February 27 work in progress, etc.

Sorry I've been so bad about blogging lately. No good excuse, just haven't been in the mood for it.

I am working on an order for another scrimshaw bee pendant. The bee itself will be pretty much exactly the same as the first one that I did (well, aside from the fact that since it's done by hand and each piece requires a fresh batch of ink it therefore will of course be somewhat different...). This pendant will be oval instead of rectangular though. I'm really making an effort NOT to look at photos of the first bee pendant I did, since I don't want to get hung up on wondering exactly how I did it and exactly what colors I used. Just want to go for it anew! I've started with the darkest areas.


For other entertainment, here's a carefully arranged photo of a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake that I made. It cracked badly, my cheesecake baking skills need honing. Sometimes I get it just perfect, other times not! Clearly I need more people in my life to come over and eat cheesecake so I can practice more!


I seem to have officially started collecting eggs for hatching. They produced a whopping zero eggs yesterday and a whopping two eggs today, so I guess that's a start. I'll fire up the 'bater mid week and make sure it's running well.

meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Whoops! Kinda forgot to blog there for a bit. Hmm, let's see, what news do I have...

I updated Random Rosecombs. Finally! Yes! For the first time in like 8 years or something. It was outdated and ugly, and now it's bright and shiny and new. I added lots of pics that had only previously been on the blog, and I deleted a ton of stuff. I will endeavor to keep it updated.

It must be the time of year for wanting to unclutter things, I'm going through my room and studio again to see what I can either get rid of or throw away or pack up (um, or sell!). I'm obsessed with plastic storage boxes. Five dollars for the big ones at Big Lots! Oh my! I might even have to go back and buy MORE of them!

I went to a poultry show in Fresno on Saturday (remind me to stop doing this as a day trip, ugggh that's too long of a day!). My birds had their feathery little butts thoroughly kicked by some gorgeous competition, but I had a good time anyway (could have done without the food poisoning though, blarg!). My chickeny friends are good people, they mean a lot to me. :-) So that's it for the season for me, a whopping three shows. Kinda sad that I won't see most people for about a year. I don't know yet if I'll attend any fall shows in 2011. Best not to count on that happening...

The birds are in breeding pens now. I'll be hatching Black, BBRed, and Blue is kind of experimental. If someone urgently wants to raise Brassies/Blue Brassies I can ship eggs from them, but otherwise I'm really not planning to hatch any of them. They were pretty disappointing this last year, there is very little interest in them because they're non-standard colors, so... eh. Anyway, they're barely laying yet but I should be turning on the incubator in about two weeks I guess. Oy vey, it's hard to think about that already. The last couple years I haven't done this til June!

Next up in scrimshaw: another bee!

The Toucan Knife

I finished this knife late the night before I left for the FEGA show in Reno, and delivered it back to the William Henry Studio that weekend. I was not able to photograph the knife myself because I never had the assembled knife in hand. I only had parts.

Photo of completed knife courtesy of William Henry Studio:

This is a scan of the scrimshaw, and the color here is more accurate than on the photo of the whole knife:

Interested in purchasing this knife? Contact William Henry Studio.

air compressor update

For anyone wondering what happened to the air compressor with the hole in the tank...

My super amazing wonderful brilliant neighbor took it for the weekend and had a look at it. He determined that the tank is in rather bad shape, probably from having sat with a rather large quantity of water and crap in the tank before I acquired it. The metal was too thin and rusted to have a screw threaded into it (what the company recommended as a patch). So it has a temporary patch but ultimately is going to need a new tank.

I was afraid of that...

These little tiny quiet compressors and their little tiny parts are not cheap!

what I did on Valentines Day

The day began like any other, and it was an uneventful morning of running errands in town. After lunch, I walked out front to get the mail, and I thought I heard hoofbeats at the end of the long driveway. Curious. I walked out there, and there in the distance I could see a tall man in a cowboy hat riding a massive jet black Friesian up the road. Oh my. Be still my beating heart.

He approached, dismounted, and strode confidently toward me. I’ve never believed in love at first sight but this was it. Head over heels, smitten, I’d found my Prince Charming, my Farmboy, my Han Solo, my knight in shining armor. The skies opened and the angels sang. Literally. Bluebirds and robins draped fanciful ribbons in my hair, and chipmunks and bunnies frolicked at my feet. We talked for hours, and learned that we were perfect for each other... He handed me a single red rose, and said he’d be searching for me his whole life.

I practically threw myself into his arms. He asked me to join him for dinner at his ranch and I eagerly accepted. With a few quick words into his cell phone, minutes later his private jet landed in the field next door.

