kirkcudbright | Entries tagged with mspca

T: Monday night, I taught meditation. (By which I mean I led the meditation group, because Andy wasn't there, and Ken didn't feel like it, having done it the week before. Okay, sure, no problem.)

L/T: Tuesday night was square dance. I took the course last semester, but this semester I'm an "angel" (club member who dances with class members), because, hell yes I need the review.

T: Thursday night I taught aikido, because both of the regular instructors were down in Providence, where Sensei was teaching at Brown U. Lacking any better idea, it was all tsuki (stomach punch) all the time, but we have many techniques against that. And I remembered I actually like teaching - helping the beginners get the feeling of the technique and the feeling of their own power, and helping the more advanced students get some of the subtleties of the technique.

T: Friday morning, I was a new-volunteer mentor at Nevins Farm, teaching a couple of the cat-room volunteers about life in the barn (mucking stalls, cleaning the chicken coop). A couple weeks ago, I trained one of the other volunteers to be a mentor ("just talk through the stuff you're doing anyway").

L: Saturday morning is figure skating. We don't have the really awesome coach this time, but this one's okay, and each coach picks up on (and picks on) different things, so I suppose it's all good. I've been doing this for 13 years, and am starting to not suck at it, but I'd kind of like to suck even less. Skating, aikido, and square dance are all things I've done mostly once a week for the time I've been doing them, so testament to the power of Just Showing Up.

L: Friday and Sunday, I went to the MIT Kokikai Aikido fall seminar with Sensei. Sunday afternoon, he taught all the "secret" techniques, including one Dave hadn't seen in about 20 years. Cool stuff. The classes were more than half black belts, so really super good practice. It was after last year's seminar that I decided to join the Charles River dojo, after being mostly off the mat for 6 years. So good. At the end of this afternoon's class (while the Juijitsu class was patiently waiting to take the mat), Sensei called up selected black belts to demo freestyle, including me (to my surprise, but we'll roll with it). So somewhere there's video of me tossing around Jay, my current instructor. Cool.

So, having done the Radio Free Chicken thing once, and signed up to do it a couple more times at Nevins, I've been requested to go on tour to Cow Hampshire, on behalf of the Animal Control Officer who came to the first one.

a) If you're not a chicken person, what would you like to know about raising chickens, where you are right now?

b) If you're already a chicken person, what would you like to have known before starting? Or, what do would you still like to know?

Guess what we did this morning.

(Sadly, our own bushes have been a total bust this year. These are from Turkey Hill Farm in Haverhill.)

( and a few more pictures of cute chicks )

Got the day off work, so I ~~slept late~~ did stuff.

First thing today was a Family Service Day at Nevins Farm, for parents with their elementary school age kids. I helped supervise them in support services (dishwashing and laundry). Which I'd never done myself, being a barn volunteer, but a Hobart dishwasher is pretty much the same the world over. Then they got to hear all about guinea pigs, and got to make their own guinea pigs out of potatoes, yarn, pompoms, craft sticks, and the like. Finally, I helped 5 families muck stalls. It was okay, but I probably won't do it again.

Then over to the Dream Diner in Tyngsborough for lunch with the old Wind River crowd. Great to see

frobzwiththingz, Bruce, and Mike, but

marktheorc won the local-news contest hands down with his lymphoma. (His first round of chemo put him to sleep, and he woke up ravenously hungry. Now it just gives him hiccups. 19 CON.) Oh, and can I mention that Pastrami Benedict is every bit as good as it sounds. And PPS, I'm *so* glad I'm not making that drive every day anymore.

- The day began with getting trod on (and nearly trampled) by a bitch-mare named Chloe. My foot isn't broken, but is bruised and a bit swollen.

+ Under the malign influence of

xthread, I tracked down a local source of Greylock Gin, but instead came away with their Ethereal Gin. It's Batch 4, not the Batch 5 they're currently advertising, but it's still "A wildly complex gin that you can taste from 3 feet away". Not an everyday gin, but I'm glad it exists (and that I have a bottle of it).

+ Plus lunch at a taqueria near the MSPCA that caters to the local Mexican/central American population, so it's double-plus good. (OTOH, the town where I actually live is so damn white, it doesn't even have Taco Bell.)

+

lyonesse's pwny has finished his course of doxycycline (which I've been giving the last several days, because she's home tending to her dog).

- My own mare has been leaving about half her grain (admittedly she gets an enormous 5 quarts, twice a day), but is still right around 900 pounds. Not panicking, just watching.

