This Wild Idea

Are you on Instagram?  You should be.  Go check it out, download it on your phone, then come back here for this username that you’re going to want to follow: @thiswildidea

I have become obsessed with this guy and his dog, Maddie.  They’re traveling the country, meeting new people, recording stories, and best of all (for me) taking photos of Maddie in strange places and positions.  She’s been balanced on a bike, laying atop a wall mounted TV, or tip-toe on top of the golden arches. This week she was on a pool float, enjoying Las Vegas.  You should hear the debates in my household over some of these pictures and whether or not they’re Photoshopped.  (THEY ARE NOT.)

The photos of Maddie are great on their own, but when you read the story of her owner, Theron Humphrey, and the “wild idea” that he’s working on, it’s just amazing.  I used to love Steve Hartman’s “Everybody Has a Story” and I listen to every one of NPRs Storycorps broadcasts.  This project has the heartwarming goodness of both of this programs, AND a dog.  Check it out at www.thiswildidea.com.

And don’t worry, if you’re not on Instagram, you still can enjoy Maddie’s photos at her website maddieonthings.com

ATTACK!

Last Monday I got home after dark and closed up the ladies, as usual.  I counted them, made sure they were all there, and locked them in for the night.  The next morning when I let them out, they greeted me and hopped out of the coop like they do every morning, but I noticed that one black and white hen was missing some feathers by her tail.  No biggie.  That happens; they molt, they peck them out, it’s nothing to worry about.  Then as I turned to walk back to the house, I saw Molly sniffing a giant pile of black and white feathers.  Uh-oh.

I went over to the hen with the bald spot and pulled back her other feathers to reveal the nastiest giant slash across her back. Crap. As Luke described it, the gash looks like someone carved a slice across a roast chicken.  It was serious but she didn’t seem to care.  She was the first hen out of the house that morning (and every morning). She’s still chatty and busy, scratching and foraging around.  The other hens don’t bother her; nothing seems to have changed.  I decided to wait it out.  The local vet does treat chickens, but I wanted to see if nature would take care of itself.

A week later, the injured hen is still acting normal, laying eggs, taking dust baths, and squawking at me each morning when I let her out.  Her gash has started to heal and her feathers are growing back in frizzy little tufts.  I started to wonder what attacked her in the first place.  My thought is that it had to be a bird of some sort because if it was a fox, or something on foot, it would have just followed her back into the coop after the attack.  We do have an abundance of hawks and even saw an eagle here a few years back, so I figured it had to be an overconfident little hawk.

Well, I was half right.

Sunday evening I was in the kitchen when I heard a whole bunch of flapping and scrambling and squawking from the yard.   I looked out to see a gigantic hawk gliding through the yard about six feet off the ground.  It landed in a tree in the back yard (no chicken in its claws, thank goodness) and all of the hens frantically scattered.  I spent the next half hour trying to round everyone up.  A few ran to the coop, others ran to nearby bushes and trees, or under the deck.  I managed to coax the injured hen out from under the deck and lure a couple of others out of the bushes, but most everyone had to be carried back to the coop, they were so scared.  All ten were accounted for and no one was injured. Phew! Close call.

We’re starting to get back to normal again, except now the ladies prefer to take dust baths under the back deck, and they follow me around even closer than before. I must be their new sign of safety. They stick so close to me now, it’s hard to walk across the yard without tripping.  I’m also afraid that this hawk has now learned that our yard is the place for easy chicken pickings, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

First Quarter Review

Well with the first quarter of the year officially closed, I felt it was a good time for a review of my progress.  Unfortunately, despite making only two goals for the year 2012, I have made no progress toward either in these past three months.  In fact, I’ve cancelled one of my goals altogether.

Have you seen this site?  F*** Your Noguchi Coffee Table  (Please do not click that link if you’re allergic to the f-word.)  It’s a hilarious site mocking all things in hipster homemaking.  Every decorating trend you’ve seen over and over and over, it’s been singled out on this site.  Garlands, Acapulco Chairs, Frame Clusters, Tree Stumps, Maps, you name it. I’ll admit it did get a little personal the day I saw the rainbow bookshelf there, but I have seen more than a few of them so I guess I can accept that.  But then I saw this: Terrarium Tuesday. Hold on. Terrariums?  I just started thinking of making one and they’re already overplayed and annoying?  WHAT?  I was so embarrassed by this fact that I completely shelved the terrarium idea.  Goal #1 for 2012 has officially been crossed off the list.

I’m afraid that goal #2 doesn’t look very promising either.  Although in the abstract, I love the thought of going to Canada, making actual plans to head north is just not happening.  Instead I’ve been making plans to head south.  We keep thinking here and there about heading to St. Martin again with our friends this January.  We’re trying to weigh our desperate craving for sun and sand against the highest of high seasons on the island and traveling with a family of five.  Decisions are still up in the air, but in the meantime, I downloaded a dangerous app on the iPad called iCruise.  Search by destination, date, departure port, whatever you like, and you get a wonderful list of cruises that match your parameters.

There’s a slim chance that Luke could get the week of his birthday in early June off, so a quick search of cruises to Bermuda in early June finds an awesome deal on the exact week for a cruise leaving out of reasonably nearby Boston. Luke’s always wanted to go to Bermuda and I’ve always wanted to go anywhere that isn’t Connecticut, so this would be perfect!  We’re just looking at this point and trying (unsuccessfully) not to get our my hopes up.

