals has to have one dance sequence or dream sequence that is really weird to make the rest of the musical totally believable.
22. I also have a theory that every one in the world has a squinty eye.
23. I like to point out said squinty eye in pictures I see of people.
24. Usually, I point out the squinty eye mentally, not out loud. But not always.

"I've really Gribbled myself this time"-Dale Gribble

Working Stiff

Today was my first full day of work at the office today. I got my key to the office and my fob (to open the electronic doors to the building) on Friday and today I got my picture taken for the website which you can visit by clicking here . I worked on writing descriptions for some toxicology tests including a similar test to the work I will be doing my thesis on, so that was exciting (for me anyway!). And yesterday I made good on my promise and made cheese (parm) which is in the brine right now. I will be make mozzy tomorrow while I'm not a work (but I will be working on editing for Natalie). I plan on working in the garden in the morning and the evening when it is not so hot. It rained for most of the day yesterday so that put a damper on my plans to work on the garden. This morning when I was bringing the milk day in from the barn I saw a crawdad at the edge of the stairs. I tried to poke it with my foot and he tried to pinch me! Unfortunately my choice of footwear (flips flops of course) prevented further investigation and then when I went back outside to see it again it was gone. And last night I watched the new Miss Marple on PBS. I really liked the new woman that is playing Miss Marple, she seems good and feisty. Plus the episode that I watched had the hilarious Dawn French in it, so how could I not love it? And the main girl left her pig fiance for the really nice guy who believed that she saw a murder when she was little. Oh, there is truly nothing like a good PBS/BBC/A&E show. (Well besides watching one with my family of course!)

Hank: "You know what your troll action figures need Bobby? A display case with solid oak doors"
Dale: "Aren't those called troll dolls?"
Hank:"Yes."

I am the waterer whisperer (erer)

My sister Lucy and her husband Josh are in town for the weekend because it is his father's 50th birthday this week. So I had the pleasure of picking them up at the Indy airport last night at 12:15. This morning, both of them helped me move our meat chickens out to the coop and put up a creep gate at the entrance of the goat stall to stop the cows from coming into the barn (and making Mr. Strickland look like a big wussy!) And then Lucy and Josh went out to see the cows and Lucy noticed that the waterer in the Chicken Gypsy Wagon (which is a movable vehicle we built so we could free range the chickens. So I went out to milk the goats and feed the our two bulls (and this morning I chased them into a new more grassy lot, well I more enticed them by throwing corn out into the lot). I can back in and started the milk pastuerizing and decided to mow the lawn around the house (it got really long) and then I went out to check on the waterer for the chickens. I lifted up the plastic cover and found that for both the switch for the float was stuck so no water was coming out. I pushed is a couple times and now the waterer was working again. Then I went to the coop with the meat chickens and pheasant and saw that neither waterer was filling with water. So I check to see if the float was stuck or something, but that wasn't the problem. Turns out the spigot that the line for the waterers was not working for some reason. So I move the line to another spigot and now both the waterers are working. Then I walked through the garden as saw that the spinach and lettuce that my mom and I planted are up and both plants seem resistant to the rabbit scourge. Or perhaps Maddie scared them off with her fierceness!
I have to admit failure on a part of the day, because I didn't make cheese today!

"Bobby, you kicked your father! We all think about doing that but we never actually go through with it!"-Connie Souphanousinphone, from the episode titled "Bobby goes nuts"

Fashion Show

I remember when I was younger everytime that we would go clothes shopping, after returning home we would have fashion shows modelling the new clothes we just got. My mom and I sent about 75,000 outfits to Silas and Ellis (okay more like 5-7 per baby) when my mom went to Europe. So I would like to know: When is the Silas and Ellis Fashion Show?
In other events, I had my presentation for work today. Despite my worries, two of the people I work for said that I was making good progress and that I was doing good work. So all my imagined chastisting for not doing enough work were for naught.

