I was reading Ben's blog this morning, and was about to reply to it; but what I had to contribute was much more than a reply.

Time Management is such a pain in the neck. For many, many reasons. For Ben, being a SysAdmin and in his line of work, his analogy of keeping all the plates spinning is very appropriate. He has a billion things going on constantly, and it has been this way ever since I have known him. But perfecting the system of the day has been a long and arduous task which has involved many books by many people who are trying to figure out how to improve their successes throughout the day without losing their humanity and simply becoming a machine. How can you be creative, engineering, visionary and productive...and not get side tracked?

Fortunately for me, I get to ride on the coattails of what Ben has learned. I don't think I have ever looked at a book by David Allen and thoughtfully said, "Why yes, I would love to hear what he has to say," because in my head I'm already screaming, "You have no idea what my day is like! You have a desk, and you have an entire chapter devoted to organizing your desk! I have a HOUSE, and the chances of it being organized are zilch!"

But I know he has the best of intentions, and I have to put aside my pride and indignation and listen to what Ben reports back (I'm not going to read the books, so I get summaries). So I've tried moleskins, I've tried the Covey system. I have a day planner with lots of indexes. That was helpful when I was the Coordinator for a MOPS group, I'll say that; or when I was involved/in charge of other external things. But since we have had 2 more lovely children, and I'm homeschooling 2 kids now, I have wisely decided to not take over external things for now. I'm backing off the Tamarah-Express and staying home, recharging, devoting my time to our home.

I figure it's like this: you go out and buy a Ferrari. I would buy a black Ferrari, to tell the truth. Red is more "Ferrari"-y, but a black Ferrari is just...mmm. Like a black stallion of power. Okay, getting distracted...

So let's say you buy a Ferrari. It's fan-tastic. So you get 3 more, all in different colors (yes, I have seen light blue Ferraris, and although it's an abomination, someone loves it). If you had 4 Ferraris at your house, would you hire 4 drivers to enjoy the cars for you all day? "Here are the keys, have fun, don't drive them too hard. And make sure you tell them I love them while I'm away."

Of course not, that's ridiculous. You'd enjoy each car as much as you could. The black car is your night out car, the yellow car is your shopping car, the pale blue car you take to shows just to get under people's skins, and the red car you take on the back roads.

So why would I have kids and leave them with someone else? "Here is my beautiful Nova. She enjoys telling amazing stories and pretending to be a snorkeling princess. She can figure things out you weren't expecting, but once you realize this has happened, she has moved on and created a world for her paintbrushes and colored pencils to live in harmony together on her pink desk. I am going to be in a gray office all day to miss all these stories, so I hope you enjoy them for me!" Or Glenn: "This is my engineer. He will hear most of what you say to him, but in his mind he is reconstructing your face out of Legos. If you can get him to sit down to work, he will do everything right the first time. But if he didn't hear your instructions, he will be halfway through the paper figuring things out the way he thinks it will work best. He is extremely sensitive, but he is also a robot dinosaur rocketship extraordinaire, so be careful. If he doesn't like you, he'll build a rocket and put you in it with a stegasaurus and blast you to Island 28." or Conrad: "Conrad is smarter than all of our Presidents, combined. Oh sure, he's 18 months now...but I guarantee if you bought him a lock picking set for his birthday, he'd get into Fort Knox in 30 minutes. Maybe 10. It all depends on if he has a full sippy cup of milk or not. But you will see the gleam in his eye throughout the day, and you will realize that he's not smiling because he's happy: he's smiling because he understands." And my lovely Eve: "She is 4 months old now, but she has the strength and attention of a 7 month old. She will not be pushed idly in a stroller where she cannot see the world go by: she will get out of the straps and push herself up, and quietly enjoy seeing what world she has been brought into. She will be the quietly insightful girl of the bunch, so don't underestimate what you say to her. Everything will be logged away behind her sparkling blue eyes, and her smile may vanish."

That is absurd. How could I possibly leave these 4 beautiful Ferraris in the hands of anyone else? We are fortunate to be able to survive in California on one income, and there is nothing that could rip me away from my job here. The time I invest in these children is time I invest in myself.

Which gets us back to time management: how does a mother, who was graced with her father's organizational skills (and I use that term loosely), manage a house that will be utilitarian enough to function, creative enough to prosper fruits, tender enough to comfort the souls ...and still have clean carpets? (who invented cream carpets. Seriously)

So I am not a Covey person. I am a binder person. I need it a little bigger and a little less formal than beautiful maroon leather. My binder, which I have named, "Tamarah's Most Awesome House Binder," can get wiped off if coffee or baby cereal gets dropped on it. I can move the pages around, and doodle in the margins (doodling is serious business. Don't fool yourself.)

