Jarn’s Journal Year 4 Day 212

 Year 4 Day 212

I am getting increasingly worried about Songbird. Her belly has become so large that she has to lean backward when she walks, but she waddles no more than Meerkat — less, actually, since staying in one place has allowed Meerkat to regain the weight stripped from her by starvation. Meerkat insists the pregnancy is progressing normally, but it has become obvious that Songbird’s hips are not remodeling themselves. I can only hope that her ligaments are still elastic enough to allow the baby to be born.

My mapping project is progressing well. I decided to start by flying due east, memorizing and locating landmarks along the way, until I reached salt water. From there I am moving north along the coast, which initially ran due north, with an occasional island offshore. By the third fiveday it began curving back to the west and then back northward, but not so straight, and with larger islands offshore. I have visited a few of these, and recorded their location and teleport coordinates.

At my present position, right on the equator, islands are rare, and the coast is trending more northeast. The vegetation is not actually jungle, such as I found farther west at this latitude, but healthy forest and grassland. I’m glad it’s so easy to teleport back to my new home each night.

I am more and more alternating flying and teleporting to landmarks ahead, though much more systematically than I did earlier. I am even providing some of what we eat — many of the ocean fish are fatter and far better eating than those the lake provides. I wonder how long it will take me to find the northern desert shore I visited earlier.

If you’re trying to follow Jarn’s mapping expedition, he started mapping the coast in what is now Mozambique, continued along the coasts of Tanzania and Kenya, and has now reached the southernmost part of Somalia.

Jarn is a fictional human-like alien who was stranded in Africa roughly 125,000 years ago, during the penultimate interglacial. His story is the remote backstory of the science fiction universe of Homecoming, Tourist Trap and the upcoming Horizon War trilogy, as well as the novel I am currently drafting. Jarn’s Journal as far as I’ve gotten in writing it is on my author’s site.

Start of the Seasonal Snowpack

I think we have the base of our seasonal snow cover. At least it’s dry snow, not freezing rain! As of the photograph (about noon yesterday) the snow was deep enough to cover the grass (a little under 3”) and the temperature was about 20°F. The forecast is for scattered snow showers or chance of snow with highs in the 20’s for the rest of the week, so I’d better dig out my snow boots.

A pretty good idea of how my north yard will look for the next six months or more. The brush is wild roses.

Quotes from Andre Norton

The quotes tweeted from @sueannbowling this week were all (except the last) from Horn Crown, by Andre Norton.

“Men must have such heroes.” The next words are “even though they look about them and see only lesser men, mean and petty things. Yet if they can be led to believe that once there was greatness then many of them will seek it again.”

“It is the gift of the Bard to tie the past to us, to give us hope.” Elron musing in the wilderness.

“Each Power must have its light side and its dark.” Elron remembering Gathea’s words as he faces the dark aspects of those he has come to serve.

“There is always fertile ground, waiting for the right seed.” Kurnous explaining why the Gates have been opened.

“Freedom of choice must remain.” Kurnous’ words to his dark counterparts, pointing out that true freedom of choice can only come with knowledge of what is being chosen.

“If there were no dark, how could the light be judged and desired?” Kurnous, pointing out why no land is all light without dark.

“Follow your hunches.” Sue Ann Bowling, Homecoming. Something Derick had said earlier to Roi, pointing out that hunches, for him, were an untrained from of conditional precognition.

Quilled Necklaces

Just a photo today, and with some problems — I forgot to turn off the flash, so the lighting is uneven. These are some more examples of quilling from my neighbor at the Farmers’ Market this summer.

I love the black and turquoise one in the center.

