Tag: dogs

And winter returned!

Hi Everyone,

Yes, I’m late this week. I’m going to blame it on the weather. What the heck? Another late season frost similar to last year. I spent time covering up little plants, bringing potted plants inside and cutting flowers to enjoy as long as possible. I’m glad I hadn’t gotten around to packing up the hats and gloves yet. They were needed on the past few late night / early morning walks with the dog. Like 2:30 am or 4:00 am walks. I think his seizure meds are messing things up. Thanks to these walks I have also been groggy and slower than usual.

I had to bring them ALL in!

I forgot to mention that I have new bees too. My brother-in-law very kindly gave me one of the splits he made from one of his hives and also a nuc he made from a swarm I believe. I don’t have the second one here yet, but am going tomorrow to meet the queen. She will probably be moving here in about a week. So I may have spent more than the usual amount of time watching the new girls and keeping them fed with sugar water. I don’t know how things are at your house, but here, 75% of my time is spent feeding things…humans, creatures and plants. There should be a tax write off somewhere in there.

A note to our neighbors…our lawn mower is being repaired. It’s going to take 3-4 weeks to get it back. Yes, the yard will be bad. Don’t panic if you see horses loose in the yard. They might as well earn their keep and mow some grass.

Today has been rainy and cold. Perfect attic construction weather. I spent several hours painting the walls that are up and DH is still up there putting up more drywall. There are some seriously wonky corners, dips and angles. Not easy on 50+ year old backs and shoulders. Some things will have to wait until lumber prices come down. We were going to frame out the window, but one small board to make the window sill was going to be $14! It can wait. DH estimates 2 more months of work. That would be about my birthday. I would be quite happy to have a finished studio for my birthday.

Slowly but surely.

Yesterday morning I helped with a yard sale and by the time I got home the allergies were full on. I got what had to be done taken care of then decided to take some time to do a little painting while my head recovered. It has been about 3 weeks since I have worked in any drawing or painting. It may not help my allergies, but it sure helps my mental health. I am hoping this coming week to clean up the corner of the attic that is 95% done and maybe move a table and easel in where I can start working. Fingers crossed. Next weekend we have one of the grandkids so I know we will not get much accomplished while she’s here.

This week’s sketch.

Have a great week. I hope your weather is warm. Some of you have storms heading your way I think. Be safe out there and I hope to be back on Thursday.

Faith, Hope, Love, Grace

Christel

Advertisement
by Categories: art, beekeeping, creativity, farm life, garden, productivityTags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Royal drama

Hi Everyone!

How has your week been? Hopefully it has not been as challenging as mine has been. I’m a day late and a dollar short thanks to the crazy. There will not be a drawing lesson this week either. I will do my best for next week.

People who live fairly urban / suburban lives probably think not much happens out in the country. Let me assure you that it may be a different kind of drama and excitement, but it is drama and excitement just the same. There has been some Royal Drama in the news lately and someone asked if I watched the interview. Nope. Don’t really care. I have my own form of royal drama around here to deal with.

Tuesday night – dog wakes me up around 1 am needing to go out. This is very unusual. Odie has a very set schedule that does not include going out after 9 pm. He is also known for his 17 hour bladder. Seriously, he has gone 17 hours without peeing. His choice, not ours. There might have been cold rain involved. Anyway, lets just say that he had an upset tummy. And he had an upset tummy at 2:30 am. Then again at 3:45 am. Wednesday was just a joy to get through. For some reason he didn’t have all the tummy issues during the day.

Wednesday night – dog wakes me up around 1 am needing to go out. Repeat above pattern. I am feeding him rice and pumpkin for his intestinal problems and he doesn’t seem to feel bad. On the other hand, I am barely functioning.

Thursday is difficult, but Odie seems to be better. Mid-afternoon I drag myself outside to do some work in my garden. I hear banging and rattling coming from the barn. No one should be in the barn. I peek in the crack between the doors and see two horses helping themselves to food in the feed room. One, the door on the other side of the barn was closed earlier. Two, it is a bad, bad thing for horses to feed themselves. Three, the feed room is supposed to always stay closed and latched.

