Bellwether First Days

This is an picture of me and Trinket, taken by a dear friend a couple of years ago. Trinket comes home soon, where I can check on her blankies before bed every night. And have some control over the quality of her hay and her bedding. And her turnout time. And the footing I ask her to work hard in. Bliss...

Yesterday, we closed on the new mini-farm. Well, we sort of closed. We closed in that Utah kind of way, where somebody somewhere didn't do their job, and everyone told us it didn't really matter, because our bank sent their bank the money, and that's what really matters. We're getting used to it, but it's hard sometimes for a chick from NJ, to get used to this sloppy... er, relaxed... way of doing things. I'm always certain someone's going to sue me...

At any rate, we went over there last night, and shifted 240*33=7920 pounds (3590 kg) of shavings into a gigantic stack in the detached garage. That's almost four tons. It was so much fun watching the delivery guy build a trampoline out of shavings bags, and then toss the rest onto that so they'd bounce into the garage. Good physics, that. And then J and I had to pick up all the bags and stack them neatly in the corner, which amounts to approximately 35,000 Nm of work done. Which is shockingly only about 100 Calories. I hate physics sometimes. Oh, right, but then I remember that the human body is about 25% efficient, so we're at 400 Calories. That's more or less a piece of pizza. Drat, again. Because I've been hungry ALL DAY!!!

Anyway. That was yesterday. Today, all the people did their jobs, and so we officially own the property as of about 11 am this morning. But we had to call and ask, if you can believe it. And the selling agent still has his sign and key lock there. What if he never comes to get them?

This evening, we cleaned out the hay barn, so that when we get hay delivered on Saturday (all three tons of it, in 50 pound bales---another piece of pizza), we have some place to put it. Then we cleaned out the stall that will get turned into a tack room. We cleaned out the grooming stall, and I started sorting through a ridiculous pile of random bungee cords, nails, screws, u-shaped fencing fasteners, etc. We filled the truck with trash to take to the dump, and raked up a huge pile to go to the green waste place. We got rid of a heap of ancient raccoon poop, and moved the straw that it was sitting on to the hay barn (for the chickens). We took down a plethora of baling twine, that was twisted around one of the stall doors, and filled in a hole in the dirt floor (why do people save baling twine???? It's a disease.). To sum up, we cleaned the hay barn, and a third of the horse barn.

The whole time, we were keeping half an eye on the dogs. They were keeping a full eye on the neighbor's cows.

It's so awesome. I don't know if this is true for everyone, but I sleep better, feel better, and am much more balanced when I spend at least a couple of hours a day doing physical labor outside---even if it's in the snow. It makes me feel like I live in the world, instead of in my head. That helps me know what the rules are. In my head, anything could happen. But in the actual world, there are rules that everyone has to live by.

Tomorrow, we get to spend all afternoon and evening over there. Hopefully, JoAnn and Shawna will stop by, because we've been so busy we haven't seen them, and I miss our pony pals. Saturday, we'll be out there all day, moving small boxes in, but mostly cleaning up the property. It's a good thing the house is in great shape!

Saturday/Sunday will be big work days. I will let all our friends know, so they can stop by and check things out. They keep asking me when they can see it. But they should be warned that I'll probably hand them a rake or a broom and send them to the back pasture. ; )

Oh, and silliness. I had to call the MAYOR of our new town, to tell him that I needed to sign up for sewer and garbage. Hysterical, because Marriott-Slaterville has a population of 1500. In Utah, that is about 300 households, more or less. So of COURSE the mayor is the guy who takes your information for garbage cans. It's so... cute...

Magic

This was Science Fair week. Here at Weber State, we host one of a handful of regional science fairs in the state of Utah. This year, there were about 250 participants in the Junior (7-8th grade) fair, and 150 in the Senior (9-12th grade) fair. Ordinarily, I go to the fair on Monday and Wednesday afternoon to judge the projects, or coordinate a group of judges. In the past, it's been a relatively minor annoyance for me, coming at the end of spring term, when we are all crowded full of things to do, and barely have time to tie our shoes.

But this year was different. Because next year, the Ritchey Science Fair is my job---I have to put the whole thing on. So this year, I was following the current Director around from 12:30-4 pm on Monday, 12:30-8 pm on Wednesday, and then at the awards ceremonies from 5:30-9:30 pm on Thursday, at which I got to hand out awards. Because the current Director is sneaky, and he knows that's one of the best parts.

And here's what I found out...

a) if I ever had a kid, and my kid was in an award ceremony for regional science fair, I would not sit slumped in a chair in the audience sulking and checking my Blackberry. I would clap and cheer for my kid. That's what I would do. Sometimes, I just want to smack people.

b) these kids are geniuses. Well, some of them are. I saw some truly astonishing projects, with kids doing genetic engineering, complex computer simulations, and publication-worthy social science. And some of them are going on to the International Science Fair. Wow. Their lives are about to be completely changed, and they don't even know it.

c) My voice sounds a lot different coming out of the speakers in the events center if I am smiling while I am talking---giving awards to kids when they worked really hard for them is really fun. If I'm smiling, it also SOUNDS really fun.

d) We do a lot of magical things here. And it's easy sometimes to forget what a difference we are making, because we sometimes work way too many hours and don't get nearly enough sleep. (Other times of year we make up for it...) But lives were changed this week. Literally, some kids got just the piece of encouragement they needed to keep pushing. And maybe they'll find the cure for cancer, or maybe they won't. But their worlds are bigger now. And that's what we're all about around here. Making the world bigger, one person at a time.

What happens tomorrow? Science Olympiad. Some appallingly large number of children (either 400 or 800, I can't remember) will be on campus to compete in science oriented events. (My sister just competed in Pennsylvania's S.O. a couple of weeks ago. And this week, I'm running an event at S.O. in Utah. Sometimes that just strikes me, and I pause.) But anyway. I will be in charge of this whole ball of noodles as well. Next year.

I'll try not to schedule both events for the same week.

It makes the magic too hard to see.

Bellwether Update

We're having all kinds of fun getting ready to move into the new house. We've picked out our stall fronts, lined up an arena contractor, and at the urging of a friend, 'registered' at Dover Saddlery:

http://gre.wishlist.com/gre/rid595/Bellwether

That was just about the most fun a horse-crazy kid could have! I had to actually count up the number of eyehooks and bucket holders we'll need!

Over the weekend, the prior owners have been moving out of the house, so we are confident that we will close on time, and be able to move in during the first weekend in April.

In the usual way, nearly everything is coming in with 100% budget over-runs. But that's ok, because we a) factored that in, and b) are talking about things we're going to buy only once. So just this once, we want it exactly right, instead of the cheapest we can find...

Besides! I got the book contract! Soon to be 21st Century Astronomy by Palen, Kay, Blumenthal and Smith. Nice. Just call me the lead co-author on the number-one-selling introductory astronomy book in the market. Thankyouverymuch. It's going to be a very busy summer...