My big breakthrough was finding this site: Organized Home: Printable Pages I have done AMAZING things since this breakthrough...in the Grocery Shopping tab, I have written everything I normally buy at Trader Joe's and cost-compared it to fully utilize how much I'm spending, and where I can do better. For instance, since I already have everything written down, when I make my shopping list, I can have a good idea of how much I am going to spend at the store. I shoot for $150 to cover a week and a half, and around $200 at Costco for bulk things to cover 2 weeks. This system has helped us save tons of money buying food.

On the Daily To Do lists, I have separated the days into "Kids" and "Me," to make sure I am taking care of what the kids/house needs, but also to make sure I am nourishing myself throughout the day as well. Just as Ben is not an automated robot in his job, blindly assuming all I "should" do during the day is cleaning and laundry is ridiculous. I am also re-reading "Mists of Avalon," "Lost on Planet China," I am learning Mandarin and I just finished sewing a dress for myself this week (it turned out GREAT).

One of the most important things I've learned is how to compartmentalize the house:

The Front Room is the learning center. My sewing desk is in there, the kids' school desks are in there, and school work/posters go on the walls here. This room is for academic activity.

The Library contains the books, school supplies, and two computer desks, along with Legos. This room is primarily for the kids' computer time, and holding supplies.

The Living Room has some toys, the TV and game system. This room is for relaxing and playing.

The kitchen is not only for eating, but is a supplementary academic source for when I need to re-focus the kids with school. Sometimes getting out of the Front Room is necessary, just to not get in a rut. We do science and history projects at the kitchen table, sometimes math when I use dry-erase markers on the windows...sometimes we write stories on the sliding door.

The bedrooms are mostly for sleeping, but occasionally the kids build forts and play in there.

I have found if you put boundaries on the house, it is just as useful as when you put boundaries around yourself (thank you Cloud/Townsend!). It doesn't make any sense to have a free-for-all in a home while you're homeschooling. If there are no boundaries and there is no order, then there is no structure. And that's just silly.

But organizing the day, I go by hours. When you're organizing kids, you really can't say "between 9-12, they will do this," because 3 hours is a long time for little kids. 40 minutes is a good time frame, but I push my kids to work in hour blocks. This is my Daily Agenda:

Time Task

8:00 Breakfast

8:30 Get Dressed

9:00 School

12:00 Lunch

12 - 1 Outside Play

1 - 2 Computer Time

2 - 4 Nap (Glenn) Reading (Nova)

5:00 Bath

5 - 7 TV Time

7:00 Dinner

8:30 Reading Time

9:00 Bedtime

Not *every* day is like this. You have to be flexible for deviations, like Awanas or doctors appointments. My term for how I manage my time is "Organic Organization." Sometimes it isn't perfect, but it's flexible within parameters. That is the foundation for making a home work: you are not Martha Stewart and you are not June Cleaver. No one is writing you a script to follow and no one is polishing your pearls so they look perfect while you vacuum (although I would suggest you vacuum in pearls at least once. I have, and it's fun). You are a real-world mother raising real kids with real situations that aren't going to be solved in an hour with commercial breaks. And if you're reading this, then you also aren't a delicate flower willing to accept reality as you see it: you are a conqueror not only of your day, but also of your destiny.

That's right. I said DESTINY. If you can't say that and summon a gusting wind from the Alps to rush through your hair and lightning bolts to coarse through the sky...then you're not saying it right. Try it again.

Anyway, I think that's a pretty good review of how I organize my home for now. I have to get the kitchen cleaned a little bit so Ben can make us awesome omelettes and cantaloupe slices, and I think I need a new pot of coffee by now.

Enjoy the day!

Since feeding my family is my job, I like to be aware of exactly what I'm feeding them. If you've been following this blog, you've seen the research I've been doing with meat in America. Some has been frightening, some has been refreshing.

But I started to notice that there are food recalls every so often. I started bookmarking the links whenever I ran into them; and I never searched for the articles. If they landed on my news page, I saved them. So here are the food recalls for the past two months:

66,000 Pounds of Bison

Walmart chicken nuggets

380,000 pounds of meat

1,000,000 pounds of ground beef

Half a BILLION eggs

(which are being used elsewhere, even though they're recalled: The producers responsible for a recall of some 550 million potentially tainted eggs have found another outlet for the inventory that just keeps coming: They’ll turn them into liquid eggs used in everything from cookies and cakes to egg substitutes and pet food.