"Dad, I can heal you. I am a Shaman. Woo-loo-loo. Woo-loo-loo" -Bobby Hill (Long Live Wematonya!)

Wanted: One Barn Cat

Yet again I am mourning the departure of our barn cat Goatbert. Yesterday when I was trying to coax the goats into the barn, a huge rat ran right in front of my feet. I of course let how a girly scream, more due to surprise than anything else. But if Goatbert was still in the barn, that rat would be dead by now. Hopefully we will be getting a couple kittens from a friend soon.
Yesterday my mom left for Europe. I helped her pack her clothes and stuff goodies for my sisters and their babies. And then dad took her to the airport while I milked and read some stuff for work. I have a presentation today at work to review what I have done for the past two weeks. And I have to deposit a check for Rachel (in Germany) and then take my grandmother to the doctor at 2:30. I will be bringing a notebook to take notes so I can write a report just like my mom!

"Kahn has a mother? I always imagined some sort of pod situation"-Dale Gribble

Mmmm..... Calzones and goat's milk mozzarella

My mom is leaving for Europe tomorrow so she and I are trying to make some dishes that I make while she is gone since I will be working in at the LifePlus office when she is gone. So tonight we are making calzones to eat and freeze for the next two weeks. I love calzones so much, I mean what is not to love? Melted cheese, meat and sauce wrapped in warm bread? In an attempt to use up some of the goats milk that is taking over the ice maker I am going to attempt to make some cheese this weekend. Any suggestions? I thought I would make some parm so we can have it a Christmas when everyone is at home. But I am going to make a serious effort to make cheese more often this summer. I finally conquered the Derby cheese (which had a similar taste to chedder) which uses the semi-difficult cheddering process. The cheddering process is basically covering the curds with a warm towel before put the curds into the cheese press. My favorite cheese to make is mozzy! It only takes about 30 minutes to make, and we have really gotten the hang of making mozzy. You have to vary the amount of calcuim chloride depending on where the goat is in her milking cycle. And you can immediately see if you screwed up instead of waiting 6 months to hack into a wheel of cheese that could double as a doorstop. But we have stopped seperating the milk which means there is more fat in the milk, so hopefully any cheese I make won't be rock hard.

"This is when it all pays off, the binging, the purging, the constant inoculations" -Dale Gribble

So Long Frank Lloyd Wright

Today, mom and I (and G-Pa Bill) went to see the Frank Lloyd Wright house called Samara in West Lafayette. This is the 50th anniversary of the house so there was an exhibit at the West Lafayette Library that we went to with my aunt and cousin. And then we went to tour the actual house. The exhibit was really well put together and it was the first time I had been in that library since the renovations were completed. For the Samara House, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a great deal of the furniture, the china dishes and some of the fabric used in the house. Instead of a downspout for the gutters, chainlinks and metal sculptures were placed to direct the water and so in the winter, really interesting icicles are created. Once we walked through the exhibit at the library, we went to lunch and then to the house. Finding the house turned out to be quite a struggle due to crappiness of the map in the brouchure. We had to ask directions twice to find the house. And here is something I learned while looking for this house is to ask a girl first, not a 12 year old boy. The tour was interesting in some parts, but there were 2 men who lectures our group (which included about 25 kids of various ages) . And one guy was not very good at all. He couldn't hear very well, so it made answering questions difficult for him. Also he just sort of droned on and on and on. So that made an hour tour into a two hour tour. The second guy was much better, he was a teacher so it was obvious that he was more comfortable talking in front of a group. Plus he had a Frank Lloyd Wright Pop-Up book that was really cool! Long Live Pop-Ups! And then we toured around the house and saw a really tiny bathtub in the guest bedroom. Seriously, it was really on big enough to sit on a little leadge and wash your feet! Overall the house was really interesting and pretty.