It seems that the “too smart for their own good” horses have learned how to bang their heads against the back door and jar the brace loose to pop the door open. Normally this would not be a huge issue, but the feed room was accidently left open. Horses, for all their big, burly size, seem to be somewhat delicate in my opinion. Like, if they eat too much grain or rich grass they can Founder (Founder (laminitis) in horses is a serious condition of the foot caused by the pedal bone rotating and pointing towards the horse’s sole. It is also one of the most common reasons for disability and lameness in ponies and horses. This is extremely painful and in some cases it may be necessary to euthanize.) or Colic ( “colic” means “abdominal pain,” which can have a variety of causes and treatments. Colic also varies greatly in severity. A horse may have a mild bout of abdominal pain that is resolved with a single dose of medication. Other times, colic may necessitate surgery, or unfortunately, euthanasia. All instances of colic in horses should be treated as a potential emergency.). No matter how hard we try, we have lots of horse drama around here because we have smart horses.

As I am running the two horses out of the feed room and the third one who is trying to get into the feed room, out of the barn, I see the two remaining equine. Christy, our oldest horse and Spark Plug the donkey. Somehow they have managed to get themselves locked into one of the stalls together. I try hard not to impose human emotions onto the animals, but I kid you not, the expressions on their faces said “IT WASN’T US. WE WERE STUCK IN HERE THE WHOLE TIME!” I had to stop and laugh.

Woven in amongst all the above crazy, I had honeybee drama all week. After last week’s post where I said the girls were ok, I began to get the distinct feeling that they weren’t. I kept seeing less and less forager bees. By Wednesday I had decided the Queen was dead and most of my hive as well. I had my usual cry over dead bees. Then I called a beekeeper to order a new nucleus of bees even though every time I say I am hanging up my veil when I lose a hive. I’m sitting out there with the hive, watching a few bees come and go, trying to decide what to do about the few remaining bees that I’m sure are still in there. Then I see something odd. A small clump of bees on the front. I look closer and I see what looks like a Queen bee. What the??? Then it dawns on me that the girls had probably sensed the old queen failing or dead and made a new queen and she was outside to go on her mating flight. Well, dang.

Today, I decided to break down the hive and see what was going on in there. Honestly, I was expecting just to see a lot of dead bees and nothing else. I really didn’t think that young queen would come back or make it back to a dead hive. I open up the hive and see a small cluster of bees. Probably no more than 50. These were the ones I was wondering what to do with if they were still alive. Then I see THE QUEEN! She was back.

From here I am going to do the quick version of several hours of work. Run get small hive box called a nuc that holds 5 frames of bees and beeswax foundation to concentrate food and warmth for THE QUEEN. Put queen and attendants in nuc, move old hive out of way and plop down the nuc in its place so forager bees know where to find home. Run around putting old frames of honey far from the nuc so robber bees won’t come hunting it and kill new queen (nature is harsh). Text my brother-in-law to see if he can spare a frame or two of bee larve (brood) to have new nurse bees to attend queen when she starts laying. Put sugar water at nuc for quick food. Look over at side of nuc and see a new clump of bees on the outside. THE DANG QUEEN HAS COME OUT OF THE BOX AGAIN. Put post on beekeepers site on Facebook to find out what to do. Told to leave her alone and attendants will walk her back in the box. They did. BIL brings me two frames of brood that I put into nuc. Run around cleaning up my mess in case it rains and look back at nuc. THE DANG QUEEN HAS COME OUT OF THE BOX AGAIN. At this point I’m done. She is on her own. I have stressed and slaved over the girl long enough. But I really, really, really, hope she is mated, gets back in the hive and is as good a Queen as her mother and grandmother were. Maybe not as cranky as her Grandmother. She had serious attitude.

The video is of the second time I found the queen outside with her attendants. She’s under the pile. Now I just wait and watch and hope this has a good ending. I hope I have not bored you with farm life drama. It’s what we love even though we need our heads examined to keep up with all these critters.

Have a great week!

Faith, Hope, Love, Grace

Christel

Crown Photo by Ashton Mullins on Unsplash

Video by yours truly

by Categories: art, beekeeping, creativity, farm life, learning, Life HappensTags: , , , , Leave a comment

Wintering

Hi Everyone,

Yes, I missed last week.  No super excuse other than I was still digging out of boxes and we were getting ready for a cold spell.  New Readers, my long time readers will tell you that this is my whining season. I am not cold tolerant. You have been warned.

