Ungratefowl

So you buy some chickens. They're cute little fuzzy things, but they get big quick and you can't have them living in your living room forever, so you build them a fancy coop and a nice, safe, secure run, about 3 times as big as seven chickens actually need, and you put them out there and they seem pretty happy.But after a while, you imagine yourself as a chicken and you think, "Boy, I wouldn't be happy cooped up in that little space, day in and day out."

So you start letting them out occasionally. And it's not too hard to get them back in at night, or when you have to leave to run some errands or something, so you let them out more and more often. Eventually, you're letting them roam free basically any time you're at home. After all, not only is it nice for the chickens, but the more natural food they eat, the better and more healthful their eggs, right? And that's the whole point, right?

Except that now they've decided they like to range in the front yard, where the neighbors can see that they're not confined to their run, and not only that, but they've also decided the gerbera daisies you have planted in front of the house are really tasty.

And mulch is the best thing ever for scratching up and making a mess in.

On top of that, you still have to go to work five days a week, and when you go out in the morning to check the chickens' water and food, they all stand in the corner of the run and moan and groan at you, and pace back and forth in front of the door, and plead with their eyes to be let out to feast on all the yummy grass (and gerbera dasies).

So you put up a fence, from the corner of the garage to the corner of the run, and from the corner of the coop all along the edge of the woods halfway up one side of the yard, and from the house down to the creek on the other, effectively confining them to the backyard (because they never venture far enough back in the yard, or deep enough into the woods to get around that kind of fence). So now they can free range all day long, even when you're not there.

And are the chickens happy? Are they grateful for all your hard work and sweat and all the mosquito bites you got stringing up 150 feet of deer netting? Are they content to be able to range all through the backyard, under the deck, and down by the creek every day, and dust bathe to their hearts' content under their favorite tree?

No, they just want to get into the front yard.

Obnoxious Neighbor Kids

This kid two doors down from us is the biggest brat. I don't know how old she is, maybe 4, but she cries like a two year old. It's ridiculous. Every time the parents put her in the car she has a temper tantrum, every time they take her out of the car. Random times like right now. It makes me want to go out and throttle her, even though I'm sure it's the parents who really need throttling.

The Ruckus

by Dr. Seuss

On top of a hill, on the island of Zort,
lived a bird called the Ruckus
whose favorite sport was making loud noises.
It gave him a thrill to be known
as the loudest-mouthed bird on the hill.

Then one day he said, "I can be louder still!
My voice is terrific - it ought to be heard
on many more islands than this," said the bird.

So he made his voice stronger,
till one day he found
that he learned how to make a tremendous big sound
that shook every island for 50 miles round.

"I say," laughed the Ruckus,
"I'm really some guy, but I can do better than that if I try.
I'll build up my voice, why I'll practice a year.
I'll cook up a noise that the whole world will hear."

And after he practiced for 52 weeks,
the Ruckus let loose with a mouthful of shrieks
that burst from his mouth like the moans and the groans
of ten thousand elephants blowing trombones.

He yapped and he yolded, he yelped and he yilped
he gargled, he snargled, he burped, and he bilped,
and the sound went to China and knocked down 3 cats,
and in England, it blew off 8 bus drivers' hats.

"Oh boy," laughed the Ruckus, "I'm really some bird.
I've opened my mouth and made myself heard."

Then a little old worm came up out of the ground.
"That's true," said the worm, "that was quite a big sound.
But I have a question to ask, if I may:
You've opened your mouth, but just what did you say?"

ohhhhh, I am so SORE

Seriously, I've been walking around all day like an old person. Or should I say shuffling around?

A more detailed description of this project will go on the remodeling blog, but the short version: I unloaded a 1-ton pallet of stone Saturday, then, as if that wasn't enough for one day, I proceeded to move 3/4 of that ton, piece by piece, to lay out a nice pathway from the deck to the chicken run door, around the chicken run to the back door of the coop, and then around to the nesting box. And then I squatted down and started using a flat bar and a hand trowel to dig shallow recesses in the ground to sink the stones into. My hamstrings in particular are so sore and tight that walking is really miserable. My shoulders are also really bad, and my mid- and lower back, forearms, and the muscles in my hands are up there too.

And I've got a lot more stones to sink. I think I'd better do the rest in smaller increments.

Why say it myself when someone else already did such a good job?

Excellent post:

http://www.nourishingdays.com/?p=2548

Resolution

I just realized that it was a year ago this month that I said I was going to take the Architectural Registration Exam "this year." And that was a year after I'd started scrambling to get one test taken before the format changed. So now it's been two years since I decided I'd really better just take the thing and be done with it.

So. I am going to do it. I finished filling out the application, got it notorized, wrote the check for the application fee and attached a photo of myself (why on earth do they need a photo of me??) I have a shelf full of study materials here, so now all I need to do is stick the application in the mail and decide what order to take the exams.

ARE study materials

There are 7 parts in the new format, and each one (except Schematic Design) has a multiple choice section and a graphic section (where you solve design programs with a really clunky drafting program designed specifically for the tests). I'm pretty comfortable with the subject matter of 4 of the 7 tests, but I'm a little worried about the ones that cover structural and mechanical systems. It's just been a bit too long since I learned about them in school, and unlike most of the other content it's not stuff I use every day. So I'm torn right now whether to take those ones first and get them out of the way, or save them for last. I'm reading through the study materials now, and after I do that I'll decide.

If I don't post updates on this regularly, leave me comments telling me to get my butt in gear!!



***Updated to add my tentative testing order***

1. Schematic Design (graphic only, kind of a warm-up)
2. Structural Systems
3. Building Systems (mechanical and electrical)
4. Building Design and Construction Systems (more general than the previous two, but the material overlaps)
5. Construction Documents and Services*
6. Programming Planning and Practice*
7. Site Planning and Design*

*I may change the order of 5, 6 & 7, but I plan to take those three in quick succession. The content of all three is very closely related and the prevailing wisdom seems to be to study for all three at once and take them close together. These are the 3 that I scored in the high 80% on practice tests without even reviewing any study materials first, so I figure I'll save them for last. (If you fail an exam, you have to wait 6 months before you can retake it, thus the strategy of taking the ones I'm least confident with first)

Handwriting Font

Here's something kind of random I stumbled upon today. A website that lets you create a font based on your handwriting. You download and print a template and write each upper- and lower- case letter in its assigned spot, along with numbers and symbols, scan it, upload it, and the utility creates a font you can download. You have to be careful that you write each letter with the bottom at the same height, or when you type your text will be all up and down hill. But it's pretty cool. I now have a font that really does look very much like my handwriting. Check it out:




http://www.yourfonts.com