Photo Outtakes.

 I was truing to take photos of these earrings (avail. in my shop soon)  when my youngun',  Gator, barged in and plopped hismelf right down on top of them. He knows exactly how to get my attention.

A Quick Trip

(The house photos above are just of some random, ramshakle house near where Kevin was working in the afternoon that I thought had great character.)

(The pier above was destroyed during one of the last hurricanes - I think it was Irene? - last summer.)

I went on an impromptu trip with my husband this weekend, a little work (for him) and a little play. We headed over to the coast of North Carolina where we stayed at the vacation home of a work colleague of his, on the Albermarle sound, just a short drive to the Outer Banks. The OBX, as they're sometimes referred to, are barrier islands that make up the coast of North Carolina. The Sounds within the barrier islands are like lagoons.
Lucky for us, we live just under 4 hrs. from the OBX, and Kevin goes there, often, for work. We just don't always stay.
I've been to the OBX many times before; straying in Nag's Head mostly. I love and adore the North Carolina Outer Banks, almost as much as I love and adore Florida beaches. 

The wire box in the last photo is a crab tap. You stick bait in the middle and toss it in the water for several hours. The crabs climb in but can't get out. I've gone crabbing before, but never with traps; when I went crabbing it was with family in Louisiana; and we used lines and nets. You bait your hook and line, and toss it in the water; crabs flock to it and you pull them out with the net and toss them in a bucket. Except when I went crabbing, the alligators were vying for the bait along side the crabs. Once you have an alligator jump out of the water and bite off your line that you're holding in your hand, it kinda makes you want to never go crabbing again.

I find the trap method much nicer. And you get to keep your hands. That's a plus.

These are blue softshell crabs, which means these crabs have lost their hard outer shell and are still pretty soft. They're only in season from April - Sept. When I took the photos of the ones above, I was quite a distance off (pretty nice zoom on my camera) and they were eating the algae off the rocks.

A gorgeous storm rolled in across the sound, with stunning clouds. I didn't get enough photos to do it justice....





We got back home today and it's back to the ol' grindstone of working and ... well, working. And working and working.....

*sigh*


PS.... OMG. I Just realized, this is my 501th post on this blog. Wow.

:)

Brutal Summer

Someone told me the older I get the less I will like summer. (Usually, summer is my favorite time of year.) Maybe that is true, because this hot hot weather is taking a toll on my brain.

Thus, being MIA from this blog.

A quick recap of what keeps me away from blogging these days -

- My bird raising has been unsuccessful. I raised them to 5 weeks, then one by one they weakened and died. I have no idea what happened. I am so depressed about it.  I an now working under a licensed wildlife rehabber, and I am going to get my own permit shortly. We'll be the only 2 rehabbers with licenses in three counties. I can't say I am too thrilled about this, after my failed Chimney Swift attempt. I'm terrified anything I get now is going to die. :/

- I am a college student now. I am enrolled in a class - on line - dealing with search engines and using them to your full advantage (for business traffic, in my case). I am really interested in digital art and design, web design, e-commerce, and things of that nature; but they weren't offering those classes this semester. So ... next time.  I find the class really interesting, and so far have made 100s on all my quizzes. *pats self on back*

- I am working on a whole load of new pretties for the shop, hitting sometime in the next few months in time for Holiday shopping. I am excited about it. Although, getting photos has been a chore. For several reasons... namely, inadequate camera and inadequate space for a "studio" shot.

- I am also working on designs for Christmas and Holiday items. Crafting! Yay!

- I got a new kitty cat. We went outside at 11:30 one evening to coax in our other young cat and heard pitiful crying from another street..... we went looking and found this:

We inquired all over the neighborhood to see if anyone had lost him, and I even put an advert in the paper and Craigslist to see if anyone was missing a cat - as he was wearing a collar. In the end, it seems like someone dumped him on the street and left. So he is now OURS. We're calling him "Gator" - but once in a while I let "Goober" slip. Teehee.


- I gather tomatoes by the bucket full. I have been canning tomatoes practically every day and eating them for every meal; and still they overflow....

- I finally got my pool back from the summer campers at my horse barn. *sigh*

- Practice has commenced for the "Extreme Cowboy Competition"  coming up in September.  I am working on getting my horse to stand next to the gate very still so that I can work the latch with my foot; thereby improving my time, so that I might have a shot at winning it this year. HAHA! Everything else they require of you, she does perfectly.

