The Bee Hive

I'M BACK!

2011-12-30T21:13:00.003-06:00

So Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope your 2011 was great and your 2012 will be even better.

This is our Christmas Eve table except for the roast turkey which Reagan cooked and brought over, and the chocolate cake that Andrew and Samantha brought. Those wouldn't fit on the table with everything else for the photo.
We had a really nice Christmas.

For some reason unknown to me, my computer wouldn't let me use blogger, google or several other sites. Stewart was in Dubai and then in China, then back home but too busy, so I was stuck with the situation until tonight when he came over and fixed it. I am soooo happy! So now I will be posting regularly...or more regularly... now.

SELLING CRAP BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

2011-06-02T11:09:00.003-05:00

Okay, so it's not really 'crap', but that is my term for a plethora of stuff that needs to go somewhere besides my house.
My friend, Annie, and I sat out by the highway for a few hours on Friday and Saturday of Memorial weekend. We didn't do that great. :/ I did sell some eggs and she sold some of her tomatoes and pecans, but that was it. At least my fridge is not completely stuffed with eggs now...only halfway stuffed. The chickens are laying about a dozen a day, so it mounts up fast. I did sell some eggs from the house last week and then more at church Sunday.
The heat and strong wind really wore us out. It's strange how bone tired you can get even though you're just sitting in a chair most of the time. We do plan on doing it again, but not very soon. I'll probably need a new sign though, since I am using the one I had (painted on cardboard) out by the road at my house now.

TIE-DYING

2011-05-27T07:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Mathieu and I spent the morning tie dying t-shirts. It had been a while since we had done that, and I was a little rusty on how to get it all acomplished in the easiest way possible. First, after washing and drying our new white t-shirts, we tied them by wrapping rubber bands around them in various places.
Meanwhile I heated water to near boiling on the stove. Then carried it out to the buckets with the dye powder waiting inside them. After some stirring to make sure the dye was dissolved, the shirts went in.

One of the shirts, we immersed only halfway in the blue dye, then later turned it the opposite way into the bucket of yellow dye so that we'd have blue, yellow and then green where the two colors overlapped.

I couldn't resist seeing if the blue dye would work on Coconut's white fur, so I dabbed a bit on her back. Of course it stayed light because it didn't get any soak time, but it did last. As much as she sheds, it will be gone before long.

Mathieu ran the hose on the shirts after they came out of the dye bath, then soaked them in clear water in a trough.

The only trouble we had was when the black shirts didn't get rinsed enough, and went into the dryer with the other shirts to help set the color, before they all went into the washer, then the dryer again. It turned the other colors sort of muddy. :/

But they turned out okay. Mathieu wore one of his right away, and I wore one of mine to the movies that afternoon, too. Annie and I went to see Medea's Big Happy Family.

BLACKBERRIES AND WILDFLOWERS

2011-04-15T18:50:00.000-05:00

...only you can't see the blackberries very well. Mathieu and I went walking down the fenceline a couple of days ago and picked what were growing on this side of the fence and what we could reach from the other side. They are growing in a massive thorny tangle all over the ground in the tall grass and thick brush. No one else uses them, except the birds. There were still plenty of green ones and red ones that will be ripening over the next few weeks. Mat took half of them home to eat as they are. I used my half in a couple of smoothies.
On the hike back, we picked wildflowers. There are so many. There are no bluebonnets on that end of the property and we only saw one Indian paintbrush along our path, but there were plenty of turkey peppers (western peppergrass), beebalm, coneflower, silver leaf nightshade, and plains fleabane. There were others too, but we didn't pick any short stemed ones. I put them in a clear jar on the kitchen table. Pretty!

FASTNACHT..FASNACHTS...POTATO DOUGHNUTS

2011-03-12T10:18:00.000-06:00

I check Cookbook Junkie's blog almost every day, not that I am all that into cooking, but I do like reading about it, and her blog is really interesting. But when I saw this recipe and her photo of it, I immediately got up from the computer (!) and started making it.
Mathieu, who often gathers eggs for me, came and he helped mix the dough, before leaving to pursue another project. I rolled the dough out and started cutting - first with the round cutter, then later, as things got hectic just with a straight-edge to make squares and rectangles.
Meanwhile, Zachary came over, and I had to enlist him in rolling the the finished ones in sugar and moving them along to a tray. It really was a three person job at the end with the continued rolling and cutting, frying and turning, draining, dredging and plating.
It made 32 of them and they were delicious! I sent half next door and then the next day, when Mat came over, I send half of what I still had over with him again. This is definately a recipe I wouldn't mind making again. Oh - for the recipe, you can check out http://www.cookbookjunkie.blogspot.com.

SPRING, FINALLY

2011-03-11T11:16:00.000-06:00

Although it is still too chilly for me, spring is definately beginning. Along the highway, the Indian Pinks (or Indian Paintbrushes) are starting to show. So far I haven't seen any on our property, but there are some smaller purple, white, pink(showy primrose/"buttercup") and yellow wildflowers all over.
This is what is on my kitchen table - 72 cells of tomato sprouts. Half are Roma and half are Rutgers. I am so glad Stewart got me this heated seed 'incubater' thingy. I never knew what I was missing! I will be growing all my veggies from seeds now, rather than buying plants.
The pear tree is blooming. I hope we get pears this year. Last year there were pears on the tree, but every time I checked they were not ripe, and then finally they disappeared except for one lone browned, dried one. I don't know if I just let them get away from me or what. I checked all the time.

These are the beautiful eggs we've gotten so far from our chickens this month. I love the different colors! We've been getting about 4 a day, and that number should continue to climb.

Stewart and Andrew have been working hard on building this fantastic chicken house. This one will be much easier for us to take care of the chickens and gather eggs from. The 17 hens and I are really looking forward to its completion!

NEW GRANDPUPPY!

2011-02-14T09:40:00.000-06:00

Meet Stoney. Gosh, it was so hard to get him to hold still and smile for the camera. Zachary has had him for a couple of weeks, but I didn't get photos until a few days ago. He's such a cute dog. And he walks around on huge feet that he picks up like duck feet...Splat, Splat, Splat!

ICY COLD!!!!

2011-02-04T22:49:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately we didn't get any snow here, but we did have great ice. Mathieu really enjoyed breaking the ice in the water troughs and loading them in his wagon to haul them around like frozen trophies. He had them for several days, adding to them each day.
Forsaking their comfy, pad and pillow-stuffed dog house under the roof on the front porch, Patti-Jo and Topaz crashed on the love seat for the past few nights...and most of each day, too.

I'M READING MORE...

2011-01-24T14:33:00.000-06:00

lately than I have been. I just finished Angel Time by Anne Rice, which was really good. It is the first of a series, and the second book came out in November I think, so I'll need to see if I can get it soon. I got the first one from Paperback Swap.
Today I just started (or restarted, actually) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith. I had checked it out from the library a long time ago, but was too busy to enjoy it at the time, so returned it after barely starting it. I got this one from a swap tag on Swap-Bot.
Thirdly, I have It's My Church and I'll Stay if I Want To by Lonni Collins Pratt. It's okay... I guess I'll finish it, but it'll probably be after I finish P & P & Z. I have quite a que of books built up, so periodically, I hope to show you what I've finished and what I'm reading.

BACKGROUND PAPERS

2011-01-21T19:50:00.001-06:00

These are some background papers I've made lately. I'm involved in some Yahoo art groups and have been actually doing some art with them again. I've already used some of these papers on some artist trading cards and inchies.
I love the style of the top one with the numbers and circles. Actually, earlier tonight I decided there was a little too much white on it, so I gave it a yellow overwash and sprayed more brown walnut ink on it. I'm waiting for it to dry now.
The valentinish one is cool too - very texturey. It turned out a lot redder than I intended since the white tissue paper pretty much turned clear after it all dried. Oh, well. I still like it.

OUR DECEMBER

2011-01-08T13:56:00.000-06:00

Honestly, our holiday photos get worse and more skimpy each year. I think it's because I get too tired to try to take better ones any more. But our December was good and we had a great Christmas. Our Christmases are a lot more quiet and low key as we get older.

We were thrilled that Shabree was here to celebrate Christmas with us this year. This was taken Christmas Eve. Garrett made me this fantastic owl house. He'd been making and putting up a lot of them this winter. This one that he made me has a plexiglass window in back. When you look inside, you can see the carpeting and a "God bless our home" sign over the front door. I love that!

Garrett and Ruth do a lot of vintage shopping and they found this "Hoss" hat from back in the day when Bonanza was the big thing - around the early 60's, I think. So they bought it for Mathieu and had it cleaned and refurbished, leaving the original hatband with the brand and all that intact. VERY cool!

Samantha was working on Christmas Eve, but Andrew and Lyric came. Lyric enjoyed the bows and wrappings as much as she did the toys.

I've really been getting a lot of enjoyment out of my windowside bird bath and bird feeder again. We've had lots of sparrows, of course, but also male and female cardinals, mockingbirds and my two favorites golden fronted woodpeckers and green jays. This is one of the green jays. Not a very good photo at all, though. Recently we had 4 of them at once in the feeder. I wish I would have gotten a photo of that.

