Why Rush....

If Candlemas....

... [February 2]

Painting by: Eugène Delacroix

be mild and gay,

Go saddle your horses and buy them hay;

But if Candlemas be stormy and black,

It carries the winter away on its back.

Looks like if we had horses we'd be saddling them up.  It was sort of mild and in between cloudy and sunny.  Then again...had it been yesterday we wouldn't have had to worry.  I was out on the farm in freezing rain doing my chores.

It was so nasty out the goats wouldn't even come out of their little shed for their grain.  I've never seen them resist grain before.  I just told them I understood completely and I wouldn't be out in this crap if I didn't have to either.  I then moved their bowls all in the shed for them (I'm nice that way).

Today when I pulled up the driveway I was greeted by ten domestic ducks waiting for me up by the barn.  As soon as the car stopped and I got out they started walking up quacking their greeting.  I had to laugh.  I just wish someone could have been with me taking pictures.

The goats were bleating their greetings, but I told them they'd have to wait...I had ten ducks to take care of first.  Meanwhile the ducks are following me into the food shed so I put the buckets up out of their reach to fill them with cracked corn.  They were all quacking their pleasure at the prospect of getting to eat.

I took off across the driveway and told them to come on down with me.  I'm sure it was quite a picture of me playing the Pied Piper walking down the muddy path....ten ducks waddling behind me...quacking with glee.  I walked out to the boat dock, opened the gate and started spreading the cracked corn over the dock....here they all come...the little herd of ducks....right through the gate and out on the dock.

Damn I'm a good duck herder....

ABC Wednesday....

on a Thursday.  I just found this at Mrs. Nesbitt's Place and thought it would be fun to join along.  Although I'm a letter and day behind.

B is for:

BOX

Heart shaped to be exact.  It's a present I made for my daughter last Valentine's Day.  I painted the top gold and aged it a bit.  For the sides I found the perfect paper to suit what I had in mind. 

There are "x's", "o's" and hearts painted on it.  I also antiqued it...now I needed to finish the top...

My daughter loves anything to do with the Oriental culture.  It was my first attempt and if I had to do it over I would have cut the excess white from the prominent picture of the woman with the fan.   She loved it anyway....

I got flapped today....

the wonderful husband suggested that as a blog title after I told him about my day on the farm.  I was explaining how I must have jinxed myself when I mentioned no swans had gotten out yesterday, only ducks.

Unlike ducks, the swans don't go for the ole "Hazel & Gretel" trick of leaving a trail of food.  Nope, swans you have to grab gently around the neck with the left hand and then throw your right arm across their entire body over the wing.  Today I got the neck right, but got my arm under his right wing.

I'm not tall enough to lift them over the fence, so I have to carry them out the boat dock gate and put them into the water.  These guys/gals weigh over forty pounds.  If you do it right it's not a problem.  Today was a problem.  The guy had his right wing loose so he started flapping it and I kept getting hit in the head with it.  Since he's got one wing loose he's trying to figure out how to get the other one free too.  I got flapped...but he made it safely into the lake.

I love it as a few of them spot me coming down the trail with a their two buckets of cracked corn and swan food.  It starts as a small racket of quacks and gradually gets louder as word gets out that I'm coming with food.  Today I laughed and yelled down asking why they didn't come help me carry it down (the wonderful husband reminded me they don't have arms).

The goats do the same thing when I pull up in the drive way.  I pull up to the barn and they're heading out of their shed bleating at me.  I always holler good day and tell them I'll be there shortly.  They're beginning to recognize me and one of the twins followed me around as I went to feed the peacocks.  I found out one of the older guys likes to have his rear scratched.  The harder I scratched the more his little tail wagged.

Have I mentioned how much I love my job.....

Email to my boss....

Painting by: Henry Clive

"Everything is going quite well "down on the farm".  I absolutely love doing that job as it's so peaceful there.  Just wanted to write you and have you pass on a little information to "M".

When I got there today four of the domestic ducks were out.  They were very easy to get back into the pond area.  They immediately came for the food I was carrying in the buckets.  What I did to get them back into the pond area was open the gate to the boat dock (where the feeders hang over the edge) and left a trail of food starting inside the gate out onto the dock.  They walked right in and I closed the gate afterwords.  I made sure each of them was able to get off the dock and into the water before I left.  A couple of them hissed at me...but I just told them to "hush" and explained I was there to feed them. =)  That seemed to do the trick."

Yes, I had ducks on the loose today!  They were much easier to get back in their enclosed area than the three swans I had to wrestle a couple of months back.  "M" is another pet care specialist who works for the company I do.  "M" is a great guy, it's just... "M" is a "city boy".

I remember the last time I worked the farm a couple months back and my boss wanted "M" to meet me there to show him the ropes.  This way if I can't do the job then they'd have someone else to cover.  "M" has never been around farm animals or water fowl before.  I assured him the goats wouldn't butt or bite him, but for the life of me I couldn't get him to take some of the fresh chicken eggs home with him.  I also assured him the ducks, geese and swans wouldn't attack him.  They might hiss, but just ignore them and go about your business.  I think he was amazed at my self assurance around the farm, until I explained I grew up down south and we'd had a goat, some chickens and a few ducks when I was growing up. 

"M" did the farm by himself for the first time last Thursday.....wish I could have been a fly on the wall in the chicken coop.... then again.....it's too cold for flies around here...

Back to stitching.....

Yes, between my breaks of playing Neopets that is.  I tell you...Lisa really got me addicted to Neopia.  Bad Lisa...bad...(just kidding).

I've decided to pull out a 1983 Anne Powell Heirloom Stitchery chart called "Home Sweet Home". I don't believe she's even in business anymore so I can't supply a link.  If I'm wrong about that please let me know.

I've had this chart for a loooong time.  A time before there were variegated or hand-dyed threads.  They don't even have blended threads listed...just abrupt color changes.  I remember starting it years ago on a nice gray fabric and didn't like it...so put it up and forgot about it.

When I found the chart again I was so excited.  It's perfect to use hand-dyed floss on.  I'm stitching the quote one over two in Carrie's Creation "Just Rust".  The fabric,a piece I found in my stash, is 36 ct. linen from Birds of a Feather called "Barn Owl".  You probably won't notice the subtle color changes in it until I'm further a long on the piece. To say I'm very pleased with the color changes in the floss is an understatement:

Loading the picture has got me itching to stitch on it some more......