2001: A Plume Oddity
Well, well, well. Mads is a goat of many talents. Perhaps I should get him his own blog. I’m sure he’d quickly manage to grab a big fanbase. Maybe then I can take his job at the playground and spend all day being scratched and munching hay and nuts. Doesn’t sound like a bad deal to me.
He’d better come and scratch me every day, he better.
Yes, finally some new pictures from the playground. It’s been a whole year since I last posted any!
What happens to christmas trees when christmas is over? Well, if the goats have anything to say about it they get ated.
Mmmm. Christmas goodies. Mads didn’t care for them though.
I think he would rather have those nuts I promised him.
Also, I like when Sille stands on this little hilltop:
She looks so majestic.
Did I update ya’lls on the construction going on? The reason that they are digging so much is because they have to put down some sewer systems or something like that. Drainage. The actual houses that they are going to build will be in the back. So most of the ground they are digging up will be put back when they are done. Hopefully there will still be lots of space for the animals.
Other than that there is not much going on. My dad left early this morning. Back to Greenland. He will be teaching for another 6 months, then he’s coming back for good. For retirement. But I will write more about him soon. I swear. Honestly. Now I’m going to go count up the nuts. Heyo!
January 4th, 2007 at 4:40
Your Dad doesn’t look old enough to retire. What is retirement age in Denmark? Does your Mom still work?
I think my husband and I will retire when we are 85 or die. Whichever comes first. Just prop me up in my wheelchair with a paintbrush in my hand and move me down the wall as it’s painted!
Mmmmm, we put our old Christmas trees in ponds for homeless fish or in brush piles for homeless rabbits. So they have nice places to live.
Luis, what do you do in sunny CA with your Christmas trees? You have to come up with something better than feeding them to goats or providing homeless shelters.
John-Boy and Billy asked me tonight if they could walk to Denmark? I told them “not tonight boys, it’s too darn cold outside.” They do enjoy their walks with us in the evening although I don’t think they have any concept of distances/miles.
January 4th, 2007 at 10:42
It’s funny you ask that, Deb. Out here the big thing now is having plastic Christmas trees. Because it get so cold and dry the real trees tend to burn and we get lots of house fires. Plus, real trees cost too much. And it’s so very expensive to live out here on the coast. Literally, everything is expensive. So people do what they can to save money. None of my friends or family has real trees anymore. It’s usually families with children who still buy them, and they will always be popular. But for the most part plastic seems to be the way. I guess chopping down a tree and just using it once doesn’t make sense to a lot of people. When I was growing up, we never had real trees. We were just too poor.
We recycle the trees. Cal Trans takes them and grinds them up for mulch to be placed on the bushes and trees that line the freeways. But I like your idea of using them for homeless fish and rabbits. I’d feel so much better knowing that they have a place of shelter in the winter time.
It’s funny how Mads refuses to munch on the Christmas trees. I think you spoil him, Plume, with your treats and he’s gotten used to better tasting goodies. I know I would be.
Also, I hope that once the construction ends and the people move in that they don’t bother the goats and other animals. That would make me very upset. We don’t have animal/parks out here other than the San Diego zoo. So we don’t see goats or horses except for people who own them privately and take them out for exercises at the park where I run.
I really hate people manhandling animals. Once, at the park, there was a teenager who was holding onto a goose and it was squawking. I ran up to him and shouted at him to stop and leave the goose alone. I had run three miles and man I was on a high. My friend was with me and she was holding me back. I’m not proud of that moment because getting angry isn’t good. But don’t mess with the animals at the pound. That’s their home and we should respect their territory.
And that’s how I feel about the farm/park there. So I’m glad that Plume is keeping an eye out for them. Because in reality they need us to keep them save and protected. Just like Mads said: “Humans can be so stoopid!”
January 4th, 2007 at 22:31
Deb – Hmm I think the retirement age in Denmark is 67. He’s going on an “early retirement” plan though. My mother still works, in the kitchen at the county hospital.
Maybe the goats can drag you around in your wheelchair, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind!
I like the idea of trees for homeless animals. It always makes me a little sad to see browning trees thrown in the trash and being hauled off to god knows where. Better they end up as goat food or homes.
