Long time no post

It's been too long since I posted - one whole month!! I was caught up in the Christmas present making, but I was also caught up in a medical problem. I'll go back to right after Christmas when we got a wonderful snow storm ... this shot was right out the front door. It was coming down hard.

This shot was to the right of the one above.

I've finally (almost) finished the gifts that were promised. Thank goodness for friends who understand "not feeling good" and "I hurt"! I will shortly make my rounds to deliver the gifts. I had two more ornament covers to finish, and I love the way they came out.

I used silver and medium green beads on a silver ball, with green mottled glass beads at the bottom. I need to make all my future covers this length or LONGER. I just love when they hang way down ... sorry about the flash, but it was so dark in the room when I took the picture.

The red and gold seed beads stand out really well on this sort of pinkish/peach ball.

Last year I knit a cowl in Camo yarn for one of my best friends. This year the gentleman that received the hat last year is also getting a cowl, but in the same blue as his hat. I still need to line it, but that will be completed this weekend.

The pattern can be found on This Boy Knits and it's a fantastically easy pattern.

I'm near the end of another cowl for another friends birthday in February.  This one is in brown.

I really enjoy knitting these, but I might find another pattern to try, or make up my own and maybe sell them to the hunters in my area ... could be ...

The medical problem is a mass the size of a plumb, attached a little bit to the appendix. I see a surgeon on the 27th of Jan. and will find out when I go to have it removed. The only other thing that came up in all the tests I had was high LDL (bad) cholesterol level. At first I looked at all the food labels, but it only on occasion mentions cholesterol, and I'm thinking that means both good and bad. I've added a lot of fruit to my diet and we'll see when the blood test is redone in June. Aside from these two things, which can be fixed, I'm basically very, very healthy.

Hope you didn't get too bored with this huge post ... I will post more often, yeah, like I've promised that before!! I promise that I really, really will try to get on here more often.
Have a good day and a great weekend.

I am here ...

... crafting away. I have shopped, and am still not done, I have knit - and am still not done, I am making my beaded ornaments - and am still not done. I need a total of 6 ornaments; I have 2 finished, 1 almost, and 3 still to go. I don't follow any pattern, I just make up rows as I go.  I'm sorry the pictures aren't clearer, but it is an overcast, rainy day here in Southern Oregon (I wish it was snow!!).  Then again I don't want them too clear as the people they are for, pop in now and again (I think). LOL ... 

 I pick the glass ball first, then contemplate what colors of beads go with the ball.  After that I start looking and counting out beads to see if I have enough of the fancy ones.  Sometimes I need only 8, others 24 or 48 - all multiples of 8 as there are usually 8 danglies on each ball.  I need to expand to have more . . . hmmm, probably next year!  I don't have time this year to experiment ...

I know I will get them all done - is there a choice? - as it only takes half to three quarters of a day to make one my way.  If I had all the supplies in a neat little package it would only take 3 hours or so...... but I like to dig around in my beads, and it gives me a break from getting the needle through those itty, bitty beads.  I love my beads ...

OK, now that you've had a peek, I must get back to finishing the 3rd one, and get started on number 4.

Have a great day!

Happy, happy Thanksgiving

We have a white Thanksgiving!  The pictures were taken on November 23rd, the day of the storm, but aside from snow having been plowed and shoveled, it is basically the same amount as it has been way below freezing since.

I love this view out the front door, it never disappoints me.

You just have to have a view or three out the back door too. The south 40 (1 acre)...

... my poor barbecue under 12" of snow...

... a frozen wind spinner ...

... and the new chicken coop showing how the blowing snow stuck to the fence! I went out and hit the fence and it all came down in one fell swoop!

Silly I know, but I've been giving the chickens cooked rice that's still warm to hold them overnight when temps have been dropping into the minus and teens' range. I will freeze my chickens on my schedule, not Mother Nature's!