Chuck had been seeing quite a few men on packed down bikes on the highway at one place or another heading south, looking like they were homeless. So one day he was at Papa's when one of them - Larry - stopped and they got to talking. So Larry came to stay at our cottage, down the road a bit from us, for a few days over Christmas. When he left, he was heading to Choke Canyon and from there to Corpus, I think. He was a really nice man and we enjoyed having him visit. This poor photo is one I took through the kitchen window when Larry was getting on his way again.

CATCHING UP A LITTLE...

2010-12-07T11:39:00.000-06:00

I've been a really, really neglectful blogger for the past few months. But I am going to try to keep up better now. These are a few photos to catch up to the present. As you can tell from the jack-o-lanterns in the background, this was back in October. Samantha brought Lyric over to stay with me for a couple of hours and it was the first time she had her hair in an 'up-do'. Cute, right? But I have to admit, I love her mass of wild curls. Coconut looks like she is rolling her eyes in the background. LOL!
Amy, Reagan, Zach and Mathieu went to Storyfest in George West and bought this festive reindeer hairband for Lyric. It kept falling off, but Mathieu didn't tire of trying to put it back on to stay.
In early November we had some Montana relatives, who live in San Antonio now, come for a visit. We got together for an impromptu family photo at one point. We had a great time and a yummy meal.
The 15 little chicks that Stewart had shipped to us in early October are BIG now - as big or bigger than Midnight and Goldilocks. We have them all together in the great chicken house that Chuck made, plus he cobbled the dog kennel onto the front of it so that it can be opened to some free-rangeing as well.
Our religious education classes at church put together a food box and some crafted decorations for an outreach project. These are 4 of the students from my class posing with the box, their handprint napkin rings and some turkey centerpieces another class made. Other classes made some great placemats and some open work pumpkin decorations. I wish I would have thought to get a photo of the whole group with all the food and decorations, but I didn't.
This past Saturday was the Lighted Christmas Parade down main street in Beeville. Mathieu's Cub Scout group decorated large boxes as costumes to walk as a group along the parade route. I don't know who thought of that idea but it was fantastic. They all looked great and made a fabulous statement as walking lighted gifts. This photo was taken as they first started gathering before dark. In my opinion it was the best parade entry out of all of them.
This is the pre-parade view from where we stood along the parade route. I love that the Rialto Theater is being restored, although it will take a long time. I had to get a photo of the theater front.

HALLOWEEN!

2010-11-01T13:14:00.000-05:00

My son said it's a whole lot harder painting nails than he ever realized. LOL! We started our Halloween celebration on Friday the 29th, when Garrett and Ruth came by while making their annual "in costume" rounds of friends and family. This was their trial run before hitting the costume contests in the area, and then heading to Austin for some big parties and contests there.
It's the Mad Hatter (ala' Tim Burton/Johnny Depp) and Alice (dressed as she was in the Red Queen's court). Garrett loves - LOVES - dressing up in costume and acting out a role. He even learned the fudderwacking dance for this!
It was hard to look Garrett in the eyes with those icky contacts. *Shudderrrr!* He fashioned a gap in his front teeth, too. Ruth had a skeleton type key around her neck. I hope the red coloring came out of Garrett's dredlocks okay.
Here is a little assemblage I made for Lyric for Halloween. These are a lot of fun to do, although I think I am through with them for awhile. Maybe I'll get back to it in a few weeks for some Christmas ones.
This is what I made for Mathieu. He loved it!
This was Halloween night. He was a vampire for trick-or-treat. I haven't seen him yet today to ask how it went. I hope they found a good number of houses participating.
Here was our only other trick-or-treater of the night - Mayra and her mom. Her dad had decorated a small trailer with lights and decorations to pull behind the car to make the evening more festive.
That was it for our 2010 Halloween....not 'all out' like it used to be a few years ago, but nice anyway.

MAT'S RACOON ASSEMBLAGE

2010-10-09T00:41:00.000-05:00

Mathieu made this little box assemblage a couple of weeks ago. The little pinecones and the peach seed he put in the bottom are not attached so that he can change out the nature elements as he finds different ones. These are really fun to do and are easy enough for even a much younger child to make.

BABY CHICKS!

2010-10-06T17:42:00.000-05:00

"Peep, peep, peep..." "What's that in the box?! Chicken nugget delivery???"
Our delivery of 15 chicks that Stewart ordered arrived today - 5 Ameraucanas, 5 Silver Laced Wyandottes and 5 Black Australorps. But one is a yellow chick, so it must have been put in the box by mistake, instead of one of the other ones he ordered. Or else it is a rooster instead of all hens like he ordered. I guess time will tell.
Here they are in their temporary home.
A closer, blurrier look... I hope we can keep them all healthy and they'll grow into good layers.

LOS TRES FRIDAS

2010-09-27T22:49:00.000-05:00

These primative faux Fridas are for a swap on Swap-Bot. I'm not quite finished with them yet, but very close. They should go out in tomorrow's mail.

The Fall air is fabulous! That magical feeling is coming back. I actually got unhooked from the computer (after catching up on The Guild) and all video game systems today, and went out to redo the chicken set-up with Stewart today. He ordered us a batch of chicks and a brooder set. The brooder stuff is already here, and the chicks should be here tomorrow or the next day. I hope Goldilocks and Midnight get along with them.

Besides getting farther along with the little Frida paintings, I pulled some weeds and started reading a new gardening book. Oh - and I actually cooked a real meal - Southwestern Shepherd's Pie and Herb Salad with Stewart's homemade Zesty Italian dressing.

I'M BAAAACK...!

2010-09-18T07:53:00.000-05:00

...sort of. Gosh, I can't believe I have neglected this blog for so long! For one thing, religious education classes started again for the school year. We were short of teachers this year, so in addition to being director, I am having to teach a class, too. And that is taking a LOT of time. I am teaching the First Communion class. Since I am teaching a class, it means that the things I normally did during class times, as director, have to be done after classes and during the week. So that keeps me busier too.
I am still doing some artsy stuff - more assembleges and zentangles, although not very prolificly. Here are a pair I started a couple of months ago and just finished recently.
We've had sooo much rain recently from the tropical storms and hurricane(s) - at least I think the last one was a hurricane. I am not keeping up with it so much. But it is really soggy around here. I hope the weather is nice for Halloween this year, but according to the Farmer's Almanac, it's going to be rainy.
We've had an influx of hummingbirds finally. They were very sparse this year. And now they seem to be gone again - on their way to Mexico or South America, I guess.
Yesterday I had lunch in Beeville with my friend, Paulette. She is the best cook I know. We had oxtail soup, pork chops, cheese-jalapeno rice, purple cabbage and some kind of really good bread, and for dessert, semita with jam. We talked and laughed for hours, and I was hoarse when I left her house. Good times...

HALLOWEEN MIXED MEDIA ASSEMBLAGE

2010-08-14T15:07:00.000-05:00

I'd been working on this for a few days, and finally finished it today. It's made from a smallish candy box with part of the top cut out.

ANASAZI BEANS

2010-08-09T17:03:00.000-05:00

I've noticed varieties of beans in our supermarket over the past couple of months that I have not seen before. These are Anasazi Beans, milled in Colorado. To quote from the back of the bag,"Anasazi Beans were one of the few crops cultivated by the Anasazi Indians. "Anasazi" is a Navajo word meaning "ancient ones". The Anasazi Indians are best identified for their architechtural achievements known today as cliff dwellings, and inhabitated these structures as early as 130A.D. Today these structures can be seen at areas such as Mesa Verde National Park, located in Southwestern Colorado. Anasazi Beans are faster cooking, with a sweeter flavor, and can be used for all bean dishes such as chile, baked, soups and Mexican foods."
They really were quicker cooking. I didn't pre-soak them, and I didn't time them, but they were done long before I expected them to be done. I added bacon and rough cut garlic cloves to them. Usually I saute the bacon, but this time I didn't. Although I don't think anyone would really notice the difference from pinto beans, if you didn't call it to their attention, they had a very slight, occassional cinnamon taste to me. I also cooked some cornbread muffins to go with them.
Although we probably won't have them again, since they are quite a bit more expensive than pinto beans, it was fun to try them.

LAST ONE FOR AWHILE...

2010-08-06T11:48:00.000-05:00

This zentangle was 5"x7" before I cut it into fourths to make ATCs out of it for a swap. I still have 2 zentangles-in-progress, but have been spending the last two days on other projects - a Halloween assemblage and a small mixed media thing on stretched canvas. When those are finished, I will probably start on a Halloween mixed media box for another swap.
I feel really crappy today. I've been staying up way, way too late (like all night) and still getting up early for the past few days, and it is catching up with me, with a vengence. I may try to take a nap today if I can, even though I hate naps.
It will be time to begin religious education classes again very soon, so I need to get letters written and registration forms sent out to parents as soon as possible. But something tells me I had better not try to compose a coherent letter today.

