Olin update, and the other inhabitant

You know how I said that Olin was being incredibly well behaved and sleeping most of the night?  Ha ha, um, that changed.  A few days after I wrote that, the dreaded "meowing all night" began.  OMG.  It really made me question my decision to move him up here, and really made me think I'd be taking him back down to my mom's house next time I went down there... and leaving him there.

But he's gotten a little better.  I think this is simply a very hard transition for an outdoor kitty to move permanently indoors.  In the grand scheme of things he's actually doing very well, and if he continues to settle down, that would be super.  I am determined to make it work for him to be here, I even went so far as to buy him a cat tree, which he darn well better use because those things are crazy expensive.  He always wants to climb my furniture, so I thought perhaps he'd like his own.  So far he only sits there if I put him on it...  And catnip does not affect him, how boring!  So I'd say at least 90% of the time I'm thrilled to bits that he's here, and he seems happy and content and sweet, and for less than 10% of the time he drives me insane and I'd like to toss him out the window.  That's a good start, right?  Cross your fingers that in another few weeks he's doing even better.  He's my little punkin, I want him to be here.  :-)

I have decided that when I do go back to Wilton if it's going to be for at least a few days I will probably take him with me (not to leave there, but just to visit).  He might enjoy the visit, and he's an easy cat to have in the car anyway.  Probably better than leaving him alone up here.  I am leaving him alone for two nights very soon when I go up to Oregon to visit relatives.  I hope that goes okay...

I haven't introduced you to the other inhabitant of this little space (and I'm reminded that I still need to take pics of the whole place now that it's done).  This is Phil:

Phil is a heart-leaf philodendron that my oldest brother gave me for Christmas 26 years ago.  I don't know what the average heart-leaf philodendron life span is, but that seems pretty old.  I don't have a green thumb at all, gardening is not my thing, I accidentally killed the adorable cactus that one of my best friends gave me (over-watered, oops!) but I seem to do okay with Phil.  Phil used to be very very lush, with huge leaves.  Now Phil is like one of those old men with a bad comb-over (not that there's a good comb-over).  I just try to arrange the remaining foliage in the most aesthetically pleasing manner, but there simply isn't much of it left to go around.

Olin is here

I moved my cat Olin up here a week ago.  He's actually handling the change MUCH better than I expected.  I was dreading all-night-meowing, thinking he'd be doing naughty things to my furniture.  So far he hasn't done any of that, though he does tend to want to get up between 4 and 5 in the morning and climb on things he's not supposed to be climbing on, which sometimes involves me stumbling out of bed to remove him from atop something precarious.  But mostly, he sleeps...  He's got one of those pheromone collars on, I read all sorts of good reviews about how they keep cats calm through things that would normally freak cats out.  I have to think that's helping, because he does seem unusually calm, even for him.  And he's EXTREMELY affectionate.  If that's a side-effect of the collar, I like it!  Or maybe he had just missed me in the month I didn't see him.  Why can't I get that response from anyone else...  ;-)

I still have a few doubts about how well this'll work out in the long run.  I think he's bored.  I don't want him to go outdoors though.  He's a fighter and a wanderer.  There are a couple cats around, some feral and some not.  There are also coyotes and eagles and bears and all manner of things that would like to eat a cat.  And I'm hoping that lack of exposure to outdoor crud will put an end to his allergies.  But... bottom line I want him to be happy, and not drive me crazy.  So I guess it's kind of a trial run right now.  I know if it came down to it he could live down in Wilton at my mom's house, but it's SO NICE to have him here, I missed him so much, and he doesn't act sweet to anyone else, I'm his person!

So here's hoping he continues to handle indoor living as well as he has done so far, because I really love that he's here.  :-)

peafowl update and other things

Peafowl: After three weeks of being crated after breaking her leg, I let Nara out of the crate and into the aviary last Monday.  She'd been starting to put some weight on the leg and use it for scratching herself, so it seemed like the right time to allow some mobility.  She'd seemed pretty content in the crate all along, very calm.  She came out quietly, and unlike chickens there was no drama amongst the birds.  Omar and Jovi both came up to her and they did a lot standing around quietly with their heads together.  Funny birds.  And Nara still definitely outranks Jovi.

She continues to make progress.  She's walking on the broken leg, though she has a severe limp, and I don't think the bone healed straight.  But that she's putting her weight on it after just, well, now four weeks, that's impressive.  They will stay penned up in the aviary for at least probably another month.  I won't release them until she is as healed as she'll get, and until they are totally settled down.  They are MUCH more calm now, consistently coming up to me for treats, rarely pacing, etc.  Omar has started to display a lot more often, though they are still very quiet (which tells me they're not settled in yet, he gets pretty loud when he feels like he has a territory of his own!).