- I don't know about anyone else, but I am totally looking forward to the London Olympics!!! I especially love watching the gymnastics - but most of all, the equestrian sports. Namely, Three Day Eventing.  Speaking of the Olympics and Three Day Eventing, have I ever told you readers that I once met, and spent the day hanging around with, Olympians and medal winners David and Karen O'Connor? I audited a riding camp they were doing in Lexington on CX day. What a blast. They're such "real" people. Even if they have won every prize there is to win in the equestrian world and then some.
 
I hope everyone's summer (or winter, depending on what side of the equator you're living on) is going great. 

Cherrio! (In the spirit of the London Olympics.......)

:D

Peach Iced Tea and Kitty Cats

So....... it's peach season. Mmmmmmm. We went up to the local market - "Country Boys" - and bought a half bushel basket of the succulent Southern fruits.

They were for canning, of course, but not before I  bit into two or three - over the sink, because of the juices running down my face and arms. I also made up a glass of peach iced tea... the nectar of the gods. Peach tea is hands down my favorite beverage, period, end of story.

To make this, I simply slice a peach into a glass of sweet tea, add ice cubes, and give it the ol' swirly with an iced tea spoon. Heavenly.

My senior  kitty, Brutus. He's 15 this year, and the vet says he is doing awesome. Although, sometimes I think he has moments of senility. Haha. 

I guess I have not mentioned here, that I am raising three orphan wild birds. I discovered them in the cold woodstove where I work, having fallen down the chimney. They were hatchlings then, with no feathers and their eyes still closed. There was no way to return them to the mother two stories above; so I took them  home to raise them. 

They're doing very well; better then expected. Here is how they looked the first couple of days I had them:

 And last week, they opened their eyes and enjoyed sitting in my hand and looking around them:

They eat softened cat kibble, and chopped boiled eggs. I've also fed them watermelon, tomatoes, freeze dried meal worms, and tinned cat food. Their favorite is the egg. (Ironic, isn't it?)

I know it is crazy to try to raise birdies with a family of five cats living here; but everyone is getting along great. The cats lost interest in them and actually get annoyed and leave when they start yammering for me to feed them - usually in a shrill, piercing sheik!

I am planning on returning them to the wild as soon as they are self-feeding.... I am hoping they're not too imprinted on me. If so I have three new pets, I suppose.  I have no idea what kind of birds they are; if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear what you think!

Garden Salvage: My FREE Garden Planter Box/Stand/Thingy

I realize that some people - maybe even some of you reading this post - may think this kind of thing is tacky junk. Whatever. I respect everyone's opinion.

But this it totally my style! I call it "junque".  It's "salvage". It's rustic. It's up-cycled, it's green, it's eco-friendly, it's free.

Yep, free. 

The wood box, I pulled out of the dumpster down the road; all I did was nail one side back together.

The wrought iron stand is an old aquarium stand I got from my parents when they cleaned out their garage recently.

Wood box + old iron stand = groovy- as- all- get- out- planter. (It's turned around backwards as there is some childish painting of someone's pet gerbil, or something, that lived in the aquarium this came with, a long time ago. I haven't painted over it yet, so I just turn it around till I do.)

I popped some begonias and thyme in there.

Brutus has taken to following me around as I work in the flower beds, sulking when I don't sit and pet him for an hour. I guess he's entitled to some sulking at 15 years old.

I find that working in the garden and flower beds helps  me wind down in the evenings.... quite relaxing. And ensures an excellent night's sleep.

:)

Weekend Fun

My peonies are blooming.  And the irises. And the honey suckle.... when there is a breeze you can smell the honeysuckle on the air. One of the many joys of living in the country.


My seldom photographed cat, Cosette. She is grumpy.


An old, hand dug well on our property. It is very dangerous, as children, pets, and even an adult - could fall into it. And it's 25 feet down to the bottom.


So Kevin filled it in.


Can you spot the yellow doggie playing hide and seek in the oat field???




Peanut butter cup cupcakes. With mini cupcakes on top.... hee hee


I had a yard sale in the front yard..... not very well attended, but I shall try again.


My station for the yard sale - a roomy wicker chair, a glass of sweet iced tea, and a book.

Cat Photos and Remodeling Woes

Here are some photos of my "kettehs" I discovered on my laptop while at work.





These were taken last summer when Buggs was still pretty much just a baby thing. All the cats like to sit on my lap and look at the computer with me. (Or, in this case, sit on the computer.) Especially if I am watching other cat/animal videos. And they love watching the screen scroll, and the cursor move around. Silly things.







