current progress, how boring

Here are the ones in progress right now.



The brown one has been boiled and waits for laundering.



The pink one from last week is boiled and waiting laundering before the next pic, so you don't see it here.


The green one was started this week and I think that's it for batik on it. I'll get it boiled this week.

Is it Halloween yet?

Boo Hoo
Middle School PE class Course Description:
"Maximize physical activity with limited resources, space, equipment, money, time"
Welcome to life. You didn't think you were exempt did you? Sorry Hon, the teachers union can only do so much.




Rabbit
After more than a year and a half, Silver is giving me nose bumps. If it had been easier and quicker, I probably wouldn't think it was as important. For those who don't know, noise bumps are an indication of affection from rabbits. Cats too.



Feral Cat
The little tuxedo cat captured in our backyard by the cat rescue this summer, spayed, and returned, has been spotted several times in the past two days. I am putting out food. Her presence here is population pressure against new cats who may be fertile.



Homework
The first week of school has already turned up one late homework assignment. All he had to do was give it to me to sign, then return it. It got misplaced between my signature and his backpack.

Hot Water
The Spa is up and running. That was a project! Dave bought it used on Craig's List, then had to hire a company to move it to our house from Livermore. Then he had to get a contractor to level a spot in the yard and pour a concrete pad. Then he had to have the moving guys put it on the pad. Then we had to buy a gazebo. Then he filled it up and it leaked. Then he fixed the leak. Now we can use it. At 96 degrees, he is too warm. At 98 degrees, I am just getting comfy.

Limping Horse
Janow is much improved in the front lameness after having his hocks injected. He is signed up for the Chiropractor on September 9th. He seems more himself too.

Ouch
Mary Shelley bit me again. Between nose bumps, she bites.

Picture Card
All three picture cards are still pogged. This means that I have to click-unselect 110 pictures every time I want to upload, and that I can only take 6 pictures at a time. All the pictures are of sentimental value. They are all backed up. Dave said he would take care of it for me. After he did, I found that he had only write-protected each one so I could not erase them easily. This is not the same. I may have to buy a new one!

Supernatural
Joseph and I have been watching Supernatural TV show. It's like mini horror movies. Last night, after dark, in the spa, the radio turned itself way up all of a sudden and Joseph couldn't turn it down. Dave turned it off. "Why...?"
"Maybe it's haunted." I answered. Then I turned to Dave,
"Maybe that's why they sold the spa......maybe someone died in here!"

"MOMMMMMMM!"

Monday Bunday

Batik Saddle Pads in Progress

Here are all the batik projects currently in progress. They all start out with white fabric. These are all on a nice twill, lighter than denim, heavier than broadcloth.


They will be my thinest pads, with only one layer of needle felted poly to help keep the shape so you won't get wrinkles under the saddle. I am going to line them with more of the twill. It's not heavy, but I think two layers of nice cotton will be more absorbant than commercial pads and will wear better with less creep than flannel.

Because they are all going to be saddle pads, so each has two sides that are pretty much mirror images.

Having several going at once, it helps to have a good plan first.

The Good Guy

I have finished reading The Good Guy by Dean Koontz. If anyone else would like to read it, send me your snail mail and I will send my papereback copy to you USPS Media Mail.

A Chicken in Every Pot

Joseph saw Paula in the pot yesterday and I snuck this picture. That is why it is taken through the screen. If she had known I was there, she would have run over to beg.

And then there is Waldo. I decided to give each batik a working name to keep track of them. I have tried numbers and letters in the past and it's confusing. There are so many layers and steps. and a right and left side for saddle pads, that you can't do it one-at-a-time.

Waldo was dyed, waxed, and then dyed. It had one more wax and dye left, but I set it out to dry and forgot. The shade moved and the sun melted the wax, causing it to seep. So I had to boil each side, then launder to remove residue. The boiling took two days. Now I can wax it and dye it to finish.


I've been using leftover dyes to dye my socks. Once the mordant is added, the dye is only good for about an hour or so.


