last day of 2008...

Lefty in the yard area...he's such a camera hog.  I was going to post more pictures today, but blogger is acting up, so maybe I'll post more tomorrow.  

Happy New Year!!  

look who's 21 today...

No, not Buckles or Abby...it's Britt!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITT!!!!!

homemade bread

I have been baking my own bread for the past couple of months.  I found this recipe in Mother Earth News magazine...I make enough dough for 4  1-pound loaves and keep it in the frig until I'm ready to bake it...I mixed up the dough yesterday in my KitchenAid that Santa brought me for Christmas and baked this loaf this morning on a pizza/bread stone.  It's soooo good!  

     

       

                                       

bertha

I received my MacBook today, so I decided to post a picture of one of the white chicks...they are all 5 weeks old now.  Look at the size of this chick!  We have started letting them go out into their yard area when the weather is nice.  The white chicks would rather stay inside and eat, but the reds love to go outside to explore.  

update...

I'm not posting any pictures today...my computer crashed Sunday morning...luckily, we were able to backup everything. My laptop is (was) an HP...DH talked to HP's support service on the phone and got so irritated with them, he ordered me a MACbook, so I probably won't be posting anything for about a week. My laptop was only 2 years old as of December 5th...this should not have happened! We shall see if Apple makes a better product.

Happy Holidays!

sinful...

Britt and I baked 6 pans of these cinnamon rolls today. I'd hate to think how many calories are in one cinnamon roll, but who cares, they are soooooooo good!

For the recipe go to http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

lefty

Lefty is a rooster and is my favorite chick in the coop...he follows me around when I'm in there and thinks he owns the joints. I can tell that we have at least one more rooster, but he doesn't have a good personality, like my little Lefty.

not enough blog time...

Chance

Buckles. The boys think they are not getting enough blog time, so I took pictures of them while we were playing ball.

finished hat

Here's K's hat...I finished it last night...I plan on knitting myself one out of the chocolate Lorna's Lace that I used to knit a pair of fingerless mittens.

before lunch...

I'm really bad about not eating enough fruits and veggies once the weather turns cold, so yesterday before I ate my lunch, I ate an apple and then ate a bowl of lima beans and cornbread. Yum!

it snowed last night!!!

It started snowing around 8:45pm last night...I had already fallen asleep...DH woke me, so I could see it. I took the dogs outside around 11:30pm and saw the snow on the bench, so I ran back inside and grabbed my camera...I knew it wouldn't be there in the morning and sure enough I was right. The pile behind the bench is not all snow...it's one of our compost piles. I sure wish it was all snow! I know some people see snow every year, but here in southeast Texas, we rarely see it. The last time it snowed here was Christmas Eve 2004.


It snowed almost all day in CS yesterday...Britt & Kris took pictures with their phones and kept sending them to me...rubbing it in that they were playing in snow...the little witches!

brrrr...it's cold outside!

I finished my chocolate colored mittens Monday night and start knitting this natural colored hat for Kris...first hat to knit. I like this little bag for knitting...I can just grab it and take my knitting with me. I'm using Lorna's Laces shepherd worsted...this yarn is soooo soft.

I used Lorna's Laces shepherd worsted for these mittens also. It's cold here today...a perfect day to stay in and knit...

lunch time sketching...

I decided that I needed to get outside and sketch today, so I grabbed a sketchbook, watercolor palette, pencil and waterbrush and headed outside...I also took my camera.

It's been raining off and on today, so I wore my muck boots. I'm so glad I did, they are muddy!

I took some pictures along the creek...if you look close, you can see some orange leaves in some of the trees.

The creek is up a little.

I'm holding my sketchbook on my arm, my palette and waterbrush in my hand and I'm trying to take a picture...talk about juggling.

Here's the finally results...not very impressive, but I had fun standing there sketching and listening to the birds. 15 minute sketch.

australia...

No I didn't go to Australia...DH and I went to see the movie "Australia" starring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman. The movie was good, but it was 3 hours long! I''ll definitely buy it when it comes out on DVD. I doodled this couple sitting in front of us before the movie started...I think he was taking a nap...I kept hearing someone snoring.

chicks and mittens...

Monday I noticed that one of the white chicks was very weak, so I put her by herself...Tuesday I noticed another showing weakness, so I called Ideal Poultry (where we bought the chicks from) and told them what was happening. They told me that these chicks needed to be on 28% protein due to the fact that they grow so fast and that I needed to separate them from the red chicks...I thought GREAT! I made a trip to the feed store...bought the right food for them and separated them when DH got home. One of the chicks is doing better. DH and I have decided that these type of chickens are too much maintenance and we will not attempt to raise them again!

Now for these little guys...they are doing great...they are a very hardy bird and fun to watch. I know there are a few roosters in the bunch...they seem to love to stir up trouble! If you look at the top picture, you can see one of the reds has ventured over the bales of hay that seperate them and joined the whites. The white chicks don't seem to mind if some of the reds visit, but boy if the whites pay the reds a visit the reds get all up in their faces and the whites return to their place in the coop.

