Celebrate Christmas!

 Here are some Christmas-time photos....

Over the holidays, there was no snow, just frost on the trees and ground.  It was pretty.

I love these trees in my neighbors driveway.  Here they are in their wintertime pose.

Besides pretty trees, Christmas was a time of pretty lights and parties... full of the gatherings of friends and families.

We had lights on our deck outside and lights inside the house too.  I do not do a Christmas tree.


 This is picture of a friends Christmas tree. Note the lights... you may have seen my last post about the crazy light.... but mt friend had these crazy glasses that changed the lights on the tree into rainbow shapes of verious sorts.  That was fun.

Part of our celebrating was singing. We sang Christmas carols with friends....
The First Noel,
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
Joy To The World,
Silent Night,
Joy to the World....

and a few others.

and even had a campfire.















We gathered for a candlelight Christmas service.

 Symbolically passed the light of Jesus Christ and the gospel of peace and hope in the midst of darkness from person to person....with candles.

and enjoyed time with family and friends.

The holiday continues.....

A New Year lies ahead.....just around the corner.

Optical Illusions.. sorta

 

 Want to have some holiday fun without even leaving your living room?


All you need is these cool spectacles, ones like this guy is wearing.  They are holiday spectacles for sure.  Put them on, and the lights on your Christmas tree take on a whole new dimension!

 You can "see" the lights turn into snowmen,

or Christmas ornaments.

One pair makes the lights turn into fluttering angels,  Another makes them into  "Christmas Dreams"  that is ... gingerbread cookie men, candy canes and stockings... like this one here.  Look closely.



To see more and where to obtain these mysterious objects... go to:
Holiday Optics

holidayoptics.com




Merry Christmas!

Sunrise Surprise

I woke up Monday to the sound of a distressed goat, only to then recognize the sound as that of a baby goat calling for it's mom.  Happy to think that a baby goat was born, I nudged dh about it, rolled over and went back to sleep.  When at last I woke up it was kinda late.  I took a shower and before long, made my way outside where dh was tending to the goat baby we had earlier that day expected to find.   Surprise, surprise, there were two, only... sad news.... one had died.  The other one, alive, was in my husbands arms and he told me that the mom goat didn't seem to be tending to this little one,and he suspected neglect was was happened to the other one that he had found frozen in the snow.  He had found the one, now in his arms, under the heat lamp in the goat shed.

We brought the baby inside to warm it and clean it off a bit more than he had out in the goat pen.  Wondering what to feed it, I began looking to see what kind of supplies I had, like baby bottles that would be good for a little goat- kid.

I found nothing... except for a cat bottle.  (Drats! ) We had only some "old" milk-replacer powder, so I located a can of condensed milk from my cupboard, just in case, thinking that might do the trick in a pinch.  After debating our next course of action, we decided to give mom goat another try feeding the baby, and took the baby back ooutside.

We were sad when the baby just cried and cried, and was ignored by mom and the rest of the heard.  Mom seemed completely disinterested, as were the rest.  Off to the store I went to get some supplies.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, mom got another try...even a close encounter, when dh put the baby on the moms teat to nurse.  It was quite a process.... and the idea that mom would not let the baby die was short lived.  When I got home, plans were in progress for bedding and bottle raising a little baby goat.

I must say, baby goats are both amazing and adorable. The notion of having a pet goat or sheep that is so very cute and follows you around like a dog is appealing to a part of me, but I know goats get lonely and I know what trouble Mary's little lamb got her into when he followed her places that goats were not supposed to go.    I was not feeling very thrilled about the prospect of raising a goat this week and in the weeks to come, but here were were.... baby goat in the kitchen....feeding supplies.... and the baby needed to eat.  Someone had to feed the "little guy."  (Which actually was a little girl.)

We whipped up a bottle of the formula and tried to feed the baby.  Darn!  The nipple was a little big!  IT was all we currently had, and so we wrestled with it a bit, soon realizing this was not just going to be a simple project.  It was going to take  lot of patience and be quite a time consuming project, something that was going to have to be always intensely on our minds... at least fora couple of weeks.

