in the middle of the night.............

it's a bit after midnight.....so it's monday morning actually
i'm still up due to the woodstove from hell!
now today.....ummm, ok yesterday.....
i was doing big poultry chores.... i couldn't clean pens as the iceberg out from the duck room door to the end of where the first pen is prevented me from safely getting anywhere
but i did do some housekeeping along with the buckets and pans,
i discovered prudence's secret nest, which i removed her from....she's cooling her heals in a crate next to her sister amelia ...also in a crate
tomorrow i am going to play musical duck pens
my chickens are laying..... i got three eggs, so since the egg carton is full, i ate today's offering

i have to say i'm really exhausted...... i was hoping for a warm up with snow but we are getting that 'polar vortex' thing without snow.
well it's really bernie's friday so tomorrow he'll sleep
tuesday we have wood coming
now while i was downstairs climbing over things to extract my broody duck from her infertile eggs, i found the older kero heaters....one was an aladdin radiant!
oh honey, i hit the lotto there
and the other one....... could possibly be a corona...... i could not see
so i went online and found out where to get parts for them
and they will be reconditioned and put back into service next winter
(if i have to repaint, i know there is stove/oven paint...... i wonder if i can paint them pink?--- or mix the red with the cream and make my own pink?)
the kero heater has really saved us this past winter
it was brutal here....and having that in the main house helped things a lot
i was inspired when i got that
normally i hem and haw, and research before i spend a dime..... that i jumped on
(and the generator before sandy)...... and it proved i think to be a very wise timely decision.

now in painting news, i am still working on registration files...
plus i started a layout which is not really working at the moment
i really so need that drawing tablet i think.... it will eliminate a lot of extra work
i need to get painting
i NEED IT
i watched a documentary on andrew wyeth while waiting on the woodstove....and at one point..... i heard someone say....'there is magic in a paintbrush'
oh boy don't i know that
and i need that magic
at the end wyeth said...... a painting has to build up... until it's ready
and i know that one well too.....
i know where i am going with this series...i just need to lay out the rest

i haven't been NOT working, i just have not been painting
i figured out even more ways to cut water color paper sizes
and drew the diagrams with the measurements..... so this way i don't have to think about it
i also made notes on the paper size that goes with what image size, to be able to have a taping border
(and it makes me miss etching soooooooooooo much as there was an impressed border from the depth of the plate that i loved)
if we do ever build that house i want.... i am going to put an etching press in the studio ....i loved the moodiness of etching and i want to do that again


okey dokey
i am going to put another log on the fire and see if maybe maybe i can get two hours sleep?
i'm running on about 3-4 hours sleep a night now and it's really not enough

more snow, more storms, more shore birds

i guess the ever growing snow mounds have inspired my flooding fears
as i dreamt that there was a HUGE wave/lake out back..... and that it came down the hill and across the front lawn into a lake that was dug right next to my driveway
however apparently i am dreaming in some sort of mirror ...through the looking glass way cause it came down the right side (as i watched through the front windows) and went over to the left......
in the dream THAT was downhill!

shorebird/gull 4

(and the back yard was UP hill in the dream.....)
but it goes to show..... how utterly pervasive this snow pack is for me
HEY you try getting up every few hours for the woodstove and see how your dreams hold up.

meanwhile we struggle with wet wood..... bored poultry
and quail tails
(still not done with that painting)
however i am doing a series of fast shore bird/gull paintings- some good......some not so good.... all
fast.
it takes less time to do the birds then it does to do the backgrounds which are just sort of random
with speckles added -it's to keep my hand/eye going while the quail resolve themselves-- they make me want to do a few 'big paintings'
i also came smack up against some of the limitations of this studio at the moment, no place to cut paper during the winter.
it's not easy during the summer either but i use the woodstove- i don't actually have that option in the winter..(not if i would rather not burn the house down)
so i was looking on craigslist and found flat files.... but right now there are a few marks against them
1) i don't have the money
2) i don't have a way to get them home (they are huge)
3) i don't have a place to put them
4) i don't have space to refinish them in

oye.....but they would solve a few problems.... like taking the bulk paper off the top of the bird cage and the big shelves (where i can't reach it) .....and the top would be the right height and size for cutting paper
(cause i was drooling over a 10 drawer unit)
if i put it on a rolling base...... i would have it made!
i could even mount a roll of water color paper on it and be able to cut that too!