MY TO-BE-READ STACK

2010-08-04T13:11:00.000-05:00

I'm taking a short break from the neverending zentangles to change gears for a moment. I am currently reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and am really enjoying it. I wanted to read it ahead of seeing the movie, which will come out August 13th, I think. I thoroughly enjoyed Italy with Liz and so far, I think I am enjoying India with her even more. Indonesia is still to come, and I am interested in her take on that country, since I lived there for a short time.
I started reading Anne Rice's, Christ the Lord, some time ago, but kind of let it fall by the wayside. Why, I don't really know. I just can't keep my interest in it high enough to keep at it daily. Then I started Eat, Pray, Love and that it taking up all my reading time. I do plan to finish it though.
But probably not until after The Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart. It is the book club discussion book for August, at the library. So I need to read it next, even though that will be cutting it very close. The meeting is in the last week of the month. I hope I like it. If not, I probably won't worry about finishing it or going to the meeting. I am more interested in reading Anne Tyler's Digging to American and Ursula Hegi's Hotel of the Saints.

PSALM 148

2010-08-02T18:30:00.000-05:00

Sun and moon, praise the Lord! I love this psalm.

AND YET MORE...

2010-07-31T09:04:00.000-05:00

Dare I admit I am finally getting a little tired of making these? I've been trading these like crazy on Swap-Bot, and still have at least 2 more that I have committed to make.
I think the Farmer's Market is open today, but I am reconsidering going. I am just really sore from all the mowing I did yesterday. I still have a lot more to do today. I think I am going to go take cemetery photos in the next town this morning, too, for a different swap. While I am there, I'll get some plate dinners from some friends who are holding a fundraiser for medical expences. And there is also a funeral today, so I need to make a big dish of some kind and go serve food for the meal, afterwards. I guess I'll make a huge veggie salad...so I better get to the farmer's market after all.

ANOTHER RATTLESNAKE!

2010-07-30T09:11:00.000-05:00

Look what Topaz found yesterday evening right off the edge of the carport. I heard her barking, and then Patti-Jo joined in too. I looked out the kitchen window and saw a 'lump' in the grass where she was looking, but looked farther and saw Zach walking this way swinging a rope, so dismissed the lump as a fire ant bed. Zach had been out there with the roping dummy, so I thought they were just barking at him. But as he got closer, he heard and saw the snake and got his gun to kill it. It was about 5 and a half feet long and really thick. Hopefully this is the last one! Topaz is still leary of it in the picture, but she stood her ground. Thank goodness she didn't get bitten.

OWL ZENTANGLE

2010-07-29T14:17:00.000-05:00

This could go on for a while...

STILL ZENTANGLED

2010-07-27T10:19:00.000-05:00

MORE ZENTANGLES

2010-07-26T08:52:00.000-05:00

A Thanksgiving themed zentangle on the left and two mandalas on the right. I keep copies of most of my art work, so today I'll be going to get copies before sending some of these zentangles off to their new owners.

ZENTANGLES

2010-07-25T11:01:00.000-05:00

I've been zentangling. I am totally zentangled. Ha! Strange word! Anyway, I read about zentangles a couple of days ago, and got really interested in trying to make some. These are my first two: "Kindness" on the left and "Halloween" on the right. They really are fun and relaxing to do. I joined a zentangle discussion and swap group on Swap-Bot and have been making them non-stop.

MUFFIN TIN MONDAY

2010-07-19T12:46:00.000-05:00

There was some discussion on the Swap-Bot forums recently about cute lunches, etc. and someone mentioned 'Muffin Tin Monday' - a blog that has a show and tell each week that showcases lunches like this. There is also a Flickr group for this. I don't know if I will keep this up, but here is one I made for Mathieu. From the top, clockwise: Raw broccoli, cut up peaches from our tree, and oranges, mayocoba beans with shredded cheese on top, star shaped toast spread with peanut butter and topped with raisins. In the middle is some ranch dressing for the broccoli. Actually, he didn't eat it. He wasn't hungry earlier, and by the time I went ahead and prepared it anyway at 1pm, and called him, he had gone to Beeville for the afternoon/evening. So I ended up eating it myself that night as a before bedtime snack. ;)

HALLOWEEN IN JULY ;)

2010-07-05T09:18:00.000-05:00

I've been in a Halloween type of mood lately - due, I guess, to the dark, dreary, rainy days we had with the remnants of Hurricane Alex. I made these for a Swap-Bot "Twinchies (2" square), Moo Card (1"x2.75") and Rounds (2-2.5")" swap that I am hosting. They can be used as scrapbooking decorations, card-making decorations, refrigerator magnets or whatever.

WAITING FOR HURRICANE ALEX

2010-06-30T09:52:00.000-05:00

Alex is supposed to make landfall within 24 hours, south of Brownsville. Hopefully it won't turn north. We will still get a LOT of rain and wind here, though, anyway. And probably some power outages - hopefully not for too long.

Here are a couple of self-portrait postcards I painted for swaps yesterday.

WESTERN DIAMOND BACK RATTLESNAKE!

2010-06-26T01:13:00.000-05:00

We had some unexpected excitement tonight. Reagan was driving down our street after dark, when he saw a large snake crossing from the woods on the north side towards our yard. He stopped, got out and yelled for Zachary, who was just coming into our house, to run home and get a gun. Then Reagan, Zach and Chuck walked around the yard looking for the snake. It was nestled against the north side of the laundry house, not three feet from where Chuck had walked by, looking for it. Reagan shot it.
It was huge! It was a little over 5 feet long and really thick.
Amy and Mathieu came over too, and I went outside with Lyric, who I was babysitting, to get these photos... none of which turned out very well.
You can tell a western diamond back rattle snake from an eastern diamondback by the 'raccoon tail' change in markings ahead of the rattles. This snake had 13 rattles. The contrast between the very rough back of the snake and the flawless smoothless of it's underbelly is remarkable. The diamondback pattern is so beautiful, but so repelling at the same time. Where there is one snake, there are more, so we will be even more watchful and careful than we have been this spring and summer, so far. *Shudder*

APPRECIATION OF RANDOM WEIRDNESS

2010-06-15T19:56:00.000-05:00

I love this! After attending a 'wet and wild' birthday party last Saturday, Mathieu and I stopped by Walmart to get a few things. We saw this guy and I complimented him and his two teenage friends on the costume. I asked what promotion or club or whatever he was dressed that way for, and was told that there was no reason for this other than just because the guy wanted to dress like that and wander around. How cool is that?! I got a photo of my wet little grandson with the German Shepherd, and thanked the trio for their random weirdness. :)

HOME

2010-06-10T15:29:00.000-05:00

Here are two postcard size paintings I did recently. "Home" denotes a deep sense of wellbeing no matter how poor or shabby a house is.

OLDEST AND YOUNGEST

2010-06-09T22:15:00.000-05:00

Zachary, at 15, is our oldest grandchild and Lyric - 2 mos. and 10 days in the photo - is our youngest. Zach and Mat are both crazy about babies and will hold and entertain them without being asked. That is so nice to see.

GONE TO THE DOGS

2010-06-08T08:59:00.001-05:00

I've been neglecting this blog lately. Why, I don't really know. Things are busy, but not any busier than usual, I don't think. I've been feeling crappier than usual, but it doesn't take much effort to sit at the computer. I've been reading more, but not all that much...
Anyway, I wrote previously about Carly - the puppy someone dumped at our cottage one night. Well, now we have ANOTHER new puppy too - Topaz. Someone dumped her (and apparently the mother and other puppies, although I never saw them) at our church. Chuck was coming back from the post office one morning in late May and this tiny puppy was out in the street with cars going around her. So he stopped and got her. I named her Topaz. Gosh, we are up to 5 dogs now! I really hope we don't acquire any more.

Coconut and I went to the Farmer's Market last Saturday, and the Humane Society was hosting a dog contest. The catagories were best dressed, best trick, and friendliest. It was $5 per catagory to enter. I didn't think she would do her one trick - jumping through a hoop - in a strange, busy place in front of so many strangers, and she is very shy with people she doesn't know, so Best Dressed was the only catagory I entered.
She didn't win, but we both had a great time, and met quite a few new friends - human and canine. The whole ting reminded me of Sims2 Pets. LOL! These photos are of her with one of her new friends and fellow contestants, Ava Sophia. She also made friends with Delilah and Selena. I was surprised that most of the dogs we met had such pretty, feminine names. They said that they will be holding another dog contest in the Fall, so maybe we'll brush up on her trick and see if she can enter that catagory next time.

CHUCK'S GARDEN

2010-05-17T01:49:00.000-05:00

Chuck picked the first of the corn yesterday, and got more today. Today he dug potatoes too. For dinner, he barbecued a small roast, boiled some of the ears of corn, and cooked fresh store-bought green beans with the new potatoes and some onions. It was really, really delicious!
We let Coconut through the gate into the garden with us, and Carly just crawled through the fence. Patti-Jo and Carl laid down under the nearby oak tree to wait, and Buddie just stayed stretched out on the porch.

LYRIC

2010-05-10T12:17:00.000-05:00

Chuck and I kept Lyric overnight again last week. She is 7 weeks old now and doing well. This time she only woke up twice during the night, so it was much easier than last time. She is such a cutie - smiling and 'talking'.

