Story ideas--what do you think?

15 years ago

This is in reference to my previous contest idea. I decided (1) to keep it simple but wide encompassing:

Tell us a funny story somehow related to gardening or anything outdoors in the months of November, December, or January. I know many of you have dormant gardens now, so it can relate to such things as chasing out critters, falling into the water garden when you thought the ice was frozen, falling on your butt in front of the mailman, getting frost bite on your ears putting up holiday lights (ok, the last four are up close and personal to me), feeding birds, new pets/childrens experiencing the winter weather, turkeys flying through windows, aliens landing on your balcony...Pretty much anything that occurs outdoors in the cold winter months (if you live in warmer climates, I will envy you but not hold it against you). Remember, we all need a good laugh, so please relate something FUNNY.

BUT.... PLEASE, NO PICTURES. If you post pictures, you will be eliminated from the competition. If you want to know why, email me directly.

OK, on to the judging. I posted here because I want Sue(Chemocurl) to help if she is willing to take on yet another task, other judges wanted, I am thinking a total of six, me included-- of course, you will not be eligible to compete if you agree to judge, and I am sure I can count on you for complete impartiality. I am still fleshing things out, including the prize, how stories will be judged, etc.

It's after 1 a.m. here, sorry if I am slightly incoherent, I think faster than I type.

Kate

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (17)

kms4me
Original Author
15 years ago
No... just re-read that... I type faster than I think.
Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
15 years ago
Hi Kate,

I don't like to think of myself as very judgmental, but would be happy to assist in judging.
I guess you will need to consider a start and an end date...right?

My guess on no pics, is because not everyone knows how to link to one, making it a bit unfair, and others don't know how to post pics, and posting pics in a thread would make an otherwise long thread, even longer to open for those still on dial-up...right?...sorrry...I wandered on that one. Not enough coffee yet.

