The Ups and Downs...

So we've had an interesting time lately here at the Muddy Manicure. Depression relapse, tibial fractures, disappearing chickens and house training new puppies have reared their ugly head recently!

I suffer from clinical depression and recently had a relapse that lasted the latter part of the summer. This caused me to spend a lot of time traveling between Montana and Washington to visit family. I also suffer from seasonal affects disorder and "clicked" into fall and started to feel sooo much better! :) I was feeling some of the warning signs but hadn't realized how far the depression had progressed. During this time I came to the conclusion that I will never beat the depression; I'll just have to pay closer attention.

Once I surfaced from the relapse, dad and Scott came over for a guided antelope hunt. They teamed up with Toby Werk from Blue Heaven Montana and Scott filled his tag immediately. It was a good hunt and everyone had a good time!

As a result of the hunt, my dad misplaced his really expensive binoculars. He requested me to head out to the gut pile to see if they were left out there. So I headed out yesterday and took my pups with me. Yotee came with me to scout out the gut pile and instead of behaving he took off the 1/4 mile to the highway and got hit. He ended up with a tibial fracture and I thank goodness that Dr. Schmidt in Chinook was able to take him on. He came home today and is a bit more mobile than I thought he'd be, but it's obvious that he hurts pretty bad.


For those of you who have been keeping up on the chicken escapades I have news. The goose (who thinks it's a goat) is the only bird left from the original group. I purchased an order of 5 silver laced wyandottes from Cackle Hatchery. They arrived happy and healthy and were doing great until my mom's wiener dog ate one. Then the next trip home two more chicks drowned in the water bucket.

So I am now down to two chicks and I caved and bought a pre-fabricated chicken coop from Chicken Saloon. It cost me a pretty penny but I'm hoping it will preserve the chicks I have left. It's called the "Corral" and it turned out pretty cute. I gave myself a blister putting it together but it was way easy to put together by myself and came in good condition!
 
I ended up with a new puppy when Lil Guy was run over. Sad day! I miss him! I now have Kooper who was one of Karen's puppies that she wasn't able to keep. He's a pretty good little doggie but he's no Lil Guy! :) I'm luck y that he was pretty much house trained but having been in a crate most of his life, I'm finding that I'm having to teach him how to be a dog. It's an interesting experience for sure!

Well that's all folks! Enjoy the dregs of summer! :)

Soapy Tables and Chickens...

So sorry to be tardy on my post...I've been busy! I got a bunch of extras from my mom when I was home; strawberries, Libson bunching onions, mint and Lilly of the Valley. I also purchased Walla Walla sweet onion starts, yellow onions, shallots, garlic and raspberries. I have planted the Walla Walla's, yellow onions, shallots and raspberries; all except the raspberries went in the tub (my cast iron garden planter) with carrots. I read in Carrots Love Tomatoes that onions and carrots do well so I thought I'd give it a try. The raspberries went along one of the fence lines and the strawberries went into my small strawberry bed. I planted the mint in two places near the house but I'm not sure how well it will do. Keep your fingers crossed. :)

I recently got my Homesteader's Delight order from McMurray Hatchery. I was super excited but kind of unprepared for the 'lil critters. They took up residence in my bathroom for a day and a half and it's taken me at least that long to remove their poo from the floor! I moved them to a big box I snagged from work and they have since taken up residence in the mud room with the heat lamp keeping the snuggly warm. I received 10 hens (tentatively identified as Black Austrolorp and Buckeye), two geese (absolutely no idea what kind), two turkeys (one bronze, one white) and two ducks (again no idea on the variety). Sadly one ducky "went to the other farm" not long after is arrival on Crazy Woman Ranch (my pet name for this quasi-chaotic place). He will be missed. They all got to go outside for a bit today. The geese, duck and turkeys have imprinted nicely and I've been handling them all multiple times daily to insure they don't get mean when they grow up. Also, I figure the little 4H kids could show them at the fair this summer.

Honey Lemon Soap

I have made two batches of soap from my purchased bases. One is honey lemon and the other is goat's milk and oatmeal. The honey lemon was the first time I tried to make this stuff so I tried it out and it lathers-up really well and smells wonderfully like sunny spring honey. I added extra honey to the mixture from my home neighbors Hibbard, Massey & Hibbard. They soap is kind of sticky but works great! The goat's milk and oatmeal is still curing in the form. I will cut it next week and wrap the honey and lemon bars. If Zurich has a Farmer's Market this year I'll be taking soap and various other things.

Base Unfinished

Another project that I started a while ago was my round, oak kitchen table. I have since finished the sanding process, assembled top and bottom and applied two coats of stain to the table-top. I will be putting another coat of varnish on the table and then it will be ready to use. A recent antiquing trip provided me with three beautiful and mismatched chairs for my set. I also just bought a pine buffet which should arrive at the end of the week. I am slowly amassing some nice things and it makes me happy. :)

Table Top Unfinished

Sideways Semi-Finished View

Well the Beagle is outside in the dark barking at who knows what and my chicks are peeping away. They want their mom to come check on them. By mom I don't mean me, I mean the Beagle. She truly thinks she's their mom. While the baby turkeys were outside today she tried to play with them Beagle style - I had to put the kaibosh on it but it was still cute!

Have a great night!

Thank goodness for the status quo...

Hallelujah! My template is back! I thought I'd be cool and try some new stuff on the layout - dumb, dumb, dumb! I totally screwed it up and deleted all the layout elements I had. Ugh! But now I finally got it back to the one I like and I am going to keep it this way for a long while! :)

That's 10 below zero folks!

We had another "cold day" and our office was closed. The picture is the thermometer that's inside my living room.

This doesn't include the wind chill; with the wind chill it was something close to -25F. And it's supposed to be colder tonight and tomorrow morning! Wowwie! All I can think of is there is around 3 more months of this! Eeek!

As you can imagine with weather this cold I am stuck inside A LOT! So in an effort to ease my cabin fever I've started on another quilt. I thought I was going to make the "carpenters star", but I didn't have the right fabric amounts. I did some Google-ing and found a pattern for beginning quilters called a "rail fence." It was a free pattern I found online here.

So far so good, and I think it would be a super easy one to do with a couple jelly rolls. I am going to search out the right fabric amounts in patterns I like so I can do the carpenters start quilt, because with three more months of being stuck inside, I'm definitely going to need more than just the rail fence quilt to keep me busy! :)

Well, I'm off to Bozeman tomorrow to pick up a table I found on Craigslist. It's a restoration project and I'm excited about it! :) TTFN.

I've been lurking and that's no good - remember the resolution? Write more! So here I am and I've finally recovered from the Mid Winter Fair. I've only got cursory things to do to finish up and that makes me happy! I plan to re-focu on youth development and agricultural education. Sounds like that was I was hired to do! ;)

I am home in Washington for a bit and am lovign the 40's and sunshine because back in Montana I hear it's snowing and is around 7F. Not sure about the wisdom of going back to that but I do love my job and most of the people I've met back there so I'm going.

I'm onto a new hobby - refinishing furniture. I am looking for solid pieces to salvage; I'd love to have a Hoosier cabinet to fix up and am also looking for a round dining table to restore. So if any of you know where I can pick one of those pieces up to play with let me know!

Here is the pattern picture of the Carpenter's Star quilt.

I'm also going to begin a new quilt when I get back. It's called a "carpenters start" and it's really pretty and is supposed to be quite easy to sew - I'm gonna give it a try. I have blues and browns to make it from so it should be quite pretty. I'll keep you updated!

I am off on an adventure to pick out some beautiful blue-stained pine with my dad and "uncle" Will. Have a great and glorious day! :)

Crafty, Quilty Time

The craft bug has hit again, plus since there isn't much to do up here socially I have time on my hands. :) I signed up for a beginning quilters class in Havre to fill some of that time. It was a three week class and we all made the same quilt out of a jelly roll. When the lady asked me if I knew what that was I responded with, "Wait, a jelly roll like the dessert." Ehh! Wrong! Apparently it's a roll of fabric that's pre-cut into 2.5 inch wide stripes; you then cut the strips and sew them into blocks for a quilt. Who knew?!? So I took some pictures of my progress and this afternoon I finished the face. It's a lap-size quilt so it's not too big but I found it was simple to make and not frustratingly overwhelming like my other attempts to start quilting. I think I'm going to add a border to it then pick out a backing. After these steps are done I'm sending it off to my cousin in Idaho to quilt then I'll have a pretty pink and brown lap blanket....just in time for the awesome winter up here! :)

The strips and the ever present iron.

One of four pieces making up a block.

One finished block.

One complete row.

The finished face of the quilt.

interior decorating, sugarbeets and books

Good Lord it's been too long since I posted! I am appropriately contrite. :) I have some pics from the house I'm staying in - I feel I have officially finished the living room and am ready to move onto another room. I think I'm going to work on the bathroom or finish up the kitchen. Here are the before and after pics of the living room:

          The Before Shots

 The After Shots








It's like a whole new house in this room; warm, cozy, light and cheery. I like it! The walls are a color called alamode which looks like melted vanilla ice cream.The trim and doors are the color called fuzzy duckling. I'm still out on this one so I'm going to live with it for a while but my guess is it'll stay because it's a warm and light color - hard to find!

Scott and I went to Lodge Pole this morning and ran into some snow - early for here. Friends say the Almanac is telling us a bad winter is in the works. Ugh! At least I have wood and propane...a nice cozy fire is going as we speak. :) The puppies are all curled up and napping and I am thankful it's Friday! I am planning to sleep in tomorrow. The changing weather is wreaking havoc on my ability to get out of bed. Tomorrow's schedule is set though...I'm going to head up to Havre and visit the craft show that's in town for the annual Festival Days. I thought I'd go check it out and see what there is to see. I'm hoping to come back with some cute stuff; perhaps for the bathroom that I'll be working on next. Hmmm....

