hello from northern California

I'm still alive!  ;-)  Things are busy, and things feel strange.  Does this feel like home yet?  Nope.  Right now nothing feels like home, and I totally knew that would happen.  I have unpacked a lot; still have a long way to go though.  It's tough figuring out where everything will go.  And remembering where I packed it.  And remembering where I unpack it!  ;-)  I'm not actually living up there yet, I'm in the guest room of the house.  Still just a few more dusty/dirty jobs to be done in the loft as far as construction goes, and I hate to unpack everything only to battle more dust.  One of the interior walls (leading into the tack room area) had been open til just about a week ago, so needless to say there is a lot of dust accumulated on the floor/walls/all my furniture, and every time I turn the fan on it blows it around a little more!  My cute little vacuum cleaner is getting quite a workout.

I'm definitely not ready for visitors yet!

I desperately need to get back to studio work.  The immediate next project is a drawing I started a few months ago, now on a deadline and must be done within a week.  So you'll be seeing pics of that pretty soon.

The chickens are still down in Wilton and will be there for... at least a few weeks?  Timing to be determined, but I've got them set up so that they are extremely low-maintenance.

The peafowl are not settled in at all.  Nara, who as you recall has a broken leg, is confined to a large dog crate within the aviary with Omar and Jovi.  She's very calm and handling confinement well, but it's just too soon to know how well her leg will heal.  She's going to be confined for a long time.  That wasn't supposed to happen like this.  :-(  Omar and Jovi are both still pretty worked up.  They did both eat out of my hand the first night I got back here after being gone for a week and a half, and that put a big smile on my face, but they are both still pacing and nervous and definitely not the way they were.  It'll take time... longer than I expected.

I know I need to post some pics.  Heck I need to explore the property and take some pics!  I will, I will...