MOTHER'S DAY

2010-05-09T13:27:00.000-05:00

After Mass, I changed clothes and Mathieu and I went out to the cemetery. My mother's grave had been covered in bluebonnets, but they'd all gone to seed by now. Most of the seeds had already dropped, but there were still a few unopened pods on the dead stems, so in weeding them, we pulled off the good pods and put them in two ziplock bags. Mat took his to split between his mother and his great-grandmother. They are going to Normanna to his great-grandparents' house for dinner today. We only got about 1/3 of the weeding done before I gave out. I'll have to go back tomorrow and remember to take my gloves this time. My hands are really itchy and in the next few days will be covered with those tiny, extremely itchy little blister things. We removed all the faded silk flowers from all the family graves and replaced them with new ones. We ran out, though, before finishing, so I need to get some more of them the next chance I get. I used to be so good about keeping up with things out there, but now I usually only go out there 2-3 times a year. :/
We walked around admiring tombstones and wildflowers and on the way out, took a different route so we could see different areas. I just love old, non-manicured cemeteries with character, like ours. The new ones just don't have the same feel to them at all.

NEW GRILL

2010-05-03T08:44:00.000-05:00

Chuck's old bbq grill finally bit the dust the last time he used it, so he got another one a few days ago. He put it together and used it for the first time last night when he grilled some steaks. Today he's going to grill chicken or pork chops, I think.
Carly is helping with the assembly.

NEW PUPPY!

2010-05-02T23:19:00.000-05:00

Some anonymous donor blessed us with a new puppy Thursday night or early Friday morning. She is tentatively named Carly. Chuck wanted to name her after Carl since she has a lot of the same coloring and markings. I drew the line at Carlette, though, and didn't especially like Carlita either. So on the drive to the vet within an hour or finding her, I decided - tentatively - on Carly. After she drank and ate, I gave her a quick bath before taking her for her distemper and parvo shots, first dose of worming medicine (and one syringe-full to bring home and administer in 2 weeks),and an ear mite test and then ear might meds in her ears. Since she arrived on Mathieu's birthday, I kind of liked the name Matilda or Matty. But none of the names so far seem 'right' or roll off the tongue smoothly.

AN INF?

2010-04-26T17:36:00.000-05:00

What is an inf? You can ask her, by typing the question into the dialog box. It's kind of an interesting little bit of technology. This is Suzanne Sky and she should be able to answer questions or carry on a conversation with you. And she should improve with more responses and a wider range of topics as time goes on. Try it out!

BUNNY GIRLS AND TREES

2010-04-21T15:56:00.000-05:00

This is what I have been painting lately. Yeah. I blame Suzi Blu for my fixation on bunny girls. She offered some free printable line drawings on her blog for people to make mixed media art. I didn't print them out, but her sketch of a bunny girl stuck with me. I have been thinking of the 'tree of life' motif lately, too. I really love trees and especially like looking at the structure and arrangement of their limbs and branches. Not that this was any great depiction. I just played with it. The top one - "The Bunny Sisters Rush Spring" is postcard sized. The other one, "Another New Day" is a little larger. Both are for trade in an artist's postcard group I belong to on Yahoo.
These two bunny girls are artist trading cards size and are for a swap on Swap-Bot.

LYRIC

2010-04-20T11:48:00.000-05:00

What a difference 25 days makes. Lyric had some serious birth issues and was rushed to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi about an hour and a half after birth. Samantha wasn't doing too well, either, and had an extended stay in the Christus Spohn Hospital in Beeville. Andrew had to stay with Sam that night, and finish paperwork on the both of them, before heading to Driscoll first thing the next morning. Their car developed issues in the midst of all this, so I had to drive him to Corpus that next morning - he went home the next day and got their car taken care of. Lyric was hooked up to all sorts of wires and machines, with needles in her feet, hands and head. She had to stay there quite a while, but is home now and so far, so good. Things are looking well, although Andrew and Sam have to watch closely for any signs of even the slightest problem developing, and get her to the ER immediately should any fever or anything develop. But everything appears to be fine for now. We have babysat twice - once was overnight. Lyric has her days and nights mixed up, so that was quite an experience. She is beautiful with very dark wavy hair, with an auburn cast to it in the light. Her eyes are blue, and she has a dimple in her chin and on one cheek. Andrew and Samantha are loving parenthood despite the sleep deprivation.

BIRDWATCHING...SORT OF

2010-04-10T15:18:00.000-05:00

I have a new interest now...just what I needed. *wink* Chuck moved the bird bath from the cottage and it's now situated just outside the living room window, so I can check it throughout the day, when I am not occupied elsewhere. I was surprised to find that I became very interested in this casual form of birdwatching. After a few days, I recovered an unused journal to be my "Nature Notebook" of sorts.
Almost each day, I write down what birds I saw around the birdbath, what the weather was like and anything notable about what's growing or blooming. Yesterday evening, I saw something I had never seen before, except in Viva Pinata (a video game) - a bird - mockingbird to be exact - ate a flower, completely. In three bites it completely ate a fully blooming buttercup (evening primrose, to be precise) blossom! Then it moved on to another one, and snarfed it down too, before flying off.
This is the view from the recliner. Three sparrows stopped by this afternoon. In the background, you can see a strip of yard, covered with (waning) wildflowers that I didn't let Chuck mow - yellow dandelions, that look white in this photo, buttercups, long purple flowers that I am not sure of the name, and quite a few other kinds.
To my little journal, I have also added one of Margaret Moser's columns about area wildflowers and one of Adrian Jackson's columns about the 'Angel of Goliad', from a recent Bee-Picayune newspaper. ...So, it will be sort of a 'nature-and-history' journal, I guess.
Here is the book I use for identifying (or trying to!) the birds. Most that I have noticed have been house sparrows, chirping (or maybe vesper) sparrows and mockingbirds. But Wednesday morning, there was a gorgeous golden-fronted woodpecker there for quite a while.
There are soooo many birds around our house, but most don't seem to stop at the birdbath. Maybe I should add a birdfeeder near it. Chuck is ready for hummingbirds with both of his feeders full in the front yard.

FREECYCLE AND FARMER'S MARKET

2010-04-03T13:28:00.000-05:00

I hadn't remembered that today was the monthly Farmer's Market until I woke up this morning. Since I needed a few things from the store anyway, I decided to drink my coffee on the run and head to Beeville. I bought a nice hanging pot stuffed with four different herbs (parsley, oregano, thyme, rosemary) and then three small pots of individual herbs (varigated leaf celery, lemon balm, epizote). I guess it is too early in the season for many garden fresh vegetables to be sold, but there were carrots and spinach, there, at least in the Emma's Farm stall, where all the great herbs were sold, and the Amish stall, where they had a variety of other things too.
These chairs were ones I got from someone who posted them on Freecycle. It was 'sight unseen' but from the description, they sounded like just what I needed. It turned out that I was a little unsure of their sturdiness for sitting, so after spray painting them sunny yellow, I am using them for plant stands. I love them! On the right is the hanging pot of herbs and on the left, the larger pot has dark sweet potato vine and epizote, while the small one has a single salvia. I hope to get photos of the other recent plantings in a day or two.

FRY BREAD

2010-03-30T15:50:00.001-05:00

Pay no attention to the monkey. These were pretty good. I got the recipe from another blog this morning, and decided to try them for our usual late lunch/really late breakfast/afternoon snack. The blog, Day to Day Cook by Dawn Spice has a lot of good recipes and interesting kitchen related tips and tidbits. I just ate mine with butter, and so did Zach when he got home from school and came over.

MINI ZEN GARDENS

2010-03-27T19:50:00.000-05:00

Today was a good 'at home' day. This morning, as I often do, I woke up with my giant cup of coffee in front of the TV playing Harvest Moon Animal Parade on the Wii. When I was sufficiently awake to face the world, I cleaned up the kitchen, set some meat out to thaw for dinner and then went out to the garden. I hoed and raked my little garden plot, and planted a package of mixed varieties of eggplant. I had planned to plant another packet of eggplant, but then couldn't decide between that and some of the two varieties of cantalope that Glenda brought me when she and Jan came recently. Right now, I am thinking of going with the cantalope, but may change my mind again...
Later in the day, I spray painted a bottomless metal chair that I use as a flowerbed feature, and two metal people that hold flowerpots. I should have taken a photo of those, but didn't think of it at the time. Now it's too dark to get a decent photo, I think. Mathieu was here and he wanted to make a Zen dish garden like I made a few days ago. His turned out sort of half zen and half something else, but it looks good! Mine has too many rocks, I know, but it's hard to stop at just 1-3, for me. ;) Mat scattered lots of small rocks throughout his sand, and then added a small yogurt cup pond, too, and went around the edges of the dish with clover leaves.

WILDFLOWER WALK PART 1

2010-03-20T14:54:00.000-05:00

Each spring, I always have visions of making a photographic record of each and every wildflower blooming in our 'yard', complete with positive identification of the ones whose names I am not familiar with... but I never get it done. Some years I have used a sketchbook instead, but still only get a few pages done. This year is shaping up to be no exception. Mathieu and I took a few of my little dolls and started off by walking just on the east side of the house.
Leopard girl is wondering what kind of flowers these beautiful bright purple ones are. They are growing thickly all over this year.
Pink Fairy makes herself at home in the gorgeous Indian Paintbrushes. These are my favorites, I think.
This little Munchkin boy, from the Lillipop Guild is looking worried in these Showy False Dragonhead wildflowers. These are everywhere this year. As you drive along the highways, you can see them in pastures where they look like really large ponds. They really do resemble light blue water in such large groupings.