I think Nara will likely always limp.  I just need to be sure that she is able to roost at night.  Time will tell.

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Chickens: I haven't seen them for almost a month now.  They're still down at my mom's place in Wilton.  I'll head down this coming weekend to check on things and take as many as I can to auction.  I'm not sure when they'll be coming up here, but I look forward to that happening.  The new chicken coop is currently in a pile in the driveway; it's one of those metal carports.  All in due time, and in the mean time I'll be back and forth every few weeks...

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Other animals:  I miss them.  My old mare Gwen stayed down in Wilton, and there she will live until the time comes for her to go to the great pasture in the sky.  A few times in the last few years, I've thought that time was imminent, but thus far she's proven me wrong...  Of course I miss Angus, my walking buddy.  A lot of my friends were aghast that he wasn't coming with me, but believe me there is NO way that would have worked.  I live in less than 400 square feet of space, atop what I affectionally refer to as the "stairway of doom" because it's really more ladder than stairs.  That's not a combination of features that would work for 104 pounds of flatulent dog.

And of course I miss the heck out of the cats, particularly Olin.  I am still planning to bring Olin up here to live with me.  I second-guess this all the time.  He's been an indoor/outdoor cat all his life, he would have to be indoor-only here (too many things that would want to eat him).  He would miss the other cat, Homer.  I have to wonder if I'm really being fair to him, but if you've ever had a special bond with a particular animal, then you know how I feel without him here.  It's like I've left a body part behind, I need him.  And in the back of my mind I know that if it just totally didn't work, if he was miserable and made me miserable too, he could always go back to Wilton, and I'd see him when I'm down there.  But I'm his human, the only one he really is friendly toward.  So I think he needs me too.  :-)

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Life up here: Well, it's hot.  But it's hot down in the Sacramento Valley too.  Actually it's been rainy up here a few times, which is totally cool.  It's so beautiful up here, I go out walking or riding and absolutely marvel at the view.  Lassen in one direction, Shasta in another.  The loft is sooooo close to totally unpacked.  I'm living in it, have been for... uh, maybe two weeks now?  It's a pretty awesome space, I have to say.  :-)  The last of the shelves were just put up yesterday, so I unpacked a few more boxes this morning.  Of course that means it's a disaster zone again, so I need to find the time to get it all tidied up and vacuumed for the umpty-billionth time.  And then I'll be ready for visitors!

I still feel weird using the word "home" for any particular location.  It'll happen, but life still feels strange.  I've been up here as a visitor so many times in the last 10 (11?) years, there's this strange little "shouldn't I be going home soon?" feeling as though I don't want to overstay my welcome, but well, here I am, they're stuck with me.  :-)  I'm trying hard to get back into a normal routine though... gettin' there...  I seem to have misplaced a number of items (how?!  They have to be within this space!!) and there's still a long list of things I need to get.

I really wanted to throw myself a small going-away party down in Wilton, but I feel like it's too late now.  Other than moving the birds and a few odds and ends, I'm already gone.  Blarg, I don't know...  There are lots of people I miss...  What do you think, too late?  Can't very well have a house-warming, nobody would drive all the way up here!  ;-)

Okay, back to work.  I'll show you some progress on a new drawing tonight if I can.

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...

craptastic planning

I try, I really do.  I try to get things all organized and sorted out but more often than not my little plans go awry.  Here's an example: I shipped a box of stuff (artworks, portfolio, display stuff) to Blade Show (because it's easier/safer than taking it as luggage on the plane).  And then I shipped it back, thinking, as I packed it up, "I don't need any of this stuff for a while."  It's coming to Wilton, the address where it shipped from a few weeks ago.  I'd planned to be up in Oak Run by the time it arrives.  No problem, nothing I need in there any time soon, right?  Oops.  As I was almost asleep last night, I realized that actually there are some things in there I need right away.  Like the drawing I was working on at the show, for example.  Right now, that's looking like it'll be my only entry in Draft Horse Classic (entries due July 1).  And it's not finished, which means I need to finish it ASAP.  Meaning, I need to get my hands on that thing the moment it arrives because that's going to give me about a week to finish it.  Hmm, maybe I can come up with something else to enter too...