Sue...rbb

Here is a link that might be useful:
Related Discussions
My warmth idea--what do you think?
Q
Comments (4)
Well, they seem to have made it through ok, just a weird cold spell. It was about 36 degrees on the coldest night (Tuesday), but that night I covered all the cages and my tarp was big enough to cover them completely. I left the plastic wrapped around the sides for a few days, but it was cold and rainy, so no chance of overheating. I don't think we should get any more cold nights until fall, knock wood. Thanks, everybody.
...See More
1.5 Story Homes - Do you have one? Do you like it?
Q
Comments (43)
So if we were to do a 1.5 story with the master on the main level, where would you put that, behind the garage then? My thought process would be to first determine priority of room placement in the most ideal location for the use of the room and then if conflicts between room placement develop then rank by how much time is spent and how time is used for each room as well as the importance of that use compared to the importance of the uses for the other rooms. If watching the sunrise from your bed pays off with more enjoyment than having the sunrise and morning sun striking your kitchen, then plan accordingly. For instance, do you plan on using your master suite as a parental get-away from the kids, using it during the day or will your non-sleeping uses be restricted to evenings only, meaning that any views from the rooms would be lost to the darkness of the night? If the views are not important, I'd bury the master suite near the garage in the above sketch. If however, views and day time use are important, then I'd move the master to the east/south/west walls, perhaps right off the entry or in the back off of the kitchen. I'm not necessarily saying to put the master off the entry or off the kitchen, though you could, I'm just using these as examples that reference the above sketch. The way I'm designing my own home is to use a very self-reflective process which tries to understand how I actually live my life rather than trying to contort my lifestyle into architectural trends which presuppose how people SHOULD live their lives. So, to continue on the questioning, why exactly do you appreciate a main-floor master? Is it so that you can avoid stairs? Is it so that you can hear the comings and goings of the kids at night as they try to leave the house, is it because you don't want the kids too near your bedroom, is it because you don't want noise transmission from the master to be easily heard by the kids, and so on? Once you can articulate to yourself why you want something then you can find the best solution for your plan, rather than adopting a cookie-cutter approach. For instance, what I found amusing in some plans was a main floor master with a child's bedroom directly over it on the 2nd. Now, to me, if the goal was to reduce noise transmission from either the child's room to the parent's room or vice versa, the separation by floor, while having intuitive appeal, would fail to achieve the mission. The example I used in an earlier comment was to have a master suite separated by a stairway corridor AND a children's hallway which together create a 7'-8' dead zone, possibly with some walls other than the master and child's bedroom walls also added in between. There are no common walls shared, there is a huge dead zone in between and the goal of reducing noise transmission is, I believe, better served than a downstairs master with an upstairs child's bedroom directly over top, sharing common ceiling/floor as well as sound transmission paths down the walls. Of course, if sound transmission has nothing to do with the appeal of a downstairs master suite, then what I've sketched out is a solution to a problem which doesn't exist, or doesn't matter. I was thinking the master/office space on one side and then the kitchen, dining, great room on the other. That makes sense to me. Would you move the great room from the center of the house below to the front where the dining study is and move the study to where the great room is? Lots of configurations can make sense, but they must make sense in relation to how you envision yourself using the space and the particulars of your lifestyle and preferences. I'd say grab some graph paper, or even blank paper, and just block out the rooms and see how they interplay with each other, note how you foresee traffic patterns within and throughout the space, imagine daily routines taking place within the space. Once you have an idea of how you live, or how you want to live in the new space, then get the graph paper and try to get a better handle on size and furniture placement, and traffic patterns and by the end of this process you should have a very good understanding of how you want the space to be configured. I did the same for my house and this has resulted in me doing away with a formal living room from the now traditional LR/FR combo pack and reallocating the space elsewhere in the home, such as combining the entry with the LR space in order to create a larger sense of space/volume, has led me to create a larger kitchen than would be warranted in relation to the size of the informal living room, has led me to other design changes that likely violate what trained architects use as benchmarks for how homes should be designed. Thank you for the garage tip also - I thought 24x24 was rather large? We will be getting an oversize door for sure. I'd say measure your cars, block out a 24 x 24 space on your lawn, use cardboard boxes or something else to fill the space of your cars, then throw in the other junk you're likely to store alongside the walls of the garage, and see how much space you actually need. Try to get out of your car and see if the door bangs the wall or the other car. A 24 x 24 garage is actually pretty good considering that many designed give a 20 x 23 or something similarly ridiculous.
...See More
What do you think about a stone wall in a 2 story foyer/entry?
Q
Comments (23)
Call me crazy, but if a house has a foyer that "feels more like a hotel lobby", you have other, much bigger problems -- like creating a warm and welcoming home. lindsey, I do know about cutting off the blossom end : ). As for shorter canning times, I was born a city girl and have always been nervous with recipes from family and friends with canning times considerably shorter than what district home economists, Ball Blue Book etc. recommend, which is usually 15-20 minutes for quart jars and no less than 10 minutes; my mother in law has been trying to convince me for 25 years that it's safe to chicken in a boiling water bath in a regular canner rather than a pressure canner, and I'm just not willing to risk it, esp when it comes to my husband and kids. We're also probably pickier about taste than some people -- for example, I used to process in the canner 1- and 2-quart jars of the apple cider we press every fall, but we realized we don't care for the "cooked" taste, so we freeze the cider now instead. Some people have wine fridges and we have a pickle fridge lol. And several chest freezers for cider, our own beef, chickens, turkeys, venison, fruit and vegetables! april, the chicks stay in the incubator in the house just until they're dry and then out they go. We don't always have helpful broody hens to do the setting for us so the incubator is a huge help.
...See More
Unique 80s Living Room Renovation Ideas: What do you think??
Q
Comments (9)
Hi thank you!!! A chandelier would look gorgeous, but I think the functionality of a fan wins out for us because with ceilings this high and a mountain climate, we need the fan to push the hot air down to the rest of the house in the winter. Is there such a thing as an attractive ceiling fan? (serious question!) I think we'll just put the little book case upstairs in the loft, which is desks and another book case anyway. So funny that y'all like the arches! We are so stuck on them. What do you think about squaring the one that goes to the staircase but keeping the others? It would sort of balance the visual impact of the other 4. Are you saying cover the beams with wood or just paint to match the room? or would you do another color? I have no design sense, but I see the potential too!
...See More
luvsgrtdanes
15 years ago
Well I guess it depends upon the prize whether I want to judge or compete!! LOL just kidding of course!! I don't go out in the cold so nothing funny can happen to me...I will help out with the judging if I can. I love everyone here so I can be impartial...

