Bookmarks

I've been experimenting with different fabrics and threads for some Hardanger bookmarks that I'm making. I work at the dining room table and my workspace is pretty messy, but everything is right at my fingertips.



Here are a few examples. These haven't been washed and ironed yet.

Disciple Now Weekend

Last weekend we were one of the host families for the Disciple Now weekend for our church youth group. The weekend went well. We had 8 junior high boys and 2 college leaders staying at our house for the weekend. The boys were very interested in music. We had one boy that played the piano and several who played the guitar, so they were entertaining themselves and us for much of their free time. They also were quite amused by the chickens and also liked playing in the bamboo.


This particular boy especially loved the chickens. He just couldn't get enough of them.


Findlay was having a good time in the bamboo looking for chicken poop.


After a full day of being with the boys, Findlay was exhausted. He actually went to bed before everyone else did. We use that towel as a blanket to cover Findlay since our house is usually cold.


Of course, no visit to our home would be complete without Paul serving up wheatgrass juice! We only had one adverse reaction, and that was the college student on the right in the picture who drank orange juice with it and had no food. He said he felt better once he ate a bagel.

Climate Change

It's cold again today and we're expecting some rain and maybe snow later tonight, but the climate change I'm writing about today is the change in atmosphere of the household since Chani died. Since Chani died, all the animals have had personality changes. The cats and chickens are less afraid, but Findlay is more afraid.


I went out to the back area where the chickens live and left the gate open for just a moment. Almost instantly, all the Red Star chickens ran into the back yard to play in the grass. They seemed to know that Chani wasn't there to kill them. We have one chicken that comes into the backyard routinely now. I guess she couldn't get back over the fence, and I found her wandering around the yard late one night when I let Findlay out before going to bed. We both heard something moving around in the fallen leaves by the house. Instead of running to find out what it was and protect me, Findlay just stood there and let me go rescue him from the big bad chicken. For a couple days after that, he was afraid to go out at night unless I went with him.


This chicken wanted to come into the house and look around.


Even BD has changed. She used to only go outside in the middle of the night when she knew the dogs were asleep. Now she goes out during the day and plays in the backyard. Here are BD and Goony in the backyard.

Chani 12/1/2001 - 11/17/2009

Our poor little Chani died on Tuesday. I guess she had something quite a bit more serious than what we initially thought. She became very anemic and thin and we finally had to put her to sleep. We got that cute body suit for her because she was having trouble staying warm and her hair was always standing on end. She seemed to actually like the suit, and it did keep her warm.

We were thinking of some funny stories about Chani, and I remembered that she barely made it past her childhood. When we first got chickens, I forgot to shut the gate to the back area where the chickens live and did not secure the little wire mesh gated area to their coop. Chani (and Findlay) went out there and killed 8 or 9 chickens before I caught them, but it was mostly Chani who did the killing. I thought Paul was going to kill Chani on the spot. He said she had "blood lust" and would never be a good dog after that. It took weeks for him to forgive her.


Findlay and Chani always slept right next to each other. Chani had been sleeping alone for the past few days because she didn't feel well, but on the day that she died she once again curled up right next to Findlay. When I got up in the morning to shower and get ready for the day, Findlay stayed right next to her on the dog bed and didn't leap up to get his breakfast as usual. He must have known she needed him to be with her.

In the last couple days since she died, things have been considerably calmer around the house, though. I always thought Findlay was the one waking up several times per night to go out (on those nights we kept them in). Now that he is on his own, he stays asleep all night. I think he was responding to Chani waking up, and then he in turn would wake us up, making him look like the bad dog.

On a side note, I thought I should mention that the vet actually turned out to be quite good through this whole 2 months. After that initial visit and the remarks about Chani's lack of socialization and needing Xanax, Dr. Ferris was actually very patient with Chani and took good care of her. I could always talk to her on the phone about Chani, and she even called to check on Chani a time or two.

We buried Chani under our bamboo. I guess we'll have some lush new growth in that spot next year.

Trunk or Treat

Our church held its annual Trunk or Treat event on Halloween. I always twist balloons for this event, which is always fun. According to the registration records, over 1000 people attended the event. Luckily, only a fraction of those came through my line. As it was, the event went from 5:00 to 7:30, and I twisted my last balloon at 8:00 while they were sweeping and cleaning up the room around me.


One funny thing happened this year. Living in a military town, swords and guns are a hot item to make with balloons, and no one ever has a problem with it. Well, I was done twisting the sword and was just about to put it into this little boy's scabbard, when suddenly his mother yells out, "No weapons! No weapons!" The poor little boy was taken aback and told his mother, "It's not a weapon, it's a sword." Well she practically had a fit. Needless to say, I had to make something else for him.

The girl in the picture above and her mother did not have a problem with swords. I thought that was so cute... this pretty little princess wearing a sword. She was quite happy with it.


I have been trying to get pictures of me making balloons and children holding balloons for my website. So I asked Paul to take pictures for me. I guess I didn't give clear instructions. He thought I wanted pictures of the event itself. He took a lot of good pictures of the crowd and the kids, but unfortunately many of them were taken from behind me... of my behind.







Again...














Again...















And again.







I guess now when I ask the infamous question, "Is my butt as big as..." I can now just go back to a picture and see if it is or not. Haha!