Monday, May 30, 2016


Its been petty mellow weather wise, here is SW Washington. Had on and off rain last week, beautiful today for Memorial day, 80 and sunny.
Here are a few of my flowers this year, clematis.
 Violas, I have a thing for purple flowers!
 Lavender Columbine.

My Peonies, they always put on a big show, but dont last long. Have to preserve them in photos. They are gone now.


 Cute little Calibrochia with geraniums.
These two are so funny, Max and Dublin. They were holding down Dad while watching me eat breakfast.
 And we have these. Kittens. sigh.  We have a feral cat we have been trying to tame a little. I hoped for a long time it was a tomcat. Obviously not. This is the second litter we know of.
 This would be Mama, I named her Spook, because she always scares the heck out of me, and now Hubby too!
 There are three of the little fuzzballs, wild as March hares too. Meghan caught one in a net tonight and when it squalled Mama came to its defense and she dropped it. What are we to do with them....Mama is getting way smarter, I wonder if these ones will live. I dont think the last two did. There are two grey tabbys and one black. Looks like they are in school.
Thats whats up around here! Rode my Emma today, she was a good girl. I had to mow the pen and trim her feet before I could ride.
I was off for four days, back to work tomorrow.

Friday, May 20, 2016

Mud Pinto, rhubarb jelly debacle....

Had three days off of work, in a row! Caught up on some things and finally got to make my rhubarb jelly. Yes rhubarb jelly! Wonderful tangy sweet jelly. So pretty in the jars! Alas I had to cook it twice, it didnt set up the first time, although it did when I did the freezer plate test! hmm So I ended up with one less jar. (well a quarter of a half pint that I stuck in the fridge to eat right away.
Anyway, I will have some on my toast in the morning! It is sooooo gooood!!! It took 4lbs of rhubarb! the whole plant, except for a few small ones that I left. Strawberry rhubarb, with the red stems. The bush/bulb/root? we have is pretty old, Hubbys parents planted it long before we got married (26 years next month) so it could be anywhere from 30-40+ years old! Hubbys parents built this house in 1966, and my Hubby was born in January '67. so he has pretty much been in this house all his life. If I want to do more, I will have to buy some.

On another note, I think Emma is trying to be a Pinto. She has been laying/rolling in the mud! It dries out here for a few days then it rains again. At least they are not in mud anymore.
 Easy (31) on the left and muddy Pinto Emma on the right. I did brush all the mud off of her tonight and put MTG on her tail head, as I noticed she had been rubbing a little. I re-fly sprayed her too. Those pesky black flies are making them miserable.
Easy and Mickey (26), a few minutes after the first pic, they are loving having some grass again, and Emma and Mickey are getting fat! Easy grazes a little, but she has little teeth left so her main diet is her Senior and beet pulp. Emma turned 16 this year! Wow time flies!!!

We have had visitors to our bird feeders! New ones we havnt noticed before, and some that have been around.  First our normal Finchs, House and Rose Finches galore around here! LOL
 These are our newcomers! Evening Grosbeaks, we had two pairs today! They are common around here, but we havnt seen them here before.
 Both pairs, one on the squirrel feeder, with a female Goldfinch on the left and another finch in the back.
 This is a Eurasion Collard Dove, we have a pair of these nesting somewhere close.
We also have a pair of these Downey Woodpeckers too! They are so little!
Its fun to see what different birds come threw the valley and stop at our feeders.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming....

Wow I can not believe it is May already!!

Plugging away at work, I have tried unsuccessfully to try to get back into the feed industry. Didnt happen, as in I didnt get hired, they took someone else. I even looked at another retail job and they pay dismally. So I stay where I am.

I have ridden my girl once so far! which is much better than last year! She is fat and sassy. I have gotten most of the garden planted, the weather has been so weird! 15 of 17 dahlias came back up! I bought two more at a plant fair.

Went to the Camas Plant Fair last Saturday with my Mom and my youngest daughter, had a lot of fun. Boy was there a lot of people! Only bought one thing, a new type of tomato cage that mounts on a t-post, and the rings are movable.

Worked 40 hours for the first time in years! It was a long week! LOL But thankful  I am able to work.

Did a Spring Bazaar for the first time, it was a really slow one but I did ok.

Here is some of my stuff I painted....

 Puppy treat jars
 Did quite a few chicken signs
 This tavern sign came out cool
 The whole table (set up in the garage, thus the lace cloth to hide the clutter lol)
 Watercolor painting and chicken rattles
 This was one of my favorites, the one on the top, it sold.  I have an order for another one of the blue green "favorite" and for a smaller of the Munchies cookie jar for my daughter (her pup is so small he would fit inside that one!
 Did a few horsie things
 Funny about the milk stool, I think I had that horse poster on my wall when I was a kid('70's), wanted to leave it on there, so painted the designs on either side.
 Lots of chicken stuff
 Acrylic paintings on the left, on canvas.

This one turned out cute!
 Painted a bunch of refrigerator magnets

 Another milk stool, pretty clematis flower



This is what I do in my spare time! LOL The black and white chicken in the middle sold.


So in the words of the immortal Dori, I am still swimming in this bubble bath!! Hope all is good with you all!!