I did spend Halloween with my favorite grandson.  It was a quick (if you consider 4.5 hours quick) drive down, spent the night and back on the road the next day.  We have an annual family get together and of course it was that Saturday. Anyway, my daughter’s neighborhood goes all out for Halloween and we had a great time teaching Buzz how to score some candy.  He figured it out in the end, but got Goldfish crackers instead of candy. He’s a work in progress.

Our family chicken stew (for more info on that very local pot of glory go back into the October archives) was fun and relaxing thanks to one very beautiful Fall day.  Perfect for eating outside and catching up by the fire pit. It was nice to have the new place come with a ready made fire pit!

This week has been COLD, COLD, COLD by Southern standards. Lows in the 20’s don’t normally hit us until January and February.  So D. and I had to spend last week getting the four leggers situated for the cold.  We also got our FOUR chimney flues inspected and luckily one was clean enough to start using.  The rest are getting cleaned this coming week.  We are wood burning folk. No gas logs for us. Thus chimneys must be cleaned every few years.

We also found out that our frost free outdoor faucet is NOT frost free. The dang thing froze up.  Hauling water from the bathtub all the way to the barn in a five gallon bucket is not my idea of winter fun on a 20 degree morning. Then there is the fun of waiting for the water hose to thaw so you can fill the water trough or breaking the ice on the water trough. Yes, I’m officially winter whining.  Eventually there will be a water line to the barn, but it’s a toss up on whether that happens first or the automatic gate opener.  Getting in and out of the car in the cold and rain is not fun either. Whine #2.

The good news is that most of the boxes are out of the dining room…again…for the third time.  Yes, it has been filled three times and three times I have opened and sorted all those boxes.  Some just went upstairs (more on that to come). Now I just have to tackle the ones in the sunroom and pack house.  Lordy.

More good new…I FOUND MY ART SUPPLIES!!.  They have been packed up since January I think. I made a makeshift studio in the newly cleaned out dining room. Here is a photo of the future official studio.  Ain’t it purty!?  Ok, so not yet.  Imagine white bead board walls and built in shelves. That’s where we are heading…after the horses have stalls built in the barn.  Yes, I rank below the horses.  I can’t say much because the pups got this cushy new bed while our bed springs and mattress are on the floor until I get our room remodeled and buy a new bed. The last one broke in the first move of the year.

That’s the news from Lake Wobegone. Oh, wait. Wrong place, but almost as cold. Have a great week and stay warm!

by Categories: creativity, farm life, holidays, life, moving, simplifyTags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Snow = mud

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are well and for those that had the snow bomb dropped on them, I hope you have shoveled your way out. In a few hours I am going to attempt freedom with my little car.

We survived the storm pretty well. I suspect we ended with 16-18 inches of snow, but we had so much wind that it was hard to tell. Some flat areas had 11 inches but we also had drifts that were 24+ inches. Higher than the tops of my tall rubber boots. Great fun when walking the dogs. Not!  The power stayed on and we were cozy and well fed. Maybe too well fed with all the snowmaggedon goodies I had made. 


The animals were some comic relief. D. left the horses and donkey in the barn Saturday night so they would be out of the worst of the storm. Midday on Sunday he let them out so he could clean and restock their food and hay. I was watching as they came from behind the barn, trotting through the snow, tossing their manes. Then they stopped, looked around, looked at each other, then turned in unison and trotted back to the barn. 

The chickens were just as bad or worse. D. opened their house door when he let the horses out. Five hens poked their heads out the door and refused to come out…FOR THREE DAYS! They would make a quick run for water and the bread crumbs that I tried to bribe them out with, then hightail it right back in the house. The only creature around here that doesn’t seem to have an issue with snow is fat Sweetie Pie. She put on her winter blubber last month and has been happily playing in the snow. Sweetie Pie loves her life in every season. 

