I thought I’d share our fallen tree, although pictures can’t really convey just how massive this thing is. First of all, here is the branch that fell:

The diameter of the branch is about 2 1/2 feet. When I stand next to it, it’s almost knee-high. In the second picture you can see a bit of our 6 foot high fence on the left, which helps to illustrate the scale.

Here is the poor, sad, giant tree:

Apparantly it’s not 300 years old as we originally thought, it’s probably closer to 400 years. A couple of the tree guys that have come to give us quotes have stood, mouths gaping, staring up at it, trying to figure out how they’re going to get it down. It should be fun and involve lots of heavy equipment and cranes and things! They tell us that the trunk alone will yield 8-10 cords of wood. Poor tree, you made it so many hundreds of years, I wish you could have made it the next 50 or so of my lifetime.

Here is my fashion tip for today: When purchasing $10 fake Crocs from Target, it’s always good if they match your pajamas, so when you go out at six a.m. to let the darn chickens out, you look good for the neighbors. You might think that no one will see you at six a.m., but you are probably very, very wrong about that fact. I may have bed-head at that hour, but at least I have cute shoes and pajamas.

Speaking of letting the chickens out, I decided to expand my repetoire of egg recipes and add two really great cookbooks to my collection. First is The Farmstead Egg Cookbook, by Terry Golson and second is simply Eggs, by Michel Roux.  I’ve enjoyed Terry’s hen cam for a long time. When I’m at work and missing my girls, I can just pop on over for a quick chicken fix. What a great little cookbook she’s written. The photos are just lovely, and I will probably make nearly every recipe in there. So far we’ve made a couple different frittatas, and the shirred egg with spinach is one of my new favorite breakfasts. Doesn’t it look so pretty with some good, toasted olive bread? Yummy! And the Carbonara is so very easy and delicious.

We’ve been sharing eggs with neighbors and co-workers, and it’s so funny how people think about eggs. One of the husband’s co-workers wasn’t too sure about taking some of our eggs, worried that maybe they weren’t ‘safe’. Wow. Eggs that I collect every day, from chickens who are free to roam and scratch and take dust baths and eat good quality feed as well as treats like lettuce, grapes and apples versus eggs transported after who knows how long (eggs can be labled ‘very fresh’ when they make it to the store in a week, and ‘fresh’ after 2 or 3 weeks, I believe), from chickens crammed 6 to a cage, unable to stretch their wings, in a factory-like building. The choice seems obvious to me.

The other book, Eggs, is also really beautiful and has recipes not only for chicken eggs, but also quail, duck and goose eggs. Those will come in handy when the geese start laying! All the basics are covered, in great detail. It’s a good reminder to re-learn how long to boil an egg or make really creamy scrambled eggs. I think I might even be brave enough to try poaching some eggs again, although I’ve never been able to do that successfully.

A lot of the recipes are a little more fussy and exotic, and even though I might never make them, they inspire simpler versions. One thing I did learn, while attempting to make the Spanish Tortilla, is that Mexican chorizo and Spanish chorizo are not at all the same thing. At all. Well, I suppose they are both meat products, but that is where the similarity ends. Instead of nice chunks of spicy sausage, I ended up with a soupy, greasy mess. We just threw some cheese and avocado on it and pretended that was the plan all along. It was a pretty tasty mistake :o)

I haven’t bothered with writing anything here for awhile, because if I did it would just be a whiny, oh woe is me kind of a post, and who really wants to read about that? I will only say that in the last couple weeks a 300 year old tree lost a very big section and will have to be cut down for a large sum of money, and my old reliable Honda friend needs to be put out to pasture, which meant buying a new car for a large sum of money. It also meant spending four hours in the company of car salesmen who I completely detest. Wow, they were a bunch of jerks.

Let’s remember a happier time, shall we? This is me and my adorable niece in the chicken coop, during my sabbatical. Forgive the lack of makeup and hair styling, I was on vacation.  She helped me gather eggs every day while they were here. I miss my little helper! She also declared Bear her best friend. I’m sure he feels the same. We had so much fun at Disneyland and I had the honor of buying her first pair of mouse ears.

I’ll be back again soon, I still have egg recipes to share, cute cat pictures, gosling updates and even some stuff I made. This is still a blog about making stuff, after all. If you need something to cheer you up, Dreamkiller, by these guys and this song really worked for me. Go listen!

My vacation is nearly over, and I’ve somehow managed to turn it into a computer vacation as well. I barely checked e-mail and have done very little blog reading the past few weeks. I’ve been outside a lot and had lazy days and productive days, and it’s been so nice! I’ve done a bunch of things that will eventually make it here to the blog, here are a few for starters. The duck wallpaper is finally coming down. Wow, it’s so ugly, and see how dark it makes the room? This picture was taken in the middle of the day with all the lights on and the  blinds open. I’m about halfway and it already feels so much lighter in here.

So no more ducks, but the husband decided that 18 chickens weren’t enough and decided to add some geese to the flock. They’re nearly three weeks old now, and cute as can be, but so very messy. I was not in favor of this new endeavor, but I couldn’t exactly say no, after he agreed to the chickens, could I? They’re currently living in the guest house in a kiddie pool. They love water and never have enough. See, the bowl is empty and I had just filled it a half hour earlier. I think we’d better get a bigger bowl. The gander is named Edwin (he’s the big one in the back), but we haven’t named the two girls yet. Family members may be able to figure out where we got his name.

