Jack

Jack

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas, Yay!

Merry Christmas to all, as we sift through the torn paper & ribbon wreckage.

The kid is beyond happy, she got a bunch of stuff she wanted.




Stuffed microbes--Rabies & rabies babies! They even have little bloodshot eyes...


The Monty Python Killer Rabbit slippers she's been after.


They are beyond awesome, the mouths yop-yop-yop open and closed as you walk!


She's been threatened with dire consequences should she EVER venture outdoors while wearing them, though.

I also found some time to make a few new nail polish ornaments. Although the only clear glass balls I found this year were very small and have this ugly iridescent coating on them, which showed up as a horrid band across the middle of the ornament. The nail polish works best on the bigger ornaments since it has more room to spread and make prettier designs. I did luck out and found some truly garish nail polish on sale at Walgreens! The looks of mixed shock/disgust/pity on the faces of people who passed me in the store as I shoveled bottles of this stuff, grinning like a madman, into my cart was priceless. The checker had it flash across her face too but hid it quickly...I gave her a break and explained that the dead hooker colors were for a craft project and she laughed with relief...

Anyway, here are the new ornaments!







Sunday, December 19, 2010

Hey, Let's Decorate The Christmas Tree!

Well...


Shit.

Oh. Well, I know, let's unpack the ornaments, that's pretty straightforward and shouldn't take too lo--




Double shit.

The huge vat o'coffee is a necessary tool in tree decorating at my house. And yes, those huge boxes ARE packed to the brim with ornaments. Packing those boxes away on my tiny bedroom closet shelves every year is like a Chinese puzzle. Also, I still have to wrap all the gifts, I haven't done a single one. I figure by Christmas day they'll find me painted yellow, cackling hysterically and screaming at the parakeet (*nod to James Lileks*). If I'm conscious.

I really should seek professional help...

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Aw...UPS, You Shouldn't Have!

No. Like you really, really shouldn't have.






Criminy, is my lil' ol' package that vital to the continued workings of UPS Ground that some guy (with a MASSIVE foot, I might add) must use it as a step stool? Hopefully with the money they make this year they'll finally be able to afford things like ladders and they can keep their huge brogans off the packages.



You'd think a guy with dogs that size would be tall enough to reach damned near anything. Way to go UPS! Luckily for them, nothing inside appears damaged.

Yay for holiday shipping, tis' the season.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

More Origami Paper...

This time from a few old books, which had, sadly, been mostly ruined by water & time.

I salvaged some pages that had great illustrations & text. As much as it hurts me to cut up a book, these truly were trashed, so at least some of the pages will live on as origami.








This one is just plain strange--it's from a book of Han Christian Andersen tales. The kid looks completely unimpressed by the LSD fever-dream creatures surrounding him.


There are more pages with fancy headings & texts which should make some nice papers. I'm still cutting them up, I haven't actually folded anything out of them yet since I haven't decided how best to use them...so we'll see!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Gaahh--! Voodoo!

I was taking photos of the chickens the other day. Now, it's a universal truth that chickens, when they see you point a camera at them, immediately present you with a lovely view of their hind ends and/or run away.

I'd just gotten a good shot of Rugger and Yoya lined up...framed nicely, they are actually holding STILL for a change...my finger hovers over the button, aannnd...


Gaahhh--! Dang it, Voodoo! It's like a bad vacation snapshot.

Photobombed by a chicken.

Chickam Update!

A little update on this year's Chickam babies!

We ended up with 12 chicks this year: two Salmon Faverolles (one male, one female), 5 Giant Cochins (three grays, two Golden Laced), two Silkies (one cuckoo and one black) and three Belgian d'Uccles (two Porcelain and one Black Mottled).

Unfortunately, we had some losses.

Out of the blue, Megatron, the Salmon Faverolle roo died one day. He had been perfectly healthy and happy, we just found him under a bush one day where he had sat down and died. Another very hard loss was Piggles, the tiny black mottled Belgian d'Uccle hen and Little Mac, the Golden Laced Giant Cochin roo.




Piggles was everyone's darling & favorite, a treat to have around, a charmer and beautiful to look at. Mac was growing into a stunning Giant Cochin, very calm and sweet. They passed after contracting Fowl Cholera, which again suddenly swept through our flock this year. One of the first signs of it is sudden death, and Piggles & Mac were the first victims. We had several other hens catch it, but luckily after last year I recognized it right away (thanks to Piggles & Mac) and successfully treated them. But losing two of the babies within two days of each other was SO hard, and so senseless...

