Baby turkeys

A few weeks ago, a turkey hen brought her wee brood too close to the house. Dogs scattered them and momma lost them. I heard the babies and slowly caught them one by one. I kept waiting for the mom to come back for them, but the hen that showed up didn't seem interested.

Aren't they precious? The next afternoon I called the vet and he gave me the name of a couple that raised birds. I called and they were thrilled to have them. Turns out, they had been thinking of trying to find a nest of them. They had them before and had only one hen left. So babies went to people who knew how to raise birds. There place was fantastic! There were the show chickens of all kinds, ducks, the fatest geese I have ever seen, and pigmy goats. I left the babies in very good hands. I need to go out and check on their progress soon.

There is always something going on out here.

Why is he here?

See that guy? He is a Ruby-throat hummingbird. First, this is not his territory. We have black-chin hummers here. Second, this isn't migratory time. That comes in at least another month. So why is he here running off the locals? Pushy little bird!

I am back to updating my space here. It's been a wild ride the past couple of years but I will try to keep up with things now, so lots of updating to do. Tomorrow.....turkey babies.

What it looks like now

I am trying to load my room now. I have a ton of stuff in there now and need to start organizing. But I stand in there totally confused as to what I should do first. I keep having to walk away to clear my head. So, now for the tour and you can see the reason for my confusion.

You walk in the door and turn to the left, as before. I managed to get the wardrobe in there, but the pie safe is coming apart and we have to put it back together before I can do anything with it. In the corner is part of my fabric and sewing stash. A minor part.
Now turn right. This is the west wall where the machines will be set up, except for the back wall which will be storage cabinet. The corner is stacked with yarn. There is a large table hiding behind the cart. It will be my cutting table that sets in the middle of the room.
Turning right again....the north part of the machine wall and the north wall. You can see my fabulous air conditioner set in the wall. I love my A/C. Behind the rocking chair is the cedar trunk I made in Jr. High. It will be the pet seat.
This is back toward the door. The door looks black, but is a deep eggplant. I was going to paint the room some light color of lavender, but fell in love with the pale creamy yellow, so had to have purple somewhere. The corner with the white bookcase is my yarn corner. I hope to have it set up with yarn, books and magazines, and the rocking chair to knit or crochet in. You can see the ironing board cabinet opened up
See....told you that was the pet seat. Missy has already moved in. She loves the peace and quiet in there right now, sleeping in the sunshine.
Well, that's the room as it stands right now. I have tons of work to do. One thing is the trim you see around the windows. It has flower embossing that you can see partially painted in the cat picture. I found my paints, so need to finish painting the flowers. Then I will put on a coating of white wood stain. I need to get out a piece of leftover trim and decide if I want to sand it a bit before putting on the stain, or not.
I still have a storage room full of tubs of fabric and still furniture and bookcases with fabric to put in.

The Room is Finished

First, you walk in the door...to the left and turn east, or left. The walls are a color called Contentment. It is the color of sunshine against the wall. The east wall will house my antique cabinets, the wardrobe and pie safe that were my great grandparent's. The short wall is on the south. It will eventually have a huge storage cabinet built in from wall to wall...floor to ceiling.
Now you turn to the right. That is the storage cabinet wall to the left. This is the west wall. It has an outlet strip almost completely across it. It will house all my sewing machines and sergers. These pictures were taken before we got the windows trimmed out. How about that floor!
Now turning right again, this is the north wall and the northwest part of the west wall. The window on the north wall will be set up for the cats and dog to watch out the window.
Now we turn right again and are back at the door and the east wall that is the house end. You will see the ironing cabinet mounted in the next set of pictures. Also, the door is painted eggplant now. In this shot you can also see the track lighting. I love this lighting setup. The track is flexible and the lights can be aimed in any direction. Also, I can add more lights to the track.

But now starts the hardest work of loading everything in it and organizing it. The next day, when I started putting my stuff in the room, Kim walked in and said "I can already tell that I made the room too small". Ummm, yep!

Next post will be of the total mahem in the room.

