corn gluten

So, live is moving on at the pace of a river, just sliding along at some times and falling over rocks some other times.

First, my new job is amazing. I cannot exclaim enough how great it is to be outside all the time and not feel like an outsider. The people that I work with are amazing and the customers talk to me like I'm an instant expert... but I'm still learning so much. I don't know anything about flowering shrubs or ornamental trees and my knowledge of plants that I have not personally grown is limited. Lucky for me, I've grown quite a few plants in my day, so I can at least provide a bit of insight into certain questions.
Another great thing about my job is that I am learning to many new things that will be helpful to me around the park. Like corn gluten, an organic herbicide made from the by-product of chicken food. It does not allow any weed seeds to germinate but it doesn't harm plants with roots. I'm excited about having a garden that will be better than last year.


In any case, the internet is limited here and I'm typing over top of a couple of teenage boys yelling at a play station... hence there is not collecting of thoughts here. I will say that I got a new goat, Oliver and he is amazing. He follows me around like a puppy dog and cries when I leave. My family didn't get too mad at me and they all love him now. He went to church when dad did a children's sermon and charmed the entire congregation. It was funny to watch him interact with the 27 kids that were all petting him at once.

I am making lists of things in my brain that I have to do. The lists are pretty long and I feel half pressured and half excited about all of it. It's kinda like procratinating towards a deadline. Time passes and the season is almost time for planting. I'm on this strange clock now. It's weird that my calender is filled with --- hen went broody --- put quail eggs in the incubator --- last frost expected --- plant bulbs --- get turkeys --- ect. It's like everything has an end time in mind. It's another 6 weeks until the meat birds are ready for slaughter. If I get turkeys, I need to get them 6 months before they are eating size, which means I have to build a pen before the end of may or else I won't have them this year. The quail eggs are in the incubator, which means if I have a successful hatch, then I'll have to push to get a pen for them. The little chickies are almost ready to be put in with the big chickens, but I need to build another house. And over all of this, there is the blanket of the shrimp being put in the pool, no later than july but not before the church camp comes and swims. And then when will the harvest be. And how will I prepare for all of this. And what about............... hehe.

So, this is my brain on organic fertilizers. I'm excited and happy and somewhat content. I had another show with northern spy that went well. I wrote a new song that it awesome and I'm pretty tight with Joe the drummer. Norm kinda was off the whole show and Beth turned down so much that no one could hear her and after the show everyone said that she either looked bored or scared. It was a weird joint to play at, no booze, high lights, and the audience could talk to us between songs, which was kinda nice because I got to work on my stage banter. It was pretty weird at times when Norm would quit playing and Beth would kinda shudder in wonder of what she should be doing, but Joe and I were somehow still on the same page. I used to want a drum machine. Now I know that would not work at all.
I'm kinda frustrated still as we are at a standstill with shows. We have a good recording, but I suck at the mail and no one else is helping me out here. I guess it's just going to end up being one of those things that I suck it up and do it myself one of these nights. Norm just whines that he doesn't have the stuff or know what to do or blah blah blah and I'm kinda just done with all that. So I guess, like my boss says when he gets frustrated; if you want something done right... you've got to do it yourself.


Other than that, I've been ok. Jason has been a bit weird lately. I don't know. When I feel smothered, I kinda shut down and I think that makes him kinda upset, so he wants to hang out with me more and find out what's wrong, which is not what I need... and then we just get into a bigger hole. I'm just kinda adjusting to the new job. It's a lot of sleep and a lot of labor and I'm happy and sometimes I just want to decompress after it all. I don't know. We just chatted about it again and hopefully everything will work out. We'll see.