Post for Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day, and as much as I hate the crass consumer take-over of the day, realistically speaking I am being reminded all day that I'm alone and that K is in fact with his family in Tibet when according to media, Facebook, and all the rest we're supposed to be exchanging thoughtful and loving gestures, eating in a romantic setting, and musing on the strange journey of love.

Instead I:

• Chickens: Let the chickens into the run from the chicken house they were locked into over night. This is my task because Gregg and Irene are actually taking a few days away from home for a romantic Valentine's Day. There has been no return mink attack, the mink may be sleeping off his full belly after killing half of my brother's pheasants (all the pheasants in one enclosure) during a single night of ripping and rending. I also let Naran (the junior rooster) out of the run so the two roosters don't fight all morning. Then I fed the little wild birds and the dog. At noon I let all the chickens out. I collected and washed the eggs (13 but I left one as a "starter egg." Goats: At 4:00 I walked the goats (they take a walk so they can forage on salal and branches). Yesterday they were very doubtful of me (without Irene) and my intentions. When Solstice (the dog whom they perceive as a wolf) joined me they got very skittish and they ended up grazing less than ten minutes. Today it was raining and they were doubtful we should go anywhere at all. I put a lead on the senior goat, Juniper, and took them  (half dragged at times) to high salal bushes. They foraged and I practiced taiji. Soon I'll have to lock up the chickens. Fortunately I am not responsible for milking the goats in the morning (the benefit of being non-dairy is I don't even get asked).  

Above, Naran. Below, one of the hens last July. 

Below, the handsome senior rooster last July 

Strutting Action Shot

From a goat walk in January with Irene and the goats and Solstice to the top of Merk's Mountain

• Society for Ethnomusicology panel proposal. Finalized all the documents for our panel and sent them to the chair who will submit them on the SEM website before the deadline tomorrow at 5 (EST). I don't want to tell you more about this until we hear that we've been accepted but it's a super cool panel and I am quite confident!
• Read two chapters in the book I need to have finished and reviewed by tomorrow. I am around page 115. Ummmm... The fabulous Scott Linford, reviews editor for Ethnomusicology Review is going to get impatient pretty soon!
• Continued reading and writing my article for the upcoming conference in Austin. Eventually I will manage to make this into a polished paper. Right now it seems like a series of unfinished thoughts. For example: Nicola Dibben characterizes the patriarchally- constructed femininity in popular music as portraying women who are "simultaneously submissive, innocent and childlike, yet sexually available" (1999: 336). If I want to use this sentence, I better write a paragraph that needs it. 

Okay, so I'm alone on Valentine's Day, but I'm staying on task! I hope you all had a great time full of love this Valentine's Day!