Rain.

I live in the Northwest, specifically, Western Oregon.  This means that for a major portion of the winter, we generally get rain.  And spring.  Sometimes early summer.  A good bet in late fall.

In other words, a lot of the time.

Now, I have lived here my whole life.  This, it's normal.  I know that once the bright days of July, and August are finished, you have to remember where your gum boots and rain slickers are.  Or just not worry about getting wet...

I remember a commercial for travelling to Oregon, that I can NOT find online, darn it...  It had, June, with a beautiful sunrise, July, beautiful sunrise, August, Beautiful sunrise, September, beautiful sunrise, October, and juuust started to show the sunrise, then in big block letters, Never mind.   Well, except that the heavy rain season can happen in September, it's more or less true.  There is a theory  about why people are so creative in Portland, there is so much rain that they have to stay inside and do something, or go stir crazy.  Or that they already are, and that it comes out with the unique and items they come up with...

The weather forecasters hedge bets when talking about rain here.  There is a rain/sun thing, sort of like two sports teams.  More often than not, the "ad lib" part, where they chat, usually ends up with at least one of the news people saying they don't like rain... Um, then why are you in one of the rainiest areas around, except for Washington??? 

There is a standing joke, that in the fall, the rain starts, and our 'webs' can get wet again... I guess I like the rain...

I know that when I have been to places like Arizona, it was hot, and dry.  I bet folks that grew up there probably would think being power washed  3/4 of the year is terrible.  But, going to where there is sun 300 days of the year, and temps well over 90 for a lot of them, is not for me.

So.  I hope the weather that you have where you live is what you like! 

Good with the bad, I guess...

It had been raining absolutely unendingly for the morning.  I had taken a break, reading, and some knitting.  Husband had been dozing, with Ding holding him down... Also dozing.

Husband woke, and we were chatting a bit.  I stood up, to go into the other room, while he was talking... And I guess my face showed my shock.  He finished his sentence, then looked at me curiously, "What's wrong?"

"There is an eagle out in the field, eating one of my chickens.."

He stopped... "An eagle?"

"Yeah, an eagle, right there..."

We both looked out the window, to the sight of this ENORMOUS eagle, obviously a big adult bald eagle, calmly tearing apart one of my hens.  Well, there was not much I could do.

We tried to take a picture or two, but my camera was... Not at its best, and between the blasted flash being on, making it a big glare on the window.  And the zoom, just wasn't zoomy enough to get a good picture, we just had to be satisfied watching it for a bit.  Or, unsatisfied, as it were...

Finally the eagle left, and I went out to see what happened.  I am still not sure why, but the hen was plucked nearly clean.  It was one of the young ones, and it looked like someone had set a bomb off in a feather pillow.  I managed to get her picked up and buried, which was fun, in and of itself, since it started raining again.  That made the hole fill with water, which was not great.  I also had to use a feed shovel to dig the hole, because I couldn't find the standard shovel.  But, I did get it taken care of.  The rest of the flock were fine, if rightly terrified.  I noticed Mon Ami was pacing, and looked like he wasn't hurt, but maybe wasn't sure if he should go out and challenge the intruder.  Glad he didn't. 

So, while I had a wonderful close up view, I truly wish it had been of a fly by, not a stop and eat...

New Year, Old Me. Or something like that.

The New Year is upon us!  Well, ok, it’s been upon us for a few days, but hey, I am not known for jumping right on things…

First off, I wish to send my belated condolences to Mr. Chatterbox.  It seems like 2016 was the time to lose family.  I hope all goes well, and that you can get all the details sealed up.  May all your memories be happy ones.

I haven’t written, because I have not been near the computer to speak of.  I can use the phone for a lot of things, but not blogging.  Perhaps if I were a Millennial, that can speed type with two thumbs, and can make the phone do all but make coffee…

But I have now made a spot (a real, you know, desk type spot!) to type with the computer.  It was going to be in my craft room, but I found that the area I had picked didn’t work.  So it’s now in the other room.  This all works out.  Except possibly for the fact the heat isn’t really great back here…

Hmm.

With the New Year comes resolutions.  I normally don’t make those.  This year, I have decided to try.  What’s the worst I can do, break them?

Meh.

So, to that end:

1. Lose 5 pounds.  See, I figure, geez, 5 pounds in a year?  I should be able to do that.

2. Write my blog once a week.  I reserve the right to write much more, should I want.  I also reserve the right not to do the A to Z challenge, or do, depending on how chaotic life is at that time.  I have quit some groups and things that distracted me from writing, (No Nanowrimo, that I had planned on doing...), so we shall see what a revised activity level will do.

