My Yearly Update I Guess
Jul. 1st, 2019 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
9unm3741So it seems like I update about once a year. Mostly because I'm not good at things, and keeping any kind of journal updated is among that list.
Biggest news: I am Dr. Bouchey now. Despite graduate school being, possibly, my most serious regret I am now done with it. I can now continue to do literally the exact same stuff that I was doing before I finished, but now I can select something new in drop down menus for name prefixes. Really, I expected to feel relieved, or at least a sense of victory. But I just feel bad. I almost don't like that I'm a doctor. I hated so much of graduate school that I wish I could make the whole experience disappear, and even the congratulations just make me feel sick to my stomach. It takes active restraint to not send my diploma through the shredder, because I just want to destroy anything that is even remotely related to graduate school or academia. I hate it. My partner is so openly proud of me, but even that makes me feel so angry I just want to scream at her, which in turn makes me feel awful and ashamed. Whenever I think about I feel literally nauseous. Not really a point to this, just needed to get it off of my chest because I don't feel brave enough to admit this directly to another human, and typing it feels more like just sending it into the void even though I knew exactly who is going to read it :P
Actual good things that are happening: My partner and I joined an adult soccer league through her work. I am very out of shape and that makes me pretty sad, but at least the rest of the team isn't that much better than me, so I just have fun playing.
My partner has been very involved in the local caving grotto. She has been involved in some volunteer restoration work at Carlsbad Caverns as well as mapping, exploration, and restoration at Ft. Stanton cave. She wants to help out with a mapping project for the lava caves at El Malpais, but there just isn't enough time. I've been doing the restoration work at Carlsbad with her, and was just invited to take a trip to do some mapping in Ft. Stanton, which is pretty cool. I enjoy caving, although I would say that if I had my choice of hobbies/pastimes and also the motivation to actually pursue them I would probably spend the time doing something else. However, if I just left caving to her, I wouldn't do something else. I would sit around at home doing nothing and beating myself up over not taking advantage of the time to do something I enjoy. So I let her drag me along and have fun doing stuff with her, which is pretty good!
The xeriscape in the front yard turned out really well. We are situated kind of on the sides of the Sandia mountains, so to account for the slope, our backyard has an upper and lower tier. Our upper tier was already pretty well landscaped. We're mostly just going to add some nice details and finishing touches. The lower tier, however, is most weeds. It is totally overgrown. So my next major project, which will be a lot more work than the front yard was, is to redo this lower tier. I want to plant two fruit trees and put in a compost bin on one side, add a pergola and a fire pit at the bottom of the stairs which lead from the top tier, and put some raised beds and a chicken coop on the other side. I think it'll be really nice when done, but I first have to clear out all the weeds. A note about New Mexico plants: if they can grow here without human assistance, they will almost certainly try to stab you. All the weeds have thorns, needles, or stickers. Just walking down there can be painful, much less weeding. I was planning on taking a fairly long time to get it done, but my partner's father is giving us some stone which I would like to use, so now I would like to try to get it done sooner rather than later.
Lastly, I've coauthored an article for a science and technology magazine. The editors have contingently agreed to publish it based on the pitch, but they reserve the right to reject the draft still since I'm a first time author for them (or any non-academic publication). I'm really excited about this, so I'll try to write an update when I find out about it.
Biggest news: I am Dr. Bouchey now. Despite graduate school being, possibly, my most serious regret I am now done with it. I can now continue to do literally the exact same stuff that I was doing before I finished, but now I can select something new in drop down menus for name prefixes. Really, I expected to feel relieved, or at least a sense of victory. But I just feel bad. I almost don't like that I'm a doctor. I hated so much of graduate school that I wish I could make the whole experience disappear, and even the congratulations just make me feel sick to my stomach. It takes active restraint to not send my diploma through the shredder, because I just want to destroy anything that is even remotely related to graduate school or academia. I hate it. My partner is so openly proud of me, but even that makes me feel so angry I just want to scream at her, which in turn makes me feel awful and ashamed. Whenever I think about I feel literally nauseous. Not really a point to this, just needed to get it off of my chest because I don't feel brave enough to admit this directly to another human, and typing it feels more like just sending it into the void even though I knew exactly who is going to read it :P
Actual good things that are happening: My partner and I joined an adult soccer league through her work. I am very out of shape and that makes me pretty sad, but at least the rest of the team isn't that much better than me, so I just have fun playing.
