Sugarbeet Season!!

OK, your guesses were hilarious. But that thing in the post below is not a petrified dinosaur tongue or a stalker’s soul. It’s a sugarbeet! There are many sugarbeet farms in this county and I love sugarbeet season. Because I love foraging for sugarbeets.

When the fields are harvested, bright trucks are everywhere, driving from the fields to the sugar refinery, filled to overflowing with sugarbeets. The big one shown in the post below was a beet I spotted on the side of the road (I always pull over for sugarbeets); when the trucks take corners, one or two beets inevitably roll off.

At the sugar refinery, they unload the big beets but the small, unworthy beets are refused and sent away with the truck. Back at the field, the truck dumps the loose dirt and inadequate beets in neat, orderly piles, then goes out to get filled with another load.

Whenever I make trips to town during sugarbeet season, I stop at these dump piles and fill boxes with sugarbeets. I check in with the truck drivers when they’re around but they never care – the piles are just left to decompose.

I bring the sugarbeets home and spoil my animals. The horses love sugarbeets. I chew on them myself – they taste like I imagine a raw potato dipped in sugar would taste, kind of earthy and sweet. Beneath the peel they are white, and have rings inside like a red beet.

This year, I offered some to Daisy and she devours them. The morning after I had first fed her sugarbeets, I took a sip of the warm, frothy milk as I was milking and just started laughing. It was unreal. Daisy’s sugarbeet milk is like drinking ice cream.

Wha?

Who knows what this is?

Make me laugh ~ make a guess before reading the rest of the comments!

Part I

OK, finally! Blogging is a tricky thing for me. I have started so many topics and series and then never finished them because life keeps going at a million miles and hour and when I find the time to update, it’s about something in the moment (like Sir Baby rubbing his head in the dirt – how could I ignore that?)

But finally, here is the story of the stalker, or at least the beginning of it. I have no problem sharing this – some commenters showed concern that the man who stalked me might read these posts and get off on them and honestly, I really do not care. If that’s what gives him a thrill, then his life is very, very empty. More importantly, he is the least significant part of the story. His role is generic and not that compelling – I am much more interested in everything that happened in me and in the courtroom. That’s where the real story is.

But for the sake of background: this guy was a stranger. He lives in Wyoming about three hours away. He was a “regular” on the websites – I read every comment I get and if people post often enough I start recognizing names. He emailed me now and then and it was all very tame and normal. I responded when I could – those of you who have emailed me knows how this goes. This guy was no different.

Then, out of the blue, I got an insane, disgusting, INSANE email from him. And then about six more, tamer, but totally off-kilter. After a few days I wrote him one line, “Your emails in the past week have been totally outside the bounds of decency and respect, I’m pretty annoyed.” Silence from him for about a week, then he sent a long apology – so long, I didn’t even read the whole thing. He was already permanently on my shit list by that point and I wasn’t about to spend my time reading a lengthy apology. I didn’t care. And by shit list I mean, I give my energy to everyone until they abuse it. And then I stop. That’s it.

Things were mellow and he commented here and there on the sites but nothing weird, and I really didn’t give it or him another thought. Then, maybe a week later, he sent another series of emails; these were love-obsessive, one after another. I wrote back and said, “Your emails continue to be in bad taste. Mike and I find them completely disrespectful to us both. If you choose to continue I will forward all your emails to the Sheriff’s Department and the FBI, who have jurisdiction over the internet.”

And that’s when all hell broke loose and the full-on stalking began. Obsessive emails about how much he loved me, sometimes more than 50 in one day.

Now, feel free to discuss whether or not I should have responded either time. In this case, what’s done is done, but perhaps a discussion will help others know how to proceed if they find themselves in a similar situation. I know with trolls (hate mail), not responding works really well. Over the past three years, I’ve learned there’s no point in responding to hate mail, and it no longer bothers me – it goes in one eye and out the back of my head. But this bothered me.

I naively thought, just as I thought three years ago when it came to hate mail, that if I addressed it head on, it would stop. Ironically, in learning how to fight {more on that coming soon}, I have learned how to temper that impulse in favor of strategy. I am also quite certain that if this ever happened again, it would not bother me. It would join the ranks of hate mail, the ranks of “if that’s how people want to spend their time, fine, but it has no effect on me.” But that’s because of what I….. well, explaining it won’t make sense until I finish the story.

Part II is HERE

QUESTION!

2011 Charlie Calendars are almost here!
I’ll have them ready to ship next week!!!
However, certain mumblings have cropped up enough
for me to ask this very important question:
Should I reprise the Cowboy Calendar?
Even if it showcases the *same* pics as from the 2009 Cowboy Calendar?
Do you want some sexy on your wall?
OK, that’s three very important questions.
Click HERE to see the full series, and let me know!