And they just keep coming…

Posted by on October 26, 2011 1 Comment

I really think I’ve found one of my favorite form of art. I just can’t seem to get enough of making these linoleum print cards. I added 3 new ones to the portfolio in the past week or two. For the first time I printed these using an oil-based block printing ink. While it’s a bigger clean-up, I really liked the results and thought it made a ‘cleaner’ print than the water based ink does.

The Snowy Farmhouse printed card.


Silver Spangled Hamburg black print with red hand-painted combs.


Japanese Gray Cockerel black print with red hand-painted combs.

And although it’s time consuming, I love the pop of color the red combs add to the rooster and chicken prints.

I’m working on a new one right now from one of my favorite photographs of a crested crane that will use a salmon colored hand-painted accent color.  We’ll see how that looks.

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Litchfield County, Connecticut

Posted by on October 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

As some of you may know, I long to leave my small plot of land behind and move to the country to a much larger piece of land. To a real farm. I’d like more goats, more chickens, my horses, some sheep, and at least one cow. Probably an alpaca for kicks and most certainly a donkey. And a barn cat. Jim and Maia are allergic, but I figure in a barn it could keep the mice down and it won’t bother them out there.

An area that I am continually drawn to is Litchfield County in northwestern Connecticut. It’s one of the few remaining areas of Connecticut that still has a small bit of farmland left undeveloped. I’ve been up there quite a few times over the past few months for various reasons, and I’ve yet to see anything I don’t like about the area.

While I was driving up there yesterday I had some extra time so cut off the main route to take some back roads. I found the most beautiful roads with old farmhouses from the 1800’s and rolling hills and pastures. This kind of land is becoming pretty scarce in Connecticut.


And many of them were still working farms. I actually saw a lot of cows.

This farm had mostly Holstein cows, but they had this beautiful Brown Swiss steer. I love the color of these cows.

I saw one simple but beautiful farmhouse that appeared to be empty. I turned into their driveway to take a better look, and there, behind a hedge, I was greeted by this lovely flock of ladies. I guess the house wasn’t empty after all, since they certainly looked happy and healthy.


Every street I turned down seemed to take me on an even more beautiful road than the one before it. It was a lovely fall day which certainly helped. I was coming up a rather steep hill, and I’d already been climbing quite a bit. I stopped to take a picture of the views.



All of a sudden, there on my left, was a field full of Randall cattle. This had to be Howland Homestead Farm. When I first became interested in heritage breed animals, Randall Cattle were one of the first I looked into after reading an article on them in Hobby Farms Magazine. I actually called this farm and took the kids up there one cold and snowy early spring day, where we all got a chance to milk a cow. It’s an image that the kids love finding on Google, and it was there on their website when I got home to confirm that it was, in fact, the same farm I’d visited probably 7 years ago.

I was so surprised to come across a field full of Randall Cattle on my back roads side trip.


And here's the picture of us milking a Randall cow at that very farm probably 6 or 7 years ago.


One day I will own a Randall cow. Maybe in this very area.

This barn had a similar decorating style as my newly completed goat house has I thought.


My goat house.


It was a lovely day spent in a lovely area.

The covered bridge in Cornwall, Connecticut.

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A New England Fall

Posted by on October 26, 2011 Leave a Comment

Even though they predicted a spectacular fall here in New England because of all the rain we had this year, I don't believe they factored in the September hurricane that stripped many trees of their leaves. I took this photo yesterday as I drove up to Kent, Connecticut. It's still beautiful, but you can see some of the trees are pretty bare. I was so high in the mountains that you can see some wispy clouds on the left in the photo.

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I Saved a Chipmunk Today!

Posted by on October 24, 2011 4 Comments

Today I was heading out to the grocery store, but stopped to collect eggs from the farm before I left. I have a large galvanized pail in the yard outside of the fenced area that serves as a general water bucket for free-ranging chickens and my dog. As I was heading back to the house I noticed my dog looking into the pail. I looked in a saw a chipmunk, barely alive, and paddling slightly underwater with one foot. I quickly grabbed a piece of wood nearby and fished him out of the water.

Laying on the grill just after I fished him out of the water.


It was quite cold out last night and it was a chilly day, so besides almost drowning, this little guy had to be suffering from hypothermia. I carefully put him up on my gas grill that was right there, and ran into the house to get a towel. I wrapped him up in the towel and quickly brought him inside.

He was barely alive.


He was barely alive. In fact, I thought he’d actually died while I was holding him and had to give him a little poke to see if he moved. He did. Barely. I carefully rubbed him a little dry with the towel, but quickly carried him up to my bathroom where I put my hairdryer on the low/warm setting and set about drying him off and warming him up. As I was blow drying him, I was also carefully rubbing him dry with a soft washcloth to aid in drying and to get his circulation going again.


Poor little guy. He was barely holding on.


When I got one side pretty dry, I carefully rolled him over and dried the other side as best I could.


He's looking better, at least externally, now that he's a little dry.


When he was pretty dry all over, I wrapped him back up, grabbed my heating pad from the linen closet, and carried him downstairs. Bullet, who personally felt responsible for helping aid his rescue, was waiting to greet him.


I turned the heating pad on low and grabbed an empty box from the garage and cut a few small air holes into the top. I set the heating pad in the bottom of the box and covered it with a washcloth. I lay the chipmunk in the box, taped it securely shut, and set him in my bathroom where I shut the door. In case he gnawed his way out while I was at the grocery, I didn’t want him tearing up the house.


I finally headed out to the grocery store, and anxiously returned to check on my patient about 45 minutes later. Hoping for the best, I took the box out into the driveway before I opened it.


Before I’d even opened the box completely, the chipmunk jumped out and scurried off. He ran so fast that this is the only photo I could get as he departed.


But if I zoom in on the photo, you can see he’s alive, and looking like he had a good blow dry!


You know how you always see drowning victims throwing up after they’ve been saved? Well, when I was carrying the box back in the house, I looked inside and there, in the corner, was a little pile of cracked corn. Cracked corn is part of the scratch grains that I give to the chickens every day, and our yard has become a favorite foraging ground for every chipmunk around. Since I hadn’t left any food in the box for him, he’d obviously thrown up the cracked corn that he’d eaten that morning.


So, I feel as if I’ve done my good deed for the day. Maybe for the week. And that chipmunk has a crazy story to tell to his friends around the woodpile tonight.

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Covered Bridge

Posted by on October 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

I'm heading back up to Kent, Connecticut tomorrow. I'm going alone and will have some free time, so I'm hoping to get some good photos while I'm up there. This was taken on our last visit there.

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Meatloaf

Posted by on October 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes & peas. The all-American meal.

I realized this weekend that I hadn’t made meatloaf in ages. I made some today, and I always make a double recipe so there’s an extra one for the freezer for another meal.

The ultimate comfort food for me and my family. My recipe comes straight from my mother, and it’s more like a really large swedish meatball than some of the more American-style meatloaf’s I’ve had. There’s no ketchup in the recipe. It’s not covered in BBQ sauce or bacon. It’s delicious to us. I always serve it with mashed potatoes and peas. One of my favorite ways to eat it is as leftovers. I warm a slice in the microwave and put it on tasted rye bread. Yummm.

Meatloaf

Yield: 2 meatloaf’s that should serve 6-8 people.

    • 2 pounds ground beef
    • 3 pounds meatloaf mix (ground beef, pork & veal)
    • 1 cup very finely chopped parsely (I grind mine in the food processor)
    • 1-3/4 cups finely diced onion
    • 3/4 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (I use Progresso)
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
    • 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
    • 2 eggs
    • 1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add the ground beef and meatloaf mix to a very large bowl.


To this add the parsley and onion.


Then add the breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, seasoned salt, eggs, and heavy cream.


Wash your hands well, roll your sleeves up, and dive into the bowl with both hands. Mix it, mash it, squish it between your fingers.


Season with a little more seasoned salt and pepper to taste.


Divide the mixture in two as evenly as you can, and shape them into loaves.


Now I put one in a baking pan and wrap the other carefully in plastic wrap, label it, and stick it in the freezer for another day. If you’re feeding a crowd and want to use the whole recipe, still form two loaves. One giant meatloaf probably wouldn’t cook properly — the inside would still be raw and the outside would be dry.

Bake on the center rack for 75 to 90 minutes, or until the center reaches a temperature of 165 degrees. Remove from oven, cover with foil, and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice and serve immediately.




Print This Recipe Print This Recipe

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More Vintage Tape Measure & Ruler Jewelry

Posted by on October 24, 2011 1 Comment

On Friday I was cruising the CountryLiving.com website and they had an article on ‘Etsy Sellers We Love“. They listed 9 Etsy seller’s that all had cute things, but one made watched out of tape measures. One quick look at her watches and I could have slapped myself in the side of the head. Why didn’t I think of that when I was making vintage ruler and tape measure jewelry a few weeks ago?


