Carla Burke

We have quite a few, based largely on my daughters. My son was surrounded by adults, and spoke like one - in paragraphs - by the time he was 18 months old. My oldest daughter, on the other hand really struggled, so we have waterlemons, instead of watermelons; yipskick instead of lipstick; moggies instead of monkeys; gah-hees instead of cookies, and others.

My youngest was the most fun, though, because as soon as she said something wrong, she knew it didn't sound right, and she'd keep working on it, until she got it right - then occasionally she'd playfully use her own mispronunciations and laugh - even just a couple minutes after she figured it out. From her, we have squares, instead of squirrels; Wally Weird instead of our previous Wally World; Dufus instead of Joseph (she was learning my friend's newborn's name), and when something smelled or tasted good, she'd say, "want more smells good!" or "want more tastes good!", until we gave her the name for it - which is how we ended up with pew-fume, instead of perfume, from her grandma and mice cream, because she separated 'some' wrong, and dropped off the s, o, and e, in 'some ice cream'.

My step daughter heard her mom say "I have to pee so bad, my bladder is going to burst", and for a long time, thought surely her own "platter" would do the same, so that one stuck, too.

My last time in a private plane was in December of '23. Our friend flew me in his (itty bitty, 2 seater) plane to visit my family cemetery plot.

I don' wanna!😫

November 2019 - our last vacation, we went on a cruise. Then, we got more livestock than just chickens, and our trips are driving, individual, usually for family stuff or buying/ selling livestock, and no more than 3 or 4 days.

Saffron crocus. Beautiful little purple flowers, tasty little spice!

Unless a critter comes to me already named, I usually let them tell me their name by way of personality traits/ behaviors. We had guinea pigs for several years, that we brought home a a bonded pair. One was fearless, adventurous, inquisitive, and always investigating something, earning her the name Nellie Bligh, after the very famous, daring, brave investigative journalist. Her buddy, however, was easily startled and would instantly 'freeze' at the slightest noise, shadow, sudden motion, etc. She froze so instantly John decided she was rock-like, and named her Rocksy.

My little girl cavalier is Charlie - because she is such a little 'Dickens'. Bailey, or Irish Wolfhound has always been incredibly strong - much like Irish whiskey, but SO much sweeter! The youngest of our dogs, also a cavalier, and I waffles on her name, for a while, between Minxy & Vixen. But, she was my Christmas gift from John, and came home in December, so I settled on Vixin (because while she's definitely a little vixen, she's also uniquely and aggressively affectionate, so she needed some uniqueness in her name, too).

We name livestock the same way.

I use big jugs, instead of buckets, for hauling water, because with the combination of our rough terrain and my wobbly joints, I'd end up spilling too much, even using my hardest working winter tool. But, I do use buckets for taking warm food out to the critters. But, in winter, my sled is our most used tool. It gets put to work hauling feed bags, hay, water jugs, & buckets of warm food to the critters, plus bringing groceries down the hill (from where we have to park the car, when it snows) to the house, hauling firewood to the house, hauling other tools around to wherever they're needed, in the moment. In the summer, this role is filled by my canvas-sided folding wagon, and the wagon is the one tool that gets put to use more than the sled, because it also helps me haul all of my fiber and crafting stuff to and from the car, at the convention, as well as browsing the flea markets, and more.

My husband is really mad at the fact that I have no sense of direction. So I packed up my stuff and right!

I only know 25 letters of the alphabet. I don't know y.

Son: What do a tick and the Eiffel Tower have in common?

Mom: They're both Paris sites.