January 1th. 2026

[mousme]

 1-State of the Phnee

 

A shorter post tonight, I think. Yesterday’s got away from me, but today has mostly consisted of sleeping after my night shift. I was very, very tired after my OT because I hadn’t had the opportunity to take a nap right before work, so I got home, fed and watered the quail, and then (metaphorically) swan-dived into my bed for some mostly restful sleep.
 

Of course, I had to wake up early to meet with Mary from Ministry & Counsel to discuss the presentation we want to do reporting on the “Conflict in Meetings” workshop we attended last year, so I am not as well rested as I’d like. We had a really nice conversation, though, and have a game plan for the next week for how we’re going to manage the workload between us. Mary is a lovely woman, and I am hoping she and I will be able to get to know each other better in the coming months.

 

After that I improvised some dinner in the form of leftover goose, rice, and chicken broth for a not-quite soup. It was not as good as if I’d properly cooked it, but it was quick, easy, and tasted fine. If I have more time tomorrow, I may cook it properly in a pot, maybe with some aromatics, and see if that improves it at all.

 

One of my new coworkers is from Ukraine and he brought me homemade borscht for my late-night meal. I am very excited about this because I loooove borscht and rarely make it myself because KK doesn’t like it. My coworker makes his with pork, whereas my recipe is vegetarian, so I am very curious to see what it’ll taste like. As a thank you I brought him a carton of 18 quail eggs, because he’d mentioned before that he was interested in acquiring some from me. The girls aren’t laying super consistently because it’s winter, but I have more than enough quail eggs for now, so I’m happy to hand them out to folks who appreciate them.

 

My new treadmill also arrived while I was asleep! I haven’t had the chance to unpack it yet, so I will likely do that when I get home tomorrow and maybe give it a try in the evening after I’ve slept. I learned the hard way many, many years ago that trying to train or do exercise right after my night shifts is a recipe for disaster—I need to sleep before trying anything like that or I hurt myself. The last time, I was working with a trainer, and he was having me do the bench press. He put a weight on that normally I could manage with no trouble, and the next thing I knew, one of my arms buckled and I nearly brained myself with the bench press because the damned thing fell sort of backward. Anyway, the trainer was spotting me, so he grabbed the bar and all was well, but it was a definite learning moment. In short, I will sleep and THEN I will try the new treadmill. Yay!

 

2-State of the smallholding

 

I got seven eggs from the quail (in two days, I didn’t check for eggs yesterday, but still!) and Pixie stole one right off the table and ate it because she is a hooligan who can’t be trusted. *sigh* So far, the quail seem to be still doing okay, even though I am now super paranoid ever since the last female died because I just don’t know why it happened. With all the others I could make an educated guess (they got cold and wet, they overheated, they got snagged by a dog, etc.), but this death remains a mystery, so I don’t know what mitigating measures I should be taking. It’s all very frustrating. But yay, eggs!

 

I need to do some shoveling tomorrow if the weather holds up. I noticed things were warming up again today a little bit, which is perfect for shoveling because it means the snow will be wetter and I won’t have to fight with a layer of ice on the bottom. #CanadianProblems, amirite? 

 

3-State of the news

 

It kind of feels like more of the same, which is both good and bad. Good, because it means there hasn’t been a new fresh hell to add to the previous fresh hells, but bad because the previous fresh hells are still going strong.

 

Trump has apparently declared the USMCA to be “irrelevant,” possibly forgetting that he took all the credit for negotiating it the last time he was in power. He’s basically throwing a temper tantrum because Carney is negotiating for trade with China, as far as I can tell

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Iran is cracking down on protesters with a swiftness and ferocity that is breathtaking and terrifying. It has classified protesters and dissidents as “foreign agents” that need to be “dealt with.” Drones, CCTV surveillance, signal jammers, and a metric fuckton of propaganda have been their anti-protest tools of choice, according to CNN. They’re using the drones to spy on and record people in their homes, which is especially chilling, and managed a complete internet blackout almost instantaneously with military-grade signal blockers. State television also aired a report from a morgue showing rows of body bags, presumably as an attempt to deter more people from going into the streets to protest. And Trump, of course, is fanning the flames by posting inflammatory things on Truth Social, with no regards for the consequences of his actions.

 

The Narwhal is suing the RCMP in BC, alleging that they violated the rights of Amber Bracken, a photojournalist, when they arrested her in November 2021 while she was covering the RCMP trying to evict protesters from a camp on Wet’suwet’en territory. Alert readers may not even remember these protests because they were overshadowed by the [censored] Freedom Convoy’s antics in January of 2022, but for a couple of months this was a really big deal. The RCMP had tried to impose an “exclusion zone” that tried to bar people from the camp (including journalists, importantly) so that Coastal GasLink could build their pipeline without being bothered by pesky water protectors and other indigenous people. They arrested Bracken and seized all her equipment (camera, computer, etc.) and held her for three days before releasing her without laying any charges. This is going to be a precedent-setting case about people’s right to protest and the press’ right to cover the protests, so I will be watching the outcome with some interest.

 

Catch you on the flip side, friends!