Back Again

Well, that was frustrating. I tried to log into blogger and I needed to change over to the new blogger. Problem was, it wouldn't let me log in.
I will post pictures in the next couple of days. I have lots of garden pictures to post. It seems everything survived the Easter Ice Storm. I have a wisteria along the back fence that had buds on it.....ready for a big first bloom showing. The buds died from the ice. Now I have to wait till next spring and hope it tries to bloom again.
A Dahlia got nipped down after it got a couple of inches tall, but it is already back again.
As I said....lots of garden pictures and I will try to start posting them tomorrow.

Spring Delayed

I was going to show pictures of the yard that I have worked so hard on for the past month. Things were greening up and blooming. But then this freak spring freezing storm came.....

I co ered up what I could, but there is about an inch ice coating everything. It was 29 degrees before nightfall and expected to get colder tonight with more ice and sleet. I don't know if I will even be able to make it into town in the morning for Easter church services.




I had bought some warm weather plants. Strictly tropicals that don't survive in cold weather. Guess I wasted some money. This hasn't happened in 10 years and I don't think it was this bad last time.
Now I wait till it thaws sunday afternoon and see what survived.

A Walk In The Snow

Welcome to Foxdraw Acres. This is the view from just past the gate, over the cattle guard, toward one of the houses. Our house is behind those trees to the left.

Here is the gate we just passed through. Kim wood burned the name sign from a piece of the vertical cut bamboo that we laid on the floors. I bought him the star at our local craft fair. It was pre-rusted and ready to hang.....so he spray painted it gold. He doesn't keep up with the trends. But with the gold flaking off in the weather, he is being trendy whether he likes it or not.

And here we arrive at the house. It's beautiful with a 4 inch coating of snow. Sure beats the dust and dead grass of the past year.
I will compose another post later with shots of the trees and pasture covered in snow.
When I was outside earlier this morning, I heard trucks on the interstate, so apparently it is open in my county. There sure were a lot of trucks parked in town yesterday that needed to get somewhere before the next storm hits this weekend.

Wednesday Morning Snow

Jack and I went out playing in the snow this morning. I am going to post a couple of pictures for now. Aaron and I are going to take a drive into town to see semi's parked all over town with the interstate closed. The highway running north and south are closed also.
Jack really enjoyed playing in the snow. He hopped through it like a rabbit.

this is the backyard. It looks like we got about 4 inches piled up out there.

I will post pictures from the walk Jack and I took up to the gate and back.

Snow Event

It started up again with big fluffy flakes. This is taken about 3 in the afternoon. This will probably be the last pictures of the day, as it will start getting dark soon.

I know these are a lot of pictures, but snow events this big only happen down here every few years, not yearly. It should be interesting to see what things look like in the morning if the snow keeps coming like they predict it will. So, I will leave you with these for the day and post more tomorrow.
Weather channel is saying a break from this thursday.....then back to ice mix thursday and friday. Oh joy......I love the snow, but could do without the ice.

Still Coming Down

The snow dwindled down to almost nothing for about half an hour, then started up again with big fat flakes. The top pic is pointing northeast from the front porch.

This one is from about noon. The cedars by the goat pen.

Can you see him? Jack had enough of playing in the snow. He was cold, so watched me from his perch in the window. Tigger takes over that perch sometimes....and doesn't share.


This is showing up my drive. The interstate is closed from here to almost San Antonio. This isn't expected to let up till tomorrow sometime. A snow lovers dream!

Magic Fairy Dust Falling

Fairy dust......rare as hen's teeth. It has been falling steady since before 9am. NOAA is saying maybe up to 7 inches by the time it's over with tomorrow, but that much snow is extremely rare in my part of Texas, so we will see.
It has been wonderful for a snow lover like me. I go out every hour for pictures. Jack goes with me, but goes back in before I do....very disgruntled. Tigger, the giant cat, has gone bonkers. Guess too much stimulation. He went around the house slapping dogs all day yesterday. Today he is running around like he has drank too much coffee. Needless to say, the dogs are avoiding him. Having fur like a Chow-Chow gives him the attitude that he can rule. Since he is bigger than all but one dog, he lords over them. I hope I don't have to smack him off the other cats. Speaking of the other cats, yesterday I gave old Missy some aspirin. She hasn't started growling with pain yet, so I am hoping to keep her comfortable during this cold weather.
It's time to go out and take more pictures.....to be posted later.

