Changin' Skies

Well, once again I have been trying to create a coherent post on a particular subject but just can't seem to get the time or thoughts together.  We are trying to get the garden at least started and I'm also trying to really build up my pottery stock and it just seems like there is not enough time in the day for everything.  One day the weather looks like this and the next it will be sunny and warm.  Stormy days we work inside and on pretty days I try to take advantage of that and do some outside stuff.
I have managed to get all the fruit bushes/plants, vines etc. fertilized but haven't got them all remulched at this point.  Started some lettuce also and noticed that it has sprouted well.  We really need to get the potatoes in and some cabbage and such.  It has rained so much though that it's hard to work in the garden a lot of days.

 So, I've also got this going on and this is just a small portion.  Lots more dinnerware made.  I think this past load came out really well and I'll show ya'll a photo of it all finished.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to apply to a local show here next month.  I should get accepted and if I do I've really got to get my butt in gear because it is a 3 day show and I'll need lots of inventory.

 The cherry tree is blooming well this year so I really hope I get a halfway decent harvest this year.  And I really need to get another one of these also.  That would help greatly; just haven't done it yet.  We also need one more plum and another apple too.

I've been in my studio a lot lately and I always keep the door open so I can keep an eye on the girls out in the yard and all.  When the downpours come many of them run inside to keep dry. I don't mind.  They do poop a little but it's a concrete floor; easy to clean.  Low flying hawks will also prompt them to run inside!

Love Roller Coaster

 The past few days have been a little bit of a hectic rush to get one last load of pottery delivered to my stores before Christmas and the last couple of weeks have been a wild ride of virtually every emotion available, hence the title of this post.  Plus, it's one of my all-time favorite songs, whether by the original artists (I think the Ohio Players) or the Red Hot Chili Peppers version.
Anyway, we have all survived so far.  Well, I take that back.  Sweet little Scooter did not.  She died Wednesday night.  I did everything I could think of but it was just not enough.  I think she may have had cancer or some other internal disease because about a year ago I saw where she had passed some....erm...odd-looking things while she was on the roost one night.  Might have been "lash eggs", I have no idea, but she never laid another egg after that and she got fairly sick over the summer but I managed to doctor her through that.  Not so this time.  Some of ya'll may remember she was one of the first little chicks ever hatched here and when she was abut 10 days old one of the older hens managed to get to her, although we had them separated, and rip her head up pretty awful.  I doctored her through that too and she was a little fighter.  We didn't think she would live but she did and did great.  But, sometimes it's just their time.  I like to think she had a happy life here.  I had my hands on her when she hatched and I had my hand on her as she passed.  I hope she knew she was loved.

In much better news though, our former head rooster Mr. George, who was sold to the daughter of a feller I went through school with, won 1st place at the APA show this month!!  Way to go George!!!  I knew he was a handsome fellow and the girl who has him now just loves him.  I'm sure he has a good home and is literally the Cock of the Walk there.

I'm still struggling a little with the anxiety caused by those damn steroids but for the most part I'm doing much better.  My back is healed up and I've been able to go back to the gym for some great workouts.  I think I may also be allergic to milk because after 3 weeks of going without any milk products I'm feeling much less tired these days and less problems with headaches.  I suspect I have bad seasonal allergies too and am going to go back in a few weeks to let them test me for specific allergies.

I think that is all the latest news, good and bad.  Mostly good though.  So, I'm off to clean and decorate now.  I'll try to be back during Christmas but just in case I hope all of you out there that celebrate this season have a wonderful, happy and loving Christmas or a very happy ending to Hanukkah.  Happy Yule!  Merry Solstice and that good stuff!!

At The Zoo

Tonight I am very tired and achy so there won't be a lot of script with the post but I thought you all might enjoy the photos I took during a recent trip to the zoo with my Mom.  She had been wanting to go for some time, as she had never been to a large city zoo, and I was determined to take her once the weather cooled off some.  Turns out we had a beautiful day; just warm enough and not too many folks there since it was a Tuesday.  If you are in the area, the Birmingham Zoo is pretty nice.  Not huge but they still have some nice exhibits, many of which have recently been remodeled to give the animals much more room.  The elephants were one such exhibit.  The keepers were feeding them apples at the time we were there and the elephants apparently really like apples!  They were scooping them up quickly.

