Trials of a "Chicken Trainer"

My old hens were at the end of their laying years when I bought   new chicks last spring.  Since it takes about 6 months until the new hens are ready to lay, I kept the two old ones for the few eggs they did lay...  Now it's time for the new layers to start egg production and they are trying my patience.

They were avoiding the nesting boxes and trying to lay their eggs in the shavings on the floor of the roost.  I know from past years  hens like a really dark box so I completely covered the nesting boxes with black plastic so no light gets in around the lids of the boxes. Then I took all of the shavings off the floor of the roost.  Of course now I have to practically crawl in the roost to reach the boxes but once they are used to using the nesting boxes I can remove the plastic...

It also helps to have a pseudo egg in the nesting box.  When I was a child my grandfather had two gorgeous marble eggs he used.  He used to tease me to be sure and check carefully when I gathered eggs because if I gathered a marble one I would have to eat it for breakfast... So 35 years ago when I got my first chickens, I searched out a couple gorgeous marble eggs. 

My old neighbor bluntly told me that golf balls worked much better.  Over the years he has been proven right.  I kept trying though.  The hens avoided the nest with the marble eggs and consistently chose a nest with the golf balls.  Sometimes there would be 3 eggs in with the golf ball and maybe 1 egg (or none)  in the box with the marble egg.  Sometimes they would even maneuver the marble egg right out of the nest.. So I keep my beautiful marble eggs in an egg basket and fondly remember my wonderful grandfather.

And my efforts have paid off as both yesterday and today they have laid their eggs inside the nesting boxes.










The deer come each day for water and after they have checked under the apple and plum trees, they eat any sunflower seeds under the bird feeder.  Morris quietly watches their every move.  This doe has twins and the other one is just to  the left out of range of my camera.  The deer and I have learned to coexist.  I would miss them terribly if they weren't part of my day. 

A woman who knew her own mind...

Elizabeth Margaret Knott -  October 1919- March 2015

 

A woman who knew her own mind…and she was invariably right.  She instinctively made important life decisions such as building, buying and selling at the most opportune moments. She started life with everything stacked against her succeeding and had to quit school during the depression.   But she was unstoppable.  She designed and built seven houses plus designed and built an eighteen-hole golf course as well.  She was strong willed, opinionated and she not only knew what was best for her, she knew what was best for everyone else as well.

Widowed in her sixties it was suggested that she would now have to spend more time with other women. Absolutely not! She promptly had a facelift and made a list of criteria for the next man… tall, played bridge, played golf, liked to fish, liked to travel, a good dancer and, most important, liked to cook as she never did.  And being a natural beauty she soon found one - the first of many companions to be replaced as they died off… Gradually as the pool of available men became fewer, her list grew shorter…. down to “liked to cook” and then “drive at night” was added.

I loved her and admired her but our mother-daughter relationship was difficult and complex. She had no intention leaving this world peacefully and didn’t… Someone may be taking her to an unfamiliar place but that won’t stop her from telling them how to get there. There will be NO service.  She herself arranged it years ago so she goes straight from the mortuary to the grave and no obit as she didn't want anyone knowing her business. 

3/5 Art Challenge and Apology

3/5 Art Challenge and Apology
I missed day 3 and having to drop this challenge as my mother is in a health crisis.  I will end with two paintings I did for her from old photos.  In the first photo she is girl in the white hat on their way to pick fruit in Yakima.  In the second photo she is the girl on the right.  She is 95 and we don't expect her to last much longer now

My adventurous granddaughter

My 25-year-old granddaughter Madison has traveled a lot in her life but the last few years she has been doing it  SOLO with a backpack, a budget, youth hostels and cheap transportation.  She worked all summer in Alaska and now plans to spend the winter seeing South America.  

This morning I heard from her.

I have been in Columbia for almost 3 weeks. I have been  from the white sand and turquoise water beaches to the amazing jungle. I did a 5-day hike to the Lost City and am now in the city of Medellin.  In a few days I'll head south to the coffee farms to do some hiking and exploring then to Cali to catch a 20 hour bus to Quito, Ecuador.

She has started a blog to journal her travels and to give tips and advice to others with wanderlust.  I usually find out afterwards when she's gone into the Moroccan desert alone or up some jungle river on a raft in Cambodia.    She's much braver than I am...   I chuckled when I read her list of things to put in your back pack and among the very few absolute necessities was a bottle of polish for her toe nails...

Mind Wanderings

DH will be out of town this weekend and I'm looking forward to some catch-up time and some house cleaning... As I'm finishing the CQJP blocks I am definitely tired of pastels... Whatever I do for 2014 will have to allow for some color variety..  After 3 years of the dark suffrage colors, a year of Morris black and white, and then a whole year of pastels I'm hungry for a real blast of color.

My granddaughter Madison took this picture in Morocco a while back and I absolutely fell in love with it.




I actually pieced a block to use with it... I tried Martha Greene's crumb method of piecing but wasn't happy with it at all and it went into the UFO basket... Maybe this spring I'll try another block.  What makes this photo great is all the repetitions of squares and rectangles and then that spot of blue... Something to think about and look forward to.  I have wanted to do this for her ever since she took the picture.

What do I have planned???

I was reading Freda's post about Harv's birthday and it reminded me that this weekend my stepdaughter wanted to know what I have planned for DH's 80th birthday which is rapidly approaching...  Actually nothing.... If money were no object, a transatlantic cruise would be ideal.   This is a picture from the only cruise we ever went on and it was so much fun..  But since money is a very big object I am going to have to fall back on my usual.. "Clever and Cheap"

I can guarantee though it will be nothing too strenuous as our high stepping days are past and it will be in the afternoon as we go to bed quite early.....  This picture was taken when he could still get his arm around my waist.  So I will have to give this some thought and make sure this milestone gets the proper attention and probably a small mountain of sour cream rolls......

This morning he reminded me he only has 3 left from the last batch...

Important aid for those needing assistance! Please share..

If you or a friend has anyone in assisted living, using a wheelchair or using an electric scooter....make a copy of this post and share it....  My mom is in an assisted living facility.  She can get around in her room with her walker but if she goes down to the dining room etc. she must take her electric cart... The door to her room is heavy and closes automatically and it was only with great difficulty that she could get her cart out of her room... She even had trouble getting her walker out if she had something she was taking with her. So I devised this clever aid...and it solved the problem so beautifully that I have made more for other residents.

While in her walker she can open the door, push the wedge in place to hold it open and hang the leash handle on the door..  As she drives out with her cart she grabs hold of the leash and when she is safely past the door, she can give it a tug and pull out the stopper and the door closes behind her... Slick as a whistle.  Coming in is no problem as she can open the knob and push the door open with her cart...

When I have her out in her wheelchair I have to struggle with doors or wait until someone happens along to open them for us... Now we keep one of these aids in the pocket of the wheelchair.  I can open a door, put the stopper in to hold it open and I hang onto the leash.  As I push the wheelchair through the door I can pull the leash and let the door shut behind us..

The beauty of this device is that it is so simple and cheap to make.  I buy all the parts at the dollar store... You need only a door stopper, an eye bolt, and an inexpensive dog leash... all available at a dollar store. I drill a hole in the fat end of the door stopper and insert the eye bolt... then hook the leash into the eye bolt..

So make a copy of this post and share it please... give it to a friend or drop a copy off at an assisted living facility..

I used every spare minute I had yesterday to work on the inside of my needlebook... It was always like 15 minutes intervals when I needed a little "sit-down" but I  got a lot done.  That is what I LOVE about my tiny work table by the window in the living room.  It is so conducive to short bits of work.

I have the lining done and you can see I have changed my choice of lace and also changed the little pocket to silk from felt. And of course I couldn't resist adding some gold cording.  It's ready now for a good pressing.

