Thankful Blogging Challenge

Thankful Blogging Challenge

Day #1: People, places or things…what are you thankful for?

Things I am thankful for :
My Family~  Laurie, Lynell, Sheri and their Families who are my Families :D
My Friends and my Tribe ~
              What Blessing all of you are and you know who you are you sly minxes 

My Critturs~
              What unconditional love looks like

The Scenery~ I live in a Progressive State which hasn't succumbed -so far- to Theocratic or Oligarchic pandering, nor has entirely bowed to H$U$ prohibition.

Cool stuff like a roof that doesn't leak, and a pellet stove that warms the place up.
Down blankets.
Down pillows with Salvation Army stain pillow cases.
Chest freezers full of chicken for the Kidz

Sleepy Time tea with honey
Song Dogs and the Howlelujah Choir

>^,,^<

Part Time Cook?

OH I hope so! A part time job might save my bacon. So far, 2012 is only better because I have Faith. Still short on the mortgage, but all the other bills are caught up.

I got a call back after about an hour after the interview! Even tho they said it would be 2-3 days before they would let me know for the *second round* of interviews! I'm pretty excited! I would be a good fit there IF my dumb leg will let me do the work that's needful. They serve whole foods, and use the local Farmer's Market and their own grown herbs and produce, plus canning! They only cook from scratch, not pre-packaged stuff. I have an appointment this Saturday as "Kitchen Assistant" which is basically cleaning up, prepping, and pulling stuff out of the various ovens to cool and finish. I'm really hoping my leg will allow me to function!

We had about 8" stuck in snow for about a week, pleasant actually, had enough wood pellets to have the heater on, had enough dog food to not have to go anywhere, and found enough stuff to make a nice turkey and rice casserole. Now it is raining, sometimes furiously so, sometimes just a pitter patter.

>^,,^<

A New Job!

Well, I got laid off from "my" Garden Center after 7 & a half years. I had 1 hours' notice. I moped about for a couple of weeks, dragging myself around the house trying to unpack some old boxes, and clean up stuff and do stuff that I should have done years ago, but hadn't. Basically, I was heart broken, and trying not to spiral into the blackness of depression.

Well, my good friend Phyllis Brinkley and her nephew Aaron bought the old Currinsville Store and I went and got my alcohol handler's license, and I waited, and prayed that maybe the economy would pick up just enough so they could hire me. Well, YAY! They did ! Not full time, only part time, but if I am very frugal, I should be able to get the bills paid, and keep the animals fed and cared for in the manner of which they have become accustomed.

Since we are moving into the cold season, I must admit that it is nice to not have to trek around all day in boots with 3 pairs of socks, on cold gravel, in a drafty building without heat in sub-freezing temperatures. Working in a Deli, and getting the restaurant bar up and running does not depend on weather. As a matter of fact, unlike gardening, customers generally come into a Restaurant when the weather is poor! This is a GOOD thing!

So I have begun dragging my cookbooks out, and visiting Foodie Blogs. I used to be a manager of an antiquarian bookstore, so when any of the vendors brought in books, I was often able to get first dibs. So I have a pretty good selection of "specialty" cookbooks: Soups, Salads & Starters; Spice Island Cookbook; Regional Recipes from Famous Restaurants of the 60's; Seafood; Cheese; Friends of the Wolf; Around the World Regional Recipes; Native American; Irish; Crock Pot Cookery; 365 recipes each for Pasta/Chicken/Woks; even a sushi/sashimi cookbook! I'm going to go get my food handler's license as well. This is pretty exciting! All four of us who work here are great cooks on their own, I really think we can offer a fun Foodie experience!!

Here's to new experiences!!

>^,,^<

Untitled As Yet?

I saw this book available through Amazon the other day:
Part Wild The author came to our home and met with my friend Dianne, and spoke with her at length about living with wolfdogs. She met one of my mentors, Sue Cranston, who runs Indigo Mountain Nature Center She met with many other extraordinary wolfdog owners and she met honest-to-God high content "mostly wolf" pet wolfdogs, with owners who have proper containment, who train their pets to behave, and not act like heathens, who interact with them with loving care. This lady met, face to face, the "real deal", but even the Truth sticking right in her face could not dislodge the preconceived notions she has of the "poor lost wolfdog, always caught between two worlds", and "the cruel lot of the wolfdog, forced to live in confinement and always yearning to be free", etc etc ad naseum.

It made me want to scream. It made me want to shake her till her pigtails popped. And after a few days, it made me pick up one of my journals that I hadn't gotten around to writing in yet, and start to write. I mean, I figure if I bend me to it, if I write every day, and fill this book with my experiences since MY first wolfdog way back in 1987 to date, well if a pack of misinformation and preconceived ill-considered thoughts of a woman with a low content, poorly trained and socialized malamute mix would sell, I wonder if the thoughts and experiences of an animal welfare advocate and responsible wolfdog owner and the trials and errors I've lived through with my babies would sell.

My experiences are far different from this woman's. I started out with a wolfdog of the same approximate content as she did, but I actually LISTENED when I was first told that my "pet wolf" was "mostly dog". I listened, and I researched, and I went around the country and met other people's pets, from low content wolfdogs to pure wolves. There are places I still wish to go, (Indigo Mountain, for one!) but I don't do much traveling anymore, except back to my Home town for Christmases to see my Mom and my Tribe... I have my babies to consider.

I've seen a lot of books out about why wolfdogs make lousy pets, but very few about the good side of sharing your life with a wolfdog. Well, maybe it's time that changed.

I started last night. All part of my re-invention scheme!
>^,,^<

The Great Quiche Experiment. Fun with Chickens!

Last year I boarded a couple of Bloodhounds for a friend. He also had five chickens which I took care of. When he found his new home, he asked me if I wanted the chickens. I said *SURE!* So I named four of them after the Golden Girls, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer... Buffy is a bit of a snob, you see. But the Golden Girls are REALLY sociable! There's Sofia, a light red Rhode Island Red hen, Dorothy, who is MUCH darker red, and also a Rhode Island Red. Buffy is an Ameraucauna, she lays blue-ish green eggs that are really pretty! Easter Eggers, they call these hens..and Blanche and Rose are black hens of extraordinary beauty. I believe they are Australorps. So after I lived with these five, Greig came home "with a new beak for Wolfdancer Creek" a Black Star pullet we named Belinda, the Chicken Who Saved Oz. Then I bought two more Black Stars, Grace and Faith, because Buffy -who was low hen in the pecking order - decided she just moved up a rank, and she really gave Belinda what-for... So I thought having 2 more pullet hens would make life a little easier for Belinda.
A bit about Belinda. Her name came from the Wizard of Oz series. L. Frank Baum wrote several books about Oz. In "The Road to Oz" we are introduced to "Billina the Yellow Hen". I didn't remember her name right, I remembered her as "Belinda". Billina saves Oz from the Goblin King. Turns out the Goblin King is deathly afraid of eggs, so Billina pelts him with eggs, and saves everybody. So Belinda is the Chicken Who Saved Oz at Wolfdancer Creek.


So, then I had all these eggs.. EVERYbody was laying! I was getting a dozen a day! Luckily, I am a member of Certified Naturally Grown, a grass roots organic certification program, so I can sell them as free ranging spoiled rotten "better than organic" eggs... But still... What to do with this many eggs? Enter the world of quiche!
My first quiche

preparatory to being popped into the oven.
OK, well, my first TWO quiches




They were delicious! And despite what they say about real men and quiche, Greig gave them the "Two Forks Up" award for Nummyness.

Sadly, a coyote came in and killed Dorothy and Grace. Rose got broody, so a friend of mine gave me six little mixed eggs (Rhode Island Red/Delaware/Red Star) that Rose has been a'settin' with great glee. She is a GOOD Mommy, and every day I go and sit with her and rub her neck behind her head while she "cooos" at me... It is a strange sound, not a *bawk* but more of a murmur. I think she will be a very good Mommy when the babies hatch. We're trying to figure out where the 'yotes came in from, and will be fencing off yet another parcel. Greig mowed so the 'yote can't hide in the tall grasses anymore. So far, so good... But 'yotes are smart, and this one has my number... So I might have to shoot a coyote, something I am SOOOOO not looking forward to doing... But I have to protect my little Ladies!

In Memory of Dorothy, a chicken of rare beauty and strong personality . A True Golden Girl! Her namesake would have been proud of her. Depending on how many hens I get out of my six eggs, I think I shall name them Grace, Hope, and maybe, if there's a really strong personality in this clutch, I shall name her Dorothy. I look forward to my new babies!