Birmingham was once also home to a very famous lowland gorilla, like the one pictured here.  That famous gorilla was Babec, in whom UAB cardiologists implanted a pacemaker after it was discovered he had heart disease.  It was the first surgery of that type in a gorilla and made him something of a celebrity in the zoo world.  He lived for many years with the pacemaker but finally passed away in his 30s, I think.

Mama especially enjoyed the birds and you could walk right up to these flamingos.

One thing that was pretty cool was that many of the animals would come right up to the fence or glass when Mama approached them.  My luck has never been that good!  I guess they know she loves animals.

Wildlife authorities have been spotting increased numbers of black bears in north Alabama in recent months.  This does not make me happy.  I mean, I'm happy the bears are doing well but ya'll know those things scare the living hell out of me.  NOT what I would want to run into one night while I'm locking the chickens up!

The big cats were a bit lethargic the day we were there.

It was good napping weather though, I have to admit.

The animals were all enjoying their food but I would not recommend the humans to eat at the cafe.  The ingredients were good and fresh but they somehow still managed to make the sandwiches cold, hard and completely void of condiments.  I actually had to ask for mayo and some dressing.

Even hunched over this African vulture was huge!

At least one flock of these guineas just ran around free, as they pleased.  They were taking a little breather over by the sea lions' pool.

These guys were quite funny.  They really liked having their picture made.  I was focusing on the two on the right and when this other one on the left saw that, he scooted down the limb real quick so he could get in the shot too!  That was cool though!  I thought it came out well.

Shores Of White Sand

The blog has been quiet because I slipped off for a short vacation down at the Gulf.  This time it was the Ft. Pickens area of the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  This park was recommended by several friends and was a first for me.  After staying there I would also highly recommend it.  Old Ft. Pickens is way down at the tip of the peninsula, as a lot of forts are, and the photo above was taken there.  The place would be a bird watcher's heaven, in my opinion, as it's just covered up in all kinds of sea birds.

This must also be one of the ospreys' favorite breeding grounds because the trees were full of nests.  My camera was no good for getting up close but as we watched this nest we would occasionally see the little baby pop it's head up for a look around.  lol!
Camping at the beach was on my bucket list, since I've camped just about everywhere else, so that was one other reason we chose this area.  We had a little trouble getting in though, due only to the recent bad weather in the Pensacola area.  This is a barrier island and the elevation is basically sea level.  Flooded roads closed the park twice before we finally got in to stay.  We also were going to stay 3 nights but had to settle for 2 in order to get in before the end of May.  That's okay though.  We still had a very nice time. 

 It was very enjoyable and so relaxing.
For the life of me I will never, ever understand why people want to go to crowded, nasty public beaches when they can drive down the road to this.  Maybe I'm just anti-social.  Haha!
This was also the frugal way to vacation.   I guess the biggest cost was gas to get down there.  But, we saved enough money to indulge our appetite for seafood!  And boy, did I!  Raw oysters, shrimp, clams....mmmm!

This was the nice boardwalk from the camping area over to the beaches.

This is looking back towards the camping area.  You can see a few trees in the distance so yes, our camp site did have some shade.  It was also a full moon while we were down there too and that was nice.

I do have to say though, that only one camping loop was open, due to rain etc., so there was not as many people as there could have been.  However, anyone can come into the park, even if you are not camping.

The first and second days the water was a little cloudy due to the storms but by the third day the water had cleared to a pretty light green.  It was a little chilly for swimming but certainly doable and I swam a fair amount.  As I always say, salt water cures everything, whether it's the sea, sweat or tears.

While walking along the edge I saw 4 large sting rays cruise past, quite close to the shore, and then 2 more a little later.  I decided the water was kinda cold and maybe I had swam enough! lol!