Another loss, not wholly unexpected, was Puni, one of the two crippled gray Giant Cochin boys. Puni had hatched normally but had developed a leg bent 90 degrees to the side after a couple of weeks. Despite me making several splints for him the leg refused to return to normal, and by the time he had reached 3 months old he began having seizures and died several weeks later. We realized that there was nothing we could do for him so we just tried our best to keep him safe, loved and happy for the short time he was with us.

Sometimes that's all you can do.

The rest of the babies have lived on to become happy, rambunctious youngsters who have blended into our flock with relative ease. The two Silkies, Bruce (the Cuckoo) and Barney (the black)...


both proved to be roosters and just last month were rehomed with nice families who fell in love with them and had lovely Silkie hens at home that needed a fella, so we felt good about that.

Guardian, the last chick to hatch and a Giant gray Cochin roo, hatched with a twisted leg.


Again, despite my attempts to splint the leg into proper position it remained turned at the hock with his foot upside-down.

Guardian has surprised us all and grown to be a beautiful, quiet boy who is smart enough to spend his time either in the large run during the day or under cover of a tree or bush. He hops along well enough on one leg and eats, drinks and carries on normally, although he breathes hard from exerting himself. I can't say what his future will be since he is a VERY large breed chicken and may eventually grow to such a size that he cannot get around on one leg--but time will tell, and meanwhile he is spoiled rotten by everyone and loves to spend time as a houserooster from time to time. We'll keep him with us no matter what, since he's a special needs guy. He loves people and is very smart. I am going to take him to my new vet for an exam to see if he thinks that Guardian's leg can be surgically turned and repositioned to function better.

His sister, Yoya has grown into a very elegant gray Giant Cochin lady, possibly a show quality hen!



She has gorgeous feathering and form, and is already about twice the size of Phoenix, our Head Roo. This does not deter his romancing her, naturally...like a tall friend of mine used to say, 'I'm tall but I'm worth the climb!'.

Yoya is friendly enough but a bit cautious about people...she still hasn't quite figured out why they want to pick her up and snuggle her all the time--beautiful, fluffy girl that she is.

Sonic, the Golden Laced Giant Cochin, is smaller than Yoya but just as gorgeous. Like Yoya, she can't fathom why we constantly pick her up for snuggles, but she humors us!


Rugger, the Salmon Faverolle hen, is the class clown & character of the bunch.


She is extremely friendly, curious and VERY vocal--she 'talks' like a Siamese cat and makes all kinds of muttering, yowling noises when she talks to us. She really 'chews' her words! Rugger MUST be in the middle of whatever you are doing.

We worried a bit about Rugger when she was around 3 months old, when I picked her up one day and was shocked to find that she was dangerously skinny. It's natural for flock newcomers to be on the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to food, but knowing this we make a point to make sure that new members get a fair share of any goodies we pass out. I had noticed that Rugger never came when I called to pass out goodies, she'd just ignore us. This was unusual for a chicken to the point of it being an aberration--a severe one. Rugger was also skittish and we noticed she tended to startle easily. This, coupled with her being so skinny, made us check her over thoroughly for anything that might be an illness or parasite--but we found nothing. When Rugger was presented with goodies right in front of her she wolfed them down like any normal chicken, so we were a bit mystified...could her large facial fluffs be impeding her vision enough to do this? She DID have trouble seeing food already on the ground in front of her, but if we dropped it and she saw it go by, she followed it down and gobbled it up.

Then one day we were feeding her some bologna bits in the kitchen and realized that she was STILL ignoring us when we'd call to get her to come over for food, even when we'd call LOUDLY.

Rugger couldn't hear us.

Hitting on this, I experimented by coming up behind her and making a hellacious noise by banging a pot lid with a wooden spoon, something that should have made her jump out of her skin. Absolutely placid, serene...no reaction. Ah.

OK, so I have J. hold her while I grab her head and thoroughly inspect her earholes for any obstruction or other problem like mites. Faverolles have huge ear tufts so this was not easy and Rugger did NOT appreciate being manhandled in this way. But it lead to a discovery...

Rugger was deaf. Stone deaf.

Happily, once we realized this we took to training her to watch the other chickens and come running for goodies when she saw them come running for goodies. It also explained the skittishness, she just wasn't hearing us approach. Rugger is now fat, happy and suffers no disadvantage. But it's the first time I've ever had a deaf chicken! We just have to remember that she can't hear us, and not to sneak up on her and scare her.

