Doctor Who.
Luke survived his first encounter with the pediatrician today. Liz and I did too, which was the bigger concern. He is a little jaundiced, but Doctor Huss said it’s no big deal. Nothing else was concerning and his weight/physique was exactly where it needed to be. The doctor didn’t expressly say it, but I could tell that he was thinking that Luke is already pretty much a genius and will only get smarter.
We feel really good about the doctor and hope he will provide Luke with quality care for years to come. He was very encouraging to Liz as well. We return a week from today for the next check-up. Our trip there and back lined up very nicely with feeding, pooping, and napping, which was a huge relief. We were also on time! So the miracles continue.
Somebody call DCS.
Yes, making him wear this University of Michigan rag is pretty much child abuse. But it was a gift from Uncle Matt, so I at least put him in it for long enough to take a couple of pictures. And this was a special occasion – UM was playing in the Final Four championship game. They lost. Also attached is a photo of him wearing an ankle monitoring bracelet because for some reason the two seem to go hand and hand.
Tunneling into the world.
Luke Chip Maxwell burst onto the scene yesterday afternoon. Luke is a name that Liz really liked (she claims that he is NOT named after a certain Jedi, although I am skeptical) and Chip is the nickname that my dad is known by to almost everyone. Luke and Liz are both healthy and recovering nicely from yesterday’s traumatic events. Below are a few pictures from day one.
Reading.
Been trying to do more of it. Or more accurately, been trying to do a higher quality of it. I need to break up my steady procession of rather mindless adventure books with more meaningful fare. I am partial to paper books but as of late have been reading almost exclusively on my phone and Chromebook. The library is a great source of ebooks. There is a lot to learn.
The three books above constitute my most recent non-fiction readings. The images a pretty small, but they are:
Mini Goats: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Miniature Goats in the City, Country, or Suburbs – This was a very practical book that further increased my desire to won goats. And now I think that mini goats would be ideal. They are just so cute! The book covered all aspects of ownership, from acquisition, feeding, housing, milking, breeding, and more.
The Farm then and now: a model for sustainable living – I have known of The Farm for a long time, but have known very little about it. This book helped rectify that deficiency. A pretty interesting some of some folks who definitely blazed their own trail. Located not too farm from Columbia, I might try to visit before too long.
The World of James Bond: The Lives and Times of 007 – I am not a big movie person, but I have always loved James Bond. I have read all the books too, not just the Fleming originals but the ones by Gardner, Benson, Boyd, and others. They are a very nice diversion and always entertaining. This book covers much of the background and worldview that went into making Bond who he was and is, along with charting how he adapted to the times. Not a great book but still rather interesting, if only because of the subject matter.
I would like to get back into reading “literature”. I have always enjoyed classic novels, but it’s been a while since I picked one up. I just downloaded “Jayber Crow” by Wendell Berry from the library. It’s doubtful that he would approve of the medium, but he did authorize ebooks for his works. I also downloaded a book on small scale organic farming. I’ve got a house to build before that information becomes relevant, but it would be nice to get a head start on some knowledge. I am toying with the idea of getting some audiobooks from the library as well. They could be nice on the drive to and from the farm, but I do like listening to music while driving. Also I’m not very patient, and I wouldn’t like listening for a while then having to take a long break until driving again. I have a print book about the Enneagram that I started a little while back and just now brought out of hiding. The truth is that I am Team Myers-Briggs though, and the Enneagram is a little kooky for me. It’s Liz’s go to mechanism though, so it would probably benefit me to learn that language. The problem is that every time I take the test I am a different number. With the M-B I am consistently an INFP (the best type).
At some point I would like to start building up a library. Before going to India I had about 800 books across all genres. I had to get rid of almost all of them though, due to lack of storage space. Now I have but a few dozen scattered throughout the Nashville area.
Baby goats.
We made a quick run up to Monteagle early yesterday afternoon. I decided to take the interstate the whole way because we were both quite hungry, not having eaten lunch. So we arrived at the Mountain Goat Market around three. It was still rather busy, but we did get the patio to ourselves. After a typically delicious meal we headed over to campus to see the goats. I had seen on Instagram a few days ago that the heard had been expanded considerably. About a dozen baby goats had been born this week. So naturally we had to go check them out, and they didn’t disappoint. I lost track of how many times we went, but it was at least five total. The first time provided one of the highlights. The guys who were looking after the goats and pigs let us come into the barn to see the youngest babies, some of whom were just a day old. They also patiently answered a number of our questions about goats and the farm in general. Unfortunately I facetiously asked if the goats were headed to the cafeteria next, and the answer was yes. Liz got a little bummed about that.
The one negative of our trip was very overcast skies with intermittent rain. That made it hard to do too much outdoors for any length of time. However after our second goat visit of the afternoon we did go on a little driving tour with stops at Green’s View overlook, the Cross, and the Templeton Library (pictured below). We also went by Hallelujah Pottery, located next to the cottage, and chatted with Debbie the owner of Full Circle Candles. She makes lovely all natural candles and Liz bought two spruce and one birch scented. It is always really cool to hear how her business is progressing.