Haven't Got Time For The Pain

So, I wanted to show that I have actually been working on the house again.  It's not a huge amount, yet, but I have slowly been getting back into it.  My spirit is very willing and my flesh just needs to be beat back into some shape for working.  I've completed a bit more on the tile fireplace surround; installing the run below the hearth and continuing on up the wall and wrapping around the sides.  Until just very recently we were still occasionally running the fireplace so I didn't want to disconnect it.  Hopefully, the cold is now over and I'll be pulling the unit out of the way soon so I can bring the mosaic part on up and grout all that.  It's kinda slow going but I'm getting there and pleased with how it's coming out so far.

I've had so much enthusiasm lately, in fact, that I finally tackled this horrible ol' corner in the basement.  Well, it looks fine now but as long as I've been here I have always just crammed junk in this corner to get it out of my sight and it was a horrible mess.  Junky crap in the floor and everything.  So...I got all those towels and rags together and washed and sorted them and installed some new shelves to keep it all neat.  I use the towels for my messy clay work and just general messy garden/ yard stuff etc.  I freed up another shelf on the metal ones to the right; although you can't tell on the forth one down.  I had saved a bunch of old defective or ugly pottery but it is now all bashed up waiting to be reborn as a mosaic.  Heck, I even mopped the floor in that corner and hung up our fishing poles and such.  I'll probably install one more shelf there to hold some of the supplies that are now residing on my pottery shelves.  I want to get those clear so I have plenty of room for making pots.

I know this blog has possibly changed a little in the past year and I haven't written a lot like I used to.  Not as many funny stories and such.  I guess it didn't occur to me how much it may be different until the other day though.  We all went to my Mom's for Easter and a few days later Mama called me to see how I was feeling.  A storm front had just gone through here on Easter morning and that day I was still struggling with one of the migraines I often get during such weather..  Mama told me that one of my nieces asked her afterwards what was wrong with me lately.  All the times they had seen me for the past 6 months or so she said, "Annie doesn't joke around and laugh like she used to."
Of course, I'm not apologizing for feeling bad but I just wanted to say I'm aware this blog hasn't been what it was.  But I AM trying.  I'm also fully aware that some people don't like it when others talk about health problems or flat out don't believe the person, especially if it's a rare disease or problem.  "Oh, they're just doing that for attention".  Yeah well, if I wanted attention I'd go around with my boobs hanging out.  They're still in real good shape!  Hey, this is a real blog and I talk about real problems; always have and ya'll have always encouraged me to.  If I can help even one other person feel not so alone then that's what's worth it to me, not whether everybody likes it or not.  But, if you will hold on with me a little longer I think I'll have more to show ya'll, like I used to.  Maybe even some funny stories again.

I don't know how many of you deal with pain, but it's a hard thing to take every day.  I marvel at people who say they've never had a headache, or rarely.  If I could go just one week without a headache, or my feet not hurting, I think I'd pee on myself in excitement.  I'm trying some new stuff though and finding some relief, which I tell you all about after I've experimented some more.

So, enough of that sentimental crap!  Looky what I saw this week!  I believe this is a red-breasted grosbeak!  You can correct me if I'm wrong.  And yeah, I know the photo is not so good but I haven't managed to get that great new camera yet, so that's yet another thing ya'll will have to endure here.  Plus, I was standing on a tall ladder stuck to the side of the house as I cleaned some of the windows, so it was a little difficult to maneuver to take the photo.  This is the first time I've ever seen a grosbeak, so I had to look him up in my field guide.  He's a Yankee bird, I guess taking a rest stop before heading back up north to their breeding grounds.  I saw him for 2 or 3 days but did not see him today so he may have headed on.

And in other news, my 2 Partridge Rocks have let their hormones run wild with the beautiful spring weather and insist on trying to hatch golf balls or other fake nest eggs.  We are letting one of them hatch some real pheasant eggs for Allen but just couldn't spare the nest space for two, so Ms. Etta here gets to stay in the broody-breaking pen until she gets over it.  Which should be only 2 or 3 days.  In the meantime, she is very unhappy with me and puffs up like that any time I come around.  I guess I'm not very popular on several fronts right now! lol!  At least Chigger and Allen still love me. 