"My doctors tell me I'm the youngest kid under 80 to get gout outside the gout belt of the Lower Balkans"- Bobby Hill

Talking About My Generation

Seeing "A Prairie Home Companion" has lead me to thinking about my generation mostly due to a comment from one of the characters who says basically all that will be on the radio now that the show is over is someone yelling at you or a computer playing music. It has made me realize that most of my peers do not have appreciation for most culture in our time. When a person like Paris Hilton is famous for being famous, it makes me really doubt the direction of American and Western culture. I was watching an episode of Dr. Katz with Ray Romano being impressed by fast food workers in Quebec because the workers were bilingual and fast food workers in America aren't even lingual, which is sad but true. Maybe I'm expecting too much of my contemporaries in terms of what is important to us as a generation. I saw an episode of NOW on PBS on "Who Killed the Electric Car?" (a documentary) which basically discussed that the American public in the mid-90s were not interested in owning an electric car but instead a huge SUV. The director of the movie said we really shot ourselves in the foot when we didn't truly try to develop the technology to a point where it could be more feasible and be able to use electric cars now when gas is extremely expensive.

"I killed eight gophers last year and a purebred Tennesse walking horse that was looking at me funny."-Dale Gribble

From the shore of Lake Wobegon

The local NPR station (WBAA) had a preview showing of the new Robert Altman movie "A Prairie Home Companion" that Mom and I attended tonight. I loved the movie, which I am not surprised by because I love the radio show that is the basis for the movie. The cast is superb (and full of people that I like as well like Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, and John C. Reilly.) There is too not much of a plot for the movie, it is more sort of slice-of-life of the broadcast with the premise being that the radio station that produces A Prairie Home Companion has been bought out and the new owners are going to tear down the theater and this is the final broadcast of the show. Parts of the movie are bittersweet and moving and other parts are really light-hearted and silly. The movie is really good, and a good use of about two hours. And of course the music in the movie is great, lots of folk music (as well as fake jingles). So if you always listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" or never have heard a single broadcast, I highly recommend this movie.

And now some pearls of wisdom from Hank Rutherford Hill: "You know I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem."

Oh Baby!

I have a new nephew! My amazing sister Rachel gave birth to a cute little boy named Ellis Merle on the 5th (which is good she didn't have him on tuesday, then his date of birth would be 6/6/06!). I love being an aunt because I can hold and play with a baby without having to give birth to one! and here is a picture of my two cute nephews Ellis and Silas:
I still can't believe how big Silas is compared to Ellis, but once upon a time, Silas was that small too! I love my nephews but I would like to know when my sisters will start having little girls.......

As an actor, I like to have white teeth, unless I'm playing a pirate or a degenerate

I love the radio show "Prairie Home Companion" which airs on the NPR station from Purdue on Sundays at 2pm local time (you can listen to it by going to the website www.wbaa.org and listen online. Since the movie is coming out this week, Meryl Streep, Virginia Marsden and John C. Reilly were on the episode today. And the title for this entry was from a faux commerical for dental floss with John C. Reilly teaching Garrison Keillor how to floss. Since my mom donated to WBAA, she got two tickets to the advance screening for the movie on Thursday so I'm really excited to see it.

Mom and I slaved in the heat a week ago to plant broccoli, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, peppers , and lettuce plants as well as planted seeds. And then a few day ago, my mom noticed that somehow the broccoli, lettuce, brussel sprouts and most of the pepper plants had the shaved down to nubs about 1/2 inch tall. The culprit has been assumed to be some very bold rabbits that have ventured into the garden. The departure of the barn cat (Goatbert) has made the local rabbit population very daring indeed. Mom and I are brainstorming the best ideas to curb the rabbit problem. But we have to act fast because they are starting to attack the replacement broccoli was well at the new korabi and peppers (but they don't seem to like tomatoes or the kale.) They better not eat all the peppers because I was able to convince mom to buy purple peppers!

Tomorrow, mom and I are off the pretty prairie to U-pick to strawberries. Bring on the pie! But the most exciting news is that my sister Rachel seems to begun her labor over in Germany, so I may have a niece or nephew within the next day. Hooray!!