Sigh.  Didn't think that through too well, or I could have put it in my other suitcase and brought it back on the plane.  Sigh, so then I had to wonder well do I just wait around Wilton til Wednesday, or should I head up to Oak Run for a few days.  I'll head north, I need all the unpacking time I can get, and besides since I'll only be away a few days I'll snag the minivan and take a bunch of stuff I wasn't planning on taking til well on down the road some time.  Silver lining?

I have absolutely no idea where I put the change-of-address things I got at my new PO Box.

I have absolutely no idea where I put a lot of things.  I hope they surface pretty soon.  There are only so many places they could be (ha ha, I hope!).

Until I learn how to use Dreamweaver, my websites won't be getting updated.  I think that means my websites won't get updated for a while.  I was really very fond of GoLive, I hope I can figure out Dreamweaver as well as I figured out GoLive.

It's hot, too hot.  Summertime is yucky.

Yes, I'd like some cheese with all this whine.

so I went to Atlanta, and now I'm back...

What time zone am I in?  Where am I?  Requires a bit of thought lately.  ;-)  I left for Blade Show in Atlanta GA on Thursday of last week, and got back late last night.  Hmm, actually, it was technically this morning.

I don't do a lot of shows, nor do I particularly want to do a lot of shows.  A few a year is fine by me.  This was my third year at Blade (the biggest knife show in the western hemisphere, I think is what they say).  It's huge, seriously overwhelmingly huge.  And the question everyone asks after the show is "how did it go?"  Well, time will tell, we'll see who actually calls or emails.  :-)  I do find myself wondering if the exposure is worth the expense, and whether I actually *need* to go, but aside from that I know that it's good for me to spend some time around other engravers/scrimshanders.  Seeing friends is good, swapping stories is good, seeing others' work is inspiring.  I haven't committed to be there next year, but I probably will.  I think it all just seemed a little extra crazy and disconnected this year because of the timing, happening in the middle of moving.

After Blade Show I went to the Engrave-In in Monteagle, TN.  This is always lots of fun.  It rained a lot this year, which may have put a damper on people's travel plans, but I think I preferred it to the usual hot and humid weather!  I feel like a real fish out of water down there in the south, for a lot of reasons, but that one evening every year that I eat catfish and alligator for dinner and then sit and watch the fireflies... well that's rather special to me.  :-)  I know some darn good people, and enjoyed meeting a few new ones, and getting to know a few old ones better than I did before.  It's been a good week...

I deliberately did not take photos, I knew I wouldn't have time to go through them any time soon.

Flying makes me long to take a road trip.

So, I'm in Wilton for a couple of days, doing more packing and whatnot around here.  Actually, today I was totally dragging all day and didn't get much done.  I'll go back up to Oak Run in a few days and unpack and try to get settled in.  I need to be in one place for more than a few days...

Well, I think my eyeballs are still on eastern time zone, so I'm going to bed.

Nara needs some well-wishes

Catching the peafowl at night to move them, as was suggested to me, turned out not to be the right thing to do.  In hindsight, I think they would have handled that much better in daylight when they could have seen that it was me, but I was trying to do what I thought was easier on them.  Talk about backfiring.

Nara broke her leg that night, and I feel terrible about it.  Totally breaks my heart, and I feel like it's my fault.  It was awful catching them that night, they were terrified, they all shot straight up into the air and crashed down hard.  I didn't know until Saturday that she was injured, and I wish I had simply caught them in the morning instead when they could see their surroundings and see that it was me.

They are in a nice big pen in the shade of an oak tree up in Oak Run now, and understandably freaked out.  I have to keep reminding myself that they paced around a lot when I moved them the first time, months ago.  I left Nara alone for a couple of days, hoping she would start to improve, and not wanting to stress her out more by catching her again.  But this morning I felt that she was looking more lethargic, whereas Omar and Jovi are ceaselessly pacing (actually, they were starting to calm down a little by today, particularly Jovi).  So Jen and I cornered and caught Nara, which was a good bit easier than I anticipated.  She does indeed have a broken leg.  It's not in a place that can be splinted (up high on the "drumstick" near the thigh joint), but I was worried that she was just getting too stressed out having to move around to get food and water, and getting bumped into by the other two.  So we went ahead and put her in a crate with easy access to food and water.  I have to say that once she was caught she was extremely calm.  I checked on her before I left there today (I'm back in Wilton right now, gotta get some rest, do some laundry, and get ready to leave for Blade Show early Thursday morning) and she looked totally serene, sitting in the crate looking out at the other two birds.

