Flea Market Gardens Magazine

I've had spring fever for a couple of weeks now, but now am practially hyper about getting started. I know it's way too early to plant anything, but the weather is perfect for clean up and preparation.

While at WalMart yesterday at lunch, I picked up a gardening magazine I hadn't noticed before. Turns out it's the premeir issue and boy is it loaded with ideas and inspiring pictures. A lot I've seen before, but there are some new ideas in it as well (new to me anyway).

For all you garden enthusiasts out there - you should check it out.


I'm so excited.....!!!

Completed UFO and Bird Count

Well, I had just just about given up even trying to complete anything. The weather has broken and I'll be outide till about August now.

I had actually finished this embroidery right around Thanksgiving, but didn't have time to make it into a pillow. I spent a lot of time making a jacket for my mother for Christmas and it was a priority.

This pattern called for a checkered border, but I left it off. It would have added a lot to the finished piece but I just wanted it finished. It also called for some cross hatching on the pumpkin stem, but I think it looks ok the way it is.

Now it's in the closet and I'll enjoy it this coming fall. Maybe I'll add some ribbon to it to really frame all that stitching.



I participated in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count. I didn't get to spend nearly as much time as I wanted to, and my numbers were very low considering the amount of birds that eat at the feeders everyday. Still, I had 12 species visit in the 15 minutes that I timed myself for a total bird count of a little over 20 birds.

If I did it correctly, I had to count the number of birds that were at the feeder in a 15 minute window. I know the feeder was busy all day though because all the food was gone. I'll give it a try again next year and will definitely block out more time to participate.

Spring is springing and I'm ready to sew a table mat or runner or something out of some pretty tea fabrics that my friend, Diane, sent me a few months ago. I'm still trying to decide what I want to make.

I've got a few daffodils in bloom and the forsythia is ready to pop! I'm going to bring some inside to force and enjoy!

Great Backyard Bird Count 2011

The Great Backyard Bird Count is this weekend - February 18th through the 21st. I'm going to participate this year for my first time.

I've been a bird watcher since I was a little girl. I still have a bird book that my grandmother gave me in 1962.

There are so many birds at my feeders and around my property. I have open fields for the bluebirds, killdeer and flycatchers, and I've got lots of woods. Most everything I plant, I keep in mind if it will provide food or shelter for the birds. I feed the birds seed year 'round and sometimes put suet out for them.

There is a pair of pileated woodpeckers near by. They don't come on my property but I can hear them. They need dead trees to nest in. Unfortunately, some houses are being built near me and trees are being cut down. People seem to think that dead trees hold no value, but they are so wrong.

(Bird images from Google search)


I've got several eastern bluebirds that live on my property year round.





I've got some of these guys around too - the red bellied woodpecker.


To find out more information, go here. This would be a fun and educational thing to do with your kids or grandkids!

Another Beautiful Blog

Be still my heart. Through Quill Cottage I have discovered Life @RuffHaven. Not only does Marianne share my love of senior pooches, but she is a real nature lover as well!

If you visit her blog and scroll down a little, you will find a beautiful video from YouTube that will speak volumes through art and music. The message is and has been my mantra for several decades. We are destroying this earth so fast that it makes my heart sick.

I try very hard to live what I preach and leave as small a footprint on this planet as I can. I compost most of my garbage. I re-use cardboard and old carpeting as landscape cloth. I re-use plastic bags for dumping used litter box nastiness into. I combine as many errands as I can into one outing. Even though I am struggling financially, I continue to donate to the NRDC and other nature and animal related organizations. I talk to people about pet overpopulation and the importance of spaying and neutering pets. Just this Saturday there were two pick up trucks of puppies being given away in the WalMart parking lot. I gave the owners information about two low-cost spay/neuter options locally. I use minimal chemicals in my yard and gardens. I eat chicken and turkey very sparingly.

If you do one small thing a day, it will make a huge difference to the world we share.

I certainly didn't intend to get on my soap box, but that video really touched me. I hope you go visit Marianne's beautiful blog. She creates gorgeous pieces of art work.