Peter Pan and Leopard Girl pause for a rest by this dandelion flower. The dandelions are seriously taking over everyone's yards this year.
Ugh and Crank always do things the hard way. They went straight to the prickly pear and agarita. No wonder they are always in such bad moods.

HOMEMADE NOODLES

2010-02-02T22:41:00.000-06:00

I've been making egg noodles lately, and they are really good - thick and more flavorful than packaged noodles. The first time I made them, I just broke an egg, stirred it to break it up, then added as much flour as I could mix in. After that, I floured a cutting board and kneaded the dough a bit before rolling it out as thin as I could (not all that thin) and cut it into strips. Then I dried them for about 24 hours....except during this time, when they were on the table, Chuck left a chair pulled out and Coconut got up there and ate about half of them, before I caught her. So I put what was left, up on the cabinet and the next day started on making more. This time I used two eggs and that made a more substantial amount of noodles. Also, this time, I divided the dough and only rolled out about a 5th of it at a time. Much easier to handle. Then I cut them narrower than before and spread them out on newspapers on the cabinet until this afternoon when I boiled them in a quart of chicken broth. When they were almost done, I added sauted onion and celery and what was left of the bok choy I cooked the other night. It was so simple, but so good.

I want to start making noodles somewhat regularly. But they are kind of time consuming - easy to mix up, but the rolling, cutting, setting out on paper to dry without any of the noodles touching each other, and then leaving them that way for 24 hours is somewhat of a pain. Still, it is worth it.

BOK CHOY

2010-01-30T19:59:00.000-06:00

Today was a pleasant day all the way around...well except for the cold weather. It was sunny, though, so that was good. Zach and Mathieu did very well at the horse show today, although where they placed isn't offical yet. I picked up a couple of bags of nice men's clothes from Freecycle and took it to someone who I thought would like them. After picking up the clothes from the woman giving them away, I stopped by Goodwill and they were having a sale on baby clothes. So I picked out 21 little pieces of cute baby girl clothing for Andrew and Samantha's baby who is due very soon. On the way home I passed a garden where there was a big "OPEN" sign and another sign saying "Fresh Produce". So I stopped and bought some beautiful bok choy. The man had spinach, broccoli and green onions too. So I cooked the bok choy for dinner, and it was really good! I'm kicking myself now, because I didn't even think to take a photo of his garden. Also photo-worthy were the South Texas Trail Riders that I passed both going to and coming from Beeville. It was really picturesque this year with a lot of horse pulled wagons of all kinds as well and the usual horseback riders. There was even a stage coach... all heading to San Antonio.

MENU CHALLANGE & PANTRY CHALLANGE

2010-01-16T22:38:00.000-06:00

This was what I made for dinner tonight - tuna and noodle skillet and a green salad. The salad is mostly oak leaf lettuce, kale and green onion tops which are fresh from the garden. It really was good.
I think I mentioned a while back that I joined both a Monthly Menu Planning Challange and a Pantry Challange on a frugal website. Both have really been helpful AND a lot of fun this month and they fit very well together. So before January 1, I went through everything in my kitchen food cabinets, the fridge and the freezer. By 'freezer', I mean the small one over at the top of the refrigerator. We didn't move the separate one from the other house. I listed most of it in a notebook, (after listing about a dozen spices, I decided to let myself off the hook for that!) and worked with that list to plan dinner menus for the month. I was really pleasantly surprised to realize that there was enough food in the house to make a 31 day menu from! That seems like a lot. Now this is a FRUGAL challange, so none of the menus I planned are elaborate. I did have to do some menu juggling already this month, and will, no doubt, do more. Sometimes I counted on leftovers for the next meal, but it turned out that there were none. And sometimes I had a new dish listed for a meal on a day when there WERE leftovers...or there was some other reason why I had to switch things a little. But this has made meal preparation SO much easier. And I actually look forward to making dinner each night now. I am going to continue doing it permanently.

As for the Pantry Challange, the idea is to use up what you already have so things don't get 'lost' or passed over indefinately, or just plain wasted. This has really helped me too. Not only because of the money saving aspect of it, but just knowing I am making use of things that we have and like, but might not even think to use. And this challange doesn't mean that you can't buy any food items during the time you are in it...which is however long until you can't put a decent meal together from what you have left. Fill in items, perishables like milk, and things like that are 'legal' if you need them and choose to buy them. So since December, the only groceries I have bought are a bottle of catsup, that Chuck couldn't live without, a jar of coffee, a carton of cream, a loaf of bread, a carton of eggs and a package of bacon for seasoning. And I didn't stock up or even do a regular 'meat and potatoes and all the trimmings' grocery shopping trip anytime recently before starting the challange. When I started this Pantry Challange, it only stretched out until the end of the month on paper. In actuality I think my pantry challange will go a few days to a week longer. That really surprises me, too! And it is nice not having to do bigger grocery shopping runs until then.

SECOND THOUGHTS...

2010-01-11T22:17:00.000-06:00

...and third, fourth and fifth thoughts. The day before Christmas, I got the great idea to really start making quilts for the family this year. Flannel was really calling to me. So I went to Walmart, since that is the only place to get fabric within 50 miles of here. Unfortunately, their flannel choices were all cartoonish. I decided to go with solids. This 'lovely' selection is all the solid colors they had. Blah. But I got some of each and more of the turquoise that it is all sitting upon. And I thought that I would tie the quilt with black crochet thread. But after I got it home, it all just looked soooo dull. I considered just making a quilt of plain squares, and embroidering a little picture on each one. Now I am not so sure...at least with these colors. So I don't know... It might be better to just make regular quilts from a bunch of the fabrics in my stash. But whatever I decide to do, I need to get on it, despite my missing cutting mat, soon, if I am going to finish a good number of quilts this year.

HOT....AND I DO MEAN HOT... SOUP

2010-01-05T23:17:00.000-06:00

Our meal tonight is being "spokesmodeled" by Carmela-Ruby.

"They had Hamburger Barley Soup tonight, following the recipe on the box of barley....well more or less. It called for canned tomatoes, but the closest thing Wanda had was Hot Rotel canned tomatoes with habeneros. They were *HOT!* and next time she'll use tomato sauce if she doesn't have regular tomatoes. She also didn't have carrots, so she used the rest of a bag of frozen Asian Stir-Fry Vegetables. Overall, despite the hotness, it was very good, (her DH had like 5 bowls over the course of the evening!) and she said they will definately have it again. Oh - the pasty-looking white thing on the bowl is one of her Irish Soda Bread biscuits. Honestly, they are delicious despite how they look. But, I have to go now and get some water - my mouth is STILL burning from those habeneros!"

DONE!

2010-01-03T22:39:00.000-06:00

As the newest Wandette, Carmella Ruby Bridges, is showing, in a Vanna White kind of way, those three pumpkins are DONE! They are in the freezer, their seeds are soaking in salt water while awaiting roasting tomorrow, and the peelings and strings are going to the chickens in the morning. And all this only took hours to do. I am sooo glad all the pumpkins are gone! And to tell the truth at this moment I am not looking forward to the next crop. But these two bags will make 4 or 5 pumpkin desserts or batches of muffins, and that's a good thing.

MUSICAL CHAIRS MENU...AND ACCUSITORY PUMPKINS

2010-01-02T22:55:00.000-06:00

Don't worry OR get your hopes up. This is not turning into a cooking blog. The idea that it might, would reduce to laughter anyone who knows me. But I joined some 2010 challanges on a Frugality website I recently joined. One challange is to have a monthly menu plan each month. So I have mine for January posted on my refrigerator and have been diligent in actually PLANNING to have a meal each night. I only plan the main dish, for the main meal, but it is really nice to have things planned in advance. Of course there will be some switching and 'jugglement' going on. It is only January 2nd, and I have aleady moved Corned Beef and Cabbage to January 15th and Meatloaf to today. Then to make things right, I had to move Spaghetti from January 15th to January 27th. And tomorrow was supposed to be Leftover Meatloaf Sandwiches....only there is no meatloaf left, so it looks like the Pancakes from January 4th are bumped up a day to the 3rd. I have no idea what to do about the 4th now... ;) So all of this started with the meatloaf. The reason I moved the meatloaf up by nearly 2 weeks was to take advantage of the leftover dressing that someone said made a terrific ingredient in meatloaf. Judging by none of it being left, with meatloaf not being one of Chuck's favorite dishes, I would say they were right. I also added an egg, celery, onion, garlic, and some catalina salad dressing since I was out of catsup.
Yes those three pumpkins are staring at me. I have been saying for longer than I care to admit that today...today....today I will cook the last three I have, mash them, and bag them for the freezer. But tomorrow I will - for sure!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

2010-01-01T20:21:00.000-06:00

Naturally, dinner today was black-eyed peas. I didn't have real ones, or even dried ones. I used canned this year. It's Paulette Bailey's fault. She invited me over recently for our annual Christmas get-together and she served black-eyed peas as a side dish. She mentioned that she had used canned. Paulette is an absolutely swoon-worthy cook, and her peas were unbelievable, as was everything else on the table. So I thought I could manage just fine with canned peas on New Year's Day. Mine were nothing like hers, but they were really good nonetheless. I sauted bacon, celery leaves and onion, then added the peas and after they got hot, added some rice and garlic powder and simmered until the rice was done, 20 minutes later.