-+ Of my own volition, I'm getting drawn back into Arisia at a management level. I really don't care who gets which title, and I approve of the plan, so it seems to be a positive. But management isn't my strong suit, and recruiting even less so, so I'm worried about that.

- Didn't get much work done today, will have to try to make it up on the weekend.

In the past week, I've added "goat wrangler" and "git wrangler" to my resume. Of the two, I currently have a much better handle on the goats.

First, big thanks to those who responded to my pathetic attempts at fund-raising. You guys rock! (Let me know if you want to be identified publicly, or you can identify yourselves in comments.)

Second, huge thanks to

goddessfarmer for the loan of her truck and trailer. Seriously, I couldn't have done this ride without you. Any other day of the year, I could have gotten my barn owner to trailer me, but this was also the day of the Woburn Halloween Parade, which is a long-standing barn tradition (though it looks like I only blagged it once).

The ride started at the Salisbury Beach State Reservation, at the mouth of the Merrimack River, and went up as far as riders were willing to go (which in our case, was All The Way). The beach is about 3½ miles in Salisbury (MA), and another 1½ miles in Seabrook (NH), until it finally ends at the Seabrook bridge. So, about 5 miles end to end, and we took the last two miles at a gallop, whee!

About halfway back, Gemini seemed to be running out of gas, and I was thinking "this is going to be a long walk". But I noticed that, as riders passed us going the other way, she would stop and watch them, as if to say "I'm not ready to go back". When we finally did get back, I let her have another mile-long gallop, most of the way to the Music Hall (now Blue Ocean).

All in all, we covered 12 miles or so, and were on the beach almost 3 hours. The MSPCA staff brought 3 current resident horses to ride, but they weren't tacked up when Gemini and got on the beach, and had already left by the time we got off the beach.

It was fabulous. Seriously, it was a blast, my horse was great, and such a nice day for it too. I'm totally going to do it again next year (but with more planning, and hopefully not conflicting with the parade).

Bonus: a rare photo of the Headless Cyclist of Salisbury Beach, who is said to appear only on Halloween:

Tomorrow morning, I'm bringing Gemini up to Salisbury Beach for the MSPCA's Horses Helping Horses benefit ride, which helps the injured, abused, and homeless horses at Nevins Farm, where I'm sure you know I volunteer.

They've been pretty bad at promoting the event, but I've been pretty bad at promoting it too. Like, I was the first person to sign up, back in August, but then pretty much forgot about it.

So, is it stupidly late to start asking for support? Well, yes. Is it too late? I hope not.

So, as much as I hate asking for money, I'm asking for money. Your tax-deductible contribution supports the health and welfare of the horses, at the only open-door farm shelter in New England.

To sweeten the deal, I will personally match any donation made in the next 36 hours. (Yes, that's after the ride, but I think they'll still take your money. If anyone asks, blame me.)

To get started, just click on the DONATE HERE link.

Thanks, and I'll let you know how it went.

Had a productive riding lesson yesterday, and was reminded that what my horse needs is quantity time.

Nevins Farm has a bunch (~40) of button quail, and I'm sorely tempted to bring some home.

Whilst cleaning grain buckets this morning, I found a young mouse. I didn't want to kill it, but I didn't want to release it where it would come straight back into the barn, so I eventually re-homed it in a pile of spoiled hay out by the bull's pen.

Finished painting the fork on the new chopper. It's white (not as close to the white of the rest of the bike as I'd like), with red tips (more or less to match the trim), clear-coated with reflective paint. We'll see how reflective it actually is tomorrow night.

Last night was the annual volunteer appreciation event at Nevins Farm. It was overwhelmingly volunteers from the small animal shelter. This makes sense, because the barn has fewer animals, and more self-sufficient animals, so we have maybe half a dozen volunteers a day, versus the army that has to walk the dogs, clean the cat boxes, etc. But this meant I was surrounded by a lot of strangers with whom I had a nominal affiliation, which always makes me kind of edgy.

For 3 years of service, they figure you're going to stick around for a while, and give you this engraved name tag. (Actually, I've been there 2½ years, almost exactly, but they only do this once a year, so they rounded up everyone from 2007.) It's a stupid piece of plastic, but it actually makes me happy to have it, because of what it represents.

So here I am in California again. Recall that I have some issues with the place.

I'm in Redwood City for the annual all-hands meeting. The last time I did this, my horse was put down while I was en route. New year, new horse...