North Pole Weather 10/15/12

The sun will rise today at 8:46 in the morning, and set at 6:26 this evening for a bit more than 9 hours 40 minutes of daylight – 6 minutes and 42 seconds less than yesterday. The sun at noon is only a little more than 16° above the horizon, and a few days ago I noticed that a pickup driving west near solar noon had a pool of sunlight under it — the shadow of the base of the truck was on the north side of the truck.  Daytime high temperatures are sometimes below freezing, and a dusting of snow that fell Saturday night was still on the ground Sunday evening. I can’t be sure until it gets light enough to see, but today’s forecast suggests enough snow depth to measure. The snow itself will help keep temperatures down by reflecting sunlight back to space, so unless we have a really warm spell, which is not even hinted at in the forecasts, this snow will still be on the ground in April.

At the time I took this picture, snow had been falling for about 3 hours. Maybe if it keeps up overnight it will reflect enough sunlight to stop daytime warming. Not that I’m looking forward to that!

At least the maple is now snug in a 7’ tall cage, which I hope will discourage the moose. The snow stake is up, and I’ll be interested to see how much snow falls today and tomorrow. The dirt roads are already pretty solid. The road in front of my house might as well be concrete, though a concrete road that rough would be badly in need of maintenance.

P.S: As of 9 am, we sill have only yesterday’s dusting of snow. The current forecast calls for snow starting around noon and highs in the 20’s for the rest of the week, though.

Update at 3 pm: it is snowing, but it’s the kind of extremely fine snow, falling vertically, that takes forever to amount to more than a trace.

8 pm: we have roughly an inch on the ground, though the snow has never let up. It’s just very fine, sparse, flakes.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome, Sixers.

Here’s another bit from War’s End, though Bounce is out of sight this time, looking for the rest of the group. Ginger has just told Kelty that the sticky vines holding him have a substance that acts as an insect repellent. (Makes sense: if the vines trap animals for nutrients, they would evolve some defense against insects “stealing” their prey.) Coralie? The steps of survival are recognition, inventory, shelter, water, food, signals, and play, and being from a nomad culture, she’s well drilled in survival strategies.

To see earlier snippets of this WIP, click on “Index” above, and then on “Six Sentence Sunday.” If you want to know more about pocket herders, take a look at last Thursday.

“Glad you can use it, but get me loose,” the pilot growled.  “I’d just as soon I hadn’t found it.”

What else was in the emergency kit? Coralie wondered.  They’d need water, shelter, food ….  She looked up, now seeing that the silver spangles she’d seen earlier were bits of a cloudy sky.  This forest was warmer and wetter than anything she knew; they’d need shelter from rain.

New to Six Sentence Sunday? It’s a blog ring where authors can post six sentences from something they’ve written, ranging from shitty first draft to Pulitzer prize winner. To find other great authors click on the logo.

Types of Color Genes in Horses

The basic coat colors of horses already described can be modified by a large number of other genes. These genes may dilute the phaeomelanin or eumelanin pigments. They may make some of the hairs on the body white. They may organize white or black hairs as to where on the body they occur. They may cause areas of the body, face or legs to be white, usually underlain by pink skin. They may affect the mane and tail more than the body, or leave certain areas unchanged when the rest of the coat is lightened. Finally, there are genes that darken the apparent color by adding black hair to the coat.

Not all of the genetic basis for these colors are understood, but I will try to explain the ones we know something about.

The first group is dilution genes.

At one time, the assumption was that dilute was palomino. Talk about a gross oversimplification! There are at least six different dilution loci in horses, three of which were initially thought to be palomino. These are:

Cream (C), which probably has two alleles in addition to wild-type and is responsible for dark-skinned palomino, buckskin, smoky, cremillo, perlino, and pearl, among others.

Dun (Dn), which produces a dorsal stripe as well as dilution, and which sometimes leaves the head and lower legs dark. Dun, red dun and grullo are all dun colors. Dun on bay is sometimes called buckskin, but it is genetically a completely different color from cream on bay.

Champagne (Ch), a dilution gene which on a chestnut base produces what was once called pumpkin-skinned palomino, but which on other colors can only be called champagne.

Silver Dapple (Z), called by different names in different breeds and sometimes called taffy. The allele producing dilution affects black more than red, and mane and tail more than body.

Mushroom (Mu) is a rare color which at first sight looks like silver dalpple, but is quite different genetically.

