heylucy

chickie

In between scrubbing the toilet and bathtub, I made something yesterday. A chicken, of course! Although I confess it is not actually my pattern, it's from the very talented Lyn of Molly Chicken. It was a fun little thing to make, and I made it pretty small, she's about 6  inches, not including the comb and legs. I think she will make a good gift for a little chicken loving visitor arriving next week. I can't wait to give it to her!

Later today I'll be making a batch of oatmeal cranberry butterscotch cookies. I didn't mention that I took the last batch to work, and they were polished off very quickly. I heard that someone tried to steal the entire jar, and someone else offered to pay my $5 for 5 cookies. He was dead serious too. So I guess the recipe is a keeper. I thought I'd share it here, so you can be popular with your friends and co-workers too.

Oatmeal Cranberry Butterscotch Chip Cookies   
1 1/2 c. unbleached flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. unsalted butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. oatmeal (not instant)
2 c. butterscotch chips
1 c. dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Combine butter and sugars until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture. Stir in oatmeal, butterscotch chips and cranberries. Drop by the spoonful onto an un-greased cookie sheet and bake 13-15 minutes.

 

spring cleaning

I'm busy spring cleaning today, so this is just a quick post to share some craft/antique show treasures, featuring my lovely assistant, Ruby. The chickens and Bear find that they must all be in exactly the same spot as me when I am outside. Do they not understand that I have personal space issues? I guess it's nice to be loved. More than one chicken has had her toes stepped on because she just could not get out of my way.

I got some cute wooden shoes and tiny jello molds at craft show on Saturday. I have to work on my bargaining skills, however. Especially as I plan on going to the Rose Bowl Flea Market later during my Four Weeks off (did you think I wasn't going to mention it again? Wrong!). I spied the wooden shoes on the ground and quickly snatched them up before anyone else could see them, not thinking that maybe not everyone loves wooden shoes like I do. I approached the seller and asked, "How much?" I got all flustered when he said, "How much were you thinking?" I don't know, I don't know! I just really like them and they're old and have a great patina and I just want them and I don't want to insult you by offering too little. "$15?" "Uh, I was thinking a little less, $12?" Okay, I'll take them! Doh! I have about 3 weeks to work on my technique. I mean, really, would he have been insulted if I said $5? Of course I couldn't try to bargain him down below $12 after I offered $15, right? Gah! I'm so not prepared for the flea market experience. Any helpful hints would be welcomed.

clothesline

While I'm on my Four Week sabbatical an item at the top of my to-do list is to install a clothesline. I didn't realize however that I would be doing something so revolutionary. I'm glad I'll be saving the planet and thumbing my nose at all those homeowners associations (I refuse to live in a tract home with a homeowners association anyway, because I just don't want someone telling me what color I can paint my house and that I have to mow my lawn). Really, though, I just like to be outside and I'm a total cheapskate, so a clothesline seems like a nice idea. I would like to address one item in that article, however. How on earth do you have an $1,120 electric bill?! I get really peeved when ours goes up over a hundred dollars in the middle of summer when the husband insists on running the air conditioner day and night. That's great that the author thinks she's making a difference in the world by hanging up her clothes, but I really want to know what they have plugged in to use that much energy? She's quite proud of the fact that they then reduced their bill to a mere 500-something dollars. Still, what the heck are you running when you pay that kind of utility bill? Also, do you really think Al Gore is out there hanging up his laundry on the clothesline? I'd love to see a picture of that.

Photos:

1. venice, 2. paper crane, 3. luft, 4. clothesline, 5. Bandanas, 6. I'll Run Away With You to a Small Town., 7. laundry, 8. Forgotten, 9. No wind.., 10. dresses dry, 11. gran pavese, 12. Clothesline, 13. rooftop, 14. Les culottes blanches sur le mur--The white underwear on the wall, 15. Not a good day for washing........, 16. Country living

sabbatical

I have about 15 different things I want to photograph and talk about, but I'm recovering from an energy-sucking cold that appeared last Friday and is finally on it's way out the door, so pictures will have to wait. I have three more days of work and then, and then...Four Weeks Off! How happy am I about this? Oh so happy! I have big plans and big lists and a trip to Disneyland with my cute, worm-loving niece, somewhere in the middle of all that. Do you know what I am going to do on Monday? I am going to put a big, fat dent in the $250 gift card to a new spa that recently opened in a nearby town (I got the gift card for Valentine's day, lucky me!). I'm going to my favorite Thai restaurant for lunch, I'm going to hit a few thrift stores and antique malls, and I'm going to visit my acupuncture doctor who does wonderful things with those little needles. And then I will have four weeks to make things! I will be making things for my poor, neglected shop, I will be painting rooms and hanging curtains and Spring cleaning, and blogging about it all! Oh the things I can do when I don't have to spend two hours every day in my car and another one running errands and another eight working. I don't have any pictures of my own to share at the moment, but I just love these sconces. I think I would like two little houses to replace the hideous country style sconces in my living room. They will have to wait, however, until I tear down the equally hideous wallpaper, complete with the duck decoy border that I have lived with for nearly five years. It might just be gone during my Four Weeks Off! Four weeks! You'll be hearing a lot from me during the next, oh I don't know, four weeks or so.

accomplishment

I have no idea where the last week went. There were no big events, just a lot of little regular-life busy-ness. I've so been wanting to make something, but haven't been able to find the time and the energy both at once. Last night I decided that I had to just make something, anything, so I made a batch of cookies. I tried a new-to-me recipe from a book I checked out of the library. Yummy! They're Oatmeal Cranberry Butterscotch Chip cookies. What a good idea! The dried cranberries are a nice little twist on the usual raisens, and who doesn't like butterscotch chips? I'll be making these regularly. Another secret to these, I think, is that they use more brown sugar than white. I like brown sugar.

