I love Chickens

Part of being out in the country side, is the fun of keeping chickens.  I live on a farm, so we don't have to worry about city restrictions on how many or whether or not I have any Roo's.  We have 26 chickens right now - a mix of both hens and roos - who give us lots of eggs and lots of laughs.  Even if I never got anything from these "working pets," I would still enjoy them for their entertainment value.

Crocus Swirl

Some how, living on a farm is supposed be all slow and lazy days, with a laid back life style.  Tell the truth, the only laid back I get is when I get laid up from over doing!


Whoever perpetuated the myth of farm life being slow paced probably had very little to do with actual farming, planting, critters or anything remotely resembling dirt.  I stay busy as a bee, especially in the early spring when I'm gearing back and recovering from lack of light.  I love it and I wouldn't want to live back in the 'burbs ever again, but it does mean I sometimes neglect other things like this blog and designing pattern.



Of course when you have to choose between feeding hungry chickens and picking out just the right color for a bead, there's really no contest.  The chickens depend on us; the beads won't go bad, don't depend on the growing season, and aren't cackling for food.

Above: Hardening off the Teenager chickens, who are busy working on growing and establishing pecking order.  Rt: The most recent batch, our baby Buckeyes. This is just hours after hatching.





All of which is why I am only now getting around to working on some patterns of my Spring blooms.

                    

Last Fall, I planted around 500 bulbs (about half of which went in the greedy gullets of MOLES - my sworn enemy!) of various kinds.  It was such a delight to see the colours popping up everywhere, after all of the ice and snow we had this past winter. Crocus are one of the very first to bloom and one of my all time favorites. (And Moles don't seem to think they are as yummy!)

Crocus Swirl is an amulet bag pattern to play with.

A long absence and lots of good stuff to follow

Here's Miss Mess looking mean, but she's a real sweetie.

So what has been going on my life? It seems as though I have been so busy and yet never get anything done.

I'm sure many can identify with that feeling.

I also have to confess that I sometimes feel so guilty about missing a posting, I put it off even more. Which leads to more guilt!

And to be quite honest, I've been in a bit of a beading funk. For a while I felt as if there were no new patterns for me to try, and no new creative vibes were coming my way.

I have several ways I deal with the creative doldrums (I'll share them below.), but sometimes - you just have to trust in time. And ultimately, that's what I needed: time. Lately, I have been feeling "like a busy beady bee" and have some patterns to share.

But what was I doing during all that time, if I wasn't beading???

I find that it helps to do something else creative, to keep my mind working. It also will often inspire me to try something new with my beading. I have been doing some felting, quilting, embroidery, and artist trading cards. I definitely want to do some beaded ATC's. I will be sharing some pics of everything, even though they are not beady.

(For those who don't know what ATC's are, here's a great link that explains the what and how, with examples.)

In the area where I currently live, there is a strong interest in quilting. In part, this is an area where quilting never died out, and I remember as a child accompanying my Granny to church quilting bees. Some of my best memories as a child were playing with her fabric scraps,(she was always generous with them) needle, and thread, and playing house under the quilt frame. Granny's knees were always nearby, as she worked her needle and thread from top to bottom, thimble flashing.

So going back to sewing and quilting is very much a going back to my crafting roots. For me quilting is a comfort thing, imbued with warm fuzzy memories of Granny.

It amuses me to read folk lore books about "the old ways" and see references to things folks around here have always done and still do. Yes, many things have faded, but there are still folks in "them thar hills" doing things the old timey way.

I have also been spending quite a bit of time working in the flower beds, the veggie garden (which I murdered - the drought was just the mercy stroke), and taking care of the chickens. I never knew how much personality chickens have, until we got ours. My daughter, Becca, says they have individual "chickenalities!" I have gotten a good laugh every day from their antics and love to just watch them peck, flap, and run about the front field. (You should see them go after May-flies!)

Last week we had a strange dog come through and attack one of our hens - Miss Mess -who is a sweet White Rock. The girls (my daughters, although the chicken girls hollered too!) hollered immediately (It happened just feet from the house), and the dog dropped her and ran. When I first exited the house, I saw an enormous pile of feathers and feared the worst. But Miss Mess must be a very lucky girl! She was hiding in the flower bed under some stalks, being very still.

Her poor tail looks a bit like a small powder puff with all of her big tail feathers gone, and she has a small lesion on her back that is healing well. Otherwise she is doing well. I have noticed she is the first one to head for the coop when we put them up or if she gets startled, but that is a good thing.

So in honour of Miss Mess, and her good fortune to survive the dog attack, I'm posting these two patterns based on photos I took of her just before the attack happened. As you can see in the bracelet, she still has her nice shape.

Bossy Boy

Okay - I have to admit I am loving the chickens! -- They have been funny and entertaining WAY more than I ever expected. At one point, when they were still peeps, my youngest looked over and said, "You know mom, they're better than T.V.!" So here is a portrait of Bossy Boy, our rooster. (He was supposed to be a girl! But who can tell when they are that young? I certainly can't!) I also decided to make this in a 2.5 by 3.5, because those are the dimensions of Artist Trading Cards. I decided to try and get myself out of a designing rut to try and make one a day of something. And even though they are mostly fabric, pen and pencil, and other media - I had to do something beady. I hope I can get this worked up soon. On a different note: I have been really slack lately about posting, checking my mail and being on line in general. Mostly, the summer has been so nice and I have been outdoors a lot. While it is bad for my blogging habits, it is good for me to get fresh air. So hang in there -- I haven't given up or gone away. As soon as it starts to get cool again, I will be on the computer way too much and will be back to posting more. I am also going to spend some much needed time at the beach, where my online access is very limited. So lots of beady hugs to everyone - I'm going to go fishing and play in the sand! Final note: I would love to hear from everyone what sort of things you would like to see here - It would be awesome to come back from the beach to find some suggestions waiting in the comments section. I also know I work better when I know there is someone waiting to see the final product. So give me any and all suggestions, requests, or ideas you want to see here.

Peeps update

Here's the corrected version of the peep pattern I posted earlier. Sorry about the wait! - Hugs - G.

peeps!

First of all - as soon as I uploaded this I saw an "oops!" Those blank spaces near the peep's foot are supposed to be green as well. The white spot on his back is supposed to match the brown of his feet and top of head. OOPS! I will definitely have to go back and touch this up.

Second of all - I am getting very excited about our new project: Chickens! The chick-n-hut and chick-n-pen came by UPS today. (It only took three days from when we ordered - wow!). The local tractor supply has peeps and pullets coming in the first of March. We are looking to get some dual purpose pullets that are sturdy (The chicken equivalent of a pre-teen is a pullet). We really just want them as pets/egg layers. Dear hubby and I have been reading everything we can get our hands on about chickens for the last couple of months and so I'm a bit chicken crazy lately. We even both dreamed about chickens last week. No kidding!

So here is a cute little peep to turn into a small amulet or wide cuff. He is all about springtime fuzzy cuteness; with the cold weather still here I am definitely ready for some springtime something! I hope to have some pics when the pullets get here.

note: I have had yardchicken2 as my email/call sign for ten years now, and people always ask if I have chickens in the yard. I've always had to say "not yet!" So now I will be able to proudly say "Yes!"