now we are to be getting a few storms over the weekend and next week...with the already over burdened electrical grid... we may lose electric. although ppl has been reinforcing the grid here since sandy.
for me that means keeping cooked foods in the freezer that are easy to reheat and keeping stock pots etc filled with water for us
water for the poultry will be melted snow if the electric goes out
we really need to get the switch put into the circuit breaker box for the gen so we have water-
and i really need to get back to sleep even for an hour or  so
i think the woodstove is going to be ok for a while now

keep safe everyone

catching up

after the ice age.....

we've been just trying to hang in there and stay warm
our rescue duckling is doing well.... she lost a toe and some webbing but she is eating and had a warm bath today (it was warm enough out to take her out to bath)
she's got a very soft hay filled indoor pen
and i think she is getting used to being here
i am still struggling with the quail painting...
so i took a break and am doing shore birds- so far gulls, this is the second one... they are tiny tiny paintings (photographed against my palette and paint table)
i don't know why but i am

in knitting ......i had to stop my mindless lace knitting to make a cowl and hat for bernie and another hat for me...i have more cowl/hat sets to make for us....since it seems one is always drying ....lost..... got cat spit on it...
(don't ask)

i am looking forward to spring, how about you folks?
we had a very hard time staying warm this winter, even with the woodstove, back up kero heater, and plastic wrapping everything......
we moved the ducks into the main basement (talk about crowded) and i was up every 1.5 -2 hours with the woodstove around the clock

we kept the lights on in the basement 24/7 for extra heat and i put the ash bucket full of hot coal in the stone sink with the lid cracked to keep enough heat for everyone....and dripped the faucets
we did make it through but boy...
i don't care to repeat that any time soon

not quite balmy.......but we're warm! and tuesday lookback humor

new scarf

(and i edited to add tuesdays archival humor click HERE)

we got a new back up kero heater.
i ordered it sunday online to be picked up at lowes
bernie ran to get it, we prepped it monday, and set it up yesterday
ran it a few hours in the living room- turned it off when we went to bed
wow
this morning the studio was 74...
the woodstove didn't have to work as hard
the birds water wasn't frozen
and it was actually warm
not florida in august warm.......more like PA in May warm
it's -4 this morning out side and windy!

we did do a few other things... covered the basement windows with plastic
etc

now i know it's been a few days since i posted, bernie and i have been rushing around working to make sure we get through this latest cold snap.
i cooked a lot of stuff ahead due to his schedule change and also ....with the cold snap we used to hear transformers exploding all over the mountain, and we'd lose power
so this way with the food already cooked, it's just fast to reheat on the woodstove
i finally was able to uv coat my digital prints to fill my order during a brief heat wave of 45 degrees
(i didn't open the etsy store yet but i am starting to get orders anyway! which shocked me!)

over the years we've acquired more and more emergency equipment and experience.
we've got oil lamps, and candles, flash lights ( i am really liking the 'headlamps)
water storage, food storage, back up heat
(for back up heat you need to have things that either don't need electric to heat you....or have a battery start.......so woodstove and kero heater for now.... and maybe adding a pellet or biomass stove in the front room for later)

and over the years i've also realized that having food cooked, and waiting helps too....
boy it sure helped us during the power outage of sandy! and we had that generator!
i found it takes a few days to get used to the 'new normal'

anyway.... we're warm, we're fed and we still have electric!

the other good news is that even with the really frigid temps plus windchill, the water buckets did not freeze.....
so i know that the birds are ok
although i am still a bit worried about the quail....but they have a LOT of hay, and each other
plus a lot of food so they should be fine
another thing i noticed is that the birds eat a LOT more during cold weather
i give the chickens extra stuff like suet or even chicken fat....

