Goat notes and Donkey tales No. 1 Why do goats have such weird eyes?

Hi, I'm Gini and I live on a little patch of land I call The Farmlette. I hope you will enjoy stopping by to see what's happening with me and my critters. 

                Why do goats have such strange eyes?

Beanie, one of my Nigerian Dwarf goats. 

The goat's horizontal, rectangular pupils seem alien compared to the round pupils of people and dogs and the vertical slits of cats.

    The determining factor seems to be whether the animal is the hunter or the hunted...predator or grazing prey.“ For species that are active both night and day, like domestic cats, slit pupils provide the dynamic range needed to help them see in dim light yet not get blinded by the midday sun,” lead author Martin Banks of UC Berkeley 

                      

   Eyes located more on the side of the head produce a much wider field of vision than eyes like our own. 

    The shape of the pupils also allows them to take in more light. Meanwhile, they aren't absorbing as much light from above their heads, which keeps the sun from bleaching out their view of the grass around them. 

     This extensive peripheral vision lets them watch out for predators, and helps them see the entire terrain around them when they must plot an escape.

      

     Banks confirmed that grazing animals rotate their eyes when they bow their heads down to graze, effectively keeping their eye slits nearly parallel to the ground at all times — no matter the position of their heads. 

        

   They can rotate more than 50 degrees per eye, the researchers say, which is 10 times that of the human eye. This allows the grazers to maintain a preys'-eye-view of the world even when chowing down.

                 

              Weird or not, I love those eyes  

               and the goats that have them! 

            

                      

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Here’s why goats have those freaky eyes

 By Rachel Feltman More info here

Why Do Goats Have Such Weird Eyes?

BY MATT SONIAK  More info here

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Fatal Recall wins best Romantic Thriller

     THANK YOU to N.N. Light for selecting 

   Fatal Recall as best Romantic Thriller of 2021

Hudson Kincaid prefers the wide-open spaces. But tracking down a serial killer means hanging out in Denver as he investigates neuroscientist Dr. Marilyn Monrose. So far, he can’t figure out if she’s city kitty in high heels, or a country kitten in cowgirl boots?

 

Marilyn’s experiments using ramped up virtual reality, captures the final moments of each murder victim’s life, a chilling discovery she’s trying to keep secret. The last thing she needs is a determined private detective barging into her lab—no matter how sexy he looks in his Stetson hat.

When word of her research is leaked to the press, Marilyn becomes the killer’s next target.   

Now the woman Hudson races to save, is the one who has stolen his heart.    

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    Hud stepped across the threshold and into Marilyn’s lab. She waited for the security door to close and lock before she spoke.

   “Let me remind you, PI Kincaid, all information you learn here is classified. In fact, I found out yesterday the Government has shown a passing interest in my work.”

   “Our government?”

   “Yes, of course.”

   “Why?”

   “I’m not aware of the specifics. But every application I can come up with sounds like Black Ops, or Army Intelligence, or something equally scary.”

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    “What do you mean by disappear?”

    “I’ll be transferred to a lab Heaven-knows-where to continue the work until it’s completed, or my contract is up. Hard telling what will happen to you.”

    This gave him pause. She sounded serious. But how could he rationalize being in possession of crucial information without sharing the data with the DPD—or at least with Marco?

   “Promise me.”

   She was taking a leap of faith in trusting him, and the soulful pleading in her eyes made him want to comply. In fact, he wanted to promise her more than to keep his mouth shut. He wanted to promise her sunsets on the front porch and breakfast on the veranda.

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    Cowboys, Cattle, and Cutthroats, 

          A Beverley Award Finalist. 

Ochessa is heartbroken when she finds her brother fatally wounded. His dying words are about a childhood puzzle box, missing legal documents, and a drifter named Nicodemus Breedlove. Ochessa vows to find Will’s murderer—and the man Will described.

   No stranger to trouble, Nic's only concerns are his Stetson, his mule Sadie, and a long awaited chance at retribution. After gaining Ochessa’s trust, and taking the job she offers, life gets more complicated.  

    Back on the ranch in Colorado, Ochessa works as hard as any man. Then Nick tempts her into playing even harder as a woman—both are overwhelmed by their growing love for one another. 