>^,,^<

Howls

Time for bed, me. The storm(s) have been pulsing through in waves, a land-locked estuary..this latest with lots of wet and wind... The wind is howling through whichever screens it can wrap its' gnarled and whispery fingers into.. It moans into the very air I breathe.

The Song Dogs join in, adding an amoebic element to the night's kareoke. Their songs rely only upon their personal ranges Alto, soprano, baritone, tenor, and their own style. Song Dogs, like Humans, have preferences. Some are jazz singers, their voices scatting and free. Some are Country, with a deep throaty "whiskey whisper" tone, and some are Classical, with their formality and power.

The songs of the Song Dogs are always filled with passion, and with a tender sorrow tinged with unutterably joy. The song of a Song Dog is like a verbal description of a sunset on a clear, yet snow-bedazzled day to a blind woman. It is like a kenetic
energy translated into the verbalization of the pumping of heart's blood.

The Book of Changes

By the look of the date of my last Blog post, I shouldn't wonder if all believe that I have disappeared into a puff of blue smoke. Au Contraire, Mon Amis ! I am still quite lively and still making terrible landscaping mistakes in the Pacific Northwest.

At this moment, I am drenched with a goodly or Godly, depending upon your viewpoint, amount of good ol' fashioned PNW clay, and Teufel, about evenly mixed and measured with weeds and grasses stuck between my toes. I have been working vigorously upon the "New Do" of the Perennial Winged Garden. Greig moved one of the "lost bath tubs" into the garden, and in a group effort, the Good Folks of Wolfdancer Creek hoisted it up on blocks with a slight incline towards the drain hole, stuffed several buckets of river rock and then 4 squished peat pots covered with bags of Teufel and Black Gold. Then I stuffed it with plants! The vholes and the crack grass took over my last attempt, so this time 'round, I thought I'd mix it up with big containers. I planted Zagreb Coreopsis, one white double Crazy Daisy, and then some Firebird Penstemon along one side to help hide the exposed cast iron innards, and planted a deep purple cup and saucer Campanula Canterbury Bells, a cluster of three Delphiniums, a line of different types of Rudbeckia - Irish Eyes and the standard Black-Eyed Susans- then along the back, Echinacea, Liatris, Queen Victoria Lobelia, Cosmos, and a Joe Pye Weed(Eupatorium maculatum) a striking bee attractant along with Monarda, Joseph Kline and Blue Stockings. The front of the bath tub will have a curry plant, a silver Artesmia, and a bunch of pansies and violas. I figured I'd hope for a naturalization thing. :~)

Along the side of that planting, along the next blank space after a butterfly bush which will REQUIRE! heavy pruning this year! I stuffed a bunch of petunias in a Radio Flyer red wagon, and in a broken fountain. The fountain also has dwarf trailing snap dragons in it. First time I've purposefully planted annuals.

I'll take pictures. I have a new camera, and am trying to learn how to use it.

:~) We're Sanctuary here. :~) Life is Good. Bright Blessings!

>^,,^<

Painting 101

OK< here's the first installment of my very first Painting. I am using the layering techniqu, since it is more forgiving for the steep learning curve I have ahead of me.

The first underlayer of white


The second underlayer of burnt umber


Got some greens in for the background


Added in some yellows for shadings


Here's my first layer of the fur, in burnt umber mixed with black


That's it until I get the next roll developed. I am actually delighted, it seems like some REAL artist is channeling through me, because it's turning out pretty nice ! Obviously, as I go along, I have to change where I photograph this painting, AND subsequently, where I paint, as the light hits the paint and just vanishes it in glare.

>^,,^<

Painting 101

REALLY steep learning curve, I had to start a journal as well to write down my successes and failures IE: my lessons... Still have so many to go! so much to learn..

For instance, what are the benefits and weaknesses of going from light-to-dark paint, VS dark-to-light paints?

I find that the InterNets often don't have the information I require, OR I don't have the questions phrased correctly enough for Google to Google.

Sketching in my second canvas. The first one is coming along well. Since the subject is mostly dark, I have been painting dark-to-light. If I tried light-to-dark, I'd have these eyes staring out from deep within the recesses of dark fur, quite over whelming them, methinks. I want the eyes to dominate the picture.