It will take some time for them all to settle in.  They are like different birds again, won't get near me.  The timing is terrible, what with me not heading back up there for over a week.  They're very sensitive as to who they know and who they don't.  They are in excellent hands with "Dr. Jen" but my poor Nara, so sad!

She has a long recovery ahead of her, and they won't be released to free-range for a lot longer than I had originally planned.  Send some good thoughts her way!!!

 

moving in

Normally I would blog at night, not first thing in the morning, but by tonight I think I'll be too sore and exhausted to do anything but go to bed!  ;-)

I've been moving in for a few days, up here in Oak Run.  Does it feel like "home" yet?  No, that will take some time.  In fact I'm not even living in the loft yet, I'm still hanging out in the guest room of the house.  The loft still needs an east wall and a front door, and besides that it's a jumble of boxes and the bed's still wrapped in plastic to protect it from things that are still being built, hung, painted, etc.  It's a work in progress!  I'm not sure what to call "home" right now.  But I feel much better now that I'm up there.

I still have a ton of work to do down in Wilton.  There are still a lot of things to bring up here... fragile stuff that would have gotten in the way right now, etc.  The furniture didn't fit as well as I had planned out on paper, so I've had to make some changes and I'll have to see how that affects some of my storage plans (had to put the flat files under my bed, for example, instead of in the living room).  It looks really nice up there though, or at least I can see potential for niceness once it  doesn't look quite so much like a dumping ground for furniture and boxes.

I fly out for Blade Show at the crack of dawn on Thursday.  Oy vey, it feels like such an afterthought this year.  I could use a vacation though.  ;-)

A few days ago it was 100 degrees and miserable.  This morning it's cool and raining.  Okay.  I have a lot of heavy stuff to schlep up the stairs today, so I'm fine with that!

The peafowl are up here too, and it's going to take them a while to settle in.  Poor things, I feel really bad for them out there pacing around.  They are like different birds than the friendly beggars I've been enjoying.  Nara hurt her leg quite badly, probably when I caught them late Friday night.  Keep your fingers crossed that she makes a full recovery.  I don't know what's wrong because I don't want to catch her and make the trauma worse.

Okay, I'd better go schlep.

moving sucks

There's just no other way to say that, moving sucks.  I'm not good at this.  It takes me WAY too long to pack up, and I don't know why other than I'm trying to organize things BEFORE I get there because there  is so little space available I have to be really selective.  Thank goodness it's "close enough" (185 miles) that it's not all THAT big of a deal to drive up and back, and since I'm going to be around Wilton a lot anyway (like next week, because I have to fly out to a show) there are a lot of things I didn't even bother to load in the trailer tonight... fragile stuff that will just be in the way right now, and can totally just go in my car next time I'm heading north.  Winter coats, warm boots... won't need those for a while!

So despite my best intentions to get ALL my stuff packed and the house totally cleaned and Mom's furniture totally rearranged... that definitely did not happen... at least not yet.  It's a disaster in here.  I'll have to deal with it next week.

I have to give a huge shout out to my amazing friend Wendy, who is a lifesaver (not the candy) and who I could not do this without.  Not only did she haul my round pen panels up there a few months ago, and my horse last week, but she's taking my furniture tomorrow.  There are not enough baked goods and art in the world to thank her for all this... but I'm trying.  :-)  And I'm incredibly grateful.

And while I'm at it, I have to give a huge shout out to Jen and Don, for building the loft above the barn, and making it mind-bogglingly awesome, and inviting me to come live with them.  I feel like I don't deserve that, and I'm never really sure what to say and it usually comes out wrong but I know they'll read this here so you guys...  I can't possibly ever thank you enough, I don't even have the words, but you are truly amazing friends...  I hope I don't drive you crazy.  :-)

Anyway, the furniture and most of the "stuff" is going up tomorrow, as are the peafowl.  I caught them tonight and it was incredibly traumatic and horrible, I don't ever want to do that again.  I've spent a long time making friends with them and earning their trust and I hope they forgive me for it.

This is the start of the in-between period, where I'm going to probably feel lost and like I don't really live anywhere.  I likely will not actually be sleeping up in the loft for a little while yet, I'll still be camped out in the guest room of the big house.  Most of my belongings are packed, except for the things I didn't get to, the things I might need for Blade Show (oh yeah, talk about bad timing!) and whatever else I forgot.  And all the chickens, they'll probably be here another month.