Sunday was the perfect snow day. With careful planning we only had to take care of the animals, then we were free to read, sleep, watch TV, eat, while staying cozy next to the wood stove. It was wonderful! Monday we knew school would be out but there were daily chores to do and D. got the truck out and went to work. I had time to start a new drawing. Tuesday, no school, chores, food is getting low. Wednesday, no school, Danny’s day off but Miss L. and I were getting cabin fever so we required a trip to the Dollar General to see other human beings. Today, Thursday, NO SCHOOL. Miss L. is running out of reading material and I’m running out of ways to keep her busy. We are getting my car out today if I have to hitch it to a horse! 


Oh yeah, all that lovely snow is slowly turning to MUD. Lots and lots of mud. Muddy horses and donkey. Muddy dog prints and boot prints on the floor. Constant mopping. Soon there will be muddy chickens. Sweetie Pie is the only one who manages to stay pristine. Rain starts tomorrow. The mud will last until about July. 


So next week begins the influx of family for Christmas. If you don’t hear from me it’s because I’m cooking and cleaning like a wild woman so I can have some quality time with my kids while they are here. Let’s just say there is a good chance I won’t be back until the first week of January 2019! 

Stay safe, warm and have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year!

by Categories: creativity, farm life, holidays, lifeTags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Mini Vacation 

Hi Everyone,

I am currently in the lovely Charleston, SC visiting my daughter, son-in-law and grand pups for a few days. Miss L. is at camp for the week and D. is staying home taking care of all the 4 legged kids there. I think he was ready for a few female free days to himself anyway, but I do appreciate him covering all the feeding and walking so I could get some quality time with my girl. Now that my kids are grown it’s harder and harder to have time to just hang out and talk. Most of our time together is at big family events since both of them live several hours away. 

It’s too hot to do much outside so we are just hanging out and may get out later this evening when the temps are a little cooler. The photo is of my grand pup Harley and I don’t have anymore to share at the moment. Hopefully there will be more exciting photos next week, but until then I hope you all have a relaxing week and stay cool!

by Categories: life, travelTags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Dinah and the new guy

Hi Everyone,

I hope you have had a great week so far. I am running a couple of days behind and will give my explanation/excuses below. I do want to welcome the new readers here. I don’t know how you found me, but there have been several new subscribers that have joined recently. Welcome to The House of Weird (as our niece, Miss L., calls our humble home and farm). 

Let’s see. What has happened here since last week? I am still working on the two portrait commissions but am very close to being done. This week has been very rainy so I have gotten in more drawing time than expected and hope to finish them up this weekend. Cross your fingers that I can and then will have something artsy to show finally. 

Did I show you my iris sketch last week? It sold after I posted it on Instagram and Facebook and now lives with my cousin, Amanda. Amanda and I haven’t seen each other in literally decades, but keep up via Facebook. Part of the joy of creating stuff is when those creations spark an emotion  in someone else and go to live with them.  Artists/makers can’t possibly keep everything they make and normally they don’t want to. Our love is for the process and expression. We would also have to add whole rooms to our homes to keep all of the art unless you do digital work, then you need a boatload of memory.


I also had some family stress going on and needed to focus on something brainless for awhile. I gathered some scrap paper and paint for a little art therapy. I just pushed paint around for about an hour and felt much better. Try it some time when life is a little too lifey. No talent necessary. Pretend you are 4 years old again. It’s good stuff.


Speaking of family stress, you know how there is virtually always one relative that drives everyone in the family nuts? You are pretty much stuck because they are a relative and just have to endure through the family gatherings or grit your teeth on a daily basis if crazy Aunt Edith comes to live with you?  Our highly irritating relative is Dinah.


Yes, Dinah is a dog. Dinah was part of the package, along with Sweetie Pie the cat, that came along with Miss L. to live with us last year.  Miss L. and Sweetie Pie we love. Dinah, not so much. Ok, Miss L. loves her which is the ONLY reason she STILL resides here. Yes, I know, she looks cute and adorable. Trust me, it’s a very clever disguise. Underneath that mop of hair and big ears is a Great Dane size dog with serious personality issues.

I grudgingly give Dinah respect for the fact that this little less than 10 pound dog lived her first three years of life outside in all kinds of weather and probably survived more than one attempt on her life and virtue by passing coyotes and other dogs.  She evidently developed the survival skill of being MEANER than any creature that came near her. In those three years she never got eaten or pregnant! Gotta respect that!