Ice Castle

This morning I woke to find an icy world. This has been predicted all weekend, but just today got us down here. I would say about a quarter inch of ice on things, but the sun is coming out. I was hopeful about the sun melting things, until I looked at the weather forcast for today. They are expecting a 50 percent chance of rain, or sleet, or snow for us today. There is still rain clouds coming up from Mexico....which they say began around Hawaii. Hard to believe the ice originated in balmy Hawaii.

Matt's therapy was cancelled, FIL is not going to be able to go in for bloodwork today unless it melts a bit, and I can't see Weight Watchers having weigh-in tonight. I wish we could phone in our weights....LOL I dropped 5lbs and want it recorded. Though....by the time we weigh in the evening, I would be showing heavier.

Everyone in the path of this....please stay off the icy roads and keep warm.

Looking like a room

Yes, I am late on updating the room progress. Trying to get pictures up when you are on slow dial up is an exercise in futility sometimes. There are times that I can get a picture or two uploading, and after about 15 minutes, I will get Page Not Found.
Then I get some smart aleck that whines about no updates, then brags about high speed access in his motel room. Yeah, you know who you are. Now...on to trying to upload pics.

The first picture shows half the roof up. The next picture shows Kim helping Randy put the last wall up. Yeah, the roof went on afterwords, but Blogger doesn't play fair. Anyway...that is Kim in the overalls, Randy hammering, and I don't recall which helper that is in the window. There was Ronnie and Bob...and I don't know which one was which.
Next update will be a tour of the room. I don't want to push my luck with it right now.

Studio Progress

The room is being built on again. Today, two walls went up.

The south and west walls are up. The west wall has two windows facing out to cedar bush covered pastureland...hopefully that won't be cleared anytime soon.

Blogger is not cooperating with pictures this evening, so I will try again tomorrow. For now...that is me, sweeping up after the days work.

The Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....
Author unknown...

Luv crossed the Rainbow Bridge to be with Ruby on December 11, 2006

Losing a part of the family

This is my dear late mother in law and her precious dog, Luv. Luv was named for the lady that Ruby got Luv and I got my dog, Mouse from. We lost Ruby in 2003, and since Luv and Mouse were sisters, Luv came to live with us.
Luv has enjoyed a rich, full life. She is very intelligent and very loving. About a month ago, she started losing weight and her breath was awful. Since Jack's breath was nasty too, I took them both to the vet to have their teeth cleaned and Luv checked. The vet drew blood and we got the results a few days later. Luv was in Chronic Kidney Failure. We put her on a special diet and medication, thinking she could pull out of it since she was still a healthy weight and very active. The fantasy lasted another week, then she lost more weight and started turning her nose up at the food.
Now she is nothing but skin and bones. Yesterday she quit eating and drinking completely. I can't put her to sleep yet until Kim comes home to help me. So today I went in and picked up a couple of feeding syringes and some liquid diet from the vet. Every couple of hours, when she is alert and walking around, I feed her some from the syringe. She spends most of her time on a pad next to me on the computer. I couldn't believe it when this morning, she and Jack took a walk up the road and back. If I can keep some nourishment in her, she may be able to do that again tomorrow. But I somehow doubt it. Her kidneys no longer function apparently, and she is being slowly poisoned to death. The smell is almost more than I can handle when I feed her.
Since Kim is coming home tomorrow, I can handle her dying peacefully in her sleep tonight. Otherwise, we will take her in together on monday. My prayer is for a quiet passing this weekend. My heart is broken as it is.....it would be easier not to have to take her into town.
I have to go blow into a few tissues now and go check on her.