We picked up a few things for dinner at Piggly Wiggly, which as you may have ascertained from the picture at the top of the post did not include chicken. The rest of the evening was pretty low key. I did a couple of crossword puzzles and we just relaxed. I woke up super early this morning, but went outside and saw that it was raining, and so tried to go back to sleep. After another trip to Piggly Wiggly and a cobbled together breakfast we went back to see the goats again. A few of them were eating on their round bale out in the pasture, but most were presumably in the barn.
We decided to drive through the back side of the domain and into the forest. It really still felt like winter back up in there. There was no green anywhere, not even in the underbrush. It sure will feel different in a few months, especially with all of the lightning bugs this summer. When we drove back by the farm it had ceased raining and many of the baby goats had come out to run around and eat. I got out my real camera and we watched them for quite a while. They are so entertaining – jumping, messing with each other, climbing things, and just being cute. Hopefully we will get some for ourselves this fall. We went back to the pottery store and talked to Debbie for a bit longer and then had another late lunch at the Mountain Goat Market. From there we took the long and slow, but scenic route back to the condo. That involved going through Cowan, around Winchester, near Lawrenceburg, into the heart of Shelbyville, through Nolensville and into Nashville.
All in all it was a very nice trip, despite less than ideal weather. I’m not sure when we will be able to return. Congratulations if you have made it this far. Below are some goat pictures as a reward.
Blah blah blah.
It’s been a very lazy Saturday thus far. The gray skies and intermittent rain have kept me inside. I’ve messed around with my photos a little bit, watched last night’s episode of Taken, and pondered the possibility of doing something more productive. Unfortunately not much comes to mind. I do need to rework the house plans slightly and prepare them for printing. More than anything I would like to go camping. It has been several months and I sure miss going. That doesn’t seem to be in the cards though.
Map time!
I have spent a little time on the Maps page recently. It has been nice to look through all of my old pictures, but also a little sad. One thing is for sure – I have a ton of photographs to sort through. There are plenty more to delete. I use Picasa which I really like for organizing, but Google has of course discontinued it, because that is what they do to cool products. I am rather passively searching for a replacement. Ideally one with more editing features that isn’t too complicated. Anyways, the Ile de France, India and Nepal, and Spain maps are now live. Each pin leads to a gallery. All photos are unedited. Hopefully at some point I will become skilled at image enhancement. They aren’t necessarily my best or favorite pictures, just some that I selected as representative of the areas. Looking through all of the photographs was surprisingly tedious. My goal is to have all of the maps done within a month or so.
Restaked.
The above picture shows a beautiful building site punctuated by a multitude of small orange stakes marking the boundaries of the house and garage. There is a chance that the footers will get dug tomorrow, but I’m not getting my hopes up. But it sure would be great if it happened!
I spent a bit of time at the farm today, continuing to clean up the property and crush things with the tractor. The weather was perfect and it is nice the the ground is finally dry. The forecast for the next couple of weeks looks decent. The cold would pretty much seem to be gone.
Graded.
Progress is slow and inconsistent, but still present. On Monday the surveyors came and staked out the building envelope. Yesterday our friend Grant used his brand new track loader to grade the site. He moved around a lot of dirt with an efficiency that Annie could never match. Hopefully the surveyors will return tomorrow to lay out the exact locations of the footings. Then digging, pouring, laying block, framing, roofing…
Quick trip up the mountain.
We actually didn’t end up going to Monteagle until yesterday (Saturday) morning. Things got a little hectic on Friday night and so it was better to briefly postpone. The drive was uneventful – I took my typical route of the interstate to Manchester then Highway 41 up to Monteagle. It was a pretty drive, as usual, but not yet as green as I was hoping for. We didn’t have much of an agenda other than relaxing and of course visiting the goats on campus. We drove to see them and it was really cool because they actually left their big, round bale of hay and came to check us out. That thrilled Liz and she took lots of pictures and videos. I also snapped a few photos with my phone.
We had lunch at the Mountain Goat Market and really enjoyed sitting out on the porch. The afternoon was spent reading and napping. We went to Lake O’Donnell for sunset. I used my new camera for the first time and really enjoyed it. I haven’t put the pictures on my computer yet, but will try to this evening.
We returned to the Mountain Goat Market for dinner and again enjoyed the serenity of their patio. Being there is always so nice and relaxing. We went back to the cottage and read and talked some more until bed time. This morning I woke up at the crack, but it was super overcast, so I didn’t go out to photograph. We took it pretty easy through the morning before coming back to Nashville. I have no idea when we will be able to return to the mountain, but I hope it won’t be too far from now. Of course it will be a little more complicated with the coming third member of our party.