August 2021

 Now that it's September, here is a look back at our August.

We took a "vacation" to Ocean City, MD.  It was rife with a lot of complications and was not long enough to warrant the drive, but Olivia got to swim in the ocean and I enjoyed the beach sunsets when there were a not million people in the way!

We made a new friend for Olivia's Holly Noel doll (both dolls from patterns by Wee Wonderfuls).  The new friend is named Jane August, and her birthday is August 8.  Olivia loves her and Holly Noel is glad for a friend.

We made ourselves some Sparrow Post mailboxes, Tasha Tudor style.  I made a catalog of clothing for Holly and Jane and Olivia orders clothes and pays in buttons which she earns by doing chores around the house, as Tasha did with her children when they were small.  It is grand fun! 

We had an adventure with red squirrel infants that fell out of a tree.  We patiently waited for mom to come back and get them, and when she did not, we rounded them up with a butterfly net and cleaned and warmed them overnight and took them to certified wildlife rehabber the next day. They were infinitely cute.

We made art.

On August 28, we celebrated Tasha Tudor's birthday with artwork, reading, and tea.  It was a lovely day!  We wore dresses all day, even me.

It was a busy month but we clearly managed to squeeze some enjoyment out of it!

It's been awhile!

My life has gotten so busy and not much fun lately.  And I have purchased zero new dolls in two years!  Yikes!  And hardly any craft time.  But hopefully it'll get better soon.  Here are some photos from recently just for fun.

Kitten from work, soon up for adoption.  

Sunrise on a September Monday morning.

My goats, lounging.

A fairy house that Olivia made in our back woods.

Cute!

Olivia is almost a year old now and is walking well! She's a joy!  And she keeps me very busy.  We think she's pretty cute.



Anza says, "HEY!  I'm cute, too!!"



Anza is very gentle with Olivia, who is learning how to be gentle to the goats, too.  She thinks they're just HILARIOUS!  Especially when they caper around and butt heads!  It makes her laugh out loud!

The spring is warming up, my kitchen is almost done and I'm hoping to have some sewing time this weekend!

Endless Winter and Spring Changes

I've been a busy bee lately, chasing around 10 1/2 month old Olivia who thinks she can walk better than she can!  I also have a major construction project going on at work (the vet clinic) where we are expanding to 5 exam rooms from 2.  And my kitchen at home is also under construction.  No rest for the weary lately, but the kitchen is coming along nicely.  The old kitchen was very 1980s with floral wallpaper and blue-grey carpet on the floor.  We managed for 8 1/2 years with the carpeted kitchen but carpet simply does not work with a food-throwing soon-to-be-toddler in the house!  So the carpet is gone and a new vinyl plank flooring is down.  The new cabinets are in at the store and will be installed next week.  Here's the floor so far, and I'll post before-and-after photos once the whole kitchen is done.  I'm very excited to have a better kitchen.

In other news, the winter just will NOT quit around here.  There is still snow on the ground and it's cold and windy and today we're supposed to get more snow.  Spring cleanup is still impossible!  The squirrels are enjoying my feeders because there is very little else to eat yet.  I saw a robin today, though, so hopefully spring will come someday!

New Chicken Run in Progress

New Chicken Run in Progress, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

Not a very exciting photo, but this is an exciting project! We have been having a new run built for the chickens. My fantastic construction guy is building this to match the duck run with the change that the chicken run will have a solid cement floor to prevent any burrowing animals from getting in (like sneaky minks and weasels). I will finally be able to have some comfort that nothing will eat the girls if they are in here while I am out. As the construction guy said, if something gets into this run when he's done there was no way anyone could have stopped it! It is being lined with hardware cloth (1/2"). I will put sand down in there to keep the girls' feet comfortable and give them something to dust in (I will likely put an actual deeper sand box at one end) and roosts will be added in the corners for them to sit up on. It should be done by next Wednesday or Thursday. I'm so glad to be able to have this done!  The chicken girls turned four a few weeks ago.  They are laying really well for being older ladies. They make an average of 6-7 eggs per day from the 10 girls.

