Friday March 6th… looks like rain today…Allergies hate that!!!

Well it’s forty-two degrees and rising… If I have to take the rain to get moderate temperatures, I guess I can settle for that…for now anyway. My sinus’ have been wreaking havoc with me for the last several days…… in fact, if you remember a few days ago, I thought I was hatching a cold, but I wasn’t really. It was just my allergies tearing me apart. It happens to me every year at this time and when I was working in central Pa, not eating right, smoking, sleeping little and suffering from a psychotic, bi-polar and physically abusive “spouse”………I fell ill to that and this season, yearly…… sometimes to the point of Bronchitis and laryngitis that would last for months, if not end up with me being admitted to the hospital with Pneumonia. Now……… my personal registered nurse, Sweet Vicki, treats me and sends me to bed to rest and I’m over it in a day and back to normal. Amazing what a divorce, retirement and anew life with a new wife will do…… both mentally and physically. I no longer stand at my front door and look out across the world, with a blank stare and say aloud, “I hate my freakin’ life” (using the superlative form of freakin’ of course…) . I now know how life is supposed to be…… and don’t you let anyone tell you you’re dreaming or living in a Currier and Ives’ world. It does exist… Vicki and I have been together 24/7 since we got together and neither of us want to change that…ever…
We have a haircut scheduled at one o’clock today and nothing after that, so if it rains… bookwork on QuickBooks, for the farm. If no rain comes…… we’ll do whatever we can tolerate out in the barn area to be ready for the Alpacas. ***COMING IN APRIL***





This is Iggy









This is Luke

March 5th…again…this morning… but a new day, from ground zero…

I say a new day from ground zero, because I’ve resolved my link problems on my “eBooks page” of http://www.skipwattbooks.com, the actual web site for my publishing business. There you can view my eBooks… one on Safely using eBay called, Everything You Need To Know To Start Selling On ebay. I have another which touches on how to safely make minor electrical repairs around the house, like replacing a defective receptacle, switch or light fixture etc., which is called The Do-it-yourself Home Electrical Repair Manual.Then, there is a great book about a young boy back in 1963, when times were tough and hunting was the mainstay for putting food on many rural families tables, by the name of A Family Tradition.
I will be marketing my “Poetry From The Heart - The Unpretentious Notions of a Minimalistic Man” there after it goes to print. Sometime later in the summer, I’ll have my biography called “It all Began With a Puppy - This Uncommon Journey”, available there too. It will be the story of Vicki and I, how we met and the most uncommon journey up to the present life we now share on the Cluckin’ “A” Critter Farm.
Yepper… it’ll all be right there along with all of Vicki’s latest artwork, her stained glass artwork and a huge CD we put together of last year, consisting of more than 200 quality pictures of The Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River Valley. There are pictures of the mountains, the Hudson river, historical places such as Olana, the Frederic Church estate of Olana and the many other beautiful things we’ve viewed and photographed such as the many waterfalls, lakes and mountain sights. We are going to add a hospice gift page on there also, when time permits, but right now we are moving on the necessary preparations for the physical gift shop that will be built on the grounds of the Cluckin’ “A” Critter Farm this summer.

Thurs Eve March 5th… Vick’s about to kill a computer… me too!!!!!

I slept a little this afternoon and when I awoke, I felt just a slight bit better than this morning. After coughing and snorting around a little, I seemed to feel better yet, so we decided to go for pellets and to grab a bite to eat. Off we went to Cairo, where we stopped at Gem Stoves and got fifteen bags of pellets, which should take us well toward the end of March, because we can shut the stove down on warm, sunny days, which will extend the time before we need to go for more. (if any until next year)
I quickly scooted to the gas station, to fill the tank while we were there and stopped at the CVS drugstore and picked up our prescriptions which were ready, then headed for the town of Acra, on the way up the mountain road toward Windham. There is a motel next to the Agro-forestry building that serves an Indian buffet on Thursdays and Vick has been wanting to attend, since she really like Indian food. I myself, can take it or leave it, because their food is always so spicy…occasionally has a bite to it and leaves you farting like an idling motorboat…… thank God there’s usually no odor. Anyway, we talked to a fellow there and found him to be one of our neighbors for the road across the way. After chatting for awhile, we invited him to come and look at our barn and he wants us to stop over at his farm when we drive by. I’d like to see his pigmy goats and horses.
Upon returning to the house, I cleaned the stove, filled it with pellets and got it burning nicely again, before returning to my repairing of http://www.skipwattbooks.com where I have spent the entire day, trying to fix the links to my eBooks. I finally found the corrupt link hidden in a file, removed it, reloaded a good link address and republished it. Now it’s ok and folks can again buy my books. Every time my computer crashes and I have to reload everything, When I loose these links, and I think about these assholes who cause it, I would contemplate murder if I could find the guys who inject viruses into peoples computers…just for fun. Anyway, now tomorrow I can work on my books final PDF file or QuickBooks. Anything but web links again. Vicki is trying to make her business card master file so she can take it to kinko’s, but I believe a computer smashing is in store if it screws up again and she has to start all over again. (as she has about four times now) well….it’s 12:51 now anyway…time for bed maybe.