Patricia El-Hinnawy, a spokeswoman for the federal Food and Drug Administration, confirmed Wednesday that Wright County Eggs and Hillandale Farms will send ongoing supplies of eggs from laying hens to so-called "breaking plants" to be processed and sold.")

So there ya go. So much waste.

Since my research on this, we have stopped buying ground beef that is not organic and from businesses I can look up. No more processed meat. Lots more whole chickens from Foster Farms (this was just an economic reason: a whole chicken can feed our family, and we make soup from the carcass). Produce from Trader Joes or the local Farmer's Market. Eggs from a neighboring city.

Yes, it's a little more work; but as I said...this is my job. Wouldn't you try to be exemplary for your job?

Plus, if we are going to make a change in a capitalist society, change always begins with the consumer. You don't need to form protests to make a difference: Make a difference with where you send your dollars.

Tonight we had the BEST hamburgers. It's definitely out of the norm for typical houses, but for some of you more experimental foodies, here is what I did (with some philosophy thrown in...that's free):

First you start with "Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Comfort Foods" cookbook. This book is a little tricky, in that the recipes require specific flour blends; such as the "Four Flour Blend," or the "Potato Bread Blend," or the "Featherlight Blend." But you have to make these yourself, and the recipes for these are in the front of the book. I have these in large, labeled glass containers in my gluten free cupboard for quick use.

So, it's a BIT of a hassle. But if you're Celiac, everything is a hassle. And these mixes make a load of difference. Not only do the results *taste* like bread, but they taste like bread the *second day* as well. For those of you who have tried GF cooking, you realize how staggering this statement is. No more toasting everything twice to make something edible.

This being said: I used the Potato Bread recipe and made buns (I cooked it for half the time, so it was only 30 minutes in the oven). For the meat: I used 2 pounds of organic ground beef ($6/lbs at Trader Joes). I used a mortar and pestle (you can get one at Bed, Bath & Beyond for $19) to grind a few basil leaves from my plant with kosher salt, then threw that into the beef before I made patties.

We added lettuce, tomatoes and sliced jack cheese and were completely stuffed after one hamburger. What is remarkable to us (Ben and I) is how significant home made food is, comparatively to store bought food. I bought a Costco pizza this afternoon (it's a work day, so we're hungry and tired), and it was devoured. But one home made hamburger and we all need the couch.

(and for the economists out there: I made 9 patties, about 2 dozen buns...so you figure $12 for meat, about $8 for the buns, and less than $5 total for all the produce...that's about $25 for a full meal, plus leftovers for a family of 5. That's GOOD.)

For me, as the leader of domestic issues and arrangements, making dough from scratch and eating the results is significantly more fulfilling than using store-bought buns. I know this is a small issue in the realm of the universe...but this is my job, and I love my job. I do many things during the day: I homeschool a 2nd grader, a Kindergartener; I tend to a newborn and a toddler; I have my paintings on our walls and my poetry in books and journals on our bookshelves....but I am also in charge of the carpets, the laundry, the meals, the schedules, the dishes, the windows (etcetcetc). And even though any ol' person can do those, they aren't in charge of them in *my* house.

In *my* house, I rule my sphere. Ben is the ruler of the public sphere, and I own the private. This is where I find my identity, and this is where I glean satisfaction in life. When I lay down at night, I think of the adventures we have had during the day, and I think of the plans for the next. We explore so many things every day, I am in wonder constantly. Whoever thinks this job is for the meek is clearly delegating too much of it away.

Great leaders not only lead: Great leaders have visions for leading. This is what distinguishes wives from maids. Anyone can make hamburgers. You could easily get preformed patties and Rainbow hamburger buns. But if you really love your job...if you really love your life, I suggest some artisan hamburgers.

It's your life. Add some basil.

Okay, this blog may have interesting bits, but it's completely unfocused. I've been resisting the compulsion to write about what I do...because there are so many other blogs already which address and explore homeschooling and motherhood.

But dang it: I'm good at what I do. So I'm going to write about what I've found, and to heck with the redundancy.

That's right. I even said heck.

So tomorrow's a new day with fresh outlines! Go me!

Okay, so I like...need to get on this. And I will! So hang in there!

We just got back from the Stanislaus County Faire, and we have a lot of really good and useful information about meat. We're processing it right now, but in the meantime I wanted to finish with the notes I have collected.

The final summary I have come to is this: I am really not pleased with the mass butchering of cows and pigs. It's not safe, it's not healthy for the workers, it's not entirely humane (a lot of cows and pigs are skinned alive, drowned in scalding water, etc...same goes for chickens at Tyson), and it's not good food practice. I have been so put off by how the meat is prepared, I haven't bought meat I didn't know about.

For example: Foster Farms Chicken. This is a SUPER company, and I have found NOTHING against them. They have good breeding and housing practices with the chickens with open barns...instead of the blackout houses Tyson uses. I love Foster Farms, and I greatly value their dedication to raising animals. I ran into them at the faire, and they had a few turkeys with them. Very nice gentlemen, but I didn't have any questions for him by then.

So, most of what is below is from wikipedia...I think. Some isn't. The amount of information on this subject is just monumental, and these are my unadulterated notes...so they're not entirely labeled or cited. I'm just posting this for anyone who is interested in the subject.

My goals for this research (before you begin reading): I want to know where the animals come from, where they go, how they are killed and how the meat is processed.

What I have found (another quick summary) is that most/all ground beef comes from a variety of different plants from a variety of different countries. Unless you buy ground beef from a local ranch or a specific small brand, the meat will be a mix of many different cows from many different fields/states/countries.

For example, Swift & Company, today JBS USA, is the wholly-owned subsidiary of JBS S.A. (BM&F Bovespa:JBSS3), a Brazilian company that is the world's third-largest processor of fresh beef and pork, with nearly US$10 billion in annual sales as of 2007. It is also the largest beef processor in Australia....so Swift is now a Brazillian company. Everything under Swift is a Brazilian product, even if it's raised in America somewhere

Swift & Company is based in Greeley, Colorado. Its competitors include Cargill, Smithfield Foods, and Tyson Foods. In 2007, it was acquired by Brazilian JBS S.A..

So, we haven't bought ground beef since we discovered this. That's just too ambiguous for me. Chicken we get from Foster Farms. Pork: I have found one company, Niman Ranch in Northern Marin, who is a fantastic Pig Ranch. Every single other place is hell on earth. It's just bizarre, and I'm not happy with my findings (yet). So okay...here are my crazy notes. More notes from the faire coming up soon...and they are POSITIVE! I know this is all quite a bit of a downer, but that's just how it is. There's light at the end of the tunnel (Thanks to Dr. Temple).

Tyson

IBP, Inc., formerly known as Iowa Beef Processors, Inc., now Tyson Fresh Meats, is now an American meat packing company based in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota, USA. IBP was the United States' biggest beef packer and its number two pork processor until it was acquired by Tyson Foods in 2001 for US$3.2 billion in cash and stock. To reflect the company's multiple operations, the company changed its name to Iowa Beef Processors, Inc. in 1970. After the company expanded operations to pork and other areas, Iowa Beef Processors, Inc., became IBP, Inc.

The original IBP features prominently in Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation as the company that closed down the Chicago meatpacking district as a result of its industrial practices. Founded as Iowa Beef Packers, Inc. in March 17, 1960 by Currier J. Holman and A.D. Anderson, it opened its first slaugherhouse in Denison, Iowa, and eliminated the need for skilled workers. In 1967, IBP introduced boxed beef and pork, which were vacuum packed and in smaller portions. It was a new option then, when the traditional method of shipping product was in whole carcass form. The boxed meat also saved energy and transportation costs by eliminating the shipment of fat, bones and trimmings.

According to its website: The principal activities of the Group are meat processing, primarily involved in cattle and hog slaughter, beef and pork fabrication, and related allied product processing activities, and the production of precooked meats for the retail and foodservice industries. The segments of the Company are: 1) BEEF CARCASS - in this segment Company reduces live fed cattle to dressed carcasses and other allied products, 2) BEEF PROCESSING - produces fresh beef and processed beef, 3) PORK SEGMENT - reduces live hogs to fresh and processed pork products that are sold in the form of boxed pork, 4) FOODBRANDS AMERICA - produces frozen and refrigerated food products for the foodservice industry, and 5) OTHERS - includes Company's trucking and warehousing operations, Canadian beef operations, and hide curing and tanning operations. Beef processing accounted for 48% of 2000 reveues; Foodbrands America, 19%; pork, 14%; beef carcass, 7% and other, 12%.

"A $24-billion operation, Tyson supplies about 25 billion pounds of chicken, beef, and pork per year to McDonald's, Wal-Mart, and most major supermarket and restaurant chains in the United States."

007: "The company issued a recall of 40,000 pounds of beef in 12 states. The recalled meat was sold at Wal-Mart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The company decided to take this action after samples tested at its Texas plant revealed E. coli O157:H7 contamination. This form of E. coli is a potentially deadly bacterium that causes bloody diarrhea and dehydration, and possibly death. Young children, the elderly and people with compromised immune systems face the most danger from E. coli." [2]

2007-2008: "In 2007, Tyson began labeling and advertising its chicken products as "Raised without Antibiotics." After being advised by the USDA that Tysonâs use of bacteria-killing ionophores in unhatched eggs constituted antibiotic use, Tyson and the USDA compromised on rewording Tysons slogan as "raised without antibiotics that impact antibiotic resistance in humans." Tyson competitors Purdue Farms and Sanderson Farms sued, claiming that Tysons claim violated truth-in-advertising/labeling standards. In May 2008, a federal judge ordered Tyson to stop using the label. In June 2008, USDA inspectors discovered that Tyson had also been using gentamicin, an antibiotic, in eggs. USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety Richard Raymond claimed that the company hid the use of this antibiotic from federal inspectors, claiming that the use of this chemical is standard industry practice. Tyson agreed to voluntarily remove its raised without antibiotics label in future packaging and advertising."

So, in truth, Tyson has never raised antibiotic-free chickens.

 History of IBP and boxed meats, as well as the continuous contamination of eColi in meats due to harvesting unusable meat from carcases and calling it food

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/money_17.html



Feedlots

One of the first entrepreneurs to take advantage of these factors was a Safeway supermarket executive in California, Dwight Cochran. He noticed that his firm couldn't get enough Prime cuts, so he resigned from Safeway and organized a publicly held company, the Kern County Land Co. It didn't grow land, but grew cattle on land near Bakersfield 35,000 to 50,000 head at one time. It was one of the first large feedlots. The firm turned to the latest research into cattle nutrition to fatten cattle "according to rigid specifications," as the company's publicity put it.

Others followed into the feedlot business. Between 1940 and 1969, the number of cattle on farms nearly doubled, from 60,818 to over 106,000 head. But the number of farms producing cattle dropped by around three-quarters, from 4.85 million farms with cattle in 1940 to 1.7 million farms in 1969.

The first large feedlot on the Great Plains a region that traditionally led the nation in cattle production was the Lewter Feed Yard near Lubbock, Texas. Fred Lewter had been a county agent before he started the feedlot in 1955 with the help of Dallas investor. (Early feedlot operators often found it difficult to convince a bank that this new type of operation could make money.) On 125 acres, they built a feed mill, storage tanks and pens for up to 34,000 head of cattle. Their nutrition regimen included milo, some silage, mineral salt, calcium, phosphorus and the new growth hormone DES, diethylstilbestrol. (DES would later be banned as a cancer-causing agent.)

Pork & Smithfield

Smithfield Foods, Inc. is the worlds largest pork producer and processor.[1] Its headquarters are in Smithfield, Virginia, with operations in 26 states and 9 countries. The company raises 14 million hogs a year and processes 27 million. The company produced 5.9 billion pounds of pork and 1.4 billion pounds of fresh beef in 2006.

Smithfield started as Smithfield Packing Company, now its largest subsidiary, and grew by acquiring companies such as Farmland Foods, Eckrich, and Premium Standard Farms. Smithfield has many familiar brands including Butterball, John Morrell, Gwaltney, Patrick Cudahy, Krakus Ham, Cook's Ham, and Stefanos.

In February 2009, the company announced that it planned to close six plants and to reduce the number of its independent operating companies from seven to three.[2]

The Kill Floor:

Kill-floor work is hot, quick and bloody. The hog is herded in from the stockyard, then stunned with an electric gun. It is lifted onto a conveyor belt, dazed but not dead, and passed to a waiting group of men wearing bloodstained smocks and blank faces. They slit the neck, shackle the hind legs and watch a machine lift the carcass into the air, letting its life flow out in a purple gush, into a steaming collection trough. The carcass is run through a scalding bath, trolleyed over the factory floor and then dumped onto a table with all the force of a quarter-ton water balloon. In the misty-red room, men slit along its hind tendons and skewer the beast with hooks. It is again lifted and shot across the room on a pulley and bar, where it hangs with hundreds of others as if in some kind of horrific dry-cleaning shop. It is then pulled through a wall of flames and met on the other side by more black men who, stripped to the waist beneath their smocks, scrape away any straggling bristles. The place reeks of sweat and scared animal, steam and blood. Nothing is wasted from these beasts, not the plasma, not the glands, not the bones. Everything is used, and the kill men, repeating slaughterhouse lore, say that even the squeal is sold.

Companies of Smithfield:

� The Smithfield Packing Company, Inc.

� Cumberland Gap Provision Co.

� Smithfield Specialty Foods Group

� John Morrell & Co.

� Armour-Eckrich Meats, LLC

� Curly's Foods, Inc.

� Patrick Cudahy, Inc.

� Farmland Foods, Inc.

� Cook's Ham, Inc.

� North Side Foods Corp.

� Stefano Foods, Inc.

Exports

� Smithfield Foods International Group

Turkey

� Butterball, LLC 1

� Carroll's Foods LLC

International

� Campofrío Food Group (Europe) 1

� Animex (Poland)

� Smithfield Prod (Romania)

� Smithfield Foods, Ltd. (U.K.)

� Norson (Mexico) 2

Hog Production

Domestic Hog Production

� Murphy-Brown, LLC

� Premium Standard Farms, LLC

International Hog Production � AgriPlus (Poland) � Smithfield Ferme (Romania) � Granjas Carroll de México (Mexico) � Norson (Mexico)

Smithfield Pigs

Intensive piggeries (or hog lots) are a type of factory farm specialized in the raising of domestic pigs up to slaughter weight. In this system of pig production, grower pigs are housed indoors in group-housing or straw-lined sheds, whilst pregnant sows are confined in sow stalls (gestation crates) and give birth in farrowing crates.

Pigs are kept in large stalls with large numbers of pigs per square metre. The temperature is raised which allows the pig to spend less energy on keeping its body heat at the right temperature so it gets fat quicker enabling the process to be much more efficient.

Smithfield Turkeys: Butterball

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z14IWbUC1J4

Butterball turkeys are killed using a process that involves hanging live birds by their legs, shocking them in an electrified bath of water so that they become paralyzed (though they still feel pain), slitting their throats, and then running them through a tank of scalding-hot water for defeathering. Because Butterball's current slaughter method gives workers access to live birds, the animals often suffer when workers become frustrated or bored and desensitized, as was the case at this Butterball plant and the other poultry plants that PETA has investigated.

Even though they constitute more than 98 percent of the land animals eaten in the United States, birds are excluded from coverage under the only federal law designed to protect animals during slaughter, the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA).

I'm all over the place with this blog lately....from ground beef to fictionalizing Wil Wheaton in a clown sweater atop a unicorned-kitten fighting an ogre, all the way to The Rockwood House Rules.

So welcome to what Ben has to go through trying to have a linear conversation with me

The other day a friend came over with her little boy, but the boy has trouble minding himself (we could say). Good kid, just hard to reign in. So I wrote up house rules, just to try and give some guidance and accountability for what we allow in the house here. Plus, it'll be good for my kids just to have it written down. I've already used it once with them, showing them which rule they've broken. A couple people have asked me to email it to them (cause it's a freaking awesome list!), and I thought I would share, just in case anyone else had always had it in the back of their minds to do, but never got around to it.

So here goes:

Rockwood House Rules

1. Honor God with your behavior and actions

2. Honor your parents with your behavior and actions

3. Respect things what belongs to yourself and others

4. Respect other people with kindness

5. Do not hurt each other

6. Do not use bad language

7. Do not steal

8. Do not lie

9. Take responsibility for your behavior and actions

10. Accept the consequences for your behavior and actions

"For the benefit of the Lupus Alliance of America, John Scalzi, Wil Wheaton and Subterranean Press are running a fan fiction contest, in which contestants write a 400 to 2,000 word story describing the picture.." on their site: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/05/30/fanfic-contest/

So, here's my entry:

Brac the Mighty

by Tamarah Rockwood

The Wizard tugged on his beard.

“This will be a difficult journey. The road alone will be too much for me to bear. I will not be able to complete it, especially beyond the peaks of the range.” the old man gazed across the hidden lake, “Maybe in a younger year, I could have weathered the task.”

He looked at Tynan and decided: “We must find another.”

These were the words that began the warrior’s three day trek from the gleaming city of Rahargha to the mountains which protected the humans from creatures looming on the horizon; namely, the Orcs. He was given a strong male Nokota horse named Tynan to carry him through the Vynallathan Mountains.

Tynan met Derium after he had wandered across the vast, mystical plains of Derium’s winter lodgings. He was a horse as wise as he was swift, and the two became comfortable companions quickly, taking many journeys together across the lands. This was why Tynan was chosen to accompany Brac for this adventure: he remembered the land better than even the best map-makers in Rahargha’s palace.

Brac leaned forward in the leather saddle and inspected the nearing mountain ridge. The climb was steeper than he anticipated, and they would have to break at the edge of dusk for safe travels.

“Tynan, we will set camp at the flat just before the ridge. Darkness falls too quickly to continue.”

“As you wish.” Tynan slowed his pace enough to catch his breath. He had been over this ridge a few times with Derium, but the wizard was not laden with the heavy muscles this warrior wore on his bones. A break will be more than welcome.

Brac was not a young fighter, but he was many years away from having to farm land for a living. His father died as the commander of Rahargha’s army, fighting the militia of Orcs who lived on the East side of the Vynallathans. The Vynall River began it’s serpentine route in the valley where the Orcs settled, and too often they poisoned the water with corpses slaughtered from their clans’ infighting. Honor was as deep in this valley as the pit of lava coursing through the center of the earth in Mt. Cariegh, which sat dormant just behind the village. The Raharghan King lost his eldest son one summer from poisoned water, and waged a brutal war on the Orcs.

Brac’s father ended the 11 year war by bludgeoning the leader of the Orc’s militia in the temple during peace proceedings. It began as a meeting between military leaders, but quickly led to disagreements of terms. After Brac’s father was shot with an Orc’s arrow in his left shoulder from a sniper archer, the meeting suddenly became a fight between two highly trained soldiers, and opportunity was the open door for the human. Unfortunately for him, though, the Orc commander gleaned his own open window and placed a deep slice into his opponent’s right thigh with a dagger poisoned with his own blood.

The man died in his tent with his skin ripping off in agonizing green strips as his human blood rejected the contaminated flesh as the infection spread over his body. It was a gruesome death, and his body was burned on a pyre to prevent any further contamination from his overly exposed body. The honor of a military funeral was done symbolically for his widow, but his ashes were tossed to sea.

Brac was a lad of 12 at the time, and the pain of his father’s death had thrust itself father than the sharpest spear into his heart. After the war, he walked away to the West corner of the plains where the Ovell Cliffs guarded the coast 500 feet below. He stared at the glistening ocean until the roar of the waves drowned out the roar of battle. After four years of living in brushwood shanties, Brac returned to a smaller neighboring village. But he did not return as the son of a commander. After four years in the woods, hunting boar with spears he crafted with his own leathered hands, his muscles ached for a greater purpose than wrestling feral pigs. His blood screamed for justice at his father’s death.

He returned as a mercenary.

-----

Derium tapped his briar pipe with his knuckle and slowly drew in a thin stream of peppered smoke. Even with his extensive knowledge of magic from distant lands and far away times, he could never keep the embers hot in his pipe.

“Blast this thing,” he muttered as he shuffled through pages of maps in the palace library. “I will more likely set these books on fire than relight this confounded mess I keep prodding.”

He puffed the long stem and found an old map of the Eastern valley.

“There,” Berium put his calloused finger on the yellowed paper, “there is where Brac must fight Marlangh if he is to win.” His eyes looked over the pass at the base of Mount Cariegh, “And who knows when Our Lady Cariegh will awaken.”

----

“My lord, the sun is rising soon,” Tynan nudged the sleeping man with his dusty gray nose. “ We must move if we are to intercept the Orc camp.”

“Yes, yes.” Brac slowly stood to his feet. The granite rocks hardly provided the best night’s sleep before battle, but it was better than fighting weary.

Brac walked to the top of the peak and looked at the towering mountain and smelled a small whiff of sulfur.

“Tynan, when was the last year Careigh grew impatient?”

“Well over 50 years, my lord. Berium and his Northern wizard clan cast a seal over her top then when she destroyed half of the inhabitants of the world with her fumes.”

Brac squinted cautiously, “I believe she is finished with her slumber. I can smell her breath on the wind.” He looked at Tynan, “We must bid haste with this mission and destroy the leader of the Orcs before sundown. I fear if the city of Rahargha does not evacuate to the coast within the fortnight, it may be too late once again.”

The two began their descent towards the valley, eager to finish their quest from the palace. Serendipity was the friend of the honorable warrior, and provided Brac with an assignment from the King: the Orcs had once again been poisoning the river, and the leader must be destroyed. The young mercenary was only too happy to oblige, but was warned by Derium before he left:

“The Orcs have discovered the Staff of Norscef. It was lost many years ago when my Northern clan gathered together in their valley. With this new power, the Orcs may be unstoppable. You must think not just as a warrior, but more so as a conqueror.”

The warrior descended to the precipice of the cliff overlooking the Orc encampment. Staring at the tents he took note of how low they had settled in the valley. Slowly he put on his father’s white mythril armor, reinforced in the shoulders with red steel, in honor of his father, and across the heart and girded about his stomach. The two blue crests of his family had been created by village blacksmiths and hewn into the armor. He took up his father’s golden Vynallium metal spear, which was sharp enough to shave the roughest stone, and strong enough to pierce the thickest armor.

He looked to the East. “I am ready.” Tynan stepped next to him in preparation to ride.

Suddenly, a bundle of rocks behind him exploded. Tynan ran to the other end of the cliff, out of the way of falling rocks. Brac quickly dodged and rolled behind a boulder unscathed. He looked around the cliff, but could see nothing.

“You fool!” laughed an Orcan voice behind the wall of a cave, “You may be wearing your father’s armor, but you have come at an inopportune time!”

“Krowg, I would know your stench anywhere. You smell worse than Mt. Careigh in her worst year.” Brac grimaced at the sight of his foe and grasped his spear tightly.

“Brac, you may have won many battles against my Orcs before, but they never had this in their hand!” the leader shoved the Staff of Norscef into the air, “I have used the Sight from this Staff all night. I know where you would descend, and I know where you had looked upon this valley to defeat us,” Krowg was wild with the new power he wielded in his green hand, “But I assure you human, that it is I who will defeat you!”

The armor clad warrior realized quickly that although the Orc leader held the Staff of Norscef, he was not trained for its magic. The fury of power coursed through his twitching muscles and confused his excited mind. Brac knew if he was to defeat Krowg, it must be done quickly, and without the Staff in play. He beckoned to Tynan: “We must remove the Staff and take it back to Derium. I will rescue it, but you must return it immediately.”

Tynan nodded with a snort and stood to the side in wait.

“Krowg, you are no match for my father’s spear! If you will fight, then we will fight now!” Brac stood on his muscled legs and ran toward the waiting opponent.

The Orc blocked the first thrust and hit Brac in the chest with the base of the Staff and Brac flew to the side of the cave’s opening. With a terrifying scream, Krowg grasped the staff and shot an unintelligent stream of lightning at Brac. In a shower of sparks, the lightning was deflected off the rock and ran in a feral arc to the center of the Orc’s camp. The tents burst into flames, and a flury of Orcs scurried out of the sudden inferno.

“The Staff is too powerful for you to use Krowg! You must relinquish it or you will all be killed!”

“Never! This power is mine, and with it you will be destroyed!” Krowg screamed with the flashing fire reflected in his crazed eyes. With another clumsy move, his arms lifted the Staff to the sky and shot the lightning again. This time, the lightning shot straight behind him and into the base of the volcano.

The floor began to rumble, and Brac realized that Krowg’s misfire had destroyed the seal over Mt. Careigh. Using the moment of volcanic eruption to his advantage, Brac whipped his spear up and caught the Orc in the jaw, then hit the Staff out of his hands and threw it towards Tynan.

“Quickly! Take this to Derium and warn him that the seal has been broken! Evacuate the city as quickly as you can! Run, my friend!”

Tynan grabbed the Staff with his teeth and turned down the mountain with incredible speed.

The quaking earth let out a mighty roar from inside the cave. Brac looked into the darkness and saw a fierce creature he had only heard of in stories, and whispered, “The Finegallius.” It was a creature molded together by inexperienced Orcs, created from a wild cat and the magic of the Eastern Unicorn. It was a cunning and nimble creature, and had been stuck in his cave plotting revenge against the bearer of magic ever since the wizards sealed Mt. Careigh.

Brac realized his fortune, and saw that the creature had locked its eyes on the Orc, as the orc was still stunned with the wizard’s magic of the Staff of Norscef. The Finnegallius roared and began to charge the Orc, when Brac grabbed a tuft of its long hair and swooped onto the beast’s back. Wings sprung out from the Finnegallius’s sides, and in a direct path with Krowg.

Brac grasped the spear and shouted, “Foe of my father and enemy of my people, I avenge their deaths with your blood!”

The spear cut through the Orc’s skull and split him in two, spilling his blood and meat upon the rumbling rocks. The Finnegallius landed next to the fallen Orc and devoured the green flesh in conquest.

Brac looked at the lava flowing down Mt. Careigh. “You are my next conquest, my lady.” He turned and ran down the mountain toward the palace. The same victorious route his father would have taken, so many years ago.