Finally, there is a form of dilution in Arabians which appears to be genetic.

The second group involve interspersed white hairs.

Grey (G) is the commoner form especially in Thoroughbred and Arabian breeds, and produces white hairs showing first on the head and increasing with time. Aged greys are not infrequently pure white, but they normally retain black skin. In fact, black-skinned whites are really greys.

Classic Roan (Rn, tends to darken with age, and white hairs may not occur or be vary sparse in head, legs, mane and tail. Scars on roans are often of the base color, lacking white hair.

Other types of roan occur, but in most cases the genetics are not well understood

The third group is made up of spotting genes.

At one time, these were limited to face and body markings, two types of pinto, and Appaloosa. We now know of a bewildering variety.

Face and leg markings are widespread and appear to be quantitative in inheritance, but their inheritance is poorly understood. Even nomenclature varies.

Tobiano (To) is a type of vertically oriented spotting in which the head normally remains plain or conservatively marked but the legs are white.

Sabino is still a catch-all term for paints not known to be due to a specific gene, though sabino-1 is often treated as a locus. Minimal sabinos often have both blazes and high white on the legs. Roaning can be part of this pattern.

Frame (Fr) is a type of horizontally oriented white spotting. Minimal Frames generally have very wide blazes or bald faces but pigmented legs.

Splashed white (Spl) has white spreading up from below and often nearly all-white heads.

Manchado and Brindle are rare and not well understood.

White (Wh) produces white with pink skin and dark eyes, but this phenotype may also be produced as the white extreme of several of the spotting genes.

Leopard (Lp) is often called appaloosa in North America, but the gene is found worldwide in breeds from ponies to draft horses. This gene produces a wide variety of patterns, but at least one Lp^Lp allele seems to be necessary for all of them.

Finally, there are at least two mechanisms that darken the coat.

The genetics of sooty and shading are still uncertain.

Note that a horse may have any combination of these genes. In the trilogy I’m working on now Roi has a horse, Buttermilk, who is a palomino classic roan with Lp^Lp giving her white splashes over her hips: E^eE^e C⁺C^Cr Rn^RnRn⁺ Lp^LpLp⁺.

I have old posts on all of these (see index, at the top of the page) which I will be freshening up with new photos and re-issuing over the next few months.

Jarn’s Journal Year 4 Day 150

Year 4 Day 150

I am going to make a proper map. Certainly of this continent; perhaps in time of this entire world.

I’ve known that the key was time since my first fumbling efforts. If I know a base time, and the exact height and direction of the sun, I can locate myself on a grid of longitude and latitude. The height and direction of the sun are no great problem, but time?

I think I have solved that problem. The computer has a mental interface, but I’m not very good at that kind of interfacing. I can, however handle the interfacing for something as simple as a time check, and give it back the exact position of the sun at my location. It can then calculate my position relative to its own. Each landmark I observe is then given a latitude and longitude based on the equator being at zero latitude, and the computer being at zero longitude.

With Giraffe hunting, Songbird and Meerkat gathering and cooking, and all three supplying my clothing, I actually have time for this.

I am still a little worried about Songbird. The computer does have some information on the birth process, but for R’il’nians and animals. Our women remodel their bone structure as they approach their fertile period, and the remodeling to give a larger pelvic opening continues throughout pregnancy. They waddle most enticingly for the last month or so, but their pelvic opening by the time of birth is quite large enough for our large-headed infants to pass through. Animals do not remodel their bones, but they produce relatively small-headed infants.

The People produce large-headed infants – I saw some at the Gather – but their hips scarcely widen at all. When I spoke to Meerkat she admitted that this sometimes causes problems – especially if the mother has not had a child before.

It will be several moons, she assures me. About four, I think, if their gestation period is similar to ours. I hope Songbird is among those who have no problem.

Jarn’s Journal is the fictional journal of a fictional alien who was stranded in Africa roughly 125,000 years ago. The universe that comes from his stranding is the one in which my published books, Homecoming and Tourist Trap, are set. The entire Journal to date is on my Author site.

