Hay and rain

[altivo]

It was still raining this morning, but the driver called and said he was coming anyway. The rain was mostly just drizzle. He made it, and only the top layer of bales were damp. Yay! So I stayed home from work and we unloaded 174 bales. Finally there is some hay ready for winter. I was beginning to wonder if we were in for real famine. Not cheap, but better than the price offered by the locals, even after adding the delivery fee. Quality is good, the hay is dry and well cured, and smells lovely. We need at least two more loads the same size, though. Ouch!

While we were working we noticed a loud beeping sound. At first I thought it was a cell phone, though neither of our phones make a sound like that. We hunted around and finally realized it was coming from the neighbors' house (the Brits) some 500 feet away. It was very persistent. Afraid that no one was home and it was a smoke alarm or something, Gary went in the house and called them, but they were home. It was a carbon monoxide detector going off, and they were just letting it beep. Inside the house, with the windows shut. Must have been incredibly loud.

Once the hay was done, and the barns finished up, and Gary went off to his mom's as usual for Thursday, I had the afternoon to myself. Being tired and feeling sore already, I was lazy, and actually sat and read for a couple of hours. No deadlines, nothing looming but the bills. That's a luxury I haven't had in months, I think. It was lovely.

I am starting to think about the NaNo, though. I'm tempted to head in another direction this time, and try a werewolf story. It will be a peculiar one, of course, if I write it, but there are plenty of the ordinary kind anyway, no?

Now to bed. Tomorrow comes early.

Comments

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

It was a carbon monoxide detector going off, and they were just letting it beep. Inside the house, with the windows shut.

That might cure your problem with the Brits.

Glad you got the hay in.

[keeganfox.livejournal.com]

That was just what I was thinking too.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Alas but fortunately, they were awake and watching television when I went to bed last night. I can see the glowing flicker of the images reflected on their front porch if I look out my window.

[equusmaximus.livejournal.com]

"...the hay is dry and well cured, and smells lovely."

One of the best scents in the world, IMO, is the scent of fresh hay. I remember visiting my friend's farm a day or two after he got a large delivery of hay, and the scent was almost intoxicating. I feel sorry for those who suffer from Hay-Fever and/or asthma, not being able to enjoy this simple pleasure in life. :)

[flamekist.livejournal.com]

I'm one of those unfortunate people. :(

But you're right, it is intoxicating and worth every minute of nose-running-like-a-faucet-while-gasping-for-air!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You must be allergic to the pollen or dust, not the smell itself. There must be a way around that. the smell comes through a dustmask, for instance. ;p

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I do so miss having horses. The barn was a sensory delight. Yes, intoxicating it is, the aroma of the hay and the feed (loved the Omolene), the newly clayed and strawed stalls, the freshly cleaned tack, and of course the horses themselves. Ah, the sweet nicker and puff and nuzzle. Majestic.

I had dust/pollen allergies as a child, but luckily grew out of them before we had the farm.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yup, you know. There's nothing else in the world like being nuzzled by a horse. Though Tess has a nicker that can shatter glass if you ignore the soft ones.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It varies quite a bit. I can now tell the really good hay that makes horses drool by smell and touch. Unfortunately, we don't often get that kind, and not all bales in this delivery were of equal quality either. Since it came from an aggregator who buys up bales wholesale, you could identify at least three different sources just by the baling twine used and the character of the bales.

Some of them contain the sweet grasses that midwestern Indian craftspeople used to braid into baskets though. Those remain fragrant for years, with a sort of vanilla and birch sap scent.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

I for one would love to see your take on werewolves, Tivo.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

They'd be loving werewolves. But probably not explicitly so.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, just before I read your post I read a book review of a new werewolf book, Frostbite by David Wellington. I don't have a real sense of how good or innovative it is; just thought I'd pass it along in case you wanted to know about it.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

ZOMGLOL! Wellington's "different direction" is certainly in opposition to what mine would be. The question in my mind about doing it is whether it can be effective without including the sort of soft erotica that appears in today's junky vampire novels. I'd rather avoid that.

I rather like Patricia Briggs' take on werewolves, at least more than most. Though I've also been tempted to turn it completely upside down and have wolves who turn into humans at the new moon... loupeweres?

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

There's a lot to be avoided in today's junky vampire novels.

I liked the first Patricia Briggs werewolf novel (Moon called) bunches. I got the third volume for my mom when I could grab the large-print of it, but missed volume 2 somehow. (I don't typeset all of them, see; my co-worker must've handled that so I didn't really know anything about it.)

BTW, there's a comic book adaptation of it called Mercy Thompson coming out now; it's from one of the smaller publishers, not one of the big two. I haven't read it yet but the art looks pretty good.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It hadn't occurred to me that in the process of typesetting, you get to read the book. Duh. Although I guess with today's electronic methods, you don't always rekey everything, eh?

I have four Mercy Thompson novels by Briggs:

• Moon Called
• Blood Bound
• Iron Kissed
• Bone Crossed

She appears to have written other werewolf novels as well, but I've not read any of those, and I should get them and do so.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

We're not supposed to read them while typesetting but every so often they give away bound sample copies to us who work on them. (I do manage to read some of the interesting ones, like the J.D. Robbs. *sheepish grin*)

We try to get the data files that the original publisher used for the regular-print edition and use those somehow, but some of them need to be rekeyed. Either way, I receive an XML file and typeset from that. I'm awful glad I don't actually key these. :)

Briggs' other werewolf series is called Alpha and Omega, and seems to be a spinoff using one of the characters from Moon Called. There's two of those so far, and one more coming eventually. Ooh, her website says she has a contract for at least seven Mercy Thompson books. The fifth one is due in March 2010.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I also like Jane Lindskold's wolf stories, though they aren't exactly about weres in the traditional sense. I tried Alice Borchardt, but the blood lust and negative emotions were pretty rough.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Strange they recommend the oxidising detection type smoke alarms here o.O