stinky.

Must confess, my office stinks, yup stinks to high heaven.  As I write, there is a large tub containing seven ducklings, it is separated at one end to provide a safe place for four bantam chicks the littlest of whom has not gown hardly at all since it hatched. It is sooooo incredibly tiny.  There is also a double sized galvanized tub housing two turkeys and seven chicks.  These are growing rapidly and as soon as I can get the fence finished (Monday, come hell or high water) they will be going outside with the other hens. 
Right now the turkeys are running through the house like little velociraptors, their feet thunking in bizarre little patters as they run across the wood floors. We obviously have a male turkey chick since he has already been trying to puff up his chest, drop his wings and perform for the other chick, who seems oblivious. It is hysterically funny to see him doing it too.

The bees have been working very hard. The comb they are drawing out is a beautiful clean white, amazing stuff. They have already been capping honey stores in the combs. I am so delighted with them.  We find them fascinating little creatures.
This week Joshua and I gathered up a wild swarm, help collect another thirty feet up in a tree, (damned inconvenient of them to swarm so high) and Josh's friend and I took another swarm off somebodies back deck. 
It was such an easy swarm to collect I didn't use any gear at all. Should have used some gloves though since I did get stung on my thumb joint. As I brushed the bees into a box my hand came in contact with bees under the edge of the deck. I may have crushed a few since it could not see them, they did not appreciate it.  My thumb swelled like a balloon, so next time I may not treat a swarm quite so casually and at least wear gloves.
Sadly we did not have an extra hive box so we gave the bees to other bee keepers. Next year I will be better prepared and have an extra hive ready.

OOooooh I can hardly wait to get these birds out of my office.

just some stuff

 One:  A badly focused shot of Minimee and her babies, hard to get a good pic they move so fast! They were corralled in the hen house but I have moved the babies into the house, they are toooooo tiny I was worried the hens or turkeys might think they looked edible.  Minimee is a fierce little mother but eight is a few too many to look after.

 Two: Here is a peek in the bee hive. Is this super cool or what. Sorry about the glare.

Three: Can you see her? Maybe not because she seems to think if she puts a leaf on her head she becomes invisible.  This is Metoo and her babies should hatch any day.

Full and overflowing

 Tasmanian was laying in his basket nest to a collage I am working on, I thought it made such a nice pose and the saying on the painting seemed appropo.

 One of my all time favorite camp grounds in Logan Canyon, DeWitt.  Most springs it is under water, nobody ever goes there and it is one of the prettiest places I know.  We took the dogs there Sunday evening, so beautiful and only fifteen minutes from home.

Sunday morning Minime showed up with eight exquisite babies. There is nothing as adorable as a new duckling.

My little back yard is bursting with life and so is my office, I have baby chickens and turkeys inside and the ducklings with their mamma and all the other ducks, chickens and turkeys are outside.  The new ducklings are so tiny they and their mamma are confined in the hen house until the babies are a little stronger.  I am hoping she takes good care of them or they too will be in the house.
Oh, and the bees are outside, can't forget the bees, my apple tree is literally humming with them.

Little duck Meeto is sitting on eggs so maybe hers will hatch too. She has five eggs, we will see how many hatch.

Mr. Tinky

Here is Mr. Tinky pretending to be a pink burrito. 
Actually he is the Pink Burrito, a new super hero, he will defeat you by shooting Cuteness Rays of sparkles and rainbows, until you give up and give him whatever you are eating.

Husbutt is particularly immune to the Cuteness Rays, Jacob is becoming more ambivalent, but Alex is defeated every time.  The cuteness rays are like Kryptonite to Alex. Josh and I try to ignore it but usually The Pink Burrito wears down our defenses and we fold.
Beware the Pink Burrito!

uh oh

It appears there was an accidental poultry purchase.  There were turkeys involved, and chicks.

