It is wet

Two weeks ago we had up to 7.5 inches of rain. It was so rainy and wet I couldn't mow much of the yard and between the heavy dew point and moisture in the ground, it looks like I'll wait quite a bit again. That is okay, gas saved I guess. I'll stake the pony out in different areas so he can do some trimming and fertilizing.

Last night through tonight we could get dumped on again. 

That means that I'll be doing indoor stuff for the next couple of days. Our last rainy days, I purged and cleaned and moved furniture. I completely emptied an old hutch and cleaned the windows on the doors and pulled out all the drawers and went through them.

I did find a some surprises, but now it is clean inside and out along with cleaning the wood on the wall behind it. 

I pulled out the washer and dryer from their cubbyhole and cleaned the vent that connects to dryer to the outside including the floor under the machines.  I pulled out the frig and did the same. 

My rainy day project was to start going through the kitchen cabinets and start to sort and find new homes for plates and cups I don't need. 

And then there is always photo projects to do to keep me distracted. One of our photo club assignments is to shoot something in the fall or Halloween Spirit.

That means more Still Life and some of it may be a bit Spooky.

Doing some of this photography may be as close to decorating for Halloween. 

This is NOT scary. 

This was from yesterday's hike with the dogs in our forest.

I brought one of the stick houses I made and thought that it was time to bring Tasha the nice witch back out.

Here are some cute warty pumpkins that were 'pasture' grown by accident because I threw the old pumpkins out into the pasture and the mules planted the seeds for me. They are decorating the porch.

It seems the warty ones cross bred with the long ones...

how fun is that?

Hint. I've been doing this for years and have enjoyed the 

strange looking pumpkins I get each year. No two plants are the same from crossbreeding.

Hot Weather and building stick houses

The weather for this Sunday is going to be very steamy and dangerously hot again through Monday.  

I've scrubbed water tanks and refilled them along with making sure the mules and pony have access to good shade already along with an area where they can stand under trees and catch any breeze that might come through.

I'm bummed. I was hoping to go camping in our woods for the weekend.

I got all my work done by 10am yesterday and then worked in the gardens. 

I decided to return to the stick house and see what I could come up with.

My helpers were all ready and raring to go.

The roofing is supposed to look haphazard and rough with bits of bark and moss. 

The next part was to paint and decorate the cardboard it is on. I'll 'make' it into a diorama I can use indoors or outdoors. [Not weather proof!]

This is my version of 'Free' building. Otherwise I'd want to purchase a set of Legos to build. If I had room, I'd build a whole set of these 'forest' huts and lay it out on my 5 foot craft table as a tiny forest town.

So as it turned steamy in the afternoon, I decided to finish my project.

I painted the cardboard to look like dirt.

Then I added chunks of decorated bark and roots that I had made last year. 

The bark chunks came from a downed tree and the pine cones came from our pine trees.

I don't glue down the other bits of roots and bark I am using so I can change the look as I need to. 

I also don't draw out plans or think much of what I am doing. I just punt it because that's how my creative juices flow.

If I add something and it looks neat, I keep it. If it doesn't, I toss it.

Cardboard. Moss. Bark. Glue. Craft Paint. Fake Mushrooms. Some fake moss.

Railroad model flowers. 

Imagination.

I added two of my favorite minifigures who are very much at home in the their magical forest.

...and then,

I set up my first scene to photograph.

I can use this stick building for so many things. The structure will fit a number of toys I have. The sides of the building can provide an interesting back drop for all sorts of scenes.

The best part about the whole thing is that it was built mostly from things I picked up in the yard at no cost!

Other Stick houses I've made:

Here is an old stick village I made and used for some scenes out in the woods. It was fun and when I left parts of it out in the forest to use again, some wild animal thought it would be great to pull it apart.

No harm done, I can always find more sticks to build with!

Today looks like a good day to beat the heat and enjoy some time reading and doing some Still Life Photography.

In sanity?

 I'm not going to blame MN or Canada for the fires. The dry remote areas are on fire and firefighters are trying to hard to contain the fires. 

The winds changed and sent the smoke into the Midwest and other parts of the US.

This morning I checked the Air Quality site and was rather surprised that the particulates were this bad. My eyes stung yesterday. I could smell what seemed like a garbage fire and camp fire mixed in.

Now. I don't want to criticize some folks, but when I posted this on social crap-media and commented that I'd not go to work out at the gym, I got some comments from others that said it 'would not be a big deal'.

Now our gym is simply an old garage for repairing vehicles. The bay doors are always open in the summer and there is no A/C. I don't mind working out in the heat, but breathing in heavily polluted air seems counterintuitive to exercising for better health.

