Zombies and bees

Okay, I know this sounds off topic and I suppose it is, but you might as well know I’m a movie lover, and enjoy horror flicks plus I read almost anything I can get my hands on so you may get some book and movie reviews in this blog at times. I found a website which gave a ‘favorite’ list of zombie movies and some of them I hadn’t heard of so I got my hands on several of them and started watching them. One – Dead Alive – a New Zealand film from the 80′s, I had seen but it was very campy and funny so I watched it again.

Now the rest of them were a very big disappointment. Obviously the website owner didn’t have a lot of ‘taste’ in his Zombie movies! I watched 4 of them so far and one was so bad, I just gave up and went on to the next one. Had a catchy title but sure didn’t live up to its promise – Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things. Then I watched Zombie Flesh Eaters. Hmmm, weird title – aren’t all zombies supposed to be flesh eaters? It wasn’t great but it was watchable. Just a quick note – my standards might not be as high as yours so don’t take that as a recommendation. I don’t get regular tv so I watch dvds instead for my entertainment and so I tend to watch anything that is even remotely watchable. The best scene was early on in the movie where a zombie was under water ( they don’t have to breathe right, so they can be underwater forever?) and the zombie fought and bit a shark! The shark lost the fight – sorry, don’t think even a zombie is going to be a match for a shark! And then, altho the shark was definitely bitten, they ignored it and went on to show plenty of the human zombies eating guts and their victims spurting fountains of blood. So….what happened with the shark? Did it turn into a zombie? Are there now thousands of zombie sharks and fish swimming around in the ocean? Who knows….there was a chance to explore new and unusual zombie creations and they ignored it – shame on them. LOL

The last one I watched Dead Meat….I got to watch zombie cows! It’s set in Ireland so the scenery was pretty tho. Yes,it’s true, zombie cows! Totally hilarious altho I don’t think that was their intentions. Supposedly the cows contracted Mad Cow disease and turned into zombie cows and passed it to the humans. Talk about silly! Unless you want to watch it for the zombie cows, I’d give it a pass – JMHO!!

I guess nothing can surpass Romero’s zombie movies – they are still classic and top drawer in my book! And if you like zombie films – well I’m sure you already know about Romero’s films but I might recommend a British series called Dead Set? Interesting one and altho in a way, the Resident Evil series isn’t exactly a zombie movie – they are great in my book – the 4th in the series will be out in September and I’m looking forward to its debut! Dead Snow isn’t bad altho it’s quite slow in the beginning. In case you don’t know, I like sarcastic or humorous zombie movies the best – assuming it’s a decent quality. How about Zombieland? Wasn’t it great? And let’s not forget the whole 28 days series…pretty good! And for funny – try Fido – guaranteed to give you a smile. The absolute best tho for funny is Shawn of the Dead – primo zombie film! Okay – gonna shut up for now on Zombie flicks One of these days we’ll have to discuss vampire flicks too!

Now for the bees – evidently there was a swarm near the house as I haven’t had a bee problem at all this year – I’m allergic to their stings as I nearly died from hundreds of bee stings as a very young girl. So bees and I are not on the best of terms but over the years I’ve managed to learn to live with them – as long as they don’t buzz me and move along somewhere else. Unfortunately there was about a dozen in the house (they came in thru the cat door I think?) and I could not convince them to go out the front door at all – so me and my trusty flyswatter took care of the matter. I have no idea why they wanted to keep buzzing all over me – I do not have on any perfume and I doubt that it’s because I’m so ‘sweet’ – but just can’t take a chance on getting stung so they had to go. Shut the house up – including the cat door – and waited them out – now three hours later, they appear to have moved on and the cat door is opened again – which definitely pleased the cats. And hopefully there will be no more bees for a while — or at least there won’t be any more that think they want to buzz and land on me!!

bees?

Okay, first off, I will say that bees and I do NOT get along - I stepped in a yellowjacket's nest at 7 y/o and nearly died from the stings so consequently I'm allergic to most bee stings....so altho over the years I've learned to be a little less freaked out by bees, I still do not like them buzzing around me! And evidently there was a swarm somewhere near by and I ended up with a dozen or so swarming me in the house! Well, I seriously would have preferred to send them thru the door rather than kill them but I couldn't get them to leave the house nor leave me alone so measures had to be taken....they're dead now. Me and my trusty flyswatter took care of them and I shut up the cat door which was where they were coming in. Now, about 3 hours later, I don't see any more so am beginning to relax and hope the whole thing is over. The cats are happy that I've opened the cat door up again so back to normal. And I'm happy that I didn't end up getting stung!

zombie movies and kittens

I believe I mentioned I help out with a local shelter/rescue right? Well, out of the 3 sets of kittens that I have helped raise, I still have a couple out of the last litter left, one is a tiny little cream colored girl who thinks she's my 'parrot'! She loves to sit on my shoulder as I type or watch tv (or as in this case, do both) and purr in my ear.