My partner has been very involved in the local caving grotto. She has been involved in some volunteer restoration work at Carlsbad Caverns as well as mapping, exploration, and restoration at Ft. Stanton cave. She wants to help out with a mapping project for the lava caves at El Malpais, but there just isn't enough time. I've been doing the restoration work at Carlsbad with her, and was just invited to take a trip to do some mapping in Ft. Stanton, which is pretty cool. I enjoy caving, although I would say that if I had my choice of hobbies/pastimes and also the motivation to actually pursue them I would probably spend the time doing something else. However, if I just left caving to her, I wouldn't do something else. I would sit around at home doing nothing and beating myself up over not taking advantage of the time to do something I enjoy. So I let her drag me along and have fun doing stuff with her, which is pretty good!
The xeriscape in the front yard turned out really well. We are situated kind of on the sides of the Sandia mountains, so to account for the slope, our backyard has an upper and lower tier. Our upper tier was already pretty well landscaped. We're mostly just going to add some nice details and finishing touches. The lower tier, however, is most weeds. It is totally overgrown. So my next major project, which will be a lot more work than the front yard was, is to redo this lower tier. I want to plant two fruit trees and put in a compost bin on one side, add a pergola and a fire pit at the bottom of the stairs which lead from the top tier, and put some raised beds and a chicken coop on the other side. I think it'll be really nice when done, but I first have to clear out all the weeds. A note about New Mexico plants: if they can grow here without human assistance, they will almost certainly try to stab you. All the weeds have thorns, needles, or stickers. Just walking down there can be painful, much less weeding. I was planning on taking a fairly long time to get it done, but my partner's father is giving us some stone which I would like to use, so now I would like to try to get it done sooner rather than later.
Lastly, I've coauthored an article for a science and technology magazine. The editors have contingently agreed to publish it based on the pitch, but they reserve the right to reject the draft still since I'm a first time author for them (or any non-academic publication). I'm really excited about this, so I'll try to write an update when I find out about it.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-01 09:45 pm (UTC)Soccer! That's awesome. (I'm definitely in worse shape than I was, something like that would help. Hmm.)
Reflected joy from someone else's experience still valuable. (Perhaps especially when it's partners.)
On that note,
Ooooh, fame and fortune. Fingers crossed.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-02 02:46 am (UTC)On the yardwork front, I am sure our thistles have nothing on New Mexico pointy things in July, but when I de-thistled our front yard last week, I got some pretty nice work gloves at our kroger-glorb for about $15. They claimed to be knife proof and cut down on thistle stabbing by a good 95%. Do recommend.
On chickens, I, um, accidentally turned into a crazy chicken person. And would be HAPPY to talk your ear off about them once you get to the point of being ready for chickens :-)
no subject
Date: 2019-07-12 07:15 pm (UTC)We don't get many thistles weirdly. Goatheads are the big one, and are the only things in our yard capable of piercing my leather work gloves. Another common one is the silver leaf nightshade. I've heard it referred to as the devil's tomato, which seems reasonable. Otherwise just some broad-leaf grasses with spiky leaves and yucca looking things. Fortunately no weed cacti (yet).
I would love to discuss chickens! I'm a bit nervous to get too many until we know we like caring for them. Any recommendations for a good starting number?
no subject
Date: 2019-07-13 02:52 pm (UTC)Four is a good number to start with - not so many as to overwhelm you with eggs, but enough that they can have some of their flocking behaviors. 4 will give you about 18 eggs/week at peak laying, closer to a dozen the year after.
Just double checking that you know that you don't need a rooster to get eggs!