Wednesday, I took my horse to the beach, and she was fabulous. I was a spaz, and left my helmet at the barn, so I resolved not to fall on my head. There also aren't any overhanging branches at the beach, which is what the helmet usually saves me from. In any case, Gemini was wonderful, ears up, looking around, lots of energy, but always under control. The hand gallop never turned into an out-of-hand gallop. The only trouble was getting her back on the trailer to go home, I think because it's black inside, and it was just about sunset. Oh yeah, and there was some head-tossing when she got excited (spit flying in my face), but if that's her worst fault, I can live with it.

Thursday, Kylie and I took advantage of the freakishly warm weather to visit the Newburyport parks. We'd been heading for Maudley State Park, but wound up at the trailhead for Mosley Woods instead. I didn't mind, because it gave me an opportunity to get pictures of the Chain Bridge, the only suspension bridge in Massachusetts. (I see it every time I cross the I-95 bridge, but that's not really a good place to stop and take a picture.) Unfortunately, those pics are at home, so you're going to have to wait for them.

Friday, I had my first shift as an MSPCA Volunteer Mentor. I practised on

lyonesse and

pywaket a couple weeks ago, but this time it was total strangers. I think it went well, and they seemed well served by it.

Saturday, it snowed and all that, and you know the rest.

So you know that Friday mornings, I volunteer at Nevins Farm. I'm now an official Volunteer Mentor. The program didn't exist when I started, but the idea is that a seasoned volunteer will show the fresh meat where everything is, who everyone is, how to pick stalls, why we cuddle chickens, and the like. (The chicken-cuddling isn't on the official agenda, but I'm getting ahead of myself slightly.)

lyonesse and

pywaket showed up this morning, so I practised my mad mentoring...um, checklist...on them. They missed most of the stall cleaning (including the great horse shuffle, because it was like, you know, raining, and we all know that horses are made of sugar, until I said why don't we just put them all outside, and then we did). But I showed them the poultry quarantine area in the loft, and we cleaned the chicken coop, and they each caught themselves a duck (very advanced bird-fu, I might add). And we located the fire extinguishers and the Wintec Gullet Fitter, and had a great time filling out forms on the Group W bench and all of that...

............

I like libraries. This is one area where a town really gets to show off what it thinks of itself. I spent much of my youth in the Forbes Library in Northampton (home to the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum). Mind, this was back in the days of card catalogs, the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, due dates stamped in the back of the book, etc. More recently,

lillibet had a fabulous birthday party in the fabulous Arlington library - something I wouldn't have even thought possible until I saw it done. With Kylie in school in Salisbury, and me volunteering in Methuen, I tend to seek out a library for an hour or two of work (read: free WiFi) in between the end of my shift and the end of school.

Methuen has a fabulous library, recently renovated, but maintaining the character of the old building. Ditto Newburyport (which has an IT room dedicated to one of the Van Bokkelens). Woburn wants to be like that, but it takes more than "want" (to start with, money is necessary but not sufficient). OTOH, they still have (at least as of a couple years ago) a card catalog of hand-lettered index cards of the town newspaper, dating from something like the 1850's to the 1950's. Andover has old town maps, which I've spent cumulatively hours overlaying with the current town roads and landmarks. Tewksbury has a great selection of books on tape, which I used to tap when I was commuting to Nashua. Salem NH has a modern (soulless) box with an unimpressive collection. Amesbury feels a bit shoe-horned into their old building, and requires reservations for their public PCs. Merrimac closes at 2pm on Friday, so I haven't been in there. Salisbury has a tiny building, closed Friday-Sunday. To be honest, North Reading (no, it doesn't actually say "No Reading Library") is in the middle of the pack. So is Reading, though a little bigger/more comfortable.

............

Okay, you'll read words without pictures, but I like sharing the pics. This one is from March in San Francisco (ask me about the IETF that I didn't quite attend):

Nevins Farm has a couple lambs, from a ewe who was pregnant at time of surrender. Stop in and see them.

They also have a peacock, found wandering the streets. He's currently upstairs in the quarantine cage, so you won't see him unless you know to ask nicely.

Ditto the dozen or so chicks, no doubt from a hatching project. Actually, they're currently in the carriage shed, where we sell used & donated tack and equipment every weekend.

And the small animal shelter has more puppies than I've ever seen there (mostly spoken for).

+ Yesterday was the road trip to freakin' Vermont, to see an adorable Icey mare. Text and pictures on that later (plus food p0rn).