I had big plans to take an artistic egg picture for Easter, but every shot I ended up with was blurry or silly looking. I blame the slight bug that seems to have landed at our house this weekend. We were both feeling pretty rundown, although I've managed to escape the worst of it, the husband is all sniffly and miserable. We napped a lot this weekend. I tried again this morning, but this was about the best I could do. I think the eggs themselves are so pretty. We're getting a nice variety now, and they've been getting bigger. We're up to about 10 a day. I think I'm going to have to open an egg stand this weekend.

It's such a feeling of accomplishment, looking at this big pile of eggs. I raised 26 chickens from the time they were two days old, 8 have gone on to good homes, and I have 17 happy little hens, and a handsome, nice rooster. Not too bad for a girl from the suburbs! I sort of feel like I can do just about anything now!

The broody hen has finally been broken. It took a few days in the pen by herself, and a few nights of sitting on a bag of ice, but she's out and about like nothing happened. What a relief! Maybe I could become a chicken whisperer.

the very stubborn chicken

Well, the ice didn't work. I went out this morning, and that darn broody hen was sitting on a ziploc bag full of very warm water. So today she is spending the day in out in the pen. I put some food and water out there, sprinkled some scratch, tossed in a few grapes, and left instructions for the husband to take her some more treats this afternoon. I know she's not been eating enough, everytime I lift her out of the box I feel her crop and it's completely empty. She's also missing a few chest feathers, and I want to put a stop to that right now. Apparently, when hens are setting, they pluck out the feathers to control the humidity because the eggs need a certain amount of moisture to hatch. I'll keep you all updated :o)

I think we are on the last wave of daffodil blooms. One of my favorites appeared this week. These tiny little woodland daffodils belong in a fairy garden, don't you think? I love the snowdrops too.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and words of concern for my silly chicken, I know she's just a chicken, but I've managed to keep them all alive and healthy, and I'm not going to let one of them fail me now, darnit!

how to survive a birthday

So, Saturday was my birthday, and I decided that I would just do whatever I felt like the entire weekend. So there were spurts of fun and busy-ness and spurts of lazing around. A friend gave me some little wooden egg ornaments, so I made an Easter Tree. I picked up some branches from the yard and gave them a little coat of Spring green paint, and glued silk blossoms all over. I added a few other Easter-y things that I had and I think it's a pretty little tree. I may try to add a few more ornaments. I just love that little feather chick.

I got my geek on for a few hours, playing on the computer with the husband. Then we went and got the best sandwiches at the deli and had ourselves a little picnic at one of my favorite places.

I spent a couple peaceful hours on the porch, watching a favorite movie on my laptop while eating an ice cream sandwich. I really need to get a daybed to put out there, for the ultimate in laziness.

We paid a visit to the feed store, where the husband looked at goslings and contemplated putting in an order for three. I'm not too sure about this addition to the farm, but he really wants some. Oh dear.

We also had a delicious dinner of seared ahi tuna with wasabi cream sauce and a tiramisu cake for dessert.

I made a little more headway on my list, and cleared up the last of the scrap wood pile. There is still the fallen down fence to contend with, but I'll just have to tackle that a little bit at a time. We moved some railroad ties over to where the wood pile was, to create an edging for a little planting bed on the edge of the future patio. The chickens hung out with me while I gardened, which was great, at first, as they scratched and pecked and turned the dirt and grow mulch for me, so I didn't have to do it. I rewarded them with all the worms I found as I dug holes to plant a dozen creeping rosemary plants. It wasn't so great later, after I finished planting and laid down some wood chip mulch, when they went back and scratched it all up looking for more worms, and nibbling on the rosemary.

Speaking of chickens, one of the Ruby's has gone broody. For the non-chicken people out there, that means she wants to hatch some eggs, and has planted herself in a nesting box, hoping for some baby chicks. Ifirst noticed that she was sleeping in the box one night last week when I closed the coop. I thought it was odd, but figured she just wanted to get away from everyone else on the roost. But she planted herself in there all weekend and wouldn't budge. I kept taking her out and carrying her to different places, giving her little treats to eat, but she keeps going back. I'm starting to get a little worried. I collect all the eggs, every day, and even moved the golf balls (we put them in the nesting boxes so the girls will know to go in there and lay rather than outside the coop. They just think they're other eggs.) out of that particular box. She's still sitting in there, even though she's not actually sitting on any thing. I think the next thing I try is to put an ice cube underneath her. It doesn't sound too nice, but if she doesn't stop, she could get really weak and sick. Broody hens only leave their nest once a day to eat and drink and poop. Silly girl! I must have taken her out of the box about a dozen times this weekend. She's in the favorite box, too, so the other hens put up a fuss when they go in to lay. Any chicken experts out there have any suggestions?

We finished off birthday weekend last night with ribs and corn on the cob for dinner while watching a recorded episode of Battlestar Galactica, followed by a couple Advil for the aching muscles from the woodpile clearing, and a good night's sleep :o)