I wonder if with people becoming more reliant upon visual representation, if the who, what, when, where, and why of storytelling is changing. I suspect so. They are now probably more piecemeal, words being like sound bites.

Some telling stories get on a roll and ignore the glazed look of their audience members. Me, I try to be careful and wrap it up if listeners show disinterest. And, if I get a glazed look response, I later attempt to figure out why.

Today I had two stories to tell. The first was about the acquisition of Swamp Thing and Sastrugi. The second was about my

Swampy Silhouette

serendipitous meeting with Melena Sevigny, who I met last night when I went to check out Swamp Thing.

I noticed today that my telling both stories, first the goat story, then the chance meeting story, didn’t go very well. The goat story sufficed. But to add the other one, in all instances, seemed to result in sensory overload. I think that this was because people are wired to take in one story at a time. The brain just doesn’t know how to process two stories near simultaneously.

I’ve also noticed that supposedly competing stories are also a bust. Say, if someone tells a story, then after, I tell a like story, I don’t get much of a response. Again, it is an instance of two physical objects occupying the same physical space.

There is only room for one story.

Today’s story is a continuation of yesterday’s story. Continuations are just fine. It was the first day of milking Swampy. She’s a very nice goat, and is she easily able to put Ranger in his place. Right now, he is hoping we’ll get rid of her. He’s had three herd mates, and he isn’t wanting a fourth. But he’s got one. Anyhow, milking her is difficult because she has big round udders and small nubby teats. She kicked repeatedly, and so I got a small container and poured the collected milk into it.

I understand her frustration – here I am, a rube, fumbling around, pulling and yanking, with no end in sight. Poor thing. I did, towards the end get a bit impatient. Pete finished the job. We were told she likes men, and this appeared to be a truism.

I milked one side and then the other. I suspect that in a few days I’ll be milking both sides simultaneously. But not yet.

And so, we are now getting farm fresh eggs and out of the spigot milk.

Pete’s been working very hard on the garden; in just a few weeks fresh strawberries will again grace our table. Fresh strawberries and homemade goat milk yogurt.

This is a true and credible story. Tomorrow I will add to it. Stories can be lengthy, that’s not a problem although the storyteller has to consider pacing, adding and subtracting information depending on the listener’s degree of interest.

The rules of storytelling. Another book idea here, for sure.

Next: 147. 5/28/21: Rain