The last two chicks are our matched pair of Porcelain Belgian d'Uccles.


Smokey, the first to hatch, has grown into a gorgeous, friendly little roo boy, and CM into a petite little demure hen. Both are typical Belgian d'Uccles and LOVE to sit in your lap for as long as you'll let them and be petted, total attention sponges. CM was tiny at hatch and has remained small, and Smokey thinks he is God's gift to the entire flock--but both are sweet and a joy to have around.  I love their colors--they look as if they are made of moonlight.

We're already looking forward to next year's Chickam, when I think that more Giant Cochins, Salmon Faverolles and Belgian d'Uccles are in the works...and we'll also be adding some Brahmas to the mix!

I am a sucker for good, fat hens and fluffy faces...

Saturday, November 27, 2010

How About That!

I was going through some old pictures this afternoon, and discovered that my kid was apparently channeling Cindy Lou Who in 2005!

Complete with two missing upper front teeth...and yes, that year she went around singing the 'All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth' song. I love how she's got her feet positioned in this picture. :)

This was taken Christmas Eve, the excitment and 'I've been SUCH a good girl!' vibes were palpable.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Did I Forget Anything?!

I can never escape that 'I've forgotten something SO basic, people will laugh at me' feeling when gearing up for Thanksgiving.

Today I'm making two pies, one pecan and one pumpkin.

Tomorrow I'm making:
Roast turkey with sausage/walnut stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Green bean/mushroom casserole
Gravy
Rolls
Cranberry sauce (THAT'S what I forgot! Back to the store...)
Relish tray: pickles, black olives, green olives

The nuts & Applets & Cotlets will be for us to snack on, I'm also making some blanched & toasted almonds tonight. I'm thinking or getting a port wine/nut cheese ball & crackers to set out too, along with some cut-up apples to keep people out of the kitchen and the Hell out from under foot.

Just for fun, I loaded all of tomorrow's food on the kitchen island for a photo op:

Holy cats, what a mountain of food! Birdzilla weighs in at a little over 15 pounds. They had some truly gigantic turkeys at the store, but I didn't need some 25 pound monster squatting in my oven and bending the rack. This one will likely take 4-5 hours to cook as it is.

Breakfast goodies, including lovely fresh eggs from our girls.


J. requested some mixed nuts to snack on, not ALL of these will be used in the stuffing, which will be a sausage/walnut type. The gravy I got to augment the REAL gravy I'll make from the pan drippings, we all love giblet gravy so I want to be sure there is plenty.


Pie makin's! One pecan (my mom's recipe) and one pumpkin, with homemade whipped cream.


I'm a big believer in Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners being special--as homemade & from scratch, made with the best ingredients, as I can get it. This will be the kid's first time helping me stuff & roast a turkey, she's all excited...we'll see what she thinks when I tell her to grab a big ol' handfull of moist bread and ram it up a dead turkey's nether region. :)

Ah, new life experiences--!

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Revenge of the Giant Meat-Eating Rabbits!

This one is just what it says: The Revenge of the Giant Meat-Eating Rabbit! With a title like that, you know you can't go too wrong. This is actually a sequel to a story she wrote about a year ago for an assignment when she was in grade school. And yeah, we DO watch a lot of wonderfully bad 50's sci-fi around here. He's even licking his chops in anticipation!


REVENGE!!!
AAGGH! Run, he's on a rampage! You can easily tell this because his eyes have turned red. Also he's clutching a car and stomping a building flat. Giant meat-eating rabbits are nothing if not prim and proper however, he still has his tighty whiteys on!



Ahh, a school! Yum, he's rubbing his hands together in glee as he envisions a school sandwich!


He proceeds to snack on the building.  The 'S' and 'H' are the first to go...


Oh no, he's got Dr. Grant, the school principal! And she's 'spicier than a pepper'! He knows this, because he's doing the 'Pepsi challenge' thing between the two.


The kid and her buddy know what to do, and promptly go to the school blacksmith shop (?) and forge some weapons!


...which proves to be a gun.


Despite herself, the kid kinda thinks the giant rabbit is cute, while her buddy has somehow managed to get himself eaten, and is lamenting his stupidity.


REVENGE! AGAIN!


However, a scolding and a smart smack on the nose brings him right into line, thank God. Sorry about that missing tooth there, buddy.


This was the last page, sadly.