Writing Prompt 2 Food & Clip

Today's themes are Food, and Clip. Let me know what you think! 

Woof!

She yawned, slowly swishing her tail, belly full. It had been a great night. Midsummer’s eve celebration always was, but tonight seemed even better somehow. There had been games, prizes, a ring toss, even a magician! She rolled over, almost buried in blankets in the back of the cart. She could hear the soft clip clop of the horse’s hooves over the path. Night had fallen, and the fog began to set in. She was just dozing off when the cart stopped. “There’s something ahead on the road” her father whispered. Stay in the cart, I’m going to check it out. She heard him dismount, and walk slowly up the road. “Ere now, what do you mean by blocking the road?” He called out. She couldn’t make out the conversation, but someone else was talking, in a low, urgent tone. She popped her head out, trying to see the road ahead. A tall dark shape, taller than even the soldiers in town. He was wearing a great black travelers cloak shrouded in fog. After some more words with the stranger, her father came hurrying back to the cart.

“We need to get off the road, find someplace safe” he cried. His eyes were wide. “They’ve come back!” he whispered, in a tone almost to faint to hear.

“Who’s come back?”

He paused, as if weighing how much to say. “Remember those bedtime stories I used to tell about the fearless warriors of old and the curse of the black lake?”

She nodded. She loved hearing about their town lore, and the great deeds of long ago.

“They weren’t just stories. And this time, we no longer have the strength to repel them!”

He gave the reigns a tug, and quickly pulled the cart off the road and into the brush.

“This fog is welcome, it will help muffle our breathing, and hide our trail.” He whispered.

“All the same, no sense in taking chances my dear. Git under those blankets and keep quiet!”

The cart rattled and creaked as it left the road, and into the forest. They hadn’t gone more than an arrow’s pace of the road when he halted.

“Listen!” He gestured. The fog was too thick to see the road, but straining her ears, she could hear a faint sound. Almost a hissing, and quick pace of a dozen or so large, heavy sets of feet. They passed in the night, never slowing, nor changing their direction. Soon they were gone. She could hear her father breathing a sigh of relief.

“What were those things? Who was that figure on the road who warned us? What will happen to our village?” Questions came bursting out of her mouth.

“Hush my little one. I will explain everything. But not now. Now we have a long journey ahead of us. The town, and our home are no longer safe. Let’s be off!” He pulled the horse back towards the road, and then off in the direction away from town. She looked back and thought she saw prints on the road, deep in the mud tracks of the like she had never seen before. She curled into a ball, and tried to stave off the horrible images of these creatures.

Writing Prompt: Salt, Dancing

Good Afternoon!

Sorry for missing the last couple weeks, I shall attempt to make up for those with a double post today. wot wot! These next two posts will be writing prompts borrowed from Eleanor. I usually tend to do a lot of rambling with my posts, so here's an attempt at some coherence. :-)

Subject: Dancing     Theme: Salt

There they were in the dark; the Duke with his dagger, the Doge with his dart, Duchess with her dirk.Oops, haha! Let's try that again:

The Mariana Trench. Deepest part of the ocean. One of the few places still mostly uninhabited by the humans. Strange creatures dwelt there, from the dawn of time, or so twas said. It was there, 200 years ago, that the trouble started.  For generations beyond memory, she dwelt there, the largest creature in the sea. A blue whale was similar in size to her as a grain of rice might be to a human. When she moved, so did the sea. Waves and tides, so often attributed to science, were in fact created by her. She was a Kraken, the Eldest and largest. And she loved to dance. For a while, she danced alone, to the music of the ocean, bobbing her mantle to the time of the beginning. Then, she heard him. She felt him. He had a flute, and played the most beautiful music, chanting, and playing. She couldn't see him, but she felt a magnetic tug or pull, every time he played. He was the moon, and he was asking her to dance. For centuries they danced together, whirling, spinning, round and around, sometimes so fast large storms were created, other times so gentle that the sea itself seemed to stop moving. The two were inseparable...
Then the humans came. Disturbed from their land-based habitat for some unknown reason, they had begun to flee, in mass numbers to the moon, off-world, and as yet even to the depths of the ocean. They were tiny, but their ships came by the thousands, and they brought terrible machines of destruction. The moon's music was soon shut out, blocked by giant reflector dishes designed to capture the remaining sunlight. The trench was breached, and massive underwater dwellings were crafted. They were everywhere. And the endless cycle of the Dance was stopped.
Enraged, the Kraken began a horrible dance, putting voice her frustration. The seas turned into a never ending series of typhoons, the sky grew dark and stormy, and the air grew cold. Terrified, the humans began to leave the sea, fleeing upwards to the stars. The world lay abandoned, left to its fate. The moon was still shielded, and he was unable to communicate with her. She felt lost, and alone.
Then the moon began to shrug off the humans as well. He began to spin, faster and faster round and round until the humans were flung to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Together again, the Moon and the Sea returned in peace to their endless dance, Twee and La, ying and yang, push, and pull.

