Under Construction

Ups and downs

What a weird day.

It started with Mr. H rolling over and asking "Did you put the chickens away last night?" and my replying, "oh crap" and then rolling over into Biscuit who was in our bed, in underwear (not a diaper) after a 5 am accident (in her own bed, fortunately) and going back to sleep. Fortunately Biscuit did not pee in our bed. Unfortunately I went outside and counted 6 chickens and my favorite, Apollo, was not among them. She wasn't in the yard and tufts of gray feathers scattered on the lawn seemed to be evidence of foul (fowl?) play.

(Apollo's baby portrait)

So, for lack of a better plan I went in and reheated yesterday's undrunk coffee and poured in extra cream. Which turned out to be lumpy. I gave up, put the coffee in the sink and left for work.

Then things looked up. Short line at Starbucks and Apollo miraculously returned (after Mr. H had explained her death to Biscuit who will clearly never understand death. Sidebar: her friends seem to be talking about death an awful lot at school and she frequently makes up stories featuring people dying. But then they come back to life. Just like Apollo. I try to just let the stories go--she doesn't get it yet--fortunately. I don't think Apollo's resurrection is going to clarify anything).

 

(more recent portrait of Apollo)

Then Mr. H and Biscuit came to my work to have lunch with me and I found out he drank the coffee I had set in the sink. Oops.

Meanwhile, in Southern California, my best friend had a baby girl! Much more interesting/exciting/important than chicken/coffee drama. I was obsessively checking email/her blog/Twitter etc looking for updates completely spacing on the fact that she's a Facebook gal. And she had called my cell phone hours before I got the message. Duh!

But all that obsessive internet checking for baby news led me to be very caught up on the crazy news of the day via Twitter. Farrah! That scumbag governor guy! Michael Jackson! Since I was so up on the news I was able to tell two folks about MJ's death. The first and last time I was the first to know anything remotely newsworthy.

We wrapped up today with swim lessons, a quick visit to the annual neighborhood ice cream social, dinner made by Mr. H who is, unfortunately, sick, and Biscuit refusing to go to sleep until 10 p.m. These late bedtimes are going to be the death of me. Or at least the death of my productivity.

The end.

Hot Rod Lincoln's maiden voyage

Long time readers may recall what I 'got' for Mother's Day 2008--a boat.(ETA: I should clarify that the boat wasn't actually my Mother's Day gift--Mr. H is much better than that--he just happened to buy the boat Mother's Day weekend so I tease him. Anyway). Actually, a very specific boat, a 1960-something Beisemeyer (sp?) v-drive that Mr. H had been looking for since he was about 16. Now, more than a year (and many, many dollars) later the boat has new fiberglass, new paint, new dials, new seats, new gas tanks and a new name. I know, it looks VERY similar but trust me. It's VERY different now. For one thing, it used to be named Flat Broke.

Meet Hot Rod Lincoln:

Would you like another view?
 

For the record, it's hard to get good photos from another (moving) boat. Plus it was a super windy and rough day. But here's another shot:

How about a video so you can hear that (crazy loud) v-drive plus the commentary of everyone on the other boat?

Joy

As anyone who follows me on Twitter already knows, we took the kid to Disneyland last week. It was, in a word, awesome. Not too crowded, warm not hot, kid was basically happy all day (even sans stroller and nap), she rode all the rides WE like, and for her extra special treat she was ecstatic about a 54 cent lollipop. I took pictures with film (yes, those cameras still exist) so I just got it back from being developed and still have a half roll in the camera. I forgot how much fun it is to wait for film to be developed and then to go through an envelope full of images hoping for a few winners. I was really happy with these.

The first "roller coaster" we rode when we got to Anaheim on Tuesday afternoon--the parking tram--she loved it! It tided her over until we got to actually go into Disneyland on Wednesday. Not sure what Mr. H is doing here.

The teacups (probably her favorite ride)

Being VERY brave on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this photo I took by outstretching my arm on a moving roller coaster.

Sharing her special "notes" with the princesses. I may not like the Disney Princesses but I can't deny how sweet they were to her and how excited she was to meet them even after 1.5 hours of waiting. She walked right up, handed each one a note and would have walked off except they invited her to sit for a photo.

How do these girls maintain such freakishly perfect smiles all day long?

And there aren't any photos but this kid also rode SPACE MOUNTAIN! And DIDN'T hate it (too much). It was such a fun day.

Sunday around the house

 

Started the day making a half rhubarb half cherry clafouti. Fortunately I am the only one in the house who likes custardish desserts so it was all mine. I just polished it off 36 hours later. What? It was mostly eggs and milk. Healthy stuff!

Meanwhile, outside, Biscuit was making mud soup. I forgot how enjoyable it seems to play in some good, sticky mud. The hose kept her entertained so I could work (at work, work, blech) and Mr. H could work on the coop.

See that little ramp and the (closed) door on the left? That's the connection between the fully enclosed coop and nest boxes and perches (on the left) and the chicken wire enclosed outdoor, food area on the right. What to hear something funny? Mr. H installed a self closing door mechanism on the gate into the run area (because he's all McGyver like that) and, yes, I just locked myself into the run this evening. Mr. H was asleep so I had to slide through this little chicken door and into the coop where I could exit through the (fortunately unlocked) door. Just tonight I was explaining how easy it would be (for an idiot) to lock themselves into the run and wouldn't it be funny to lock your spouse or kid in there? HA HA! Time for a piece of string on the gate latch.

So, after admitting my stupidity, let's close with a shot of Mr. H with Amy, his very favorite chicken. For a guy who really, REALLY didn't want chickens (he got a BOAT in trade through our negotiations) he has really taken to these birds.

