frost over night, but the house is a garden!

here are some of the african violet flowers, but i have all the deck flowers on the floor in the studio right now ........so the studio is all in bloom. i so need a greenhouse. - i had covered the bean bed with plastic the other night, good thing i did. AND THERE IS A sprouted bean out there!!! yeah for mother nature doing her thing. yesterday i cleaned a bit..... cooked a roast for bernie for supper (leftovers tonight) and painted some small birdhouses. they are the decorative ones that you can get at the craft store for like 1.00 each. i have a few kicking around......so i based coated one with pink and one with yellow (that was way too bright so i dry brushed over the yellow with cream)  i'll paint flowers on them as i ususally do and then stick them in the window. ONE of these days i plan on putting fabric on some as well... i have a few abiding loves in my life. (i mean besides bernie and all the animals etc) i love bird houses, bird nests, fancy bird cages, plants, goldfish, fish bowls and tanks. ** you all already know about the weakness for good china and glass- three peices of pink depression glass are on their way, next up..yellow***              now here are very blurry shots of the tiny birdhouses in the window.... the green from the leaves outside tinged the photos....these are actually in chalky pastel colors. these are another thing i do while goofing off. (maybe this should be titled 'how an artist wastes time')

so i suppose i am feeling very springish.  i keep wanting to feather my nest and rearrange my space. i reminded bernie last night that he hasn't had a day off since january 11...not a sick day or vacation or personal day. i would like him to take a few fridays off........payday fridays. i want to get some painting done on the walls in the house, i want to get some odds and ends done and i want to go to a gallery in bethlehem. maybe a few day trips. do you all think he'll go for it? i think i would like to go to the camden aquarium again, this time with my camera, and indoor glasses.   in poking around here and there on the net, i have discovered 'primative cupboards' which i see are super easy to make.....so i think i may........i could use a few narrow but long ones for walls that i don't really have..i can't afford to buy them but make them......yes i surely can i don't have a table saw but i can clap a guide on the wood and work that way (although a table saw is now on my list) i used to work with wood when i was in highschool and art school....maybe it's time again?    just think..... every sliver of wall space that doesn't work can have a small floor to ceiling cupboard with books etc behind the doors......

ok in cat news, they have GOT to stop bring live mice up to the bedroom to play with ....... all in the middle of the night...did you know how LOUD mice squeek? trust me......LOUD

wakes me right up

oye

the baby budgies and the easter budgies are starting to talk to each other a bit...... the easter budgies are both girls btw, i am a bit disappointed that the light blueish/lavender one is a girl but that is what she appears to be.... the yellow one is a pip..... oh man does she have personality......the little blue one is very quiet and laid back.... i think that one is much younger then we thought.

so i have to get two boys next........ no doubt a blue one with white or gray wings and i would imagine either a violet factor or an all gray. as we have enough green with mrs fezziwig.

in chicken news......there is nothing to tell at the moment....... the uphill (way uphill) chicken neighbor lost a bird yesterday to what we think is a north american fisher.

in duck news.......mmmmmm i didn't put the girls out in the back pen.... not since mark's chicken was killed....i figure that this fisher may be becoming a bit desperate what with the steady stream of jackass neighbors kittens and rabbits unavailable to prey on.
we are cutting the forest further back from the duck pen out back and maybe will be finishing the upper pen sooner then we think

although this weekend in another bed in the garden and a cold frame
maybe we can also do a cover roll of welded wire and wood strips to hold it in and do the doors.....at least then i can use it as a day pen

now i had a slight coffee accident this morning.....my coffee pot is one that doesn't drip if you remove the carife ............. ahem...i didn't have the carife totally in the pot and the coffee (which sucks this morning btw) spilled over the TOP
lovely
it pissed me off first thing ( even more then the mouse squeeks and i wasn't real thrilled with them either)
oye
that's about it for today i think....
i hope to plant cuc and pole bean seeds today...in the back bed. and zukes, squashes etc in cups to go out in like three weeks into a new bed on the side.
oye
next up is trellises for the garden EVERYTHING that i can put on the trellises will go on the trellises.......
i have spoken

oye again

oh and garilynn, i am going to use that milk paint recipe of your dh...... thank him for me for answering my question too ok?
i think we are going to do the walls in the studio with milk paint! cream no doubt
i don't quite get when exactly to add the pigment and if the pigment is to be slaked first but i'm pretty sure it's not a biggie

MIA? apparently sorry about that

susan emailed and informed me i hadn't posted since thursday afternoon!
hmmmm, i am assuming that friday was uneventful as i don't remember it!
bernie was naturally late though friday night, THAT i remember

over the weekend we got another bed into the garden, so our total now is 2-4X8 and 2-2X8 beds, next up is the cold frame.
we also have space on that side for another 4X8 bed then we start the center beds
bernie also took 2 of the 4 trees down that are shading the garden on the southwest side. we need to limb up the very very large maples that over hang the bed from the west side.

i had to bring all the plants in as we got a light frost! i also covered the planted bed with plastic.
there were really high winds all weekend also. so it was cold really cold......
if the easter budgies weren't down in the studio on the cold woodstove, i would have lit the woodstove yesterday and last night.
it was too windy, in my opinion to light the BBQ even so while we did have BBQ, (ribs) we baked them in the oven

we picked up the mortar for the house, so we can re-point the stone. i felt it was too cold to do it.....so that will be next weekend

i need to rethink a way to grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and squash. i am seriously thinking that the two beds out in the garden right now are going to have to do the job, with hoop houses over them.
all the gardener tricks (as well as hot manure) of cover and mulches may have to come into play

i moved my multiplier onions over the weekend, as well as some garlic and an egyptian walking onion ( i have one tiny plant of that, i hope that it increases) i have three batches of garlic to move. i know it's the wrong time but it's either that or no garden bed progress so i moved them
i want to find a place to put rhubarb, horseradish, asparagus, and any other perennial food plant i can think of, in that garden. (and i am going to add red or gray shallots i think in the fall as well)
i really like these raised beds in the garden, i think i am going to end up with more usable garden space.

the upshot of the extreme wind weekend was:
clothes dried fast but wrapped around the line
plants dried OUT fast and fell over
i was cold

i also tidied up my drawing corner, then searched for ideas for a bit of privacy through the windows without sacrificing light-without spending a fortune. 16 windows are a LOT of windows......and that is just the studio alone....(there are 13 windows *not counting the kitchen window* in the main house and 16 our here) ok i am still sort of stuck on that one.


i am looking around for alternative storage for paints, and i think i am almost figuring it out. i got them in the little plastic drawer thingies but soon pigments will be here..... i am going to store the pigment in uniform glass jars, and put the jars into some sort of chest with drawers but a tiny table top one
i been cruising ebay and etsy looking for something i can use that's cheap

the upshot of a lot of this as well as the colder weather is that i am not spending as much time with my ducks as i would like, nor with the chickens. but i am spending time with the cats and budgies
so not a lot of new duck tales.......which also translates out to not a lot of new drawing ideas either
i hope the weather breaks soon.while bernie cut trees down saturday, i did have lilli and phoebe in the garden, hunting for slugs........(yeah right, they scoffed up worms by the hundreds) when they moved over into the area that has the taller jewelweed growing in it (which i have to cut and dry soon) they so looked like dinosaurs i couldn't believe it
i suppose that since muscovy have that carunkling on their faces, it's a lot easier to see them as dinosaurs. then with that in mind, watching them walk and balance.....yup dino duckies all over the place!