--I liked the storyline, but has having trouble with the ending. Any other thoughts or ideas appreciated--

Sheepdog

On the Care and Polish of Knives and Cutting Boards

Hello Again! Told you I had more to say :P
Some unsuspecting soul fed me coffee today!
Anyway, on to the subject at hand!

For the past 4 years or so, I have been carefully treating my cutting boards and wood knife handles with extra-virgin olive oil. This protects them and gives them a nice glossy finish. However, I've recently learned of a better solution: Edible Mineral Oil. This is a clear oil, and will actually protect the glue and surface of your wood products much better! Olive oil has a tenancy to go rancid, when not washed or used regularly. It will also collect a little more dust as it doesn't soak into the wood as well. So last night, I bought some mineral oil from freddies ($2 a bottle) in the pharmacy section. You may notice that this mineral oil is being sold as a laxative, don't panic, once you let it soak in for a day, then wash the board, there are no side effects. :)

On to (hic) step 2! Okay, your boards are nice and shiny, but your blades are getting tiny rust spots from being in the sink, and/or are beginning to get a little dull. I suggest the following: a small 2 sided knife sharpening block from your local ace hardware store ($8) plus a small bottle of honing solution ($2 a bottle) from either ace or freddies (at freddies, look under the sports/outdoor section). Most local places will charge $5 a knife to sharpen each knife, so even if you only sit down to do this once a year, it's well worth it! Next, find a show or some music, and sit down to sharpen your knives. :) Below I've listed a couple tips for you:

1. Be patient. Just like anything else, sharpening knives is a skill. It takes time to be proficient, and quick at it.
2. The first time you oil your stone, wait a few minutes. most of the oil will absorb into your whetstone. Then oil it again. You will want to take a moderate approach to this. Don't over oil it, but don't let it get too dry either. When you're done, dry off the stone with a dry washcloth. Don't wash the stone with water.
3. Start with a knife you don't mind scratching up. I like to sharpen my knives with about a 20% angle on them, or lay the knife flat ontop of the stone, then raise it up until the spine of the knife is about a half of finger above the stone. This is close to 20%. Start with the base of the blade, and run it slowly and smoothly across the stone at an angle, finishing at the top of the stone furthest away from you, at the tip of the blade. Don't dig into the stone, you're not carving the stone, you are just sharpening the blade. :) I keep the stone on a table or somewhere nice and flat, and move the blade smoothly over the surface. I've found that it's best to do between 2-5 passes and then switch to the other side of the blade. Each time you run the blade over the stone, it curves, or rolls the blade ever so slightly, so if you do to many passes on one side only, then it will take extra time to flatten the blade back out. Start on the rough side of your sharpening stone, until you have the chips and dents taken out of the bade. Then, switch to the smooth side, and use that for honing a nice sharp edge on the bade.
4. When done, wipe the blade down with a little of the honing oil. This helps protect from rust and corrosion. Let the blade sit for a while, then wash it with a little soap and water. Done!

5. How to take rust spots off a blade. You can use anything from a washcloth to steel wool, but I prefer a powder known as BarKeepers Friend. If you haven't heard of this stuff, it is AMAZING! use it with a little water, and it will polish everything from your stovetop, to knives, to sinks. It should be at any local grocery store.