Kevin took these of Phileppe last year. He had a smudge of grease between his eyes from lurking under tractors in the equipment lot/shed. So cute.

Anyway...................

I had a day off yesterday and what do I do with it? ................. I don't take a shower, or even get dressed, hardly. I throw on some holey, frumpy old jeans and a frumpy, half shredded tee shirt.... yeah, real cute. Then I spend all day sanding, stripping, and scraping paint off my staircase.  

All.Day.

(With a few snack breaks and a dog food/ice cream run.)

 Ugh. This staircase project is turning into a much bigger ordeal than I originally thought. But then again, the whole darn HOUSE is turning into a much bigger ordeal than we originally thought! I've discovered with old home restorations, it always looks like one simple thing on the surface; but when you start getting down through the layers, and into the nitty gritty, it's a whole different animal. So the "Oh yay! I'm going to re-do the staircase in one week; it's gonna be so fun!"project turns into "Oh wait. I am going to have to take the paint off the whole thing.... not just the stair part. Oh wait. I'm going to have to sand it, too. Hold on a second. I'm going to have to re paint the entire 2 story expanse of beaded board wall now.... with a brush. Oh yeah.... and I am going to have to strip the entire floor while I'm at it........."  Yeah, it's hard, yucky work, but really..... I do enjoy it. And if I want my old house to look completely awesome, I'm going to have to take the time to do it right... and not just try to cover everything up in more paint. I tried that after I moved in .... and it just screams "shortcut!!" So I'm going to do it right, even if the work does kick my butt! I am almost done with it; the painting part won't take as long as the removing of the old paint part. Then I can show you photos. :)


In May, I am going to have my first ever booth at a craft show! I was planning on bringing some of my hand made stuff; like my vintage silverware wind chimes, up cycled vintage sewing machine boxes, button jewelry, burlap bunting banners, etc. etc.
But just this morning the woman in charge asked me "Don't you have some kind of clothing business?" I said, "Um, yeeeah, I sell vintage clothing on line." and then she said.......

"Bring it. Bring all of it."

To which I said "REALLY?!!!!"

And then she laughed and said "Sure!"

So.... I will be having my first "pop up shop" in May!! I am already devising ways to decorate my canopy and space there. It's going to be SO cool. I am SO excited.

*grins*

Have a great weekend, and a glorious Easter, y'all!

Pictures Of My Littlest Babeh Ketteh

Buggs, a few weeks after we adopted him last summer:


Buggs, a few days ago:




He has grown up quite a bit from this:


(Flea infested kitten whose mother was killed in the road near where I work and was found wandering around with his sister. The sister was adopted by my co-worker)

To this:


(Teenage piglet cat who never seems to stop eating, and when he is not eating, he is lazing around in bed, or having adventures outside in the backyard, or wrestling with the other cats  - much to their annoyance) 



Wave at all the nice readers, Buggs.......

Crazy Stuff I Did As A Kid

When I got to work at 8:30 this morning, it was already 70 degrees out; sunny and pure gorgeous. My place of work is a private home perched on a huge hill out in the country; surrounded by cow pastures and the Dan River beyond. There is a red Radio Flyer wagon on the porch, and when I saw it, I had the sudden urge to get in the wagon and go careening down the hill as fast as it would take me.... like I used to do as a kid. That got me thinking about all the crazy, and sometimes dangerous things I did growing up.

I spent my childhood in a rural, farming community of North Carolina; and we did "country" things to amuse ourselves. This was 20 plus years ago.... so my sisters and brothers and I didn't have cell phones and iPads to play games. There was not Facebook and Twitter, and my parents didn't believe in video games. Or TV. We watched movies (on VHS!) but that was it. My parents were old school; and my Mom was a hippie holdover from the 70s, so they believed in the power of imagination and the health benefits of playing outdoors.

In addition to riding our Radio Flyer wagon (gift from Grandma who believed in old fashioned toys like those Radio Flyers from the good ol' days) down hills at insane speeds, and very often crashing in a heap at the bottom (those Radio Flyers didn't have the best steering), we did things like.....

