the "turken"

i don't know.....its not nice to fool with mother nature too much. the "turken"? i dont love it.

Peggy Jean lays green eggs! pix to come.

wren

the poster chicken for the age of anxiety

a chickory halloween

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

forecast: happiness

yesterday started with yet another downpour. i have never seen such rain; last year we were in a drought. honestly though, ive liked the rain. it fits the mountains. the verdant foothills are rich in color against the gray skies and with the diffused light the landscape is a cinematographers dream come true. but by afternoon, the clouds broke a bit and allowed some light in and i was fortunate enough to catch this early high achiever blast out a breathtaking red.

the rain has her own fans though. this little branch hosted a tree fungus performing its duties in the process of decay.

the hens and trout accompanied me on a forest nature walk. have i ever mentioned how difficult it is to get a decent photograph of a chicken? im sure Dani can back me up on this point. this is an attempt to capture Vera in pursuit of an unfortunate moth.

The barred rocks are examining somebody's find. still, for 3 seconds.

last year at this time of the season, Betty and i went to Burt's pumpkin farm and amicolola falls on a mini-day trip. you can tell it is last year from the blue skies. i havent seen this in days...i would say weeks but there was this one perfect day about 10 days ago.

indian corn and some kind of dark green pumpkin at Burt's.

amicolola falls

the view from the top of the falls.

back at Chickory, the forest sheltered me in a blanket of color hinting at the colors to come. sometimes i lay in my bed in the morning and look out the window where the trees are so thick there is only one tiny spot of sky to be seen. it reminds me of a grand cathedral looking through rows of gothic arches until you see the brilliant stained glass window. my love for this place is so profound that tears come to my eyes frequently and easily. i might be the most blessed person on earth. it sounds corny, but it's true.

is there any greater blessing than to arrive at the entrance of your home and feel excitement at the sight of it?

boxer, who is coming here in 20 days will *hopefully* be greeted by the peak of fall color. if it keeps raining like this, probably not. today it is going to be very windy so many leaves heavy with water are going to fall. tomorrow it will be in the 40's in the morning! i love that. tomorrow night is a big night in Blue Ridge. the opening of the southern appalachian juried art show opens (my piece of the hound and hen in a night garden is in it) and then there will be the grand opening of the Blue Ridge Brewery. That's a big deal because only this year did the county finally give the people a chance to vote for beer and wine in a restaurant. and it was an epic battle.

not much is going on in the garden. the winter rye i planted as a cover crop is coming in nicely. i love how it looks and feels. like a cool moist carpet.

you know? i think "nutty" likes it here too.

have a great weekend everyone. and thank you for your kind words and prayers for my mom. xo

today was a good day

yesterday was a perfect early fall day with crisp air and blue skies. i worked all day cleaning the garden up - finally giving up on the watermelons and ripping out the vines. on the edges of the garden in the field were wild carrots and tiny pearl like onions or chives. i bit into the carrot and found it to be sweet and fragrant. it was a pale naples yellow and about 2 inches long. today was overcast and cool. i walked to the creek bank thinking maybe i will use river rock to line some beds. on my way i stopped to admire three different species of lichen colonizing a dying white pine.

the fall asters are in bloom. there are large and smaller varieties of this color as well as tiny white ones with a crimson center. it was magical when the wind blew. leaves swirled all around me as i watched one silver maple leaf spiral down to earth at an impossibly slow speed.

the beetles and bees and hornets and all manner of flying insects move over blooms at a frantic pace; their nervous energy the counterpoint to the quiet of the forest today.

trout worked the wood lot by taking all the burn sticks out of the pile and into the field.

native rudbekia along the creek bank brightened the dark water below.

i found a door and two windows in town yesterday. the door is very heavy and i like the vertical window panes. the windows are the classic 6 panes also good solid heavy wood.

the hens had a big two days of free ranging. they sunned yesterday - but today they have stayed under cover scratching through thick layers of decaying leaves finding a good variety of protein. i love to find an old log to turn over for them, exposing soft pupae and nits of termites.

peggy jean and wren are my belgium antwerps, their little beards crack me up. they are the smallest breed i have but are the fastest. good thing too -they are on the bottom of the hideous system known as the "pecking order" and there is nothing to be done about it except "run for your life!". the barred rocks rule the nation of poultry because of their size and thick as a brick conformation. but Easter is the kingpin of the whole flock -she is the oldest and the best layer. someone else started laying too -but i dont know who!

along the roadside and in the ditches are falls perfect compliment of asters and goldenrod. the joe-pye weed and thistles are over and only a few queen annes lace can be found. i am seeing the first little bit of red in the foliage and dont know if it will be a spectacular color season or not.

i found a jack o lantern basket at the dollar store and bought it for the scarecrow. but i dont like this face. i want a menacing face and i really want to carve one. but it wont last. for halloween and day of the dead, i will and light up the inside to decorate the garden. i think i will invite some friends over for a bon fire, tortilla soup, and maybe even a few swigs of tequila.