Aqua and gray pair of fingerless mittens...I started a chocolate color pair last night.

santa doodle

I doodled this Santa stamp from one of my favorite mugs...I love large mugs that hold at least 3 cups of coffee. Don't worry, I'm not drinking too much caffeine...I usually drink decaf or 1/2 decaf.

doodling a real tree...

I wanted to buy a "real" tree this year, so that after Christmas we could plant it in our yard. DH thinks we have way too many trees as it is...I say you can never have enough trees...after all, Ike did destroy a lot of them.

happy birthday kris!!!

This picture has been hanging on our frig since 1995...she was in pre-school. This is one of K's favorite pictures of herself...it was taken with a Polaroid camera, so not the best quality of a picture, but still a cutie! Have a great 19th birthday Kris!

i can't believe it's december!

I saw Britt's backpack sitting on the floor, so I decided to sketch it...pen and chartpak ad markers. I did some doodling Saturday while waiting for B&K to finish trying on cloths at the mall. I saw some really strange people there...I haven't been to a mall in ages.

I finished my second pair of fingerless mittens...Britt took them back to CS with her...I'm working on a gray pair...I should finish those tonight. I finished the aqua pair...I just haven't taken a picture of them together. These mittens are so easy to knit...Britt started her a chocolate colored pair over Thanksgiving break.

This is one of the chicks...look at the size of it! She's not even 2 weeks old! I've decided to call all of the cornish hens "Wilma". Kris named one of the Rhode Island Reds "lefty" after her boyfriend.

page of sketches

update on chicks

I finished priming the chicken coop Sunday, so we moved all the chicks to a plastic kids pool...they have a lot more room now. One of the cornish hens died yesterday...it was so sad. I'll be sooo glad when they don't need heat...last night, I went out to check on them 4 times to make sure they were not cold. It was a little errie at 1:30am and all I could hear was those blasted coyotes. I kept wondering if one was going to greet me at the door when I walked out of the coop!


If I don't find time to post again before Thanksgiving, I hope everyone has a great turkey day!

they're here!!

These are the rhode island reds...I can already pick out 2 that will have names! DH isn't going to like that...I'm not suppose to name any of them!

And these are the cornish rock pullets...in other words "meat birds". They are all soooo cute!

ready and waiting...

The chicks are being shipped today...I'm just waiting for a phone call from the post office. We made 2 brooder boxes out of plastic storage boxes that I bought at Wal-Mart. They are nice and warm with food and water just waiting for the chicks. I put down a layer of wood shaving and then paper towel...the hatchery recommends paper towel or cheese cloth for the first 3 days to help keep the chicks from eating too much wood shavings.

Last night DH put together this electrical box that has a dimmer so I can control the heat in both boxes.

DH cut a hole out of the lid of the box and built a frame from scrap wood and added wire to the top.

last weeks sketches

Last week I bought a larger sketchbook at Texas Art Supply...I'm trying to sketch everyday, but that doesn't seem to be happening. These 2 pages measure 14 inches across...I realized this morning that the 2 pages are bigger than my scanning surface, so I'm going to need to stay away from the outside edges.

coop update

We installed the window Thursday afternoon and the door Friday. B&K came home Friday...B had fun playing with the nail gun and drill. DH shingled the roof yesterday.

The window will be wire...the door on the bottom left is so the chickens can walk down the ramp into their yard area during the day.

Nesting boxes completed except for some hardware and primer.

ramp/door open.

The nesting box doors open down.

I've been priming off and on for the past 2 weekends...DH hates to paint. Britt helped me with a little priming yesterday while DH was on the roof with the shingles and if your wondering what K did all weekend...she thought she needed to sit with the dogs.

on my needles...

I finished the first fingerless mitten last night and started on the second...these are easy!
pattern: Those Mittens
yarn: Lorna's Lace Shepperd worsted
color: aqua
needles: 2 size 6 circular

I finished this sock Monday night and started the toe last night for it's mate.
pattern name: Halcydon Socks
yarn: Paca-Peds
color: Harvest
needles: 2 size 1 (2.25mm) circular

saturday's progress

This is the front...there will be a regular window with glass.

This side will have a window with wire...a door that raises with a ramp, so the chickens can go into their fenced in yard area.

North side.

Back side with wire window and nesting boxes.

lunchtime

While Francine was being detailed, I walked to Burger Tex ate lunch and doodled.

I started this fingerless mitten last night while watching the election results and added a few more rows while I waited for Francine to be finished. For those of you who don't know me...Francine is my F-J Cruiser...this is the first time I have named one of our vehicles. DH and I were thinking of names that F-J could stand for one night (2 years ago when we bought her), so I decided to go ahead and give her a name.