Tilly and her shoe/foot fetish

Tilly has a shoe fetish and can often be found sleeping on top of or snuggled next to one of the numerous pairs of shoes we have laying around the house.  She also has a foot fetish and here she can be seen enjoying a nap on top of my husband's foot.

Here she can be seen enjoying a nap on top of my husband!

primitive farmer doll

I make primitive dolls to sell in a local store.  Here is my latest creation, unnamed as of yet. 

I used a piece of my husband's old flannel shirt to make his scarf.  I will make a farmer girl doll to go with him.

Turkey and Deer

 Deer and turkey visit our feeder on a regular basis now.  We have 9 turkey coming, and 9 deer.  I took this picture through a screen so it isn't that good I admit.  My husband puts down food for the deer, further down in the pasture away from the bird feeders, but they still come up to snack on the birdseed.  My concern is my hydrangea bush that is too close to the feeder; the deer will munch it down if they are still around in the spring!
 

Angel's Hiding Place

One day I couldn't find Angel Kitty.  Where could she be?  I checked all of her favorite napping spots -- no Angel.  Finally I heard a shuffling around in the back of the close in my studio.  Sure enough, there she was, tucked in next to the dolls I had made, in a paper bag.  At least someone appreciates my dolls!  

Bizarre Ice Sculpture in the Woods

Today we went up on the ridge to check the spring and see why the water wasn’t flowing into our holding tank yet.  It was warm yesterday and we thought it would be flowing by now.  We found a couple of places where the pipe had pulled apart and when Doug fixed that, the water started to flow again.  However, a surprise awaited us as we walked further into the woods.  We came upon this bizarre collection of ice stalagmites and pinnacles, the highest one reaching probably 10 feet up into the trees!  They looked like ghosts in the brown backdrop of the woods.  What had happened, we imagine, is that the water in the pipe was still frozen down the pipe past the section coming out of our spring cave furthest up on the hill, and when the water started to flow again, it was blocked at the frozen point and so it squired out of a connection that was nearby in the pipe, like a geyser.  It must have been squirting out for several days.  That connection had a bulge in it as proof of what had happened.  It would have been amazing to see this in action!   

Our spring comes from a cave up on the ridge above the house.  A black plastic pipe runs from the cave reservoir down into a 1,000-gallon holding tank, from which it then runs into the house with a pump.  When the temps dip into the single digits (we’ve had a lot of those lately), the water in the black pipe freezes up, but we still have water because we have the holding tank.  But when the temps warm up, we have to walk the pipe to find breaks and fix them to get the water flowing again.   The spring has never dried up even in a bad drought we had about 4 years ago.  Doug installed a valve in the reservoir he opens and closes depending on the season.  In the summer, he closes it off more because the flow from the cave isn’t as strong and so air can easily get into the pipe (that’s a pain too; stops the flow!) when the water level drops below the pipe opening.  In the winter he opens it to get more flow so that the water won’t freeze as quickly since it is flowing quicker.  

Here's a link to a previous blog entry I did about our cave spring, which includes some pictures of the outside of the cave:

cave spring

Fun Pens!

I admit I have a pen fetish, and every Christmas my husband surprises me with goofy or unusual pens in my stocking!  He got these at Spencer Gifts this year.

They write nice, too!

Winter Lettuce

We've had great luck growing lettuce over the winter so far this year, despite the temps dropping into the teens on many nights.  We cover it with a thin, woven, white cloth the locals call "tobacco cloth," which the farmers use to cover their tobacco seedlings as they grow.  It lets the light and water in, but keeps the cold out, at least enough that it doesn't damage the entire plant, only a little bit around some of the edges. 

Perhaps next year I'll try planting iceberg lettuce, which is more suitable for cooler weather.