Aging and 70s

Because I am going to be very busy the next month, I decided to try out the video discussion format for Wednesdays with maybe photos and something written for Saturdays.

So far learning to use videos to discuss a topic in a few minutes (four or under) is an up and down experience. I ordered a sharper webcam and am hoping it also gets better color without so much tweaking. I like the wider format where it sets the talker into an environment. I've noticed sometimes YouTube is not as sharp as my copy where I have it set to maximum sharpness and am guessing that is based on whether it is fully buffered and maybe time of day and their traffic level.

If anyone else is into creating videos-- has been brave enough to dare the new frontier-- I'd be happy to show theirs here also. Wednesday is aimed at being a discussion on any topic where it feels like friends sitting down with coffee or tea. This isn't the TED talk for experts but for friends sharing something they're thinking about. It doesn't have to be 'important'. I will be posting these also into Videos and Discussions. Maybe you have yet to do a blog but might find this is your medium-- give it a try.

Someone, who has a nice garden, could do a four minute survey of it with some explanation (send it to my email which is under my profile).  This is not a place where everything has to be weighty and deep. Sometimes it's nice to take a break from pathos and paranoia and just have some fun or enjoy someone else's piece of life. But if paranoia is on your mind, I'm open to considering a video where you explain the why of that.

For my other blog, Videos and Discussion, if you are into this and we have a similar view of life (not necessarily same or agreeing but not virulently opposed-- for instance if you think gay marriage is evil, we aren't a good match or if you want to justify bigotry, you need to find another forum), otherwise though I'd be delighted to make you a co-author there which means you could directly post to Videos and Discussions. It would be one way to keep it booming.

Farm Boss took a few videos at the beach last time there; and if he gets time to put them together, they might make it here, there or somewhere. He said he might do one of the discussion videos, as he thinks I'm not making mine long enough. That's be fun, as once you start doing this, it's not as easy as some might think-- as in him :).

The discussion below is on the topic of aging and physical beauty-- or not. Oh I know, it's soooooooo lightweight, but it also is something men and women face as they age and feel their looks deteriorate. Can we admit that or must we pretend? The video isn't a solution to it, just an acknowledgement (if I come up with a solution, I'll be sure and post that too someday).

I have to say doing a video discussion goes a lot faster than trying to write something-- after the explanation this time anyway. It also has the advantage of illustrating the words with the visual aspect. I could see someone doing it for a book review, a hobby or pretty much anything that can make a short discussion as I am not sure how willing people are to listen to long speeches. I don't know how it'd go with politics. A grimace, growl, whine? How would that work? Might let off steam that way. I'll definitely be giving that a try next Wednesday!

Not everyone has the speed for watching videos; but sometimes if you let it totally load, then replay it, it will play smoother the second try. I gave Vimeo a try to see how it works but it has a limited usage of 500 mb before it's $10 a month. That doesn't sound good although YouTube may not remain free either. That's why we need to jump on things when they are possible. They might not be around later-- kind of like us.

Reflections

The beauty of nature is a healing balm to our souls. Looking for reflections in water is a good time to think about both the light that brings them and the stillness of the water that reveals them. You don't get much reflecting in fast moving water. And similarly, we don't find it that easy to concentrate or have our own reflection lead somewhere when we are constantly on the move and our minds distracted by too many things.

With that thought in mind, I made a video of a few of my favorite reflections from the last year or so. Sometime I'll  delve into the backwaters of my photos and find the best of the best (the one above is not in the slide show but should have been).

Right now fast moving water is about to catch up with me and reflecting time will be sparse.

the season of roses

Walk and touch peace in every moment.

Walk and touch happiness every moment.

Each step brings a fresh breeze.

Each step makes a flower bloom under our feet.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Convenient Delusions

The following is an excellent article on a subject I've written on before. It is worth taking the time to read if you are among those concerned we are on the wrong path.