The cans looked kind of neat to me, so Mathieu and I put a couple of holes in the can bottoms, added little rocks and soil, and then I transplanted some small artemesia plants into them. These will go to two friends who surprised me with Christmas gifts this year.

I went to the Goodwill Store a couple of days ago and found this vintage tablecloth which I hope to sell on eBay. I also got this book, which looks kind of light, but I thought it might inspire me to actually start on the quilts I have resolved to make this year. We'll see.

THE LION LIES DOWN WITH THE LAMB

2009-12-22T14:10:00.000-06:00

It is a pre-Christmas miracle! Patti-Jo is nervous and excitable, and so Buddie, who is strict and sober does not like her much. But here they are both sharing the dog igloo. They have done this at least two different times lately. And it's not because we are short on dog houses. We had two doghouses for Carl and Patti-Jo, but then Buddie started spending most of her time over here, and sometimes taking one of the doghouses overnight. So we bought a third dog house, identical to our first one. But all three dogs avoided it, if possible, in favor of either of the other two dog houses. So now, Patti-Jo and Buddie usually set aside their differences to bunk together.

SEE THE FACE IN THE SKY?

2009-12-16T15:35:00.000-06:00

Here's a funny photo. You'll have to enlarge it to see it properly. Just click on it. I should have cropped it, but failed to do so when I was first uploading this batch of photos from the camera to the computer a week or so ago, and now for some reason, I can't get it done.
I had noticed that Amy had the tree in the yard lit up, and the full moon was shining, so went out to get a shot. But when I clicked, clouds had covered the moon. I took a total of three shots but never did get the moon showing like I wanted to. It was cold, so I gave up rather quickly.

HAY FOR THE HORSES

2009-12-15T22:58:00.000-06:00

Chuck has been scrambling for hay lately for the horses. This was maybe a couple of weeks ago when he brought some square bales home. Since then, they've eaten all of this, and have started on a large round bale.

No, they didn't ride up there, they just posed that way on the way to the horse pasture. When I was a child, my cousins and I got to ride on the hay in the back of a pick-up in the pasture pretty regularly. I can remember helping feed the cows, as a child, by throwing pieces of the bales off as the pick-up moved through the cow pasture. It was great fun!

This is Starlight and Ed. "YUM-O!", they nickered.

CHRISTMAS TREES AND ANGELS

2009-12-14T21:19:00.000-06:00

Mathieu came over this afternoon and finished the angel he started the other day. Also on the fridge is the Christmas picture he made a couple of weeks ago. Cute all the way around!

CHUCK AND THE GIRLS

2009-12-13T22:34:00.000-06:00

This is what it looks like, more or less, when Chuck leaves for the post office every day. Chuck calmed them down from their barking and pogo jumping while waiting for me to take the photo. Patti-Jo and Coconut go absolutely wild! They love their post office trip and can tell time, so remind Chuck, loudly, when it gets close to 9:30. You can see why Patti-Jo doesn't get many outfits, like Coconut does. Besides muddying this one up within about 3 minutes of wearing it, she scratches a hole (or in this case, scratched a button off, leaving a ripped hole) almost immediately upon first wearing any outfit. Still they look soooo sweet, don't they?!

LITTLE BY LITTLE

2009-12-12T13:01:00.000-06:00

I am late with an angel paper doll swap I joined, but finally finished my angel last night. Yay, me! (Sort of...) Mathieu and Zach were here, so Mat worked on making an angel paper doll too. It is really cute. Hopefully, he will finish it today, and I can post a photo of it tomorrow.

The other photo is of two cell phone cases I made. I made one in late October or early November, and thought I had finished the second one, too. But when I took them out of the bag last night, I realized the other one still needed some stitching. Gosh, my eyes are not what they used to be. My stitching was awful last night; I could hardly see what I was doing. As much as I hate to, I am going to have to go back to the optomotrist soon. I am way past due.
I got some gifts wrapped last night, too. So I am making progress. Mathieu and I also helped me hung the second green garland around the kitchen windows.

WARM AND TOASTY

2009-12-10T13:31:00.000-06:00

It's really been so much colder than usual for this time of year. Or what I should say, I guess, is that it has gotten cold earlier than usual. It is predicted to be a colder, wetter winter this time. We keep blankets handy to cover up with on the love seat and in the recliner. Coconut got a new sweater the other day. Tres chic, no?
Meanwhile, I am happily wearing flannel pjs around the house...sometimes with a zip front sweatshirt over them and thick, crocheted socks on my feet. Very UN-chic, but sooo comfy and toasty. I bought Chuck a pair of flannel pj bottoms and he's enjoying wearing them, too. I've never mined washing dishes, but I almost enjoy it now, with the warm water heating my hands.

FROZEN PUMPKINS

2009-12-09T23:25:00.000-06:00

Patty-Jo and I took a look at the pumpkin vines that, sadly, did not make it through the snow and freeze the other day. I was really looking forward to my pumpkin harvest but, alas, it was apparently not meant to be.

Amazingly, I think I got all my Christmas gift shopping done today. I had lunch at Chisholm with Lydia and then went to Beeville with list in hand. Three or four hours later, I was back home with everything on the list! Of course, I think I will probably have to do a tiny bit of fine-tuning, but basically I am through!

BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP

2009-12-08T11:57:00.000-06:00

Here is a recipe I got from an online friend. (*waving to Pat in Florida!*) She got rave reviews with it, and I did too, the first time I made it this past Halloween for my grown kids and their families and my husband and I. I also made it again last night for 'dinner'. Yes, it is just my husband and I and we can eat what we want...so
'chips and dip for dinner' this time. ...I said CAN not SHOULD. LOL!

BUFFALO CHICKEN DIP

4 BONELESS, SKINLESS CHICKEN BREASTS (about 2 lbs...or you can use rotisserie
chicken)

1 - 12 OZ. BOTTLE FRANK'S HOT SAUCE (supposed to be the best, but you can use
any brand)

2 - 8 OZ. PKGS. CREAM CHEESE

1 - 16 OZ. BOTTLE BLEU CHEESE SALAD DRESSING (or Ranch dressing)

8 OZ. SHREDDED SHARP CHEDDAR CHEESE (OR MONTERREY JACK OR COMBO)

Boil chicken till done, then shred using 2 forks. Preheat oven to 350*. In a 13"
x 9" pan combine chicken and hot sauce and spread evenly. In large saucepan over
medium heat, combine the cream cheese and dressing, stirring until smooth and
hot. Pour evenly over chicken. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes, sprinkle with
cheese and bake uncovered for another 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before
serving.

We eat it with tortilla chips, but that's up to you. Crackers or crustinis would
be good too, I think. It is not 'hot' with the hot sauce - at least with Frank's
(the teeniest bit warm in places) or some 'brand x' that I used last night, that was even milder than Frank's.

Anyway, I thought some of you might enjoy making it for Christmas or New Year's
get-togethers.

DECEMBER!

2009-12-07T12:58:00.000-06:00

It's December already! I intended to try to post a photo every day for December, like I tried to do for October, but time got away from me. Here it is the 7th, and I am only making my first December entry. Oh, well...

It snowed, briefly, last Friday, I think it was! Actual flakes floating and drifting down from the sky! Of course, it melted almost immediately, but still, snow in South Texas is rare.

My sister, Jan, came to visit for a couple of days and we were kidding that I probably wouldn't get a single Christmas card to help in decorating the scrawny garland I hung over the living room windows, since I hadn't sent a card, myself, in 2-3 years. ;) HOWEVER, this photo is to prove her wrong! I did get a card the other day! (Thanks, Natalie!!!) It is hanging proudly - and lonesomely - in the center of the garland. Honestly, can this even be classified as a 'garland'? It is so skinny maybe it should be called a 'rope' or something. Anyway, sending and receiving Christmas cards is one of my favorite traditions, but for the past few years, I just have not had time to send the ones I have bought! Or I guess I should say 'made time' since I know I could get more done than I do, if I tried harder. ...Not that I do soooo much, but everything takes time....and space. Anyway, I am not sure if I will even try to send cards this year. Now with our money so tight, I am not sure about spending for postage. And there is so much going on with our Children's Religious Education department, that time is being crunched too. ...and, um... I also got a new video game and found a new online game that tends to crunch my time as well. But I do enjoy it all - Christmas traditions and intriguing, but time wasting, games.

"IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS"

2009-11-29T15:05:00.000-06:00

...next door, anyway. This is what Amy and Mat were working on this afternoon. Me? I've still got my last three pumpkins on the deck, the string of silk autumn leaves and veggie people on the cornice, and my Halloween tablecloth on the table.

Maybe for December, I should try to have a blog post and photo every day like I did in October. ...I didn't succeed in having one EVERY day, but I came fairly close.

ATC DOLLS

2009-11-19T15:05:00.000-06:00

These are two different styles of ATC dolls I made for a swap in an online group. The one on the left is a regular ATC with a cut out 'doll' added. The one on the right is jointed with an ATC as her middle, to which the arms, legs and head are connected. I talked about the vintage Japanese schoolboy ATC before, on this blog, when this Harajuku girl was still in the beginning stages. I like how she turned out, but the connecting joints gave me fits.

