Changes and chickens

The Changes:

I canceled my website registration and hosting company - just too much money a month right now. I've transferred my domain name to a holding site and will transfer it to my final choice in 60 days and begin again.

I am NOT letting it die, there is just a wait for the time being. I should be able to write a whole bunch of content before I launch it again. Like I said, I SHOULD be able to ... and hopefully I will get off my butt and DO IT!!!

I wish there was some way to notify my visitors that I haven't dropped off the earth, but when you didn't own the site, it is still listed in a search, but you don't get the site when it's clicked on. I really wish I could have just changed the first page to read "site under construction", but I can't ... bummer!! If anyone knows how I could do something like that, PLEASE let me know.


The Chickens:

Well, I have three more chickens. These girls are young, not little chicks, but young pre-laying hens. These three girls were raised in a household where they came in the house, sat on laps and watched TV. Ummm, NOT HERE!!

They have made it up the back stairs, but I can hear the clucking and come shoo them back down the steps. None of them have made it inside, but I can't say that for Cinnamon! I don't know how many times I have been out front and here comes that DARN chicken, walked through the house to where she could hear my voice. Thankfully I haven't had any poo to clean up yet, but I know the day is coming ... Uggh!

Update: This evening I had one of the new girls come in. I caught her just inside the door where she left me a present! Thank goodness it was on the back porch linoleum. I think I invited this since I mentioned it in the paragraph above ... LOL


These are the three new girls, aren't they lovely?


And just to be fair here is Cinnamon the "bitchy chicken" that wanders in the house!



She is the only one that laid eggs, but I got one a day, which is enough for me since I'm by myself. I'm waiting for her to stop due to age, and I think Frazzle is past laying, but she is sooo cute!



When I got her she had tons of feathers missing from being picked and pecked on, but she has come a long way. She still looks frazzled because of her Araucana cheek feathers, but that is natural for this breed.


Here are the Three Chickenteers, they are never far from each other. Hopefully that will change as they get use to the yard and the other two. See the dark chicken in the above picture ... if you look real close you can see the second one reaching up to taste the cedar branch. Didn't like it.

I can't keep calling them Chickenteers, but I don't have any names for them yet. I really don't want anything like Tom, Dick and Harry or Larry, Moe or Curly Joe - they are girls and need fine names. I'll come up with something pretty - maybe I'll think of names while we are at deer camp the first week of October.


Here is my big tom cat Joey. He leaves all the girls alone even if he does catch other birds, but he will go into the pen and drink out of their water dish. He was about two feet from Frazzle when I took this picture - neither of them minded.

And my little, itty, bitty tomato garden is coming right along. The plants are still setting a few flowers - the days are nice, but the nights are getting down into the low 40's at night so I don't know how long this will last. The fruits on the plants are still green and it worries me that I might loose them. The hanging plants in the milk jugs, that I showed you in a previous post, just didn't work out. The water sat too close to the stem and they rotted and fell out. Won't do that again!


If you look real close, right in the center, there is a shaded tomato hiding in there! I didn't get very many tomatoes, but I know what I did wrong - planted them too close and not enough water! Now I know!!

Phew, this post ended up covering a lot of ground! I need to pace myself and write less per post but post more often.

Hugs

time sure flies

I didn't realize that it's been a week since I last posted, but I guess with all the "I should post" thoughts and never doing it does make time fly.

I've been all over the internet looking for different things for my web site, my blog and my Etsy Shop. Did I find anything? Yeah I did, but not as much as I wanted to. Or maybe in some regards more than I needed, but not what I wanted!

I've been away from my site for a while - the builder was giving me fits and I just didn't want to deal with it for a while. Not good, I have to work on it to make it viable. This weekend I will be working on Christmas gifts so I can get some of those out of the way, but I will be back to the web site on Monday. If I have to grit my teeth and do it over, I will. Won't like it, but will do it!

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is Halloween. I do not like the commercialized version of Halloween, I belong to the old pagan beliefs that it is a time of remembrance of those who have gone before, and that on this night the veil is thinnest between here and there. I know, I know - I'm nuts. That's OK.

And the politics - Oh brother! I'm glad that the vote is close, I'm so sick and tired of the candidates picking apart each other instead of focusing on the issues. It has become 18 months of mud slinging. I remember when the candidates could not even mention any thing bad about the opponent! Somewhere in the 1960's, I think. Maybe the current candidates could explain HOW they are going to fix our economy instead of just making empty promises that they can't keep anyway. OK, I'm done.