American exceptionalism is a dangerous myth

Here is the thing-- when we buy into a myth instead of reality, we make our decisions on something either no longer true or that never was. Myths have a reason behind them, a purpose and that has value probably forever; but to take it literally without understanding that purpose enables us to be manipulated by those who want power. It is as dangerous in our personal lives as in our culture.

I liked a lot of the ideas in the piece, but the following is a powerful concept to get through our heads when we think about our nation and what is going on here today. It begins by explaining the difference between power and strength. (boy I wish our political parties, media and a lot of the wealthiest of our citizens understood this).

"The twentieth century thus became the century of power because Americans, as I have already suggested, became ever more reliant upon power alone as its years and decades went by. When power functions by itself, means and ends are inevitably confused; and means, eventually, are taken to be their own end: Power is manifest, that is to say, with no intent other than to manifest itself. The Spanish war was therefore a good introduction to the century we would name for ourselves. Americans claimed to feel deeply for the victims of Spanish oppression, but their own, notably in the Philippines, turned out to be other than an improvement. The true purpose of the Spanish campaign, as the histories make plain, was display—a demonstration of power."   Patrick Smith

The same thing is why some believe America used the atomic bomb in Japan. Not because it was necessary as the war was won and the Japanese were ready to surrender with the Soviet Union approaching them from land and the US controlling the seas. Many believe it was instead done as a demonstration of power that Truman wanted not just for Japan but also the world--- americanexceptionalismdontchaknow.

So what do we do and if we have, as a nation, enabled power instead of real strength, how do we change it now? Can we get strength? How many Americans prefer power because it's easier to see. They don't understand strength is how power is used wisely and lack of it how it is not.

"In all of these matters Americans grew deficient during the last century. One must have a strong sense of self to encounter others and accept difference, and Americans came to lack this."                                     Patrick Smith

Obviously there is not one simple answer. We are a  people today who can know too much and at the same time have no idea how much of what we know is true. We hear of one tragedy and violent event after another and feel the world is falling apart. Empathy becomes so stretched that it loses meaning.

As we have advanced in technologies-- in all directions, we are often clueless in how to wisely use what we have as with GMOs and yes, the drones.

"The core issue is one of control—control over what we are able to do. Closer to our time, the French thinker Paul Virilio suggests that we have to add to our technological revolutions a revolution of consciousness, of ideas, such that our thinking and our purposes are elevated to a value equivalent to our capabilities."                                                                     Patrick Smith

So with a group obsessed with gaining control and doing all they can do dumb down our educational systems, our people's ability to think critically and use facts, what do we do, we who agree this is a problem but we are not in power? Keep in mind that misunderstanding the difference between strength and power can be an issue for us personally also.

I have some ideas:

One: Grow our own, personal strength by having a set of values with which we live. Don't let those shift with the wind and allow every recent news broadcast to change our minds without investigation. When we realize we blew it, we don't rewrite our values unless we realize we were offbase. When we are firm in our ideas but open to truth and willing to reevaluate what we thought was truth even when it's not comfortable, that is true strength. Live by truth and have a personal code of behavior.

Two: It's important we not personally confuse power especially over others as strength that we don't confuse admiring someone who wields power instead of someone with genuine strength and this means we then vote accordingly. This is not a simple concept and I think it's much confused by our entertainment and media. People, who are personally strong, will wield whatever power they have wisely and to the benefit of not only themselves but others.

Three: This might seem like a small one, but I don't think it is. I am big on being friendly to people wherever we come across them. That doesn't mean talking or chatting them up. It means a wave, a smile or how's your day going? We do not know what someone else is experiencing or how they may feel the world is against them. When we greet them with a smile, it is strengthening to us and them. Being generous with our thanks is good in this area also.

Four: I believe time in nature appreciating the natural world is a powerful way to grow stronger. Nature is not power crazy. It is what it is. Modern man has this idea he is superior to anything and it's all about subduing nature. If we instead respected it, learned from it, now and again immersed ourselves in it, we would be stronger.