3. Lose more papers and junk in my craft room.  If I can remember how to up load the pictures from the phone, I will show you the before and after photos of what I’ve accomplished so far, with help from Husband and Family. (Trust me, envision an overflowing dump, and then lower it to a slightly stuffed living room, and you have the general idea.)

Not any earth shaking things, but we shall see what it adds up to at the end ‘o this year.
Hope all of you had a nice Christmas.  I had one gift that was a not quite Christmas gift, but was very nice, all the same.

I love Decaf Vanilla Tea.  To wit, I can get rid of a 20 count box in a week, if I am in a mood.  Well, the store I bought from regularly, quit carrying it. (This was back about August).  I asked if they could buy by the case, and get it that way.

Nope, not carrying, no special orders. Huh.

So, I went on the hunt for my tea.  I try to buy local, when I can.

Store A. Nope.

B. No.

C. Uh, tea?

D. Sure, if you contact Soandso who works the evening shift on Friday.

I call on Friday. Oh, he’s not working, can I take a message?  I leave a message.  Nothing.  Call again. Nothing. After the third time of leaving a message for this non-existent person, I gave up.

I started looking on line.  I mentioned this to my Mom, who said something about waiting ‘til the New Year.

Why?

About a week later, (see how quick I am about ordering stuff?), a box arrived for Husband.  I took it in the house and ignored it.  He comes home and hands it to me. “Open it.”

Oooookay…

Inside was 6 boxes of tea.  Then I lifted up that, and there was ANOTHER six underneath!  So I am good for tea, for a bit.  And the funny thing, we think that we might be able to buy it locally, because the website he chose, was for the one local store I forgot to check.

And, I hope most all of you are doing well weather wise.  It is now breaking, sort of, but we had way low temps, (went almost to single digits...) then freezing rain, then snow, then freezing rain again.  It is now raining, which is sllllloooowwllly getting rid of the ice.  I have basically stayed in the house for about 2 days, Husband gingerly walking out to care for the animals.  I could probably do it, but he has much better balance than I do.  In fact, poor Rudee went out for a bathroom break, he walked very gingerly out, and his back feet slid out from under him a couple times.  He went potty, then walked gingerly back to the kennel, and glared at the ice.  We will all be much happier when it goes back to normal Oregon rain...

Watch cat, and chasing horses.

I was thinking, gee, I've nothing to blog about.  

Um. Be careful what you wish for, so to speak.  

Mom called, and said there were some horses loose at their house, but they weren't there, having left for an appointment.  I called the Sheriff's Office, and zipped over to Mom and Dad's place.  The deputy showed up, and we made a bit of a game plan.  I kept an eye on the wayward horses (4 of them), while he walked over to see if the neighbor would let us run the horses over to his place temporarily, as my parent's place has no fencing around it, as they have no animals anymore.  

While the deputy was talking, I walked down to the horses.  They were pretty much 'who cares, we got food'...  Good, so far I don't have to worry about them wandering out to the road right then.  

When the deputy returned, my cell rang.  After some confusion, Dad explained there was a gate at the far end of the place.  I had either forgotten about it, or didn't know it was there.  However, it was a mess when we went to it.  The horses had basically torn it down, and wandered over it.  And, as it was four full grown horses, it was then mashed, tangled, and generally in severe disrepute.

Turns out, someone was renting the property behind my parents place for horses, and the neighbor said they had four of them. Bingo...

We ended up making a game plan, moving what was left of the gate so it was completely out of the way.  The deputy then walked over to where the 4 were, and shooed them to me, where they were looking curious, as I was sweet talking and clicking for them.  Once we were more or less blocking the way out, and letting them have the choice of going through the opening, I started bellowing, and flapping my arms wildly.  They darted through the hole to get away from the crazy woman, and we closed what was left of the gate.

I went up and checked if I could get some pallets to block the gate.  The deputy tried to lift up one that was nearby, it had a bunch of berry vines through it, so I pointed out some others.  He said they were rotted.  I told him it was just a temporary, more a visual barrier than anything, I wasn't worried if they were 100 per cent.  He walked one pallet down, then I tried to walk the other.  

Um.  I found out, a pallet that is soaked is HEAVY.  Finally, I think he took pity on me, walking back up and we both grabbed a side, walked it back down.  I thanked him, and told him that I needed to get some wire to get the pallets tied down.  We walked back up, just in time for Mom and Dad to show up.  

Did I mention it was RAINING steadily during this whole fiasco?  We were dripping...  I asked the deputy if he was going to be all right, he said yeah, he was only on duty for a bit more, and he'd set his uniform out to dry during the evening.  Oh, great... (They only have one uniform?)  I, too, was rather soaked, it hadn't been raining when I'd left, and by the time all was said and done, I figured, why bother.    