HORSE SURFING

2009-11-18T00:32:00.000-06:00

Zachary and Starlight, taken this afternoon.

ARTISTIC POKER CHIPS

2009-11-15T23:28:00.000-06:00

Aren't these totally cool? Thanks, Keith! You are so creative and thoughtful. We love them!

WORKS IN PROGRESS

2009-11-11T22:15:00.000-06:00

I've been working on some artist trading cards lately. These are some of them. The only ones finished so far are the one with the circa 1940's Japanese schoolboy picture and the one I'm calling Gee's Bend Wannabe. Mathieu did a small Gee's Bend inspired painting too, beside mine. The colors are not showing clearly. The Japanese schoolboy has metalic gold behind him, not silver as it looks in the photo. The rectangle with the lace and ribbon set beside it is destined to become the middle of a jointed Harajuku style paper doll. The two faces-in-progress are probably going to have a Thanksgiving theme.

WHAT I DID THIS AFTERNOON

2009-11-07T23:51:00.000-06:00

There was a dinner at the parish hall tonight after Mass in honor of the musical group who came to play and sing for the vigil Mass. So I finally got around to cooking the three largest pumpkins that Reagan gave us. I made two really large pans of sweet pumpkin and froze about 5 quarts of plain mashed pumpkin.

This is what one pan of sweet pumpkin looked like at the dinner. That's Bruno and Emma's famous rice next to it. Isn't it beautiful! I love rice with lots of fresh peppers, tomatoes, onions and cilantro. It looks like a work of art!

After the meal and the parish council meeting which followed that, I came home and finished getting some more of the pumpkin seeds out of the stringy pulp. Mathieu had started doing that earlier when I was cooking and peeling and mashing pumpkin. We didn't save all the seeds, but we got enough to make a nice roasted pumpkin seed snack tomorrow. The rest went to the chickens and just tossed out in the dirt where I am hoping some volunteer pumpkins will eventually come up.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2009-10-31T21:05:00.000-05:00

Okay, you KNEW I'd have to show another photo of Coconut in her new Halloween costume, right?

Halloween is over for another year. Sadly, I only had 3 (3!!!!) trick-or-treaters this year, down from 95 last year, and 137 the year before that. Can you believe it?! *sigh* Actually, it's not surprising since we moved from the middle of town, on a fairly busy street, to the back edge of town near the end of a dead-end road. Chuck went to the school to pick up Zach at what should have been the prime trick-or-treat time, and said that he saw NO kids out and only one street where some houses had their lights on. The kids from the family who always goes all out with a haunted house each year were on their porch waving to try to attract people to stop.

I only made two dishes this year - baked buffalo chicken dip and pretzel logs covered with caramel and purple sprinkles. Both were good, but the dip was REALLY good. It was just Chuck and I, Stewart, Reagan, Amy, Zachary, Mathieu and Seanna for 'dinner' tonight.

These were our first two trick-or-treaters - Mathieu (a pit crew member) and his cousin, Seanna (an angel). The third one came quite a while later - Maura S. who was a fairy. I wish I would have thought to get her photo too.
But we had a good time, overall, despite the low numbers.

DEFECTIVE COMPASS

2009-10-30T21:06:00.001-05:00

These two pirates showed up at my door tonight. The wench was disgusted with the wobbley pirate for his defective compass, but he insisted it worked fine...
but finally conceeded that there was no understanding the ways of the compass.
Well, they pulled themselves together and presented their most respectable visage...
and so I invited them inside.
Later, they had to say good-bye and set sail for town to bedevil the good citizens downtown. I hope that compass got them there safely.

MORE TREEHOUSE PHOTOS

2009-10-26T23:38:00.000-05:00

I got home Saturday, and Mathieu wanted me to come over and look at the treehouse progress. He is thrilled with it, and he's having a ball constructing features inside it. So I went and got these photos. It's a good thing I took them when I did, because we have had another deluge since then. There is water everywhere. I went to Corpus Christi this evening to pick Stewart up from the airport. When I got home, I had to hang my jeans and socks to dry before I could put them in the laundry hamper. Ick!

GETTING READY...

2009-10-25T14:27:00.000-05:00

slowly for Halloween. I've kind of lost my steam for the holiday this year. Just too much going on and too scattered with other things. Now it's less than a week until Halloween and no way do I want to drag all the scarecrow frames down from the attic at the other house and construct and dress them for just one week - and all the rain, as well... But I did manage to snap this photo of Barbara, Marlene, Violette Spice-Blythe and Falba the little witch girl the other day between rainfalls.

Currently, I am nursing a horrible sunburn I got from helping my friend, Annie, sell flowers by the highway yesterday. Ouch!

TREEHOUSE

2009-10-21T13:27:00.000-05:00

There's been a lot of hammering next door where Mathieu is getting a treehouse (without the tree) built onto the end of the swings. I should have waited to take a photo when it's finished, but I didn't. I'll get that photo and post it another day.

FASHION EXPERT STAMP OF APPROVAL

2009-10-20T23:21:00.000-05:00

I told Zach he looked nice when he came home from school a day or two ago. He said he was wearing his new favorite outfit, so I took a photo of him. "Even a cheerleader said I looked good!" he said.

THE WANDETTES RETURN

2009-10-19T23:53:00.000-05:00

SHREK: Presenting the long promised return of the Wandettes! This little episode begins in a land Far, Far Away....over at the mailbox.

COLONEL CARVER: Careful there, soldier.

MAJOR BANNEKER: Got it! I think Barbara will want to see this.

MAJOR BANNEKER: Barbara, Colonel Carver and I encountered something interesting on our reconnaissance mission earlier today. I think you will be glad we intercepted this packet.

BARBARA: Thank you, Major and Colonel. I'll open it.

BARBARA: Hmmm...what is it??? Let me get it out.
MARLENE: Could it be....? Is it.....?

MARLENE: NEW DRESSES!!!!!
BARBARA: It's about time! Now if Wanda could just be bothered to find and unpack our shoes and jewelry.

MARLENE and BARBARA: HAPPY FALL EVRYONE!
SHREK: And they lived happily ever after...for the rest of the day.
THE END

P.S. For anyone who is interested, I bought these two dresses on Etsy from "sewgrandmacathy". They are very well made; she has a large stock of cute doll clothes for Blythe, Barbie and American Girl; reasonably priced and I received them very quickly.

CHICKEN SNAKE? RAT SNAKE?

2009-10-16T15:26:00.000-05:00

That's what I thought this one was, but he doesn't match the pictures I googled to check for sure. Chuck found him in the yard this afteroon, and shuttled him safely across the driveway away from the house. He is about 2 feet long.

HAUNTED HOUSE

2009-10-14T23:26:00.000-05:00

The is the painting Mathieu did yesterday - "Haunted House".

WOMAN IN FALL DRESS AND SENSIBLE SHOES

2009-10-13T22:06:00.000-05:00

Never underestimate sensible shoes.

BLUE PEA VINE

2009-10-12T23:33:00.000-05:00

This blue pea vine has the most gorgeous deep blue flowers! It's planted over the arbor at the cabin. In fact, it's about taken over the arbor.

PLANTING A MINI-FOREST?

2009-10-11T23:14:00.000-05:00

We have had the deck and part of the carport piled with boxes delivered by FedEx and UPS over the past week. It was hard to walk anywhere without running into the piles. Stewart, in Baghdad, has been ordering lots of things delivered here - tools, hydroponic things, other unknown things, and the first 30 trees that he plans on planting when he comes home next time. They look like the cutest tiny Christmas trees to me. Chuck opened the boxes so I could take a photo of the trees and their condition to email to Stewart. Now we have to keep them alive and healthy in pots for a few more months. Wish us luck!

GOOD BUDDIES

2009-10-11T00:46:00.000-05:00

Trigger and Mathieu

HAUNTED HOUSE POSTCARD

2009-10-10T00:05:00.000-05:00

This is the postcard I received from the "Handmade Halloween Postcard With Verse" swap I joined on Swap-Bot. Thanks, Terry F. from Canada!!! :) On the back was a poem she found, although she couldn't identify the author:

ALL HALLOW'S EVE
I hide behind the sofa quivering in fear
Now the witching hour is near.
The curtains are drawn tight,
And I've turned off the lights,
The TV volume is way down low.
I sit and cower in its feeble glow.
Then comes the knock upon the door
And I curl up quivering on the floor,
My heart is pounding, my breath is shallow,
My mouth is dry, it's hard to swallow.
On All Hallow's Eve I live in mortal dread,
But not of monsters or the un-dead.
The fear that turns my heart to stone
Is Trick or Treaters knowing I'm home!

Well, that is not at all like me, but it really IS funny. :)

HORSE CEMETERY

2009-10-08T23:13:00.000-05:00

This is the spot in the pasture where Ruff is buried. These yellow wildflowers cover just this one spot. As soon as we walked out there, the horses saw us and all came running. That is Starlight's mane that you see in the foreground. She insisted on standing right in front of me no matter where I moved.

SHEERING GOATS

2009-10-07T14:26:00.000-05:00

This isn't exactly in keeping with my resolution to have a Halloween or Fall post each day for October, but I guess you could say it IS Fall. Reagan and Zach were getting all the goats sheered and groomed when I walked by yesterday, and it looked like snow flying when the breeze picked up.