Hard Work and Results

Hi everybody. I hope you've had a good week.

I'm so happy....my hard work helping Gail's husband clean up a rental property that was in horrible shape is paying off. Instead of being paid for it, I asked Gail if I could work for merchandise from their garden center. I seem to be able to find money to pay for things I truly need or have to take care of, but not necessarily for those things that I just want.

Well, look what my first items are that I brought home yesterday - these two ginormous concrete pots to put on either side of my arbor. They're really going to make a statement when they're planted.




I have yellow jasimine growing over my arbor. And because my little herd of deer eat everything - even plants that are on the safe list - I want to plant some pretty purple cat mint for the filler plant. Gail suggested I plant the yellow creeping jenny to hang over the edges. Then I'd like to try planting some annual salvia for a bright splash of color.

I learned something new from Gail yesterday, who is a master gardener and expert at putting plants together. She said to remember "filler, spiller and thriller" as the rule for planting containers. Isn't that a neat way to remember? :)

So Laura and Alissa came down for a while this afternoon. Alissa is magical with animals and while I've been working slowly with the little goats to tame them down, take a look at what Alissa managed to do in a few short minutes! They were eating from her hands and they still won't do that for me. They've only seen Alissa twice and they see me every day!



Today I worked for the animals all day again. Lola and Lilly have been jumping over the fence into the small chicken pen that houses Big Rooster and his friend. Even though it's covered with chicken wire, they are getting in and then can't get out. Two times this week I've come home to them stuck in there. Then they knock off the chicken's pop door and go inside their section of the barn and upset Big Rooster (pictured below).


So...I had to move all the 10 foot posts I had out there from when I enlarged Big Rooster's pen last summer. I sunk them around the pen and attached yet another band of chicken wire all around the top. Now there is a wire barrier that stands 8 feet tall and if the goats jump over that...well, I just don't know what else to do. You can see the posts in the background here.


And the geese, Hansel and Gretel, now have the upper hand with the goats. Lilly and Lola gave into the geese's intimadation tactics and are now scared to death of them. The geese have been terrorizing the goats all day and then started in on the chickens. Usually the geese will go after the chickens but allow them to run away without a chase. Not today. Hansel and Gretel were angry and chasing everything. Even tried chasing me but I had a big stick and let them know I wouldn't tolerate that behavior. That only made them even more angry. Then when I saw Hansel actually grab onto Lilly's tail and hang on while she ran towards the barn, I got mad. It was either give the geese away (and they'd be eaten) or somehow separate them from all the other animals.

Well, I had to think and think of how I could move everybody around without having the expense and labor of building yet another pen. I finally figured it out and it took all day to achieve. I didn't realize Alissa had taken some pictures while I was working. At least you can get an idea of what I'm trying to explain.

The geese are now in the small pen where I was keeping two other roosters, Snow White and Beauty. You can see here that I moved the pool into the pen, but I didn't get the geese in there till just before evening. That's me walking toward the pen.


I have rigged up a makeshift pen to move the roosters into tomorrow morning before leaving for work. You can see it in the background here - it's on the outside of the pasture and has a dog house in it for the roosters to have shelter.




I also need to move Big Rooster and his friend into the main section of the barn and put Woodstock (my little bantam rooster) and my bantam hens and silkie in the section where Big Rooster has been.

It's a lot of work, but if the geese can stay cointained in the small pen then everybody but them will be happy. Soon I will enlarge their pen so that they don't feel like they're in such a tiny prison.

I was ready to call my neighbor to come down and take them but am not quite ready for that to happen yet. When I was trying to catch them, I felt sorry for them because they were so afraid.

Taking care of animals is hard when they all don't get along peaceably.

Pumpkin Does Yoga

I just caught her in this position last night. She's even leaning against my yoga mat!




I hope you are all well and surviving winter!

An Animal Weekend

I've spent two whole days repairing and improving my little barn. I've been wanting to do this for ages and the time has come!