Sorry I have been neglectful of you this last month.  It has been an annoying month, busy and I have not felt well, it seems every time I get near the computer it triggers a migraine.  Daily migraines are no fun and the cost of the new meds nearly gave me heart attack so I have been laying rather low.

Mini-Me the little Call duck (she really is my favorite, such a big personality) is faithfully sitting on her nest.  Metoo, the other little female is also sitting faithfully under the rose bush.  Mini-Me insists on having two boy friends, Ed and Eddy.  They follow her everywhere, and patiently wait for her to re-unite with them every evening when she hops off her nest for a drink and a bit to eat.  She is very funny, when she gets off the nest she announces very loudly and they all get excited, when she is ready to go back, she suddenly gets very quiet and acts sneaky, then slips off for the nest. Funny to watch her.

Denzel the turkey, who we thought was a male, hence the name, is very broody.  We may have to have the turkey fairy visit her in the night and bring her some babies, these eggs are not fertile.  She is determined though. Poor girl.

The Poof-head or Einstein ducks are a breed called Swedish tufted.  These two are ancient ducks and sadly a bit handicapped.  The duck in the front was actually raised by a chicken.  She was a giant black Cochin chicken, very poofy and so glossy and silky, she was a good mother and had no problem with raising him though his desire to get in the drinking water all the time was disconcerting to her, she thought that was weird.  He name was Velvet-Ass-Rose.  She was named after an Old West prostitute, the men of the mining town liked her so much they nicknamed her Velvet-Ass.  When I got this big chicken and she was so incredibly soft and silky with a big poofy bottom, I though"velvet-ass". Seemed reasonable at the time.

 This weekend we got our bees installed in their new hives.
We are very pleased with them, they have already started making comb, its about as big as a hand with smaller comb started.  So exciting.  We love to watch them hustle into the hive with their little legs burdened with all sort of different pollen, this morning it was loads of bright orange stuff, sometimes we have seen  pale green pollen and some nearly red.  I am going to plant flowers with blue pollen just because it sounds so interesting.

 And here are the neighbors dogs looking through their "window" to see what we are doing and do I have a fresh egg for them?  I call them Thing one and Thing two.  Very funny, very sweet dogs.

One last accidental shot of my messy desk.  The blue knitting is finished and waiting to be blocked, it is hand spun and dyed, Old English baby doll wool from my sheep.

Crazy making.

Theoretically I should be painting, drawing or otherwise productive. This has not been the case. For the last week migraines have sapped my creativity, a migraine will suck the life right out of you like some mad vacuum intent on taking every last bit of grey matter.

Then when the headaches eased, I had the bright idea to organize my office, which happens regularly and is never a very good idea.
Usually I retire much later than Husbutt, so sometimes he wakes in the night, he used to ask me what I was doing, now he just sighs and goes back to bed, he knows the answer. I am either trying to organize or looking for something I thought I had organized and subsequently lost.

Anyway, as I have been plowing through stuff I am again reminded, sharply, how much stuff is in this little room where I spend most of my time. This room is like my brain, crammed full to overflowing and nothing organized or sequential. Holy bat crap there is a ton of stuff here and I can't get rid of any of it, I use it eventually.
Here is a list of just some of the "supplies".
quilt fabric
quilts started sewing
quilts started quilting
sculpture supplies,
doll making supplies
printmaking "
embroidery projects
linen
upholstery
oil paint
acrylic paint
watercolor paint
oil paintings started
acrylic paintings started
watercolor paintings started
prismacolor pencils, loads and loads of them
drawings for books
research
books for projects
books I m reading
yarn
wool
wool for rug making
three rugs started and on hoops
a ghastly number of knitting projects
boxes to hold all this crap
three cats
three dogs
canvas for projects
tv
sewing machine

Shall I go on?

I really need to finish some of this stuff, its just that everything is interesting and I get distracted with a new project, there is always the question of "what if..."

NO MORE PROJECTS


Also we got the bee hives this week. I will post pics when I can.