Especially if you are working out and increasing your rate of breathing.

Yes, by noon, the Air Quality should be much better if the smoke moves off like it did yesterday afternoon. But I'm an aged athlete and I don't feel like working out and smoking a pack of cigarettes at the same time.

According to the DNR website along with medical websites, they caution against breathing in particulates --> smoke. It is not a gas, it is pieces of burnt plant matter among whatever else burned up. Think of breathing in miniature pieces of burnt matter and it changes they way one would think of the smoke.

That is my opinion and decision. Meh.

Here are two photos of this morning when I did chores. Little Richard looked as if he was in fog. Don't worry, I move him a few times a day in this heat so he can get into the shade. He also spent most of the heat days in a tree shaded paddock.

I grabbed this shot of Charlie when I was watering some flowers on the porch. 

At least by noon there will be a breeze to move the nasty smoke out of our area and move it towards Madison which will be horrible too.

I did get some plants watered so the won't wilt in the sun and heat.

Brown atmosphere...yuck!

Thankfully I was able to see the workout that we were to do and did the home version. It was nice to do it with the dogs watching to monitor me. 

Hannah is on towels because some pup thought 
it would be awesome to dig in the garden

while I was sprinkling in it.
She had mud up to her

eyeballs.

Gotta love a pup! 
She harmed no flowers in her morning 

adventure.

😁😂👇

But THAT look when I asked her:

What did you do?

I think I'll work on the stick house today. It is coming along nicely.

Time for some imagination...

Her is Valda. She now appears as a key player in the Princess Sara Quest.

How is she going to fit in? 
I love making stuff up.

I may have mentioned this before but there was a time when my kids were little that we 'made up' bed time stories once in a while.

I usually started it with something like: Once upon a time there was a little boy who became a Prince and he lived in a castle. But he didn't know he was a Prince, he thought he was just a common person. 

So the story would go on for a bit and then the next night I would ask one of the boys to add to the story.

My older son would add wonderful bits and pieces to the story and expand on the characters and scenery. It was great fun.

And...then sometimes my youngest would  add great ideas to the story....OR...
do something diabolical. "...the young Prince then gathered monsters together and beheaded everyone in the castle. Theeee End." Of course he'd smile sweetly and pull his blanket up. 

Theee End.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So Valda, who are you? At first I couldn't decide who she was or how she fit into the Princess Sara Quest. 
Who is Valda?
Valda is from a Germanic name meaning: Renowned Ruler, Power, Authority.
I admit, she looks pretty tough.

Valda is one of the Wild Ones. Obviously, she has no fear and rides a dragon and at other times rides a Thestral.

I googled for a name meaning 'powerful leader' and got Valda as a choice.

Someone over on Flickr....AC...suggested that Valda was .. um.. me? You know, maybe he was right? Valda is a Wild One, a Warrior, and she gets things done. I can see that! [the name Val-da...who would've thunk it???]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back to the Princess Sara journey...

The Frog finally caught up to Princess Sara and delivered her more news regarding her Quest.

A true Princess always accepts things that happen to her with grace and Sara has done this time and time again.

Princess Sara seeks out the Little People of the Forest to hear about the Dragon's Plight and the Stolen Egg. In her pure heart, knows that this is part of her quest.

The Little People of the Forest travel to seek help from the Wild Ones. They meet Valda and explain the  situation. 

Valda agrees to help. After all she would never turn down an offer enter into a conflagration. She is an avid lover of the Dragons and would do anything to help them.

Her Dragons wait behind her patiently.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now~~~

Just for fun I thought that my Wild Ones and Forest People needed something other than Lego bricks to be their homes. It all started with a couple of pieces of broken birch branches and cardboard. 

This project is not my first stick build. I've done it before and had great fun creating something out of items that I had on hand.

With the help of a glue gun and some moss, I was able to create modular pieces to use in different ways.

Cardboard, sticks, glue, and moss. Easy, free, fun.

It is easier and less expensive than trying to buy bricks to make 'scenes'. If I break a stick I can replace it easily. I made the pieces in sections so I can build and rebuild in different ways.

Other adults do wonderful crafts and hobbies for entertainment. I go for the Adult Play.

Adult play boosts creativity, helps with a sense of humor, and is a major player in reducing stress. When my mind is on creating a make believe story through 'toys', my mind is not consumed by my Caregiving duties.

I can do both things at the same time. I can create play while in the house giving care. It is a welcome relief to drop into a world of imagination for just a bit.

