A Renaissance Day

I haven't been to the renaissance festival in probably ten years. We planned to go last year, but ran out of time. So this year I made sure to get a costume, and convinced Katie to get one too (it didn't take much convincing.). I love dressing up, it's silly and childish but I LOVE it!

That's how I ended up wearing snake skin stiletto booties, a fedora, and a miniskirt to a karaoke party, when I can't even sing. And why I gave myself Vulcan eyebrows to go to a Star Trek party even though I only knew a handful of people there. I just can't help myself!

So you know I'm going all out for the Ren fest. I found this awesome bodice thingy and got it for fairly cheap, along with a cotton crop top to go under it. Leggings from target (clearance, baby!) and a cheap piratey hat. Katie got me a fantastic silver bracelet. I got ostrich feathers from Kohler & Dramm wholesale, and the crowning touch, my piratey dagger, that I love...probably a little too much.

Katie's outfit was a costume that we added a few touches to. A felt hat from Target with the side pinned up, ostrich feathers added, along with a ribbon and rhinestone peacock pin. She got so many compliments on that hat! She also bought different leggings than the ones that came with the costume, different boots too. Add some jewelry and of course... weaponry!

She looked awesome!

So on to the festival! Nervous at first, but that didn't last long. Get a crossbow into my hands and I'm all over it!

Oh yes, the liquor helped.
Mead and wine. I think the Egyptian mead was my fav.

OH and the turkey leg, LOVE! Even better than the state fair.

Did I mention I really love my dagger?

Now, our Regularly Scheduled Programming...

SO! Fall is coming to Minnesota.

I was not prepared. Although we did get a few days warning about the frost coming so we got to harvest pretty much all of the sensitive crops before it hit.

And I have to say, it was nice not doing it in 30* freezing drizzle like usual. Plus Phia came out to help, which was AWESOME. I don't know if y'all know this; but, help is helpful sometimes.

Now we just have all the stuff that we put in weeks or months ago to dig up, like potatoes and carrots, and the other stuff, like leeks, (we have a ton!) onions, shallots, Brussles sprouts, cabbage and winter squash. Plus some misc. stuff like greens and herbs.

I just read Dreams of Joy by Lisa See. It's all about an idealistic young Chinese woman going back to China during the communist era. Super interesting, especially since I'd never read anything about what happened there during that time. Even though it was a novel it was well researched and that almost makes it better than reading real accounts, at least I can say these were fiction, not real people that were suffering. Even though real people did (and are) suffer(ing).

What I thought was interesting, and what got me on to this in the first place, is how fragile our food resources are. Even with CRAZY weather this year, (that made us buy tomatoes from other farms to can because we didn't have enough of our own) we STILL had a ton of food come out of the ground.

But, that's only because we were allowed to grow a wide variety of crops. And use our own judgement in what to plant, where to plant it, and how to cultivate it. I can see if someone else with less or no experience on our particular piece of property was to come in and try to survive...well, good luck!

Anyway if you do want to read Dreams of Joy you should know it's a sequel to Shanghai Girls.

How did this turn into a book review?

State Fair

Went to the State Fair with Katie today. I never really liked the fair until I went with Katie. I hate wandering around aimlessly in large crowds.

I like eating crazy food, seeing a billion different breeds of chicken, and paying exorbitant amounts of money for small quantities of alcohol. Ok not so much the last one...next year I'm bringing a flask. But the rest of it was awesome.

Love me some turkey leg!

My once a year corn dog was well worth the wait.

Katie even found a FREE cookie on the ground! (yeah, she didn't really eat it.)

Chocolate covered jalapenos...not great. Gave me the hiccups immediately.

Modern Game bantam cockerel. This super curious guy was totally checking out the camera.

CUTE little Serama. Cool color, I've never seen it before, like dun duckwing or something.

Sweet little Sebright hen.

Next month we hit the Renaissance Festival HUZZAH!

Type

Ok, so I'm an INTJ. That's Briggs Myers for Introversion iNtuition Thinking Judgement. Still confused? It's a personality type, you can look up Briggs Myers Type Indicator and take a free test (or several) online to find out what type you are, if you're curious.

I was pretty surprised at the accuracy of the description. It's not like a horoscope or something that could be applied to anyone and would fit. In fact it was a bit of a revelation to find out there are other people like me, when so much of my life I kept hearing how 'wrong' I was for not liking to meet new people, talk to strangers etc... I was 'supposed to' smile! Be happy! Play with that kid I just met. Yeah, no. Bright colors and loud noises never made me happy as a child, in fact they're extremely stressful.

A quick overview of the type; one of the rarest types accounting for only 1%-4% of the population, most INTJ's are male, so I'm double rare. Categorized as a rational type thinker, also known as Masterminds.

INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "Does it work?" to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake Dang straight! I don't care if it fits in with your customs or ideas, if it works, it works. INTJs are known as the "Systems Builders" of the types, perhaps in part because they possess the unusual trait combination of imagination and reliability. Both perfectionism and disregard for authority may come into play Honestly if you are incapable of being in charge, or you know less about a subject than I do, I'm not going to do things your way, I don't care what position you hold. Personal relationships, particularly romantic ones, can be the INTJ's Achilles heel ... This happens in part because many INTJs do not readily grasp the social rituals. LOL! Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense. People should have a reason for doing things the way they do, most apparently don't, WHY??

Anyway I found a forum full of INTJ's and the topics they discuss and the way they discuss them is just insane, it's like looking into my own brain. Here's a quote from one on what annoys you:

People who think small children with sticky fingers and a coating of whatever they've eaten in the last few hours covering their face and clothing is cute. It's not. It's gross. Please clean your offspring.