- Roll down the hill over and over until we were dizzy and puked, plus covered in grass and dirt
- Roll down the hill in a rusty metal barrel we dug up in the woods someplace (tetanus, anyone?)
- Ride our bikes across the river to the cornfield and play hide and seek in it's 20 + acres. Plus, we ate the corn, and if you've ever eaten corn meant to be cow feed, you know that it can make you sick sick sick. yeah.
- Ride our horses out in a thunderstorm on purpose; while Mom thought we were at the barn cleaning tack or mucking stalls or something
- Race our horses in John Scott's hayfield, helmet-less
- Swim in the farm pond (The memory makes me cringe. It was like a glorified mud puddle. Both my sister and I got ear infections afterwords. Eeeeeeewww!)
- Swam in the creek while it was flooded and barely made it out. We removed our clothes and tied them together, then tied them to a branch, to give us something to hold onto to get back across to the "home" side. (We swam in the creek fully clothed.) I lost my shorts and walked home in a towel
- Walked up the creek a mile and a half to the huge rock cliff in the creek bend, climbed up 15 or so feet, and leapt off into the murky waters
- Jumped off our friends' boat house roof and  into the lake
 - I snuck up and rode the neighbor's horse bareback, and he bolted for the barn. I fell off and one of his hooves clipped my arm - I made my sister swear not to tell our Mom and Dad and never did it again
- Rode horses on the highway and even raced traffic sometimes
- At the park we'd get on the "big swings", pump as high as we could, and then jump off. Man, when your pockets got stuck on the seats, it was a bad fall. I am surprised none of us broke our necks
- Went sledding late at night after the snow had melted slightly and re-froze, making a slicker surface... for hours we would do crazy sledding stunts with the neighbor kids, very often crashing into things and whacking out heads on solid ice. One night I fell off my sled and hit my head so hard I saw stars. I never told my Mom, and chances are I had a concussion from it. Later in my life, when I had  several serious concussions from horseback riding accidents, I remembered that after hitting my head on the ice, my head felt the exact same way as when I hit my head falling off horses over jumps.

My parents aren't to blame! They didn't know what was going on behind their back. I know that If they knew half of the crazy stuff we were doing out there, they would have stepped in with a "How about let's not do that, ok?"
 
I also did normal things like play with dolls and decorate doll houses. Plus, my Mom made me learn embroidery and I spent a lot of time doing that; even as a kid. I loved it. And I read books all the time. So I enjoyed craziness - and normalcy. I guess I have been this way my whole life... the best of both worlds.

It was the best way to grow up - I wouldn't trade it for all the electronic stuff kids do today for the world! There is a lot to be said for a good, old fashioned, country raisin'.  

The Poultry Saga: Continued.

As much as I railed about how I was done with poultry earlier in the summer, when I suggested to my husband that we "just buy eggs and chicken meat at a farmer's market or something", he was highly offended.

"You can quit the chickens if you want," he said, with a air of noble loyalty;
"But I will always have chickens. It just wouldn't be the same around here without Roo (as we affectionately call our rooster) and The Girls (as we affectionately call our pesky hens)running around and ...stuff."

So I feel as if I have been raising, babysitting, and otherwise supervising fowl all.year.

First, it was my two batches of feed store chickens in the spring, most of whom met a morbid end. (Read all my railings about our chicken situation here.)

Then, when we got into hay cutting in the summer, I did a really illegal thing. Which I have not mentioned before now because I was scared of getting in big trouble for it.

One afternoon while cutting hay, my brother ran over a nest of wild turkeys in the middle of the field, by accident. The hen ran off and didn't return for a couple of hours. My brother, who kind of makes it his business to know all things wildlife, said he didn't expect she would ever return to the nest, since the cover was totally destroyed. He felt really bad about it.

So, I - knowing the risks - collected the 12 or so eggs from the nest, and popped them into my chicken incubator at home. No one expected them to hatch; it is very rare that wild turkeys are successfully raised in a "domestic" environment. But we felt like we owed it to Nature to try to make things right after ruining everything for that hen.

I counted out the days for turkeys to incubate. I turned the eggs twice a day - by hand. I carefully monitored the temperature.

And on the last day, I said to Kevin: "Can you take those turkey eggs and dump them somewhere where Dodge cannot eat them? I don't think they're going to hatch."

And that evening while cooking dinner I kept hearing peeping outside my kitchen window and I wondered why my hens were hanging out there so I walk over to check it out, when I happen to notice there is a wet, newly hatched infant wild turkey peering at me through the window of the incubator. I was dumbfounded. I had defied nature and hatched out wild turkeys in my kitchen! So THERE, wildlife experts!!

We hatched seven.

We told no one.

I never even took photos.

There is a steep fine for keeping wild animals without a proper license and training.