Fast forward to this week. Dinah now lives a cushy life indoors with temperature controlled environment, gets two good meals a day, regular walks, has her own fluffy pillow for a bed and has her own toys. Has this helped her attitude? Not. One. Bit.  Everyday starts out with her high pitched squeak bouncing beside me and often her bouncing off my leg as I attempt to divide out the food into three dog bowl. My two canine sons are patiently and quietly sitting and waiting for theirs. I won’t bore you with the ordeal of trying to get her to do her business outside when Her Majesty’s little feet get wet. After that the fun begins.

Dinah only likes one person on this entire earth and that is Miss L.  Dinah’s purpose on this earth is evidently only to protect Miss L.  Endlessly throughout the day when Miss L. is in the house, Dinah snarls and growls at anyone who gets within five feet of Miss L.  Then, heaven help, should any car, horse, dog or bird get within a quarter mile of Miss L. outside, Dinah proceeds to commence barking the most ear piercing bark God ever bestowed upon a canine.  Luckily Miss L. goes to school and Dinah retreats to her lair for most of the school day or I would have lost my mind months ago. 

In spite of the fact that her life has VASTLY improved, Dinah’s attitude has been steadily declining and escalated into her biting D. one morning this week when he just went to Miss L.’s door to wake her up for school. She has a tiny mouth and he had jeans on, but Dinah is now on serious probation and we are in search of a way to adjust her attitude dramatically. How the heck can one little dog cause soooo much drama and stress?  If you have any recommendations PLEASE let me know! I have had dogs my entire life and never had this kind of bad juju from any of them. 

Now, if three dogs, one cat, three horses, 30,000 bees and one middle school age girl were not enough fun and excitement in our lives, D. took on a horse to train.  My husband has been training horses for most of his life, but hasn’t taken on any for several years due to a recession, military deployment and the stress of marrying a crazy artist lady. Yesterday Walker arrived.


Yes, Walker. A Tennessee Walker. How’s that for creative naming? Seriously? Anyway, Walker will probably be with us for about three months. He needs to put on some weight and needs some personal grooming, but seems to have a sweet personality. I predict that unless something weird happens, Walker will leave here one more handsome, gentle, super rider friendly horse and then his brother will be coming here.  Do keep in mind that the “something weird” statement comes after Walker jumped over and out of our round pen last night. I hope my pitiful horse wrangling skills don’t get tested! Never a dull moment at The House of Weird!

I almost forgot. I fixed my necklace that I talked about last week. I’m so happy I can wear it again. It’s the little things, you know. 


Flowers in the cover photo were sent to me for Mother’s Day from my sweet daughter and they are beautiful!

That’s all the crazy for this week. 
Have a fun filled weekend!

by Categories: art, creativity, farm life, learning, life, productivityTags: , , , , Leave a comment

With Thanksgiving

Hi Everyone,

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you are in the U.S.  After my whiney, pitiful last post, I’m happy to report that mine was very nice. Stress, exhaustion and the impending cross country move of my son was not a good combination. I would like to say that would be my last pitiful post but I still have Christmas to get through so no promises.


I did get to spend about a week and a half with the “boy” and his girlfriend came for a visit and had Thanksgiving with us. My daughter and son-in-law made it as well. It had been since May that I had seen them in person. Arden and I got in a 4.5 mile hike together along with my grandpup, Rainey. We had a houseful of people and 5 dogs so there were no dull moments. Top all that off with our well pump dying and life gets really interesting. Two and a half days without running water! Why do things like that always happen when we have people in??

Slowly, ever so slowly things are wrapping up with my SIL’s estate. Every week we think we are done at her house, but then something else needs to be done, looked for or moved. We have an impending deadline so hopefully this Satuday will be the last big day over there. Lots of furniture moving to be done as we get the last of the major items out. We are VERY tired of moving furniture! 

Somehow in all of this (I still have a job that requires my attention too) Miss L and I are making Christmas gifts, the Christmas tree is up, I am cleaning out our storage unit of unneeded furniture and the people and animals still get fed. Poor D. hasn’t had a day off in literally months. Even on his days off from his job he is moving furniture, working on the barn, processing deer meat for a few friends and working on the Honey Do list.  When he decides he can squeeze in a few hours of hunting I figure that’s as close as he is going to get to some R&R for another month. We will all be very happy to see 2017 go bye bye!