Currently reading "The Good Guy" by Dean Koontz

Veterinarian

No new pictures because:
Dave still has the picture cards all pogged up with photos of sentiment. I can take three photos before I have to upload. To do that, I have to un-click all of his. Too much clicking.

He bought a hot tub on Craigs list. We had contractors level a spot and pour a cement pad for it. After that, there are problems. Dave spends all his extra time on the problems.

The vet came for Janow yesterday to see a slight problem in front that has been bugging me a lot. I was afraid Janow was developing changes in a front pastern or coffin joint. He could not find anything to indicate that. Was it his damaged laminae? No.

His hocks were bothering him and he was mildly positive to flexion tests. X-Rays showed some slight narrowing of joint spaces, pretty good for a 20 year old horse. There was possibly more inflamation that would not show on x-rays. I had his hock injected with cortisone in case they were bothering him more than the pictures and flex tests indicated. He has stall rest until Saturday. Then he can come out and I can see if he is significantly better. Or not.

I will sign him up for the next chiropractic clinic.

Friesians are Iberian

My cousin Dana started a blog. She has Friesians. Click here to go . She is a newbie to blogs.

I went to a Horse Driving Event on Saturday. It's like Combined Training but with carts and carriages. It was fun. I met a lot of nice people. I wanted to go Sunday for the marathon, their version of cross-country, but I had a migraine.

I finished "Duma Key" by Stephen King. It was good. If you want to read it, I will send it to you, the first person to email your snail mail address. caradrouin@sbcglobal.net

Yesterday I wanted ice cream with Grape Nuts, so Dave got it for me. Joseph had never had Grape Nuts. Because he is lactose intolerant, he did not put milk.

"These are really crunchy."
"Most people put milk to soften them up."

He put Koolade.

"This is better! These are really good.............. The Barf Factor is going way up...... Do I have to finish these?"

Sunday Bunday

A Janow Story

This is an old picture that I found when I was scanning picture cards looking for one that wasn't crammed with Dave's pics that he can't bear to erase even if they are backed up. I think I need to buy a new picture card.

An old picture of us goes with someone elses Janow story.

Some history first: Janow is a confirmed nudist. He has NEVER liked a fly mask, managing to destroy them within days of purchase, soliciting assistance from neigh-bors if needed.

This year I purchased a new kind with huge bug eyes. He likes it, lowering his head to have it put on. Once, when he was tied for grooming, mask off, I looked up to see him standing with his face pressed into the mask where it was hanging on the fence. "Put this back on, please."

Someone elses story as told to me: She was walking up the lane past his paddock/stall when he whinnied to her. She looked at him and saw that his mask was off of one ear. She went into his paddock and fixed the mask. He put his nose into her stomach and nickered his thanks. She was blown away!

That's Janow, "Smarter than the average bear."

Barn Boy

The summer has been pretty good. “Not frantic” has been the theme and has been accurately executed.


I have had Joseph working for me at the barn, earning money. Grandmother was critical of how much money he was getting, and it sounded like a lot to him too, at the start. Then he started planning all the things he was he was going to buy and he found that if he got what he really really wanted, it meant he was going to have to save and not buy a bunch of stuff. He followed through, which is the hardest part of planning. He finally got his new air rifle, 1200 feet per second. He told me, out of the blue, that he liked it even more because he had to work so hard to get it. Of course, I feel vindicated because he learned something vital to adult life. Unfortunately, your mother is the last person to whom you can say “I told you so!”



Today we are planning a trip to the driving range at Spring Valley. Joseph is going to hit balls with a stick as hard as he can!

lemonade

I have received the Lemonade Award for cheerfull blogging from Horse and a Half's Onthebit! Thank you!

One of the privilidges of this award is passing it on to ten more bloggers! I may not be able to get to ten of them today........It's hard, we all read each others blogs......I have to pick ten who havenot recived it yet!

Lauging Orca Ranch for moving forward in spite of the ejection seat.

Ramses at Ramses Meowings for dilligent posting from across the pond, in spite of Tigmutep trying in vain for center stage and Isis's catlets.

Rabbit's Guy at House of Rabbits even if his last blog was NOT about rabbits, it was about letterboxing that someone else has written about but never EXPLAINED! Thanks for the explanation Rabbit's Guy.