so that was my weekend, now i am going to have my coffee....and see what on EARTH thaddeaus is crunching into his food bowl
(oh and fawn caught a mouse friday night, she naturally brought it into the bedroom where it woke me up squeeking......i don't know if she ate it or not)

so everyone have a nice day, another cup of coffee and we'll talk tomorrow
seriously...i think i promise

a bit of drawing, a bit of dishes, a bit of ducks....all the Ds

there's our girl!!! that's phoebe! she had just come out of the duck pond and was shaking off her wings in late morning sun (hot sun though), i am actually thinking that this one is DONE! hahahaha...   maybe a bit more shadow in front of her toes, (maybe not) and a bit more work on her chest but that's about it i think. this is on that new vellum surface bristol that i paid a lot for........ i can tell you all, that it was sooooooooooooooo worth it! totally. the lines are like etching lines. ( and i used to do etching and would love to go back to it-can't you tell?) i had penciled in the whole drawing, then after inking i erased the pencil lines. without any damage to the drawing, or to the paper....ok so i'm sold. this is the only bristol i am going to use from now on i think ... i also have the plate finish in this very high end bristol....i'll try that but i think i am going to stick with the vellum for the drawings...

now i am wondering if i should do portraits of all the others....? hahaha, but that one is a great pose that phoebe was in when i took the picture. it captures her true personality in my opinion.

a portrait of lilli would have to be with her squeaking at me

btw, donald, i am having trouble loading the video i took of the ducks....blogspot won't take it anymore. i would have to load it to photo bucket and then link to it.

when i put the ducks out this morning, i went to check out my perfect little garden bed......... only to find out that a feral un-neutered tom cat had used it for a toilet and messed up all the seeding at the end...

i have no idea how much these seeds were either buried or tossed or what.

today i put hardware cloth and rocks over the bed.

i want to now build a cage for netting etc over the beds.

now i again put falstaff and momma out in the garden pen....as it looks like yesterday he actually BATHED in the water, instead of just dipping his fool head and thinking his ass was in water when it soooo wasn't

so i figured, he'd go into the pond again

i think he did

i am pleased

now, i goofed off drawing almost all day.......as you can see...

i did the dishes!!!!

then discovered my 5 year old rosemary plant had scale. so i basically tossed it

i hope that the african violets don't have it

i was pretty upset

there was so much that i couldn't get them all off with the alcohol and swabs

so that was pretty much my day.

now no one said anything about the giclee prints so i would take that as a no?

now tomorrow, which i have just discovered is FRIDAY......... damn

i am going to have to find the energy to clean the pens.

and see about if this portrait of phoebe is finished....... and then start the next drawing

i still have to deal with the polar bears and the killer whale drawings....i've done them both once and really liked them. now it's coming time to do them again

although i am thinking that the polar bear one should be in color and in egg tempera....

oh and i have decided on a pigment palette, so now all i have to do is afford it and get the panels......

by then the chickens should be actually laying no?
oye

wednesday was a pretty pretty day

first off.... DONALD where the hell you been??? painkillers? what happened? i been wondering why you haven't said a word.....it isn't like you

first off it IS wednesday right now......
i started out at 5am (don't ask) read email, etc.
took the duckies out pretty early, i don't think momma laid her eggie yet...i know lilli hadn't
momma and falstaff went to the back pen as it was their turn....... i put the big pond in there so they had bathing water ALL DAY......i sincerely hope falstaff actually got in the damn pond instead of dipping his head and THINKING his ass was in the water
i let them out to graze in the garden while i planted

i finished planting one bed, (it's got the little white markers -that would be the center bed) it's got bush beans, carrots, radishes, beets, nasturtium, and marigolds-which should be a productive as well as pretty bed if there is enough sun for it...those trees are growing over the garden now
meanwhile i had to shoo the ducks back into the garden pen as there was a hawk checking out their tender little feathered butts......
i let momma out for a bit after until i had to come up to the house to get ready to meet everyone.

jen was at borders when i arrived, she looked so pretty and fresh and spring like.
lesley unfortunately couldn't come as her mom had an emergency

jen and i had a light lunch and then went looking at books..... i got my 'where women create' magazine and an english cottage garden magazine (that one is for bernie.....i need garden help and that may do it)i had a 5.00 off coupon, and that tail end of that gift card so the two cost 9.00 which is a lot, but 'where women create' is 15.00 all by itself
we checked out the budgies at petsmart next door.......
 i couldn't do much of my errands as i didn't have gas in the truck.....but i did get to the post office and my watercolor paper was there, as well as my egg tempera book............ woohoo........now......
the chickens aren't laying
figures no?

now here is a picture of the small watercolor box i sort of adapted- this is an old binney & smith 'peacock' watercolor box from like 1975... (i got a picture of the front of it, and the price was .59 cents)
i filled the half pans with mgraham watercolors and labeled them with 4 point type. the labels have the color name, the PIGMENT number the chemical name of the pigment, and the mgraham stock number on it....... so i can reorder and not be confused.--- i am still working out palettes for mixing....i think with the new ones........ as long as i get something to PUT THEM IN so not too much hair/fur etc gets in them i will be ok for a while like this
meanwhile i been studying pigments, especially modern light fast pigments. as much as i love historically accurate stuff, i have to say this is one area where today has yesterday beat by a million miles..... the light fast pigments. i believe that all the historical great masters would have KILLED to have been able to get their hands on these pigments.....
and i like them a lot.
i also like earth pigments..and i tend to mix earth pigments with the modern stuff which is going to make a lot of colorists and artists roll either into their graves or over in their graves but that's me

last nights 'garbage salad' that was my mom's term for something that had everything in it
sorta a clean the fridge sort of thing....... she used to call minestrone soup 'garbage soup' our salad had
purple cabbage
sweet red pepper
sweet green pepper
sweet onions
hard boiled duck eggs
chunks of roasted chicken
tomatoes
grated cheddar cheese
and mini cheese raviolis
red loose leaf lettuce

we ran out of swiss cheese, olives, croutons, and didn't have yellow squash, zucchini, snow peas, broccoli, spinach, mache, and chunks of ham....which is what i also normally put in these garbage salads
and believe me...they are wonderful
ok now i am going to post this and most likely not post tomorrow morning..... ok?

btw, what do you all think of me selling prints of my work online? i was looking into giclee prints and they are the very best top of the line in fine art reproduction, archival and pigment guaranteed for 200 years (or so they tell me- none of us will be around to know...but our heirs will be) i am still checking into prices but i think the black and whites would retail around 75.00 for life size (the size they are in real life) and of course cheaper smaller.
could i have some comments or opinions on this?

gardening and worms

i finally got my hands in the dirt........ only to come up with fist fulls of worms....
tons of copulating wormies in my new raised garden beds ( i shoulda taken a pix huh?)
ok, let's start the story,

once upon a time (don't they all start that way?) there was a small garden behind a small cottage in the woods...........lovingly turned and toiled over by the wicked b*tch that lived there ( ask my neighbors...they'll tell you i am a wicked b*tch) one spring, the garden was left fallow, to molder and to weeds as the person who tended the garden hurt her back wrestling sheep.
then low and behold, the DH of the wicked b*tch started to build raised beds for her.....and she happily started to plant seeds..... bush beans and carrots at first
(then discovered the unneutered semi feral tom cat of one the neighbors using her pretty little beds as a toilet..... his death is being plotted)

ok so now, every single time i see those beds i smile......i love them
i seriously love them.