Mom and dad are scheduled to be here next weekend. Dad is going antelope hunting on the reservation and is beyond excited! This is dad's first guided hunt and I hope he enjoys it. It's a different type of hunting than he's used to but I'm sure he'll be happy once he gets that antelope! :) I'm excited to see them again and while dad is out hunting mom and I will be attending Chinook's annual Sugarbeet Festival. The area grows zero sugarbeets now but the name has hung around for the festival and the high school mascot, the Chinook High School Sugarbeeters. Go figure. :)

I finished "Mockingjay" and was not impressed by the way it ended - heroine chose the wrong guy. Perhaps my taste in guys is just poo! LOL I also finished "Linger" the second in the "Shiver" series. It was good but not sure about the way it ended but I am excited to see what the next book holds. I am back to the Stephanie Plum series...always good for a laugh and I can't wait for the movie!

A Good Day

I worked in the garden all day, and let me tell you it was glorious! My family started a tradition of taking my mom to the nursery on Mother's Day weekend and having her pick out whatever she wanted as her gift. This year she picked two tea roses, a pink one with a slightly yellow center and a yellow one with a reddish/orange tinge on the edges of the petals. Those tea roses are so pretty when they bloom. We cut them and put them in a small milk bottle on the tables around the house - b...e...a..utiful! :)

In the garden today we planted some pole beans, bush beans, spinach and I found some Columbia tomatoes at the nursery. I am stoked about these! I know totally nerd but they were especially bred at the Prosser WSU research station for this area. I haven't been able to track down seeds let alone plants until I found these. My goal is to save some seeds from them. I planted my Ace55 tomato starts yesterday and they do NOT look any kind of good today! I hope they live...I put so much work into them.

My dogs have been very actively lately and by active I mean covered in dirt! Yotee comes inside with his little chicken legs showing in wet fur, and Ruby comes in with her belly and feet covered in mud. She then proceeds to jump on my lap and get muddy footprints all over my clean jeans! :)

I have been working on several projects lately, and maaaaan are my wrists, hands and fingers sore and tired! I am still crocheting the baby blanket which is what makes my wrists sore and have finally begun sewing my braided rug together - sore fingers...ouch! I think these projects are going to take quite some time because of the soreness they cause. I will get them done...I will persevere! :)

Silent Sundays - A Homemade Strawberry Planter

So I thought I'd take Sundays and use photographs to highlight something I am doing or working on. Here is this week's Silent Sunday topic - a strawberry planter.

I took an old, rusted-out single hog feeder and had Scott cut slots to slide the license plates into. We had all the plates laying around from our plethora of vehicles and bent the plates inside the pockets so there are no welds on them. It took little more than an hour to complete the construction, and another hour to fill and plant it. I have two day-neutral varieties (TriStar and Seascape), as well as three ever-bearing varieties (Quinault, Sequoia and Hecker). Looking forward to those yummy berries! :)

Fondue is Fon to Do!

So I need to make this quick because chaos has erupted between Ruby the Beagle and Annie the Mutt. :) I wanted to wish all a Happy New Year. We spent the evening with family and I learned how to make homemade fondue; previously we had always purchased the boxed mix. Thanks to one of mom's older (70's ish) cookbook we were able to find adequate substitutes since two of the three cheeses were unavailable. Here is the recipie:

1 cup white wine (Chardonay is what we used)
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 ounces Gruyere cheese, cubed (We subbed in non-smoked gouda cheese)
7 ounces Sharp Cheddar cheese, cubed
7 ounces Emmentaler cheese, cubed (We subbed in fontina cheese)

1) Bring the wine to a boil in a small saucepan.
2) Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for about 5 minutes (we only did about 2 minutes), stirring constantly to avoid sticking and burning.
3) Once the flour is cooked, stir the wine into the flour mixture slowly. Use a whisk to smooth the mixture. Slowly add cubes of cheese; stir until cheese is melted. Transfer sheese mixture to fondue pot. Keep warm over low flame.

I also melted cholated chips with heavy cream and some orange extract for "dessert" style dipping. Additionally, there were two pots of oil for meats with various dipping sauces we purchased. It was a supper yummy meal shared with good company! We also played cards and visited amonst ourselves for the evening. Uncle George and Della stopped by and shared some fondue action and then Uncle Lou stopped by this morning to wish us a Happy New Year.

I watched the NHL Winter Classic this morning which was played on an outdoor rink at Fenway Park - it was neat. The Bruins and the Flyers played and I chose to root for the Bruins. It looked bleak but with a clutch goal during sudden death overtime the Bruins pulled out a win, and to top it off the Bruins goalie was named to the USA Olympic Hockey team after the game.

I am working on a cross-stich blanket and planning on tracking down some new bread recipies. I have planted some onion-chive seeds and have made a mini-greenhouse with a gallon-sized Ziplock bag; that shall have to wait for some resulting photos.

As always I am applying for jobs and have a phone interview for a position in Provo, Utah on January 6th. Wish me luck! :)