Things I forgot to tell

Lets see.....Kim is getting over his cold that he came down with the night he got home. We figured it was from fatigue.
We finally got Betty Lou out and took her for a nice long ride. We barreled down Bond Road and back home. After we got back, I decided that, while I still had my boots on, I would take a hike across the pasture. Mostly I wanted to see if I could get a better look at the house being built behind us. I can see the roof and chimney from a couple of places at my house, but I couldn't see if from the fenceline at the far end of the pasture....too many trees (cedar bushes) and too far down the slope.
As I headed back to the house, Jack took off after a cottontail...slowing down just enough to get through the fence. Dufus missed out on the Jackrabbit I flushed out in front of me. Then getting almost home, I just happened to stop and look around me. I didn't remember anything being on top of that old telephone post......so pulled out the binoculars Kim let me use and got a closer look. Not more than 20 feet from me was a healthy Barn Owl!! And he was looking at me! I said hello, and took afew steps in his direction that caused him to take off in flight. Did you know they have ragged wing edges that keeps their flight silent? Since he flew to a tall tree closer to the house, I was able to point him out to Kim. I looked him up in my bird book and found they lay their eggs in Jan or Feb. Also, they are fearless.....even attacking skunks and possums, thus known as Flying Tigers. I think Jack needs to stick close to home and watch his back.....the cats too. Tigger looks like a Coon in the dark anyway....wonder if he has had run ins with the owl?
Edit!!! My mistake, it was a Great Horned Owl....and a big one at that!
Today my legs hurt. Walk/jogging a mile a day for the past couple of days, then the hike in the pasture with my Wolverine steel toed boots on really did a number on my muscles. I don't know right now if I will go for a mile this afternoon or not.
I think that is all for now.....except for the picture.

That is me at Camp Crochet, with the felted purse I won. The double chin you see is the very reason I am trying to exercise a mile a day. So far, I have quit smoking, gained 10lbs, and am sore all over. Yeah, real encouraging. But hey, I managed to get the hair to behave that day. It's not a curly mop sticking out all over.

Have a good one, Y'all

Missed a Birthday

November 20th was the birthday of my little Princess, Lucy. She was a birthday gift to me from my dear friend, Judy. I had seen her among a batch of kittens Judy was raising and absolutely fell in love. Lucy is a delicate, silky, long haired calico. But don't let the delicate fool you. She has a temper and is an ace hunter. Tigger drives her nuts and she hisses at him when he is in sight. She did teach him how to hunt though.

The baby picture is one Judy took before I got Lucy. The close up is last winter, when she was wearing her winter coat. I would get a shot of her today, but she is nowhere in sight. Lucy likes long naps in my sewing chair or a sunbeam, hunting birds at the feeder.....picture posted, I plant flowers in the tub and put seeds in that black container on the post for the birds. Lucy likes to nap in the tub on the plants, or hide until a likely prey is in the container getting seeds and can't see her. She also brings in rabbits. One of her favorite things to do is bury her nose up in the palm of my hand when I am scratching her ears. She also likes to wait until I am snuggled down in bed on cold nights, then she will lie on top of me and get me pinned in securely. She also has this weird habit of calling me from across the yard or pasture. I will be outside and hear a distant meowing......search around until I spot her coming across the pasture. Even when we have spotted each other, she will meow at me until she is right up to me.

So....Happy Birthday my little sweet Princess......now you are 8.

In other news, Kim got home from Wyoming wednesday afternoon. We had Thanksgiving lunch with just the 4 of us.....Kim, Matt, Aaron (his dad), and me. I heated up the smoked, sliced turkey breast, spooned in a container of ready to eat dressing, opened a couple of cans of turkey gravy, heated up frozen glazed carrots and roasted sweet potatoes......you seeing a pattern here? The only thing from scratch was the mashed potatoes and the zucchini. I hate cooking, so Thanksgiving makes my kitchen a torture chamber. Everyone made pigs of themselves anyway and pronounced it good. My thanks to JennyO for the turkey, Schwan's for the carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, and to all the other companies who's wrappers are now in the garbage can.

