Yea, we got William on snow shoes tracking down the stories for us Caminoheads in the outback of Canada. How is that for reach? Great pics William, thanks.

Here locally we are getting through our winter and trying to be productive about it. There are little hints outside that Spring is coming. And it doesn’t take much to encourage us. Just the littlest signs can be put us in a better frame of mind. Mother Nature buoying us up so to speak with little tiny peeks into the future.

Catherine and Dana were just here for coffee and to catch up on news. We are so fortunate to have them in our lives and close at hand. They are more than neighbors, more than friends, maybe a new category.

Well, off to work here today. Trying to get a few things done in between side effects of the chemo. So, I will go for now, love as always, always as love, Felipe.

OK, we got the Super Bowl accomplished. We had a great party with out living room packed and cheering. And the best part, it was a good game.

Very quiet right now. It is almost like we are in an earlier century here at the moment. Good time to blog in the peace of the morning while being in another time.

Ah, perfect, yes, here is a report about happenings here at Raven Ranch that really do harken from other times. I have a friend that has a daughter that is currently training to be a falconer. Yes, someone that is capable of handling falcons and hawks. How about that for exotic.

Anaca is the woman and Abe is the hawk, a young male Redtail. She has been working with the bird for several months since trapping it up along the Skagit River here in Western Washington. This is all highly regulated by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and overseen by a state wide group of experienced falconers. Anaca will have to complete a two year apprenticeship ultimately.

So, she has chosen our north pasture as a training area. She had the first session several days ago and Wiley and at were able to observe the goings on. So amazing. I know that there has been a lot of cool things that have occurred here at the ranch but here is another worthy of note. Enjoy the pics, will try and get some better ones for you in the future.

Have to go and walk the trail in a few moments, overcast and dry with the temp in the fourties F. Take care, buoy up, love, Felipe.

I hope they let Pilgrim Farmer John have a beer at the hospital. No artery clogging snacks but at least a brewski. Hi John, get well!

Oh I hear a dog barking in the yard our partyers must be here to watch the pregame show. Me, I’m way far behind on this blog and everything. Oh, James the Most Interesting Man In The World (in training) is here. How fun.

Well, please forgive me if I short change you today. We will have great topics coming up in the upcoming days. Maybe an interview with author Catherine Johnson?

OK, you are the best, ever and always, love, Felipe.

Oh, here it comes, my week off from the hospital and Super Bowl tomorrow! Yea, just have to navigating through my world of chemo side effects. So that idea of a week off is kind of relative.

Speaking of medical stuff, Pilgrim Farmer John is doing well with his recovery from surgery in Iowa City. I am shooting him tenth of a second prayers at the moment. If you want to send him a card let me know and I’ll get you the address.

Speaking of Marines, I was reading some quotes from our Secretary of Defense retired Marine Corps General “Mad Dog” Mattis recently. Stuff like, “The most important space on the battlefield is the six inches between your ears.” These were from his former days as a Corps General Officer. Here’s another which could leave you breathless. “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” Yea, that’s maybe a little rambunctious for most civilian purposes but it has it’s place.

So while we are still thinking about that what if we took that powerful quote and put it in Caminohead terms. What if we thought about having a plan to buoy up everyone we meet. What if we were able to do that in some elegant way without seeming weird or without expending too much energy. What if it was like a muscle memory thing that after a while we wouldn’t even have to think about it, it just happens.

Well, that’s all I can accomplish here for now. We have Mass in the morning, some archery shooting and the Big Game. Buoy it up love, Felipe.

Back at the hospital for treatment. I thought that we should cover some issues that have come up lately. Three things have come up which might be impacting you and maybe I can make things easier.

1. Somehow the submit button on this blog for subscription doesn’t operate or operates intermittentally. So the way to navigate around this is to go to Comments and scroll down and there is a place to sign up. Then you will get the blog via email whenever posts are published.

2. It has been reported to me that some people have trouble accessing the blog site which happens to me occasionally. If there is a good strong wifi signal it seems to not occur. This seems bad news to me especially since every time this happens I seem to have no trouble getting to the LL Bean site.

3. We are experiencing an up tick in visitors scheduled to come from out of town this Spring and I got a feeling it will just continue through the Summer good weather to come. In the past I have been doing a lot of picking up and delivering people to the airport. I can no longer offer this. So please include in your travel plans a way to get to the ferry dock that gets you to Vashon Island. We can pick you up on the Vashon side. Or if you rented a car you can just drive to our place. (I can give you more details on this topic.)

OK, not too poetic today but necessary for smooth running of things. So time to go for now. Alperfect, love, Felipe.

Pilgrim Farmer John our Heartland Bureau Chief is recovering from surgery in Iowa City. Please prayers for him and his dear family.

In all its funk and glory I love Raven Ranch. Please let me express my gratitude for this tiny oasis in the turmoil of it all. We have light bulbs out and dead meal moths on the counter and scotch broom weeds sprouting up in all the odd places outside. But that is it, part Felipe order and part Nature reclaiming. Or is it part Nature and Filipe reclaiming. It’s ying yang swirling before my eyes.

And my lungs and liver are a tiny microcosm of this ten acre play that is working itself out on the land. I have tumors which we, the royal we, have been able to blast,coax,coerce,zap,pickle and bully into very slow growth. It’s party time for Felipe in the short term but obviously this glacial movement will crush him eventually without some sort of balance achieved.

We had a meeting this morning, my tumors and me, and I apologized for my treatment of them but it has been my only option so far. I acknowledged them as being part of me and not some alien entities. They are a rebel faction, a very robust one. But my job as I see it as guardian of my whole being, including all rebel factions, is to strike balance. My intention is not to eradicate but to strike a workable balance.

They do their jobs these tumors with amazing tenacity in light of all we have been throwing at them and they just show up “Monday morning” with their lunch pails ready to go back at it again. And they are like the light bulbs and the meal moths and the scotch broom in that they have a job to do and I don’t hate them for it but I just have to play my part to keep them within what I have visualized as a workable balance.

So, many great blog ideas have crammed into my head lately. I have material for a week ahead. One, just a sneak preview, is that Our Catherine, has written a book which I just started on last night. So, now we can say Catherine Johnson as her name is out “naked”in the world. Although lately I have been calling her Dr Johnson around the ranch and environs. And it is entitled “Finding Mercy In This World – A Memoir”. Way to go Dr Johnson!

Well, I have to go outside and collect my bandannas with St Bridget dew on them. I will stack them up on my chest and shiver. Love you, Felipe.