YES!!! Thank you. It's not that other personality types aren't annoyed by the same thing, but really, who would bring it up?

Who would start a thread on why humans are obsessed with hair? Or The amount of time we should spend thinking about other people.

On that last one, most INTJ's answered: Why think about them unless you are currently interacting with them? or

in general I'd take a shot in the dark and say that, in terms of what is best for both the species as a whole, in terms of compassion promoting survival of the group, and the psychological health of the concerned individual, maintaining what could be considered a healthy level of concern would be characterized by:

1.) Careful consideration of the necessity and benefit of any anxiety, the effectiveness of any actions catalyzed by the anxiety (assume the 'best' course of action was taken in light of the perceived threat).

2.) The evaluation of the risk to the thinker versus the risk to the object of anxiety. This could be broken down further to include the relative value of the individuals relative to some standard, and I'd probably say the continuation of the species as a whole, taking into account the possibility of future contributions in all relevant fields, blah blah blah, but I feel like I'm already taking this too far...

I picture this situation as a sort of hypothetical equation with dozens of variables which all represent the individual details of a certain situation.

That about covers it.

August

Well, here we are in August again. I'm sitting in my filthy work clothes, too lazy to go shower right now. It was actually not to bad out today, still humid, but cloudy, so no burning sun making life miserable.

The horses and chickies are all doing well, no one is sick for once.

Chocobo the little rooster is being a bastard to the hens, but he's still young, only a little over a year old. He will settle down and by next year should be way more mellow. I just hate seeing all the hens with their bare backs. I would make them wear jackets, but it's been too hot.

This is Lucy with her jacket. I miss her.

There are a few girls in my current flock that are snuggly, but none like Lucy and Ella were. Beauty is a neat little hen. I've wanted Sumatras for years, ever since I first saw them on feathersite.com. Reading about them I expected a flighty little bird who is half wild. Beauty broke that perception. She's so tiny but just full of attitude.

She likes to be spoken too and will cock her head and talk back. She's one of the only ones who will come to the edge of the roost and demand attention when I'm in the coop.

Went to see Cowboys and Aliens last Friday. I really liked it, although that may have had more to do with the ridiculous amounts of Kraken I snuck into the theater. Really though, booze make any movie better. And Kraken is a new fav. I mean really, who can resist such a piratey rum?

Well I digress, oh wait, can you really digress when you have no aim? Hm...

Yeehaw!

One awesome thing about this summer is Phi & I have been riding 4 (?) times already. River Valley Ranch is Chaska is the cat's ass. Phia discovered it a few years ago and we usually go at least once a year.

The first time we went I was not expecting much. I've been to a few over the years and most are just a walking trail through the woods on dead broke horses. Kinda like sitting on a merry go round, but slower.

I was happily wrong! The trails are incredible, miles and miles of them along the Minnesota river valley, up and down some amazing hills and during rainy times through monster puddles. It also helps when they know you've owed horses and will give you a guides horse. I chanced on Robin this way and have requested her ever since.

Our last group ride.
Me & Xena, check out the mud on her chest! Robin just had her hooves trimmed so was out of commission for the day. Xena was fun, although half gaited so when she went to trot and canter her pace was really weird. She didn't have the usual cadence because she kept switching between trotting and pacing.

Phi & Chester and me on Robin, my all time favorite girl.

Awesome view of the valley.

I have seriously considered buying Robin. I haven't bonded with a horse like this since El Bee, my friend's pony who used to race in Mexico. Her gaits are so freaking perfect! She breaks into a trot and it's so smooth, and boy can she run!

First time we went out this year it was just the two of us and the guide, so we really got to run. The guide Codie was having problems with her horse so he kept veering to the side of the trail, when Robin saw that opening she went for it. It was awesome. She's super speedy but never out of control and she listens really well.

I adore how she watches her feet and stays focused on the trail. My old riding horse Joe was such a sightseer he'd be looking at mailboxes, trees, birds, and he loved big trucks. If he saw one parked he'd want to go sniff it. I love Joe, but when you only have an hour to ride, it's nice to have a horse that wants to make the most out of it and doesn't test you by veering off trail or snacking along the way.

If we didn't have Dex, Ben, Candy and Skylar I might really make an offer on her...

Summersrule

I was trying to think of a title for this post when Summersrule popped into my head. It's from the book series the Riyria Revelations. Let me be clear, I ADORE this series!

I came across the books when I downloaded the second in the series, Avempartha (which is still my fav), for free on Amazon. I was interested right away, but by the end of the book I was totally hooked. I remember reading until 3:00 in the morning because I could not put it down. I immediately bought the rest of the series with no regrets. They're some of the first books I ever paid for on amazon.

There are five books out currently. He was self published and designed the covers himself, very impressive. Just before the last book was set to be released he got picked up by a big publishing company. They're re-releasing the books and re-packaging them so the first 2, second 2, and final 2 will be bound together. Which means that I have to wait until January to find out how the series ends.

I was disappointed at first, but honestly, I don't want the series to end. He's created such a perfect world, I want more! The main characters Royce and Hadrian are interesting and unique, the story(s) is/are fantastic. The supporting characters are absolutely amazing. It is an instant classic. I would put it on par with The Chronicles of Narnia. I like it better than the Lord of the Rings series.

You know how even some books that you like have bits in them that you don't like, scenes that just hit you wrong or are annoying? I loved this entire series, not a bit I would say, uhhh. :/ I don't know how to express it better than that. I'm reading them all again and will probably read them again before the last book comes out.

It has been so long since I've read a book that I really like much less a whole series. Case in point The Hunger Games, very cool series but the ending....what the heck?!

Ok review over. Summery; Riyria Revelations, Michael J. Sullivan, and especially Avempartha, freakin' awesome.