Eggs!

The little pullets are all grown up, they've started laying sweet little brown eggs. Can you see the difference? Little pullet egg on the left, large senior hen egg on the right. Maybe this angle is better?

This means that I'll be getting four to six eggs a day. I already have two dozen in the ice box, and that was when I was getting two eggs a day. I used to sell the extra eggs to my co-workers in the Cities, but I don't get up there anymore.

Does anybody have a good recipe using eggs? The more eggs the better? There are only so many omelettes one can eat in a week.

Prototypes

I've been busy making prototypes, learning something new from each one I put together. Experimenting with zippers, snaps, buttons, linings. I'm not to the point where I feel I could sell these at full price. On some, the foundation fabric is fraying. I thought the felting process would stop it, but it didn't. I have to come up with a different method of sewing or adding a full lining.

I am going to be offering up these prototypes at $20.00, and thought I'd give you guys first shot. If you're interested, drop me a line at annie at maplecorners daht cahm.

1. Clutch with natural black alpaca with blue silk accents, hook and eye top closure, zippered silver gray floral lining. Measures app 4 by 10.

2. Wristlet with natural brown alpaca, and dyed reds/terra cotta/brick alpaca/wool/silk/nylon blend. Zippered red/multi southwestish lining, wood button flap closure, and measures app 5 1/2 by 7 1/2.

3. Clutch from natural black alpaca/purple silk accents, zippered silver gray floral lining, silver metal button flap closure, measures app 5 1/2 by 7 1/2.

4. Large wristlet from blues alpaca/wool/silk/nylon blend, silver button flap closure, black wool blend zippered lining, measures app 6 by 11.

5. Wristlet of natural black alpaca with blue mohair accents, silver button flap closure, zippered black wool blend lining, measures app 5 by 8.

This next one is going to my friend P who went to Texas with me. It is made from some of the "Texas Memory" colorway suggested by Rick.

On all of these, I have used buttons and fabric from my stash. This one amazes me. Look how well that matches. Oh, and the zipper on this one is from Mom.

I apologize for this commercial interruption. I really do try to keep this space separate from the business website.

A friend is being a vendor at a wool festival near the Cities Mother's Day weekend, and has offered to bring some of my stuff, since I don't think I'll make it this year. (Whine, whine) In other words, off to more experimenting/back to work.

A new pasture!

With the price of gas so high, and from pure laziness (I hate mowing!), I strung some electric rope and created a new pasture for the animals to eat. I mean, why mow using a gas powered fume spewing machine when I have these guys? The rope isn't actually connected to a fencer because I don't want to use electric fence with Mom around. They can walk right through it if they want to. They would still be fenced in, I just wanted to try to keep them from the whole yard/garden. Anyway, they may be a little happy.

Art of Alzheimer's

I found this on the kitchen counter yesterday. It makes me laugh.

My sister came over yesterday to watch Mom for a while. I used the time to clean out the chicken coop. The chickens are happy I did! It was cold and windy, but it felt good to be out doing something physical.

My nephew (5) came out and helped when I was just about done. I sent him back to the house with the one egg I collected. My sister said that he came in house, crouched down with his hand underneath him, bak baked a couple of times, handed her the egg, then went back outside. He sure does have a sense of humor.

He is very paranoid about poop. So when we walked by the poop pile (llamas and alpacas generally poop in a communal poop pile, unlike other animals which poop all over a pasture), I pointed it out to him so he could avoid it. We finished feeding the animals some hay, and started back to the house. He ran ahead, (the energy of a 5 year old!) and I could see he was headed for the large pile of composted manure, which just looks like a hill of dirt. I yelled, hey, that's poop! It was too late. He was already on it. In midstride he lifted himself up and barely touched the ground as he flew over it, making little squeeks of disgust the whole time. At that point, I wasn't sure if it was all an act to make me laugh, so I laughed inwardly so as not to hurt his feelings.

It was a good day.

Tripod art

Yesterday when the roof guys were here tarping the house, they took this off the roof. I believe it used to hold an antenna.

At first I thought, oh great, where do I take this to get rid of it. My recent visit to the Cathedral of Junk made me look at it in a different light though.

It is very sturdy, about 5 feet tall, probably adjustable although I haven't tried, has bracket feet with screw holes at the bottom which you can't see because they are covered with snow (I may be a little bitter, but really I can't complain because up north got 6-8 inches), but I could drive tent stakes through them to secure to the ground. I'm thinking I can use it in the garden, plant peas or beans or cucumbers around it, and a climbing they will go. Or maybe a tomato plant in the middle, it is strong enough to act as a tomato cage. Hmmm. Any other suggestions?

Excitement

I was on the phone last night, talking with a friend, when I heard a noise outside. It sounded like something was on the deck. I looked around the living room, there were the two dogs. Hmm, what was that? I quickly turned on the outside deck light, and looked through the patio door curtain. Raccoon. It explored my deck furniture, then started climbing up the corner of the house. I tried yelling at it, but it ignored me and continued up onto the roof. I didn't really think anything of it, figuring it would find the way down when I turned out the light and quieted the dogs.

I went outside to do chores this morning, and found this when I came back to the house.

The stupid (I won't say what I actually called it.) raccoon tore off part of my roof, and created a small hole. As far as we can tell, the raccoon isn't in my attic.

Of course, it had rained off and on all night, and is expected to continue most of the week. There is some water in one of the closets where it leaked through. Aaaauurrrgh!

There is now a piece of plywood over the hole, and the whole roof is covered in tarps. I didn't want the little sucker to come back and continue the destruction.

I knew I needed a new roof, but this is ridiculous. Out of curiosity, I checked with my homeowner's insurance agent. Damages caused by wild animals are not covered.

Lollipop, Lollipop, ooh, Lolly Lolly Lolly Lollipop

Sorry, now you might have that song in your head just like I do.

Last night I did a load of Mom's laundry. As I was transferring it from the dryer to her bedroom, this fell to the floor.

A perfect lollipop flower. Mom likes to take roving that I'm using, play with it a while, and then stick it in her pocket. She must have snitched this, and had it in her pocket for safekeeping. When it went through the wash, it felted into this perfect little flower. We couldn't duplicate this if we tried! It looks like maybe it was rolled into a spiral? I don't know how she did it, but I love it. I might attach it to a piece of flat felt and frame it.

It is dark, gray, and windy here today, so getting the photo was a bit of an adventure. It was too dark in the house to get a good shot, so I took it outside to my improvised light box. It is really just the trunk of my car, but on an overcast day it works pretty good. I am essentially a lazy person, so actually making a light box is just too much for me.

Where was I? Oh yes, it is windy. The flower is just a little thing, so it kept blowing away when I was trying to take the photo. I tried letting go just before I pressed the shutter.

Nope, that didn't work. For some reason though, this photo makes me laugh.

I've been told that I am easily amused.