Two-Headed Fuzzbutt?

Melanie took this picture of me holding two of the Fuzzbutts, the little pullet (right) and one of her brothers. They are still very sweet and love to be picked up and held.

Katherine Won!

This picture shows more of the wonderful detail in her carved dragon. The public vote at the Harvest Festival was close, but Katherine won the cash.

The second place pumpkin, #8 was carved by last year's winner. I found out that she got lots of practice carving soap in the Peace Corps. Huh? Well, she carved soap animals for the kids in her village. Isn't it nice to know about people like that?

The Harvest Festival is past, but there were a lot of people out buying pumpkins this weekend until it started raining. Yay! It's raining! Now I can sit in here and catch up on my blogging and not feel like I'm neglecting my chores.

You Can Vote Here

Here are all the entries in the pumpkin carving contest. Vote for your favorite.

Here are Killigan and his brother, selling coffee.

And here is the Punkin Queen.

One more...Capn has decorated his Halloween pumpkin. Stupid dog Tubix can't even chase raccoons.

Carving Contest

There are lots of things going on at the Harvest Festival. There are crafts booths. If my mother was still alive, she'd have a booth out there, selling her hand-made items. Or walking around and getting ideas for new things to make. She could knit or crochet almost anything, making up her own patterns. I don't have that talent. I made one sweater. The arms were inordinately long, it would have fit an orangutan quite well.

But I didn't have to knit or crochet because mom did it all that so well.

There are booths where ladies sell handmade jewelry. I always buy something from them, I especially like the dichroic pieces. Not so much to wear, I just like to look at them, they're like tiny weird worlds with unearthly colors.

One booth is a favorite of mine, the coffee booth. There is a family in nearby Wilton that roasts coffee beans and sells it under their own label. My favorite is Killian's Special Reserve. Killian is their Irish Setter. He sits out in the booth and sells a lot of coffee, he's a totally gorgeous, silky-coated big sweetheart of a dog. They could probably use that dog to sell bad coffee, but the coffee is actually very good. I'm drinking a cup of it right now.

Mostly local people have booths at the Festival. There's a country western band, and it's from Wilton. Yesterday I caught this picture of the cowboy (or faux cowboy) who sells teepees dancing with the cowgirl (obviously faux) who sells hats.

To be fair, I'll ask them today if they have any cows. A lot of people who are into the cowboy culture don't even own a cow. Or a horse. But that's okay. I'm into science fiction and I've never been to space.

As I mentioned yesterday, there's a pumpkin carving contest. First prize is $300. The carving was yesterday. My artist friend Katherine came over to compete. She spent a lot of time shopping for just the right pumpkin.

If you read Katherine's blog, you have already seen her creation. If not, I'll show you. Katherine usually does scrimshaw on teeny tiny pieces of ivory. A pumpkin is a bit bigger. Here she is starting with the outline, using linoleum cutting tools. That would be for linoleum BLOCK cutting, not for mutilating the kitchen floor. I had to ask, so don't feel dumb.

It took 4.5 hours of carving away, making lots of tiny little pumpkin chips.

And when she was finished, there was a fantastic dragon on it.

Most of the other contestants finished theirs in 30 minutes or so. Here are some of their entries.

A couple of the other competitors were more skilled. The lady in the foreground won this contest last year.

I'll take some photos this morning when I go out to vote. If you're passing by today, please stop and vote, hopefully for Katherine's entry. Mr. Pudding, you can land that Cessna on the farm road that goes behind the corn stand. My brother did it a couple of times, except he was flying an Aeronca. And except he crashed it in the neighbor's back yard the last time he flew it out this way. But, oh well. If you buzz the corn stand a couple of times before you land we'll make sure the tractors are out of the way. And I'll have a cup of Killians ready for you.

Anyone who comes out should feel free to stop by and visit. Late yesterday Bob and I had a visit from very tall Ryan and his new girlfriend. Ryan was the social director at 4-H camp; he is the person who is always in charge of having a good time. He told us how he and his girlfriend got separated in the corn maze, so Ryan recruited 3 little boys to help find her. He gave them each a corn cob for a weapon in case they ran into monsters.

I always love seeing Ryan, he's one of those people who carries lots of sunshine with him. A Ryan hug is worth a lot. New girlfriend, whose name I haven't remembered yet, hang onto this guy. (She seems like a lot of fun herself.)

I'm heading out now. If there's anything you want a picture of, let me know.

