Blog Watchers

When my artist husband, Brandon, told me that he and other artist friends were going to encourage each other to be more active on their respective art blogs, I decided to join their group, the self proclaimed Blog Watchers, and use the momentum of their interest to kick start my own blog.  Unlike their art blogs, which have self promotional value, I think it seems sort of weird and self centered for me to just blog about myself and my projects.  But, I enjoy reading blogs, and once I got over getting over myself, it's been fun!  When I told my friend and chicken partner that I started a blog, he said "Cool.  What's it about?", and I said "What do you mean "what's it about?" - it's about ME!"  So, yeah, I think I'm right on track with this blog thing. 

The artist Blog Watchers have assigned themselves some questions that will allow their readers to delve into their personal experience in the artist studio.  Brandon explains it very well on his blog, and you can read his answers to the prompt and view his art as well. 

Artist Peggy Coots made the super snazzy Blog Watchers logo above (that's her behind the camera too), and you can read about her work and studio practices on her blog. 

Our long time friend, ceramic artist Joe Molinaro, recently joined the group and you can check out his work and thoughts at his new blog. 

So far, I think the Blog Watcher has been succesfull.  We're learning together and encouraging each other.  Plus, I can still eat whatever I want and I don't ever have to get on a scale!

Add a Dash of Rubber

 

These are called jelly ears.  They are mushrooms that grow on wood, and my mushroom hunting friend tells me they are edible, just not super tasty.  Mostly a texture additive I think, and really, who doesn't love a little bit of rubber texture in their food.  These things are all over sticks around my parents place, so we were hoping they would be something good.  Jackpot!  We have rubbery texture in abundance!



 



 

Apparently they have some health benefits.  Wikipedia says they have anti tumor and cholesterol lowering properties and that they are found in Chinese dishes, like hot and sour soup.  We didn't try to eat one, but maybe we should give it a try.  I would like to not have tumors or high cholesterol.  

Inside the Blue Bus

One of the best parts about have a play house, or I guess I should say play bus, it getting to figure out what kind of stuff fits, what's useful, and what looks good.  Especially if you like to shop at junk stores and peddlers malls like I do. 

I like old table cloths and table runners, and I've been collecting old embroidered pillow cases with plans to make lots of little curtains for the windows.  There is no electricity at the bus, so I get to have lots of oil lamps and candle holders. 

 

The floors and most of the walls of the bus are covered with pine boards that came from the forest at my parents house.  Lots of pine trees died because of the southern pine beetle out break, and the wood that was infected with the beetles has blue streaks, knot holes, and strange patterns.  Dad had a  saw mill cut the trees we cut down into rough lumber, and Brandon and I split the 2x4s lengthwise a couple of times and used a planer to smooth them.  We finally figured out that the best way to tack it down was to use self tapping screws.  The screw heads are black (Brandon says there were no other colors available...), which wasn't quite as inconspicuous as I'd planned. 

The sink has some buckets under the drains, but really I just use the dish pan and pitch the dirty water out the back door into the woods, which is easier than dealing with the buckets.  We just carry water in jugs with us when we go, but I have plans for a cistern type contraption that would allow us to only fill it occasionally and we wouldn't have to be so stingy with the water.  This sink is really too large for such a small space, but I have some sentimental attachment to it, so I was happy to put it back in use. 

 

 

The futon couch was given to us when some friends moved, and it works quite well.  It folds out to a comfortable bed.  Someday I would like to cut a hole in the roof of the bus and build a sleeping loft above the cab.  Then I could offer the futon to guests.  Because, I'm sure, the only reason all our friends aren't begging to sleep in an old bus in the middle of the woods with us is the lack of a guest room! It would probably help if we had a bathroom too.  

Cute Chick

 

 

I've been very sympathetic to Dr. Frankenstein's lately.  After the excitement of the hatch (Imagine me running through the office screaming "It's ALIVE!" while lightning bolts flash behind me), I began to worry about my chicken creation.  Several folks expressed surprise and the dark color, expecting more of fluffy yellow Easter candy look I thought, but it wasn't until my chicken partner kindly offered to step on it for me that I came down off my "I created life with technology" high and started to worry about the cuteness factor.  During those first 24 hours the poor thing lurched around on its curled up feet and frequently face dived into the floor for a nap.  She only kept one eye open most of the time and her fluff was thin and kind of stuck to her skin with dried goo.  Did you know chickens have belly buttons?  Me neither!  It's kind of gross looking when you can see it though.  I thought she chirped so much because she was lonely.

 

Thankfully, her looks have improved considerably.  She still has the funny duck feet, but she can walk, eat, drink, and see with both eyes.  She cute and fluffy and feel like I should bring her back to the office so everyone can see that I didn't create a monster. 