One topic related to chickens that is important to contemplate that a lot of people miss is what is the retirement plan for chickens. Their laying decreases sharply at about 3 years, but they can live a lot longer than that. I personally take the "freezer camp" retirement plan, but we're pretty lucky in having a small-scale processor right in town that will do one or two. Some people just keep them in their old age and that's fine too! Just won't get many eggs.
Any thoughts on which types you like??? Or what color eggs you want? I can make suggestions there too :-)
no subject
Date: 2019-07-16 07:24 pm (UTC)Honestly, we only recently learned the scope of the potential variety of both eggs and chickens! We basically fall in love with whatever the most recent variety we've learned about is. At the moment that is the Silkie, for its very soft and cuddly look, but it'll be something else later I'm sure. Recommendations might help us make a more grounded decision when we get around to getting them.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-18 01:42 pm (UTC)Silkies are ridiculously adorable! They are kind of mediocre layers but could be fun to have one just for the cute factor. They are so little (their eggs are little too), and so floofy. They do tend to go broody at the drop of a hat, though. I've heard they're really friendly, though mine was super skittish from living around so many much bigger chickens (I usually have about 18, and she tended to get beat up). Mine laid white eggs, though there is huge variety in silkie colors so there might be variety in their egg colors too.
My most favorite for social chickens is the red sex-link, sometimes called a Cinnamon Queen. I have four, and they are all super friendly - even though I don't spend much time socializing with my chickens they will all come and eat straight out of my hand. They also tend to be adventurous, which gets them in to trouble sometimes, but they're also smart enough to get themselves back out of it - for example, once in a while one or two of the redheads will adventure up on to the deck, so we look out the upstairs windows and there's a random chicken peeking in. But they know to jump back down into the yard. They lay a light brown egg, and also start laying you get than most (closer to 4 months). Also, being sex-link, you know you'll never accidentally get a rooster.
On the other end of the chickens intelligence scale (limited though it is) are your Ameraucana/Araucanas. My rooster was a purebred Ameraucana, and he got along well enough (besides standard rooster behavior problems), but I hatched out several of his babies last spring and MY LANDS are these babies stupid. It's like they got the adventuring genes without the intelligence to go with them, so I've had to rescue them from trees, corners, twine, etc.
Ameraucana/Araucanas lay blue eggs, but more commonly you'll see Easter Eggers in the stores. My chicken friend calls them the "Kmart special Ameraucanas", they are not purebred (so won't breed true if you breed them, but you're not), but do lay pretty eggs - usually bluish green but can sometimes be pink. I've had several Easter Eggers and they are functional enough, their temperament can be all over the map but I really love seeing the egg colors.
I don't know what lays white eggs besides Leghorns (which I've learned are pronounced "leg-ern", not "leg-horn", in chicken circles), and I do not recommend them. They certainly are very productive but they are INCREDIBLY neurotic birds, not friendly at all.
Let's see... The other breeds I've had are barred rock, australorps, orpington, welsummers and a Copper Maran. Those are all brown layers, though the Welsummers lay a particularly pretty brown with dark brown speckles, and the Copper Maran laid an exceptionally dark egg. Those last two are somewhat uncommon breeds though so usually have to be special ordered from a hatchery rather than picked up someplace local. I am particularly fond of the Barred Rocks for how pretty they look out in the yard.
In retrospect I'm probably not doing very much use for limiting down good chicken options :-)
no subject
Date: 2019-07-12 07:26 pm (UTC)Of note, just heard back from the editors. They said they liked the piece very much, and have decided to accept it for the fall edition! I think we surprised them because academics tend to be very bad popular audience writers. Also I never mentioned the magazine name. Silly me. It's "The New Atlantis." We're writing about nuclear energy policies that might help address climate change. The main argument is that we will need more than light water. That the main barrier to other, better types of reactors is a lack of public trust, and that various public engagement strategies (which we outline) will help to both rebuild public trust and ensure that the mistakes of light water development don't get repeated. I think its a cool piece, and I think it takes a bit of a different angle than usual. A very "hot take," if you will :P