Dad brought down some more pallets so I could barricade the gate a little better, then I went up to the house, dripped to the bathroom, cleaned up a little, then left, going home to a hot bath, dry clothes, and my watch.

Oh, why is the watch important? 

My watch band broke the other day, and I had made a repair.  I'd remembered setting it down when I'd gone outside to do some work, but couldn't find it when I returned.  

If you've ever met me, you'd know this is not a good thing.  For one thing, I am nearly broke down without a watch.  For another, I go nuts(ier), when I can't find something.  This was NOT a good combination...  Didn't find it, didn't find it, where the !%&* is it, can't find it, BAH!  

And so I gave up.  Dug out a spare watch, put it on, and grumbled about needing a new watch.  (The spare is very hard to read.)  So, I was about to leave for the above adventure, when Ding comes out from under the bed, with what I thought at first was a lizard or snake. 

OH, CRAP!  

Then she drops it, and I realize, that is my watch!  Our 'watch cat' had pilfered my watch, hid it under the bed, and then brought it out later... So it is now firmly attached to my person again, and she... Well, Husband is calling her the Watch Cat Thief.  

So, how was your day?  

Forgot to put this up!

Yep, I have actually been knitting.  Some sailor baby, (or marine baby, but sailor is more likely), will be getting this one.  I finished the pink, and it just needed something.  I added the white fringe, and I think it just made it a bit more complete looking.

Right now I am working on a yellow blanket, and a multi-color blanket.  Both pretty simple, so I can just pick up and stitch when ever I get the mood.  I have found the 70's TV show "Emergency!", (Hulu is rather addictive), and I am having fun watching that in the evenings, which means I can put the hands on autopilot... With the exception of yesterday, when I realized I'd dropped a stitch about 3 lines down, and had to tink a bit to fix it.  BUT, it didn't take long, so I was back and knitting again not long after discovery.

The funny thing, I had two short notice things happen.  One, a gal I knit hats for Christmas presents to give to local kids, I had written her a few MONTHS ago. Please let me know soon. I really need some time to knit up some hats.  Do you need hats this year?  What is the hat situation??

Nothing...

So, I wrongly assumed no hats were needed.  About a week ago, I received a short note saying she loved the hats I'd made last year, and any I could send this year would be great.

Oh.  Er.  Well, so far I have... One.  2, if you count the one that is tiny... As small as it is, it might go to the hospital for the babies, because it would probably not fit a child of any size.  Meh, it will go someplace!  But... I will not be knitting any 50 hats the way I did last year!  Mom suggested next year, just assume she will want the hats.  Probably a safe bet.  And if she doesn't, I know several charities that do.

The second one, a friend of mine passed away, and his "thing" at faire was carving an apple.  I wrote a note to the head of faire, I wanted to donate an apple tree to the fairegrounds on his behalf.  I then received a reply, oh, yes, and would you like to help with the memorial?  I said yes.  I am now hoping that "helping" doesn't mean I plan and put it on... Eeeep.

I have also been reading (um, ONE of the things I have been reading, I am up to six books at the moment), Eat, Pray, Love.  I am truly enjoying this book. (Which is probably why it's being drug about the house, while the others are moldering away, locked in one spot...)

The rain has finally shown up here.  Just out of curiosity,  I checked one crack we had in the soil outside, I stuck a yardstick down into it.  It stopped about 16 inches.  I think the only reason it didn't go down past that was because the crack curved some...  Most of those have been sealing up since, so hopefully our place won't look like an earthquake hit now.  The bittersweet part, though, is that it has been cold enough that the garden is pretty well gone.  I did get lots and lots of tomatoes, some beans, a few crookneck, turnips, kohlrabi, and some peppers.  It wasn't the best year, but it wasn't bad.  The corn stunk, didn't get ONE EAR... Not even a scrubby one.  I just don't seem to have a knack for growing corn.  Oh, well, that's what farmer's markets are for, I guess...

I have been walking, and now, I have been waiting for the school bus to go by.  It goes by like an Indy Car going for pole position, and I really don't want to have wind and rain take my hat off.  I haven't seen the farm hand's dog since I changed to a heavier jacket, I don't know if he doesn't 'recognize' me, or if he is just being held in check somewhere, but it's nice not having a 21(hundred) bark salute every time I go by...

So, that and some running around, the usual house and such, and I am (yes, one of those) started on Christmas shopping.  Not much, but I have a few things in the Christmas Cupboard!