Tonight i am going to the play at our tiny community theatre. the play is called "Art". Soon it will be time to prepare for the christmas play and i have already pledged to help create dickens' olde england for the tale of scrooge. i painted the castle for the play of narnia and really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow i think i am going to get up really early and do the farmers market 20 miles north of me. you have to be there by 7 to get a spot. I found some old round hat suitcases that i cleaned up and re-did the fabric inside to showcase my ornaments. they are awesome for transporting the fragile glass and also great for display. one holds the halloween designs, the other christmas. I will also have bantam eggs for sale tomorrow. they dont look good in regular egg crates -they are too small. so i package them in silver boxes and they look great. Its supposed to be bright and sunny tomorrow. i hope so. sunny and cool means a good farmers market turnout.

have a great weekend everyone!

sweet n cheap

my art dealer asked me to make some inexpensive work for the big fall opening at the gallery. i made four 8x8's of sweet kind of folk arty pieces. but honestly, i am thinking of not giving them to her and also taking the work i have in there, out. I just dont see how a 50% markup is justified in a gallery jam-packed with art representing 70+ artists. And i also dont think its wise to put a 50% markup on work this small. my big 40x40's? yes.

Back in the day, when an artist would have a solo show and the gallerista was on the phone working to get buyers in to look - i can see how a 50/50 split makes sense. i dont see how a commission that large is valid now with these giant shows. The situation i have found myself in now is i have to decide to make less so when she marks it up it wont be too pricey for its size to sell. and let me tell you what -smaller pieces are just as much work as the larger ones. the only difference is the amount of materials used.
More and more i am deciding i would rather go my own way, which means cobbling a living together by selling art out of my truck or on my online shops and doing the occasional illustration gig. I dont think i need the stamp of approval of being in a space designated as a place to buy art. so these little paintings will probably end up in my studio sale where i can offer them at a decent price. and if they dont sell? merry christmas somebody! ;-)

now all i need is a bear....

V set up a remote camera so i can watch out for Chickory when i have to be away. i can switch to a view of the creek too. isnt this cool? i love it. its got a battery, so it will work even when we lose power which is often. I can take a snapshot at anytime of what i see. so c'mon wild animals. ( too bad i cannot monitor the garden; see what mr rabbit is up to)

The Carpet City Bantam Club movie (finally)

rain and more rain

I have never seen day after day of rain like this. hard soaking rain. at 10 am this morning it looked like 8:30 at night.

my creek is usually a calm trickle like you see above and now it is a raging river. thank God there isnt any construction above me -there is very little muddy looking run off. the chicken pens are soaked but they are high and dry in their church. i just heard a news story about a 3 year old boy who was washed away and lost when the mobile home he lived in was broken in half by a flooded creek in the middle of the night. parts of the interstate are closed and a couple of people died in their cars in Atlanta today. everything i put in the ground for fall is washed away or has rotted roots. and the radar shows more coming in from alabama for tonight.

building a shed

its taken the whole summer, but i have saved about half the money i will need to build a garden shed. I think i found the right fellow for the job, we looked at a book of sheds and started with what i liked and took things away as the reality of my budget was considered.

at first, i looked at those pre-fab things you see at home depot. but the materials are so cheap and the price is still high -and on top of that a tractor trailer is just going to drop it off and it still has to be constructed. my carpenter assures me i can have something better for the same money.

so next week i will look at materials. I have some ideas about what i want: id like to use as much salvage as i can. I have some old windows i hope to use for a mini greenhouse section, and an old enamel sink i want the carpenter to attach to the outside of the shed. I know i want a tin roof. i know i want a little deck off of it where i can put a few chairs and maybe a table. Id like to find a way to use unconventional materials or local materials too.


I want to put the chicken church out at the garden along with the shed and add a nice large dog pen that i will overlay with chicken wire for their run. that way, when i am out in the garden working, they can be out free ranging where i can supervise them. as it is now, i have to take them out to the garden and then take them back to their pen which is by the barn -far from the garden. The chicks will lay better with more light, and i will enjoy seeing them playing among the blooms scratching and searching for bugs. I built them a PVC and poultry net chicken tractor for their city home and it works great! its light, i can move it all around to fresh grassy areas. the neighbors really didnt appreciate my anti-hawk missile defense system (bottle rockets).

I was inspired by this New York Times story of a builder In Huntsville Texas who builds low income housing with recycled materials that are works of art. To see a slideshow of his work click here, you wont be sorry. I wouldnt mind having a tree house either. Does anybody have any great shed ideas? i am open to suggestions. Fishy? what do you think? im thinking of siting the shed at an angle with southern and western exposure.

I figure another 200 saturdays at the farmer's market ought to cover it. btw, it is STILL raining. the ground is saturated, the watermelons rotted and the creeks are swollen. and there is moss everywhere. have a great weekend everyone.

stormy today

a commentary

as i prepare to fire sparringk9 up again i have been thinking about my years as a blogger and i have made a decision. i dont like comment moderation and word verification. i cannot understand why these controls that add one or two more steps assists in any way the flow of conversation and exchange of ideas.

comment moderation is particularly annoying. it is a kind of censorship and i refuse to participate in it ever again. some people have it because somebody has harassed them in some way. okay, i understand that. as K9 i experienced that on a fairly regular basis but dealt with it and dispatched the irritants with his bark and bite. i personally would not choose to punish the all for the sins of the few. and if a comment is that bad, it can always be trash canned.

if someone posts about cultural or political topics and then enables comment mod then that tells me they are afraid of being challenged; so no commentary is actually needed. in fact, why not just have no comments at all and say whatever and let it stand. whatever the reason i will not leave a comment on any blog that uses this controller's tool ever again.

word verification. bloggers do it because they dont want spam. i understand. however, how much spam does a blogger get that they think it is worth inconveniencing their readers to prevent them from the task of removing spam? in other words, they are telling me that my participation in their blog is of less value than the time it takes them to remove spam. which makes me not want to comment. this is my new policy. if we are blog mates and you have these controls? im sorry. vaya con dios.