wishes granted at a cost

I took in a renter this summer since I was working very part time. Working part time to give me time to make art. Having this person rent from me sucked the art right out of my summer and I took a second job. I met her last summer, she seemed pleasant enough... sounds like the beginning of one of those teen angst vampire books, doesn't it? She's leaving in less than days that now number less than 2 digits, thank dog.

My wish is to get back to my art. To felt and dye and bead and paint and sew and not carry around the annoyance of a renter that doesn't wash dishes, empty garbage, sweep floors, remove hair from the drain thingy or shut her mouth. Seriously...she won't stop talking even as I walk in to the bathroom and close the door. I feel mean going to use the toilet!

Deep Breath.

jam!

Blueberry jam! My friend Julia and I made jam from some of the berries we picked...my first time ever making jam. It all seemed like scary (could make jars of bacteria laden ooze) voodoo to me, but I might be over that trauma. Jam. We made jam and have a lot more berries and those cherries to jar up! Some of last year's berries got made in to liquor...that helped with the 'making bacteria' trauma. yeah.

more than a month later...

I'm not going to do that "sorry I haven't posted" post...no really I'm not. (sorry I haven't posted)

I've been busy making stuff and doing stuff and letting summer get away with me in a good way. I have another job...getting paid to weed a giant garden! An acre or so of veggies and a huge flower garden. I am being paid to do battle with my favorite enemy, the canadian thistle.
This is the latest raven bracelet to go out to Svenson's. It hasn't sold yet, but got rave reviews from the owners. I kinda really like the red outline for the birds...and they look a little like a chorus line to me.

This is sweater duck. (see, I've been busy since we last met) His owner said "you scare me" when I said I'd knitted him a sweater, it's good to scare people with random knitting. I suggested that sweater duck would be a good deck hand on the owner's commercial fishing boat, but he's still shore side.
One of three quart + containers of blueberries picked yesterday. There's jam in the near future. I also have a tree full of pie cherries I'm hoping to pick tomorrow before work...jarred pie filling to go with the jam. Can't wait for winter to sit and read and wonder at how busy I suddenly became in August.

I organized volunteers for the merchandise booth at the fair this year. That's the booth I worked in last year when I put up the 'fair hair' post. No fancy hair this year, but 4 days of free passes for my organizing efforts, not bad pay if you don't think about the frustration of working with seemingly vacant humans. NOT the volunteers, they rocked.

and last of all...summer has returned to Haines, it's sunny and warm and beautiful.

another one sold!

Another cuff sold! Again with the 'thank goodness I'm freaking about money' moment: in the same stack of mail is the property tax bill! Maybe I can conjure up another sale before the bill is due...maybe a couple of them.

Currently working on another raven cuff and a couple embroidered necklaces with very slow progress. I have a whole list of excuses for not beading, some of them good (extra hours at work) and some of them lame (Alias on DVD) and some I don't want to admit to.

I made a springtime/flower doll for Lora K. who's dealing with chemo (my excuses are so lame in comparison!) and has two young boys and a seriously good attitude. She was diagnosed with cancer but they downgraded it to something less dire...but really? Chemo is awful no matter what the diagnosis.

Last year at about this time, I took myself off to the clinic to talk to a therapist about why I was so miserable. The therapist agreed with me, it's incredibly difficult to make friends here especially with women. She described it taking years to get beyond surface polite behavior. This year... I know why. There are many more women than men here and once a woman gets a guy she guards that relationship with her life. I thought he was a better person than he is (the excuse I don't want to admit). I fell for his b.s. and now get to trudge through the recovery... bleh.

cat fight!

Biscuit the bold got herself beat up by a neighborhood stray, again. Actually...I don't know what sort of damage she did to the other cat, but she's got a big gash on her neck and is limping on her right front foot.

So, I chase her around with a syringe full of peroxide (no needle) to keep the gash from getting infected. I haven't figured out what wrong with the paw, she may have shredded a claw in the battle. There is a lick lick lick spot on her inner "arm", but I don't think that's what's causing the limp.

She is already asking to go back outside, no wonder her head is so tiny...no much brain in there.

more black birds

Experiments with abstract birds...I think I like it, but it's all about getting the beak right.

wood, beads and dogs, summer here

The wood is in the shed, but just like always doesn't look like enough. I might get another cord delivered...sale prices available til the end of June. Yeah, I'll get another cord...just makes sense.

The wood arrives, it's lovely dry beetle kill spruce and hemlock. "Beetle Kill" refers to trees that were killed by the spruce bark beetle infestation a few years ago and seasoned standing up in the forest. It's excellent firewood when it's cut down, fuel for devastating forest fires if left standing.


The shed before...

...and after. It just doesn't look like enough!Still room for the bicycle.
Dog waiting for the start of a road trip to go camping in the Yukon. My brother was coming down from Anchorage for a bluegrass festival near Haines Junction. Not the kind of camping and music experience I'm used to...tickets were sold out in January and cost 150 dollars! I listened to some of the free stuff and enjoyed the beer and campfire part of the trip. Best thing about camping at a provincial campsite: free wood!

Worst thing: partying kids, but this campground had someone that actually patrolled to keep the noise down. Pine Lake Campground near Haines Junction...spot #10.

more black birds

I think this one is better than the last...


It was so much easier to bead this one knowing what I wanted the wings to look like, where to put the bugle beads to make the wings shine. It's at the gallery waiting to become part of the property tax/firewood fund.

There's a couple of cords of spruce/hemlock coming today. Every time I say that I sort of sigh, it's a lot of work to get it in the shed, but it's really good to have it done and really really good to check it off the must do list. Months of summer drying make it happy winter wood too. It will make the bicycle storage space in the woodshed small...seasonal conflict of interest!

sold!

Hey guess what? Oh, you already read the title...yeah it sold! They're mailing me a check tomorrow. Oh how happy is my little money grubbing heart. Money from all sales will be put in the account labeled "property tax" until further notice. woot!

it's alive!

Dudes, sorry I'm being the blogger from lame land...but it's springtime in Alaska. (the rest of the line from the song is "and it's 40 below" but it's not, it's sunny and warm. I've already eaten my first salad from the garden! I have rhubarb that's doing what the 'barb does: taking over the universe one giant leaf at a time.

I have been beading and painting to keep myself from being a total lame land slacker...but I have to admit to having tan lines on my feet already. My favorite sign of not being totally employed is tanned feet.

One of the tulips that's come and nearly gone out by the porch...think I need to paint or bead this, it's so pretty!

Gardening...daffodils and tulips doing their thing, thank goodness for bulbs! 3 sunflower plants starting to shoot up wildly after a few cool nights under plastic. I had to replant them after the neighbors dumb-ass dog dug up the other ones. Lavender in the other warm and dry spot up front next to the sunflowers. In back: lots of cutting (as in not head) lettuce, the rhubarb, peas starting to race the sunflowers for height, last years strawberries flowering again (yay!) and a couple of different squash plants, zucchini and summer squash and one pot of decorative gourds. We'll see if any of the squash survive my fumbling. Oh yeah, and a couple of buckets of potatoes, because I loved squealing over them this past fall.

Guess I need to take more pictures. Thanks for waiting for me to come back from lame land!