Obviously a SHORT blog post, I get to go to dinner with my Sweetie. For Valentine's Day. *beam* Happy Chocolate Dreams !

>^,,^<

The Paintbox of my Mind !

Well, I did it ! I scrimped and saved, and I sent away for some new oil painting brushes. The rat bastadge Movers Paul Arpin Van Lines (now Arpin Van Lines) the most HORRIBLE unethical bunch of ratbastadge nincompoop idiots I EVER had the misfortune of dealing with, lost one (of many) of my belongings, this one was a box of art supplies, which included couple hundred dollars worth of nice brushes.

PS~ If you ever want to have your furniture destroyed, (broken hardwood table legs, scratches a quarter of an inch deep on your hardwood dressers) your belongings lost, (boxes, my Hammond organ for three months, and when they found it, it no longer works, so I have to hire a tube specialist to repair it) with the added bonus of having your contract doubled upon arriving and having the rest of your belongings held hostage until you can pony up twice as much CASH as you had agreed upon, PLUS having the delightful experience of being told by the district attorney's office that there ain't ONE damned thing they are willing to do about it, regardless of how many pictures you have supplied of ravaged belongings.. I tell you, it's like a rape. So, if you want to just rape yourself with no vaseline, hire Paul Arpin Van Lines to do your moving for you ! They will gladly lie to you and take your money for inferior service and superior destruction.

But I digress.

I wanted to get a lovely set of laminated wooden rainbow-colored brushes by Papillon but I can no longer find them online, and the gal who said she'd order them for me has been just too busy to keep her promise, darn it... She's juggling lots of plates! So I had to settle. But I got a nice deal, good sturdy wooden handles, came with a nice wooden case, natural bristle brushes... And I picked up some turpentine to clean my brushes when I'm done for the day, and a couple of palettes.

I had taken a beautiful picture of Nihki Roxie, she's looking straight at me, and it's nice and sharp. So I gathered all my materials, my easel and canvasses that Dian & Mary Claire bought me, my paint box full of paints, my new brushes, an old sheet, and I am beginning a new project!

I have successfully translated what I see on the photograph onto the canvas, using a pencil, and I called my friend Jane who is an artist and we talked for about an hour on my next step. I didn't want to lose the detail and I've never oil painted before ! *laughs* I can't take a photo of the canvass at THIS point, pencil does not photograph well at all.. But I will take some pictures of the progress as I go along.

I realized I have to get a few more tubes of paint, and I must get some linseed oil before I can start putting brush to canvas, but I've been studying, and learning, and getting my fingers dirty exploring the colors I do have.... OOOOOOO rainbow fingers!

I'm quite excited, and I hope that I can translate what I "see" in my head with what I put on the canvas!

>^,,^<

The Golden Book of Possibilities Chapter One

Merry Christmas, first of all, and a Happy Glorious Rich and Juicy New Year!

I have this problem. Sometimes when I read, I read things cockeyed. It's not quite dexlysia, because it's not backwards, it's just... different. For example, "Sycuan Bingo Palace" easily becomes "Szechuan Bingo Police", and leads one to wonder, what will they do? "M'am, You didn't finish your Kung Pao Chicken. I'm afraid we'll going to have to fine you 30 chips."

So I find this note that I have written reminding me of something or other, and it says "The Golden Book of Possibilities". And I think, wow ! that's cool... It's like the Little Golden Book series we had as kids, filled with POSSIBILITIES! No wait, it's really the "Garden Book of Perennials", but man I am running with it.

So this then, is Chapter One of "The Little Golden Book of Possibilities."

The hoar frost sits crunchy and heavily on the grass crispy and white as a fine dusting of snow, but not. It is crystalline, it is magic, it's a tweener thing, hoar frost, not snow, not ice, not water, not quite solid. And it makes the most mundane things glorious. A piece of garden netting becomes lace left behind by the garden faes hurried dawn flight.

The guinea hens patrol the backyard, in an amoeba movement ,three for all, and all for three.

I got some pictures back of my puppy Grrrrl. Here is one particularly lovely one. I think she is a stunningly beautiful grrrrl.



Off to Seattle for Christmas dinner!

Chapter Two will be forthcoming.

>^,,^<