The sun is shining this morning, but the temperature will only go to 34 today. I hope everyone has a safe and satiating Thanksgiving. I am going to two houses for dinner ... I'm wearing pants with elastic in the waist!! ... and I'm bringing containers to bring home some leftovers too ... LOL

Hugs

More chicken stuff ...

Remember this old pathetic dog kennel that my chicken girls use to live in?

It was turned into something that looks like a chicken coop! Yeah! I forgot to get pictures of Dale and I measuring, cutting the pieces, building each wall and the base. I also didn't get any of the painting (priming) process. It's hard to take pictures of myself painting, and I really didn't want my camera out in a 40 degree shed with the dog and me moving around! But this is where we are putting it together after moving the pieces out to the back yard.  Dale is standing inside the coop putting the roof trusses on.

Here you can see that the coop was backed up against the wood shed and you can also see the nesting box addition.  The inside of the coop is a smidgen larger than 4'x4', so the boxes needed to be out side.  Besides it is sooo nice to NOT have to crawl into a dog house to collect eggs!  This woman is sooo over that!!!!   The plywood that is standing against the coop is the roof - ceiling actually - as we put felt paper dowm before putting the tin on.

Here it is all put together with the 6'x12' kennel moved so the girls will have some outside fenced area to roam.  The are not that happy about staying in, they would rather come out of there to roam the whole back yard.  I've kept them in since last week so they could get use to the new house and the ladder.   You can also see the blue tarp cover on one end of the area - this is so they have a dry spot when it is snowing or raining.  Dale says my girls are spoiled ... SO?  Yeah, they will be real spoiled when at least two of them go into the soup pot!!   The two rocks holding the nest box lid down are because the plywood warped a little bit and I haven't made it out to move the single center hook to the end and add another one at the other end.  I will not be moving rocks forever - this was to make it easy for me to get the eggs!

Then we have the roomy accommodations for the girls.  There are four nest boxes for five chickens - plenty of room for laying.  There is a roosting bar that will hold all five if they so choose.   On the other side of the door is their food dish, which needs to be upgraded too, since I found an egg in it this morning.  Right out of sight on the bottom left is their water bowl, which will also be replaced.  I have both straw and wood shavings on the floor to keep their little feetsies warm.

Here is a view from the (wo)man door across to the chicken door and you can see three of the girls looking in to see what I'm doing in there ... LOL.

I know this post is getting really long, but you had to see the whole thing.  The last view is of the "former" chicken kennel area.  This will all be cleaned up, but not while there is snow so it might have to wait until Spring.   Right behind the up-ended dog house is my straw bundles; those will have to be moved soon - maybe tomorrow - since I don't want to be digging around under snow to refresh the girls new house.

The sky is blue and the sun is shining - what happened to the HUGE storm we were suppose to get?  More about that the next time ...

Hugs to you all

itty bits of snow ...

It really is hard to believe that snow season is here. The first snow showed up yesterday morning, and of course by noon or so - poof, it was gone! We had more on the ground this morning, so I had to take some pictures.  This is my gravel driveway with the snow carefully placed on the fallen pine needles. Must have been some hard work on Mother Nature's part.

Here is a little pine, oh about 12" tall, that has some snow stuck in the needles.

A few days ago the side yard looked like this, and it still looks like this (in piles) but with itty bits of snow, which is now gone, so it looks completely like this. I hope this sentence makes sense, I had to read it twice to understand it, but I'm not messing with it any more ... LOL

I have a whole bunch of pictures with snow, but it's funny how we all have to take "firsts" every year ... at least I do! Maybe we can get back to a normal winter in this area as last year we had maybe 14" total. Our normal is anywhere from 4-6 feet! I hope your winter is also normal, or at least as normal as possible.

Have a good day.

The skunk saga ...

Yesterday was the BIG stinky day! I really, really wanted to show you some pictures but the incident had me running around getting bucket, rifle and keeping the dog in the house.