So yes, I'll be back, probably fairly often in the next month or two, and less often as time goes on.  In fact I'll be back in a few days, and then a week after that, and then who knows.  And all you doubters and nay-sayers out there, I understand you.  I've had my moments of feeling like I'm making a huge mistake, feeling like I'm about to barf, and wondering what the heck I've gotten myself into.  And then I stop and think about a few months from now, all settled, in the routine, getting work done... ah yes.  It will be good.  I'm just having a tough time with the right now part, and I'm told it's normal to question one's own ability to survive in the world, right?  So be nice, give me some enthusiasm and some faith, goodness knows I could use it right now.  I'm not good at this.  I don't know how people do this.  And I can't for the life of me understand how it is that I don't remember the last time I moved.  How on earth could I forget??  I know this won't be the last time I move but by golly I won't be doing this again any time soon!

To my friends here, don't forget me.  We can still do lunches, and breakfasts, and ice cream, and doggie dates, and dinner... it'll just take some planning.  :-)

Well, okay, I have to get up in a few hours, so I'd better stop.

By the way, I always thought I didn't have much "stuff"... until I had to pack it up.  OMG.

because who doesn't love cute baby animals?!

First I have to give you the update on moving. The ball is rolling, quickly. Like "OMG how am I going to get all this stuff packed up now that it's finally time to pack it up." I remember very little of moving here to this property in Wilton. I don't remember doing all this packing. Maybe because when I was 18 I just didn't have this much "stuff" (and by that I mean the entire studio, loads of reference books, supplies, etc). And I think I also don't remember it because that was not exactly a bright and sunny time in my life, to put it mildly. Moving now is entirely different than that was... now is good and adventure and new and exciting, but packing is still a giant pain in the you know what. ;-) I'm trying to be good and sort stuff BEFORE it goes into boxes, but it's only a matter of time until I reach the "screw it, box it all up and deal with it later" stage!

 Anyway, the furniture's moving this weekend, and then I'm off to Blade Show in Georgia next week, and there will be a lot of back and forth in the next month between Wilton and Oak Run, but hopefully within about a month I'll be able to move the birds up there.

On Friday, on short notice but on an opportunity that I could not pass up, my horse Shylah moved up to Oak Run. So that morning while moving the last of the hay out of the barn and into the horse trailer, lo and behold I found a baby cottontail rabbit. OMG cutest thing EVER. Not the least bit scared, totally healthy, and just barely old enough to be on its own. But... my sweet darling cat Olin has been proudly presenting me with a lot of dead bunnies lately (to my absolute horror) and I really didn't want this one to be his next victim. So I had a day to adore it and take photos and then it went home with my friend Jan, to a nice cat-free yard where it will be released when it's a little older and the scaredy instincts kick in a little more.

Here's some pics! All together, now, awwwwwww! :-)

oh, hello!

Hello, blog, my old friend. It's been a while, hasn't it. Heh heh...

So, I'm the kind of person who gets super duper stressed out about stuff and tends to gripe and rant a lot when that happens, and I really have not wanted to inflict that on the world lately, so I've been rather quiet. All is well, just chaotic. See this? I think the inside of my head kinda looks like this right now as well:

Nope, don't know exactly when I'm moving. Some time between the end of May and some time thereafter. Everything's going well, I'll head up there soon to paint, and I've been diving into the depths of all the "stuff" I have accumulated in my life to determine what I can get rid of before trying to squeeze it all into the loft. Yes I think I've finally picked out my paint colors! Colors, plural... I hope I don't make this too strange. ;-)

I am all done hatching chicks now, finished out the season with about 100 of the little buggers. Anyway, I'm just coming up for air, waving hi, going to finish up sketches and email clients, and wrestle with computer problems, and since a friend of mine gave me some lemons I'll whip up a lemon cheesecake tonight.

 Here, have some poppies!  It's the best I can do for you today!

I actually am still alive

You wouldn't know it by the lack of blog postings for the last two weeks though, would you. Ummm yeah, sorry about that. I seem to have a lot on my plate right now. And then I was thinking well what's a blog without pictures, and that means walking over to the OLD computer to use my website software so I can upload stuff, and then I finally realized that oh yeah duh I can just log into my web host and upload pics that way. Sometimes I'm not the brightest bulb. ;-)

So the big question, which I think I was actually asked by three different people today, is when am I moving. The answer: I'm not quite sure. Soon. When it's ready... I was up there last weekend helping out with sheet rock (can I put that on my resume now?). There's still quite a lot to do, and the actual move process is going to take a while, what with the horses and birds and stuff and everything. I need to hire someone to help with chicken coop construction. Unfortunately my handy people here are, well, HERE. And there is nearly 200 miles away. Still pondering how that's all gonna work!