So, while it's not the most exciting blog this round, I have been doing something.  I will have a photo of an experiment I did this month.  I let my nails grow.  If I make it to Halloween, I will be surprised.  It has made for a STRANGE time of handling things, let me tell you!

Is it July yet? Must be...

In one of my earlier posts, I said it was going to be July before I fed...  Must be July 1st today!  I was able, with a bit of thought beforehand, get all the animals fed.  I couldn't go out in the field, so I got out the wagon and fed them from the gravel side of the fence, using the wagon to haul things.  The llamas didn't care, but Rudee was checking out the wagon a lot.  I am wondering if our visiting kitty had slept, (or worse) in it.  That's usually why he's interested in things like that.

The chickens, well, they just figure if it's food, they are good.  So, I didn't trip, I wore shoes that didn't leak, (I found out that the garden clogs that I was using have a bit of a hole, so when you walk in the mud, there is a definite squish factor involved with socks...), and I was able to get the animals all fed and checked.  About the only thing that happened was when I tried to exit the chicken house, Annie and Toni decided that I must have grain for them, I was in the chicken house, right?

I showed them my hands.  They sniffed.  They looked at me.  I raised my hands, giving them the "all gone" sign. They looked at me some more.  I finally said, "SHOO! I don't have anything..."  They continued to glance at me, as if I was going to do some fancy magic trick, until I just walked carefully forward, and went out the gate.

And nearly had two llamas in the yard.  They know who gives them the good stuff!

In the weather news, it didn't rain today, (part of the reason I could feed...), but the weather folk are talking another 2 inches of rain soon.  We have done pretty well here, locally, we had one road out with about 2 inches of water, but that has receded, so we are able to get out.  Everyone around is nervous about wind, since we had so much water, so fast.

Eeep.   I know we needed rain, but it was juuuust a smidge on the the generous side!

Quack! And water skiing?

Made it out okay so far with the rain, no power outages, and only a few places around this area underwater.  Husband had to drain out some water that seeped into the shop, but it wasn't excessive.  We have half a moat around the house, the drain is flowing so we have what looks like a small creek behind our house.

And the water has receded. Some.  That being said, the weather people are all showing the lovely videos of the rain that we are going to continue to get... All week long.  I am sure hoping this doesn't create problems later.  The rain is a pain inna tookus... 

BUT...

If we get wind, or if it gets down to freezing... We're in trouble.

In other news, I can't decide if this is idiotic, unlawful, crazy, or just creative.  Probably all of them... 

Clean chicken feet. And rain. LOTS of rain.

Shortish blog. 

Husband was worried about me walking the hill today (we had the water running down the hill again...), so he suggested that I put chips from the pile we received in the hen yard, making it chips, not mud.  This will be good, so the chickens aren't (ahem) deep in mud, and the llamas (who are fed in the hen yard), aren't hock deep.  I try to keep it clean, but there has been so much rain, it washed most of what I had put there away. 

I don't think that will happen this time, for a little bit anyway.  Husband decided to speed up the process, by using the bucket... on the backhoe.  I had  a HUGE amount of the chips to move.  I now have about a 4 to 5 inch deep layer, and it will pack down nicely, it looks like.

I also found out that I have several muscles that I really didn't know I had.  And quite frankly, wish I didn't know about now... Ow.  The legs were fine.  The arms are a little iffy, and the shoulders and back. Oh, my.

I am going to need Tylenol tonight, folks...

And wish me luck.  Remember when I said that I was glad of the new people in the one volunteer group?  Still am, but I am going to have to get her to communicate with me a bit more. Boss wants me to do performances, and then we play email tag on who, where and how long.  I just found out she'd like me to have one more person along, and I had already had to talk like a good fella to get a car pool so I didn't have to drive, (it's through Portland, and I don't do big cities at all well).  The driver said, oh, Boss had said X was going too, and I don't have enough room for three.  I said, nooo, there's only two.  So, I am going to let Boss know that I had only planned for two, and we can work on the other person NEXT performance. 

The joys of new systems.  Gah.

And I think I am officially sick of the rain.  There is pond algae growing on our driveway. 

That's just not right...

Sunday Supplement, soggy edition.

And it's the first big storm of the season, we have water. 

Lots of water. 

We have leaves falling off the trees. Into the gutter.  Hence the lovely waterfall...

I walked today.  It was an interesting experience.  I now have a poncho (Thanks, Mom), that I do not go into melt down steam heat when I am exercising...

Uh, if anyone is interested, don't stand under a tarp filled with water when you are trying to empty it.  It sounds like a good idea, but the tarp conducts water in... rapidly changing ways, and where you think you will be fine... 

You will test your hat and poncho, and really annoy your dog. 

Just sayin'.