broody hen

would'nt ya know-hazel decides to go broody right before i leave-she's been sitting on one wooden egg and 2 unfertilized eggs for 2 days. i felt a bit sorry for her so i ran to mimi's house for fertilized eggs as she has a rooster. last night when it got dark- i took the blanks out from under her and slipped 5 explosives underneath- we'll see if she's still setting when we return. thanks for the eggs mimi!

as promised-my may chicken chronicles article.-titled- "Poop Talk"

The girls seem very pleased that spring is here. Green sprouts everywhere and juicy bugs to snack on. Well, Ruth just so happened to develop a case of diarrhea which I’m assuming was caused from all these delicacies that are bursting forth, as she was not acting sick and there was no change in her egg laying. The diarrhea stopped but the feathers around her vent (aka butt) area were coated in white fecal matter-yes-it was pretty gross the more she pooped the more poop build up there was. So today the boys and I gave Ms. Ruth a bath. Yes, you heard it-a bath! I didn’t know what else to do. We filled a rubber maid tub with nice warm bath water. She knew something was up and catching her was a challenge. I recently read an article about giving chickens baths-mainly for show purposes but the basics are the same. We omitted the blow drying-mainly because we don’t own one-gee what would the neighbors think if I asked to borrow their blow dryer to dry our chicken’s butt!-but even if we did, I don’t think Ruth would have stood for that! The article stated that once the bird was in the nice warm water they would relax and some even fall asleep-ha! Well, they obviously weren’t talking about Ruth-she was as wide eyed as they come and talking up a storm- I suppose my hand massaging her butt didn’t help matters. The bath worked wonders-the poop dissolved. We tried drying her with a towel but she was not going to let that happen-she had enough. She ran under the porch hiding and preened her feathers. She is now happily pecking with the others with a nice clean butt and is very proud of it. Currently, we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of six baby chicks-any day now!
On a sadder note, our dear dog Chelsie had to be put to sleep due to an accident. We are heartbroken, as I’m sure all of you who knew and loved her are as well. Chelsie-aka "the beef jerky bandit" was a rescue dog and came to us with a huge heart and just loved everyone. She also loved to wander. Her favorite place to visit was the Rebel Ridge Store (where she would steal the jerky-sorry Gary and Denise!) Many of you probably met her there. We could have chained her up-but she would have been so miserable and depressed. Chelsie touched our hearts deeply and we are happy to have had her in our lives as long as we did. We would like to thank everyone who put up with her visits and gave her love-she was very happy.

blow flower

okay-i know i'm addicted to blogging-i'm trying to sneak one more post before i leave for yosemite-tomorrow morn.


i've always been fascinated with being a postal worker. not just any postal worker-but the post "master" of a very small rural post office. it's my dream job. this is where i want to do it. goodyears bar.


is this not just the cutest post office ever? Petra, the post master(damn her!) is super nice too. sometimes i drive all the way just to mail something. especially if our post master Bo(who is also very cool) has the day off and "crab ass" is working. i think it's about a 35 minute drive? we went there yesterday testing out our new effin car! yipee!!! wow! i'm so exited! our current subaru is well-jb welded and ducked taped together and jimmy as you know-gas gauge does not work and gets terrible gas mileage. i won't even go into unregisterable betsy.(the old pick up) here's she is- i named her "pearl."

isn't she a beauty? a '97 outback legacy-we will be able to drive up the driveway now-yeeha! (our old subi was the only 2 wheel drive subi made-ha!) we got pearl from our awesome mechanic jens. thanks you jens- (you answered our prayers!!) this was his-we know it was well taken care of. we bought it sight unseen. now i have a car to drive out to idaho this summer to visit my 98 year old granny. i never liked to drive beyond 30 miles with my other cars. gee-we are getting quite the collection of cars around the property-maybe we really are becoming rednecks(not politically, mind you)

i did manage to ply the awesome cormo that i dyed a bit excitedly from riverwinds farm.

the aqua is not quite that bright. here's another pic. but it's out of focus.
it's kind of a mixture between the two pics. cormo is my new favorite fiber. i just got another pound from them and i can hardly stand it-i want to dive right in.
on the garden side of things: what little i've planted this year is doing well. i think potato flowers are one of the sweetess things on earth- besides baby chicks.
my peas are prolific this year.

sorry no pics of the tomatoes. but they are cruising.

well, i better get off my arse and start packing for yosemite. i'm excited-love the mountains! and maybe it won't be too crowded as it's still early. but mornings will be cold! i'm bringing my "puffy"-the down comforter! i'll leave you with another picture of Liam's. oh p.s. if i have time in the a.m. i will leave you with my "may" installment of the chicken chronicles- i know you are just dying to read it.-later!

Sueiiiiiiii-how do you spell souiiiiiiiiii?

this image really disturbs me. i hope daddy also taught this young lad you kill it-you eat it!

geez! hope you like pork kid. (hubby thinks this is photoshop and i'm being gullible)

anyway-life has been insanely busy in my world-i've been stressing big time-finishing up the school year, trying to get the garden in, baby chicks and building the coop extention, getting passports for brother's wedding, teen issues and trying to get ready for the end of the year homeschool field trip to yosemite-we leave tuesday! i'm so unprepared-our camping gear is getting so funky-having to go thru everything-i think my tent will make it thru one more trip-it's started to get thread bare.

i wanted to share with you my latest favorite dead artist- Chiura Obata. he came to san fransisco in 1903 from japan when he was 18. he's like the georgia o'keefe of yosemite(to me.)he did amazing water colors and color woodblock prints. check him out-i never heard of him till i went to yosemite last october. i wish the book were mine-i checked it out from the library. but i did get these cards while i was there.

i want to weep when i see these pictures-out of such incredible beauty. i wish i could have hung out with him. he was doing these works in the 20-30's. he was imprisoned during WWll at the japanese prison camps

in the fiber realm-not much is happening-i did get some dyeing done.-i've been really into yellow lately.
i hope to bring my handspun fauklands wool for socks on our trip-fun and festive green-there's a picture in a past post. maybe i can enter them in the fair this year.

i'm happy to discover one of my most favorite "store bought beers" (hubby's are the best!) has gone to a solar powered brewery.

ralph(past post) the digital photography teacher at our homeschool charter just got back from new orleans and caught some crawdads and brought them back for the kids to eat. i had some too-yum yum! ralph is taking us to yosemite.
well i don't know if i'll have time to post before we leave as i'm trying to get more banjo practice in (as i totally suck) amongst 1000 other things i'm trying to get done-i'm a member of our historical society here in my lovely mining town and we have a history gathering this week end that i'm working at. always good stories.
i 'd like to leave you with another pic from son-some awesome and worth while graffitti:

heather jansch

for those of you who are interested, the artist of the horse sulptures is heather jansch.

you should check out her sight as she not only does the drift wood statues but she then turned some of them into bronze-amazing alchemy.-hubby was very fortunate to see some of her work in the "real" at a gallery when he was in washington.

horses' honor

this is for you my dear friend shelley-wish i could be there today. shelley is an equine body worker. she will be there demonstrating horse massage today! todays' event is a fund raiser for Horses' Honor and Hope for Horses-nina and cheryl dedicate their lives to saving horses.

i felt bad about missing the deadline for the mother's day collection for" afghans for afghans"-charity knitting. but was able to give shelley 2 skeins of handspun for the silent auction. hope it helps-i know the feed bills at theses places is astronomical. i know i should have posted this sooner-just call me "last minute lola." even if you can't make it today-they welcome donations anytime!!!!!

after my pissiness yesterday i will leave you with some better images:

HAPPY SATURDAY!!!!!!

gee

gee-now it's working-whatever!