Five: Be educated and that means about what's going on in the world around us as well as in the past. I read a lot of stories about crimes that have been committed (two girls decide to knife to death their girlfriend) and some might think why read that? It's upsetting. It is, but it also is what is out there. Be educated about reality. Don't be paranoid but be aware. Naïveté, especially in a world like ours can be fatal.

Six: As much as possible, learn facts not opinions. We are bombarded by opinions on a myriad of subjects. Facts are open to interpretations but at least know them.

Seven: It's hard to know things and not take them to heart but it is what we have to do. We have to separate out what we can change from what we cannot. Know what's out there. Evaluate what we can do about it but let go of what we can't change. It's an old saw but it's also true. I do not think we are strengthened when we take on burdens that are not our own. It has us ranting and not fixing. Years ago I read a book I took to heart by Steven Covey, 7 Effective Habits of Highly Successful People. He broke down the choices we make into categories deciding what is within our control and what was not, what was urgent from what was important. This is still a book worth reading if you haven't.

There are probably a lot more that I use and haven't thought to mention here but the key idea is-- be personally strong as much as possible--  physically, mentally and emotionally; then we have more to give, will vote more wisely, and won't be blown here and there by every new idea or fear that comes along.

Photos are all our creek in June. The top one is illustrative of how reflections can be confused with reality. Enlarge to see better.

discards

The reasons of the heart are leaves in the wind. 

Stand up tall and everything will nest in you. 

Mark Nepo 

Years ago I planted a tea rose beside a small pine tree. The tea rose froze one winter, all but one part and I waited that spring to see what would emerge as it appeared it had frozen down to the stronger but less desirable rose the tea had been grafted onto.

What came up was a beautiful climbing red rose. Normally they don't bloom but once in the spring which is why many prefer tea roses which will bloom all summer.  I could have considered the wild one to be undesirable and dug it up. I didn't and that wild rose has bloomed profusely every year and continues through the summer. This year I realized it had wound its way upward and was heading toward the top of the pine.

Every time I see it I think of how it is like me and those I know. We want the showy blooms. We reject or even would cut out our sturdier and even wilder parts. We miss so much when we don't see them as value also. For me, that unwanted rose has become a reminder of the unexpectedness of life, and I treasure it more than any of the others for that reminder.

Chronicles of the Fox

When our story begins, the humans are clueless as to what is going on-- not unusual for humans. The story will take place on two levels with two families.

April 2012 and I saw a fox in our deck garden. It's a fenced yard and I thought how wondrous as it sat and sunned itself, almost seeming to take a nap. I felt both thrilled and amazed that the wild had invaded our groomed space. It acted almost as though it was its own backyard... Keep that thought in mind.

We left the farm here not long after the sighting as we had work to do in Tucson on our house there. We were gone a month or so. When we came back, we began to be concerned that something had died in our solarium which is a small room off the house that was a porch we had enclosed. When the smell went away, we forgot about the problem... for awhile.

We pick our story back up in spring of 2013 when we finally had what we felt was a secure outside enclosure for our cats. It was with the goal of keeping them in the deck yard with enough space for them to feel they were having a wilds experience but not so much that they could get out to the gravel road while pursuing a frog, bird, mouse, etc. and end up killed by a passing vehicle.

With spring I began to think I wanted another space enclosed-- what most would call the front yard as it is toward the road but we have a rather confusing home arrangement where what is the front door never gets used by anybody-- people come in through the backdoor to the utility room or through the french door leading to our deck. It's a farm though where driveways relate more to farm use than people.

Farm Boss set out to make that yard secure and about the time he was finishing it, when we set up a picnic table there, a cat door and encouraged our cats to use it, we had also begun to see a pair of foxes. They weren't frightened. They watched us as though we were the intruders. Keep that thought in mind.