A closeup of the cement floor:



Spring appears to have finally arrived around here, after a lot of cold weather!  I will have a new spring arrival in about a month; more about that later!  Spring is the best time of the year!

Primroses:



Daffodils:











Hyacinth:

Sunrise in January

Sunrise in January, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

This photo does not fully capture the sky's color. This was this past Thursday, Jan. 24th at about 7 AM. It was 0 degrees but I still grabbed the camera!

Bad Bandito!

Bad Bandito!, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

So this is what has been happening to my bird feeders every night! Now I know! He or she came by at 7 PM tonight while it was still light so I could get a good look at the culprit!  Also, note the clothesline in the back and how it's DOWN.  I just put it back up and it was down again the next day.  Naughty beast.

A little hike today

Beaver Pond in Upstate NY, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

The beaver used to live about 1/2 mile downstream from us. Last summer, they moved upstream and started to clear out the brush behind our house. They now have a large, shallow open pond and they have built a lodge in it that is about as tall as one story of my house!  The pond attracts a large number of Canada geese, Mallard ducks, Wood ducks and various other wildlife.

 
 I took a closer photo so you could admire their handiwork.  They chewed down this tree and ate the bark.

 
 A closer view of the end of the log.  See how much they chew?



The beaver have been around here for a long time.  This is the decades-old remains of a tree they felled last time they were up at this end of the stream.

When we moved here seven years ago, there were no beaver in the stream at this end at all.  They were all upstream.  They moved down a few years ago and now even closer.  I enjoy having them around, although I must admit it takes some time to get used to hearing the CRASH and SPLASH of trees falling in the night!

January Snowfall

January 14 snowfall, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

After one of the warmest winters I can ever remember, it suddenly decided to be cold and snow. We live east of the Great Lakes and the arctic air mass over the warm lakes caused a LOT of snow to fall. We got about 12 inches in one day (which is not as much as last year by FAR). It is certainly pretty! The snow started as rain first, then freezing rain, then slush and then regular dry snow. The freezing rain, slush and wet snow froze onto the branches and the whole yard looks like a winter fairyland. This was the view out the kitchen window yesterday morning before work (around 7:30 AM). Today, it's cold (-7 F) and the birds are flocking to the feeders! This next picture is a little blurry. It was still darkish outside and the camera shutter speed was slow.

Our Thanksgiving and Some New Thrift Shop Finds

Vegan Thanksgiving, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

People ask me frequently what vegetarians/vegans eat for Thanksgiving. I made this feast for us. We had pot pie with pumpkin biscuit crust, mashed sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls and roasted green beans. Dessert was apple pie and it was the best! Yummy!


We went thrifting yesterday and I found this gorgeous candy-colored afghan. It's now my craft room afghan!

We also decorated for Christmas. I found this heart garland at the thrift store and it looks great up there with my mistletoe!

First Snowfall

Snow on Mums, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

It's our first snowfall of the year today. We are not expected to get much, but it really drives home that winter will be here very soon! I still have to run an extension cord to the chicken coop for their heated waterer and to the goat house for the same reason. And the duck run roof needs a little reinforcement before heavy snows come. The chickens are spending the day inside their coop on the shelf by the window, looking mournfully outside at the bad weather. I have given them a cabbage suspended from a chain to give them something to keep them busy.  The wild birds are eating much more seed than they have been the last few weeks.  They were very eager for me to fill the hopper this morning and a titmouse took a seed right from my scoop.  The chickadees routinely do that, but this is the first time a titmouse has done that.

Peak Color

Fall Leaves in Upstate NY, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

The view out back is gorgeous! It's all yellows, reds and oranges.

I got Venetian Carnival Olivia by Helen Kish from MDCC's website. She's gorgeous! I made her a new outfit and had some fun drafting patterns to fit the vision I had in my head of what I wanted to make. The first version came out too large and so it is on an Effner Little Darling at the moment. After I get the snaps and slip done for that version, I'll share that, too.

Peony in June

Peony in June, a photo by elizabeth's*whimsies on Flickr.

These peonies are part of what I love about June! They smell so nice.

