Will's Blog

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Living in the country has it's advantages. You are out away from people, never have to travel for a good hiking trail, and farm animals are at your finger tips. The last one is a good thing with young children around. The children can learn first hand about farm animals that most people only read about in books and see in pictures. The children love seeing the sheep and going "baaaa." Liam was very excited when all of the calves were born. Every trip by the calf field was accompanied by cries of "calves!". Of course, the cows on the farm are not quite the dairy cows that I am use to in the states. I would say they are about twice the size and even the heifers have horns.

Ok, so there are some down sides that may not be so highly publicized or thought about. Occasionally Sheep and Lambs will get out and find their way up to our door or into the play area. It is never that much of bother. Just call the farmer, while the kids enjoy the closeness to the animals. I never put much gray matter into thinking about what happens when cows get out of their pastures and decide to romp around the houses. Usually one just goes for some tastey grass and then seeks out more cows to taunt outside of a pasture.

That is until one wakes you up at 2am tearing apart your house and you look at them in a different light for the hulking masses of strength that they are. One horned heifer found her way in between mine and the neighbor's houses. Between the two houses in a stone patio adjoining the two with a dividing fence down the middle (approximately 4 feet between my house and the fence). Everywhere on the farm are gates to stop or divert animal flow. They are usually highly useful when all of them are closed. Then someone leaves one gate open and allows rogue cows to funnel directly up inbetween the houses. In the daylight it would not have been quite the issue, but a four foot wide space, coupled with the pitch black of an overcast, moonless night is a recipe for the hulking monstrosity to cause some damage in panic!

At 2am Bekah woke me up because she thought someone might be in the house. The hooves on the attached stone patio caused a reverberation that sounded a lot like someone was frolicking around in the living room. My thoughts jumped immediately to an animal walking around outside. I journeyed down to the living room, turned on the outside light, and peered at a nice black and white hide. The only real problem is that the cow noticed the light on and wanted to come in for a spot of tea through the nice glass door (like the one pictured).

She (the cow, not the wife) decided that I was not going to open up the door after politely knocking on it a few times. The heifer, thankfully, determined that it would be much easier to finish off ramming the gate in front of her, which led into a stone walled-in area with a couple of fuel oil tanks. With gate in splinters and an area about 6 foot square (with fuel tanks on two of the sides), the panicked heifer luckily decide that the best way to exit was directly through the stone wall. Stone walls in the UK are not like brick and mortar walls that are found in the states. The walls are essentially carefully stacked stones, which one adrenaline filled cow can easily demolish. After a few more broken gates, she managed to find herself away from the houses with a little less of her blood.

Moral of the story. There is no Bull about it, when some tells you to close a gate, close it and keep it closed.

Life is still great in the UK. Newest pictures are up for your enjoyment of our travels around the area.

The weather has finally broke, for the better, on the island nation. I think that we are through all of the snow, even though it has hailed recently. I would say that it probably has hailed more than it has snowed. The "hail" is not the large chunks of ice that I was use to living on the lake shore in the states. It is more like grains of rice to peppercorn sized. The high winds of March are still causing some issues too. Ships were unable to dock for a few weeks in the south, due to the choppy sea and high winds. There are still some shelves that are waiting of the back log of goods to find their way up to this part of the country.

Lambing season has just passed in the UK. The fields are filled with little lambs frolicking in the fields. The mostly white lambs are a stark contrast to the winter dirty sheep. We took a few pictures around to give everyone a taste of it. (Maybe they will be on your store shelves soon?)

Cheers!

The House of Schermer

Garth Brooks made famous the song "She's Every Woman". The song begins "She's sun and rain, she's fire and ice". The song is specifically speaking a a girl friend, but I can't help think of the song when I think about Aine. If you have never heard the song, it describes a woman (or a female) whom can embody the best and worst of women. She can be eloquent or down home, "She's so New York and then L.A., And every town along the way".

Earlier, I talked about the little pistol that Aine can be. This is really only half of the story. For all of her fire, she can be equally compassionate (and often is). She can throw a fit and then give you ten minutes of hugs. She will go from throwing the much bigger Liam onto the floor to carrying her purse and trying to look "pretty", as she always says.

"She's anything but typical
She's so unpredictable
Oh but even at her worst she ain't that bad"

Easter is just a passing weekend event in the US, about the Easter bunny for some and religion for others. It will never be a federal holiday (with days off), because of everyone's fears of religion. So it will be left to mostly the corporations to push in order to increase candy and good sales. (And of course the Christian church whose event defines it apart from Judaism.)

In the UK, it is quiet different. I drove to work on Monday (took Good Friday off) and did not pass a single car in my 25 minute commute until I reached work. It is a stark contrast to the US, in that "religious" holidays are not something to be shunned. The UK observes a four day weekend for Easter and even call it the "Easter Holiday."

Before you think that the UK is just a religious country, I would argue the opposite. In this area, it seems most people could care less about Christianity or any other religion. There are churches, but I would not call them full, even with the big population to church ratio. Religion is not even a hot button topic like in the states. (The old adage, do not talk about politics, religion, or ? in mixed company.) People are more likely to get into debates about global warming and environmental issues than that of God.

I know that there are Christians in the UK. It is just interesting to see cultural differences where the underlying assumptions are different. Here, global warming is fact, tradition rules, and religion is mostly a concept subjugated to historical texts.

In an effort to spend out tax return before we get it, thus performing the "good American consumer" action and stimulate the economy, we purchased some "photo studio" equipment. We found some cheap, low end equipment and decided to try out creating our own home portraits. There are no "Sears" type cheap photo studios around us, only professional photographers. By the time we pay for two photo sessions, we can buy the basic equipment.

There are quite a few sites dedicated to the amateur photographer, like Strobist,equipment reviews, and other forums. The Strobist is one of the best resources, since it is a professional giving tips to un-educated photographer like us. So the internet is a plethora of great information and tips to aid us along our journey.

The equipment did not take long to set up, once we cleaned out an area to work in. The "equipment" consists of a couple of lights, back drop stand, and back drops (besides the computer software that I already have). Below is a couple of quick examples of the fun we are having. Liam made a mobile during Sunday school time here at the house. The first picture is of Liam with a Chroma key backdrop behind him. I can then edit the photo and do what ever I want to, like put him on a different background as in the second picture. The photography session and editing was done in less than 20 minutes.

My intent was to just play with the new things we received. The picture quality and positioning are, at best, "crap-tacular". We will get better with time and hopefully you will witness our evolution. I can already tell the difference in our outdoor photographs:)

The best picture Aine would let me get: