"Are You Still There?"

The studio is pretty close to being finished.  Now the fun part, filling it with  art stuff!

I'm not going to state the obvious, the stuff about how long its been since I've made a blog entry.  I'm not going to make excuses, like how busy I've been, blah, blah, blah.  Just consider all that said, OK Brain?  I'm here now, and that's what matters.

I wish I'd taken more "before" pics of The Lab (that's what we call the back house we're making into my art studio).  I swear I did take more, but I can't find them anywhere so I'm having to re-run the before pic I posted in November.  I tore down the ceiling and then I went into a major stall.  I mean, life just kinda rushed right on past my studio project.  The thing that stalled me was so small and silly, but the longer I put off doing it, the bigger a road bump it became.  See, when I pulled down the ceiling (B. actually did the hardest part, I pulled down the dry wall, and then he had to figure out how to take down all the plywood) there were about 50 screws left up in the beams and about 50 nails in the pieces of plywood.  Those had to come out.  Yeah, that's it.  That was thing that I just couldn't get myself to come out and do. This tiny, simple, project.  Instead I threw myself into other things.


Courage and I went to AZ just in time to catch a rare snow storm.

Gates Pass freak snowstorm.

I knitted this image together myself so its rough, But just look at my noble dog watching the sun rise!

Two days later the snow had all melted and Courage and I took a dawn hike to watch the sun rise.  That's when I discovered Courage really likes to watch the sun rise.  Every morning during our stay in AZ, we took a hike to the top of a mountain and Courage sat himself down, just like that, and watched the sun come up.

Courage in AZ.

So back to splainin' how I got a bit side-tracked from my studio project...

I was traveling for work of course, which is always rough.

Its tough working in the Bahamas.

Taken on Valentines Day.

When I wasn't traveling I was busy at home in Texas where things were pretty exciting, harrowingly exciting but exciting nonetheless.

At the Texas Capitol. 

Another day at the capitol.

Camilla went broody again in March so I decided to get some fertile eggs for her to sit.  For twenty one days exactly I waited excitedly, crossing my fingers and hoping at least some of the six eggs would hatch.  I candled the eggs around day 18 using a flashlight held underneath each egg in turn, trying to see if i could see inside.  I could see inside, but I didn't know what I was looking at, something had happened in all of the eggs but some of the eggs were all dark inside and some had little shapes and veins I could just make out.  I didn't know which eggs were good and which were not.  I put all six eggs back underneath their worried Mama and steeled myself to waiting.  I read that eggs are supposed to hatch on day twenty one and that they usually pip   on day twenty.  Day twenty came and went with no pips.  I tried hard not to lose hope.  I dreaded having to take the eggs away from Camilla with not even a single one hatching.  Camilla had been such a good Mom so far.  She almost never left the nest, even to eat of drink.  I had to pick her up and carry her into the yard.  I'd set her down and for a moment her poor legs wouldn't even hold her up, she'd been sitting for so long.  Then she'd gather herself, let out an immense amount of poop, grab a couple bites to eat and long drink of water and then she'd go straight back inside and get right back on the eggs.  Occasionally her friend Iskra would come up and "babysit" the eggs, or one of the other girls would go in and lay an egg alongside the fertile ones.  Camilla wasn't counting, she'd sit on everything that was in the nest, gently tucking everything under her breast feathers.   I'd go in and remove the non fertile eggs causing Camilla to puff her feathers and make some very threatening sounds, but she never pecked at me.   

Day twenty one, I went out to the coop with a heavy heart expecting to be disappointed and prepared to wait an extra three or four days, just in case.  I mean, twenty one was just a rough estimate right?  I had given Camilla the whole bottom floor of the coop to herself so she could brood in peace.  I had cut an entrance hole out of a plastic tote, filled it with fresh straw and placed Camilla's water and food outside within her reach.  Now I moved the water and food away and peered inside. 

My first sight of the chicks.  It was like Christmas.  I was so excited.

                               

But that wasn't all.  By the end of the day there were three baby chicks.  A red one a blonde and a little brunette.  The perfect chick trifecta. 

Alli, Annabelle (Elle for short), and Buffy.

The babies grew and went through their terrible twos and their awkward adolescence and it gradually became apparent that one the three was a "he."  I had been dreading this since we can't have roosters in my neighborhood. There's a whole post I'll have to do about what a person does when they have a roo they just can't keep and they can't give the roo away cause nobody wants another roo, yet they just can't bring themselves to, you know, "harvest" the roo.  To make a long story short, I did finally find a home for my little roo on a pig farm in a very south easterly corner of Austin. I think about him often and hope he's doing OK.

Alli (the little roo) and Buffy

The two remaining chicks grew into lovely pullets.  Neither of them have started laying yet.  They are, of course, the lowest in the pecking order.  I had to add a third perch to the coop since none of the older ladies was going to scoot over to make room for the newbies.  I even had to sneak the babies onto the new perch after the older chickens had fallen asleep for the first week or so.  Finally I came out one night and Annabelle was up on the top roost all by herself.  Buffy (whose name has degenerated to "Little Girl") was still to scared to attempt to join the older ladies.  I kept going out each night and sneaking her up there for another week and a half before she finally attempted it herself.  Now she sleeps next to her aunt Iskra.  Iskra understands about being the new girl, the lowest on the totem pole.  She's pretty gentle with Little Girl.  I don't have any "after" picks of the babies.  I'll take some tomorrow.  They've grown into lovely chicken ladies, especially shy little Annabelle (who may yet turn out to be a roo herself but my fingers are double crossed that she lays an egg soon).

So, yeah, the chickens kept me busy.  In addition to new additions I made some modifications to the big door of the coop to keep them cooler in the 105 degree temps we are getting this summer.


In addition to travels, and chickens and rallies I was doing other things too, like art...

I submitted some ideas for the annual Funky Chicken Coop Tour.

B and I took a class on bee keeping from Round Rock Honey and want to get our own bees by next spring (if I procrastinate in the same way I did with the studio, Brain, we wont have bees for another year!).

Bee keeping class at Round Rock Honey.  Great class.  I learned the MOST
interesting things about bees!  Can't wait to get some of our own.

I did a bunch of photoshop stuff...

Abandoned church.

Mostly with pictures from the two vacations I planed and took to the four corners area this summer.  Don't ask me why I took two separate vacations to the same area the same summer.  Its my crazy, wonderful life, that's just how stuff works out.

Just outside Arches in Utah.

I have to process the pictures I took in Zion so that too will have to wait for another post, and I still have to catch up on my Yelp reviews and my email and keep the garden from croaking in the heat, and finish the story writing and learn Vectorworks and get ready for my Mom's visit in two weeks.

But at least I (with a lot of help from B) finally leaped the hurdle I had created for myself and finished the studio this week. I rented a paint sprayer and painted the whole room white then I took the plywood we pulled out of the ceiling and had B cut it into strips which I put down to make a new floor.  I think it turned out very nicely.  I'm excited to get a counter top and some shelving in.  If all goes as planned I will have space for sewing, photography and painting.  I'll post some pictures when I get it all set up Brain.  Yes, I hear you laughing.  What do you mean, "Next year?!"  You'll see Brain, you'll see.