Bai Bai at Hamsterific blog who is always happy and cheerfull and plays a mean game of hide and seek.

Miss Eve at Bunnies Needles and Books for welcoming Bing into the warren.

Enough for now!

buried treasure

A place in the mountains with a history......A metal detector.....


Both Dave and Joseph got metal detectors for Christmas. Dave got his from Mom and Dad, Joseph got his from his Auntie Moe and Uncle Jeff. They didn't communicate or coordinate, each came up with the same idea independently and selected identical metal detectors. Great minds think alike.

The next trip to Mt Hamilton included metal detectors.

They found evidence of target practice. Using many different guns. These were all found very close to each other.

The dime in the photo was minted in 1964, but you still see some of those in circulation, so it only means it wasn't lost before 1964.

Since 1964 is the year of Dave's birth, I can tease him and say he has been lost since 1964!


They also found some very old square nails and a piece of metal of unknown function. The treasure they found was a fun day.

Joseph wants to take his to the stable next. To find spare change that falls out of people's pockets when they are mounting. As if people who own horses have any spare change left!

post holiday post

"I SAW SANTA"


The Holidays were fun, but after is hard. Inside too long, eating junk, wiped out from the frenzy, can't think of anything you want to have or do, outside is grey. Now that is over too and I'm ready for real life to resume.


This is Joseph. We had a good laugh messing up the picture with photoshop. He wanted a bean bag and I made this the day before. It wasn't as big as I wanted. I have since added more fabric and faux beans and it is better. Joseph liked it how it was and didnt want me to change it, but I did anyway and now he likes it more. Dave couldn't believe I made it in one day.

Whiskers liked it too.

I have marked even more things down on my wevsite and my ETSY store. This year I am satisfied with the work I am producing and I need to create a more uniform appearnce. Thses things have to go. If you are interested, the links are on the sidebar. You're probably not and that's fine.

Bunneh!

The "bunneh" ate my sweater. I just finished patching 6 small holes. I don't know when she could have done it, except maybe last year before I knew better.

She didn't actually chew it on purpose, but she loves to rearrange cloth. Her teeth are razor sharp and the puncturing is unintentional.

It is an old sweater from Land's End, before they were owned by JC Penny. It will still serve. After all, a wool sweater with a sweatshirt on top of it is very warm.

Christmas was busy, as usual. I did not blog, I didn't even try. You can only do so many things at once. It was cold rainy and Janow needed extra care. Something had to give. I look forward to catching up on everyone else's holiday as soon as I catch my breath.

Silver Anniversary

Silver has been here one year now. I have enjoyed her. Joseph wanted a rabbit really bad. I wouldn't have agreed to the rabbit if I hadn't wanted it too. So we went to Oakland Animal Services and selected a bun from many many unwanted buns.

When we got Silver home, she was one stressed rabbit! Joseph thought she would be cuddly and affectionate right away, even though he had said he understood that rabbits were not very cuddly and were pretty independent. So now she is my rabbit. Mostly. He enjoys her sometimes, now more that before. I gave her a year to get really settled after the shelter. That's how long it took Whiskers to really settle in to be the cat she is.

Rabbits are natural chewers and diggers, so life with a rabbit is pretty much a story of damage control. That is why she has her own towel pile and phone book under the chair. She has a plum branch by the TV and a rolled up towel stuffed behind the sofa. The towel did not prevent the customary burrow behind the sofa that most rabbits have. That is what all the newspapers are for. That's the picture, newspapers stuffed behind the sofa. They distract her and get in the way. Now she is dead set on newspaper removal. This is messy but harmless.

She's really great. Playful and opinionated. She spends most of her time in her cage by the chair where I sit to be on the computer. She pays very close attention to wherever I am. Sometimes, it I leave the room, she will come out looking for me. It's funny. She can hear the skin being peeled from a bannana across the room.

People have always asked me about horses in comparison to dogs. Now they ask me about rabbits in comparison to hamsters. The best comparison for horses and rabbits are rabbits and horses. They are more alike than different.

