Snugging in on a cold winter night

Cooper passed out in my chair 

The cats melted in their chair

The reason everyone is so relaxed 

There is nothing more pleasant than snuggling in with the woodstove going full bore. The critters have it right.

Of cats and chipmunks

Our cats are excellent hunters and are averaging 4 chipmunks per day. Unfortunately that’s 4 caught per day, not necessarily 4 killed. See they, much like many cats, prefer to torment their prey rather than cleanly dispatch it. Luckily Cooper the dog is quite willing to serve as executioner. This becomes particularly important when the cats decide to bring those chipmunks home.

And I don’t mean to the front door. I mean into the house. Like yesterday for example. I’m on the front porch sweeping up when I hear the sound of a cat meowing with her mouth full.

Never heard that sound? It’s distinctive. Makes me jump right up and run to shut the door. Sadly, I’m nowhere near as fast as a four-legged feline. In she goes, live chipmunk hanging prominently from her jaws. I run in right after her, calling very urgently for Cooper because that cat is no sooner three feet into the house when she releases one very motivated chippy. It darts deeper into the room but Cooper executes an impressive snatch and grab before it has a chance to really make any progress.

Awesome!

I tell Coop “outside!” and worry not a bit that that’s the end of my problem. Can you see this coming?  This is where I make my big mistake. Instead of following the dog outside to praise her, I chastise the cat...and Coop comes running back in to see what I’m doing, chipmunk in hand, so to speak. And then she releases it. Because obviously I want it inside, right?

Now I’m yelling, the cats are watching, and Cooper is running around nose to ground trying to track the darn thing which has escaped into the closet under the stairs. The very deep, very full closet.

Argh!!!

Chris soon joins in the mayhem and we’re now all involved in trying to outwit the wee beastie. Stuff is moved, the dog alerts on a box of Christmas decorations, and BAM, she’s got it! “Outside! Outside! Oh my God she’s dropped it!” “Just kill that fucking chipmunk!”

Victory was ours.

All the things

It's been a busy month. Individual posts to come with photos but here are the highlights:

The grove garden is growing nicely - the peas all came up and are now about 8 inches tall. Hooray! I've got two potato plants coming up out of the eight mounds. I dug down a bit into the mounds and the plants are on the way but I think I planted them too deep, or mounded them too early not sure which. So I'll change that next year.

The kitchen garden has kale (one that survived winter, five starts from the malfunctioning cold frame, three rows of seed), arugula (seed), basil (seed and starts), oregano (perennial), lemon thyme (perennial), dill fern (seed), and lettuce (starts) planted. I'm seeing some seed germination, especially in the kale.

The hill garden is no more. We've officially killed it off and moved or spread the soil. Why? Because the camp garden is ready for planting! Well, almost ready. Definitely need photos of this one because we cleaned up the site, rebuilt the rock wall foundations, and have topsoil on the way. So cool.

We've started the chicken pasture (orchard?) fence. Will also be cool.

Also, I've now got six new chickens. Added them when they were a week old and they're now six weeks. All are growing and doing well.

We adopted two adult cats and are now battling ringworm. So extremely not cool. Anyone have suggestions on how to eradicate this? I'm working with my vet to treat the animals, but I've read the spores can live for up to a year (!) in the environment. I can't bleach the whole house and I'm not sure bleach would help anyway. Help!

Chris is looking into doing a volunteer stint in Puerto Rico with MDS rebuilding houses. Will definitely have photos of that if he ends up going.

Finished the upstairs bathroom! Including a door!

We've also had some fun with bleach dying and more tie-dying. I'm working on an upcycle project involving old blue jeans (ooh, mysterious) and Chris is carving a decorative fridge handle. All the usual stuff!

Cooper's new bed

I've already told the story of buying and stripping apart the bedroom chair that was to be Cooper's new bed. Turned out taking the thing apart was much easier than figuring out how to reupholster it again. I had no idea what I was doing.

Cooper anticipating completion

So I did what any self-respecting crafter does - I winged it. I wrapped the chair in batting then used  duck canvas on the frame. I had to do a lot of folding and tacking to get the heavy fabric to follow the curves of the chair. I also had to keep reminding myself that this was going to be a dog bed and that I never intend to upholster again. It didn't have to be perfect and I wasn't learning a permanent new skill. It was supposed to be fun dammit! Cut yourself a break!

Trying to fold around the leg. Argh.

I had a couple of old wool car blankets that I wanted to use as the cushion cover. But first I had to cut a new foam cushion to fit the shape of the chair - remember the old chair was horse hair and wool, no foam back then. What a total pain in the behind it is to cut foam. I used a long bladed serrated knife and really struggled. I've since learned that an electric knife is much easier to use.

Rather than actually make the cushion cover permanent I decided to just wrap it around the foam and tuck it in tight. If it ends up getting pulled out then I'll make a slipcover but I'd rather not cut the blanket if I can avoid it.

Nearly done.

I called Chris in to take a look and Cooper trailed along. And immediately checked out her new chair.

Is this mine?

Yup. It's mine.

We put in by the wood stove and she's been loving it ever since.

Day

Evening

Night

You can see in the photo above what I did with the second wool blanket - I folded it into a lumbar pillow. I think it makes the whole thing look more finished. I'm calling this project a success - just ask Cooper.

It's going to be a...

Many years ago I bought a velvet covered bedroom chair at auction for $5. It had great bones and the upholstery was in good shape. I knew I'd get some good use out of it. And I did. But great use is hard on a chair and it was looking really ratty. So I decided to take it apart and see if I could do something fun with it.

Uncovering those bones

Wool batting

Extremely well constructed 

Now what? 

Let's lower the arms

Much better profile for... 

Cooper's new bed!