About a week ago I borrowed a trap for the furry little critter .. I placed it by an opening that leads under the house. I had hoped to catch the little 'kitty' and have a friend of a friend come and take it away. I left the trap there for 2 nights with eggs in it. I caught my cat! Nosy Cat. OK, no skunk ...

I moved the trap over by the chicken pen. Set it up with another egg, and waited. Two or three nights went by, no skunk, also no more Cat. I finally just moved the trap over a bit next to the outside wall of the wood shed figuring that the 'kitty' had moved on since it couldn't get into the pen.

Yesterday morning I went out to let the girls out for the day, threw some feed down for them, gave them fresh water and went back to the house. I turned in the doorway to call the dog to come back in - she was "pointing", sort of, towards the wood shed. I took a good look, and the 'kitty' moved! I just about came out of my skin realizing how close - 5 to 6 feet - I had come to the trap ...

I called my friend so he could call the guy that (has no sense of smell) would come and get it live. He sells the scent to the companies that make perfume - makes me look at perfume in a whole new light - ick!!! Any way, this is elk season out here and of course the guy was out in the woods hunting. Hmmm, now what? My friend came down to see if I had taken care of the little problem - no I hadn't, I was still on my first cup of coffee for the day and needed my whits about me. I got my rifle for him and he took care of it, WONDERFUL friend. After the 'kitty' had stopped moving, we dumped it in a bucket and away it went.

Now, when you shoot a skunk, it sprays! My property STUNK to high heaven. I had it embedded in my nose - Oh ick!!! This morning there is still a lingering aroma, but it will fade as days go by. Not fast enough for me, but it will fade.

The trap has to be rinsed down with bleach so it doesn't smell like skunk, evidently even skunks don't like the scent of other skunks. I still have the trap and am waiting to get close to it to see if the smell has left.

I was just a wonderful day yesterday, cough, cough, gag!!!

Hope your day was better. Dang, I wish I had pictures to show...

Oh ... the animals have their day!

We have had some terrific weather the last 3-4 days, and it is suppose to last for another 3-4 days. Temps in the 80's ... makes for a bad hunting season.

About 3 weeks ago SueAnn needed to go out around 2 in the morning ... what else is new? Well, I saw a shadow over by the chicken pen, but I really thought it was just my eyes after being dragged out there at that hour. But nooooo! There is a neighborhood black with white stripe type animal trying to make a dinner date with my chickens. Well .... do I need to say more? At 2 in the morning I'm trying to remember what takes the smell down about 300 degrees, but bleary brained me, just stood there staring straight ahead. I woke up when the dog wiped her cute, stinky face on my jammies! I grabbed the feminine internal cleanser and doused her good. It did help a lot, but didn't quite get it all. I woke up the next day with a headache, and knew exactly why!

Just laugh, go ahead ... last evening the cat wanted in, he lets me know by hanging up on the screen and yowling. I opened the door, and OH NO NOT AGAIN!!!! Joey evidently got too close and reeked with black and white striped type animal scent!! Have you ever tried giving a cat a bath? I did once about 40 years ago - never to try again. Until last evening! At least I was awake even if my eyes were a bit teary. Grabbed said cat, headed for the bathroom, closed the door, dumped some female stuff on him and realized I didn't have a scruffy towel handy, oh my beautiful bath towel ... Joey didn't mind the wiping down, but he felt like he needed some loving and kept jumping up in my lap - I again had a headache! Ummm, like we did that for about 5 minutes and I finally just let him jump up - - and stay, for about 10 minutes.

My whole back yard looks like this picture!  All my cute little ladies look like I tried to fleece them, but they are doing it all by themselves!  I have 5 ladies, and am getting 1 maybe 2 eggs a day.  The biggest girl is the worst 'shedder'!  I'm just going with the flow for now.  I don't care too much about the chickens, but I certainly DON'T want a repeat of my 2 legged critters.  Maybe I will just have to camp on the back steps with my .22 to prevent that ... if I don't gag first ...