 SERIOUSLY   LOVE

i think they are the best decision we ever made.
now even though i didn't garden last year i never stopped making dirt. if you are a gardener you understand that.
if you aren't a gardener, let me explain the joys of compost
hahahahaha
first off compost is alive........ seriously
it's teaming with all sorts of bugs, bacteria, microbes...... it breaths, it changes
and if it's finished it also has a rich earthy spring smell to it
oh and it's DARK........my dirt is BLACK
you want that in a dirt you know.
worms love my dirt
they love it so much they spend all their time rolling around in it nekid and copulating
it's rather difficult to plant the garden with these nekid copulating worms rolling around in your dirt.
(and my dirt MOVES around if you watch closely)
now in my garden and surrounding areas, what LOOKS like untidy piles of leaves or hay or manure really is my dirt making operations
yup
i just pile it all over
martha stewart just had a stroke
but mother nature loves me..... cause i do it her way
just piles
just keep adding here and adding there..... all over, as i figure whatever i can't use in the garden is going to enrich the mother anyway.... so mother gets her own back in her own way and i get to borrow some for my slightly weedy garden
now compost to a plant is life blood, air, and all goodness rolled into one soft dark patch of dirt.
worm and chicken and duck poop mixes in and grows tall happy rows of green beans so sweet and so healthy that your entire life is uplifted just by looking at them glowing in the garden
HEY mother nature knows her shit.....literally
anyway back to the beds and all

i couldn't find my very mostest favoritest pole bean seeds..... i had a HUGE pack of them...HUGE

(and this wonder of a pole bean is called appropriately enough Meraviglia Venezia!! the wonder of venice!,*the white seeded not the black seeded***not only that but venezia is my maiden name!! how cool is that?- oh and they taste slightly like vanilla) my second favorite is an heirloom called turkey craw or turkey gizzard.........i love them too.

so i planted bush beans 'slendertte' and 'yellow wax' , along with purple haze carrots and lil finger carrots...... today i shall put in radishes, beets, turnips and more bush beans, green ones for the freezer.
now i don't really like bush beans, pole beans have a ton more flavor but bush beans mature all at once which is good for canning or freezing so that will be my can/freeze bed no? also the annual herbs will go with these guys .....and some flowers. i am hoping that this year with the raised beds, that the weeds won't get ahead of me and swallow the border flowers ( and bernie won't walk all over my carefully mounded beds and compact the soil....the man doesn't freeken LEARN)

the next bed needs to be cucumbers.......i NEED my kosher dills.......NEED THEM *heavy on the garlic* i will add the pole beans to that bed i think.......and mix up some other stuff in there as well
some tomatoes on the deck, peppers in the end bed with eggplants
a cold frame that i want to start stuff such as cabbages and leeks etc.....
oh my the anticipation and hope of the early garden
of course this year will be the BEST EVER don't we say that every year?  never mind that these garden beds are WAY expensive, and even with all the dirt i have continued to make over the years we've been here..... we still won't have enough to fill the all the beds i am planning.......
and never mind that i am thinking of hooping most of the beds to temper the uneven climate lately.....
which will add to the overhead....it's going to be the BEST EVER.
no?
all my garden will BULGE with the brightest colors, the BIGGEST most delicious veggies that will convert the most dedicated carnivore...... right?
hahahahahaa
oye
anyway the beds do make things a bit easier to plant, and i imagine to weed also
i am going to eventually make a movable section for adding so i can put in root crops that really need more depth then the 12'' we are making the beds
the cold frames will be deeper as well...... and i think with polycarb panels and auto vents

anyway, yesterday while i was planting i let lilli and phoebe out to hunt bugs and keep me company, phoebe didn't get that one very long centipede that i had hoped she would but they got millepedes and sow bugs and spiders and a ton of other bugs.... some good ones, mostly bad bugs
and they ate copulating worms.....
*have i told you all how unbelievably beautiful a pair of white duckies are when they are right next to each other and scoffing up nasties in the garden? *
now what i didn't tell you is naturally i got eaten alive by mosquitos...... i don't think i got a tick although there are some tiny nymphs out there so i don't know (1/16'' by 3/16'' are about the size of the nymph ticks......so they aren't too easy to find) bernie checks me when he gets home (yeah like 5 hours later)

there......now....
today, i am going to town at noon to meet jen and lesley for coffee.....and bitching.
hahahaha
lesley has man trouble so we will gather and support her by telling her how right she is (she really is) and what a rat the man is......(he sorta is.....)
and we will laugh...... a LOT......LOUDLY
we won't solve her problems but she'll feel better about them for a while after
i also have to go to the po for watercolor paper that was out of stock
i hope my egg tempera book will be there

now bernie got home after 8:30 last night so we had a fast garbage salad and then went to bed
nothing was from my garden except the hard boiled duck eggs... as i really did have to take a year off...and that is hard when you garden (or try to) year round

but soon........
soon

very soon...........

(visions of the perfect garden salad dance in my head)

not too much to show and not too much to say

yesterday i just potted up some plants, and forgot to eat!
it was terribly hot and humid out
that's about it
today should be better

monday always fresh

now i am not totally sure how these are going to load but we'll have a go shall we?

hopefully first up are the flowers bernie bought himself and the ones i picked out.......his are the multicolored petunias, mine the rose flowered pink impatients.

sorta makes up for that tick thing last night......

now the bowl of mixed ground veggies is the base for my mac salad, the veggies are