Luis – I have always thought of plastic trees as examples of somewhat tacky american christmas things. Fake snow in Florida, sunny christmases. Very wrong from a little snow-loving boy’s point of view. But I guess there’s an upside to it. Better than chopping down trees if they are sparse. Up here in the cold north we have farms of trees. Grown just to serve us for a week in the holidays. That’s kinda sad too.
I as well hope the people moving in at the new houses won’t bother the animals at the playground. There is nothing worse than people who think they are funny when they abuse animals. Sometimes kids at the playground don’t know how to treat the animals. Then I try to teach them that, no Mads doesn’t like it if you pull his tail. And it’s not funny to chase the lambs around. And things like that. Just gotta hope they learn. Or else they won’t be allowed around the animals. There are some kids who seem to have a mean streak in them, but most of them listen fortunately.
January 5th, 2007 at 0:00
The “politically correct” term is a permanent Christmas tree (not plastic, not artificial). You can use it over and over again. Had to laugh the first time I heard the term “permanent Christmas tree”. What a marketing strategy that was to make money.
We always had permanent trees when growing up as my sister got asthma around real pine trees and I have hay fever, so a real tree wasn’t an option for us.
Tacky is plastic pink flamingos for lawn ornaments! I love tacky. I used to have some flamingos but they flew away in a big wind storm we had a long, long time ago. I love lawn ornaments like rabbits, squirrels, and turtles. I get some new ones every year, usually at the dollar store. Tacky and cheap, that’s me!
Well, no wonder you Mom makes good soup if she works in a kitchen! She’s had lots of practice. Just rub it in, why don’t you: (Plume dancing around the house chanting: I’m having wonderful chicken soup and you’re not!) Don’t forget the flour balls!
January 5th, 2007 at 6:24
Oh my goodness, Deb. I think we were conjoined twins in a previous life! I love tacky, too! I love going to the thrift stores, 99 cent stores, and garage sales, etc if not to buy but to look at all the stuff that I really do find beautiful.
As for lawn ornaments, I no longer put them out because they kept getting stolen. I had a metal frog near my door once, and it was gone! I loved that metal frog…
I think that if we ever went to the 99 cent store, we’d buy the whole place out!!
January 6th, 2007 at 22:37
Deb – Permanent tree, that’s a new one! It reminds me somewhat of Fawlty Towers, where Basil preferred the plastic flowers. Just give ’em a wash!
My mom is quite a good cook I think. Unfortunately she loves onions, and since I can’t stand ’em I rarely get to enjoy her cooking. But luckily she makes soup without onions. Mmm.
Luis – You guys are making me jealous! I want to join the tacky club too! In fact I have had these fantasies of decorating my soon-to-be-found (I hope) appartment with cheap figures and stuff from the supermarket and such. Populate it with bad-taste. Also I think you guys would like Bodil, and her dog Lulu. Bodil loves tacky stuff. For christmas she brought a blinking plastic christmas tree to the playground. And insane colourful snowglobes. She loves everything bright and flashy. And she loves taking that stuff to the playground because she knows that Alice hates those kind of things. So she goes and puts the plastic tree in the window sill and turns it on and it’s all flashing and turning and she asks Alice: “Isn’t it lovely?”, Haha.
January 7th, 2007 at 3:40
I love Fawlty Towers! Even when I’ve seen an episode many times, it still makes me laugh. We like “Keeping Up Appearances”, “Last of the Summer Wine”, and “Are You Being Served”. All the old British comedies.
Yes, I think I would get along well with Bodil. She would love pink plastic flamingos and garden gnomes. She’ll just have to keep at Alice, you know, win her over to the “tacky side” of life.
Plume, I think there’s room for you to join the “Tacky Club” with Luis and me. No dues, no meetings, no laws, JUST TACKY-NESS!
January 7th, 2007 at 23:10
Deb – Me too! I think I wrote about it recently, although it might have been in my livejournal. But I got out the DVDs I bought of Fawlty Towers. And they still make me laugh as well. Good times.
I think Bodil would indeed love pink plastic flamingos. She’d probably let them move in at the playground just to watch Alice’s reactionl
I will tack away!