Wed. March 4th… Just wanted to tell ya…… why I’m late…

I’m late blogging today because I’m a bit under the weather with a cold or extremely nasty allergies right now. I went to bed early last night, per my nurse, Sweet Vicki's instructions and haven’t done much today, since getting up except for sitting around and sipping coffee. Vicki wants to do everything for me and I know we gotta go pick up a bunch of pellets…. probably ten bags or so, but I won't let her lift heavy stuff and when I went to feed and water earlier, I bout froze to death and I usually don't mind the cold at all, so I’ve been dragging my feet about going. Gonna go lay down for awhile……then I'll get up later and go get those pellets whether or no...... I’ll blog later this evening.

Tues. March 3rd… Yowl… it’s cold… good that spring’s almost here.

I find a lot of comfort in knowing that spring is almost here as we deal with this eleven degree day and enjoy the new snow on the ground. I really feel better now that I know that…I do… really…
OK…damn it, I lied! I am beginning to hate the cold, now that I got a brief taste of spring, but that doesn’t make me any different than anyone else in March…… Once we reach March, we expect to see more warm days.. you know, the preview of coming attractions…the summer. Warm, comfy summer sun that blisters your shoulders if exposed too long…… blisters that invite skin cancer to ravage our bodies, if we bare them so we can be the sun goddess, once thought so beautiful. Now all those people, who once thought a bronze body was so beautiful, are now in clinics, scheduling to go under the knife, to remove the beauty spots they got from the sun. Melanoma! Such a nice word… mela… meaning a large gathering… and… noma… meaning severe inflammation, often with gangrenous tissue involved. Now, it's not such a nice word anymore, especially once you look at it. Equally…… the suffering and anguish, involved with your prize from your “fun in the sun”, is not very nice either. In fact, it’s terrible, as your body starts to actually decompose before you die.
STAY OUT OF THE SUN! If you must be in it, wear a large brimmed hat and sun block with a SPF of forty or better. There are probably many reasons why skin cancer is on the rise and I don’t care who you talk to…everyone has their theory. When it comes to your life… deal with it…all of it. Smoking, eating, sun exposure or whatever…deal with them all, if possible and increase your odds to, hopefully, never have to suffer with it. Start by wearing a hat and the sunscreen. It can’t hurt.

Today, we are not going to do anything outside…..I can tell you that!! It’s 8:30 here and twelve degrees. The high is to be nineteen if we’re lucky. All we need to do is go grab more pellets at Gem Stove,to get through the rest of this frigid week that they are predicting.
Oh well….. looks like more computer work on books and such.

Mon March 2nd… In like a lion… out like ya pinched it in the butt…

My Apoligies to any and all who were offended by life's harsh realities portrayed in this morning's orginal photo. The photo of lions consuming a Gazelle in tall grass, was meant to portray the harsh reality of what Governor Patterson is doing to the elderly, who are on fixed incomes and have to come up with money they don't have, thus trying to satisfy his hunger, which is eating us alive with his taxation of everything in the state of New York. Sorry for sharing the discomfort.


It’s like the fifteen round boxing bouts of yesteryear… “In this corner…… weighing in as heavyweight…… from the Arctic Circle… Freezing Winter…… Winter. And in the other corner…… weighing in like David, against Goliath…… Wimpy Mankind… Mankind.” Not much of a competition this year you say… Winter has kicked our butts…… perhaps we should look at that particular thought a little closer.
Like David… mankind didn’t appear to be much of an opponent for this years winter blast. It started early and most probably…… judging from what we’re seeing, will go the distance for awhile longer yet…… but look at the stats coming into this years fight. While not exactly the fight of the century…just yet, which we’ll still leave billed as the great depression of 1929, we may be well on our way to the same. And this year, as mankind stomped into the ring, going toe to toe with “Freezing Winter“… we had less and less at our disposal to fight with. Just as the strength was sapped from the body of a beaten and bruised boxing foe…… so was our financial reserves and available commodities. Oil, gas and wood product prices soared, just as everyone was taking it on the chin with the poor economy. The poor got poorer, as the middle class began to slip further and further toward the poor. As the president and everyone around him wants to cut Americans taxes…… our governor, Stupid Patterson, wanted… and still wants, to rip the remaining rags from most New Yorkers almost, naked bodies and rape them publicly, in the town square. That fool wants to increase taxes on about everything you can imagine....and probably will, while many elderly have died already this year, because they could no longer afford food or shelter, let alone higher taxes. Some could manage to keep their homes, but couldn’t afford heat and froze to death in them. Some lived and froze in their cars when they lost their homes to taxes. We are all likened unto the fragile herd of Gazelle on the grassy plains of Africa…… watching as the ferocious “Winter Lion” drags those around us into that tall grass, devouring them, as we watch…… hoping to make it to the better times. Why? Because we have no rifle against high prices...... loss of homes, health care, heating costs, prescriptions and food costs. Stop taxing all of us! Stop the blatant waste in government spending that causes this taxing nightmare and throws us to the lions.