• purple cabbage
• sweet red pepper
• sweet green pepper
• sweet onion
• fresh garlic cloves
• fresh celery

salt and fresh ground pepper (add more salt then you think you need if the weather is hot...do NOT salt the finished salad, it has to be done in the dressing)

the next bowl shows the mayo added and it stirred up (use REAL mayo)

add the elbow mac well drained but still hot

mix throughly and chill

at serving add a big heaping tablespoon of mayo just to 'wet it' and stir well

it is going to be multi colored, blue and purple and pink and green etc

any leftovers will be a purplish color but will be just as good...... FYI there are RARELY leftovers

 next i hope that the picture of one of my living room walls is showing up, with my old calico red china...and those antique etchings from england. that's my favorite wall in the house, i love china, i love transfer ware in red or purple, and i also adore china with violets on them (and occationally some roses) i love vintage english teapots too, (and i got some good ones) and yes i love hanging plates on the wall...... oh my..... i also love depression glass, in pink, yellow, green but not blue......however i do like blue milk glass go figure...(and pink and also the white milk glass)

i have a bit of modern colored glass, in pinks also.
eventually  (if we stay here) i will line the walls of the front room with shelves and put my collections up there with earthquake wax
we do use them sometimes....not often, but we do use them. bernie loves them btw, he oftens shows me a plate or a teapot and tells me 'i want that one' we get it too. he's got one with purple pansies on it.
and a cobalt blue one.
so this is a part taste of how our weekend went. it was hot, we ran and got a monster AC unit for the bedroom 12000 btu's (for a 9x10 br) but we'll leave the door open and it will do the downstairs main house as well. the other unit in the studio just does the studio so between the two we're covered.
because of the new AC unit, the easter budgies are now in the studio (they are sitting on the woodstove....we've run out of space) and they are going to be just fine i think.. they were afraid at first, but now they are starting to watch the others and chirp and such....so we expect that within the week we can add an apple wood perch and more toys etc.
i am also going to put them on a water bottle instead of open water bowls
and a mouse committed suicide in an open duck water bucket i had forgotten to empty out of the Aframe pen
so that is what happened this weekend.......
the only real mar was the heat overnight and that damn tick

other then that it was a pretty perfect weekend

we were up too late last night

i turned into a pumpkin

also last night, i got a tick on my upper arm, just where i couldn't reach, thank goodness bernie was there to try and yank it out, and that thing was latched on but good. now the last bad tick i got was on my ass.......so you know who your friends are....... just saying

we put one of the big beds together out in the main garden, bernie used all the soil from the old north south beds to fill this raised bed....... but i have stashes of my compost made soil all over the place out there, so we can keep going, even though he doesn't think so. i am going to plant the cuc's and the beans today i think...... braving ticks to do it (gees i hate ticks)

i want to net the entire garden and turn the chickens out to eat the ticks..... we have to net cause of the hawks -now we have some baby hawks out there as well.

i know they got to eat too....but not my chickens and ducks

right now i am having a quick coffee and a bagel (bad bad bad for me) i think we are first going to go get an air conditioner. it was brutal upstairs last night, no one slept not even the cats

so a very bitten up sleep vi is typing at you now

oye

studio cleaning

ok first off, i really hate to clean, well actually i hate to straighten clutter...... and i have problems with stuff on the floor....... as in it usually stays there, i mean why argue with gravity, believe me i lose that argument all the time. so imagine my surprise when i found myself cleaning my drafting table corner! now i want to paint the walls CREAM.... either whitewash or milk paint! i actually like this corner but don't like how dark the wood is..that's why a whitewash thing. i can't take the dark. - also i have an old old cheapo tv stand (thin vinyl over particle board) that is just the perfect height and and almost the perfect width for me that i need to paint....i am thinking just shooting it with krylon fusion paint for plastics......i don't know if that will work on vinyl but maybe, as it would really make my day to have that thing cream as well. i should just get the paint, and a spray gun and line all the stuff up that i want to paint, and go to town spraying it all cream. that would make my studio a lot better for my mental health. i also have a desk from the 50's to do and that BLACK CHAIR has got to have a make over SOON, i am thinking tan heavy canvas or something that i can use as a slipcover and wash the paints off. the drafting table will be up for a make over soon as well..... i am not sure what i want to do to it...it was old old 40 years ago when i got it... i think i would like to just pickle it and then wax it...or even a sort of scrubbed wood look to it...i don't want to take the patina off, just lighten it up a bit...there are still bits of original tape on it from when it was in a drafting firm! i should also flip my borco cover (self healing mat) or maybe after 25 years, i should get a new one? and move that old one to another table?

*** maybe i should whitewash then white wax the floor too? it's only underflooring..... we never laid a floor after we took the carpet up....it's partly painted a weird brown in spots, that dissolves in water!***

i am closer to making my decisions about a palette of dry pigments for egg tempera, plus i got a book coming on it. i downloaded a list of pigements that work in egg tempera from the society of egg tempera painters so i am going to go through that as a start, but most likely i am going to use the exact same pigments that i have in watercolors. as i like that bright clear palette with some earth tones mixed in here and there (it's not orthodox but i like it)

ANY suggestions for storage would be more then welcome, as i am sort of going out of my mind here.

i did realize that the supplies on my left isn't the brightest idea i've had lately, since i am having terrible problems raising my left arm to reach them- let alone trying to hold them and move them over...that arm is just bad

i also realized that i could sooooooooooooo use even more low table space for palettes and such... so i may put a larger top on my little tv cart (if that thing ever breaks..... oh man i better get making one in plywood, NOW... and add a larger top that flips open and a drawer or two in it...i CAN make it perfect i think)

bernie is a bit amused and a bit put out that i did this without waiting for him.... well hell i waited a long time, almost a year, and he didn't do it so i did

and i am going to do the next thing and the next thing and he isn't going to like it

mdsw......we aren't going.... sniff...... we are however putting in two 4' x 8' raised beds or we better be.... if not he's going to hear my mouth and then we will go to mdsw sunday.....(unless he's too tired, i worry you know)

in between i hope to spray paint something big in the studio

and maybe get some primer on the walls? what primer would i want to use with milk paints?

ok i am typing this friday, but i got it posting saturday am

soooooooooo have a good weekend you folks

is it friday already??? WARNING photo intensive

ok so i have to tell you, it's actually thursday afternoon as i type this, i may add more tomorrow but right now....thursday

now yesterday we got that daniel smith order...here is the first box as i opened it, and there is half & full watercolor pans, that are empty and waiting for colors

and palettes, as they were 3.00 each i got 5 of them, regularly over 9.00 each.... i may give one to bernie for his models if he can use it. ( i don't know how the pictures are going to show for you  folks so bare with me ok?) then today i ran and got the small screws to attach the casters as well as another set of casters that may work on my drafting table which would be good......although i most likely will fall over as i lean when i work.  they didn't have mouse traps so i have to go out again tomorrow.

then in honor of fixing or muddling that shelf thingie into a cart thingie.... or a sort of half ass taboret of sorts (my old taboret was all drawers and that is next for a makeover) i CLEANED part of the studio..... ahem..... except the floor...... and the cobwebs (which i like to think makes it halloween all year, as after all i DO halloween stuff occasionally too.......)

then i arranged some stuff on that half assed cart/taboret..... and i have the pictures to show you folks. please excuse the mess ok?

i mean what is a few cobwebs and some papers on the floor between friends right? you guys ARE my friends right??? this isn't going to appear on america's most messy artists show right??????????????? oh man

now the first picture is a terrible side shot- i have another shelf to add to the bottom which i need some help cutting as the saws vibrate too much for my bad shoulder to hold them and the wood.

