Another quick boar bite *grin* - leaving this morning - still dark. Nearing our front gate. Suddenly a HUGE boar runs right in front of the car and then through the barbed wire fence and out of sight. (You know you've been on the internet too long when your first impulse is to spell sight as "site" - heh heh.) It was big and black and fast and must have been at LEAST 150 pounds - we made sure it was quite gone before John got out to open the gate! (I'm sorry - but I have to say this...) Hope you're not getting "BOARED" with all of these stories! (forgive me.)
posted:8:28 AM | link |

Rambling rant du jour: I'm not an Atheist in the traditional sense. I do think that the term "god" is a way of thinking and focusing that separates us from "the infinite" or whatever you'd like to call it, and find the use of the term to be antiquated. As a "conscious creator" I believe that the divine is within and is as accessible as we believe it to be - we ARE divine and are playing here in physical reality - still divine, just under a different framework. So I certainly don't believe in "god" but I certainly believe in life beyond the five senses, spirit, dimensions, powers, choice, etc. And I don't "pray" in that sense either. I get centered, I see where I am putting my energy and then decide if I can refine my focus, and then follow my impulses. I suppose some would call impulses the "voice of god" - whatever - but the term 'prayer' has always rubbed me the wrong way anyway - has always seemed to be too 'supplecant'ish in the 'I'm not worthy' sense in my mind, instead of being a more helpful 'open to inspiration' sense. But I certainly DO understand what the atheists in the article are going through to some extent. I feel like that whole arena of government leaders using religion and god and prayer in their communications really doesn't reflect me at all and is their OWN drama - but I've gotten used to this and have come out better for learning to look within instead of for any kind of "spiritual leadership" or what not from 'out there'. I guess that's kinda why I have an affinity for pagans, even though I'm not one myself - they seem to find their own way and adopt what works and has meaning for them - particularly without much 'outside' societal support. I understand that not ALL people who hold to old religious traditions put the same kind of connotations on the words "god" and "prayer" that I do - maybe that's why it works for them - LOL Anyway - for a while I thought that if I saw another announcement for a candlelight vigil I'd have to go commit myself - but I'm better now. No, really. ;-)
posted:8:22 AM | link |

And yes, of COURSE I got a photo of the boar - when I left that day it was still there - everything around here is brown/beige/dark so the contrast is as good as I can really get it without coloring the boar purple *grin* - hope you can make it out:



Now, I stopped my car right by the cage to take the photo. The boar stopped and sniffed a bit. I wondered about trying to set it free myself and tried to see how the doors opened - seems like there was a pulley on the back of the cage. I tentatively opened the car door to see how the boar would react. It suddenly started snorting and sprang TOWARDS me to the edge of the cage and kicked up dirt and, well, all pride aside, I got back into the car rather quickly. Yes, I KNOW it was in a cage, but it was QUITE wild and aggitated and I didn't want to be anywhere near it once it got free. I COULD see it clearly though... it was about as big as our smaller dog (35-40 pounds - the dog at least). It had a raw, red spot on its snout where it had probably cut itself on the wire around the cage. It also has little red piggy eyes that I doubt could see very much of anything - it being primarily a NOSE animal. The ears on it were huge and the mouth too, but the feet, the hooves were oddly small and delicate. It was covered with bristly black hair. Yes, if you've seen the Lion King it looks amazingly like the build of the wart hog (no where near as cuddly looking though) only I couldn't see any tusks on this one and if they have them they usually stick out QUITE a ways.

When we got back later that day it was gone. Our landlord must have been there, but we don't know what happened to it yet - landlord wasn't home when we called.
posted:9:18 AM | link |

At the side of our little private road, between us and the main road, is a large cage trap. It's been parked there unused ever since we've lived here - it has a way for an animal to push itself in, but no way to get out once it's in. I was driving in the fog early this morning, getting John to his early shift at work, and ready to come home and take a nap.... but then I noticed a wild boar running in the road, but not running away. It ran to the cage. There was another boar, but this one was trapped in the cage! They both just looked at me and I looked back. Not having any direct experience dealing with wild boar, and not having a clue of how to work the trap, I finished driving the few thousand feet or so to our front door and called our landlord. (He's probably getting sick of hearing animal stories from us by now!) He said he'd call the rancher who owns the cage and also come by himself later. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I hope they don't decide to shoot the trapped boar but instead just set it free. It's an adult, but not huge, and it might be a sow - I couldn't tell if it had tusks or not. And if it's NOT a sow, well, the males can be a bit more... unpredictable and aggressive, so I hear - have been known to gore hunting dogs in a bad way. To top it off have been two piglets hanging around our side field this morning as well, probably part of the same pack or family - perhaps waiting for the other two? They're old enough to survive quite well on their own of course. Pigs are usually pretty scarce by dawn so this must, at the very least, be quite the adventure for them all. I hope it turns out well. The people out here in the hills do hunt the wild boar, but (most of them) don't kill them arbitrarily and when they do they do eat them.
posted:8:17 AM | link |