Hope you had a great weekend and a Monday that didn't involve locking yourself into your own chicken run.

Chicken update

They're getting so big! And so hard to catch! They get to play outside most days and usually hang out under the lemon tree. They're in their box if we can't be here to supervise.

And, clearly, they're outgrowing their box. Yes, that's poop on the floor. Lovely.
 
Luckily the coop should be done tomorrow and they can move in.

Have I formally introduced these ladies? They were finally all named thanks to our 8 year old, super responsible chicken sitter next door.

From left to right: Apollo (black and white speckles, total nut case, hardest BY FAR to catch every night); Amy (black with white head. This isn't the original Amy, they switched names. She is the easiest, sweetest and and also the boss of the chickens); Petey (mostly orange with a fluffy head, personality tbd); April (brown, hard to see in this photo, super fast but not a wily as Apollo); Sunshine (light yellow, seems to have something wrong with her, she's very, very slow and I'm a bit worried); Lemony and Snicket (indistinguishable gold hens, both typically called Lemony, very fat and soft with crazy feathered feet).

I think I'm finally going to get back into sewing tomorrow. Between business trips, internet outages, lack of inspiration etc I've not got much to show. Yet!

Chickens (this time with video)

Ever wondered what three week old chicks look like when they are just learning to fly? Here's 55 seconds worth in which you also get to see what a weedy, trashy, already overgrown mess my garden is this year. Despite the mess it has produced several tasty green beans and I am hopeful for tomatoes despite the fact that disease seems be be overtaking several tomato plants. Bummer about the tomato plants but at least the chickens seem to be doing well.

Try not to get motion sick from my terrible video skills.

What did the mommy tomato say to the slow, little tomato?

Ketchup!
Wasn't (some version of) that joke in a movie? Pulp Fiction?

Anyway, a catch up post. Working backward:

Biscuit has learned to play on the monkey bars. So cute! We stopped by the park on our way home from voting this evening.

The chickens are getting even bigger. Sadly, one died (did I mention that here?) so we're down to seven but all of them seem healthy. Three or four are still nameless--still taking suggestions. I call the one on the far right (in the photo below) Nutjob. It may be true but that seems a bad name for a hen.

Awww, nameless chickie

Also, thanks to my industrious husband the tallest, skinniest chicken coop in the world gained three additional walls and some roof trusses last weekend. These kiddos might just have a place to live when they outgrow their cardboard box.

I don't think I ever recapped my most recent craft shows, IndieSacramento and IndieDavis.

At IndieSac it rained non-stop the entire show but the traffic was amazing and I sold $103 worth of stuff which included one of my dad's $10 prints. Plus I spent $10 on coffee and a hat for a gift plus $17 on the booth so I came home with about $70. Certainly not worth it timewise but I'll take $70! At IndieDavis the weather was great but the traffic was non existent. Luckily the booth was free. I had two whopping sales all day but each was $30 so I didn't feel too bad walking home with $60 in my pocket. I don't have any additional shows lined up at the moment which is good because I don't appear to have any additional motivation either.

Several weeks ago we went camping. Biscuit loved it so we're looking forward to going again for Memorial Day! From our last trip:

S'mores for breakfast

Tricycle ride to (and from) the Indian grinding rocks and ceremonial roundhouse (we got to go inside the roundhouse--a special treat!) That's the roundhouse in the background--it looks really weird from the outside.

Despite forgetting dish soap, functioning matches, a blanket and several other possibly useful items the trip was just dandy.

Whew, I think that brings us up to speed. I'll appreciate this post when I try to catch up on several years of belated scrapbooking!

Tortillas and a thing to roll them with

It pays to have a talented husband.

On Saturday I was contemplating if I would make Mother's Day pie for my mother using the old, wood rolling pin most recently used to roll clay or the bottle of wine that had been substituting for a rolling pin during my foray into clay projects. I mentioned to Mr. H the existence of "french" rolling pins without handles and "gee, that might be easy to make on the very nice lathe you now own" and, voila, I return from my craft show six hours later to a gift wrapped rolling pin made from olive wood.

Was that the longest sentence in the history of the world?

It truly is a very lovely rolling pin. And it works great.

The fresh tortillas were also great. These were half whole wheat flour and just as tasty as all white flour. Yay for rolling pins!

Happy Chicken Day!

We interrupt this blog silence for some exciting news... CHICKS!

Ironically, I notice in this photo that they are huddled on top of an ad for whole chicken (only 89 cents a pound).

Our intention was to get six chicks but our friends who ordered didn't count quite right and now we have eight. Apparently our neighborhood has a raccoon problem so extras might be good (so sad).

That brown chicken in the back left with the pouf on her head and the orange around her eyes has been dubbed "Amy" and one of the two dark yellow ones is "Lemony". I'm aiming to call the other dark yellow one "Snicket". Any suggestions for other names? Col. Sanders (as suggested by Mr. H) seems a bit tasteless.

Finally, funniest chick related quote so far:
Me: When the chicks grow up they're going to make eggs for us.
Biscuit (confused): How can they make eggs? Do they have an oven to cook them?

No, the coop won't include an oven but it will be deluxe. Now we just need to finish it in the next few weeks before these ladies move out of doors. Happy Chicken Day to you and  yours.

Raw materials

My friend led me to a treasure trove of sticks (her in-laws' wood pile) and I was able to bribe Mr. H to do some more laser engraving so I finally have some new pendants to share. All are about 1 1/4 inches in diameter and there are four different tree images on them. I'll have them for sale this Saturday at Indie Davis from 1-5 p.m. at Nina and Tom's in Davis.

I hope to see you there. In addition to wood stuff I'll have my dad's photography again so stop by!