We (and the friesian too) boarded the jet and flew to his castle… in Jackson Hole (“all the barns and chicken coops are heated this time of year,” he said). It was a spread of thousands of acres, endless trails to ride, endless animals to photograph. We dined on steak and garlic bread and mashed potatoes… and cheesecake. Lots of cheesecake. After dinner he gave me a tour of the castle. The bedroom was lavishly decorated, and beautifully adorned in my favorite colors. There was a huge canopy bed with silk sheets. He took me in his big strong manly arms, and….

Olin jumped on my head, and I woke up.

And it was a day like any other. No flowers, no hot dates. I did make a chocolate peppermint angelfood cake though. If you’ve never had a home-made angelfood cake, you are seriously missing out.

riding in cars with roosters

I went up to Eureka, CA over the weekend. That's about 300 miles northwest along the coast. It's really a beautiful drive, which is a large part of the reason I don't mind driving that far for a poultry show! It also happens to be my favorite show. It's fun, relaxing, people seem more at ease there versus other shows. And I have some darn good friends up there. Huge ginormous thank you to Dan, my "host with the most" (lol!) for letting C.S. and I crash at the house! You are awesome. :-) Late nights on the couch discussing all sorts of interesting things, Mexican hot chocolate on the stove in the morning, a comfy bed with flannel sheets, ahhhh. I like these new traditions!

C.S. carpooled with me and brought a bunch of her son's Polish, and I hereby declare that Polish are horrible to ride in the car with, because they NEVER SHUT UP. I think those roosters crowed the whole time. I was about to go crazy by the time we got home. They are much louder than my birds. I decided it's because they can't really see anything with those ridiculous poofs on their heads, so they must just make noise all the time, in case there's a reason, even though they can't see whether there's a reason or not. My word.

The show was great. A couple of head-scratchers about the judging, but that's typical. One of my Black Rosecomb pullets took Reserve Champion Bantam and Best of Class, so I'm very happy about that. The last several year's worth of decreased interest and LATE hatching have taken a toll on the overall quality. I've got my work cut out to get the males back to where they need to be, but I'm stickin' with it, just limiting the number of colors I'll breed and not showing as much anymore. I've got one more show coming up and then I'm done for the season. I set up breeding pens last week, and will be starting to collect eggs soon.

How bout some pics!

Chicken spa! Ha ha.


This is why you shouldn't feed the ducks. It attracts more ducks. There were about a dozen standing around the car by the time I finished my lunch on the drive up on Friday.

Driving along the Avenue of the Giants on the way home on Sunday.

And this isn't even all that big compared to some of the other trees!

The Eel River (I think?)

I felt the need for another scenic detour, so I took Hwy 16 through the Capay Valley (and I saw a Bald Eagle, woo hoo!). This is a charming place called "Cowboy Camp" near the intersection of 16 and 20. I'd love to ride there. I always see it at a bad time of day for taking photos but it's very pretty.

And look, cowboys! Be still my beating heart! ;-)

The drive to the next show won't be nearly as scenic (Fresno).

how I spent my birthday

I washed a lot of chickens, and talked more on the phone than I have done in a LONG time, and went out for a very nice dinner. My dear friends, you mean a lot to me. :-) *hugs*

um, what IS that?

Facebook is really throwing the online dating ads at me lately. They must be ramping it up before Valentines Day or something. And they like to put ads in front of me for "mature singles" (do they mean older or just not immature?), "romance a millionaire" (yeah, right!), and so forth. Oh yes, and lately there's one for "romantic horseback rides with men who share my passion." Oooookay, right. But what, pray tell, IS this in the photo????

Is that a centaur? With a horse head? What the heck?!?!?

well that sucks!

No, actually, that blows! And I'm being totally literal so don't get all weird about me saying that, I'm not even being crude. ;-)

I finally lugged the air compressor out from behind the engraving bench today. Remember a while back I said I was surprised because the compressor was kicking on even with the airgraver was off? Well, I hadn't been using the airgraver all that much lately except for some parts of the toucans... out of sight, out of mind. Anyway I thought I knew what was wrong, I thought I either needed to put a clamp on one of the hose connections, or else tighten the regulator.

I did both those things, but could still hear just the faintest hissing sound. Was that a slight bit of breeze underneath the air tank perhaps? Ah, so maybe the drainage valve was leaking!

Alas, no, while running my hand under the tank suddenly a tiny chip of paint flew off and all the air came hissing out through a hole that was now the size of a pencil lead. Must have been a pin prick size before. There had been a lot of gunk built up in the tank that I had to drain when I got it, so probably the inside of the tank is all rusted.

I emailed tech support to see about getting a new air tank. In the mean time, no compressed air. Good thing I don't have anything going on that needs it right now.

Anyone want to get me an air tank for my birthday? Heh heh. *sigh*

It's always something.

pics from my day

Trog came over for a play date with Angus today! Yay!




Angus is pretty funny looking when all his face parts are flapping. ;-)

Gorgeous sunset tonight with a sliver of moon. That's kind of a Cheshire Cat moon...






Reflection on the swimming pool: