Full Production Gear

Donna has been busy finishing the set-up of her production area, mostly the wood lathe. We don't have much...Norm Abrams wouldn't consider it a "shop" at all, but it has been a labor of love since February and it is easy to spend time there. There has been a lot of finessing setting up areas. We are trying to avoid needing to change the power outlet locations...one of those "if I knew then what I know now..." situations.

A guaranteed gorgeous weekend will most likely keep us outdoors. There hasn't been much time for that and sure enough weed monsters from the ground level are creeping up through the deck, a full 8 feet above the ground. I kid you not!

I have finished another set of scrafito pieces based on birds and trees. I am using a magnifier to make the smallest lines and the detail of the work pleases my obsessive tendencies. Within a couple of days I will have the new pastels photographed and ready for purchase. They are currently unframed although I will offer them framed as well.

Donna did win a local contest with her fledgling owl photo and we have had some great luck with new photos of wildlife. We have a compound-wide wildlife alert system~ simple phone calls telling what and where...no time for chit chat...fast fast fast to cameras and binoculars. Often the alert includes our neighbors to the North. Fred and Helene's yard and gardens are the epitome of the English countryside they love and I can see all the best parts right here out of the studio window.

This doe and her twin fawns have visited a couple of times. The meadow grasses are too tall to spot them and it is nice when the fallen fruit in the orchard lures them into the mowed areas. I am quite sure Fred is torn between the love of the wildlife and the love of his gardens. Often his best heritage specimens serve as lovely meal to the deer and chipmunks and woodchucks. They can undo countless hours of work in one evening. I bought a special variety of tomato this year and it was eaten~ fruit, blossoms, and stem~ by the chipmunks who would like to rid themselves of the pesky humans in their home. They chatter indignantly and loud enough to attract the attention of our indoor kitty Cassandra. She would like just a minute outside...the regular yips and howls of coyote, fox and fisher assure that will never happen. We know the predators are helping us with the garden pests and the kitty does well patrolling the downstairs for mice. That will have to do.

Often we view things that fully demonstrate the cycles of life and death up and down the food chain. A cooper's hawk has been using the top of this bluebird house and a branch in the hackamatack trees as a place to enjoy a meal. The bluebirds and swallows are long fledged but the relentless house sparrows have been spooked away from this particular box.

I have taken several weeks away from the website to edit and organize photos of art work. We have well over 500 images and the cataloging and editing have taken more time than I anticipated. I finally decided I needed to spend as much time on art work as on the computer and that has worked out better all around. I hope this all will lead to faster editing and uploading.

To that end we are adding a new backup system. I suppose we might be called too cautious but it's easy to lose something or everything. Mom's computer bit the dust last week and we were not able to salvage the folks pictures from their Audubon tour in Texas. The new computer should be in any day and when we set Mom up she will have a sure-fire way to back up those photos from their trips. They added plenty of new birds to their life list and hopefully the other travelers can share some of their photos so all is not lost.