They are great pets for people with patience who can tolerate a bit of a mess.

Silver likes to be petted. She never seems to get enough. This is a pretty individual thing with rabbits. Some like it more than others.Rabbits groom each other. The dominant bun is usually on the receiving end.

As a 4 year old, Janow was not particular to being groomed. He tolerated it, but I like to do it, so he got used to it. Now he really enjoys it. Lately though, he wants to move our relationship on to new levels. I do not. I want to remain friends but keep it platonic. I need to get myself a squirt gun. Anybody else ever have this problem with their horse?


This is the trench with pipes in it. Dave and Joseph got all the exposed part done before it started to snow. Ew.

Today I was doing the last part of a saddle pad and I noticed a mistake. Up until this point, it has been very subtle, but......the pad is no good and there is nothing I can do. Ten+ ours of work and $40 in materials. Poof!

I wanted to get Joseph a bean bag chair for Chrstmas, but they were either too small or too expensive. I can sew one, so I priced the fabric. I think I have a line on peanuts to fill it, but with Craigs list, better to have them in hand before you make any real plans.

palm trees

Things have been accelerating to Christmas and I have been too busy to blog much.
Here is a picture of Dave on Mt Hamilton. The weekend after this was taken it got cold. Monday night saw snow.
No more shirt sleeve weather up there until spring!

I don't have to tell you who that guy in the bike is. He is smiling because he doesn't have to dig a trench and lay pipe.

There are a lot of artifacts that have been collected around trees. We don't know what they all are. Most of it we thing was from the garbage pile behind the one room school that used to be there.

My sewing injuries are healing up fine. I am not covered with band-aids like Les Nesman anymore. Sure is easier to type! I still have the fake thumbnail on, and one finger is still sore.

Suffering from insomnia, I have discovered watching TV shows on Netflix DVD. No commercials and you can start them any time you want. But....all my regular shows are either caught up and waiting for the current season to come out on DVD, or I have watched them to the end. So I am looking for new shows. I watched 6 whole episodes of Sex and the City, but didn't like it at all. I had 3 episodes of Stargate, but could not even make it through the pilot! I watched the first four Kyle XY episodes, and it was OK, but I can't see going out of my way to watch it. I would watch it if there was "nothing else on." I got the first DVD of Bones. I liked it, so did Joseph. Now it is on HIS Netflix cue. Hmmmm.
Where do I go from here?

This is a really bad picture of me that I took wearing earrings I bought fromKimsBeads on ETSY. They were only $4.00 + $1.50 shipping and they came in about three days!

Speaking of ETSY, which I don't like to do on my Blog, but I have marked many many things in my ETSY store to $5.00. Take a look, if you dare. The link is that big square one with the wolfy thing on it, over there on your right.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I expect everyone to keep doing whatever it is that you are doing and totally forget. Mama taught me that if I am realistic, I will not be disappointed.


"I'm not dead yet!"
-----Monty Python (and the Holy Grail)

Mt Hamilton

Silver blogged today!

LOL! That house isn't our main residence! Lucky us. We still live in a house in an Edward Scissorhandsian neighborhood in Milpitas. The trailer is up on Mt Hamilton, near James Lick Observatory where the body of James Lick is buried under the dome. Thirteen miles and 40 minutes or so out of San Jose, one hour from the city house. We are there on some weekends.

This is our house:(I had to remove this picture, it was too big! My sidebar was all messed up)
Janow lives at a boarding stable about 10 minutes away. Indian Hills Ranch. I'm taking my saddle pads there and some primitive sweatshirts tomorrow, hoping for a sale.
This is me, in front of our house.

The taller tree in the front is a magnolia tree, home to many hummingbirds. I have counted as many as seven within sight at one time. Despite their size and cuteness, they are very aggressive!

We are maybe less than 100 yards from I-680. If you think hard, you can make the traffic sound like a rushing river or a flash flood. The commute starts each morning before 5am. Dave installed dual pane windows and that helped a lot! "If the women can't find you handsome, at least they can find you handy." Dave said that in reference to The Red Green Show. I never said that. Ever.