Anyway, it'll happen when it happens. I'm the obsessive sort who wants to make plans for EVERYTHING even though I know that doesn't usually work, so I'm trying to go with the flow even though I'm not good at that. There's no rush though, no deadline. I've started in on a cleaning/organizing spree though, and will start packing the non-essential stuff. There's nothing like thinking "do I really want to pack this, move it, unpack it, and find a place to put it?" to make a person get rid of stuff (or box it up and leave it behind, as the case may be!) ;-)

I have four batches of chicks hatched out, and three more on the way. Decided to do that as early as possible this season, and I'm glad I did, I think I'd be going nuts if I waited, and skipping a year would have really set the breeding program back (besides, my neighbors like to come over and play with the chicks!)

On the art front, I have a stack of sketches and price quotes underway. If you happen to be awaiting one of those two items, rest assured I will get to you as soon as I can... I'm way behind right now.

If I could kinda freeze time for a bit and catch up on some things, I totally would. Like, um, taxes. Copying my mom's recipes. Cutting out fifty billion squares of fabric and sewing the quilt that I FINALLY have enough fabric for (after years of collecting it!) and meant to make before Christmas.

Anyway! How bout some pics, just to get back into the swing of things!

Of course I still bake!

Aren't they cute?! The big one's not mine, the little one's a Rosecomb.

This is a couple miles down the road from where I'm moving to. These elk come onto the property sometimes. I only had my little camera with me...

Omar's getting really friendly! He comes right up to me now and always expecting treats! The girls are shy. Then again, he's not good about sharing.

Home Depot must hate indecisive people like me who take one of nearly every paint sample card. ;-)

the big news, and a Christmas list

Hmmm, how to break some big news to you all...

Should I just come out and say it?

Okay.

No, I'm not getting married. That would definitely be more shocking than the real news. ;-)

I am, however, moving. Moving out. Moving away. Friends of mine who own a ranch in the mountains east of Redding (Oak Run, CA) have asked me to move up there, and I've said yes. After determining that all my necessary "stuff" will fit (just barely!) in the barn loft that I will call home, and giving it excessively careful consideration as I am prone to doing, I realized that I'd have to be crazy not to do it. So... a grand new adventure will begin next year, and I'm excited!!! I will probably be leaving Wilton in mid to late April.*

There are a lot of people and traditions here I will miss sooooo much and it definitely makes me sad to move away from so many people I care so much about, but hey, I'll be less than 200 miles away; there's no excuse for not visiting me! :-) And since I'll still have family here, with all the holidays and birthdays and artsy things, I will probably be back fairly often...

There are still a million things to figure out. The most daunting thing to me actually seems to be how to relocate all the birds. I will be cutting back even more, but will keep the BBRed flock and a few other birds, but this means starting from scratch with chicken coops, in a land with lions and tigers and bears oh my. Well, maybe not lions and tigers, but there are raccoons and coyotes and bears. Oh em gee...

Yes, I'm taking the horses! And Olin too. Angus and Homer will stay with my mom.

I will of course still be working in fine art/scrimshaw. I think you all know me well enough to know I'd drive off a cliff if I had to stop doing that. ;-)

Surprised? I'm sure. :-) So, local people, if you need something from me while I'm still living here (photo shoot, road trip, baking for any more weddings, hot date, etc.), don't miss your chance. ;-) Time will fly...

Are there things I need? Goodness yes, a lot, big stuff like a computer and chicken houses (eeek!) Pardon the utter shamelessness which I am about to embark upon, but here's my Christmas (New Year, Birthday, Valentine's Day, Easter, etc) list:

I want people to buy art!!! I won't have space to take it all with me (I am moving into less than 400 square feet). Drawings are here and scrimshaw is here.

If Santa Claus is reading this, or if I have any secret admirers out there in blogland who are desperately wanting to lavish me with gifts (hey it's almost Christmas, and my birthday AND Valentines Day are in less than two months!), I'm not usually in need of "stuff" but these next few months will be different! Gift cards... Did you know Apple has gift cards?!?! (Did I mention I have to buy a new computer?) Amazon.com (I even have a wish list of things I think of that I'll need, though I'm making a list for my own purposes to keep track of things I think of, you're welcome to look at it even though the contents are a bit eclectic)... Or maybe Home Depot or Tractor Supply for chicken house building stuff. IKEA? Winning lottery tickets?

I'll have a lot to blog about, won't I...

*that's the current timeline, life is subject to change, but I'm pretty sure that's when...