Eastward ho!

Hey poultry people, look me up at the big Indiana show! It's gonna be fun! :-)

I got my jacket back today, holy smokes it looks good! The logo looks like it belongs there! So for anyone in the Sacramento area, I hereby heartily endorse Ethan Wade Graphics for all your embroidery and screen printing needs.

I photoshopped this last night (part of a gift basket that's being donated at the show):


Over and out!

finally rode Dusty

I just got in from riding Dusty for the first time. That's probably one of those things I shouldn't do when nobody's around, but... what choice did I have. He was fine, other than an extreme desire to scrape me off on the panels. Egads I hate riding in a round pen!! He's pretty light on the bit and turns very well with hardly any cue...while he's walking. But get him going faster and it's really tough to keep him off the rail, and I mean literally off the rail. I try to stay relaxed and loose but when he repeatedly mashes me into the wall I start to think it's deliberate and it's hard not to tense up. He did get better by the end though, we had a few conversations about how I would be the one deciding which direction to go.

There is no doubt that the saddle is sufficiently well oiled. Gross. I'll need to make a point to wear my most foul old jeans for a while when I use it.

His trot is not a lot of fun, it's very bouncy, definitely a posting trot! He doesn't naturally fall into any sort of gait (he's a Tennessee Walker). He walks, trots, canters, and sometimes throws in a few steps or something else but I haven't gotten him to sustain the something else yet..(that may be easier when riding). Anyway, the trot doesn't compare to Shylah's! I wasn't going to do any more than that but while giving him some leg to get him OFF the rail he started to canter. It was like "ooh, what's this, we're floating!" So nice! In that department he has Shylah beat for sure! So that was a pleasant discovery.

I think we'll pretty quickly be moving our work sessions into the arena (pasture) though I do want keep working on not having him scrape me off, because that's not fun and I don't appreciate it.

JJ, he needs a curb strap on that bit to keep it in place.. I may have an extra somewhere, I'll see if I can find it. Otherwise I'll pick one up at the feed store next time I go, unless you get there first! :-)

a typical weekend

Nothing much exciting going on. Sounds like I missed a fun show. Darn it.

The art show reception last night was nice, I'm glad I went. I don't venture downtown all that often but it's not so bad. Although every single time I seem to catch a red light at Capitol and 43rd, right there at the East Lawn sign. And there's NEVER anyone who needs to get through the other way... just a random red light, must be on a timer or something. It can be greeeeeeeen and not a car in sight but as soon as I get close to that intersection it turns red! Weird.

I did a lot of drawing this weekend. I'm working on the pair of Wheaten Old English Game Bantams. I've never given Wheatens too much thought but the female color is really fairly complicated to draw, there's so much subtlety there. But I'm also not sure how much of that is supposed to be there... the real live birds seem to have a lot of pale lacing, and the description doesn't mention it, so I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be there. Hopefully I'm on the right track! Should be done tomorrow I think. That was going to be the last pair... I was going to be done... and then the phoenix got added. *SIGH* I still hope to be done by Christmas. I am bummed out that I won't be totally done by the Indiana show though, that irks me.

I also spent a bunch of time working on fixing up Dusty's saddle. He's ready to ride (finally, yes, I've been a slacker) but doesn't fit all that well in either of mine (he's narrower through the withers than my horses) so the saddle that came with him is 50+ years old and was dry as a bone. Well... one quart of neatsfoot oil and six hours later (plus leather cleaner before oiling, and a final coating of conditioner) it's clean and shiny. I am kicking myself for not photographing it before I started, it looks a lot better. If the weather is decent tomorrow I'll saddle him up and see what happens. Otherwise maybe Tuesday.

art show

I'll be there tonight, not sure about the other receptions yet.

I regret not going to Bakersfield for the poultry show this weekend. Partly it was a money issue, but one of the main reasons I didn't go is we were supposed to do a bunch more coop painting this weekend, but then it rained and it'll be too wet to paint. Darn it. Should have just sucked it up and gone. :-(

busy last few days

The chicken show in San Francisco was on Monday. JJ and I left here a little before noon, and I think it only took about 2 hours to get there. Not a bad drive, though I must say I was grateful not to have to be the one driving! :-) Unfortunately when I printed out a google map I'd put in the wrong address...oops! But we found it. It was in a gallery at the California College of the Arts. It was a nice location other than being really hot. It was a warm day there, I can't imagine what that would be like in the summer with no air conditioning in there! There were I think 10 chicken people there, 20something birds, and art. And it got so crowded!!! The birds were photographed by so many people. It was really a lot of fun. I took my rooster out for a while and people really enjoyed petting him or getting to hold him, and I heard a lot of people exclaiming they had no idea chickens could be so pretty. So that was pretty cool. As far as art sales go..not so hot. I'd somehow managed to overlook the fact that most people who attended the show were probably students, so not exactly rolling in dough. But at least I can say I've had an art show in SF! It was a quirky little show but a lot of fun.

I took a few pics during setup but didn't manage to get any of how crowded it was.



My bird getting photographed.

My bird! Thanks AR for the photo. :-)

We got back here shortly before 11:30pm that night. It was just a one-evening show.

The next morning it took all my willpower to get out of bed at 6:45am. I left around 8:15 and headed off to Napa for a day of chickening at REJ's. I got there in about two hours. AR was there too, so we got the grand tour of the birds and took zillions of photographs. It was really neat, I had a good time there. Thanks REJ. :-) I will give you a CD with all the pics, maybe bring them to Indy and you can see them there and let me know which ones you want printed. Gotta warn you they didn't all turn out great..



The drive home was exhausting.

Speaking of which, I have to be up early tomorrow too for a farrier appointment at 8am (time to meet the new guy...), I'd best hit the hay.

it's always something

I called the tire store this morning and they said the new wheel was in and they could get it done in less than an hour. So I took the car in and proceeded to work on setting up my portfolio for about the next 45 minutes. And then the guy walked up to me with a rather sheepish look. I was afraid he was going to tell me my brakes were dead or the steering wheel fell off or they lost the car or something. Not quite that bad, but it turns out the wheel was the wrong size. He'd sent a guy back to the warehouse to pick up the right one, but that would take an hour, plus still having to wait for them to install it. *sigh* I didn't have that much work to do, and I'd already read their pathetic selection of magazines yesterday (I read all of Vogue, and fashion just horrifies me.)

So... I called Mom and she came into Elk Grove and picked me up. I had to be back in town at 2 to hang art in a coffee shop. So after eating some lunch I got the art stuff ready to go, made the labels and price tags, etc. I called the tire store at 1:15. No, they hadn't started yet but it would be done within the hour. Seeing as how I had to be in EG at 2, we left here again around 1:30, got to the tire store around 1:45. Not started yet. As soon as I went to the desk and asked about it they got right to work. But I had to leave so I ended up taking the art in the minivan and Mom took my car back home. I did notice the hubcap is still there, I'd better check it. Maybe they wheel they got really fits it, but the guy told me the hubcap would be too loose in the new wheel.

I hung 6 art pieces at Port City Java in Laguna. I am showing with Stacy Maeda. The downside to us showing together is people who don't know better may think it's all one person's stuff. But.. it does look nice together since it's all of a similar theme! Some pics:



And some really cute pics of the boys:

tire, tired?

I wrongly blamed the tire for the troubles. It's not the TIRE that leaks, it's the WHEEL. How weird is that. The guy at the shop said it's leaking around one of the welds or something. So I have to go back tomorrow to get a new wheel. Well, an old wheel, but new for me. It likely won't fit my really lovely plastic hubcaps though, so I'm going to be one of those people driving a car that's missing a hubcap. Shoot. Oh well, at this point as old as that car is I suppose it ought to be the least of my concerns.

Thank goodness this didn't happen on a poultry show weekend or I'd be up dooty creek. It holds air long enough to get into town and back but I sure wouldn't trust it on a long drive!

I was interviewed this morning for an article that will be printed in Hobby Farms magazine, probably in March. Hopefully I didn't say anything too stupid, I'm not great with interviews and usually manage to come up with something ridiculously boneheaded.

Upcoming Art Show!

I'm reposting this since the original got buried with the England pics:

I will be at this show, with a pair of BBRed Rosecombs and however much art I can take along too! There will be about 25 birds, 6 exhibitors, and I think 3 artists (me, Allison Reed, don't know the third).

the tire curse strikes again!

Wow, so it's been about a year since I had tire problems!!

I was on my way to run about a million errands today, the most important of which was dropping off a jacket to be embroidered up in Granite Bay. On a good day that's nearly an hour drive (or more, if I get lost) but at 3:30pm I was already cutting it close to make it there by the end of business hours. The only reason I was going late in the day was that I'm house-sitting and it's all in the same direction so it made sense not to have to drive up this way twice in one day.

Anyway, stopped at the gas station and I was putting dead dinosaur in the car when I happened to glance at the right front tire and think "hmm, that's not so good." It wasn't flat, persay, but it was extremely low. Not the sort of thing I wanted to be driving around with. But it looked like it would get me back home in one piece (only a few miles). And it did. I pumped it up and left it in the garage to see if it's a slow leak or what, moved all my stuff into the pickup, and eventually left again.

But it was too late to get to the store in time. Shoot! I'll have to do that first thing in the morning, as I am cutting it close anyway as far as turnaround time goes. It's going to cost a small fortune but by golly it's going to look GOOD, and it'll make me easy to find (and also make me completely not-anonymous, which may take some getting used to).

Stupid tire though, sheesh. I'll have to take that in Friday morning to be fixed. I'm not crazy about driving the truck, aka the little beast. It's not bad, but it has no airbags and the radio doesn't work. Plus it kinda smells funny so it makes for an interesting drive. Oh well.

If it ain't one thing it's another.

I am in search of some really nice cute chicken fabric for a project I'm working on. Somewhere in the red or pink spectrum. Not anything with a big border print on it. I'm not having much luck so if anyone knows of anything fabulous do let me know. I'm pretty picky though!

Game Fowl #5

Game Fowl #5 is now available on many many items in the CafePress Store (see link on right sidebar).