I wish I could tell you about all sorts of cool, creative things I am doing but I don’t have much. I finished my second pair of knitted socks and plan to start a sweater next and I got in a drawing though it’s not finished yet. There are big plans in the works and hopefully I can share at least one of those next week if all goes well.  Right now the biggest thing I want to accomplish is getting my house clean and catching up on the laundry that piled up during our dry spell! 

My apologies for the same drawing twice. I can’t get it to delete!


Have a great week and be grateful for clean, running water. 

by Categories: art, creativity, holidays, life, productivityTags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Bits and pieces

Hi Everyone,

Believe it or not, I am actually writing AHEAD of time this week!  That sounds good, but primarily it is because I have yet another day of appointments tomorrow when I normally write my posts.

We need a copy of Miss L’s birth certificate and social security number before we can get all her requirements for health insurance, school and soccer done.  So part of tomorrow will be doing that and the other part will be meeting with the attorney to get the final papers done for me to be the executor and finally get started on the estate.

Ok, a soap box moment…if you do not have your final affairs in order, especially if you have children, STOP right now, GO make an appointment with an attorney and GET THIS STUFF DONE!  I don’t care if you think you are never going to die,  JUST DO IT!  No one should be left behind to go through the mess that we are having to work through.  This could have turned out so much worse for Miss L.  You do not want to leave your children to “the system”.  I doubt you would want to leave your possessions and affairs to “the system” either.  GO DO IT NOW!  Ok, enough of that.

I have a good start on this commissioned barn drawing.  If only I could find a few hours in a row for about three days, I could call it finished, but my days are broken into bits and pieces until late evening so it is taking longer than I would like.  I am pleased with the way it’s turning out, but frustrated with the broken time.


On a brighter note, the disappearing Sweetie Pie (the cat) has reappeared and seems to be transitioning into a barn cat quite nicely.  We still have to get her wrangled to the vet and get her spayed before we wind up with 25 barn cats, but it was good to see her again and know she was ok.  Miss L was especially relieved and goes out to spend time with Sweetie Pie each day.


Our 16 guinea fowl keets are thriving in our bathroom.  We have had them for a week now under a heat lamp. By this weekend we should be able to turn off the heat lamp and just leave them in the bathroom without the AC blowing on them.  Danny will be especially happy to turn that heat lamp off.  It’s like a full time sauna in there.  I will have to find them a taller box soon too.  They are almost able to jump out now.  Guinea’s are known for their excitability.  Can I just empathize that “excitability” is an understatement?  They totally freak out every time you move and at every noise.  How they just don’t drop dead from a heart attack is beyond me.  Soon they will be adding their well known loud alarm calls to the freak out.  I hope we have them outside before that kicks in!


Bob, the horse, still isn’t taking to the saddle outside of the round pen.  The discussion is turning to what to do if we can’t get Bob trained into a trail horse.  He is bred to be a Western Pleasure horse and that may be what he has to go and do somewhere else.  I’m very partial to the crazy horse and don’t really want to think about not having him around.

All other critters, including the bees are doing fine. No honey this first year, but the hives seem healthy and growing.  The next three months are critical so I will be paying close attention to my bee colonies now that the honey flow is over.

That’s all the news from Green Acres (if you don’t know Green Acres then go check it out on YouTube) this week.  Hope all is well in your world.  Have an awesome week!

by Categories: art, beekeeping, creativity, life, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Death, taxes and CHANGE

Hi Everyone,

Yes, it happened again. My post day got away from me last week. I did start it, but before I could finish the day was gone and we were well into a busy weekend.

We are slowly settling into new routines all around.  Mine seems to be the biggest struggle right now because of the overwhelming amount of paperwork and appointments I have to make in the process of settling J’s estate and getting Miss L’s benefits and other life stuff in place. Yesterday was an entire day of driving to different meetings only to arrive home late in the evening feeling like I only made two tiny drops of progress in a ocean of red tape.  

Danny and Miss L have worked out a complex schedule for who gets to sit in the King Chair (the recliner with the best view…outside to watch horses for Danny, the TV for Miss L) what day. I just stay out of that whole thing. They seem to enjoy the debate process!