As it turned out I didn't have enough of the teeny-tiny tatting to go completely around the labels so they all got a little "crown".  This is the smallest bit of lace I have.  It is only about 1/32" wide and I have hoarded it forever for something special for me and this was it.

It's the little things that add a special touch and for me it was the fact these  precious labels were woven ...not printed.  In fact I went back this morning and ordered Susan's last set so I would have them for another book for a gift...

I chose to sort my pages by "use" rather than "alphabetical"..  So they start with embroidery and then beading, milliners, sharps, crewel, tapestry, quilting,  etc.

I have been been cleaning and getting ready for DH's big party today..  Years ago he took a fondue class at the community college and each year he throws a major "fondue event"... which requires more planning, work, mess, and supplies than a major theatrical production.. And that is just the fondue part.  I do all the rest including the dinner later which will be rather simple... seafood risotto and a green salad with strawberries over ice cream for dessert.

Another artist in the family and new pincushion kits

I couldn't resist adding this photo of my youngest granddaughter Skylar...She might be dyeing lace and I've added some new pincushion kits to my Etsy site....

Need help finding Ott Lite

A gal in my sewing group bought this little Ott Lite at a JoAnns in California this summer.... It is very small and weighs only 10 ounces... It only slightly larger than a small water bottle and it folds up and fits easily in a large purse or small tote. It is portable and battery operated although will adapt to DC... It would be PERFECT for traveling.. It does not have a regular bulb but has these LED lights . The model number is CDO 007 and it is Ott-Lite brand... The problem is I cannot find it ANYWHERE. It does not exist at OttLite's website nor at JoAnns nor anywhere on Google...

So if you are going to JoAnns in your area would you see if they have one and I would gladly pay for shipping etc...? Now this is NOT the larger heavier battery model with a bulb which I have seen...

Now speaking of orange... My delightful oldest granddaughter just whizzed in Friday from finishing college in the Netherlands and picked up her car which had been stored here.. She's off to her new internship at a Mariott hotel in Florida...traveling from Washington state to Florida in mid-winter... She left right away between storms here and hopefully gets south between blizzards.. But while in Europe she spent a few days in Morocco and bought me these beads and look at all the orange... I need to make a block to take to Sharon Boggin's class in April and will use these beads as inspiration, embellishment, and colors for the block.. orange, purple, aqua and lime green... Not my usual palette...but aren't they lovely???

Seams Only, Carole Samples & Good Wife Points

I'm sending off these blocks to Switzerland for the "Seams Only RR. I love doing motifs so much that I tend to neglect seams... I've had the Carole Samples book and templates for a long time but this winter they are going to be my "bible" and I'm going focus on seams this winter in preparation for the adventure in April .

I tend to use the same stitches over and over...fly stitch, herringbone, cretan, etc. Now I'm going to focus on using all the cool other shapes in her templates... I would love to live where I could take a workshop from her...

My plan is to use these squares on my cq jacket... and I've decided on this material... I've never ordered material online before so we'll see when it gets here... I may be covering chairs with it... The colors of the squares are much more olive than they photographed.

Tomorrow we're going to go to the farmers market in Coeur 'd Alene Idhao and then up to the annual "Under the Freeway Flea Market" in historic Wallace, Idaho... My husband adores these little day trips... Big "good wife" points by going...

In fact I'm doing pretty good. On Sunday and Monday I'm his partner in the bridge tournament, there are 4 pies in the freezer and space on the table for him to eat.. All things high on my litany of "good wifery" deeds.. Now I can stick my nose in my stitchery for the rest of the month... and who knows I may find some cq treasure at the flea market...

The Hiawatha Trail

Cyclists come from all over the world to ride this trail... It is 15 miles long and a long 2% downgrade as it is a old railroad bed... When this picture was taken we were just approaching tree line elevation. and the arrow shows where we started....




We had a gorgeous day and the weather was only about 80 degrees and a slight breeze... The scenery was like this at every turn ...spectacular.


Here I am heading into one of nine tunnels on my vintage one-speed Schwinn bike..







