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I participate in Yuletide, but I don't quite feel the enthusiasm I did once upon a time. Maybe it's just that my fandom and tastes are really so niche that finding someone who wants to write anything other than the 'most matchable option' is bloody difficult.
Or maybe it's just this year of burning out.
I did get a gorgeous Psy-Changeling story for last year and was delighted with it, though. 17K! Friends-to-(almost)lovers! So good...
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Yesterday, I didn't check social media all day and felt pretty okay about it.
Today, I checked FB and...promptly found some things I wanted to reply to.
Tomorrow I'll have to go on; I'm probably swapping a bunch of plants for a bunch of other plants, all on the local crop swap groups which are organised via FB. *sigh*
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Six months back, at the height of pandemic chook-buying, a woman on the local FB group posted what was a really basic question about chook-keeping. Myself and another woman answered her, and she kind of got to talking to me on messenger about various really ridiculously simple chook-keeping questions.
Like, could she tie a rope to the chickens' legs so they wouldn't run away? And when I suggested this wasn't such a good idea, she was all "but I thought it would be so easy!"
I was very tempted to point out to her that it was so much easier just to buy eggs at the grocery store; to keep chickens in suburbia, you have to want to keep chickens, really.
Anyway, three months in I got a triumphal "haha, we are getting along just fine and I am not afraid of them anymore!"
Okay, excellent. All good, yay!
And then last night, I get a message. She's selling the chicken coop, if the person taking the coop doesn't want the chickens would I like to take them? Also: all the people interested in the coop look scary and she doesn't want her beloved chickens to go to them so would I take them, please, how is tomorrow?
Oy.
So, a mere six weeks after getting two refugees from up the road (they've just about settled in), we'll be acquiring another couple of refugees for the flock.
Golly gosh and geeze.
Plus, back some eight weeks ago, I put an order in for a couple of heritage chooks from a breeder, and I'm just hoping she's taking her time about filling the order! I think she is; she seems to be focusing more on Aracunas and silkies and breeds which are more popular with hen fanciers, rather than the laced Barnevelders that I requested!
Heritage breed chooks lay fewer eggs, but they last longer because they're not geared for hardline egg-production. As it is, brave Hainan chicken (the white chicken in the icon, a leghorn) has laid her last egg. She got peritonitis (or something beginning with a per- and ending in -itis) and is now in retirement with a hormone implant to keep her from laying again. She now moseys on around the place and no longer seems to feel the urge to eat EVERYTHING in sight (likely because she doesn't have to put so much energy into egg production anymore).
Anyway, we might very well come out of this year with a flock of 8 chickens, having owned 10 chickens throughout the year (RIP Tja-Tje and Sussy chickens), and having started with a mere 2.
So, that's been my week, plus a trip to Canberra and something close to an emotional breakdown. Hopefully the weekend will be less fraught.
Except, oh wait, I have to put together the newer and bigger coop for our rapidly-expanding flock. SHEEEEESH.
Or maybe it's just this year of burning out.
I did get a gorgeous Psy-Changeling story for last year and was delighted with it, though. 17K! Friends-to-(almost)lovers! So good...
--
Yesterday, I didn't check social media all day and felt pretty okay about it.
Today, I checked FB and...promptly found some things I wanted to reply to.
Tomorrow I'll have to go on; I'm probably swapping a bunch of plants for a bunch of other plants, all on the local crop swap groups which are organised via FB. *sigh*
--
Six months back, at the height of pandemic chook-buying, a woman on the local FB group posted what was a really basic question about chook-keeping. Myself and another woman answered her, and she kind of got to talking to me on messenger about various really ridiculously simple chook-keeping questions.
Like, could she tie a rope to the chickens' legs so they wouldn't run away? And when I suggested this wasn't such a good idea, she was all "but I thought it would be so easy!"
I was very tempted to point out to her that it was so much easier just to buy eggs at the grocery store; to keep chickens in suburbia, you have to want to keep chickens, really.
Anyway, three months in I got a triumphal "haha, we are getting along just fine and I am not afraid of them anymore!"
Okay, excellent. All good, yay!
And then last night, I get a message. She's selling the chicken coop, if the person taking the coop doesn't want the chickens would I like to take them? Also: all the people interested in the coop look scary and she doesn't want her beloved chickens to go to them so would I take them, please, how is tomorrow?
Oy.
So, a mere six weeks after getting two refugees from up the road (they've just about settled in), we'll be acquiring another couple of refugees for the flock.
Golly gosh and geeze.
Plus, back some eight weeks ago, I put an order in for a couple of heritage chooks from a breeder, and I'm just hoping she's taking her time about filling the order! I think she is; she seems to be focusing more on Aracunas and silkies and breeds which are more popular with hen fanciers, rather than the laced Barnevelders that I requested!
Heritage breed chooks lay fewer eggs, but they last longer because they're not geared for hardline egg-production. As it is, brave Hainan chicken (the white chicken in the icon, a leghorn) has laid her last egg. She got peritonitis (or something beginning with a per- and ending in -itis) and is now in retirement with a hormone implant to keep her from laying again. She now moseys on around the place and no longer seems to feel the urge to eat EVERYTHING in sight (likely because she doesn't have to put so much energy into egg production anymore).
Anyway, we might very well come out of this year with a flock of 8 chickens, having owned 10 chickens throughout the year (RIP Tja-Tje and Sussy chickens), and having started with a mere 2.
So, that's been my week, plus a trip to Canberra and something close to an emotional breakdown. Hopefully the weekend will be less fraught.
Except, oh wait, I have to put together the newer and bigger coop for our rapidly-expanding flock. SHEEEEESH.
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I'm actually really looking forward to it, since a lot of my other traditional holiday activities are...not so much going to happen.
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I can definitely see how YT would be a bright point in 2020, though.
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I'm just wanting some very specific things this year and I don't know if that will be a good fit for Yuletide.
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I wish I felt the same excitement.
Of course, my sense of overload and my depression and the Too Much To Do ...those also get in the way of my excitement about Yuletide.
AND the fact that Yuletide just doesn't get the kind of comment attention and obsessive Everyone Reading The Things And Commenting...so the payoff is less. Once upon a time, the READ ALL THE THINGS between Live and Reveal was SUCH a strong part of the Yuletide culture. Now...not so much. :-(