Well, that's all for now! Enjoy, and (Oh! one more thing! I haven't cut myself sharpening blades, but I have cut myself pretty good while cleaning them. use a thick cloth to dry them off so you don't risk cutting yourself). I'll probably jump back on with another post. Yay Coffee!

~Sheepdog!~

Coffee for the (hic) recovering Coffee Addict

For my readers who may not know, I've been off coffee and heavy caffeine for 4+ years now. It's not that I aspire to be a health nut, or that my coffee habits were outside of the realm of normal, at least for college type sheepdogs. After a summer of no caffeine, I decided I would begin having some again. That's then the issues started. Heightened senses, the ability to fly around the world in a second... okay, just kidding! In actuality, it was messing with my sleep schedule. I would have a cup in the morning, then not be able to calm down and fall asleep until about 3:00am. Which is late, even for college sheepdogs! If I had some in the afternoon, forget about any sleep until the following day! So, I cut caffeine almost completely out of my diet. Fast forward 4 years, and now I am just starting to re-introduce it into my system, which is taking it okay. In fact, for the past while, I have been in semi-hibernation mode, where I can go an entire day feeling sleepy, or hazy. To make a short story long, I just gulped a half-caff. mocha in honor of Friday and Wow!Let'srunaroundanddocrazystufftherestofthedayandwhocaresifwegetanymoreworkdoneanditsfridayandwowthisishardtotypewithoutusingthespacebar!!

Anywho! bring on the rabbits and their crazy Friday antics! At least until the coffee wears off :P

I plan on making two more posts today, so stay tuned!

~Hyper Sheepdog~

Thought for the day

*Warning May contain political opinions, rants, and common sense arguments*

Okay, with the disclaimer out of the way, I shall proceed! I had planned on writing a prompt in regards to today's inauguration, including both a historical viewpoint on the importance of inauguration days, what democracy means for our country, and a note about the protestors this year, who seem to be the focus of more conversations than the actual inauguration.

What stopped me? Well, first I got sidetracked by this article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/opinion/sunday/a-confession-of-liberal-intolerance.html?_r=0

This was a bit more of an eyeopener to me than it should have been. As I read through it, I found myself agreeing more and more. Equality for all! ...except conservatives. While I know people who are willing to have engaging conversations from various viewpoints, lately, and especially in the news, less and less liberals are willing to listen to opposing viewpoints. Trump supporters are certainly not the first group of conservatives to be publicly berated against, but it sort of highlights the situation.

There is a shocking disconnect here. Even in the education system (speaking as one who is in the education system). I personally find myself keeping my opinions more and more to myself not because of a backlash or losing respect, but because people are just not interested in what I have to say. They assume 1) they already know my views, and/or 2) that my views are misguided. Either way, the implied message (whether true or not) is that my thoughts don't matter. This isn't just grade schools either. Many colleges and universities have an obvious liberal bias. Nick K. outlines in his article some of the challenges Conservatives in higher education face. It is an interesting read.

Towards the end of his article, Nick ends with a plea to the progressives (liberals) to start thinking about mending this gap between viewpoints:
So maybe we progressives could take a brief break from attacking the other side and more broadly incorporate values that we supposedly cherish - like diversity - in our own dominions.

Anyway, feel free to discuss! 

Writing Prompt -Borrowed

Yip and Woof! Happy Friday everyone! Hooray! 
My official plans for the weekend is to avoid driving as much as possible. The last weekend we all stayed home and ate cookies and played parcheese was probably before Thanksgiving! Anyway, not to say we will be doing nothing. :) The bunnies plan on taking a couple different walks, maybe some frisbee golf, and indoor games. If we get any snow we may build a snow-bunny!! 