One of the nicest things about having all this time off is getting to all those little projects that you need to make time for that just get set aside. Like hanging art on the walls. This big wall in my kitchen has been bare forever, except for the big Delft plate of my grandmother’s. I love the numbered hooks, and of course my $12 wooden shoes (worth $15, if you ask me). I found the apron on the right during my thrifting/antique malling day a few weeks ago. It’s so pretty, a crisp linen with rick-rack trim, what could be better for an apron? I think I still need a little something for the right side, above the little plate. I’ll just have to wait until I find the perfect piece.

Next time here at heylucy: egg cookbooks, cute cats, vintage buttons and a clothesline! And much, much more!

In between scrubbing the toilet and bathtub, I made something yesterday. A chicken, of course! Although I confess it is not actually my pattern, it’s from the very talented Lyn of Molly Chicken. It was a fun little thing to make, and I made it pretty small, she’s about 6  inches, not including the comb and legs. I think she will make a good gift for a little chicken loving visitor arriving next week. I can’t wait to give it to her!

Later today I’ll be making a batch of oatmeal cranberry butterscotch cookies. I didn’t mention that I took the last batch to work, and they were polished off very quickly. I heard that someone tried to steal the entire jar, and someone else offered to pay my $5 for 5 cookies. He was dead serious too. So I guess the recipe is a keeper. I thought I’d share it here, so you can be popular with your friends and co-workers too.

Oatmeal Cranberry Butterscotch Chip Cookies   
1 1/2 c. unbleached flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. unsalted butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 c. oatmeal (not instant)
2 c. butterscotch chips
1 c. dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and
cinnamon. Combine butter and sugars until smooth. Add the eggs and
vanilla. Stir in flour mixture. Stir in oatmeal, butterscotch chips and
cranberries. Drop by the spoonful onto an un-greased cookie sheet and
bake 13-15 minutes.

I’m busy spring cleaning today, so this is just a quick post to share some craft/antique show treasures, featuring my lovely assistant, Ruby.
The chickens and Bear find that they must all be in exactly the same spot as me when I am outside. Do they not understand that I have personal space issues? I guess it’s nice to be loved. More than one chicken has had her toes stepped on because she just could not get out of my way.

I got some cute wooden shoes and tiny jello molds at craft show on Saturday. I have to work on my bargaining skills, however. Especially as I plan on going to the Rose Bowl Flea Market later during my Four Weeks off (did you think I wasn’t going to mention it again? Wrong!). I spied the wooden shoes on the ground and quickly snatched them up before anyone else could see them, not thinking that maybe not everyone loves wooden shoes like I do. I approached the seller and asked, "How much?" I got all flustered when he said, "How much were you thinking?" I don’t know, I don’t know! I just really like them and they’re old and have a great patina and I just want them and I don’t want to insult you by offering too little. "$15?" "Uh, I was thinking a little less, $12?" Okay, I’ll take them! Doh! I have about 3 weeks to work on my technique. I mean, really, would he have been insulted if I said $5? Of course I couldn’t try to bargain him down below $12 after I offered $15, right? Gah! I’m so not prepared for the flea market experience. Any helpful hints would be welcomed.

While I’m on my Four Week sabbatical an item at the top of my to-do list is to install a clothesline. I didn’t realize however that I would be doing something so revolutionary. I’m glad I’ll be saving the planet and thumbing my nose at all those homeowners associations (I refuse to live in a tract home with a homeowners association anyway, because I just don’t want someone telling me what color I can paint my house and that I have to mow my lawn). Really, though, I just like to be outside and I’m a total cheapskate, so a clothesline seems like a nice idea. I would like to address one item in that article, however. How on earth do you have an $1,120 electric bill?! I get really peeved when ours goes up over a hundred dollars in the middle of summer when the husband insists on running the air conditioner day and night. That’s great that the author thinks she’s making a difference in the world by hanging up her clothes, but I really want to know what they have plugged in to use that much energy? She’s quite proud of the fact that they then reduced their bill to a mere 500-something dollars. Still, what the heck are you running when you pay that kind of utility bill? Also, do you really think Al Gore is out there hanging up his laundry on the clothesline? I’d love to see a picture of that.

Photos:

1. venice, 2. paper crane, 3. luft, 4. clothesline, 5. Bandanas, 6. I’ll Run Away With You to a Small Town., 7. laundry, 8. Forgotten, 9. No wind.., 10. dresses dry, 11. gran pavese, 12. Clothesline, 13. rooftop, 14. Les culottes blanches sur le mur–The white underwear on the wall, 15. Not a good day for washing…….., 16. Country living

I have about 15 different things I want to photograph and talk about, but I’m recovering from an energy-sucking cold that appeared last Friday and is finally on it’s way out the door, so pictures will have to wait. I have three more days of work and then, and then…Four Weeks Off! How happy am I about this? Oh so happy! I have big plans and big lists and a trip to Disneyland with my cute, worm-loving niece, somewhere in the middle of all that. Do you know what I am going to do on Monday? I am going to put a big, fat dent in the $250 gift card to a new spa that recently opened in a nearby town (I got the gift card for Valentine’s day, lucky me!). I’m going to my favorite Thai restaurant for lunch, I’m going to hit a few thrift stores and antique malls, and I’m going to visit my acupuncture doctor who does wonderful things with those little needles. And then I will have four weeks to make things! I will be making things for my poor, neglected shop, I will be painting rooms and hanging curtains and Spring cleaning, and blogging about it all! Oh the things I can do when I don’t have to spend two hours every day in my car and another one running errands and another eight working. I don’t have any pictures of my own to share at the moment, but I just love these sconces. I think I would like two little houses to replace the hideous country style sconces in my living room. They will have to wait, however, until I tear down the equally hideous wallpaper, complete with the duck decoy border that I have lived with for nearly five years. It might just be gone during my Four Weeks Off! Four weeks! You’ll be hearing a lot from me during the next, oh I don’t know, four weeks or so.