Posts

Hardy Humboldt Hens

-
Image
From a couple of days ago, snapped not far from the coop. Camilla to the left, Owl in center front, nearly all the rest in the background; oh my sweet chickens! Not a 4-H club, but certainly a 3-H association. Gigi has abandoned her broody ways, THANK YOU JESUS! Ruthie, also starting to be known as Buttercup, remains a mostly cheery sort. The rest are enjoying a slightly wet day, and I am grateful they are as low-key as chickens could be. Broody duo notwithstanding, ahem. I guess this is a chicken post. Ah chickens.... They had a marvelous weekend putzing around mainly in the sun, though yesterday mid-afternoon the clouds thickened up, signaling the storm now drizzling water on our North Coast corner of the world. Two nights ago my husband found Gigi in a nesting box, but to our amazement she plopped out of it of her own accord, then slowly wandered toward the steps of the roost, hopping up to the wall, finding a space for sleep. Last night she didn't even enter a nesting box, cont...
Read more

Autumn one side, rainbow the other

-
Image
Rainbow side first, sunny and crinkly! Whew, finally wrapped up the last of this cozy! And I'm SO PLEASED with it, I wish it was mine, LOL. Instead it's going to not the original recipient, but someone else much beloved. Still, I do wish it was staying at my house. Next is autumn in shade. Most of these prints are from Stephanie Sliwinski's Foraged, Found, & Hand Me Down collection by Moda.  What does that mean, aching to gift a quilt while desiring its presence close? I guess it means I really like it, both for the fabrics and weight, for the size and stitches inserted, for all it has meant to me since early this year. It's meant: Throw fabrics on the design wall because blank space is boring, then fall in love with what you see, super-excited to hand-sew it together. Use it to make a tutorial, then find the extra layer of batting, consisting of a worn-out flannel sheet, actually makes the hand-quilting a little on the tricky side, but you persevere despite a tired...
Read more

Draft2Digital ends free ebook publication

-
Image
My most recent novel , available at many online book sites. Kind of a serious post about self-publishing from this author who has never had to pay to release novels. All my ebooks are free, unless purchased on Amazon which charges a nominal .99 cents. That won't change as long as I can help it. But yesterday I received an email from Draft2Digital noting a new policy concerning maintenance fees. For new accounts, a one-time charge of twenty dollars will ensue, and unless one earns more than one hundred dollars a year, an annual fee of twelve bucks will be required. I read this with a slight smirk on my face; the merger between Smashwords and Draft2Digital has been an ongoing process; my account was integrated only last summer. For nearly fifteen years I have published ebooks without paying money to a company; did I expect that to last forever? As it stands, it's a dollar per month to maintain my novels within D2D's system, because it's going to be a LONG TIME before I ea...
Read more

Results of the ten-day break

-
Image
Maybe indicative of the old quilt Trevor places over Jamey. From February 2024, sort of when this novel takes place. Sometimes I truly realize how it's not me writing these novels, but God. Because sometimes I take a break in the middle of a first draft, that of a few days perhaps, but not ten days. And actually now it's been twelve days since I last wrote. And below is the chapter that emerged this morning. And I like it. It's an answer to the cliffhanger of Chapter Nineteen, ending with a cliffhanger all its own. It's indicative of how we here in Humboldt County occasionally view our special little corner of the planet, and indicative of how I see my life lived as a child of God. And, well, here it is....   Chapter 20   After the CHP inspection, what was left of Trevor’s truck had been hauled to Harbaugh Automotive , merely as a way for those closest to Trevor to begin to grasp what seemed more than a miracle. It was miraculous that he was alive, all accepted, also ...
Read more

The ten-day break

-
Image
Not from blogging, but from my book. Grandsons are back home, a great time had by all. From their lovely visit I earned a boat-load of peace concerning my long-distance grandparent status, in the manner that life is what it is and all of it's a blessing in one manner or another. That's a concise way to put it, maybe someday I'll expand on it. Right now it's enough to know they had fun, we did too, and now it's raining and I have a mild case of shingles and again I've retreived my novel, read several chapters today, and hopefully will write on Monday. We'll see what happens with that prediction! In the meantime.... Shingles. Sigh. Just about every spring since my first case back in 2019, I get shingles. This time they're on the right side of my lower neck. Which is safely concealed by turtlenecks because it's not warm with this storm which has produced thunder and lightning for most, merely rain for us. Which if you have shingles, is fine because you ...
Read more

Early April morning musings

-
Image
I didn't get around to posting this until after lunch, but it was initially written at 6 a.m. this morning....  Our grandsons are visiting this week, so blogging time is curtailed. It's still dark outside, yet frogs are awake, croaking like their lives depended on it. They are quite loud at night; my eldest grandson likes falling asleep to their rhythmic songs. Eldest grandson fashioned this space plane with additions to origami, lol.   My life as a grandmother is SO DIFFERENT, and because these interludes are far and fewish between, I tend to let my being absorb that realm, which before we moved to Humboldt County wasn't so altering, in part the kids were little and they napped, lol. Also that we saw them more often, at their residences, whether it was for several hours at a time or over a few days. Yet who I am has changed too; the sewing isn't paramount, though my youngest grandson wants a turn at the machine, and the writing is less. Less what, I'm not prepared ...
Read more

Progress hindered but that's okay

-
Image
Yesterday morning I woke with a rather SORE right shoulder. A pinched nerve kind of shoulder. Sigh.... So the Rainbow quilt has been folded and taken to the office, where it will stay for the next week or two. No hand stitching of any kind for a while, as I let the upper right side of my neck and shoulder rest. It's a drag, but there's worse things in life. Like having a special supper with several friends while fully aware one is going to betray you so viciously, yet there's not a dang thing you can do to prevent it, IF you want the best outcome for everyone else. Hence today is Maundy Thursday, the day when a couple thousand years ago Christ ate the Last Supper with his disciples. So yeah, not hand-sewing for ten days or more is a bummer, but again, not the end of the world. So few safety pins left to remove! My poor hubby is actually in worse shape than me; his back has been iffy for days, then yesterday he lifted something heavy and.... A muscle relaxer has helped, so w...
Read more