Saturday Six

Here are this week's "Saturday Six" questions. Either answer the questions in a comment at Patrick's Weekender, or put the answers in an entry on your journal...but either way, leave a link to your journal so that everyone else can visit! To be counted as "first to play," you must be the first player to either answer the questions in a comment or to provide a complete link to the specific entry in your journal in which you answer the questions. A link to your journal in general cannot count. Enjoy!

1. You're arranging to move. If money were no object, would you hire movers to come in and pack your belongings as well as drive them, or would you prefer to do the packing yourself?  I'd hire movers.

2. Of the new shows that have premiered so far this season, which were you most looking forward to seeing?  New shows?  I'm just now discovering Grey's Anatomy, for pete's sake.  And I just started watching CSI six months ago.

3. Did the show live up to your expectations?  N/A

4. Take the quiz: What type of lunatic are you?

5. What habit of yours would you say is the craziest?  Getting up at 4 AM or thereabouts, when there's no need.  I wish I knew why I wake up so early and can't go back to sleep.

6. What do you own more of: VHS Tapes, CDs, DVDs or Books?  CDs

The hay is in the barn.

Cliff baling hay

Well, our hay turned out to be of excellent quality, despite the extra time it had to lay in the field.  For those of you who never saw a hay-baler at work, if you have high-speed Internet, here's a movie of Cliff baling.

And this time, it was only me and Cliff doing the work; actually, mostly Cliff, because I simply drove the tractor.  It's a good thing he's been working out.

Hay there...

Cliff did rake the alfalfa Wednesday, and it did rain about 1/10 of an inch Wednesday night, preventing us from baling it yesterday.  The hay, at this point, can probably be salvaged.  He plans to rake it again so that the wet part on the bottom will be on top and have a chance to dry.  Once dry, it can be baled.

As always, his problem is that he has a job, and leaves here at 2:30 PM.  This is usually about the time of day that hay is ready to bale.  We found out he does have a couple more days he can take off without notice, at work.  So he has that option if he must, although he hates to leave them stranded at end-of-month, their busiest time.

We are strongly considering riding the motorcycle to the Branson area this weekend, but haven't decided 100% on this. 

My friend Lona, who I mentioned in a previous entry, still needs all the prayers she can get.  She had a portion of her colon removed; also, her only kidney is not doing its job as it should.

I'm glad we don't farm for a living

Cliff mowed the alfalfa Sunday afternoon.  After hay has been mown (mowed?), it has to just lay there to dry out and cure for two or three days.  Once it's sufficiently dry (and there's a fine line here between too damp and too dry) it has to be raked.  In hot summer weather, usually the hay is ready to be baled within two or three hours of raking.  If alfalfa hay is allowed to get too dry, the leaves fall off when it's raked; the leaves are where the most valuable nutrients are found.

But rain can enter the picture and change things in so many ways:  for instance, if it rains while the hay is laying on the ground curing, and then the skies clear up for a couple of days, sometimes you can salvage alfalfa hay.  The quality isn't the best, but it's still good hay.  If the hay is raked and then rains come, the picture isn't so bright.  Most often, that hay is tossed into a convenient ditch.

So Cliff had to make a decision this morning.  The hay seemed ready to rake, but there's possible rain coming tonight.  Should he leave it alone so that if it does rain, we might get some second-class hay?  Or should he rake it and hope we don't get the rain?  It's cool today, and going to be cooler.  That doesn't make for fast hay-curing. 

Now, if he didn't have to go to work this afternoon, he'd no doubt be able to bale before the storms.  However, he can't take any more vacation days off this year without prior notice.

So all we can do is hope the rains don't materialize.  Thank God we don't make our living at this!

(Oh, about the book I chose to read first:  Vital Signs, by Robin Cook.  It already holds me captive.) 

So, which book shall I read first?

On the way home from Church Sunday, we stopped at a garage sale.  We picked up a dog carrier for $5, and were about to leave when I saw boxes of paperbacks... 25 cents each, or six for $1.  So I quickly got a buck's worth.  Now, which one shall I start with?

a special Internet friend

Back in 1998, in the days of the old Christian Senior chat room, I met Lona.  She was the first "Internet" person I truly trusted, and I felt I knew her before I ever met her face to face. 

Lona is opposite me in many ways:  She's outgoing, has dozens (probably  hundreds) of friends, is active in her church, plays bridge every week, and has been to many exotic places with her late husband.  She still does plenty of traveling with friends and family.

In the real world, the two of us would never have met, even if we had we lived in the same area; we move in totally different types of circles.

But in the Internet world, we have discovered things in common:  we're both only children (although I have an older half-sister... but I was raised like an only child); we both have naturally curly hair (for a long time we laughed at how we seemed to get our hair cut during the same week); we have some childhood similarities in our church upbringing; and many of our politics, values and beliefs are the same.

So much the same that, back when we spent hours in that chat room, she and I would type the same opinion almost word for word, and enter it into the room at the same time.  Lona said we were twin sisters, only she just happened to be a few years older than I.

I've spent the night at her house.  I've ridden shotgun in her Town Car when it was brand new, going to a chat room get-together in North Carolina, and I've flown with her to Virginia to spend a few days with our friend Sue.

So for some eight years now, Lona has been on my buddy list.  We don't instant message that often, since I hate IMs.  We don't visit on the phone because I don't enjoy talking on the phone.  But if she's at home, her name is usually there with the "away" message up, and it's a comfort to see her where she belongs.  When she leaves for any length of time, or when she retires for the night, her name blinks off my list.

Yesterday morning I sent her an e-mail asking a question.  Her name was on, so I expected an answer soon.  This morning her name was still there, but my e-mail had not been answered.

I located a mutual friend of mine and Lona's, Cindy, in a public AOL room, and went there to ask her if she had heard anything from our friend.  She had not, but said she'd call and check on her.  Now, Lona has three daughters who call her daily, not to mention her many friends nearby; so I wasn't concerned that she was ill and alone.  I just knew something wasn't right.

Cindy found out Lona went to the hospital Sunday and is now back home, "sick with an inflamed colon, and in much pain".

If anybody ever deserved prayers, it's my friend Lona.  So I'm requesting prayers and good thoughts sent her way.

Monday Photo Shoot

Time to get equine for this week's photo shoot, from Blogfather John Scalzi:

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Horses are nice. Show us a horse picture you've taken. It can be new, or one from your files. It just needs to have a horse in it. Donkeys, mules, ponies, zebras, and quagga are also acceptable, and I'll be impressed if you have a picture of a quagga in your files, being that they've been extinct for 125 years and all.

I had ideas for having Cliff take a new picture of me and Blue today, but then I remembered this shot he took two years ago, of Blue giving the camera the raspberry, and granddaughter Natalie posing with him.

Play along, and be sure to leave a link to your individual entry, at John Scalzi's blog.