(they are omnivores and even cannibals so i don't feel bad about it as they will eat each other or a weaker chicken given half a chance - actually that whole 'vegetarian chicken feed' is not healthy for chickens, as they will and should eat bugs etc, it's natural and healthy for them)

i should probably figure something fatty for the ducks....but since i have muscovy and they don't actually have fat layers....relying instead on down to keep them warm,--- they too love their protein in the form of worms and bugs.... small mice, small birds..... reptiles etc..... they also love greens.... so they get some scraps from the kitchen too

we've been putting leftover cooking fats and stuff out for the wild birds and animals too
and luigi the button buck was back but i am hoping he's moved on now...

now with bernie's new schedule, and his location, he can stop at the provisioners to pick up the bulk chicken breasts when they are 1.65 a pound (not bad for boneless skinless, and not injected with saline either so you get what you paid for)-- i can call it in and it will be ready at the dock for him to just pay for and pick up

so are you folks staying warm? safe? i hope so
it's brutal weather out there
i know that the midwest and mountain regions are really in the deep freeze.... arctic type weather so you all stay safe

count down, to the holidays, winter cold and keeping warm

are you all ready for the thanksgiving holiday?

we mostly are, since there were the turkey breasts on sale for .99 a pound.
i have to make cranberry sauce.. which i most likely will some time between now and thursday...or maybe not..if i find a home canned jar on the shelf then we're good to go with that.

i've taken to roasting poultry breast down for the majority of the time- i can recommend it.
i flip it for the last maybe 1/3 of the time, really just to brown the skin
i have found that the meat doesn't dry out.
i like doing breasts instead of whole birds because legs take longer and when they are done it seems that the breast can be dry... but really try a breast down bird ...( try it in an off month, see if you like it)

today was an insanely busy day for me, i had a lot of stuff to do for bernie, then a lot of stuff to do for 'the family' financial stuff, getting the elements that didn't fit returned, tracking down where the other elements are ...all sorts of stuff like that
i managed to print the polar bears, (the wider one) and it looked good but is a bit crooked on the paper...so i have to make sure that the paper is loading right for the next print.

the weather warmed up a bit (yeah all things are relative...it's not above freezing), i was up with the woodstove several times last night.... today i shoveled a coal bed out of it and let it burn down too.
now for those of you contemplating a woodstove or pellet stove, i can tell you some of my reasoning behind what we got (prompted by a conversation i had with someone recently about non oil heating)
i had a list of things i needed/wanted/expected

1) warm/cook food in an emergency
2) radiate heat for a while after it burnt down
3) be safer at around 400 degrees instead of 800 or more
4) non catalytic (the catalytic converters cost a LOT of money to replace )
5) burn something easy to get a hold of
6) easy to maintain

the few years before we got our woodstove, while i was ruling out things like pellet stoves, coal burners, heat pumps, solar.......

Pellet stoves---there was a pellet shortage...no one could get the pellets as at that time i believe, there was only one place making pellets and something happened- (now a lot of 'pellet' stoves also burn 'biomass' so you can burn cherry pits, corn, barley etc... not just pellets- you can't cook on them, and you need a battery back up to run the hopper incase of electrical outages- plus you need to shovel out the ash daily)

Coal or duel fuel coal/wood---i looked at coal or duel fuel coal/wood.... coal burns HOT, too hot to be in the studio. and i wasn't at that time interested in a whole house duel fuel furnace.
i didn't want to shake the grate down and remove chinkers either.... the technology is very good however, they don't pollute like they used to and you can cook on them- but they aren't soapstone so they are HOT

Catalytic wood stoves--- the only thing against them was the need to periodically replace the catalytic converter

Outdoor wood furnaces --- not very fuel efficient, have to go outside every 12-ish hours to stoke them- can't cook on them but they will heat a few buildings, and heat water all outside!

so our choice was a soapstone woodstove.....the hearthstone phoenix-- and really it was the right choice for us.
when we move i swear i am going to carry this stove on my BACK if i have to and take it to the next house!
however if i get a crack at a soapstone masonry heater..... i may reconsider
we burn about 4-5 cords (@ about 500 per 3 full cords of seasoned hardwood) in a bad winter, but we also have very poor windows and insulation in the studio where the stove is...
it does keep the whole house pretty warm, with the exception of those couple of weeks in dead of winter. but still so far (since 05) we've never had any thing actual freeze except the front door a few times ....but then we don't have a storm door