tom says, "The only time when loss of freedom enters the equation is when you are attempting to secure, by regulation, law, military, or mandate, an inherently non-secure system." Oooooh - this is SUCH an excellent quote! I'll take this a metaphysical step to the left and say that when we feel a need to make things safer its because of the base belief we have that things ARE NOT safe, period. But most don't consider that a statement of belief, but a statement of the way things inherently are. Of course, you could argue that LIFE is safe or not safe, but it still comes from your beliefs ABOUT life, not any quality of LIFE itself. I admit that it's sometimes hard to go from a fear-based belief system to one that says you are safe, but its worth the hand-wringing. And when you get there, you'll feel SO different that you'll wonder how you could have ever bought into a fear-based belief in the first place. And the new understanding feels every bit as "real" as the fear-based belief, only it comes with a sense of peace and purpose as well.

How was that for a ramble that went everywhere and nowhere all at once? *grin*
posted:9:45 AM | link |

Today is 10/02/2001 - a palindrome! Cool! Of course, this only works for U.S. dates. And to celebrate, more palindromes: Go hang a salami. I'm a lasagna hog. Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era? "Reviled did I live," said I, "as evil I did deliver." Satan oscillate my metallic sonatas. Sit on a potato pan, Otis. And if you want to see the palindrome that's easily over a hundred words click the following link, where all of this came from to begin with: metafilter.
posted:10:00 AM | link |

Our black lab found this tarantula in the yard the other day and got all excited. *grin* The photo is actually about a third SMALLER than the actual spider was - it was large even for a tarantula! It felt strange holding a camera only about 8 inches above such a hairy beast. (Please don't take that out of context - heh heh.) Every so often I have to swerve around one in the road too - they roam a lot during mating season but other than that you never see them.

In other news, Barney was actually pretty quiet last night, hanging out in our yard. Unfortunately, we had a bunch of wild boar digging up our yard (dirt farm) last night - only about 10-15 feet from our bedroom window - and so our herding dog barked and ran around the house every 15 minutes and we didn't get ANY sleep. This morning there was a herd of deer in the back pasture area. And then Barney ambled by (not in - small favors) the yard moaning that deep bull moan. Egad. I know people say it's great to get back to nature, but enough already!
posted:8:33 AM | link |

Came back home tonight just as it was turning from dusk to dark, turned into the entrance to the small square of land around our house and the headlights reflected brightly off the eyes of that 1500 pound black angus bull, grazing on the small strips of what's left of old yellow grass. Remember the bull from last year? Well, last we knew this bull (who we've named Barney) was across the road in another pasture. We don't know if the rancher who owns him moved him or if Barney moved himself, something he has tended to do in the past. Three parts of our fencing is smashed - the bull in a china shop analogy exists for a good reason.

Called the landlord - there's nothing to be done about it tonight so he's going to call the rancher and come over here tomorrow at 6:30 a.m. You know when your energy is rapidly leaving a situation and you just can't even work up enough energy to care when something weird happens? Well, that's kind of it - we want to move anyway and this reminds us of another reason why. I'm not fixing the fence or trying to patch it with splintered wood again and I'm not going to worry if the herd finds the gaping holes Barney made and wanders in. Let the rancher's ranch hands repair the fence and chase out the cows - as Michael the archangel said, "It's not my area."

Our landlord said that the rancher was getting annoyed at this bull and might send him to the auction soon anyway and let him become someone else's problem - I suggested that he might make some good steaks and our landlord laughed and replied, "Well, maybe a stew."
posted:9:53 PM | link |

Whenever I come across beautiful things, I get so excited. I want the WORLD to see them because they just make my heart feel so full. This usually happens when someone has created something with their soul - something we'd probably officially call a "work of art". Like tom's gallery of photos, or Sharon's Legacy of the Cauldron web page and her clothing and fabric designs. I sometimes even get that way over things I've made myself *grin*, like this abstract painting I have hanging in our bedroom called "Heart of the Flame" which is done in yellows and golds and seems to surround me with light everytime I look at it. I think that when someone put their soul in their work, it reflects the VIEWER'S soul as they perceive it, as if everything, for that moment, becomes clear and wondrous. I want my entire life filled with experiences like that.
posted:8:09 AM | link |