We are waiting for a bunch of fronts to bring in 2-3 storms during the next 5 days or so. I've left my Jeep out of the carport so it can get 'washed' off a bit. It is suppose to be a greenish-blue/bluish-teal or something like that, but it has changed to a very muddy blue (I think!) I still need to clean the windows - it is harder to see out than into it. I have a dog with a very wet, nosy nose! She has to sniff everything at least 3-4 times to make sure it is OK to be there - including the windows.

I need to caulk the front threshold so the water won't get into the wood underneath, but the caulk gun didn't want to cooperate with me so I'm borrowing one from Dale. Hopefully it will get here before it's totally dark. I also need to get the camper off-loaded from the truck, but we need to fix the stands with new 2 x 6" boards so we can steady it better than in past years. That probably won't happen until next weekend if it is going to rain for a while. Then I need to find (I think I know where it is) the tarp that goes over the camper.

I think I'll quit posting now - I'm getting grumpy and gloomy . . . I'm just not feeling real well at the moment.

Happy Halloween to you all.

relax? who me? I've got work to do . . .

I've been working hard at getting the website put together, but it seems the harder I work on it the more there is to do! I'm not complaining because I need this to work for me, but the more I do, the more I learn that I don't know much! Hmmm! I've always done my own kind of beading, but even I need to learn how to do it correctly.

I asked my daughter "Gee hon, don't you need some craft or beading supplies?" Sure, she said, but I can't figure out how to buy from your site. Well, let me tell you - if she can't figure out how to purchase from my site then I KNEW no one else could. That set my teeth on edge and I've been furiously trying to get it together ever since. I need to have her look at my site again . . . and to see if she can figure out how to buy something now that I've made some changes!

The site is all about Beading for Beginners. There is lots of information about starting beading, there will be TONS of information as time goes by! There are links to buy supplies, tools, beads, etc., etc. There will be recommendations, patterns and ideas for projects. I have a huge list of beading societies from across the country and world wide, but if you know of a group that would like to be represented, please email me and I will add the group to the list. Also, if you see, or know of an error that I've made, again, please let me know and it will be corrected.

I take a break once in a while to get a bite to eat, but most of the day is spent doing a bit of research on the various aspects of beading, writing about beading and fixing the links so my visitors can get more information and supplies. I have to watch myself so that I don't get ridiculous with the research - like a major overload of information! I've done it before and all I want to do is cry and whine about how much info there is out there, and that I will never know it all. Well, it is my goal to have a very informative web site with all the 'stuff' that is needed to know what you're doing, and to teach you how to grow and develop your beading.

I just re-read everything, changed some, and figured out that I want the world at my feet... Really tall order for a new website, huh? Just smile, nod and tell me I can do it and I will love you forever!

I think I'll take a break now and catch my breath, and leave you with a crafting thought:

Creative clutter is better than idle neatness.

One step at a time

It was a busy last week, as I said, I talked to my daughter; aired some feelings (I have more to go) and took some time to myself.

My daughter has been looking, really "looking" at my website and has come up with some suggestions for me. I am a novice, she is a part-time student of web site design to quote her, and she will try to help keep me on track. She and her husband have their own computer business, so I know she wouldn't make a mess out of my site, and if I don't like something she suggests, I can try it, frown and revert to the old stuff - the final choice is after all mine. But she is a good daughter, LOL.

I read some more of More to Me, a blog of a wonderful woman named Megg coming to terms with her feelings about lots of things we all face at one time or another. This site makes you realize that you can want things for yourself, you can do it, and one step at a time, you will get it if you believe in yourself. Check her out.

I took 3 days to myself and went camping. Well, it started out that a group of us were going, but they fell by the way side one by one. I had all my ducks in a row, fully loaded and I headed out by myself with my dog. We had some wonderful walks along the trails that surround the lake and the campground. We did a couple of power walks to make sure my dog still knows that I'm Alpha female, and lots of stop and sniff walks. The power walks have a pretty tight reign on the leash and the dog walks close to you without pulling every which way. The stop and sniff walks are just that - and we stopped, and we stopped, and we stopped - only the dog sniffed though. About half way through most of our walks, the dog came over and just walked next to me - I think she went into "sniffer overload". We then just found a rock or log to sit on for a while, or went back to camp to relax. I finished a book (could have been better), I worked on my Knobby Knitter, you know those spool things with the nails that make the long knitted strings..... if I had a better camera, I would post a picture...