Rise And Shine

Happy Easter to all my readers that celebrate!  And to those that don't I wish you a happy, warm spring day!  The weather here is absolutely gorgeous, as you can see, and I hope that you are enjoying some nice sun also. (I took the photo above this morning.)  We always go to my Mama's house for lunch on Easter so we'll be heading off in a while.  Any special plans for you today?

Cute As A Bug or....Growin' Up

Yes, the post title is relevant.... you'll just have to stay until the end of the post to see.  Here is that rhubarb plant that is just getting gigantical.  I just hope the thing holds out well through the summer.  It seems very healthy right now though.

In fact, it's putting out this flower stalk thingy ???  Of you northern gardeners; is it okay to leave this or do you cut that out to make it produce more stalks?

Speaking of gigantical..this forsythia is really spectacular this year.  A lot of people don't like these, because they only bloom for a while and then are just..green bushes, but I've always liked them.  When the sun hits it, it just glows.  I have taken 2 cuttings from this one and they are doing well but it will be a few years before they catch up to this one's size.  The cuttings are super easy to do.  I basically just snipped a limb and stuck it in the ground or in a pot of good soil and kept it watered.

 

 I was also hoping one of you might tell me what this shrub is?  I dug it up out at my grandmothers's old place but Mama had no idea what it was called.  This is the first year it has bloomed and it's beautiful.  Can't wait until it's bigger, it'll really be spectacular.  The blooms are about 3/4" across.
The redbuds are also blooming, which is the definitive southern sign of spring.  Everything is really ramping up now and the sunny, warm days are really encouraging me to get back to work on the house.  It's kinda frustrating because I have to get caught back up on my pottery too.  I want to work on the house so bad but need to sell more pottery to buy more material!  I do have some material already purchased though, so I am going to designate weekends or some such to home building and the rest of the time to pottery.  I've got to get a good routine down.

Now, here is the cute as a bug part.  My niece brought her little boy down today, along with my sister and Mama, for a little photo session.  My land does have some scenic areas and we took a bunch of pictures.

Even bribed the girls to take part a little.  Greedy little turds will do anything for scratch. 

Knock On Wood

I've really been trying to make a concerted effort lately to finish up a lot of half-started projects around the house, organizing and decorating in areas of the house that are mostly finished.  To that extent, I've gotten a couple of new pieces of furniture and some art and photos framed and hung.  I figure it will all help motivate me to keep plugging along to finish everything.  Now, this sideboard is not new at all really.  It was built sometime in the 1920's and has been in our family since then.  No one else seemed to want it but we didn't want it to be given away or get messed up so I took it to use in the living room.  My grandmother's husband was the warden at Kilby Prison in south Alabama for a number of years in the 20's and this piece was built by a few of the inmates at the time, so it makes for a good conversation piece.  It's probably the only material thing in my family that has much value.  Anywhoo, it had been stored away for years so I got it out, cleaned it up and refurbished the finish a bit.  Basically just re-oiled it and cleaned some stains off of it.

So, now it is our entertainment center I guess you would say.  I replaced the plain glass in the doors with architectural glass and replaced the drawer pulls with bronze ones that matched the knobs on the doors.  I did make a little removable shelf for the bottom to put the stereo system on.  I've always liked the sideboard as it has a vague Craftsman style to it.  It's fairly well made and still in excellent shape too.  Now I just need to trim out that one last window to the right of it.  Ugh!

Now, we will not speak of how long this little cabinet has been hanging around in the basement but I finally got it cleaned up and finished, installed the hinges and door, etc etc. and hung it in the bathroom.  I thought it came out nice but I think I want to replace that glass with a colored/ textured something kinda glass because the clear, textured just still shows too much of what is in the cabinet.  I had thought about making a very simple, stained glass window type panel for the door but for now I just need it done and functional.  I can do the other a couple of years from now.  Maybe.
So, that is just a bit of an update.  I am trying hard to keep my motivation up and I've been feeling pretty good lately so that helps.  Seeing more and more finish work done helps a great deal too because I can see just how cool things are going to look all finished.  My cabinet maker guy is going to be back out in about 2 weeks to measure for the built in bookcases that go beside the fireplace so that area is shaping up nice too.  It's really going to be great!  I'm excited about it!

Family Trees

Things are basically back to normal here, although we are going through yet another bad thunderstorm as I type this, so I thought I'd show ya'll a few photos of the damage from my Mom's house.  We really didn't have many trees down in our area but downed trees took out large swaths of power to the north and west of us.  My Mom's area was much harder hit although they actually had their power restored a day earlier than us.  As you can see from the photo above this very, very large oak tree just barely missed Mama's house.  I hate to say but, I secretly wished it had taken out that awful screened-in porch so I could build her a new one and let the insurance pick up the tab.  As it is I don't believe enough damage was done to warrant anything like that.  At any rate, it was heartbreaking to me to see that this old tree had gone down.  We estimate it was easily 100 years old and was a constant source of play for us when we were kids.  We had an ol' rope swing on it that we literally wore out until the rope just disintegrated.  It shaded many a family picnic, badminton game and countless hours of play for countless kids, family or not.

This is just a slightly closer view and no, that is not an actual grave by the root ball.  Well, there's a cat buried there but not a human grave.  My Mom is a little eccentric maybe and when she found this headstone of some of her kin discarded, after a new stone had been purchased for a double plot, she deemed to rescue it from the trash pile.  Since it was marble and recorded his military service she had the cemetery workers load it in her car and then coerced one of us to erect this thing in the yard.  It gets a lot of second glances and comments at any rate.

Mama spent months, literally, searching for just the right concrete bench she wanted to go under the old tree.  I personally thought she should have turned the old headstone into a bench but she didn't cotton to my idea.  So, it's mashed to pieces now.  That one end support is okay but I couldn't see the other one.  It's probably rammed about 2 feet down into the ground.

The family consensus is to try to find someone with the proper equipment, who would be willing also, to mill this trunk into slabs suitable for making tables.  The trunk is so large it would take a small crane to move it if it had to be transported, but I was hoping to find someone with portable equipment that could come to us.  I don't know if that is even possible but I'm going to check.  I hate that it had to die but I would love to commemorate the tree with a new dining room table; just to keep a part of it around as long as I could..

This is a large cedar in her front yard that also succumbed to the storm.  It was a double trunk and the other half is still standing but we'll take all of it down now.  We also wanted to save the trunks of both for some possible building project.  Cedar that large is just too nice to discard or burn.
My sister actually planted this tree about 40 years ago.  She was pretty small but dug up a teeny cedar sprout and transplanted it here, declaring as she did that "it was going to grow!"  And it did.  Quite well actually and provided a very safe and secretive home for baby birds of various species.  The birds continue to flit all around and in it even now, chirping their distress at the death of their old friend.

So, we have much work to do at Mama's now to get things back in order and cleaned up.  Need to put her in a new sidewalk too, as you can see form the photo.  Seems like it never ends but at least we are all safe tonight and unharmed.

Hopeless Wanderer

No, I'm not headed back out on the road or anything; I've just been thinking a lot lately about my wandering and traveling days.  See, I've been a bit surprised that this past year of working at home and doing as I please hasn't been a little more satisfying at times.  Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoy it immensely.  I love to be here and work on my art and pottery and dig in the garden when I get the urge.  But sometimes I find myself walking down to the end of the driveway and aimlessly peering into the horizon.