Punkin Lesson

Today was Day 1 of the Harvest Festival in Sloughhouse. Once again, there are lots of pumpkins and gourds and everything else people need to decorate for Halloween. The Corn Stand is colorfully decorated.

As soon as I saw it this morning, I knew the guys hadn't done the decorating. Mari, the tiny little gal here, was in charge.

There are lots of varieties of pumpkins. Here are some pictures that show their names.

There are at least 10 other types, including the mini versions. Which is the best for pies? None of them. For pie, it's recommended to use banana squash. Cinderella is okay.

I think the pumpkin names are fun: Kamo Kamo, Lunch Lady, Magician, Cinderella, One Too Many, Knucklehead, Long Island Cheese, Jarra Dale, Lumina, Big Mac, Super Herc, and Mystic.

Come on out to the Festival tomorrow and vote for your favorite in the pumpkin carving contest. Katherine's is #2.

Lifetime Sulk

“I hate all injustices. 

The big ones make me furious. 

The smaller ones make me sulk.”

Daphne, “A Lifetime of Sulking,” 

from her blog My Dad’s a Communist, 

Wednesday Sept. 29, 2010 

(you can find it in the column to the right of this one)

When I read this in Daphne’s blog, it was like getting hit with a brick. “THAT,” I realized, “is why I’ve been in a funk for the past couple of weeks.” I’ve been sulking. Not over something new, just recent additions to small injustices that add up over a lifetime. 

I think many people eat when they sulk. That does me no good. Raw bell peppers and cauliflower  don’t have the same effect that donuts and chocolate would. So I just stew and snarl, mostly to myself. Katherine and Melanie and son Bob were kind enough to put up with me, or maybe they just plugged their ears and nodded and smiled and it seemed like they were being kind. Whatever, I appreciate it.

But I didn’t want to drag the rest of you along, so I have been waiting until the mood passed. The causes were nothing serious: new rules at work and another bout with Dr. Rockhead, the podiatrist. 

Because the podiatrist told me to stay off my foot, I didn’t get to hear either of the girls sing. I didn’t know how much walking it would entail and had a foot appointment in the middle of the day on Wednesday, so that messed up the plan to go to Napa, see Joan Tuesday, stay overnight and see Emmy Lou the next night.

And because I was supposed to stay off my foot, instead of getting the garden ready for fall, I’ve been sitting on my butt and reading a lot. I downloaded 3 books to my Kindle. All were about how to deal with doctors. My favorite is Empowered Patient by Elizabeth Cohen. I didn’t learn much new, but it was reaffirming. And having some suggestions for civil behavior kept me out of trouble.

I also watched a lot of Farscape on my laptop. I got a DVD of all four seasons. Right now I’m at the end of season 2. Beverly says DVDs of the old Highway Patrol shows are also available. I can see them for free on Hulu, not sure I need my own copies, they’re pretty corny.

Real life doesn’t stop on a farm just so someone can sulk. The leghorn's leg has healed entirely and very well. I tried to reintroduce her to the layer pen, but she prefers being in the house. Really. I'm not OK with that, but haven't been able to get out there and find a better solution yet.

There are 4 new baby pigeons. The latest were just hatched last night. 



The stupid parents left the nest when the eggs pipped and never went back to it. When I brought the eggs in, they were very cold and I could barely see any movement in them when I candled them. I put them in the incubator anyway, and they hatched. (Pigeons are the toughest critters on the face of the Earth.) I’m handfeeding them, so if I see you in the next two weeks, you’ll probably get to meet them because I’ll be packing them around with me. I’ve handfed baby pigeons before, but not from Day 1. It’s a challenge.

Here’s something you don’t see every day, a praying mantis eating a baby lizard. 



I watched her for a couple of hours, and she ate the whole thing. Where did she put it? It doesn’t look like there’s room in her body for all that food, does it? And lizards are pretty strong, not fragile like a mantis’s usual prey. It would be like a greyhound catching and killing an alligator. Then eating the whole thing.

It's 10-4!!!

Happy Broderick Crawford Day to my friends around the world. Who would have thought that Hallmark has a card for this? I got one in the mail.

My very own clever sister-in-law Tina used her artistic talent and a little white-out to adapt this card for the occasion. And just to prevent copyright infringement, Hallmark designed the original.

So remember Broderick Crawford today. You can access the full set of old Highway Patrol TV programs on Hulu.com if you're curious. They take you back to a different time.

10-4