Anyway, Today's post shall be on a writing prompt borrowed from another blog: Outside the Window...Dance. Not my usual topics, but here goes:


It was spring. The flowers were in full bloom, and the river by the cabin babbled and burbled as it swept the last of the melted snow and fallen leaves away. It was a time of new beginning, of opportunity. So close to freedom, yet so far. She sighed, and gazed out the window at the scene. She could even feel the warm breeze come through the open window and into her birdcage. She was allowed out to fly around, but her masters were always careful to close the window before letting her out. She almost preferred to be in her cage with the window open, where she could smell and feel the spring wind come into the cabin. As she peered out the window, she spotted something in the distance. It was a bird, flittering from tree to tree. It dove and swooped, sometimes flying high, then plunging down toward the ground, only to swoop to a landing. It was followed by another, then another, all brightly colored red and yellow, like herself. Seeing them dance on the wind, her heart leapt. If only she could open the door she could join them. Instead, she watched. They began moving together, diving, gliding, whizzing past each other sometimes so close she was sure they would collide into one another. Suddenly, she had a thought. Perhaps, she could use a loose twig to pry open the door. Grasping the stick tightly in her beak, she thrust it into the small opening between the cage and the door. pulling with all her might. The door moved! It began to bend inward, moving slowly. She flapped her wings, pulling harder. *snap* The twig, reaching past it's breaking point, broke in two, flinging the small cardinal into her water bowl. The door snapped shut.

She let out a chirp of indignation. This wasn't going to work. She began to work from another angle, pushing the broken twig out to attempt to open the lock from the outside. The latch lifted a little. Moving to the other side, she twisted her head to pull the latch open the rest of the way. In doing so, the twig fell from her beak and landed on the carpet. Frustrated, she looked up again out the window. The birds had gone away by that time, and dusk was beginning to fall. Resignedly, she hopped back to her perch, brushing away a tear.

Because of the warm night, the windows were left open. Toward 9pm, after the cardinal had fallen asleep, two lamp-like eyes opened by the large oak just outside the window. A small Hoot Owl belonged to those large eyes. He sat, watching the window, shaking his feathers to finish waking up. Standing up, he stretched his wings, and soared down through the open window and into the room. Lifting the latch with his sharp talons, he slid back and opened the door. A soft hoot rose the cardinal to wakefulness. As she woke, he raised his wings, and soared back to his perch on the tree.

New Year's Resolutions - Keep This Blog Updated!!!

Allo everyone!
That's right, Sheepdog is back for the *ahem* early Spring? Yes, I know winter has 2 months to go, but somehow with the melancholy task of taking down Christmas, I always like to think ahead to the spring. And anyway, HootOwl is more of a fall writer besides.

So first, for an update! I am please to announce we all survived the Holidays! We finished our cutting board project, much to the enjoyment of everyone. :) We made 16 cutting boards, all handmade, and about 14 inches by 10 inches or so. We may plan to make a second batch starting February, we'll see. We also finished Scamper's Kickstarter project (spoiler alert, it took more time and effort than we planned). We Successfully drove South for a party in the mountains, as well as further South for a party in the sun. :) We just left a weekend full of snow, which included hot tubbing, and snowball fights. We then returned home to find the bunnies completely wiped out from partying, and eating leftover Christmas treats.

Anyways, on to new years resolutions *wot*!
I would like to take a moment to address almost every new year's resolution ever. They last about 2-4 weeks before being ditched. This is why there are so many gym membership sign-ups in January, and so few in march. A clever person may solve this by writing a new years resolution they are already doing, but that would be an old years resolution. Another person may write something with a checklist to cross off everyday, but soon misplace the checklist. Not that resolutions are bad, but if the year goes by and you don't get to them, it's rather a dissapointment.

I suggest writing down 1 or 2 that you want to accomplish and write down 1 or 2 that would be fun to accomplish. Rather like a bucket list for the second two:

Serious
1. Read through the bible cover to cover
2. Exercise more often
Fun:
1. Bake 12 batches of cookies.
2. Take a nap on the beach.
3. Actually jump in the ocean the next time you visit.
4. Go Backpacking. Eat a leaf. Climb a tree. Carve a toothpick out of a stick. Eat someone's business card in front of them. Learn to juggle scones then swallow them whole. Startle a cow by calling it's name. Stay home from work one day even if you're not sick. Do a handstand for more than .2 seconds. Go to walmart and buy the 3 most random things you can find.