When the pair appeared again in the supposedly 'safe' cat yard, Farm Boss set about making the fence higher and more secure. Didn't work. Foxes were still there and we were glad we had the new frontyard that we thought of as a backyard for the cats as although foxes don't choose fights with grown cats, these were obviously trained killers and one of our cats, Blackie, feels a responsibility to guard the property seeming to know no fear.

It was when Farm Boss watched one of the foxes, outside the fenced enclosure climb into a magnolia, get a bird out of it,take it to the orchard to kill and then... leap over our secure fence to bring it into the enclosed front/backyard, now to be known as deck yard. Why would a fox take its prey into a people enclosed yard to eat it?

The fox showed up one day right outside the new fenced garden and both the cat and it stared at each other. Pepper was wise enough to slam through the cat door at a fast run which is why I knew what was going on. I yelled at the fox. It looked at me with curiosity. I then picked up a rock and loosely tossed it over the fence hoping it would scare it off. It ran to it to see what it was. Clearly some humans had been feeding it. Finally I used the hose and when it got sprayed, it left but didn't run far.

Those two experiences pretty much told us something was going on here that we didn't want. Shortly after we found out what it was when Farm Boss put a live trap near where we now believed they were living in the narrow crawlspace under our solarium. The next morning a fox was in it. Farm Boss poked a stick back in the space he had thought too small for any fox to get into and heard a growl.

So here we were with the illusion we were building a higher fence to keep the foxes out and protect our cats... except the foxes were determined to get in because this was their home. That garden was theirs too. The safety of our cats had been an illusion.

We knew foxes mate in winter or early spring. The odds now were that this pair had pups in the crawlspace under our solarium.   We did some online research and found from the time the pups were born, it takes two months to become grown enough to be on their own. It's not hard to understand why the parents chose where they did. It's dry, secure and last year with us gone, it was quiet. Foxes are wonderful hunters and predators but also prey for the bigger predators. We have a safe area-- especially when we weren't there.

It's kind of neat to think you share your living space with a family of foxes, and there was a momentary thought, fleeting, that if we could fence our cats securely away from them they could stay. No, that's crazy. Not only do foxes potentially carry rabies, but they are wild things. They need to be afraid of humans who can endanger them.

New plan. Let the trapped fox go out by the old, downed barn with the admonition that it'd be a great spot for a den. Since they have been here, the rodent population has been way down. Yes, they kill birds but only to eat, not for fun. We would love them to stay but not under the solarium with putrifying smells in that room as they don't eat every bite of what they kill.

When Farm Boss got ready to release the trapped fox, which he thinks was the male, he had  a careless moment and got bit through the wire and his leather gloves. Fortunately a graze more than a deep bite, and it healed fine. It is a reminder that they will attack when feeling threatened.

Trying to find out exactly what was going on, we set up our wildlife camera with a view to their exit door from the crawlspace. Got some great pictures and the possibility that the mother took her babies elsewhere-- to a securer life or so she hopes. Wildlife cams that flash at night are obviously not regarded as friendly and since the trapping in the cage, the foxes have been more wary of us.

I feel sorry for predators as their life is not an easy one. These little foxes are awesome predators as you can see if you look at the slideshow below. They are also so cute, but my priority is my cats. The foxes have to stop denning up under our home, but whether they already have, we will give them a reprieve of two months  to raise those pups if they are still here-- darling pups and I so relate to the struggle these animals face.


In the meantime-- are we deluding ourselves that we can make this less attractive near our home where they have been dry, warm and felt safe from bobcats, coyotes, cougar and bears? Keeping out an animal that can jump and climb as well as they can is not easy. Having been fed by other humans makes it even harder.

The story might be over... or maybe not. 

Saturday and last week

Because I am left of the middle on a lot of issues, when I hear of something happening in politics, I naturally have a left leaning view that will impact how I see it (at least I admit it). Here's my take on the various 'scandals' which are supposed to bring down the Obama administration IF you listen to the Limbaugh ilk.

