Carlitos

Carlos loves having his picture taken. When he saw me photographing my beads today, he had to take a break from eating his lunch (granola - his new obsession) to put on this hat and have me take his picture. Please excuse the bib and the granola crumbs.

More Loot...

From my favorite local stone cutters... (Can you tell I had a fun/successful shopping trip this morning?)

I couldn't resist buying more of this incredible rhodolite garnet, even though I haven't yet used what I bought the last time around.

Tsavorite garnet - the first time I've ever bought any!

California green tourmaline

Mexican fire opal

California pink tourmaline

More California pink tourmaline

Brazilian pink tourmaline

Afghan blue tourmaline

More Afghan blue tourmaline

Afghan pink tourmaline

Aquamarine cabs, assorted shapes

Best quality aquamarine of the bunch

Holey moley... 12.77 carat California pink tourmaline...

... and more of the same ...

... and still more.

All of these stones are available for custom order jewelry pieces. If you see something you love, please email me for more information!

Beads, Glorious Beads...

I'm going to have to split this into a couple of posts because I have so much to share! First, here's what arrived today from my supplier in India... all will be listed in my Etsy bead shop as time permits.

Aqua chalcedony briolettes

Carnelian rondelles

Labradorite briolettes

Tiny rhodolite garnet rondelles

Smoky quartz rondelles

Now on to the cabs, which will also go up in my bead shop soon (except for the kyanite), and are also available for custom ring orders.

Amethyst cabochons

Carnelian cabochons

Kyanite cabochons

Labradorite cabochons

Lemon quartz cabochons

Faceted melanite garnet cabs

Bath Time!

Dust bath time, that is... The chickens have taken over this one area of our yard that is shaded by some nice big trees and dug a bunch of holes in the grass to bathe in. Here's Clarabelle taking her 'bath' today.



Sorry for the crappy quality... I used the regular camera, not the Flip.

Now, I promise, I'm off to work on a non-chicken-related post. Really.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all the moms out there are having a fabulous day, especially my mom, who I am on my way to see now!

Sadly, it seems motherhood is not in the cards for Greta the chicken this time around. I finally found her nest yesterday evening, with ten eggs in it, and to try to protect her from predators, I moved her and her eggs into a large dog crate after dark last night. I awoke this morning to find her highly stressed in the crate, wanting to come out, so I let her out and she headed straight for her original nest. She hung out over there for a few hours, ignoring her eggs in their new location, and then eventually joined the rest of the flock by midday.

I can't say that I'm too terribly disappointed (although it seems almost sacrilegious to say such a thing on Mother's Day of all days!); if we decide to have more chickens, I think I'd rather rescue some than bring more into the world, but I do feel sorry for little Greta, and her little eggs look rather forlorn and abandoned.


Oh well, it's reassuring to have Greta back in the fold, and safe from any scary creatures that could have snapped her up during the night out there in the woods. (That's her in the back.)

Flippin' Out

We got our new Flip video recorder the other day, and while there hasn't been anything earth shattering happening around here lately to record, I have played around and made some movies of chickens, ducks, and Carlos. They aren't too exciting, but I'll share anyways.

Found!!!

Guess what I found tonight!!! Can you spot Greta (our AWOL chicken) hiding behind all those leaves?


Pulling the leaves aside...


I finally located her nest tonight when she scampered out of the tall weeds at the edge of the woods at feeding time. I gave her a good pile of food and headed over to check out the nest. I wish I'd had my camera with me then but I was rushing to leave for a dinner date. There were about ten eggs in the nest.

Now we have to decide what to do about all of this. I'm planning to go out after dark tonight and attempt to move Greta and all of the eggs into a large dog crate lined with plenty of straw, so she will at least be safe from predators while we figure out what to do. We're considering taking some of the eggs away but leaving her a few and letting her hatch just a couple of chicks. We really don't want to end up with a ton of them, especially since it's very hard to have more than one rooster around, and some of the babies are bound to be boys.

The rest of the chickens were right where they belonged at bedtime, all lined up in their chicken house.


11:18 p.m. - UPDATE - Mission accomplished; mom and ten eggs safely in crate. Only pecked once.