Not sure why, but tonite is a 'zombie' movie nite. Am watching 3 old ones - one was called "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" - the acting and 'special effects' were so bad I didn't finish it. No positive recommendations for that one! Next up was Zombie flesh Eaters. Hmmm, weird title - aren't all zombies flesh eaters? It wasn't great but it was watchable. Just a quick note - my standards might not be as high as yours so don't take that as a recommendation. I don't get regular tv so I watch dvds instead. the best scene was early on in the movie where a zombie was under water ( they don't have to breathe right?) and the zombie fought and bit a shark! The shark lost the fight - sorry, don't think even a zombie is going to be a match for a shark! And then, altho the shark was definitely bitten, they ignored it and went on to show plenty of zombies eating guts and their victims spurting fountains of blood. So....what happened with the shark? Did it turn into a zombie? Are there now thousands of zombie sharks and fish swimming around in the ocean? Who knows....there was a now a chance to explore new and unusual zombies and they ignored it - shame on them. LOL

Now I'm watching Dead Meat....and I believe I will get to watch zombie cows! It's set in Ireland so the scenery is pretty tho so far. Can't wait - more later! (later) Yes, zombie cows! Totally hilarious altho I don't think that was their intentions. Supposedly the cows contracted Mad Co disease and turned into zombie cows and passed it to the humans. Talk about silly~!

back to my roots?

First, a little explanation - I grew up quite poor, altho I didn't really know it or think about it much when I was young. I do remember a few things that were funny now, but maybe not so funny then to my parents. Like my mom putting fluffo shortening (which is a yellow color in case you didn't know) on our toast and trying to make us think it was butter. After a bite tho we did not believe her. Her credibility as a cook went down sharply after that (just kidding). We never went hungry but lots of meals were beans and fried potatoes and that was it. I was 'lucky' as far as clothes because my aunt - who was only 5 yrs older than I was - handed down her clothes to me. But I can still remember the thrill of going school clothes shopping and being excited over having something new to wear. I was thrilled to have 3-4 dresses and my new pair of shoes that I got right before school started had to last the entire school year.

But I digress....basically when I was about 10, things changed. Not that the $$ situation got that much better but we moved onto our own place - almost 10A with an old two story house built in the early 1900's, with 4 bedrooms, an old barn, and outbuildings. The place had been empty for years so it needed a whole lot of cleaning and repair but all I really remember about that first summer up there was the fun of having all that room to play and explore. We were the last house on the road and there was nothing but some cattle in pastures around us - the rest was all forest land with wild critters everywhere.

But after the house became liveable, mom and dad started in 'growing' our own food - putting in a huge garden, we had a milk cow, raised pigs and chickens....it was wonderful! I really didn't like weeding the garden but feeding the critters was fun. I learned early that if you want to eat well during the winter, then you worked hard during the summer, put up everything you could get your hands on and tada! Food for most of the winter. With the cow came fresh milk and cream and homemade butter. She was bred to a hereford bull each time and so each spring she provided us with a young calf that would grow up to be our meat for the next year. We bought piglets and raised them til of a size to butcher and of course the chickens provided us with some meat but mostly eggs. The entire family would plan for a buying trip to Eastern WA to the orchards in late summer/early fall to pick and bring home fruit to put up for the winter. I loved those trips and the resulting boxes of fresh fruit.....yum, apples, pears, peaches etc. We had our own cherry trees and actually some apple trees but the poor trees had been neglected for so long they needed a lot of pruning and cleaning up before they would return to producing. Actually they were so very old that they never did do much good - just the cherry trees did.

One of the best things about having those acres was I could have a horse! It was always a 'hand me down' horse from my aunt who, with several other gals her age, had a team that went around the area competing in play days. I ended up with a pretty bay called Ricky T, half arab, half quarterhorse, who didn't like to be caught but once caught, was fine and was the best ride in the world. He would let me stand on his back and pick cherries as long as I gave him one every so often. Solid as a rock, that horse was - I miss him to this day.

The point of all this is that I was raised to grow and preserve my own food - a way of life that only a small percentage of people still embrace. Even after I was married and had kids - I still canned and preserved stuff, made my own bread etc. I can remember my son telling friends that he didn't even know about store bought bread until he was 7 and in school LOL

After the kids were grown and gone, I fell into the trap that so many do - 'instant' type food and very little that didn't come from the grocery store. Shame on me. With all the information out there regarding the dangers of pesticides, and additives to our food, it's not a healthy way of life - so hence the desire to return to my roots and grow/raise whatever foods I can. One other reason is that I am over 60, disabled and on SSD - which sure as heck does not leave a lot of $$ to buy foodstuffs if you want to keep a roof over your head. So time to rethink my priorities and get back to basics.

Right now I'm living in Arkansas, but planning to return to WA state before the end of the year and hopefully will be able to find a place where I can put in a decent sized garden and hopefully keep some chickens. Western WA is a pretty good place to live - except for the constant rain - and it's got a great attitude toward 'green' living too. Really looking forward to returning to my roots both in where I was raised and how I was raised!!