IRS-- If they had said in the beginning that they held off on approving tea party and patriot group statuses because there were so many instantly applying and those words clearly sound political, which means they needed to evaluate if there was also a charitable function, not just a political one. It just makes sense that way and there is no targeting. It's based on the name pure and simple.

The tea party and patriot groups did get approved eventually (so much for 'targeting in a meaningful way' but if they called themselves also a charity based on being willing to go around giving schools books to teach from and teaching the Constitution with their own slant-- that's not charitable. That's political and partisan. The IRS should treat left wing groups the same-- and maybe they are but they went into panic mode and lost control of the conversation.

I can tell you a dozen ways that teaching the Constitution from a right wing view is not how a leftie would see the same words but just take guns. Righties claim that saying there should be a 'well-regulated militia' means you can own an assault rifle and any sort of machine gun with no background check as you might be required to overthrow the military someday.

Lefties look at that same amendment to the Constitution and remember that at that time the government had a small military and what they wanted was a 'trained' group by them (i.e. the 'well regulated part) who would fight under government orders. How many tea partiers like that idea?

AP-- here's where the right and left are both down on Obama. My gosh, he did a horrible thing. Information that was deemed classified regarding two nations who openly espouse our destruction was revealed by reporters who in one case (North Korea) evidently went after those who had classified information and then revealed it. Where it was Iran, the information revealed was something Republicans said needed to be investigated because it told about a secret operation that could have endangered someone undercover. They suspected Obama had wanted it revealed to make himself look better as a terrorist fighter.

This is now being pushed in a partisan way by the politicians and media. Excuse me but information that is deemed part of our national security is classified for a reason. And I've seen too many times this year where reporters rushed to tell what happened in some situation when they got it wrong-- Boston Marathon being one example.

There is a difference between freedom of the press and letting the press ruin everything we are trying to do for our own security-- isn't there? Not to the press and Republicans. At least it's one issue that brought together right and left in condemning Obama.

Yes, I am disgusted by our government bureaucracy for how they can't seem to chew gum and walk; but none of what is above directly connects to Obama in my view. We expect him literally to be looking into everything that is done in the government? They call that micromanaging. I think he had good reason to expect that bureaucrats wisely do their jobs. Lotsa luck with that.

Benghazi-- this is one I have written about too many times. It's just ridiculous that the right, who never met a war they don't like, with thousands of deaths, would get all upset over four. There is a lot we don't yet know about what happened that night and if the real interest was in discovering it, I'd have a more tolerant view. Who outed the CIA annex?  The real issue though for the right seems to be somehow connecting this tragedy directly to Obama.

Oklahoma tornado: Then there is trying to figure out where to donate to Oklahoma beyond the Red Cross, but getting a little frustrated when I heard the Oklahoma politicians saying they don't need money as it's already there waiting for them to take and some writing they don't need shelters for children in their schools because it's only a few deaths. It makes me wonder if that state has something mentally wrong with who they choose as their leaders and spokespeople because it seems to me this is where there should be government help and we should all be working for safe rooms in these schools that are most likely to be hit by tornadoes. I cannot hear anything like this without thinking of my own grandchildren. I want small children protected when in their public schools and frankly if that guy who doesn't think it matters, doesn't care for himself, fine but for me every child should know they are as safe as we can make it when they go to school and if that takes federal money, my tax dollars, good enough!

Drones, Code Pink and how to get your point across: Obama gave [a speech this week] dealing with defense, Gitmo (tried to close it right away but was blocked either by his own mistakes or the right), drones, and the forever war we are locked into. He said what a lot of us wanted to hear. Some find fault because he didn't say it all sooner-- guess they wanted Romney in 2012 as Obama had to get re-elected to get a chance to do it; and if the naysayers thought at all, they'd know it. Elections are won by the middle and you can lose it so many ways it's not funny.