We also give thanks that A&M beat the pants off UT. Amen

Projects

First project to show is especially to my sister. She gave me a kit to make a Melon Purse and I want to show her that I finished it and made a little purse for my cell phone to match. There is the before picture, and two shots of after it went through the wash. Also, the cool buttons I found to put on them. On the purse is a pewter Celtic swirl looking button....and my Crochet Guild pin. On the phone purse is an antique rhinestone button. I have taken this purse out numerous times.



Next, we have the free London Fog coat I got. A friend was closing her thrift shop and I spotted this coat on the freebie rack. I had it dry cleaned and it looks brand new. You can't tell from the picture, but it is a yummy hunter green wool. I got some yarn in my goodie bag at Camp Crochet that is a fur yarn in hunter green, rose, and cream. I am not much for fur yarns, but this stuff was a delight to work with and the resulting knitted scarf is perfect for the coat. Now...if it will just turn off cold enought to wear them.

Next, even though I don't care for fur yarns, I couldn't resist the furry flip flops I have been seeing, so had to make myself a pair. So...there...I have exposed my icky feet to the world. At least the legs were shaved!
After I did these flip flops and fell in love...wear them all the time....I got Autumn and Hannah a pair of flip flops and going to make them some. I need to find out Brooklyn's shoe size...she may like fancy shoes by next summer.
Well, that's the show for now. It took forever to get pictures loaded today, so I will post more another day.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

A Day on the Rez

Back to the story of Kim's and my anniversary trip....














On our last day in Ruidoso, we took a trip to the Apache Reservation. They have the Inn of the Mountain Gods there, with a casino. I had never been to a casino before, so was totally dazzled by the whole Resort. The entrance to the resort is accented by the most impressive bigger than life sculptures of the mountain gods (I presume). The lobby was huge and at one end was a wall of glass that looked out on the golf course, lake, and the beautiful Sierra Blanca mountain. In that area was a split staircase, leading down to the exit doors and a restaurant. In the middle of that split was a fountain that was shaped like an Apache basket.
Kim took me into the casino and we did a tour of the room, with him showing me the tables and slots. He pulled out a fifty, which is his gambling limit, and showed me how it was done. We went from machine to machine with the paper token it gives you, until the 50 was gone. I pulled a twenty from my wallet and started playing with it. After it was gone, I decided I wanted to play some more and hit the ATM machine. Kim left with my purse to sit in the lobby and wait for me. I played 40 more dollars and won 30. When I was through with that, I decided that I wasn't impressed with gambling and cashed out. I went to the gift shop and bought a tshirt and a pair of riding goggles for Kim. That's the whole part and parcel of my gambling experience. I could take it or leave it, and really know of better ways to spend my money. But it was fun trying it for the first time.
Monday morning we loaded up, locked up the cabin, and took the south route home. We went past the resort and through the reservation to the Cloudcroft turnoff. We ended up kicking ourselves for not taking that route on the bike. It was exquisitely beautiful with the mountains and pines. Bits of fog hung on in places and it was drizzling most of the way. On the way out of the mountains, we stopped at a couple of roadside stands where I bought apples, apple and cherry ciders, and a jar of mountain honey.
We got to Artesia just in time for lunch, which we shared with Kim's old friend, Tim. Great little mexican food place called La Fonda. On our way up to Ruidoso, we spent thursday night in Hobbs visiting with Tim and his wife, Susan. We had a great time catching up with them. Kim and Tim went to high school together, then lived together for a while after graduating. Kim and I were witnesses at Tim and Susan's wedding. We all lost touch a couple of decades ago, so it was wonderful to meet up with them again. We were going to have lunch with both of them on the way back, but Tim called and said he was out on a job, so we met him in Artesia.
To catch everyone up.....Kim has been gone on jobs for about 3 weeks now. He headed to West Virginia for some jobs, then Pennsylvania for one, then the past week in Wyoming. We are counting on him being home for Thanksgiving.