It was such a beautiful weekend - especially today. I put the baby dove and my daughter's parakeets outside to catch some much-needed vitamin D. Then I went straight to work on the barn.

My barn is made out of chipwood. I've painted it with oil paint 5 times in 10 years and it continues to flake. I started covering it with tar paper yesterday but had to stop when I ran out of staples. I got the right side done, and the door.



Since I was out of staples, I decided to replace the bottom board on the door. I also put new nails on the interior door braces, so now it's a little more solid. Animals are rough on things!!



Today all the little animals were excited - especially the chickens. Chickens are very curious little creatures and want to be near you, believe it or not. They were all scratching around in an area that had been blocked off to them for a while. I started rolling out the tar paper and measuring. I had lots of company.




Here is Tinkerbell just on the outside of the pen where I was working. She wanted to make sure I was doing things to her satisfaction. She stayed near me most of the day.



This was the difficult side. I had to take apart the entire pen. Removing the wood posts from the barn was hard. But what was harder was getting the little "pop" door off - and back on so the hole lined up.



Lilly and Lola are checking out my toolbox...

They are so close to me here...and decided to come in.



They insisted on being in the chicken pen once I got it reconfigured. Maybe they liked the cozy size.






Lilly got quite close to me several time.s



And don't you know she started chewing the tar paper off! Little stinker!!

The girls see Princess outside the fence. Their hackles stood straight up and Lilly kept snorting a warning to Princess. Lola was stomping. Look at their little tails straight up in the air.




Before I got the goats, this tar paper would have been all I needed to do. Now that the two little goats are here, I'll eventually put some siding over the paper. But till then, I'll need to protect the paper so will be getting some tall chicken wire tomorrow to staple on top of the paper. Ugh - my figers are so sore already.

The trees need to have their trunks wrapped in wire. Goats love to chew trees...and most everything else.
I'm going to have to wire off these big roots, or they'll get destroyed. This is one of the major shade providers and is an important tree in the pasture.


I really wanted to do a little stitching tonight but my hands are sore from working with tar paper and wire. And my fingers are a little swollen and stiff. I need to go to bed but don't feel tired or sleepy yet. I guess once I crawl into my bed with clean sheets, I'll fall asleep soon - I hope.

Poor Princess is absolutely exhausted from being outside all day. Poor old girl.

I hope you all had a good weekend and some nice weather too!

Brotherly Love

I've Been a Baaaaaad Girl! (and updated w/question)

I need more animals like quilters need more fabric. I couldn't resist; I... am...crazy.

Meet Lilly and Lola; my two dwarf nigerian dairy goats. Lilly is the mama and has the black shoulders. Lola is her 10 month old daughter. There's a chance Lilly is pregnant; we'll see. I got them Sunday and have the barn all cozy for them. This picture was taken in their previous barn. They are slowly getting used to me and I can't wait to start working with them. I hope to teach them a few tricks.

Have you noticed I'm partial to black and white critters? Now I have three black and white dogs, two black cats, and two black and white goats.


Question: Where did this stupid photobucket thing come from on my post and how do i get rid of it!?! Thanks for your help!!!

Winter or Spring?

My decorating skills are confused. I still have winter on my mantel and am enjoying it very much. And goodness knows it's colder than a meat locker outside! My little white lights look so pretty at night.


I've jumped on the white candle bandwagon and wrapped mine in some sheet music I found at the Graphics Fairy. All I had to do to make the switch from Christmas to winter was trade out the red candles for white and add the music. I've left everything else the same.




I've been continuing to work on my kitchen re-do and it's coming along nicely. I painted my brass chandelier this week with a hammered bronze paint. What a mess that made! It needs a second coat but I doubt I'll ever get it done. Ditto for the white table.



Eventually, I'll paint my chairs and side table black and make some new chair cushions out of black and white fabric.

I have some burlap left from a project last year and I think I'm going to cover my little lamp shades with it, and maybe make a narrow table runner. I'm definitely going to cover my gold flower pot with a burlap wrap this week.