I'm not sure what I'm going to make with this long knitted string, but by the time I run out of yarn, I may come up with something even if it's only a hot pad - not my colors, but it would work, LOL.

It was my Mom's birthday, 81, this past Saturday and I didn't get to call her until yesterday, but she 'figured' I was camping since I didn't call her. She always sounds so surprised and happy when I call that she makes me feel like a cherished daughter. It is some good feeling. We talked about the package that I sent, and she hasn't gotten yet, with all the card making goodies in it. I sent card stock, 3 pairs of fancy edge scissors, and blank cards with envelopes, stickers, and a few other things. She is really looking forward to going through the box!

I got an email from my daughter yesterday morning and she had sent a bouquet of flowers to her Grandma, along with card making supplies: pre-made cards & envelopes, plain paper, & lots of stickers . . . now I tell you, do great minds think alike?

My daughter also left me with a little thought, and I will share it with you:

"And take down one giant at a time."

Wishing you sunshine...

. . . and maybe just some whining ?

I'm stuck inside due to the heat, it's too hot to breathe out there! In our neck of the woods, 96 deg. is just too hot! even with a slight breeze. Thank goodness that the heat wave is going to break on Monday. On Monday the temp. will drop about 10 degrees, and by Wednesday the Weather Channel says it will be 63 with a chance of rain! WOW, that's quite a difference, but welcomed all the same.

I've been reading a lot of blogs lately, some are interesting, some are very crafty, but all are intriguing. Most of the blogs all seem to have begun somewhere in early 2006. There are a few that go way back before that, and some that like mine - are just starting out. I like to go back in time with the bloggers to see what prompted them to start and to follow the happenings of their lives to the present. Some are accounts of crafting projects and the progress and development of their crafts. Others have given accounts of their lives, good, funny, sad, frustrating and enlightening - and I've enjoyed them all.

I started my blog with the hope that it could help me learn, expand my horizons and get my 'sh*t' together and set up a routine schedule for getting my life and website, Beading for Beginners, heading in the right direction. I guess I'm a slow learner - my life seems to just move forward one day at a time, not changing much, and my website, which I had, and still have, great plans for seems to sit and stagnate. I get the feeling sometimes that I'm afraid of succeeding in my quest, sounds silly I know, but what else would be holding me back? I've looked at the overwhelming task I've set for myself, and just flinch. I know I need to stop looking at the WHOLE big picture, and just take little baby steps, looking at each segment of the website, and working on it. If I do that every day or week, it will be what I want it to be before I know it . . . I just need a swift kick, a huge RUDE awakening, and maybe someone to tell me that I'm doing good.

Feeling sorry for myself? ? ? maybe - I'm not sure where I'm going with this post, but I need to get it out in the open, and where is it more open than on a blog?!?!?!

I've come to realize, that most of my close friends are not really interested in what I'm trying to do. Period. I've said it. They don't care much! I do have a 'soul' friend in Nebraska, and she cares very much - that I know. She has a life and can't babysit me and MY project - she gives input when she can, and the input is honest, but I don't expect her to hold my hand and do it with/for me....... maybe it's that the people I count on, my friends here, are letting me down in some way? maybe I expect too much from them..... maybe I'm letting their lack of interest get me down.....

I get so angry at times that I end up stomping around the house, not knowing what to do with myself, crying, sniveling and just getting a general worthless feeling about myself. The more I cry and snivel the angrier I get and then the "I'll show them!!!" kicks in for a while. Key words here: "FOR A WHILE" . . . and then it's back to the same old thing . . .

I know I'm probably not making a lot of sense right now, but as I'm writing I'm seeing the pathetic side of myself. I know I can't be the only one in the world that has feelings like this, but at 61 years old, wouldn't you think I'd be over this kind of thing and just do what I need to do? I don't need their approval for anything I do, but I really would like a tiny bit of interest once in a while.

Maybe, I'm also a bit afraid of what the rest of the world will think of my site . . . and for some reason I do care, I care a lot.

I think that maybe I feel a bit like the statue in the following quote:

"Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue" (Author unknown)