New Boat

This morning I got up to find that my grandfather had gotten a boat. It is an old boat from the 70's. It needed a lot of cleaning as it had been outside without a cover for some time. To tell you what it was like there was a small small maple tree growing in the front of the boat in the leaves that had fallen in it. It took my mom and dad the entire morning to get it cleaned up. After that it was up to my dad to get it to run correctly or to just run nice. Which he did.
Mom and Nana cleaning the new boat
My cousin Adam and their dog Sunshine

After lunch Erik, Alle`, Jonpaul, mom, and I went horse back riding. Today I rode Shasta. She was a really good horse I liked riding her. She has a very fast pace and really wanted to get going. She was also very easy to ride as it took very little to get her to go where you wanted. I am a little bit sore though from having ridden two days in a row. I stopped earlier than everyone else because I wanted to be able to walk tomorrow.
My Grandparent's house
Five Leave clover we christened the boat with

After we got done riding and put the horses out dad had the boat running and about ready to take for a test run. We took the boat to the state park, which has a lake, to give it a test run. On the way to the lake we had a little adventure though. Dad didn't completely latch the trailer onto the trailer hitch so it bounced off the hitch and we had to go and put it back on. A guy stopped and he put the little clip into the trailer so that it wouldn't bounce off again.
Erik and Alle` driving the boat on it's first boyage out with the family

The boat was good on the water. We didn't have any problems. It started up and we went out and drove around. It was cool as it was probably around 6 and we kept getting splashed by the wind.

We had a good dinner tonight and most of the family was there. I think we are going to try and do karaoke tonight so we'll see how that goes.

Horses on the Farm

Me about to ride Zammie


This morning I played apples to apples and Parcheesi with Taylor, Alle`, and my mom as it was raining outside and no one was sure of what we wanted to do.

I went horse back riding. I rode a horse I hadn't ridden before. My Grandmother who had 21 horses last year has sold so many that she now only has 11 horses. Zammie is the horse I rode he hadn't been ridden in a while so it took him a while to get used to being directed again. I hope that I'm not sore tomorrow, but I might be.

This afternoon we went out to the grocery store and downtown Stoughton. It was a nice getting out but I was getting a headache. When we got back we started getting dinner cooking. Really over all today it doesn't seem like I did all that much.

Alle` ridding Telly

After dinner Alle` was playing music on the piano and we were singing. We ended up getting Phantom of the Opera sheet music off line and singing that. It was fun but we couldn't hit the high notes. Well it has gotten late so I'm going to bed.

Flight to Wisconsin

Yesterday I didn't do all that much. I spent a lot of time looking for a job and sitting outside reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which I finished today. I quite enjoyed it. I'm now starting to read Through the Looking Glass I haven't gotten into it as easily as the other one. Last night I watched the new Producers with Uma Therman in it. I thought it was really funny and now I want to watch the older one.

Today I flew from Charlotte N.C. to Madison Wisconsin. I left Matthew's dad's and he took me to the airport. I was lucky they let my fly with my violin. I thought they might tell me I had to check it but I didn't. My flights were uneventful. Quite boring actually. When I got to Cleveland I had a layover there I was sitting down and eating my apple. I was just watching people walk by and stuff when I saw a bird fly down and land on the top of the phone booths. No one else seemed to notice and a little while later three more birds flew over and one started drinking from the water fountain. I was really surprised. It seems like there were a whole flock of birds in the airport and they were just happy eating the crumbs and drinking from the fountain. They weren't scared of people at all.

Bird dringing from the water fountain

My flight into Madison left a little bit late but we didn't arrive late or at least I didn't think we had until I double checked the time on the ticket it was only ten minutes but as my grandparents were picking me up at the airport (my parents and brothers went to the Oshkosh air show) they were worried about my plane. I wasn't really in any hurry but they were waiting for me so I hurried off to meet them. On the car ride back to the farm, my grandfather had the radio on and he kept having these short political rants and I started feeling a little like, please just stop I don't want to hear it. I don't agree with him politically and there really is no point in arguing with him because it is not a conversation it is him, him, him, and he does not listen to what you have to say. Because I wanted to keep from getting frustrated I watched a fly which was flying around in the car, actually there were about four flies so I let one out every once in a while and hoped that he would stop. What was interesting to me was that even after I got off the plane and I came all this way to visit with him he didn't really want to be talking with me. It wasn't until we got back to the farm and were eating that we really had any conversations and then it was me asking questions of them. They didn't really want to know anything about me. They did ask if I had any new plans for China which at this point I really don't know what they know so I told them I had decided on a city Kunming (and that isn't set in stone yet so it could change). But other than asking about that we really didn't have much to say to each other.

After dinner I walked down to the pond with my grandmother. It is cool here almost cold. It was a short but nice walk.

I practiced violin but not for as long as I would have liked to. My fingers peeled again today. I have been trying to keep them pretty dry but it hasn't seemed to work to well.

As the time is different here I'm getting really tired and it isn't even that late. My parents still haven't arrived back from the air show.

Out of the Mountains

Thunder clouds

I'm down at Matthew's dad's until I head to Wisconsin tomorrow. This is the view from his deck. Yesterday was a very relaxing day. I finished reading Firmin By Sam Savage. It was a very interesting book I enjoyed it. However, I didn't like the ending nearly as much as I had hoped I would. Also by the end of the book I was getting annoyed with Firmin a rat narrator.

Just a note for anyone who reads this blog. I will be talking about the books that I read because it helps me to think through them and come to a conclusion about how I feel about them. Sometimes I may spoil the book if you want to read it. If I am going to do this I will try and warn. Don't worry though I will try not to do it very often. I just get overly excited sometimes and get going.

Firmin was a very strange book not only that it was from the perspective of a rat but the writing was strange as well. It was hard to get used to. I would recommend reading it just because it is a different type of book.

Thistle

After I finished reading Firmin I didn't really have that much to do so I walked around outside. The thistle is blooming and it is really beautiful. Also the way the seeds billow out is really amazing. It was cool yesterday which was nice as being out of the mountains can get hot but there was a really nice light breeze which was enough to keep a good temperature.

I found another book to read in the house. I had never read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Louis Carroll so I'm reading that. So far I'm really enjoying it. Hopefully I'll get through it before I leave tomorrow for Wisconsin.

Matthew and I went for a short walk in the woods, and I was thinking that I had gotten out without any ticks but then later I felt something crawling on my neck. You would never know that I grew up in the woods because I batted at it and felt all tickified after. I had to strip and make sure there weren't anymore. So far I haven't found anymore but I'm sure they are just lurking waiting to jump on me. Little guys are pretty resourceful being able to go without food for long periods of time but I have to say they are some pretty gross little guys.

I practiced violin outside on the deck. I really like playing outside. It seems more relaxing than playing inside where the sound gets caught and reverberated around. I still need to practice a lot more though because my fingers still hurt when I play sometimes. I think this is mostly because they keep peeling. My teacher says the way to deal with this is wearing gloves when I was doing the dishes, I do that, and trying to keep them as dry as possible. Even doing this they are still peeling although I think they have gotten tougher.

Last night I watched Big Bang Theory which I haven't seen since it was taken off the Internet.

Today so far I haven't done that much. I cooked french toast for breakfast and we had fruit. It is really pretty out again today. I'm hoping it doesn't get to hot, but it feels like it is going to get pretty warm.

Bele Chere

This weekend was Bele Chere. I was really starting to look forward to it because I had gotten a job for the festival and was really looking forward to less stress after being paid. However, the schedule was changed so I ended up only working yesterday. After having worked a day in the kid's area for Your Event Source (YES) I'm glad they cut me from working today. It was a 10 1/2 hour day and they only gave me one 30 minute break the entire day. It was really a drag. By the end of the day I didn't even want to go out and listen to music at the festival. Little kids are so hard to deal with. They don't know how to wait and they scream. There were a couple kids that really shouldn't have been allowed on the blow ups after they had kicked and screamed and had a tantrum. All I know is that the parents were defiantly not helping the kids learn a better behavior they were only spoiling the kids.

For the thirty minutes I had as a break I went and ate lunch outside. It was really beautiful and warm. They had the AC on and it was really cold in the civic center. I walked down the ally by the Library and sat and ate my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. While I was eating I could hear the nearby band. Also there was a seed floating in around in the wind it was really beautiful. There were also two balloons floating up into the clouds. I watched them until they were gone. One was red and the other was blue. I kept looking away and then looking back and think disappeared but then I would find them again. They were gone by the time I went back inside.

After they let me go I met up with Matthew and we went and checked out each of the bands playing. We decided to stay and listen to a Sly & the Family Stone cover band. They were pretty good and it was fun to hear music I knew.
One of my books, Coptic stitch.

Today I made the covers for some books I'll sew later. I'm hoping to start a website to sell them from. Although as I'm heading off to visit family on Wednesday and going down with Matthew to his dad's this evening or tomorrow it seems unlikely that I will get a website up anytime soon until then the picture of one of my books that is finished as an example of what will be on the web page. The picture washes out some of the color so I'll have to get better pictures before I start my website as well. But that shouldn't be to hard to do.

I think I have two ripe tomatoes today which is really exciting. I'm hoping nothing has decided to have a snack. My first tomato had a bite taken out of it by something. That was up setting. Also my pepper is starting to turn red. I'm hoping it doesn't get ripe before I get back from visiting family in Wisconsin.

At The Beginning of this blog

Alright I'm starting this blog as a way of preparing for going to China, or where ever else I may end up. Until do start traveling. This is likely to deal mostly with the woes of not being able to find a job. Sounds familiar, Right? I will also probably write about things I'm doing, volunteer work, my balcony garden, I ate my first tomato yesterday, and anything else I might feel like writing about.

As for the name of my blog "In the Shadow of the Crow" I like the way it sounds. The crows fly by my windows often and I see their shadows mostly and not them. Crows are amazing creatures. Often when I go hiking in the mountains when you come to an outcropping of rocks you can sit and listen to the wings of the crows riding the air currents. I'm hoping to get a better picture of a crow, but for now I'm going to use the one I have.

Please feel free to tell me of any job opportunities in Asheville North Carolina.