++ Today was the barn visit by the MSPCA. They want to see what sort of a home I'm going to be providing for their horse. 24x7 turnout with run-in sheds, free choice hay, well-maintained, well-organized barn, active boarder community, private access to the state forest, Mass. Horse Farm of Distinction for 10 years, etc. Yeah, I think we're worthy. I wasn't worried about being turned down, even with the current conditions (mixed ice and frozen shit), but I was happy to show the place off.

++ So yeah, it's Gemini for me, and it's just a matter of logistics. For one reason and another, it's likely to be around the 12th of March before she actually moves in. But I'm happy. :)

--- On the way out, I found the barn cat, who had been hit by a car. Cara Mia was the mother of our two kittens, plus

dreams_of_wings and

aatish2's kitten. And I'm not happy. :(

This is a terrible street for cats, and after losing two cats to it, we no longer let our cats out. Keeping a barn cat inside isn't an option, but I had never seen her anywhere near the road before. She was just about two years old, and absolutely sweet. :(

I just realized that it's one year since I was laid off. I wasn't out of work all that long (5 months isn't bad in this economy, or even last year's economy), and I'm not bitter or anything, but it's worth observing the anniversary.

Speaking of layoffs, the MSPCA is closing 3 animal shelters. Fortunately Nevins Farm, where I volunteer, is not affected, but this still sucks. More people are having to surrender animals due to the economy, and there will be fewer places for them to do so.

1) As threatened, I registered for the Advanced Photoshop class (which was inexplicably not only not cancelled, but well subscribed). The instructor doesn't know me, or what I'm capable of, so I could slide through it, but that's not what I'm about. What I really want to do in this class is Worth1000 kind of stuff.

But that's not what I came here to talk about. I'm finally ready to buy an entry-level SLR. My contenders are (in approximate order of preference)

Canon 400D/Digital Rebel XTi
Nikon D40X
Olympus E-420
Sony Alpha DSLR-A100

Any strong opinions from the list? Love? Hate? Something else I should be considering? I want to keep the initial kit affordable, but extensible (while not requiring a lot of extensions to be reasonable/workable). Help?

b) The weather has been suckalicious, and there's still a lot going on on both sides, but I've arranged to ride Gemini again next Friday, as well as Razzy (who used to have two girls fighting over him, but they've both disappeared, so he's unexpectedly still available).

One interesting variant on this is that I could foster one of these horses - like adoption, except for 3 months without the long-term commitment. One of the other volunteers is fostering Miss Pie, and will probably adopt at the end of 3 months.

The yellow ones are White Pekins (their adult feathers are white), the stripy ones are Mallards, and the black one is a Black Swedish.

They were dropped off anonymously at the shelter last Friday. They were about a week old then, and I'm dying to see what they look like when I go in tomorrow.

Photos by fellow volunteer Kris Ehrsam; hand and chest by me.

Edit: Also listed on Petfinder if you want to adopt.

Used tack sale, tomorrow (Sat. 4/19), 9am - 3pm, at the Topsfield Fair grounds. MSPCA Nevins Farm will be there, selling a trailer full of surplus tack; tell them you know me, and they'll cut you a deal.

This morning, I did what I do every Friday morning, which is my volunteer shift at Nevins Farm. Mucking stalls is practically a form of moving meditation. It's also good to be doing something constructive, instead of sitting around watching Jeopardy, or whatever it is that normal people do when they get laid off. I was there most of the day, and I'll be there at least 3 days next week. I still need to update/rewrite my resume, and do other job-related stuff, but I'm taking it slow for now.

When life hands you shit, shovel it into a wheelbarrow, dump it in the honey wagon, and be done with it.

I came in for my Friday morning shift at Nevins farm to find about 500 chickens and 200 ducks from a recent seizure. There are 100 chickens in the regular quarantine area in the hay loft, plus four horse stalls full of chickens. The ducks are in two large stalls with turnout. They haven't been fully counted yet, and the staff are just starting on the blood tests.

(To show what I'm like in the morning, I was cleaning a horse stall for about 10 minutes before I noticed the stall next to me was filled with chickens. They were quiet, and I was oblivious.)

Profile

Paul Selkirk

August 2019

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Mar. 14th, 2026 11:25 pm

Recirculating Cheese

Entries tagged with mspca

teaching and learning

chicken chicken chicken

(no subject)

prez day

in other news

wrangle

mission status: epic win

beach ride, please give

OTOH

iVolunteer

recap

friday on my mind

baaaaaaby lambs

horses, cats, death

plus 1, minus 3

help me buy a camera/help me buy a horse

baby duckies!

your horse needs more stuff

shit

700 chickens and ducks