I still had tons of the vintage tape measure that I used for the first project, so I dragged Jim to Michael’s Crafts on Saturday night before we went out for a quick dinner. Having spent little to no time in a crafts store before, he was fascinated by all of the stuff you could find there. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a small watch face with a ribbon bar, but I did find some grommets that I needed.

I had a really cheap Timex watch that I bought in an emergency once not long ago, and could put that to good use now. I cut the bands off of the watch, and assembled my new one. It really could use a smaller snap, but that was all I had and it was late on Saturday night when I was putting this together.

And while I was at it, I decided to make a tape measure wrap bracelet. I liked the bracelet on it’s own, but I’d bought this black leather studded wrap bracelet at Forever 21 recently when I was hunting for bangle bracelets for my Sweater Covered Bangle Bracelet project, and thought they might look good mixed together. I loved that.


Tape Measure Bracelet Mixed with a studded leather wrap bracelet I found on sale at Forever 21 a few weeks ago.

And of course, wanting a whole jewelry ensemble thing going on, I had to make some earrings to go with the watch and bracelet.


Vintage tape measure and vintage ruler earrings.

Another fun project for an inspired vintage look.

If anybody would like more tutorial style pictures on how to make the watch, just send me a comment or email.

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The Longest Escalator

Posted by on October 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

This escalator, in the Atlanta Marta station, was the longest escalator I'd ever seen in my life. I took the photo with the Instagram app on my iPhone.

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Molting & Crazy Eggs

Posted by on October 23, 2011 1 Comment

My poor molting chicken.

About two weeks ago I noticed that one of my Delaware chickens was looking a little plucked. It first noticed the soft downy feathers on her bottom seemed to be showing some bare spots. When my friend Cyrena, was farm sitting for me last weekend when we were in the Catskills she sent me a panicked text message about her having a bare rear end. About mid-week last week I noticed some of her wing feathers seemed to be missing.


I wondered if she could me molting. It’s hard to imagine, but in my ten years or so of raising chickens I have never had one molt. I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. My computer is in front of a window that looks directly out onto the farm area and I hadn’t seen anybody picking on this poor chicken. She’s one of the oldest, most senior chickens in the flock. Not that she’s “old”, but she’s been around a while.

Stop taking pictures of me when I look like this!

I finally sent some photos of her to my friend Sue last night. She’s become my go-to person on chickens. She confirmed that yes, she was indeed molting. I was so glad it wasn’t anything more than that. She said she had 3 molting girls herself.

My poor molting chicken.

One of my friend Sue's molting hens. Lordy, this poor girl looks terrible!

It’s a regular loony bin here. I’ve still got two broody hens. One has been a sort of half-assed broody for about a month now. Every single night when I’m locking up the farm I find her in the dog house. This is not predator-proof, so I can’t let her stay in there overnight. So, I pick her up. Sometimes she is laying on an egg. Sometimes she has two under her, as somebody else laid one in the dog house that day and she rolled it under her. If she’s laying on any eggs, I pick those up along with her and put her in a nesting box in the small coop with the younger chickens and put her eggs back underneath her. She’ll stay on those eggs all night, but come morning when I go to let everyone out to eat, she hops right off of the egg(s), and spends half the day eating and socializing. But at lock-up time every night, she’ll be back in there again. This has gone on now for at least a month.

Then there’s Ash. This poor girl has been broody in a nesting box in the goat house for probably close to two months now. I have never seen her off of her eggs. And she’s not picky about what she’s laying on, either. Currently she’s laying on 4 real eggs, 3 plastic eggs, and 1 wooden egg. She is one determined girl. I’ve started feeding her a little bowl of food at feeding time so she doesn’t starve to death sitting on those eggs.

Ash is still broody in the goat house.

It’s not uncommon for one of the hens to lay a strange egg that has a bumpy surface instead of a smooth, normal egg. This weekend we got the lumpiest, bumpiest egg I’ve ever seen. Fortunately I discovered Jim was boiling it for his breakfast this morning before I’d had a chance to take a picture of it, so I dragged it out of the boiling water for this shot. It had a little crack in it from it’s boiling.

A lumpy, bumpy egg.

And yesterday we got one of the smallest eggs I think we’ve ever had laid here. I don’t even think my two favorite old bantam hens, Chow Mein or Mrs. Pocket, laid eggs this small. See photo below (center, far right egg).

A tiny egg was laid this weekend.

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Full Moon

Posted by on October 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

I took this a few weeks ago when there was a full moon. I'm not much of a night photographer, but I dragged my tripod out in the middle of the night and gave it a shot. The moon was shining through the branches of a big pine tree in our yard. I thought it was kind of cool.

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