Thrifted Goodness and a Sad Quilt

I went to the thrift store today while Aaron was at physical therapy and I came home with some great things.  Our thrift store is very iffy--sometimes I get great stuff and other times it's a wasteland.  I found this fabulous teacup on my second pass down the dishes area, and the crocheted doilies were hanging clipped together near some place mats.  The doilies are very finely done.  Can you imagine the time someone put into them?

 

I found this quilt, too.  It made me so sad that someone took this beautiful quilt that this lady lovingly made for a family member and donated it to the thrift store.  I wonder why?  So many hours and such beautiful colors...it was made in 2007 and was signed by the original quilter.  It will have a good home with me.  I'll appreciate every stitch.

Today

It's January and it's snowing, again.  These icicles were hanging from everything today, and I admired them on my way to the coop to check on the girls.  Even when hanging off the dusty edge of the chicken coop, they were pretty.  One admires what one can in January, when there are no flowers to be seen and no blue sky for weeks.

I even admired my snowy work boots.  They are so useful in the snow and in the coop, both.  And they're warm.

I visited the ducks in their pen, sitting comfortably in the straw and hay on the run floor.  I re-purposed the used straw and hay from the chicken coop, cleaned out yesterday, to put on the run floors for the ducks and chickens to scratch and play in.  I don't let the coops get so dirty that the straw is too dirty to play in.  It seems to be appreciated.  I never cease to wonder that the ducks do not mind the cold.  Even when it was -6 the other morning, they all tumbled out of the duck house and made their merry way to their water bucket to swim.  Little Duck (Daisy) is not in this picture because she was too busy trying to eat my camera cord instead of posing nicely.

This is what passed for afternoon amusement in the chicken coop today.  That's a cabbage there, hanging from a chain.  I've found the best way to hang it up is to use a nail to stick into the cabbage, which I wrap a bit of wire around and then hook the wire to their chain which is hanging from a hook on the ceiling.  The chickens really enjoy having a cabbage.  They swarmed around when I hung it up.  Their feathers are looking much better after putting on the pinless peepers, as seen on a few of them here.  The only ones that still look awful are Matilda, in the front, and Rhoda, just in front of Matilda.  They look terrible, not because anyone is picking them, but because they are molting!  I'm not sure what possessed them to molt in the middle of January, but they are staying warm inside the coop.

 

And this is what waited for me inside after checking on the ladies.  I had a nice cup of tea and read the last of my issue of Mary Jane's Farm, which I picked up at the farm store with the chicken feed the other day.  I wish I had room for goats and a nice small barn.  Now, back to my tea and relaxation.  Enjoy your weekend, all.

Craft Room Repaint!

My little brother very kindly repainted my craft room for me.  I love the new look!  I have to make some new curtains, but otherwise, it's re-assembled and ready for enjoyment.  It was the nursery of the previous occupants.  Behold, the previously awful paint.

And now!  (The color is Blue Flower by Benjamin Moore and it's a no VOC paint--Natura)

I still have to hang a shelf and put the clock back on the wall, but otherwise it's finished!

I love....

I love living by a wetland.  Walking the dog this morning was a relaxing experience, as I watched the mallard ducks stick their heads straight down in the water on the pond so that all you see are funny little rears sticking up into the air and waggling duck feet.  I love the cacophony of honks that geese make when they're flying north, the way light comes through white pine needles and cones against a gray sky, and the bright trills of red-wing blackbirds, having returned recently from places south.  Even though it's gray outside, it's still an early-spring treasure of a day.

I have been working intermittently on April Cottage.  The floor is done in the kitchen.  I first started with 1" square tiles cut from the flat parts of egg cartons.  I glued them down with tacky glue.

Here they are all in place.

 Then I sealed the whole thing with three coats of matte Mod Podge.  Do not attempt to grout a floor without sealing it first!  I nearly forgot to seal it and it didn't go well.  Then I sealed it and it worked great!

Next, I used spackling compound, which  I tinted light gray, to grout the floor.  I applied it with my fingers and wiped off the excess with a damp paper towel and buffed it with a dry one.  The room is now ready for the baseboards and wainscot.