And here is one I made it through intact.

We crossed 11 trestles like this one we were just approaching... They were breathtakingly beautiful to ride across.

Here is the view looking down from the trestle to the river on the valley floor. Not the best for anyone with a problem with heights..
Today as I sit with ice pack attached to my head I have a whole new perspective to the phrase... "the light at the end of the tunnel!"

Special thanks to all who posted "get well" wishes as I intend to do that very thing...
and luckily it was my left hand that was damaged so I can stitch while I recover...

DH and granddaughter about to enjoy a huckleberry malt in Wallace, Idaho on the way home.

Owl and mini-tutorial

First the owl... I have left it at a high pixel so when you enlarge it you can really see the stitches.. Notice the smoother texture of the face using just one strand of thread and the different texture of the chest created by using two contrasting threads.. I created the "feather scallops" on the chest by doing a horizonal guideline as well as a vertical guidelines...

I used to have a terrible time filling in irregular shapes until I worked out a techniques for myself which I call "halfsies."

I'm sure there are conventional ways to do this but "halfsies" work for me...

The rust colored shaped around the owl's face is a good example.. It is not only curved, it changes shape as it goes around... I always also have difficulty explaining things that are simple to do but here it is. I will answer questions...

I just have the wings and feet to go before he is finished.. but another granddaughter is coming tomorrow for 11 days... Here's picture of her about 15 years ago.. I'd like us to don hats and do it again now that she is 20 years old..

The Owl and the Granddaughter

I used a fine line permanent marker to sketch the owl on the muslin...I'm starting with the head and you can see I put the directional lines for the feathers in with a pencil.. I do them one section at a time because the pencil will smear. I love the barn owl's heart-shaped face and the ruff of feathers around the face. It has the most beautiful plumage..

Of course even though I have hundred of skeins of DMC cotton I never have the right colors for what I want.. Had to stop at Joanne's to pick up 5 more... Urgggggggggg....

Here is my lovely all-grown-up granddaughter Madison... It was actually a car deposit rather than a bonafide visit and she only was here one night... She graduated from NAU at Flagstaff, Arizona with a degree in hotel management and hospitality so she had all her life's belongings jammed into her little car. Since she is now on her way to the Netherlands to do a semester of study there, she had to do something with her car and all her things until January.....Grandma to the rescue!!!

Everything was taken out of the car, sorted and repacked and of course, Morris was only too ready to help (and pose).

Her friend Emily (on right) also just graduated and made the road trip with Madi.... Emily will fly home from Seattle and prepare for her new job as an environmental educator in SC.... Both sweet and lovely and even though the time was short I was grateful for it AND of course it means I'll get to see her again when she comes to collect her car in January... which hopefully won't be snowed in.

Is she cute or WHAT!!!

Edited a bunch of fishing pictures for my son.. This is the daughter of a client.. Check out those wading boots...it's a wonder she can walk at all.

And the one commenter is right...the hat is to die for... I would definitely wear a chicken hat that covered my ears in the winter...

It's a mother thing!!!

I hesitate to label my son a "computer geek" but I think anyone who has to have 8 screens qualifies... I made great fun of him when he set this all up but I have to admit that it's fun to have a lot of my favorite sites up at once... (Notice Susan that yours is bottom right)... And this is the purpose of my visit...computer stuff...

He is incredibly busy during the season so he wants to transfer most of the computer web work to me in Spokane. He's building a new website and we needed to figure out ways to transfer photos so I can edit them in Photoshop . It's no problem to send just a few but transfer one hundred or more at a time is something else....

Before he burned them on a CD and sent them by FedEx Express to me... Now we have Picasa set up on his computer so he can send them via the Internet daily... In addition there will be a photo cam at the fish rack so I can load daily catches from my computer to You Tube. I've also been busy critiquing the new site...

We still have some glitches to work out but it's so much easier doing it here rather than by phone.. Now I begin the long journey home and will arrive at about 10pm and will be so glad to hug Morris (and DH and Molly too.)