I sewed a bit this morning, and did it wrong. This afternoon, I am ripping it out to do it again. It's 4 seams, totaling about 10 feet. When I die, my tombstone will say RIP and it won't stand for Rest In Peace.

At least it doesn't hurt. I have a band-aid on my left middle finger where the sewing machine needle went through the tip and shattered the nail. It hurt a like heck because there are lots of nerve endings there. It's hard to type with a stupid band-aid. It bled a lot, but slow.

My right middle finger has healed enough not to hurt. I was thread basting and decided to just put some duct tape on my fingertip instead of unpacking my thimble. That was a mistake. The eye end of the needle punched THROUGH the tape and slid into my finger, just under the nail, about a quarter inch. It didn't bleed at all, but left a red line that you can see through the nail. I only wore a band-aid for a couple of days to keep antibiotic ointment on it. Puncture wounds get infected easily.

That isn't nearly as gruesome as my sewing injury of the week before that! I punctured my right thumbnail with the needle of my industrial upholstery sewing machine. Blood came out of the hole! I thought it would become infected because I could not wash it well. It hurt so bad that night that I kept imagining that I would have to go to the doctor and have the nail removed. But it wasnt infected. The hole in the nail worked its way into a crack all the way to the end and then kept catching on everything. I was afraid I was afraid I would rip half the nail off by accident. I bought a set of fake nails and glued a plastic thumbnail on top of the crack. That seems to be working. Ugly though. You can see the bruise through the French manicure.

I should stick to horseback riding. It would be safer.

Well......?

This is it. The new well. Not very exciting, is it?


This is Dave, working the trenching machine. Pipes and electricity to pump the water have to go in a trench. This Ditch Witch was apparently designed for flat level surfaces. Also for operators bigger and heavier than Dave. Not to mention guys who weren't so conscious of renting it buy the hour.

It was really hard work and he relied on his crew(me) to bring water and ignorant suggestions regularly. Part of making your husband feel smart is making dumb suggestions. I'm really good at that. It helps to have a smart husband.


Here is us at the end of the day. The house is really a 40 year old mobile home. This makes us "Trailer Trash."

The walls are thin so you can hear what the neighbors are up to. In the absence of neighbors, they maintain the temp ambient to the temp outdoors. If we had neighbors, we could hear their teeth chatter at night.

We have a little TV there. No reception, but we hook up the XBox and we can play DVDs. So we sit across the room, looking at movies on a 10 inch screen, wishing for binoculars.

I hinted at Joseph that I needed new sweatpants for Christmas. I hinted pretty hard because he is new at being hinted at by women in his family. His response to me hoping to get new sweats by Christmas?

"With your own money."

Many Thanks to KK

Many thanks to KK for pointing out some errors in my poster. AFTER I had it printed and AFTER I had some of them laminated for outdoor posting, but BEFORE I put any up!!!! That BEFORE part is the most important!

In spite of finding that much of the time I spent was not to good use, and the money I spent on printing and laminating was wasted, She has saved me from a BIG mistake! The big mistake is the price. All the pads marked as $45 are actually forty five dollars. The pads marked as $400 or not, they are two hundred dollars. Still a lot, but my market research has shown this to be a very fair price.


To change it at this point, after the file has been sized and compressed and merged is tricky. The original layered draft has been erased. It was such a huge file that just changing the page view was taking a couple of minutes. Really. I am still learning.


Since my readers are so helpful, maybe one of you can tell me the origins of this glass. The people who owned this property before us found it and gathered it around this tree. These pieces are big. Bigger than my fist. I think they are pieces of the transformer things from old power poles. Dave says I am wrong.(Thats OK, he says that a lot! He's been arguing "corn is a vegetable" for years!) The power poles on the property are not nearly that old and were not erected to replace older ones. It sure is pretty with the light through it!

Gail, At The Farm, this ones for you!

How many people just happen to have a picture of their own outhouse in their hard drive?

it'll do

This took 7 hours. What a pain. I learned a lot and would do it differently if I were beginning again. I'm not. Next time will be better and faster. Tomorrow I will have it printed.