The food buying and meal planning is also under adjustment. Our health nut food ways are not completely pleasing Miss L. She has the family genetics for an amazing metabolism and she does not waver on her likes and dislikes. I am compromising on allowing some junk food and she is attempting to try new food. I will admit that I have missed Kraft Deluxe Mac & Cheese. 

Sweetie Pie, the cat, had been stuck in confinement while awaiting her spaying surgery. Unfortunately that was not sitting very well with her and she jumped at the chance for escape while Miss L and Danny were cleaning her crate. The surgery appointment got cancelled and we are hoping that the now invisible Sweetie Pie does not appear in the future with a crate load of kittens. 

Princess Dinah, the dog, it adjusting very well and we are slowing introducing her to my pups. She will be getting her surgery next month and if the budget allows, a professional haircut. Her Princess title isn’t matching her wild child look at the moment. 


The chickens have had to give up the free range life as the Thing In The Thicket has increased its chicken consumption. We lost two of our little girls in the past two weeks. There will be an upgraded chicken coop in the Fall. 

Our oldest horse, Christy, carried her last rider this week when she gave Miss L her first riding lesson. Christy’s hip is causing her lots of pain so Danny decided to let her enjoy a rider free retirement. Now Bob is in major training to take over Christy’s job. 

I believe the quote about death and taxes needs to be changed to, “the only thing you can count on in life is death, taxes and CHANGE.”  Lots of change sometime. None of it bad here, just different and all of the elements of the quote are in play with our changes. A death brought about the changes and those darn taxes will be paid at the end of all the paperwork!

I have gotten a good start on a commission piece and hope to show at least some of it next week if not the finished piece.

Embrace the changes this week!

by Categories: creativity, Food, learning, life, productivity, risk taking, valuesTags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

A diligent hibernation

Every winter I wish I were a bear.  The perfect winter in my world would consist of one good snowfall in the middle of the week that would make the roads in the direction of work impassable but the roads to a ski slope open and clear.  After that one snow, sixty-five degree weather would return and winter would be over. If I can’t have it my way, then I should at least be able to eat until I’m fat and happy, then settle in for a long winter’s nap!

Now back to reality.  I have at least been productive so far this winter instead of curling up in my fuzzy robe and hibernating. Not that I have much choice considering in four months I have to move again and throw in a wedding and house remodeling to boot.

purple fabric

Here are some of my accomplishments since January: Hand dyed fabric for a big, upcoming project that I will show you eventually (yes, the purple fabric here),  the wedding invitation designed, kitchen cabinets painted, in the process of learning pattern design, more pillows being made for my Etsy shop and various and assorted art pieces that may or may not see the light of day.

Upcoming projects for February: Probable website changes in works, this weekend begins the priming and painting of two bedrooms, we have to get estimates on some floor repair and pick out new flooring, planning on some socialization time for Odie dog at the park (he seems to be getting more anxious and fearful) and of course the dreaded taxes need to get finished. Whew!

What hasn’t been happening?  House cleaning is at minimal capacity, dogs are not getting their full walks (it’s been cold, wet and nasty many days), cooking is uninspired and limited, social engagements are slim to none. There is always a trade off for productivity.

Things that mess up your tightly packed schedule? This guy!

Bad Bob

Yep, Bad Bob. This week I got a text from D’s neighbors that his horses were out of the pasture.  He was at work, so I got to drive the hour to his house, try to get the three escapees back in the pasture. I was woefully unsuccessful if you must know.  After some discussion with the other neighbor, we deducted that Bad Bob had figured out how to unlatch the pasture gate and had done so twice in less than 24 hours.  The neighbors had already put them back in the pasture once already early that morning! Then I got to drive back the hour home.  About a three hour glitch in my plans.

I have come to conclusion that every living creature has it’s own unique personality complete with good and bad traits.  Bob is eat up with mischief. A horse his size can get into a pile of trouble with that much misdirected smarts.  I think this summer Bad Bob is going to begin some serious training and I’m going to find him a job!

Have a great week! Stay warm wherever you are.

 

by Categories: creativity, learning, life, moving, productivityTags: , , , , , , Leave a comment