~beyond bluestockings~

There’s every chance the rest of society is aware of how to do this already, but I have only come by the knowledge recently, so I will share it for my late to the party type brethren of the computer world.

My disclaimer! I have a Mac.  I imagine it will be the same process if you have a PC, but I can’t promise because…well, I don’t have one to try it out on.

The photos here look a little small and fuzzy, but they will open larger in a new window if you click them.

1. Open the page of the video you want to download.  For example, if you want to download Aly Bain playing Bonaparte’s Retreat, open the page and copy the URL.

You can take the URL from the top of the page, or, in the photo above, look to the right hand side of the picture and you will see “URL” and then a box of text, and underneath that, “Embed” and then a box of text.  Copy the URL from the first text box.

2. Go to KeepVid

3. Insert (paste) the URL that you copied from your page into the blue box that says URL.

4. Press “download” to the right of the same blue box containing your copied URL.

Now, see these coloured buttons?

Ignore them.

5. After you press “download” the page will reload, and this will come up:

Click the one that says, “>> Download<<(get_video.mp4 – High Quality)”.

Close the window/tab with your video source while the download is active, so they are not both downloading at the same time.

6. This little window below will pop up: choose Save File, and O.K.

(You’re nearly done.)

7. Re-name your video retaining the .mp4 ending.  So in my case it would be Bonaparte’s Retreat.mp4.  Press “Save”.

And that’s it!

If all that hard work fatigued you, feel free to relax for a moment and enjoy…

See the fine specimen of chicken at the left of the picture?  Her name is Sago.  She is the chicken I chose from the random blur of cute fluffiness  that assailed my mothering instincts at the markets two weeks ago.

My family have been convinced that she is a rooster.  I chose her because she was large and healthy looking, and by far the fluffiest (after all, is that not the most important feature of a chook?)

Recent times have given pause for doubt.  Here is Pecan.  I would have it that Pecan was practicing to crow.  Poor miss 13, who chose Pecan and is rather attached to, ah,  him, won’t hear of it.  You be the judge -

Almond, who is by far the friendliest, most loyal follower, and will always come when called is looking much like Pecan.

In a previous post, Missy the chick whisperer, and Jillian, another experience chicken raiser,  both shared ideas on how to determine whether my sweet balls of fluff are boys or girls, and the wilder among my readers have suggest this could be a betting matter

Friends, I am not sure of the legal implications of turning my blog into an online den of iniquity, but if you happen to fancy yourself as the person who can eliviate my chicken anxiety as to whether my feathered friends are destined for the pot or not, by all means cast your bets, um, opinions!

Just as an aside, have you ever tried to photograph chicks?  They follow you.  You cannot get away from them: this makes it very challenging to achieve anything but the tops of their heads, not to mention the danger of standing on one!  Trying to run away and take a picture results in stressed looks of unbelief on the faces of your chickens.  Putting them on the trampoline when we were all exhausted finally did the trick.

You can now download the free audio book, ” Elsie Dinsmore“,  Book One in The Original Elsie Classics by Martha Finley, from LibriVox.   As the book is recorded by volunteers, there will be several different readers throughout the story.  The book can be downloaded complete, or by chapters.

Synopsis:
Elsie Dinsmore is an endearing eight-year-old girl with several bewildering problems. She has never known her mother, who died when Elsie was a baby, and she longs for a close, loving relationship with her father. He, however, has sent her off to be raised at Roselands, his brother’s Southern plantation, where her teacher, Miss Day, harshly criticizes her and her cousins tease her relentlessly.

As Elsie learns to handle her problems, she begins to learn more about herself. And as her faith in her heavenly father grows, she learns what it means to be a child of God. The result is a story that inspires and challenges, and listeners will delight in how Elsie comes to depend completely upon faith in God for the peace and happiness she seeks.

I pre-read this book for my children some time ago.  At first I was annoyed and frustrated with it, thinking to myself that if that child cries one more time, just once more in the story, I will throw the book out the window. It’s unforgivable to make the main character such a bother!  She did cry again, but I chose to leave the book on the bedside table for a few months to punish her, instead of actually throwing it in the bin.

After reading so many rave reviews about “Elsie Dinsmore”,  and in consequence of having purchased about 20 books in the series before reading the first one, and my children  begging me to finish it, I eventually did (with a few dire warnings about what would happen to children here who carried on in such a lame duck manner as poor Elsie!)

What I will say in favour of the book, though, is it is one of the few stories that has stayed with me some time after reading.  As each generation has ideas and thoughts seemingly unique to that time period, there were several things that made me think, and caused me to continue to ponder for a good while after reading.  So despite it not being a story I could easily enjoy (give me an Escott Lynn or a Charlotte Yonge any day!!), I find much merit in the book.

I hope your young people will enjoy this offering from LibriVox!

After procuring permission to leave them at my mother’s house if Mr BB expressed too much consternation on their arrival at home,  and at the farm should the worst happen and they are all roosters, I committed my first ever impulse pet buy.  What a joy!

For less than the cost of taking my petals out for coffee, I picked up these three, win your heart with their fluffy cuteness, baby chicks.  Meet Pecan, Almond and Sago!

They have been a great source of enjoyment for us to watch them at their antics, cuddle during any available moment, and fret over when they have to be left home alone.

I did remember to ask the man what to feed them and how long to leave them under lights.  However, when I asked when I would know if they were going to be roosters he returned a most unsatisfactory answer of,  “When they sit up and do this!”  (The “this” being a rendition of  a rooster crowing. Sigh.)

The rooster part is the only thing bringing me grief.  How could I ever have imagined how attached one can become to a little, peeping, ball of fluff?  And who knew that they all have their own individual personalities?  I know I will be the meanest mother in the world if I have to send any (God forbid, all!) of the darlings off to the farm to meet the fate of excess roosters.

Oh, mothers don’t let your chicks grow up to be roosters….