Patti-Jo accompanied me, and visited with her goat cousins for awhile.

TIE DYED JACK-O-LANTERN SHIRT

2009-10-06T17:21:00.000-05:00

I missed getting cool pictures of putting the rubber bands onto the white t-shirt and then putting it in the dye bucket in the yard. That was really a fun part, and I'd love to do some more in different colors.
This is after it went through the washer and dryer.
Then Mathieu took out the rubber bands.
It looked pretty good just like this.
But then we used fabric paint and drew faces in the circles to make lots of jack-o-lanterns. He couldn't wait to wear it.

SCARECROW

2009-10-05T20:51:00.000-05:00

The county 4-H clubs each had a garden area on Washington Street in Beeville to decorate for Fall and Western Week this year. Reagan and Amy came up with the roping scarecrow idea for the Rockin' H Club to use in their space. So this afternoon all the clubs were out decorating the downtown area. I had them take a photo of Zach and Mathieu when they were done. Their club took second place in the competition.
I usually put up a scarecrow display in our yard for Halloween, but I think I am going to skip it this year. Where we lived before got lots of traffic, but out here there are few cars going by. Plus it is kind of a lot of work to put them together and take them down and then do their laundry after being rained on or having their hats blown off for a whole month. But... I don't know... I may relent and go get the old rusty bike from Andrew's house and at least put a scarecrow on that one...

MEOWRRR!

2009-10-04T21:28:00.000-05:00

Another day, another Fall/Halloween photo. ;) This is a postcard I painted a couple of weeks ago for a Swap-Bot swap.
Today was a lot like every Sunday - Mass, religious education classes, long afternoon nap. I really hate naps, but have been so tired lately, and Sundays tend to wear me out anyway. This morning, after doing the paperwork for the program, I had two restroom plumbing problems to take care of. Yikes! But, I got it all remedied....I think. I guess I'll find out next Sunday. ;)
Zach and Mat were here a lot today, but we didn't do anything artsy/crafty. Tomorrow, I'll heat-set the jack-o-lantern t-shirt Mat and I made and then he can wear it. Also, I plan on working on the dead tree attached to the mailbox. Mathieu secured it to the mailbox, and I wired crows to it, but still have little jack-o-lanterns and hopefully skeletons (if I can find them) to attach to it.
I finally made the deviled eggs Andrew had requested and sent 2 dozen over to him and Samantha. Tonight I made a chicken pot pie for dinner, which was good. Tomorrow I think I'll make chicken with broccoli sauce and noodles.

Farmer's Market & Fall Fiesta

2009-10-03T17:19:00.001-05:00

Mathieu was here before I got up this morning, so when my alarm went off early enough to get to the Farmer's Market right after it opened, he was more than happy to accompany me. Actually, we were in Beeville before it opened, so went to Walmart first, then Zimmer's, then Dollar General and then finally the Farmer's Market. We mostly got Fall and Halloween stuff. At Zimmer's they still didn't have malabar spinach, but said to check back next month, again. At the Farmer's Market this time, they had less booths, it seemed like, losing some of the craft vendors, but gaining a couple more veggie vendors. I 'posed' my veggies I bought, on the table outside. I think we'll have the spinach for dinner tonight.
On the way home I dropped off my cake - alas, store-bought cream cheese brownies - at the parish's annual Fall Fiesta, for the cake walk. Later Chuck took Mathieu up there, where he won two cakes in the cake walk and a float toy in the toy walk. He said he got to select which cakes he wanted when he won. Why he picked two nearly identical plain white cakes, I have no idea.

CREPE MYRTLE BLOOMS

2009-10-02T14:55:00.000-05:00

I almost waited too long to get photos of one of our crepe myrtle trees blooming. Unlike the others, it is a really dark purple, although after a number of sunny days and two rainstorms, the blooms had faded, and many of them had dropped, before I got the picture taken. I did catch Shrek up there though, hiding, waiting for yummy autumn faeries to fly by. Chomp!
Mathieu and I have started working on Halloween decorations and touches. I had told him that we wouldn't start on Halloween until it was October, so he was here and ready yesterday after school. At this rate, I should have a photo to put up every day for quite a while.

HURRAY FOR OCTOBER!!!!

2009-10-01T18:16:00.000-05:00

And doesn't Coconut look so cute in her new Halloween costume?!

AUTUMN!

2009-09-22T13:51:00.000-05:00

I love Autumn! It's my favorite time of year. There is a quickening in the air...something magical that you can feel... as if you were to turn the corner quick enough among the trees, bushes, grasses and seed pods, that you might just catch something amazingly unexpected, like this troop of autumn gnomes marching out from their den.

Mathieu and I made these last night. Today the weather turned decidedly autumnal. Coincidence? Or not? ;)

MAKING PRICKLEY PEAR PRESERVES

2009-08-29T22:34:00.000-05:00

Mathieu showed me his bucket full of dark fuschia prickley pear fruit today. He and Reagan were getting ready to make preserves from most of it.

Reagan peeled and cut up the fruit into a bowl.

Then they added other ingredients and cooked it on the stove...

and poured it into jars, before sealing them in boiling water.

All finished! But it has to wait 30 hours, I think they said, before they can taste it.

OUTGOING MAIL

2009-08-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

I don't know what is the matter with me. As if I haven't got too many hobbies and duties and self-imposed pastimes, I have taken up pen palling again. One of the postcards is for a Face theme postcard swap on Swap-Bot and the other is a "Get Better" postcard to a friend. The rest is pen pal mail. Mail will go out today for Annette, June, Marcia and Jennifer. It will probably be tomorrow until the letters to Pam and Leisha go out.

Nothing major has been going on lately, but there have been multiple happenings and errands and things to take care of every day - handling the sale of Stewart's old pick-up, the moving of the house on Stewart's property to the property of the person I sold it to, Cory refinishing the big desk in the carport, so it can be moved into the studio, etc.

Yesterday, I went to the library for the book discussion. The book for August was The Chicago Way, which I didn't like. Next month it will be Passage to India, which I think I will like much better. Right now I am starting to re-read Jane Austen's Pride and Predjudice to refresh my memory before I read Pride and Predjudice and Zombies. That should be interesting. :) I have several other books on my list too - The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay by Michael Chabon and The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman, and a couple of others that I can't recall right now. They are checked out from the library at the moment, though.

PAINTING, LETTERBOXING, GEOCACHING AND POETRY READING

2009-08-20T15:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday after our other activities, Mat and I spent some time in the studio disarray, painting. I'm in some Swap-Bot swaps and so started on painting the face postcard and altering the pill bottle for two of those swaps. Mat painted a picture beside me, and we were both pleased with the results of his work. He hasn't thought of a name for the painting yet, but he will.

Today we went geocaching and letterboxing nearby and really had a good time with that, despite the fact that after we got there and got started, realized that he had picked up a dry ink pad instead of a working one. We came all the way back home and got a new one, then continued on our way.

I forgot to get a photo of Zachary a couple of days ago when we went to the first open poetry reading at the Barnhart Library in Beeville. It was advertised in the newspaper as open to anyone who wanted to read their own poetry or a poem by someone else or just listen to others read. Zach writes poetry regularly, so I asked him if he would like to go. He went with his notebook, planning to just read two, but the others there read a number of their poems and were so encouraging and upbeat that he ended up reading all of the ones in his notebook, then recited one of his that he had memorized and then recited John Erickson's Red Roan from memory. Garrett had planned on going too, and reading a couple of his poems, but he got home from work late, so didn't go. I had asked Andrew, too, but he said no, that he just screams his 'poems', and in fact had band practice that night anyway. He has a metal fusion band.

Back to the poetry reading, there was a really good turnout there, and there will be another open poetry reading next month and the month after that, too. So I hope more poets start coming. The ones who did read were very entertaining, and we had a great time. And speaking of the library, I am looking forward to going to the book discussion, which is always the last week of the month. I missed the first one, where they read and discussed The Time Traveler's Wife, but am ready to go to the discussion of The Chicago Way by Michael Harvey next Thursday. I didnt like the book at all, but am looking forward to the discussion. The book for September is going to be Passage to India by E.M. Forster, I heard.

I've been reading more lately. I read Julie and Julia by Julie Powell, which I didn't like at all, although I do think the movie will be really good. I also just finished Second Nature by Alice Hoffman. It was so-so. I don't know why I am so difficult to please with books lately.

MEMORIAL SERVICE

2009-08-19T22:33:00.000-05:00

This morning Mathieu held a memorial service for "Drink" his newest goldfish, who died two days ago. This first photo is of Mat with the faux gravesite he set up in a six-pack seedling container in one of the empty raised planting beds in front of the studio.

He and I picked flowers from the yard for the memorial, and yesterday he painted a tombstone type of rock with sharpies.

When it was time, he called the other 'mourners' and we gathered to hear him give Drink's eulogy. "He was a good fish. When we bought him, there were a lot of dead fish in his tank. I liked to pet him every day."

Later in the afternoon, he moved the memorial container, rearranged the wilted flowers and added some of Goldilocks and Midnight's feathers, which are very plentiful now that they are molting.

Would it be wrong to say that he REALLY enjoyed this memorial service a whole, whole lot?