Any further suggestions? Feel free to add below!
Woof! Happy New Year!

Hoot Hoot!

Hello readers,
I'm sorry to keep you all waiting on this story. Life sort of snuck up on me during these past few weeks. Here's a quick update on how things are going: First of all, my small coding project sort of turned into a kickstarter project called Text Based RPG, learn to code launched by Scamper and myself. It's almost over though, with only 8 days left. It seems that it may or may not get funded, which is actually okay with us either way, as it would mean more work if it did get funded. But we'll see! It's been fun, but rather time consuming. I spend some of my time North-ish working on a shed type dwelling for my father (a barn owl). We finally got the shingles placed on and it is mostly water tight now! We have also been working at getting scamper all packed up, he got a job closer to my area of the forest, so he will be moving to a rented tree just across the park from me! For the festive holiday of Halloween, we undertook a partial Harry Potter Marathon, and I tried my hand at sewing a basic cape design for this. It's a black cape, but with the proper clasp and some paint I may be able to turn it into a hobbit-type cape. We'll see. Just last weekend, we made a pilgrimage to the southern forests to visit family to celebrate a birthday. *Whew* I may get some down time this weekend to sleep, but in the meantime I've been hyped up on cookies and sugar! *Silly Rabbits*. My December looks rather busy-ish as well, I plan to start a cutting-board project to make some cutting boards out of Maple, Hickory, Oak, and Walnut for Christmas Presents!

I shall try to post small clips of my continuing storyline here as time allows. If anyone is interesting in stepping in for a few posts, I will gladly take them up on it! I have a few outline bits written out, but I've left it very open on purpose so don't feel constrained to any outline. :) Happy November Everyone!

~Hoot Owl~

Hoot Owl Diary Part 4

Hoot and hello! There is a large storm brewing, so I suggest tea and a good book for this weekend. I have a small snippet of our continuing tale for you. I hope you enjoy!

Nick and Francine (with some difficulty) boarded the train towards the canals. Usually there was a long line, but being a police officer had its perks. They badged their way on the next train North. During most of the ride, they sat in companiable silence. That was something Nick appreciated about the elephant. She was always happy to talk, but generally could tell when Nick wanted to be left alone and wouldn’t pester him. They wound their way through the main city, then alongside Tundratown, where the passengers could adjust their thermostats to compensate for the frigid air. Nick and Judy often cranked the thermostat on their trips, but this time he didn’t mind. The cold sharpened his senses, and besides, Francine didn’t need the warm air. As they traveled, Nick looked through the case file. It was as Francine had said: a couple of missing young beavers, male and female, had disappeared. They weren’t related, so possibly a teen couple running away? The family had filed the report 2 days ago, and the beavers had been missing a total of 3 days. Longer than a quick elope then.

Nick broke the silence. “We need to check hotels and the cameras” he mused. “It’s unlikely they would still be missing if this was just a stunt they pulled, but you never know.” Francine quirked an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t we be better off starting by interviewing the family, and anyone on the street who may have seen which direction they went?”

“Not if we want any answers. The canal district folk won’t talk to outsiders. That’s just the way it is. Besides, Camera’s don’t lie.” Francine nodded at his advice. She had never been this way before, and trusted the fox t know what he was talking about. The train was now passing through the Rainforest District, and through it’s impressive waterfall. As a youngling, she would often open the window and stick her trunk out to drink from the waterfall as they passed under it. Now that she was an officer, she found she often had to downplay her quirky nature.

Interruption

Good Day my fellow readers,
I though perhaps you may be interested in why my posts have been taking a little longer than usual. I confess I have been working on a side project that has been eating up some of my spare time. This project though, is mostly done! Hooray! What is it you ask?

Mwahaha!

I present to you: A text-based version of Pokemon, written in Batch computer code!
This program is a basic text file, that when run as a .bat file, will use the command prompt window to allow you to relive pokemon blue/red! It's very basic, but fun all the same.

The code is rather long, so instead of pasting it here, I will happily email it to anyone who wants to try it out!

-Shaggy-