I love my place...so why did I want to leave?  I pondered on this for a while and then it just kinda hit me one day, "you're just an ol' gypsy Annie".  One of those souls that just likes to Go.  I don't know why I didn't understand this earlier.  I mean, I knew I liked to travel and such but I guess not to the extent that is now evident.  After thinking more about it I should have seen that 20 years in a business that required almost constant travel should have told me something.  I guess I didn't stay in that industry just because I like to pour concrete!  We often worked on jobs for years that were basically "in town" but the job itself was always something new.  A different project every day or sometimes you would get loaned out to another job for a day, week or month.  Always a change of scenery.  If you didn't like the project you were on then just wait until tomorrow, you'd probably be doing something different or at least moving to another section of the building.  Without that constant change and stimulus I find myself getting bored and gazing down the drive. We did travel to other states too.  I worked almost a year in North Carolina.  Had I not been married to my first husband I would have really enjoyed that!  I've worked in Tennessee too and literally all over Alabama.  I could have gone even more, even to Jamaica, but they didn't often want to pay for a single carpenter to stay in a room by themselves.  (You normally had to have a roomie).  The guys were my family and missing them is part of my desire to go also.  We're so spread out now the only way to keep in touch is on Facebook.

 I limit myself to just day trips unless I get the rare opportunity like the time I worked a weekend for Daddy Rabbit in south Alabama.  Considering my family and upbringing, I often find my wanderlust a curiosity.  I think the majority of my kin are homebodies.  Perhaps I take after my departed Uncle Howard.  He was in the Army (Bronze Star from WWII), an oil field worker in Oklahoma, a wanderer and finally settled in Oregon but was always prone to road trips if it was some where he had never been before.  As a child I envied his lifestyle so much when he would come to visit us about once a year.  See, we never got to go anywhere when I was growing up.  Maybe that still spurs me on today.  My father was basically a farmer, in his heart if nothing else, and home was where he would be unless forced to go out.  Plus, we just didn't have much money so that dictates a lot.  My father had been in the Army also (Korea) and went to places I can only dream of now but his stories always ended with distaste for where he was and longing to come home.  Standing in front of the Louvre and wishing you were at home???  How can that be??  And no, my father never actually set foot in Korea or any other Asian country.  They kept his company in France or Holland the whole time eating cheese and chasing women. 
So, I grew up gazing down the road, waiting for that day when I'd be seeing that driveway in my rear view mirror and when it came I didn't look back.  Haven't ever since. 

But, now I must make a living at home.  I thought about opening a public studio back up that that really is confining.  You always have to be there to be open for the public.  I thought about going back to doing the art/ craft show circuit, and I may one day, but for now I must finish the house.  I'd never have time to do that if I went back to doing shows.  Just way too much prep time involved.
So, I'm adjusting some I guess.    I may start taking some classes at the local gym a few times a week and/ or enroll in the Master Gardeners course offered by our county extension office.
I suppose wanting to be a semi-homesteader with my personality is about the stupidest thing somebody could come up with but I never claimed to be smart or reasonable.  I'm just me and I work it out as I go!

Closer

This is just a quick update to let ya'll know I'm still alive and here!  The kitchen has progressed a bit more; probably all it's going to until after the honeymoon.  But I got the range hood installed and it works!!  Yay!  However, having been so long without one I keep forgetting to turn it on.  Ha!  It is only temporarily up because I'll have to have it out of the way to install the tile on that wall, but it shouldn't be any problem to disconnect and take down.  It's a very simple installation.

I was very pleased with this wall cabinet that Mr. Adams made for me.  I think it looks so good against the dark metal.  I know these pictures are crap and please bear with me.  I'll try to get some during the day when the lighting is better.  Nowadays I do good to remember to take them at all and it's always at night.

I finally got all the countertop bases installed today, which is just basically 3/4 plywood on top of the cabinet.  Makes a fine temporary counter though.  The space here is for the dishwasher.  I don't have it yet because it can't be there when we pour.  The form must drop out after the counter cures so the dishwasher would just get in the way right now.
I also finally trimmed out the front door on the inside and another window.  These windows are next.  I hope to do those tomorrow.


I also got most of the fall garden planted and we sold all 6 of the mutt chicks and mean ol' Blondie.  So, that's seven fewer chickens crammed in that coop while we are gone.  Well, they will get to go out into 2 different runs during the day but this helps a lot.