Obviously I'm in the process of reupholstering it. I've reattached the arms, inset a plywood base to support a new foam cushion, and added batting to the bottom edges. Next up is strapping to support a back cushion then more batting around the arms and sides. Finally I'll enclose the chair sides and back in dark blue duck canvas and use the plaid wool blankets to cover bottom and back cushions. Assuming I can get Cooper out of it of course...

Loving the snow

Cooper loves getting out in the snow. This time of year our walks are filled with snowballs flying into drifts and skittering down the driveway so she can chase and kill them. And if we're distracted or busy, well she'll just throw them herself.

It's here somewhere... 

I think I got it

There it goes!

Don't let it get away!

Oomph 

Ta dah!

It's mine!

Huh. It's here somewhere...

A Dog Day Afternoon

Cooper is enjoying the summer. She especially loves the sun-warmed front yard.

Roll, roll. 

Squirm squirm 

Even an empty sour cream container is fun when it's nice out

Spring Update

Typical for our area, the weather has been all over the place - cold and windy, cold and wet, warm and sunny - pick a temperature and you'll probably get it (yes, we hit 86 one day). I like this type of topsy-turvy weather though as it gives me a chance to pick a project based on how looks outside. Spring cleaning is actually pretty pleasant when it's sunny but cold out. And there is no better feeling than getting out when it's finally warm enough to do some winter cleanup. So far I've raked the yards, torn down a raised bed that was in a bad spot, used the lumber to build a cold frame, cleaned out the chicken coop, cleared off the porch, got out the patio furniture, and planted trees. 

The streams aren't running as hard since all the snow has melted off. We had to do a fair amount of maintenance on the runoff area as water had spread out into the woods with all the leaf litter filling in the drainage ditches. Even with all the snow we got over the winter the thaw was quick and the water level has already dropped considerably.

Normally gushing this time of year

Outlet area under driveway

Barely see the waterfall on the left

Cooper and the chickens have been enjoying any chance to get out into the sun. 

Cleaning up after I raked

Don't panic! These chickens are not dead! They're loving a dustbath in the sandy soil of the east yard. 

Rubbing her head in the sand

I have a bench seat out here and they'll gather at my feet, dig into the sand, and coo. Actually coo. It's the most pleasant, peaceful, and contented sound I've ever experienced.

Ahhh...

Indoor projects have involved lots of cleaning. I've dug out most of the kitchen boxes that have been waiting patiently for unpacking and actually managed to empty 12 of them. And, as expected (after all, it has been packed away for 4 years), there is stuff in them that we don't really use. Why do we have so many drinking glasses??? However I have found some items that I've actually been missing. Pans, utensils, fun decorations, it's a mixed bag, er, box.

Frosted

We got the most beautiful snow the other day. Heavy and wet so it stuck to everything. It was gorgeous.

Even the chicken fence looks pretty

Cooper was exuberant as usual. And I got to use the "run" feature on the camera. Stop-motion photography!

Look at those ears!

A wonderful walk in the woods that day. And we were fortunate enough to not lose power. The utility company came through just a few days before to do tree cutting maintenance and they did a great job.  Actually, they really did. I know a lot of folks have horror stories about them decimating the tree line or leaving a big mess, but these guys cut respectfully, cleaned up appropriately, and set aside the stuff big enough to turn into firewood. 

Snow, solar, agility - basically a mishmash today

We're getting a more normal snow load this year than last. Chris has had to use the tractor to clear the driveway three times. That's always a production simply because it's so darn cold on that thing. We really need to look at getting a cab for it. 

My experiment in overwintering my rosemary seems to be going well. The plant I brought into the house didn't make it two months (my worst record ever) but the outside plant seems to still be good. I cut the bottom out of the bucket, put it over the plant, and packed it with dead leaves. The hope being that the heavy mulch would actually stay in place and let the plant sit in stasis until spring. Fingers crossed.

Rosemary still alive?

We installed solar PV in October and November was pretty good despite lots of rain but December stank because of the snow cover. We're grid-tied so we put the panels on the roof - great for getting them out of the way, not practical to clear the snow. If we were actually off-grid we'd have put them on poles that allowed the panels to tilt but we were looking to offset our electrical not get off the system completely. One thing that amazed me is how much the costs have dropped in just four years. When we built the house we had to pay a small fortune to get power all the way back here (we're nearly 2000 feet from the main road). We looked at going off-grid at that point but the cost was twice what commercial power cost. Now it's almost at parity. Would have made a different decision, I can tell you that.

Cooper tracks

Cooper enjoys the snow but we've got to keep on eye on her pads. January has brought heavy ice and the crust is hard on her feet. We're rubbing them with ointment to keep them flexible and help with cracking and so far it's helped her be more comfortable. We've also just decided to stay inside some mornings; no need to walk when it's below zero outside.

What do you mean it's cold?

Unfortunately she's a high-energy dog so no walk means, stir-crazy animal. We've taken to setting up a small agility course in the house and doing training. Frankly I think it's good for all of us. She gets both mental and physical exercise and we have the fun of working with her. We use a broom as a jump, pull out the dining chairs as obstacles (over, through, and even under), and work around the table. Minimal mess with maximum results. Pretty good.

It's cold out; no wait, it's warm; what is it??

The weather has been topsy-turvy the past few weeks. Freezing, warm, raining, snowing, etc. Minus 20 one night, 50 and sunny a few days later. We've been mainly working on finishing up the mudroom built-ins but there's always time to fit in fun with Cooper.

Agility class has kept us active.

So fast we're a blur

And morning walkies are beautiful with all the ice.

This root amazes me

 Cooper can be very demanding when she's bored.

This is what she does when she want attention.

 Hardly any snow, but just enough to play in.

She's so fast!