i am also going to spray paint the entire thing cream as soon as the weather is a bit more predicable anyway there are some of those little plastic drawer unit thingies. top shelf has watercolors in tubes, and the clam shells with cut watercolor paper in it (quarters if anyone is interested), my humidor for the working rapidograph pens, and that turny thingie with brushes, pencils and stuffs like that

 second shelf has palettes with watercolors, sponges, tapes, the other rapidographs, some of the intense pencils, old brushes, pastels (not many, and the drafting brush tucked in between the two drawer thingies

the third shelf (there will be a fourth eventually) has office type stuff as well as my india inks (center thing) with the full set of intense on top.. saral paper, ballpoint pens, cutting things, tools, small note pads etc.  THE FOURTH shelf shall hold heavy stuff to keep the cart/taboret thing from being tippy, so that gets gallons of glue, bulk stuff that's heavy (possibly the cut paper clam shells if i get a few metal ones....that stuff is HEAVY) so there you go......that is what i am working on in the studio at the moment

how about THAT?

any organizational suggestions would be most appreciated btw, i keep the refrence drawings in manilla envelopes in my magazine files that i made..... cool huh?

edited to fix some spelling and to tell you that i have been tweeking that area so it functions a bit 'cleaner' i'll do the floor later i suppose

5am and i am stoking the stove

isn't this like..........almost may?
ok i had some interesting dreams.....old boyfriends! some of which are dead (where not dead in the dreams but didn't hang around long enough for me to realize)
the first one was jon and bob hiking TOGETHER over the mountain to jon's mountain cabin....i checked his cell phone battery levels and they were almost dead.......so i told him to get a 'solar wrist recharger' before they left so if 'anything happened' they could call.......even though bob would have his with him

then i dreamt of another bob.....bobby, who died very very young from aides
i dreamt we were in what at first glance was an art supply store but really had a ton of musical instruments laying around.......i asked him about french horns but he picked up a sax and asked me to pay for it as he had to leave..... actually he asked me to just stand on line as he had an account with this place (he was in real life a highly gifted musician, on the keyboard...organ and piano) he had to leave for a gig with a symphony.... but as the checkout didn't know ME, they got his grandfather out (after i waited forever) and suddenly it turned into a drug store with the grandfather raving about how he needed to reform from being homosexual......(bobby was gay, and just starting to come out when he died-he was very very young, i don't even think he was 25 yet) before it killed him (back then no one knew how to prevent aides and it was a 'gay' disease)

it was the weirdest two interconnecting dreams. .......fast forward to this morning where i am contemplating the taboret of sorts i made yesterday
i took a shelf that was useless as a bookcase, and reinforced the legs that bernie said couldn't be done....
then i got casters out....but i don't have screws to put the casters on....so a trip to the store i suppose today is in order

my daniel smith (edited cause i got the name wrong, oye) art supplies came, they took a bit longer to ship then blick but they are wrapped so much better..... in fact i am keeping one box and going to cover it with paper as it is so nice.
that was the order of palettes and empty watercolor pans
in looking at the water color pans, i am wondering if it would be cost efficient to make them in porcelain here in the studio?
i COULD make masters in wood and just pour in white porcelain and clear glaze them....hmmmmm
that would be a lot of work however.

in other art supply news, the more i think about it the more i am thinking pigments are going to be coming home to a study near me....
dry pigments
lots of them
i realized that i have made my own paints (duh, i always made my own china paints) and if i have pigments i can make egg tempera, watercolors, oils, pastels.....and if i bought acrylic medium....i could make that too..... as well as casein and milk paints, white wash etc......
before i do that i want to have a cabinet for them and the jars for them
but the egg tempera thing hasn't gone away.....it would take about 3 weeks for me to do an egg tempera....well isn't that about how long it takes me to do a blk/wht?
(which i got another one on the board now...phoebe with her wings up-we'll see how this goes)

this weekend is maryland sheep and wool but we aren't going.....we ARE going to put two more beds in my garden, both of which will be 8'X4' (then two weeks after that will be another two foot bed and a cold frame, and possibly the framework for a greenhouse out of a shed hardware kit, and greenhouse plastic)

meanwhile bernie is exhausted, (also why we aren't going to sheep and wool) he isn't sleeping and he's working so hard. which is part of the reason i decided that i would do that little bit of rough carpentry on my own. he (and i ) forget i can and have used power tools, i'm the one who taught him to
i wish we had a table saw though, as it would make some things a lot easier.....and a power miter saw would be nice too
then i would build my own damn computer desk and my own really nice taboret with paper drawers and paint drawers

i am still struggling with the after effects of that fall(so i get out power tools.....smart vi, real smart)..... my knees are now hurting too...my right knee feels loose.......and there is pain in the left one
so today when i get changed i am going to put my tie shoes on.......really i should also go to town today and get some odds and ends...mouse traps too....and use that gift card before it gets a service charge
oye
and one day soon i need to get to the provisioner and get chickens breasts for canning and freezing......(summer salads here we come)

***ahhhhhhhh the first sip of a fresh pot of coffee......oh man that feels good****
really i should do some mop up shopping today or tomorrow
we haven't run errands in a while so i haven't been out of the house really for a bit.... and also small stuff hasn't gotten boughten like mouse traps...... and a diverter thingie for my hose- stuff like that you know......and a short round of the dollar type stores for small cheapo stuff you didn't know you wanted or even needed (and most you don't need but occationally you find something you can't do without- i got my canning tools that way)
i would really like to find a nice set of happy colored summery dishes etc to take out on the deck. in hot oranges, magenta, yellows, turqouise and maybe lime green.......so far nothing strikes me as perfect
it would really make bernie happy to have deck stuff like that.
(said while stoking a woodstove ....and it's MAY just about)
ok now the sun is coming up sorta kinda....i hope to have pictures of my frankenstein taboret and maybe my daniel green order either later or tomorrow
mean while i am going to finish this first cup of coffee........ debate on stuffing the boneless chicken legs with ham and cheese and rolling them in bread crumbs for supper (and making a light mushroom sauce for them with the mushroom concentrate i made and canned) what do you all think of that?
morning everyone
have another cup with me ok?

good morning everyone, we got the woodstove on again

this is april? it got cold last night so i lit the woodstove. i brought wood in .....(not the best for my shoulder) then bernie brought in wood for the night and today.

it's april huh?
soon to be may?
i am starting to really lean towards making my own paints from ground pigments.......i am thinking that with an investment in pigments, i can make watercolors, oils, pastels, and egg tempera.
make sense???
now explain to bernie how i need to find storage for a whole 'nudder bunch of art supplies................?
anyway i have been dangerously close to ordering pigments.......lots and lots of pigments....with the rational that it would save money over the long term... ahem..... (but i just HAVE to have that cobalt blue you know.........) anyway it's better to walk away for a bit..
i flipped that shelf unit over yesterday, and yes it will do what i want it to do......bernie has resigned himself to it as well.
i may also have to add to it and make something else.........
i think he is trying hard to stem the tide of work coming out of the studio.... cause that means even more stuff (like storage for finished work etc)

knitting updates: i am almost done with the second repeat on the leg of the first sock, i am knitting very slow because my arm is hurting so much..but it is an enjoyable knit....i love this yarn from spirit trail (sunna)