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Writing and Weaving share more than the letter W

Recently, I've become obsessed with weaving. Haven't been this fired up about anything in quite some time. But it really started twenty years ago when I began rescuing farm animals. My first two critters were Cowboy, a big Nubian goat from a petting zoo, and Precious, an angora goat confiscated from a terrible situation. 

   Having grown up with a hamster and small dog, taking care of larger animals was a pretty big leap. I was also a recent widow, so there was a great deal of sorrow to learn to live with as well as adjusting to being on my own again. Thank goodness the goats saved me rather than the other way around.

 I moved to a patch of land and fell down the rabbit hole to a new world of farm terms, experiences, responsibilities, and people. 

            

Precious, the goat, was afraid of being sheared with an electric clipper, so every year I would cut her mohair off with a scissors ( for safety the tip was blunted). To accomplish this took several hours, a very patient goat, and some oldies on the radio in the barn.   

At the time, I had no immediate plans for the fleece, but I washed, dried and saved it by the bagful. 

Also during this time of great transition, I pursued my dream of writing and publishing romance novels. I'd been writing for what seemed like forever. Being published proved to be another struggle full of disappointment with a huge dash of discouragement. 

                          

Then in 2009 my dream came true. One month before I turned sixty, my first book The Dragon and The Rose sold to the Wild Rose Press. Best birthday present ever. 

During the next twelve years and fifteen books, my wonderful Precious grew old and passed away. Another heartbreak. But I always kept those bags of hair. 

   Now, as my desire for something new in my life reared its head, I looked at all that beautiful mohair and thought...I need to learn to spin and weave goat hair! So here I was again jumping into something foreign yet exciting. 

  After taking classes at the Longmont Yarn Shoppe, my VERY patient instructor Sara, brought the joy of weaving to my world, and one day I realized writing and weaving have several similarities. After all, you can spin a yarn, weave a tale, or follow the thread of a story. While weaving your mind is free to wander elsewhere conjuring great ideas for your next book, or solving a problem in your current endeavor.  

   When I write I use the planner and pantser (seat of your pants) approach to writing. When weaving there is somewhat the ability to use this approach. You need to know the general idea of the project and how much yarn to buy, but as you weave you can vary the pattern or colors just as in writing you can change the storyline, add characters, or even surprise yourself with a new ending. Both processes can be exciting and full of unexpected results. 

    Now when I lie awake in the middle of the night,  rather than always thinking about plot points and character arcs, I wonder about weaving techniques and "what ifs" for the next pattern I may want to try.  A picture or scrap of conversation can ignite the foundation for a new story, and seeing patterns and color combinations while out and about can spark ideas for a new pattern to weave. Both can be a joy and a frustration, but both have given me so much. 

                   Line by line a book is written, 

                  Row by row a scarf is woven.  

My books are dedicated to those I love and those who have made my world a better place in which to live and grow. And whether spending hours and hours weaving or writing, in the end I hope I create something which will give happiness to others. 

I think maybe I need to buy a spinning wheel.....

                  

November Giveaway.

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You could win a copy of The Dragon and The Rose a Medieval romance with historical accuracy and yet a Celtic mythical twist!

Four Stars: a masterful job of plot and character development /Between the Lines

This is an ENCHANTING story!/The Long and Short Review

Rifkin is immensely knowledgeable about the story’s time period/ Romantic Times Book Reviews 

                               

Blurb:

England 1100 A.D.
A Norman warrior—seeking land rather than love.
A Saxon good-faith hostage—seeking freedom and restitution.
 
     Sir Branoc Valtaigne, ordered to Northumbria By King William II, fights to keep peace along the Scottish border. A formidable battle-tested warrior, he honors his vows to God, king, and country, but a young woman’s smile may prove to be his undoing.
 
     Martanzia Verheire, tricked into standing as good faith hostage for Flanders, seeks freedom from castle Bamburgh and love from Sir Branoc. As she clings to the Celtic dragon statue given to her by her mother, she leads them all to the brink of an era where true magic will be gone forever but where dreams can still come true. 

“Before this game is over, old friend, you shall know the fury of the beast you have created, and you shall tremble before his might. I will champion this day,” Branoc vowed, “and conquer all of my tomorrows.”

“Neither God nor man shall deliver unto this earth a dragon more formidable than the one known as Valtaigne.”

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