Ronnie
graanieb
15 years ago
Great idea, in these hurried times especially, we need to slow down more and catch funny moments, thank you Kate.
Sometimes wish there was a cam to capture it all.
The other day, when I opened large (thankfully) garbage can, there on the top of chewed/opened bag stood a large turkey bone (carcass), stripped of every speck of the meat, the way fireants would do. Imagine a coon, getting into the can, lid closing, having a treat! Right on the curb side too, occasional traffic didn't bother him!!
We thought it was funny, not very funny, but all I got to contribute now, eagerly waiting to read more from you all.

GB-Bea
dorisl
15 years ago
Yep, last year I was amazed at how fast the turkey carcass composted, untill I found the (like Bea said, completely stripped) skeleton under the pine tree next to the pile. :)

This year, I gave it to my dad to make soup.
graanieb
15 years ago
What we almost always did---made red beans soup, except freezer is more stacked up now that the hurricanes aren't a treat, plus there are more seeds there.

Imagine some of you having snow? Now, that can be lots of fun!!!
kms4me
Original Author
15 years ago
Sue, first off, I should've asked if you want to compete in the contest, not just assumed that you would be happy to judge. I'm sure you've got several funny stories in you! That's true of everyone who's posted here--I think the turkey carcass stories are great.

Ronnie, welcome to the judging panel, unless you want to compete. Let me know.

The prize will be 20 packets of seeds (you can look at my trade list to get an idea of what I have), I'm working on two different packages and thought I'd let the winner choose the one that is best suited to his/her interests, sowing experience, etc.

I'm hoping to get things finalized and get the contest going on Monday, December 8th, running it through Wednesday of the following week, December 17, then judging on Thursday and Friday (18th and 19th), announcing the winner on the 20th--I'd send out the seeds ASAP so the winner would have them by Christmas.

In terms of the judging, I think it's best if each judge uses their own criteria--whatever they think is funny. I would like each person to chose a best and second-best story, the second-best votes will be used as tie-breakers if necessary.

Oh, and the story doesn't have to relate to cold and snowy weather--just anything that happens during the winter months,so Southern gardeners please make us laugh!

Still looking for judges!

Kate
Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
15 years ago
No, I don't have any funny stories that I can think of off hand. My youngest (furbaby) though has been dragging a deer carcass home for a week or so, one piece at a time. I wish I had pics of her with all the different parts. Once day it is a hind leg. The next day it is a front leg. The next day it is the rib cage.

Sue...who needs 20 more packs of seeds like she needs a another hole in her head....lol

Here is a link that might be useful:
kms4me
Original Author
15 years ago
Sue, what a cool dog--what kind is she?

Sounds like she's assembling her own skeleton, you could write a story about the Build A Deer Workshop going on in your yard!

OK, so Sue and I and tentatively Ronnie will be judges, halfway there. Anybody else? Any comments or suggestions about the contest will be appreciated as well.

Kate
Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
15 years ago
Sue, what a cool dog--what kind is she?
Thanks! She is a shelter dog and very smart. I found her on the net via petfinder.com shortly after I had had to have a furbaby put down due to a sudden health issue. She has been a blessing. She has a good bit of Chow in her, black tongue, curly tail, but doesn't have Chow hair, thank goodness.