Do you see my problem? Show me Canada and show me Bermuda and I will always choose the destination where I can go barefoot and lay on the beach with a rum punch in hand.  Sorry Canada, 2012 might not be your year.

Weekend Plans

So there’s this little series of books, maybe you’ve heard of them? They’re called The Hunger Games Trilogy?

I’m so out of the loop on what’s popular with the masses.  I don’t listen to the radio, I don’t watch TV on the TV (I watch it sans commercials on Hulu), and heck, we don’t even have real cable, just the local channels.  So when the whole world is abuzz about something or another, I have no idea.  Which is why I was shocked (SHOCKED!) to learn that it wasn’t just me and Luke who liked The Hunger Games.  Who knew!?

This weekend The Hunger Games movie will be released and I am so excited.  Luke and I are going on a double-date with my sister and her husband to see it on Sunday night.  Our hope is that all of the youngsters will have gone to the midnight Saturday and earlier Sunday showings and will be home, dutifully doing their homework or polishing their new mockingjay pins or something by Sunday night.  Please, dear gods, lets hope that this is true.  Although I would really like it if there were crazy costumed Hunger Games fans there in the audience. That would be fun.

Other than our double-date, my weekend is relatively plan-free.   Luke will be working until about 7:30am on Saturday (after starting at 5:30pm on Friday) so Saturday should be pretty quiet. Hopefully, if the weather cooperates, maybe we’ll take the boat out for her 2012 maiden voyage.

So what are you up to this weekend?  And more importantly, who are you going to dress up like to go to the movie.  I’m thinking Effie Trinket would be fun.

Surprise!

My mom sent me a text message the other morning which read: “Could you please update your blog so I’ll know what you’re up to?”

This text came in the day after my friend Paula told me she had a very vivid dream that I had published a book of all of the craft projects I’d been working on in secret, which was the reason I hadn’t been blogging in so long.

Sadly, no, I’m not working on a book, although that would be awesome, it’s just that I haven’t been up to much at all.  You’ve heard this excuse before, but Luke’s ridiculous work schedule is affecting everything and I spend my days scrambling to get things done at work so I can rush home and see him for a half hour before he leaves for work at 5pm.  After he leaves I usually make dinner, talk to the chickens, play with the dog, watch Hulu, clean the house, maybe I’ll sew something, probably I’ll be playing Draw Something, and lately I’ve been working on spiffing up the boat.  Wow, aren’t you glad I updated you on all that exciting stuff?

For those of you just catching up, this is our boat:

Yes, that’s right. It’s in our basement garage along with eight motorcycles. Don’t tell the insurance company. We just bought it in the fall and we’ve spent the winter cleaning it up, putting a new floor in it, and painting the inside.  I made new seat cushions and polished more fiberglass than I care to think about.  The boat left the garage this past weekend, which is good because we now have two other new projects to think about.

Paula was kind enough to give us some relics of her youth, an awesome 1980(ish) Jawa moped:

And a 1968(ish) Suzuki motorcycle:

Which led me to write on Twitter on Sunday:

We will soon be on a special episode of Horders about compulsive motorcycle collecting.

Seriously. These two bikes came home after a non-working quad joined the gang a few weeks earlier.  This brings our count up to eight bikes and two quads.

So what have I been up to? I’ve been up to my eyeballs in garage projects, that’s what I’ve been up to!  I’ve also been sewing a little, I bought a Clarisonic Mia, I’m working toward ditching my cable service, I’m thinking of going back to St. Martin for New Year’s, and I’m failing horribly at meeting my two goals for 2012.  All things I’ll hopefully talk to you about in future blog posts. Stay tuned…

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers

Today is February first and the weather was glorious; it reached into the 60s. After last year’s miserable winter, I’d say that a day like today deserves a toast. How about we toast with my new favorite drink, the BLT?

Word on the street (or on the internet, to be more exact) was that Bulleit Bourbon was delicious. The problem was that no one told the package stores in Connecticut and I’ve been searching for it since the end of summer. I finally spotted it on the shelf of my local shop and grabbed a bottle this past weekend.

So then… what do I do with bourbon?  Gin drinks, rum drinks, even tequila drinks—I’ve got you covered, but for bourbon drinks, I needed some help.  I went straight to the source: bulleitbourbon.com and that’s where I found my new favorite.

It’s simple, it’s tart, and it’s surprisingly refreshing.  It’s a BLT (bourbon, lemon, tonic).

BLT
(recipe from bulleitbourbon.com)

1 1/2 ounce Bulleit bourbon
1 lemon slice
tonic

Fill a rocks glass halfway with ice, add bourbon, squeeze lemon and toss in, then top with tonic and stir.

Now raise your glass and make a toast to beautiful weather and 60-degree winter days. Welcome February!

Exciting and New

Rather than actual blogging, I’ve been spending the last several hours doing some housekeeping, spiffing the site up a bit, and hopefully making it so pretty here that it makes me want to come back and write more often.

I’ve simplified the sidebar and moved most of the shouty “FOLLOW ME” icons to the page titled “ELSEWHERE” which you can find at the top of this page above my big ol’ head.

I still have some clean-up to do and my Etsy shop needs a new badge, but I think I like the way it’s looking so far.

So… most importantly, what do you think?