We raised them in a tank in the dining room, just like the chickens; and I did it without touching them or interfering very much as all; because we intended to set them lose once they were grown.

But when they got too big for the tank, and it came time to move them to bigger quarters, they flipped out and one died from the shock.

In fact, one baby turkey died from shock/fright each time we had to re-locate them as they grew. I started to understand why they don't want lay persons, without a license and training, raising wild turkeys and other wildlife. It is a pain in the neck to do it properly, if you're not making pets of them. I told my husband that he and my brother had better not make a habit of ruining turkey nests in the fields anymore; because I never want to raise wild turkey babies ever again.

We finally ended up with three, and we put them in the chicken run and put a roof on the chicken yard to keep them safe. The evil skunk got one; and I finally got rid of the other two, just a couple of weeks ago. When I opened the doors on the official release day, I expected them to fly away into the woods, leaving me standing there feeling all warm and fuzzy about my rare accomplishment and noble efforts to rescue wildlife. Like in one of those Disney, "family" movies. (I still have all these convoluted, idealistic, hopeful fantasies about living on a farm, but it never works out like Disney tries to make you believe.)

But instead they just ran around all frantically; and never went near the open door. For a entire week I opened the doors and finally, one day, one was gone. Then the next day or two passed, the the second one was gone, too. My babies "done growed up", and went to live with the big turkeys! And good riddance. Turkeys are kind of...... dumb. Poor things.

Well all was great, until about three weeks ago when one of my remaining chickens from the Spring batch got broody and started sitting on a nest full of eggs... in the hay baler. Nothing could get her off. So we left her. Most of these attempts do not end well; leaving me with a pile of rotten eggs to dispose of.

But then last week, I came home from work after dark, and walked by the baler on my way to look at something else, and heard that peeping I recognize all too well....
Lo and behold, that Spring Chicken hatched out 8 chicks all by herself. Apparently no one told her that you usually sit on eggs in the springtime. Not right before cold weather.

I did have to move them out of the baler, as the babies kept falling out and complaining loudly. They're safely stowed in a large cage in the yard till they get some size on them. But I am letting the mother raise them, because I am done with raising poultry for 2011!

They really are stinking cute, though. I can't help but gush at them in baby talk when I go out into the yard and see them scurrying around.





Hopefully, this is it for the year for me; and, depending on how many we loose over the winter, I may beg and plead with Kevin to NOT get more chicks in the spring.

*crossing fingers*

My "Where The Red Fern Grows" Moment.

Have you ever read "Where The Red Fern Grows"? I read it when I was about 14 and I think I cried through the whole book. And I was a blubbering, emotional mess at the end of it. If you've ever read the book or seen the movie, you know what I am talking about.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about - I'll tell you this: The main character has 2 dogs that he loves dearly. Towards the end of the story, one dog sadly dies. The remaining dog pines away for the dead one, and eventually dies herself. The boy buries them side by side. Later, the family has to move. He makes one last visit to the grave of his dogs and growing between the buried bodies is a rare red fern. (I am tearing up thinking about the story now as I type.... *sniff*)

Anyway. I said all that so that this post makes sense to everyone reading it.

As you may recall, earlier this spring, my sweet kitty "Spook" passed away in a tragic accident. We were heartbroken because we love and adore our cats (and our dog).






You can read about how I rescued Spook here
You can also read about Spook here.

We buried her between two walnut trees, that border our vegetable garden next to the house.
A few days afterwords, I had a bag of zinnia seed heads from my friend that I had planted in my flower/herb garden. The bag had gotten wet in a rain and was all soggy and the seeds, I thought, were rotten and worthless.

On a whim, I dumped the soggy, "rotten" seeds out all over the fresh dirt of Spook's grave, and forgot about it.

Soon, though, the seed sprouted, and began to grow! I had a lush bed of zinnias and merrigolds growing right on top of her grave, next to my veggies.



My other cats like to go and sit down there; and beautiful butterflies are always fluttering around the bright pink flowers. I even put up a little wire fence around it, to protect the flowers and give it some "structure".







The other day, however, I noticed that there was one, single white flower blooming among all the pink ones..... just one.



Chance? Maybe. But to me personally, that single white flower was like a message straight to my heart; a message of comfort, and knowing that my Heavenly Father knows and cares. Yes, he even cares about a little white kitty that broke my heart when she went away.

I just thought I'd share; especially for all you pet lovers out there.

Have a blessed day!