We soon made the decision that raising a bummer goat, no matter how cute, was not really what we wanted to be doing... so we began calling around to people we knew to see if anyone was in the mode, or in the mood, for mothering a little newborn goat.  Fortunately, it wasn't long before we receieved a call from someone we did not even know, saying she would be happy to rear the little dear.

YA Hooooo! 

Our new little friend was soon delivered to it's new home, where it will be raised by a caprine expert.... a woman who raises baby goats by hand a lot of the time.  She has a plethora of animals;  she has dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, horses and get this... "nineteen" goats.  The best part is that she has two human kids of her own to help her feed and care for them all, including the newest addition that we delivered to her today.

When we arrived she told us the sad story of how just yesterday she had one of her female goats die.  The goat, who had a particularly large set of horns, had a strange accident with her own horn and had to be euthanized.  The doe was pregnant, and they had tried to save the babies, (of which there was five)  but unfortunately, they died along with mom.   I suspect,  she welcomed the new life we brought to her door.  All I know is that I felt like she was definitely more prepared than we were, to take on the responsibility of being a goat's mom.

Well, that was my day.  Isn't she cute!

Rainbow Promises Past and Present

My friend "Lizzy-Lu" asked me to send her a photo from a particular event that we were at together in 1995.  She wanted a photo from which she could make something special for Christmas.  Here is the photo I sent her of the circular rainbw in the sky, which I retrieved from an old scrapbook.

On this particular day, a small number of Christians were gathered in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, desiring to honor God in the gathering.  At noon, as we stood there, the clock-tower rang forth in song, and in the sky above the tower we all witnessed a beautiful circular rainbow overhead.

You cannot see the entire circle of a rainbow in this photo, but let me assure you, this rainbow arch is a continuous one that goes all the way around the tower over our heads.  Beautiful!  We were all reminded of God promises that day and were thankful for the reminder in the sky of his promises to us, especially as we prayed together that day.

Elizabeth reminded us all, this Christmas with her poem and photo much improved from my own, that the promises of God are amazing indeed.  She also reminded me again of that day we were together at the park and what a special moment it was when we  considered the circular rainbow in the sky.

Reading around in the internet I found this page someone posted regarding the promises of God and how God is faithful and true to his promises.   I will post it here for your consideration.

All this to say, thanks Liz!  Nice reminder.  Love you!

Reconvened Meeting

So remember that meeting; the one where the community organization left business undone?  Well, news here is that the meeting was reconvened, yesterday.  At the meeting, a vote was taken on the "matter at hand," (that is, if the internet provider's lease would be renewed, or not,) and following the vote, the meeting adjourned.

Now why it wasn't done like this at the first meeting?  Well, one can only speculate on that.  Truth is... that first meeting was awkwardly dismissed and the voting process ignored.  The board did what they wanted to without listening to the people.  Now, this meeting was reconvened...for a vote, one that could have been taken last time, one that would have possibly changed course of events if it had been addressed at the earlier date.  No, the vote was dismissed.

Now however, the vote was finally taken, but the point was moot. The board had already decided for itself that the lease was not to be renewed... and decided also, not to take a vote at the last meeting.  The ballot results were 23 in favor of renewing the lease and 82 against.


I have to tell you, the vote was somewhere  inaccurate.   When the votes were being counted, and recounted, and checked and recounted....





.... it soon became apparent that there was some discrepancy in  numbers.   There were eight more votes than voters!

(Hmmm, must have been the laxidasical -ness.)

At any rate, the margin between opposing sides was great enough to make it quite obvious that "official" outcome was  in favor of not renewing the lease, but as it was, at this point it didn't matter what the community wanted, for the decision had already been made and the lessee was already evicted.


The board has already made their decision, ousted the internet provider, and effectively ignored concerned parties in order to do what they wanted to do.  The board however, had to go by meeting  protocol and take the vote of all members of the association, which they did, setting precedence for  the voice of community members to be heard on important matters in the future.