Misk

Silver is definitely building a burrow behind the sofa. Rabbits have such a reputation! She can't help it. She is following the program coded into her DNA.

I went to 7/11 and got a refill on my 44oz Big Gulp. I feel like Abby getting Caf-Pow. Then, of course, I have to play the paranoid white woman and count my change. I always count it, and I always feel like people are impatient thinking nasty things about me for holding things up. So I counted it and it wasn't right. So I counted it again, feeling really guilty, and it was wrong. It was $1.00 over. So I gave the dollar back, of course. And felt a lot less like an inconvenience.

We are renting a trencher this weekend to dig the trench to pipe the water into our storage tanks from the new well, and to lay the power lines to power the new well. I think we should build a windmill. This is the wrong time of year to suggest that. Dave still has not forgotten the year I said I wanted a palm tree.

I am reading Songs or Arbonne by Guy Gavrial Kay. I'm about half way through, and it's very good, and keeps getting better. I have a book by Steven King for after this one. Sometimes I get impatient.

Netflix sent the movie Sea of Love with Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, and Ron Goodman. It was very good. The last one I wathced that I liked that much was A long Days Journey into Night, Katherine Hepburn, Jason Robards Jr, and Dean Stockwell. That was pretty incredible. That family was dysfunctional before they even invented the term Dysfunctional Family. If you even like old movies a little bit, I recommend it.

I am working on a flyer to put at the barn for my saddle pads. It is taking hours, of course! I'll show it here if you guys all want to see it.

New Grass, Old Bug

The first grass of the winter is coming up. Janow is looking forward to getting his, but horses who have had laminitis do not get a lot of green grass.

I got all my saddlepad photos edited and wrote the html for my webpage. That took a long time. At least 10 hours! Now the photos don't work!

----later that day------
They work. Here is the link Doublecatbatik website

Rats.

Now I can tackle the problem in my sidebar. The one that dissappeared. I have narrowed down the line where the error is. Now I have to figure out what is wrong and fix it. I don't know if that is the hard part or the easy part. I really don't want to know, but I will probably find out.

Here is the rig drilling our new well. They hit water at 220 feet. Lots of water. Many flushes of the toity are in our future. You can see how much dust they blew out! What a mess!

Cat Patrol

Today, in addition to spending lots of time with Janow, I took pictures of saddle pads.
There were a lot of pictures of a lot of pads.

The Cat Patrol inspection team remained vigilant.
Even in the confusion of many pads in many rooms, they tried to keep calm.

Ready for winter, maybe

We have this dead tree on the property. A woodpecker has been using it for his winter acorn storage. These acorns are in there tight-you cannot even wiggle them with your fingers! There is a lot of poison oak too, but it has lost it's leaves for the winter. Dave has been cutting the heavy stems while they are easily accessed. He says he has never had poison oak, he thinks he is immune. He also believes, but isn't totally sure, that when the plants are dormant, they are safer. I said "I'm not so sure, but we'll know by tonight." So now we know.

Janow has been trace clipped again, and the weather cooled down, so he is better. He was pretty miserable in his heavy coast aid the warmth. Now it's cooler and he is happy.

My new batik saddle pads are not coming along as fast as I expected. I hardly ever get time to work. It's always somethin'! I have finished three and the 4th one is half bound. I have to take pictures today. And decide on pricing. I am thinking of having an introductory price through the end of December. But...I'm way ahead on my Holiday shopping!

Thanksgiving in the home of three picky eaters is challenging only if you feel restricted to tradition. There will be turkey, of course. It had to be one without injected 'solutions' so that took a little shopping, but not much. Dave is the only one that likes stuffing, and he will only eat about half a cup anyway. I got the kind that comes in a box. The only person who really needs mashed potatoes is the person in charge. Another person will be truly unhappy without pumpkin pie so that person is in charge of pie. In deference to lactose intolerance, we cannot have pumpkin pie with condensed milk. I got some milk free vanilla pudding mix from the health food store to use instead. Should be fine. I also got some fresh corn on the cob from a family-run stand in the middle of Fremont.