I painted my bakers rack last Sunday with the same hammered bronze paint I used on my chandelier. It was a beautiful day and the sun helped the paint dry quickly. I need to give the drawers a second coat of black, but that will wait till we have another warm day.

I put my teapots back a little differently and wanted to add some greenery, so borrowed a silk plant I used to have on top of my cabinets. That made it look a lot better. Then I made a little topiary from a tiny gold bucket I bought at Michaels last year. I sprayed it with white primer and covered a piece of foam with sheet moss. I just noticed that my marble eggs are in a straight line...will need to fix that!

But what I'm really happy with is the little mini hurricaine with moss and quail eggs! Last year I had three female quail and they layed a few eggs. The little birds died not long after they reached adulthood and I was sad about it. I'm happy that they gave me a few eggs before they passed though.





Early last week I made a couple of pretty white hearts, inspired by an issue of Somerset Home. Disregard the cat whisker on the large heart; I didn't see it till after I took the picture.


I've been helping my friend, Gail, the last three Saturdays to get an old house painted and ready to rent. Considering Sunday is the only day completely mine, I think I've accomplished a lot. I am determined to be super-productive this year and am off to a great start.

Wait till you see what I did today - you'll really like it :)

I'm In Love

with this blog I've just discovered today.

Being a country girl at heart and loving all sorts of animals, this blog is now one of my favorites. And it's located in Huntington, WV - not far from where I was born!

Go visit Verde Farm when you get a minute. They've got the cutest animals and I am so envious!!

Sewing Again and Pet Stories

Now that all the Christmas stuff is finally put away, I've been able to sit down at my sewing machine again.

Yesterday I couldn't go to work (again) because of an ice storm. It was just too dangerous for me to try to slip and slide my way across back roads for the few dollars I would have made (they didn't open till noon). So, I stayed in my jammies all day and organized my fabrics and made the biggest mess but had so much fun!

I put away all the patterns I was trying to work on and got my bird quilt out. I've joined Dawn's Sew It's Finished challenge and this item has high priority for me. I put it across my bed to see how much quilting needed to be done and you see what happened...Wendy...!


I finally got her off the bed and worked a few hours on my quilt. My goal is to have it completed by this Sunday. I wish I could have had this quilt professionally quilted. I wanted it to be so pretty, but I am making do with what I can do myself.

And speaking of the ice storm, unbeknownst to me, Big Rooster was tangled in some deer netting that had fallen in his pen and was trapped in the ice storm all night. It's dark when I get home from work and all the chickens are already in the barn by then. I usually do a quick head count but didn't Monday evening. I didn't discover him till about 8:30 a.m. yesterday and he was on the ground, unprotected and practially frozen. I ran to the garage and got my scissors and went back to cut the netting off his legs. I felt beyond horrible! If only he had clucked or something the night before when I was only a few feet away from him.

This poor rooster has been through more than any guy should have to deal with in his life! I put him in the barn with the heat lamp and left him there all day. I made him a bunch of scrambled eggs and made sure he had plenty of water to drink. He was limping but immediately started preening himself and I could see that under his wings was dry. If he had gotten soaked to the bones, he wouldn't have made it.

I made him some oatmeal this morning and shared it with the other chickens. They love cooked oatmeal! Big Rooster seems to be fine. I'm going to have to use chicken wire as their pen roof from now on.

I wanted to share a couple of cute pictures of Pumpkin. I noticed that she was sleeping in such an odd position. These are her BACK legs her head is laying between! So funny...and cute. She's an adorable lap kitty.





How cute is she?

Beautiful Words

When they ask to see your gods
your book of prayers
show them lines
drawn delicately with veins
on the underside of a bird’s wing
tell them you believe
in giant sycamores mottled
and stark against a winter sky
and in nights so frozen
stars crack open spilling
streams of molten ice to earth
and tell them how you drink
a holy wine of honeysuckle
on a warm spring day
and of the softness
of your mother who never taught you
death was life’s reward
but who believed in the earth
and the sun
and a million, million light years
of being"


- J.L. Stanley.

I saw this on Lynn's blog this morning and thought it was appropriate for my post today.