More on Pocket Herders

Because Bounce has become such a popular character on my Six Sentence Sunday snippets from War’s End, the third book of the trilogy I’m working on, I thought I’d post the first scene in which the pocket herders appear. This is from Rescue Operation, the first book of the trilogy and they are on Horizon, which is at war.

This is Kilravock Lassie, the first Shetland Sheepdog imported to the US to leave descendants here. I think I had her in mind when I invented the pocket herders, though they average a little larger — Lassie was only 12″ tall at the shoulder.

The planet looked misleadingly normal. Its population was low and well spread out, and in this relatively affluent section, most families lived in separate houses on their own slices of land. The planetary love affair with horses was even represented by several stables and sheds, often with attached small paddocks in which horses dozed. The sun set as they walked, but it was still daylight by the time they reached a walk gate on which a sign was hanging: CLOSE THE GATE! They were a little early, as Roi had planned, but he let himself and Mark in, shutting the gate, and started toward the house.

They were intercepted.

The dog that came tearing around the corner of the house was small, its pinned-back ears below Roi’s knees, but clearly determined to protect its territory and its mistress. Mark backed up a step; Roi simply broadcast friend, more emotion than thought, at the oncoming dog.  The animal slid to an astonished halt and lifted its ears, the expression on its face, Roi thought, probably mirroring that on his own.

Animals generally responded to broadcast emotions and simple visualizations, but not as sharply as this dog. Roi opened his mind and listened to the dog. A bright dog, about as intelligent as a wolf, but not sentient in the legal sense of awareness of itself as separate from its environment. And undeniably and very strongly telepathic.

Roi handed his share of the baker’s packages to Mark and dropped to his heels in front of the dog. Projective as well as receptive telepathy, he thought. Probably strong enough that such a dog could manage two-way communication with even a latent telepath. Certainly the dog was telepathic enough to provide Merle with the comfort she needed in a form she could accept. But was this an anomaly, or was the whole breed telepathic?

“Misty!” A middle-aged woman was running toward them down the path, a woman wearing rumpled clothes that looked as if they had been selected to hide dog hair. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting anyone quite this early, or I wouldn’t have left her out in the yard.”

They were shown into the house in a flood of apologies and thanks for their contribution to the refreshments. “But we were just getting acquainted,” Roi protested, and insisted that the dog not be banished on his account. “I thought I was going to be looking for a replacement for a girl who lost her dog, but if Misty’s typical, I’ll be looking for breeding stock as well.”

I’ve just passed the files on this on to my editor, so there may be changes. But Roi’s interest in the pocket herders is going to remain.

Quotes from Mecedes Lackey

Mercedes Lackey again this week, except for the last quote which (as usual) is from one of mine. This time the first four Lackey quotes are from Intrigues, the second book in the Colloquium series, and the next two are from The Fairy Godmother, the first book in the Five Hundred Kingdoms series.

“Eyewitness tend to see what they expect to see.” Halleck explaining that the same is true of Foreseeing.

“There is a difference between a team and a group of the best, and a team will win every time.” Gennie (the team captain) to her team in the first Kirball game (which is modeled on Kipling’s “Maltese Cat.”)

“Everyone has darkness inside them.” Rolan to Mags, letting him know that the darkness within him is not unique.

“Think every move through before you do it.” Mags’ thoughts as he is getting out of the kitchen where he has been hiding.

“There are a great many things she could have done. None of them suited her.” Elena to Fleur and Blanche, after her stepmother and two spoiled stepsisters have absconded to avoid paying their debts, rather than cutting back on their style of living.

“Home. What a wonderful word that was.” Elena, when Godmother Bella says her home will be Elena’s, too, for as long as she wishes.

“Do fathers and mothers always fight over children?” Homecoming, Sue Ann Bowling. Roi to Elena (no connection with Lackey’s) when he is first coping with being a father, and finds Wif’s mother does not really want to share her son.