A bit of fungi and whatnot

 Forgive this post if it seems random and disconnected. 

My brain is like that some days. It
 jumps from one place to another without
giving me prior notice!

This black icky looking stuff is Black Witches Fungi. Perfect I think for the upcoming Halloween celebration.

I found a lot of tiny fungi/mushrooms growing last week after the last rainfall. It was pretty gloomy in the woods so I took along my cell phone for added light along with a string of fairy lights.

I thought it added a fairy tale feeling to the photo. 

It was interesting enough to try a second time...
Hobby looks surprised and pleased to find such cute little mushrooms!

I did find some Shrimp of the Woods, but they were aged so I left them be. 

There is more rain coming this week with some warmer days so I could find some more interesting fungi and mushrooms. 

Fingers Crossed!

Earlier this week I decided to take a predawn hike. Thick fog was forecast but I didn't see any as I hiked up to the ridge. In fact, the whole scene was pretty drab and uninteresting.

That is until the sun broke through the clouds on the horizon and fog came sliding in from the north. I've never seen it move quite like that! It was like watching a movie of attack fog!

I'm glad I waited around for the sun to poke through the thick fog. It was beautiful.

I do enjoy those mornings when I get out by myself and just stand on the ridge and watch the sun come up. As we charge towards late fall and winter, there is something about watching the light come into the world.

I am trying to be positive about the next month and how I can visually enjoy nature's beauty. 

I think I may concentrate on some Still Life skills indoors and outside.

Last winter, I made a stick lean-too just for fun. Creating things out of sticks, glue and moss took a bit of creativity. I finally found a use for it! You can find the build I did in February here: Indoor Project

Squatch [who travels in my pocket almost all of the time] finally found a home! 

[For this shot I added little fungi to the house. I had to be quick with setting up and taking the shot as the sunlight moves off quickly!]

I thank Boud -- from Blogger for some of her ideas involving leaves, cornhusks and weaving of natural fibers for creative ideas. I also thank Aurora for this marvelous little Squatch guy. He really does get around!

In fact, it seems as if Squatch found his half brother Big Foot wandering around. 

I guess they decided to get together and discuss their other half brother, Yeti. Apparently they plan to embark on a journey to find him in the Big Woods and they hope to spend the winter together.

They heard that Yeti prefers the snow and cold. Would he sit by the fire with them? Or would he build an igloo? Time will tell!

Happy Wanderings and Exploring!

How to build a stick house for a Fairy Garden

The weather turned down right dangerous with air temps at -18F and who knows what the wind chills were. I bundled up, did the chores and made sure all the equine had plenty of hay and heated water.
Since I had to be outside for a length of time, I dressed for it.
I actually was comfortable doing the chores and hauling hay in the large sled.
Going for a hike was out of the question, if I slipped or started to get cold, I'd be too far from help.

I decided that I'd collect some of the sticks I'd gathered while hiking with Charlie and Sven the other day [when it was mild] and 'create' a new Squirrel House.

I decided to use my cell phone and then write on the photos as I went through each step so here it is:

This is an old sour cream container that I cut a window in. Since it is a squirrel 'house' he/she can climb in and out easily right?
I painted the container black first so that if there were gaps, the sour cream lettering wouldn't show through.

The gorilla two sided tape is weather proof and will hold up to 15 lbs or so the package says. It is so much easier to use the tape and then put the sticks on than trying to glue them in place.

I was fascinated that I could break chunks of bark with lichen on it and press it onto the tape in the gaps ... seems it will stay? Time will tell.

I used hot glue and more scraps to fill in some of the other gaps that didn't have tape on it.

I was going to make a fancy top with some clay or something else but I decided just to go into my scraps area and grab some old bark I'd found laying in the woods. I used Gorilla Tape to hold down a layer of scraps. Hot glue works best on a porous surface so I glued more scraps on top of that to make a roof.

There. But I still had some a few more touches to add.

I think the Squirrel likes the little shack.

I rather like these little projects. This will be fun to put in a section of the new mini flower garden I'll do this spring. I may have to think of something to make the stick house heavier so it will stay put.

The stick houses are a lot of fun to make and cost nothing as I can gather the materials needed when I take a walk.
This was a great little day project to do while the temperatures outside kept me safely indoors.

One of the reasons I liked this project is that it did not have to be perfect. Too many 'Fairy Houses' look perfect. If a person was to do this with a child, it could be just like this.
I think it is still cute in its very non perfect way.

Besides, if a squirrel were to make this?
Well, have you ever seen a squirrel nest?

I rest my case!