As it was truthfully stated recently…… “ A billion seconds ago it was 1959... A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive… A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age… A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet… A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.”
We need to think about this and remember…… allowing this is just like pinching that lion in the butt!

Sun. Eve March 1st… Another day came … another day gone…

Today was an un-eventful day here on the Cluckin’ “A” Farm. It was still one of those sum-inter days again… you know, half summer and half winter…… sum-inter. I couldn’t for the life of me find anything good to take a picture of right now. The barn looks the same as it did on the last pictures we took, both inside and out. There is nothing else that changed either. I suppose you could give me a million things to take pictures of, but when you’re walking around with a camera, looking…… nothing jumps out at ya.
Timmy and Tina are not camera worthy right now, because they are suffering (just a little) from lungworm infestation, which we are treating with ivermectin, by injection. We just gave them their second injection today, so I hope to see a difference in their cough soon. The chickens are all doing ok and the ducks are…… DUCKS. They slop in the water bucket whether it’s ninety degrees or nine degrees…… it doesn’t matter to them… and messier birds were never invented that can “out-slop” a badelynge of ducks in mud or water. They’ll keep ya hoppin’ just cleaning up their messes.
Most of the day, I spent researching ISBN, UPC, CIP, LCCN and SAN numbers. Becoming your own publisher is a fairly difficult task, with all the rhetoric dealing with publisher identifications.
A SAN is a Standard Addressing Number, which I must buy to run my DBA of Skip Watt Publishing under. Entities using the SAN include book and journal publishers, wholesalers and distributors, book retailers and college bookstores, libraries, schools and universities, as well as paper and cloth manufacturers, printers and binders and others involved in the manufacturing of books and journals. This SAN number tells everyone in the industry where Skip Watt Publishing is and verifies that you are a publisher. Once you have the SAN, you can then apply for the ISBN numbers which are a “fingerprint” of the book you publish under it. The book is cataloged under this number and has it’s price there also. Once I can purchase my block of ten ISBN numbers, they will be listed under my name and will point to my publishing house when this book is to be ordered. I will then fill the order, if I have enough books on hand, or order the books from the printer. I will sell the books at the book buyers price and pay the printing house at my price. I make a little, the book buyer also makes a little, as does the printer. All pretty complicated…. But only with big book buyers like Barnes & Noble and Borders, etc., otherwise, I will simply market a lot of my books locally, because there is a quaint, sort of draw, toward customers that makes them want to buy local artists, whether they are writers or painters. You can sell your books locally in libraries, schools, book stores and some chain stores, like drug stores and general merchandisers or gift shops. I will also sell a bunch over the internet too. I'll also add them to my already available books on http://www.skipwattbooks.com where they have been available for some time now. It should be a blast... and once this one’s done, I have another, then a couple of short stories about my childhood, etc. Yeah…. I’m psyched and Vick is responsible.

Sun. March 1... We made it… we made it… It’s March!!!!!!!

Well everyone… we made it through this damned winter weather into March… the month of sum-inter…… you know…… summer today and winter tomorrow! We’ll have more and more days of nice sunny warmth, but still have to endure those chilly winter like days every now and then yet until about mid-April or so.
Oh well…… winter has lost it’s grip. It’s no longer in charge, but a naughty little boy that will pout occasionally when he feels like it…
I’m becoming more and more psyched about my book writing and publishing and it makes me want to write more and more. I will publish this book of poetry and then dive into finishing the biography about Vicki and I meeting and ending up together here on the farm. After that book is finally in print, I am going to publish the book of short stories about a kid growing up in the sixties in a little community built on the edge of “the Barrens” which were the ruins of Andrew Carnegie’s Iron Ore Mines of Centre County, Pennsylvania. I’ve already written about my twelfth year there and the “Family Tradition” of hunting which was actually considered a rite of passage into adulthood in Pennsylvania, then and still today. Good ol’ Pennsylvania… where the schools and business closed down for the first two days of buck season.
Even though I’m thoroughly psyched…I must keep my feet on the ground, because we still have the hospice gift shop to build, a roof to erect over the rear deck where our picnic table and BBQ grill are kept, then we also need to expand the barn to accommodate the German Angora rabbits coming later this summer, but most important of all, I promised my wife I would put up a swing in the big tree in the back yard…… You know.. One of those single rope jobbies with a board, so she can swing like a little country girl. If she gives me that big smile and her eyes shine like they do when she looks like a little girl again, I’ll gladly put up a hundred swings………