pissedx2

okay- 2 posts in one day- yipee-no-i'm doubly pissed x2-is there a mathematical formula? i just spent ANOTHER45 minutes trying to figure out WHY my last pissy post would not let me allow comments when i never touched a button to undo anything-i've learned not to push buttons in this commuter world when you don't know what they mean.-this confirms my suspicions-my computer is possessed!

now i'm pissed

okay- i know, acknowledge and admit i am a computer tard. but i have been trying to add 2 blogs to my blog list for the past three effin days and havin a hell of a time-(oh yes johhny cash just makes me want to swear-the kids love it!) i did it before, after many tries but made it work. i just did it for birdsong's blog(a view from sierra county) and it worked-5 minutes ago! now i try to add sharon's (sage creek farm)-add it keeps adding it twice I've been working on this too long-what the @#*&!! is my computer possessed or what? that's it-i'm done. effin computer-wish i could kick you. i'm goin on a walk.

DA VINCI

yesterday our home school charter went to the aerospace museum of california to see "the da vinci experience." what a great field trip. a father and son from italy decided to study all his inventions and make them into working models. some inventions are still used today. did you know da vinci invented the life preserver, the underwater breathing thingee, the bicycle, the tank and tons more. here's a few photos: the figures were liam's favorites.

damn-i can't figure out how to place these pics right-the computer(blasted things) won't let me arrange them. anyway-my boy loved it-especially all the cool military planes they have there. if you are close to sacramento and enjoy da vinci and military shit-don't miss this! okay i have to admit as much as i hate war-the planes are pretty cool-my favorite was this one-with wonder woman hand painted on the nose.
oh shoot-i wanted to put a bigger picture so you could see wonder woman-i can't figure out how to delete the pics. computer tard!!!

on the garden side of things-i've had it! just had it with digging up these raised beds for gopher control-i've cheated. my tomato bed-i can't have a summer without garden fresh matoes! so i bought those gopher baskets-5 of them. they are flat when you buy them and you open them and shape them into a cylinder.

then you bury it up to the paint line.

we planted a roma, sweet 100, sunsugar, zebra stipe and a german johnson.-yea! i will eat tomatoes this summer!!! the carolina golds were all sold out so none this year. boo hoo.

my babies are learning to perch!

they get to go out in the day-but still sleep in the bathroom at night. chickens rock!

rock...bag...river

i have been unable to do anything fibery in way too long. no time for fibery fun makes me a crazy woman! i missed spinning Saturday-our monthly spinning group that meets at the public library-wah! so yesterday i finally got to dye the cormo roving i just got from riverwinds farm-it is so incredible soft i can hardly stand it-i wanted to climb the nearest mountain and breakout in song!-like julie andrews in the beginning of "the sound of music!" well, i was a bit over zealous and excited when i dyed it as the colors came out louder than i wanted. maybe i'll name this roving-"the hill are alive!"

i hope it turns out okay when i spin it-cormo is not cheap. while this new favorite luxury fiber was drying i began spinning a mystery fiber i ordered from another wonderful wisconsin farm called the homestead wool and gift farm.(they are a sheep rescue!) i love the colors but it's a bit rough-i will try some hair conditioner to soften it and maybe do some felting with it. i'm currently spinning some of their other roving that is luxuriously soft. i feel good about buying wool from both of these places as they treat their animals with respect and kindness.
i got to spin a whole 20 minutes-yeehaa! seems like the only one getting any fiber time around here is my sweet terror luca brasi. remember the claws under the door? i bet you're all saying-"aw what a cute little sugar muffin." but the minute she gets a wiff of fine fiber-preferably merino and now cormo-she becomes this:

DEVIL CAT!--i caught her in the closet right before she would have taken it, dragged it around the house and tear it to shreds. i hid some merino in a box on top of a 6 ft. shelf when she was even smaller-she scaled this shelf-pushed the box onto the floor, tore it open and ruined it! that's when hubby's advice of "rock... bag... river" starts sounding better and better. i mean, i can leave some old crappy wool lying about in plain view she won't even look at it! she's a total wool snob! and yes, she found the cormo drying and wrecked about 1/4 of the roving. the only thing that saves her ass is she is so damn cute and she is so cuddly and affectionate- a total lover gurl-she loves people! wants to be held all the time and gives kisses freely-i guess she hasn't found the gary larsen books yet.

best mother's day ever!

wow! i just had the best mother's day ever. there have been some pretty disastrous ones in the past. i slept in till 6:45 a.m. -the wild birds were chirping sooooo loud they woke me up and once i'm awake that's it! sweet hubby made me tofu scramble, fried potatoes and breakfast burritos for breakfast. chow city!


i just love living on the road to the sierras and my favorite little "close" town i adore is downieville-so that's where we headed. but first stop was to search for brandy city pond-a place we have attempted in the past but never found it. it's an old mining town-that does not exist anymore but they flooded the diggins and turned it into a little fishing spot with a trail. last time we got completely lost and ended up who knows where. but we found it yea!-luckily we took jimmy. the road was a bit rough. here's fiddle creek falls on the drive up. once on the brandy city trail we found bear scat!

further on down the trail we found this really cool area that we wanted to explore till we saw this sign. hope you can read it.
hubby still wanted to explore after reading the sign and i pulled the mother's card on him-i didn't want anything bad happening- not today. you can check it out another day. so after our short hike- we hopped back into jimmy and continued on to downieville for lunch at my favorite spot -the notorious "grubstake saloon"-where they serve your food in mining pans and drinks are served in canning jars!-my glass of choice.
they were doing a special mother's day thang so they were not open yet-oh darn we had to wander around town look at cute shops, admire fine harleys parked on the street and grab a beer to sit by the river to pass the time. little son scored an awesome old lantern-for 4$-! when they opened-i was greeted with chocolate-(not only milk but dark) and a glass of champagne.

i was a bit disappointed with the fancy glass but remedied it later with an ale complete with canning jar sorry no picture but hey check this out-the bear was decked out in her finest mother's day attire-please note the glowing grapes-awesome! the meal was fantastic- then we headed on our way.
we walked around some more and headed to pauly creek falls as papa has never seen them. sadly, it was time to head home- we hit the road and we got to explore a secret road i've always wanted to drive on it was incredible-unfortunately we couldn't go to far as the electric or digital gas gauge in our '89 jimmy likes to turn off and on--it's been off for 3 days so we were guessing. what a great day!

happy mother's day to all you wonderful mothers! motherhood- wow! what an adventure-wonderful at times, hell at times- makes me want to tatoo" patience" on my forearm or maybe on the kids forehead-so i can see it! but all in all-well worth the journey.

sour ladies!

life has been busy here in daisy-land. trying to get my garden going.-i've decided to de-stress and let go of the idea of a full garden this year. it just aint gonna happen. digging up all these raised beds so i can lay down hardware cloth(blasted gophers!) is taking so much longer than i thought. oh well-"que sera sera!" my new motto-"what will be will be"-i'm lightening up! i'm trying something new in one raised bed. i should have done it last fall, but-que sera sera! i layed down alfalfa cubes(they are rich in nitrogen) i think i might have put too much though-as they swell when they are wet. then i covered it with straw-let the rain pound on it(or hose) to help break the cubes up and enrich my clay-oops! i mean soil.

we'll see what happens. my potatoes are doing awesome.--they are growing at an amazing speed. i can't keep up with the hilling up. i have peas and kale too. i hope to do tomatoes this weekend. my lettuce is pretty much done-all ready too hot.

little son and i tried our first try at homemade sauerkraut-the easy way-thanks for the directions debra! it was too easy and son loved beating the cabbage with the potato masher. it is suppose to be ready in 3 days!
well-i need to get going-we need to start schooling, the chicks box needs cleaning and i have a dentist appointment after lunch-damn!