I sure hope you all have had a better time lately.

The time just flies

I'm still crafting for the fair in Boston, and when I take a breath, I'm outside cleaning things up to get ready for winter. I started packing the crafts as I finished them, but I think I'll have to take some of them out again to show you pictures - I did promise after all!

This past week it was cold and rainy, but now the temperatures are heading back up to the 70' and 80's. I have a cold with this roller coaster ride - and that roller coaster has been running for over a year now. There wasn't much of a winter last year, and then almost no summer, and as today is the first day of Fall, I sure hope the coaster stops and lets us get off. I've heard from The Farmers Almanac that we are to have a 'normal' winter - and that means 4-5 feet of snow, maybe more. Last year we had 11-14 inches all total, so I can hardly wait. I'm also anxious to see how well my new weatherization will do.

I'm going to be buying the lumber and stuff to get a new chicken coop built. If we have 4-5 feet of snow the old tattered tarp covered dog kennel will not hold up too well. I also have a night visitor that is hell bent on getting in to my chickens. I think it's a possum, but am not totally sure. It is trying to dig under the pavers that are in there. I have chicken wire under all the pavers, except maybe where the gate is, and that's where the varmint is trying to get in. If I put a trap out there, I'm not sure what to do with him ... I also think I'd be afraid to get near it. I'm not too critter wise, but I do have a friend that will take care of it!!

I'm going to forgo hunting season this year. Usually I look forward to the camping part of it, but this year it has loomed on the horizon as a pain in the butt! Maybe because I'm not feeling that good with this cold, who knows. My friend will take my truck camper out this year as his wife and daughter won't be going either. He will also be able to tow the quad trailer loaded with extra water, generator, maybe the air compressor, and extra fuel. It will be tight quarters after his 24' 5th wheel, but all he'll do in it is sleep and maybe some cooking.

When I fed the cats this morning I noticed that there was 1/2 cup food left, so I'd better get going to town to replenish that! The cats won't like it if they have no dinner!

Hugs to all

too long since posting ...

I've been here every day reading all the blogs, but I've also been busy crafting for a craft fair in Boston. I don't have any pictures to show yet, but as soon as I get a chance I'll post a bunch.

The weather here is starting to get a bit crazy again. It was 43 (8C) when I got up, which has a brrr factor built in, but it it going up to 93 (35C) this afternoon. Tomorrow will be 95! Then by next weekend it will be back down in the 70's. Global warming or global cooling, go figure.


This was Labor Day 2009. We are getting ready for one more camping trip in about 8 days; wonder what the weather will be then?? Doesn't matter, we are going.

After this trip, there will be work around the property to be done before the snow flies again - and who knows when that might be. We usually don't have sticking snow until right before or right after Thanksgiving, but it is cold in October.


I will also see how all the new weatherization will work. I know it will be wonderful, but I don't know HOW wonderful. I'm looking forward to it. That large white box inside the porch will be full of wood for the stove, and I'm sure it will last longer than in years past.

Well, I need to get back to the crafting. I promise pictures soon!

Hugs to everyone!!

Someone turned on the heat!

Earlier when I looked at the thermometer it said 90 deg. It is a bit above my comfort zone and evidently Joey doesn't doesn't think much of it either!





Now I think this is where I'd like to be right now. Not sure about the cats but I know the dog would love it.



This picture was taken in Crescent City in May 2007 from our motel deck, when the tall ships were there. They had a mock battle which is hard to see, but I'm sure you get the idea. It was a marvelous weekend, nice, warm (like 70 or so) with slight breezes blowing ... aaahhh, I wish. I could sooo enjoy stepping out for a walk on the beach with the dog ... too bad they don't allow dogs at that motel - poor SueAnn.

Have a nice day and don't forget to turn down the heat.
Hugs