Blackberry Wine

Jamie and I filtered and bottled the blackberry wine Wednesday night.  It's mostly blackberry from my yard and my friends blackberry patch, but there's a few pounds of strawberries in the mix and I think the wine tastes more like strawberries than blackberry.  We'll let it spend several months in the bottles and see how it turns out.

 

 

This is our filtering set up.  The wine is siphoned from the glass carboy on the table to the bottle with the hand pump (like a garden sprayer) in the chair, then is pushed through the paper filter inserts in the plastic housing (in the pan because it leaks) on the little table, and then into a bucket on the floor.  We're not sure if we should continue to use the filter.  It's a pain in the neck and we can't seem to keep it from putting some air in the wine, which could lead to bad flavor.  But, its supposed to make the wine bright and clear.  We used it with the last batch of strawberry and it must be pretty good because we managed to drink two bottles of it while working on this batch!  I don't even remember putting the corks in.  Just kidding, I remember.  At least I remember it was hilarious, but why...?  

 

Brandon seems to think I should step up my labeling system to something a bit more impressive.  Apparently masking tape that says "Blackberry 2/13" isn't classy enough for him (snob!).



Ugly Duckling

 

I decided to turn the baby chicken into a baby duck.  Just kidding!  Her toes were curled under and she was walking on turned under toes.  So, based on some internet research, I used band aides and splinted her toes in the right position.  I think it's helping, but it makes her look like the ugly duckling! 

 

I'm not sure what went wrong with the incubation, but I'm not going to get any more chicks out of this batch.  Since it was so long past the due date and I couldn't hear any peeping from the other eggs, I poked holes in the shells to see what was going on inside.  Two of the five remaining eggs were just eggs, with no development.  One of them looked like it started to develop by didn't finish, and the other two looked like mostly developed chicks, but they weren't alive.  It's so disappointing.  It makes me hesitant to try this again, even though I would like to learn how.  I may have an issue with humidity, which could have caused the toe problems with the ugly duckling too.  

It Hatched!

Of course, she would wait until I went out for lunch to finally free herself from the shell.  But, she's free at last, free at last! I think I just barely missed the emergence.  She's still wet and gross looking, but she's making a racket and kicking the other eggs around in the brooder.  Now, if only some of her siblings would get cracking! 

Note to self: Hatching chicken eggs at work is not good for productivity.

It's Hatching!

I'm exited to debut my first blog video!  This little chick has been trying all morning to come out of the shell.  She peeps and wiggles and then takes a short break.  During her breaks I can see her taking deep breaths like she's exhausted from the struggle.  I thought it would be fun to watch the progress but it's so slow!  I really want to just pull the shell off and set her free, but I'm not supposed to.  So far, only one of the six eggs is hatching.  

Bus Property

I took this picture our bus property from a boat on the river.  As you can tell, it's steep.  Almost a cliff, really.  We own an long, skinny, rocky, cliff covered in trees, and we love it.  It was affordable because it's not ideal for building or farming.  There's no sewer and the soil is too thin for a septic system so it's not considered a good spot for a traditional house, even if you could carve out a flat spot to put one. 

We used loppers and a chain saw to clear a little pathway (not quite a road) for the bus.  We put up a gate, which someone kindly smashed the first week it was up. It still works.

 

 

 

The road that borders one side of the property is at the top of the slope.  The river, of course, is at the bottom and it is not easy to get to from where we park our car.  I've climbed down to the river twice in all the years we've owned it and much prefer looking at the river from the top. 

 

Even before we had the bus we would go there to have a campfire and relax, or work on projects.  The understory of the forest is dominated by bush honeysuckle shrub, which is a invasive exotic species that's common in the bluegrass.  I enjoy killing it - cutting it, spraying it, pulling it up by the roots.  I get my gardening kicks by weeding the forest to make room for native shrubs and wildflowers to take the place of the honeysuckle. 

Green House Kite

This little greenhouse was my gift from santa this year.  I think santa wanted all my seedlings out of his garage window, but he didn't know that the green house would fit perfectly on the pavers where he keeps used to keep his grill. 

Just for fun, I sprinked some lettuce seeds in some flower pots and after a week I had lots of little baby lettuce even though its been cold enough to kill everything growing in the ground.  I was just getting ready to thin them out and see if I could grow enough lettuce in the greenhouse for a few salads when there was a lettuce dissaster.  We had terrible wind Tuesday night.  The wind was so strong it woke us up in the middle of the night when we heard a big thump, followed by more, smaller thumps.  So, at three in the morning we were out in the yard in our pajamas trying to drag in the pieces of the green house before they blew out of the yard.  The plastic walls were like kites and very hard to carry in the wind.  The little baby lettuces were spilled.  The greenhouse is in shambles.  Santa thinks he can put it back together again, but I doubt it ever be the same.