MDSW: we most likely aren't going. that would delay the garden by another week....... as bernie won't do anything sunday..... (he'll be too tired)

shoulder: still hurts, aches, burns......all the way down my arm into my hand and fingers so there is some impingement going on i am pretty sure

duckies: momma is laying, lilli is bitchy, phoebe......well phoebe is content to play in her water bucket (sorta like calpurrnia with a leaf in the corner)

cats: thaddeaus is taken to sitting on a pillow behind my chair so he won't be tempted to jump on the budgies...he doesn't like the results when he does that- fawn has taken to sitting ON my drafting chair while i draw.....and of course calpurrnia is calpurrnia....... and the only one who comes to bed when the woodstove is on...thaddeaus and fawn tend to stay and worship the woodstove (you didn't know that the woodstove was a deity did you?.........now you know)

chickens: new baby pullets are getting big, but not laying yet.....soon though very soon (i can't wait)

budgies: ok mrs fezziwig is mature now.....her cere is a brownish tan and captain cuttle's is a nice bright blue..... maybe babies? they fight a lot though. the easter budgies are not named yet.... i don't know for sure if the little bluish one is male or female...... and they have one more month of quarantine to go- which allows me another month to figure out where they will go in the studio to get everyone used to each other (although i am seriously thinking of bringing them down and putting them on the other side)
i have them a kabob toy to chew but so far they are acting like it's a budgie eating kabob..... such is life with budgies

did i miss anything?

i am going to get another cup of coffee, as it isn't too bad this morning, and i am not too awake this morning
anyone care to join me?

sleep glorious sleep

i took two arthritis pain and two aspirin last night, and guess what??????????? YUP i SLEPT
not all through the entire night but the most sleep i got since i fell last week.
so then i overslept

oh man
hahahahahahaha

in knitting i was also able to pick up the sock for jen at spirit trail, i can't knit long on it, but i can do about 2 rows then put it down
same sort of progress with drawing
slow but steady
this fall took a lot out of me, it was one of the worst ones i have had yet. normally i fall out back in dangerous conditions, ice, snow, blizzards.....and i stick to the fence or can't get up....(ok so i also fall in 'duck mud') but in terms of getting injured, this was the worst.

it isn't raining here today....amazing huh? maybe my clothes on the line that have been rained on for three days will dry now? or just what? grow mold?
oye
i brought some of them in and hung them on the inside line but without the woodstove on they didn't dry much

now i can't delay much longer, i have to re-pot the seedlings that are huge..........HUGE, did i mention that?
oye
there aren't many but i haven't got pots !
although i think the impatients can go right into the planter i have waiting for them... the eggplant, peppers and tomatoes just need to be moved on to larger
i wish i had a green house and some cold frames
i am going to order impatient and begonia seeds online, as i realized i could start them any time, and keep them as house plants like i did with my 1$ begonia i got at the end of last year.... i cut it back and rooted the cuttings and now have a nice little plant.... i got 10 plant at 1$ each, i got flowering maple, scented geranium, begonia, and coleus.......i lost one scented geranium
the rest all prospered and i am going to put them outside this summer again, and try again next winter to winter them over in the house
cool huh? meanwhile i think i will again take cuttings from them
now if i had a warm greenhouse attached to this house.......... i could never have to buy any of them again, just take more cuttings!!!! hahahahahaha
oye
(really it's the challenge of doing it)

supper last night: smothered pork chops, mixed grains with garlic, green beans...... wow it was GOOD...i was able to cook, and bernie was pretty happy about it
i am thinking i need to make sauce today......if i find chopmeat in the freezer

this saturday is MDSW maryland sheep and wool festival......down in friendship md....
i haven't been since the year the ducks came
i would love to go
i am not sure if we can as planting is so close and that saturday would get me two more beds in the garden.... if we go i have to wait another week and that will delay planting
although i am tempted to go today and hoe out where the beans are going......... but at the back of the raised beds i am also going to put a row of beans on a trellis.......

meanwhile, i am sitting here having my coffee, and yes i am late today, i slept!
tomorrow i should go to town, but i most likely won't.......
the birds could use a few new toys (the easter budgies)

ok everyone have a wonderful day

soon finished.....sniff

almost finished- there is a certain sadness with an almost finished peice, so much time spent with it, a thousand tiny decisions, so much actual physical contact that when it  is beginning to look done, there is not only exhileration, but the knowing that this is now about to exhist in the world. almost like a child. (althought i am looking and thinking it needs more darks in the mid/lower left side)   i am sort of on to the next, as i toned some watercolor paper with sienna, colbot, and a mixed lavender (three seperate sheets)- remember the momma polar bear and baby? that was sort of toned paper. these are delibertly toned. i am going to cut a bit more and tone them as well. these are 1/8 sheets of water color paper for fast studies in one color and gouache --- like that polar bear, since i really found that interesting (and given how lazy i can be- very fast) now in other artsy fartsy news, i ordered an out of print egg tempera book. i am determined to at least try egg tempera.....(no i didn't forget, but sometimes things take years to come about, so if it is only a few months, that's like instant around here) there is another one online that no one can find in print for less then 100. (like that's going to happen, right........)

Rainy sundays are dangerous around here......i research and spend money

oye

i did however get some more drawing done, as much as i could stand. even thought i am right handed, and it's my left shoulder that's all messed up........ sitting at the drawing board hurts

i didn't sleep either last night, up most of the night in pain. i got some actual sleep when bernie left this morning as i was able to move to a comfortable position without fear that he'd roll over on to my arm

it's raining now here, yesterday too, i am going to be bringing in the laundry that's out there. one or two things at a time

i wish i had been able to plant beans out, or at least garden peas but that didn't happen yet.

bernie has also been trying to haul my water buckets out for me

so all i have to do is ducks and feed pans

i am going to have to make that ortho appointment again i think. this arm is really bad again.

rick if you are reading this, i did put your books both the shoulder and the neck book in my cart at amazon, and i hope to make an order in may

in knitting, next week is maryland sheep and wool festival, most likely i won't be going.

that sorta sucks as i wanted to go this year, it's been about 5 years since i've been able to go

i don't really need anything, but it would be nice to see jen and the others at spirit trail, and maybe pick up a kit or something ( i been lusting after her brightly colored/pastel hats for years, actually ALL her stuff........ but i always say no.......i can't afford it)

meanwhile back here in the studio....thaddeaus is driving me nuts, he's up by the birds...over by the knitting, over by the newly toned water color paper

just generally a PITA.............(*** Pain In The Ass)

i am just trying to drink my morning coffee, and write to you all....... sometimes i just want to kill that little curly cat, but then he comes up to bed and taps me on the face to come lay in my arms.......and i melt

but he is a bad boy

in duckie news....momma is laying again......FERTILE EGGIES........woohoo!!! my cousin nick is going to get the 'bator out and we'll be incubating eggies.....

i could also use a bator of my own, and a hatcher.

