Welcoming the New Year

The New Year was ushered in on the farm by a kitten complaining very loudly from the hen house. It was near midnight when my son went out to swing (two of my children like to do this at night). His brother went outside to remind him to fill the wood box and heard the plaintive mews of some cat up by the sheds. Wondering what the problem was, he went to investigate. Apparently, Oreo had followed Cub up when collecting eggs and had gotten himself trapped inside. He was in the storage area, so he had not had to keep the chickens from attacking him, but he had missed supper. Poor little fellow!

Oreo did not enjoy the hen house!

Around 11:00 last night, I wandered down the lane with my new Christmas present—a laser pointer. There were plenty of clouds, but I was able to point to several constellations to show my hubby how well the pointer worked. The little green beam looks like it is traveling all the way to those far away stars and even those who cannot find the Big Dipper can follow that little beam of light. (And no, these little penlights are not going to down any aircraft!) We found Orion, and Taurus. The Big Dipper was standing on its handle on the east side of the North Star, while Cassiopeia was on the right side. Andromeda and The Great Square were covered by clouds, but we found Sirius, Canis Major, Procyon, and Canis Minor easily enough. I was puzzled by the stars in the sky around the area I should have seen Gemini. I drew the lines down Orion’s belt to Sirius and went back up through Procyon. I drew my line through the knee and shoulder of Orion—and then realized that most of Gemini was covered with clouds. What I was seeing were the stars Castor and Pollux (the heads of the twins) and another bright object that didn’t belong there—a planet. I knew there was nothing that bright between Procyon and Castor ‘n Pollux! When I came in I looked it up—sure enough! It was Saturn! I’ve not been out stargazing lately, I could tell!

If any of you are looking for a few maps and some information about what is going to happen in the skies this year, Sky and Telescope puts out a little magazine once a year called Skywatch. I had Skywatch ’04 and now am using Skywatch ’05 ($5). It is a nice compilation of sky-news. I also use their calendar called Celestial Wonders, which has info on what is going on above us on each day of the calendar. I find this very helpful because I tend to forget to check to see if there is something happening up there.

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Diane, could you post a link to your blog? I haven’t seen those manzanita trees yet!

Donna, the table that was in the kitchen has been put into the study because we have no computer table or any other kind of table to put in there. I would like to get some furniture for my hubby’s room—it was suppose to be his Christmas present! The big, oak table that was in our dining room is now being used in the kitchen.

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My hubby and JM went off with Uncle Stephen to hunt the elusive deer early this morning. The cats are fed and content. The rest of the household is very quiet. I think they are enjoying sleeping in after being up so late last night! We watched a video and had some snacks. We quietly welcomed the New Year in.

And those New Year’s resolutions: The 1^st one is to seek the face of God and drawer nearer to Him. I think my 2^nd one would be to build up relationships with my husband and my children, to continue to make that a priority as they all are into those double-digit years. My third, perhaps, is to continue working on becoming the person God created me to be: to be gentle in Spirit and to be a good wife, homemaker, teacher and friend.

Did you make resolutions this year?

Blessings.