Ramblings of Mad Shutterbug & the Border Collie Bros.

Herself spent yesterday with the Shire Amurgorod at the Williston Peanut Festival. Considering that they weren't required to pay for booth space, the Shire did well with their fundraiser (Shoot an Armoured Fighter with an Arrow!), and Herself sold some beeswax candles and earrings.

Myself, I picked up replacement windshield wipers for all vehicles (installed Sydney SubaruOutback's already), returned parts not necessary for Forrest NissanPickup. Oh, the parts are needed, but we also need to get the truck into the shop; I'm not inclined to spend time I'd rather spend on other projects working on internal combustion systems.

I also put together another goat maternity pen. We learned last year that maternity pens are a good thing to discourage Coyote from shopping for fresh kid. However, the method we used last year resulted in a pen too large, and requiring rather more maintenance than desired. So a slightly different method this year, using 'wire clips' (u-bolts of a small variety) to hold the combo panels together. I am also experimenting with several smaller pens, though not tiny. Each panel is 4.8 m (16') long. Putting six of them together in a hexagonal shape provides enough space for two to three does plus kids, and keeps them close enough to foster the overall herd feeling even though they're in somewhat smaller 'herd-letts' in each pen.

Today, we may try rounding up the three does we're quite certain are near term. Hey, maybebabies, wanna help?

One of my goals, established maybe six, seven years ago, is to become a recognized public speaker on topics related to perioperative nursing (my specialty within the Profession), nursing informatics (my specialty within my specialty, to boot), and a few other things. This goal is meeting with some success; I may not be famous, but I do a good piece of work. Amongst other things (and I'm sure lomer among others will recognize this), doing these presentations meets my desire/needs for public performance, or theatre if you will. Becuase there is a definable thrill about performing. So even though the topics may be related to what I do for my major income, and for continuing education which RN's need in most states for relicensure (or re-certification of specialty certifications), I try to do them all as a performance, bringing humour and comic relief along with the education and drama.

I think it't time, though to ammend that goal and include spreading the performances out a bit more than just October. For the next three weekends, I'm tavelling. The first is the longest trip, bouncing through SeaTac but spending little time in Seattle. Then the next weekend, I'm off to St. Petersburg Beach, a relatively local trip. Finally, it's off to Philidelphia, for basically two nights and then home. On all of these trips, I'm also going to at least squeeze in some time for photographic related activity. On one of them, I'll be delivering prints which someone's waited for nearly 30 years... long story.

Houdini is sitting right next to me as I write this; in fact, he's trying to help. Maybe he's got an idea what's coming up. After all, the same thing happened the past two years, and he's going to be four soon.