i got a list of stuffs i need

lists and lists

• i need a bigger studio
• a house with closets and on one level
• more property and ag zoning
• a barn
• a few sheds
• a greenhouse
• more art supplies
• a real kitchen
• a summer/canning kitchen
• a bigger garden
• the body work done on my van
• my shoulders to stop hurting so i can get more work done
• more and better poultry pens
• another laperm
• a hole in the head
• a conservatory!!!! ( i just added that)

oye

ok listen all of youes, get another cup of coffee, i know i am going to right now......

we should sit around and listen to the rain and imagine how cool it would be to be sitting around drinking coffee together in a conservatory!!! surrounded by wonderful flowering plants ( i like orchids, begonias, impatients...... violets..... ferns)

wait let me go back to that list and add a conservatory!

raining, sunday, morning, shoulder pain

it IS raining, which also means that the laundry is not drying out there....but it's getting rinsed again
a lot of bernie's socks are out there, good thing i got him new socks 22 pairs......so he'll have socks either way

meanwhile i woke to shoulder pain
it's settled to a sort of 'level' of pain, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better overall, i have some times of less pain when i've put heat on it (like yesterday's hot shower)
but even the aspirin isn't really calming it down much
it's not that sharp acute pain, but it still stops me from moving
and then i get stabbing pains when i move certain ways
(i move my arm with my other arm though, i don't want the shoulder to freeze)

so this morning already, i have eaten ( bernie's sunday eggies) thrown DA BOY in cat jail ( the little shit jumped off my shoulder onto the budgie aviary- take your pick on which is gotten him in more trouble)
looked at an amazing egg tempera video, which i still want to try btw.
and found out that i broke yet another toenail in that fall
can you believe this???

i mailed a small token of thanks to a friend of mine (ok so bernie took it to the po)
which i hope arrives intact.
and i am about to see if i can go back to that blk/wht drawing this week

oh and bernie took my darlink ducks out

we finished (ok ok, so HE FINISHED) another raised bed in the garden.
i would have taken a picture for you all today if it wasn't raining, and if i hadn't woken up in pain again
i convinced him to make the next bed 4' wide......
he'd make them all 5 inches wide if i didn't watch him....... so i said to him,

'you know, i CAN reach these beds from both sides..............soooo making them 4 FEET wide is a good thing as we will save a bit on hardware and YOUR arms'

this of course was said while he stood there sore from making the beds and filling them.... can you say GOOD TIMING VI........? i knew you could

so then next we will make 4'X8' beds....which will save us some money as instead of two small beds for like 75.00 we'll get two LARGE beds for like 80.00.....not bad really
we are making the beds slowly climb the side of the garden, so after the two large beds comes the cold frames for against the fence at the north end...... then we'll start the center row of beds,.... those will be 18-24 inches deep for root veggies i believe
i would like at least 6 so i can rotate
or a movable topper so i can rotate..... that is a pretty good idea i think.... no?

let's see, i think i hear bernie cleaning duck pens but i'm not sure
i got one fertile egg from momma yesterday, which i hope he didn't hurt
(he's incredibly stubborn about things....... amazingly so sometimes)
and he's pissed about the duck eggs in the night crates, as i got hurt the day i normally clean crates and i didn't do it (ducks mess up pens and crates at a furious rate)
anyway momma started to lay again so i am collecting the eggs for nick to hatch
i may take a drake out of there if i can't find any others
bernie is going to be upset but lilli needs a husband, and i think phoebe isn't going to get a husband but she is going to get fertile eggs to sit on maybe, so she will have company eventually- but the eggs will be lilli's or momma's

ok i am going to post this now as i know i'm late
we'll resume our regular schedule tomorrow i think
no?

6 plus hours

at the hospital is not how i planned to spend yesterday.
the emergency ward said that the 'xrays show no rotator cuff damage'
ahem
xrays will only show a total seperation tear of the rotator cuff.......as it is soft tissue and we all know.....xraysseparation are for broken bones
(cleaned off drafting table)
oye
so i am going to rest it and then go to the orthopedic

(ants eating 'terro' ant bait on the craft table in the studio-they're all gone now)(lettuce seedlings out on the deck)

now i got a pile of dishes

cause i didn't do them the day i fell nor yesterday

I got my art supplies- i still need to get some .......... after that it's just gouache and brushes, then i think i am done again until i need more paper. i can't wait to get the gouache.......... after that it's just odds and ends, color replacements, occasional color additions, paper and bristol replacements.. etc.
i got a few empty half and full water color pans coming, with some palettes. i am still going to get more of the porcelain palettes but i picked up some cheapo plastic mixing palettes to hold me over

due to my injury from that nasty fall on wen, i think bernie is going to have to do the mucking of the pens for me. we got one bed finished in the garden but not moved into place yet..... we'll also do that and most likely the second bed as well tomorrow
i hope so

so right now not much of anything going on
everyone at the hospital said 'you have DUCKS?' when i told them how i fell
doesn't anyone have chickens or ducks anymore? or is it just my friends?

they all also had to see what i was reading (cokie roberts 'ladies of liberty')
yeah, seriously every single person that talked to me!
it was the most surreal experience
anyway, yes i am hurting still.....new bruises are coming out
new strains and pains etc, and i am relatively sure i am going to live
now let's have another cup of coffee, and some cheesecake
(which i don't have in the house, sniff)

and we'll get on with our day no?

the midweek hump?

so far both nights this week bernie's come home (late as usual poor guy) and helped me with the first raised bed in the garden.
i got one together now......weighs a ton.
i need to put the hardware cloth under it so no moles or critters decide to dig under.
we discovered last night that we ran out of the corner thingies...... so i have to get 4 more, and 8 L angles for the tops
i am pretty impressed!
i am more impressed that after a very hard day, bernie is coming home and doing that for me.
that i think is love, true deep and mature love. i know he's exhausted.

ok i took a bit of a break from that black and white drawing, and i may also today. my hands were hurting so bad, then my shoulder.
i have to get back to it so maybe tomorrow
meanwhile i canned those pullets.
started the sock for the spirit trail booth sample (btw, that sunna is amazing, however, if you all get it-please make a shawl or scarf or something that can be SEEN with it.......it's that amazing)

i also gave in to tempation (and another sale) and picked up some palettes for 3.00 each, these are for gouache, and some half and full empty water color pans, (that link shows a nice box from france and the white things lined up like farmhouse sinks are the half pans) i am thinking of trying to make a watercolor paint box/palette/storage thingie.......
they were quite cheap so it is doable i think
(i think?) then i can use the actual palettes for paint mixing instead of paint holding
this like everything else will change often i think

i checked my deck plants out yesterday and i have to thin the spinach.....sniff, all those pretty little spinach seedlings need to come out.... ( i dropped some seeds, and of course 6 times more then i what i dropped germinated) so the chickens, ducks, and budgies will all be getting a treat

oh and i may have located a drake or even a pair of silver muscovy if so, lilli gets a husband!!!! and we're going to need another pen
(you all knew THAT was coming right?)

oh and we didn't get the easter budgies down to the studio yet.....but soon

now who's going to join me in another cup of coffee?

where is the rain when you need it?