I was told a couple of weeks ago that there was a deer laying in my field a short distance up the road. I don't know how or why it was there...remains of someone butchering their deer, or a road kill or what. I never went to check it out. I guess it might be that one she is dragging home one piece at a time. Maybe I'll go check it out one of these days, when I get caught up a bit. In the meantime all 3 furbabies are enjoying what she drags home. She is the only one I see carrying parts around.
agirlsgirl
15 years ago
Sue that is such an awesome picture of Kylie,she really is a beauty! :)

Kate since I am drawing a blank on stories, if you will have me,I would be happy to be a judge,I can be impartial for the same reason as Ronnie,I like all of you! And come Monday I will have a little more time on my hands. :)
Even though you are hosting this, I am hoping you will be sharing stories,you have some good ones! :)
kms4me
Original Author
15 years ago
Ok, we need two more judges...

Angie, I have lots of stories, and I'm sure you and everybody else here does as well. Since the stories will be judged by the panel, I don't see a reason why the judges can't submit stories themselves, just to add a chuckle or two, though of course they won't be considered in the contest.

What do you think about that?

Kate
remy_gw
15 years ago
Hi Kate,
I'll be a judge if you like. I have many funny embarrassing stories(my whole life has been a series of unfortunate accidents, lol,) but none are garden relate. If you had maybe a moving/tearjerker garden story contest, I have a shot at winning -something to think about for anther contest.
Anyway, I think my humor meter is pretty good : )
Remy
luvsgrtdanes
15 years ago
Cool Dog!! I'm in for judging!! Gotta run though, but I'll keep checking in...
agirlsgirl
15 years ago
Kate,I totally agree that the judges should be able to share their stories also.I personally would not want to be deprived of some of the good ones I know you,Sue,Remy and Ronnie have! ;)

I will check the thread at least 3 times a day once it is posted. I am really looking forward to the stories,I could use a good laugh as I am sure many others could too! This is an awesome idea Kate,thanks for thinking of us! :)

"Anyway, I think my humor meter is pretty good" -remy
Remy,I sure think so,it has been you that have me rolling out of my chair quite a few times! ;)
kms4me
Original Author
15 years ago
I'm working on the final details. I thought I'd announce the contest on the Seed Trading Side but actual hold it on the conversation side of this forum-less chance to get bounced, I think.

I would still like one more judge, but if no one has volunteered by the time I post this info (probably late tonight, we're getting LOTS of snow here now and it's gonna take me a while to shovel our long, wide, driveway!), we'll go with five.

Ronnie, Remy, Sue, Angie, would love to hear stories from you all!

Kate
remy_gw
15 years ago
Kate,
I'm looking forward to the contest!

Sue,
I don't know how I missed the doggie pic before! She's a beauty. That is too funny about the deer parts.
I don't think I told you I got a new dog this summer. My Creton died of cancer: ( I didn't want to get another dog, but Sammie was very sad and lonely. So we got Charlie who Sammie just loves! He was a special foster dog kept out of the shelter and in a home. He was supposed to have problems.After we had him home for a few days the SPCA called to check on how things were going. I told the lady everything was great, and she said a truly skeptical "Really?" I believe she was worried we would return him which sometimes happens with the special dogs. Well, he truly has ended up being the most well behaved, well adjusted dog we've ever owned, LOL.

Angie,
Glad I've made you crack up. : )
Remy

Story ideas--what do you think?

Comments (17)

kms4me
Original Author

Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana

Related Discussions

luvsgrtdanes

graanieb

dorisl

graanieb

kms4me
Original Author

Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana

kms4me
Original Author

Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana

agirlsgirl

kms4me
Original Author

remy_gw

luvsgrtdanes

agirlsgirl

kms4me
Original Author

remy_gw

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Story ideas--what do you think?

Comments (17)

kms4meOriginal Author

Related Discussions

kms4meOriginal Author

kms4meOriginal Author

kms4meOriginal Author

kms4meOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

kms4me
Original Author

kms4me
Original Author

kms4me
Original Author

kms4me
Original Author

kms4me
Original Author