In the speech, he was interrupted by screeching and over the radio that's all I heard until later MSNBC refined her words and let us hear the whole thing (like I so wanted that). There are many who find fault with Obama because he didn't usher in a Kumbaya time for the world and this country. They wanted the world to be other than it is and often ignore the basis behind his decisions.

The lady, who yelled her way into at least 15 moments of national news time, got what she wanted-- more attention.  He wasn't as critical of her heckling as I am. I don't like those who are rude and haven't since the Vietnam war era where protestors attacked the soldiers for fighting a war of which they disapproved. Hey, I didn't like it either but I made my point by voting and speaking out in a polite, hopefully intelligent way-- it's how I was raised.

In the end, polling makes more difference that screaming for what happens politically.  I see value in large groups gathering to have speeches and make their points. It's like polling for showing the numbers on 'your' side. Screaming down someone else, disrupting a speech, might be more emotionally satisfying but I think it can turn off as many as it arouses to action.

Oh I know, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I think it's a form of violence to interrupt others and refuse to listen. It doesn't help with freedom of speech and as Obama said-- freedom of speech means listening and talking. She didn't want to listen. She wanted attention and she got it.

On the farm: We watched Django Unchained,  and I'm still evaluating how I saw it other than what is it with some humans for how they treat others if they can get away with it? I can't relate to how that kind of cruelty grows and yet we saw it this week in London with the two men who hacked a soldier to death with machete and knives supposedly for ethnic or religious reasons. How do humans reach a spot they can do that to another human-- and don't tell me it only comes from those from 'other' religions as it's ignoring reality.

It was a busy week as we had the shearer come in on Monday. Forty-five were shorn which is more than we thought we had. Getting them altogether for a portrait is all but impossible but here are a few in the field that Farm Boss put a lot of work into reseeding last fall. It's doing well as you can see. The color for the day is green.

Then Tuesday the mobile slaughter unit came, and Farm Boss shot a steer for sale to some families in Corvallis.The population has to go down in our livestock. We don't like to sell to auction but prefer to sell direct to consumers which gives the animals the best life and the consumers the best deal for healthy meat.

The guy below had a very physical week and deserves some downtime which he still hasn't had as he's trying to repair one of our tillers...

We found the perfect picnic table at a place in Eugene which makes redwood outdoor furniture at a reasonable price. I am delighted as we start changing what was sheep pasture into a garden-- it'll take time. It turns out that it's a warmer spot to sit (if the rain ever stops) which is great for reading and drinking a glass of wine. The backyard with the deck gets the breeze off the creek. Nice to have two choices for being outdoors. This has been fenced to keep the cats in, avoiding them heading to the road and getting hit by someone's car. And now avoiding the danger from the fox population.

Currently we are losing the battle of keeping out the foxes. One got into our deck garden by going over the fence again!!!! We were having a hard time understanding why they want in. It came in with a goldfinch it had killed in the magnolia-- was that about a nice place to eat it?

And then I went out one afternoon after Pepper (the black and white cat) came racing into the house banging the cat door. There was the fox right outside that front garden fence looking at Blackie, who was staring at it with equal curiosity. I yelled and the fox stood there just looking at me.

So, I got the cats in and tried throwing some rocks at the fox... Guess what it did? It ran over to them to see if I'd given it food. I'd pretty well say that is why it's not afraid. Some foolish human has been feeding them. It only ran off when I turned on the hose and sprayed it. Even then, it went no farther than the apple orchard and sat to watch what would happen next. Spray didn't reach that far.

We are thinking it's going to take a big noise the next time we see it-- but will that work? Ack!

Finally, as another way to reach readers, I spent the week trying to learn how to do a video that would speak to what I see romance novels being about-- most especially mine. It is so hard to do this for a person (me) who dislikes seeing themselves talking and hates their voice on audio. It's a challenge to remember the points, make it look like fun and not goof up by some dumb expression-- like licking my lips. What was that about? Anyway, here is one attempt-- another less than perfect with the eyes closed to start but hey it's a learning curve. Memo to self: blink next time before the camera starts!