the forcast was for rain.....all rain all weekend.
so we sort of did things that would require water after
like putting the cardboard down for lasagna gardening
figuring the RAIN would wet it, which is a good thing as the hose doesn't reach.......
so it spit at us
icy stinging tiny needles of drops here and there
no where near what we needed
we also were afraid to hang the clothes out, but then the sun came so we did
now today
since it didn't rain
and we didn't raise the beds in the garden
i am sort of behind yet again
all i needed was one board cut in four peices...(3 cuts total) that most likely isn't going to happen until the weekend delaying me yet another week in planting out
we got metal thingies to hold the boards together
and the boards are 12'' high by 2'' thick......and 8 feet long
no it isn't enough but maybe it's a start?
i may finally be able to grow beets, turnips, kolrobi in the garden?
for the 5 boards we paid $74.85 which is about 34. and change per bed
that is worth it i think for beds that i can grow stuff in for years and years......plus i can put a hoop on them or wire box
and the hoop can be remay, or plastic....... so i think it's going to be a good thing
i think some of the other beds will be 8'' and then the back beds will be 12'' and we can add a cold frame topper.
i think that the small beds of 8'' should be for pole beads
now the one thing i am concerned about is the crop rotation.....i will of course rotate, but should i plan on longer?
we are also most likely going to enlarge the garden (i would love that) i would like enough space for the equivilant of 100' of beans or 100' of sweet peppers

there are two huge maples out there.....one i think is a swamp maple and the other i am not sure..... they are HUGE as tall as our big sugar maples.....and drop a very abundant crop of winged maple seeds in my garden every single may
i am hoping that by putting the raised beds i can cover them for the annual drop and then just compost the seeds.....
and since we are also hoping that we can top flight the garden so the chickens etc can run around free in there to eat buggies......and offending grasses and weeds ( i know i need a weeder goose) -- i am thinking that the raised beds will protect (i hope) the veggies
if we enlarge the garden enough......eventually it should include a screen house to sit and watch the birds, and a small pond with fish right?
hahaha
oye
that better be some STRONG fencing to keep the bears out...

i am wondering now if we will ever leave here- so under the wisdom of blooming where i am planted.... i intend on it.
of course the second we get it all nice, and the house gets an addition etc.........THEN we'll be able to move.. and sheep and goats and cows will get me out of here.....

ok my art supplies are enroute to philly, they are scheduled for tomorrow to be delivered......
my hands and shoulders still hurt, in spite of the aspirin, ice and ligament massage that my PT (remember her? i used to call her mengela) showed me.....but they aren't screaming in pain like they were.
i want to finish that black and white i been showing you all before the other stuff gets here but i may not
i got some samples of good paper in that order, so i am going to see if it will hold up to what i intend on throwing at it

also
everyone, i can't decide..... should i order 6 muscovy ducklings from oklahoma? they would be the all white, blue eyed meat strain like my ducks, or just get a drake from one of my friends....i need unrelated
either way would be unrelated. for a non meat strain duck i would prefer cream or light gray not the dark colors as we do eat the drakes. (what else am i going to do with them? no one wanted them as pets)
i do have to get a fresh drake that is unrelated.
falstaff tries but i don't think he's getting anywhere.
at least with an unrelated drake, i can have lilli be a mommy as she so wants to be......phoebe no as her eggies are way too tiny
and i can put him on momma duck without worry either...i would prefer to put him on momma either way as she is a bigger duck visually.....(but lilli weighs more!)
oye
oh and lilli is broody.....and got pms.....and the squeaks.....which crack me up.... at least when i call her she squeaks back at me

another fast thing...jen asked me to go to allentown with her tomorrow, i think i will as long as i can get to the post office
sooooooo
everyone?
i know catherine posted, as did flicka recently, and bonnie, sandie, angie (ty angie, i posted those links within that post) garilynn, and of course susan.... i know i am missing some folks......donald hasn't said anything for a while, i hope he's well and his computer is also.
who am i missing?
i always am missing someone - i don't mean to..... (dorothy yes there really is a for sale sign next door)
we didn't get the easter budgies down from the bedroom yet..... a lot of stuff didn't get done
bernie is home but the poor guy needs some time to recover.
i need an old fashioned handy man.... some retired person, who's wife sells butter and eggs and he does odd chores around. for a reasonable rate and coffee
when i was a kid, all the neighbors helped as well as all the relatives.... stuff got done with many hands and a lot of laughter....(and bbq sausage and peppers, trays of lasagna, bowls of sauce and meatballs and bottles of homemade red wine)
it isn't like that for me sadly...... but that is life

i dreamt..........

of knitting last night
i dreamt we'd gone to a yarn store and i finished a color knit hat (just wove in the last end) in knitpicks palette...... and showed it to someone then lost it!
we couldn't find it anywhere!
all that work
in the search for the hat we ended up at a relatives house........ wandering through their backyard by their pool (full of teenagers) and then on to a DMV to reregister the car
then to a car of one of my friends to see her new dog
HUH?
oye
still looking for that color knit hat...... which was in shades of melon, cream, mint green, tan...... and had a row with slightly darker coral dots in squares of cream out lined with tan, that were worked in duplicate stitch

oye
the dream before that was that one of my friends had died leaving her husband and two small children motherless...... that one scared me as that has happened to a couple of my friends
so that person is going to get a phone call from me today

now as to the actual in THIS world activity yesterday
we cut back brambles that had encroached on my garden and taken over the back fence of the veggie patch.
we cut back i think about 35 feet wide by about 20 feet deep or so
could have been 40~60
out back there what you think is ten feet turns out on a tape measure to be 20 ......personally i think there is a vortex of measurement out that as it seems to fluctuate

we also moved my good black homemade garden soil back and put cardboard down on the subsurface.
we are going to build beds over that so that we have hopefully a lasanga garden....... i am going to layer my good soil with hay and leaves etc...... to build up into the wooden raised beds
i am hoping that by doing this i will have the following

1. easier for me to take care of by myself
2. i can put mini hoop houses over
3. no more mole/vole damage
4. chickens and ducks can run around in the garden when we top flight it
5. weed free paths
6. warm up earlier in spring
7. winter gardening and wintering over made easy
8. neater more appealing looking garden

i just need some help here.......i envision (i should draw it for bernie i think) an arbor on the north side that has grapes or something on it..... and a pretty little rustic arch with morning glory
i see strong wooden posts holding 8 feet tall fencing, with flight netting over the top....... and a small greenhouse on the back as well.......add a bird bath and extend the garden to include a tiny elizabethian knot garden...... with flowers as well as veggies.....how about that???

now last night after supper bernie got to watch his newest harry potter...... the half blood prince, and he didn't like it at all
so that's two of his birthday presents he didn't like
i have some hope he will like avatar.......if not oh man.....did I SCREW up his birthday

now this week, i need to clean the chicken pens......clean the duck crates and the a frame pen along with the temporary pen
damn........ i got ALL the pens to clean i think!, i need to get the blueberries in as well and i would like to put the beans and the snow peas in if i can
i have to transplate the veggies seedlings, as well as the impatients i grew from seed
gee i got a lot of stuff to day

did you all notice drawing isn't on that list?
although art supplies will be here tuesday i understand

how's everyone's weekend so far?