More Ninilchik, Alaska

Since it's my last day I took my camera with me on our run to the post office... Today was a "clam tide" (-2) and hundreds of people with buckets and shovels are on the beach

as far as you can see in either direction.

Probably the most photographed church in Alaska... Ninilchick was settled by a Russian missionary and his small flock in 1846. Many descendants of these original settlers still live here and services are still held in the Russian Orthodox Church..

And of course I had to take the obligatory moose photo as they are every where. They are not the least people shy and slowly graze so getting pictures is a snap literally. We saw 9 yesterday on our way to pick up octopus for halibut bait....

Of course my son did not start with a big beautiful lodge... He first had this pseudo lighthouse and 3 small cabins... That's a sand hill crane on the roof...

You can see in this shot from the next bluff over that his property sits high above the beach.. This lighthouse and the small cabins are now used for staff...

And one of the people who always brings great joy to my life is my gorgeous daughter-in-law Vivian... My son is so lucky to have her as his life partner.... besides she "talks pretty". She was born and raised in South Africa and has a delightful accent... She's my favorite scrabble partner and I rarely beat her any more.

The girl has style......

My youngest granddaughter Skylar just turned three.... Here's she's all ready to go to a wedding...check the gloves, ribbon and fancy dress..... and then the feet.

Updates on puppy #8 and door

Well my dear friend Simone (who is much younger and much stronger) came and helped me rescue the door from the rose bush.... It's not as great as the other door but it will do...And this is no ordinary rose bush... It is Alba Maxima and I had placed the door behind it when I planted it as a very small rose to give it some protection from wind and deer...



Now the rose looks like this when blooming.... It is about 12' across and at least 9' tall and you can smell it 100 yards away. But it had engulfed the door and it took some time to get enough of the rose pruned away to get the door out.


My first plan had been to hide the door in the tractor shed until I could do something with it but then I figured it was poetic justice for himself (who had been so smug about getting rid of my other door) to come home from his trip to find another door on saw horses magically appear!!! So tacky of me but so gratifying....


Puppy #8 at 6 weeks and now at 7 weeks... Notice that the ears have gone up in that week and isn't he adorable? I thought I was going to get to see him today but it didn't work out...but soon

No Door, No More

I had an lovely, rustic, weathered door from the old milking side of the barn.(which later became the tea room).. It had to have been 80 years old and weighed more than 100 pounds... I had it on saw horses and walked by it many times a day... It was like a creative puzzle..."What to do with this fabulous, weathered old door?" It had been sitting there for about 20 years and I thought about it every single day... I thought of 100s of things to do with the old door as yard art but just not that perfect vision...

And every spring when HWCH prowled the garden for things to haul away, he wanted to haul away that door which he considered an eyesore rather than a treasure... Monday he caught me at a moment when I was particularly overwhelmed with all that needed to be done and about to go AGAIN to a radiologist for more steroids in my shoulder..and I said "Okay, if you save the hinges, you can take the door!"

So then when I came home from the doctor's the next day I went to the barn and passed NO DOOR on saw horses. I realized at that moment what an important talisman that door was to me. I went into the barn and sat on a bale of hay and cried....not just sniffles....I wailed. I wailed because my shoulder hurt. I wailed because I'm not young and strong anymore. I wailed because I don't have the energy and time to do all I want to do. I wailed for my lost door and because in all those years I did not take even one picture of my beloved door...

But when I was done wailing I knew in my heart the door truly was too heavy and big for me to handle any more and how great a treasure was it really if I let it sit there 20 years? I do need to work on getting rid all the old wheels, farm tools, and odd iron pieces (aka junk) I have tucked (hidden) everywhere. I need to be more realistic on what I can do and can't do anymore...and I need to find another old door......I might have another one hidden behind the lath area.... Not as good, but still an old weathered door... Then I'll hire me another "handy man" and do something with it... and I hung the rusty old hinges from the other door in my kitchen...