Finally Summer Fun

As busy as June was, July proved to be a bit more relaxed.  We hosted a few overnight guests for Cheyenne Frontier's Day.  These were friends of our friends so I got to "play" B&B proprietress.  I've often thought that would be a pleasant occupation so this gave me a chance to host strangers in my home.  I must say it was a lot of work but I enjoyed it.  Who knows, we may just put Prairie Cairn Cottage out there as a B&B or perhaps an event location.

You know you live in the West when this is the site that greats you as you open the front door.

 In the garden there has been a lot of green bean planting, endless weeding and frequent watering.  The garden shed is coming along with the roof finally being put on and the door and window installed.  The new wind break is growing like gangbusters.

I have also managed to find some time in the sewing room.  Two years ago on my birthday my husband bought me a serger.  I had wanted on for a long long time.  We went to the store and looked at all the models and decided on an Elna mid range machine.  I brought it home and set it up right away.  And there it sat.  For months it sat.  Seems it intimidated me.  This was not like sewing on my sewing machine, this was faster, more efficient.  And a lot more threads!  I gave myself a swift kick in the rear and decided I needed to learn to use this wonderful gift.  So I got the book out and decided I would make an example of all of the stitches it would do.  Figured out how to thread this intricate contraption and stitched out my samples.  And then it sat there.  For months it sat.  I was still intimated!  What could I use this wonderful gift for?  How could I ever learn to actually use it?  Did anyone teach a beginning serger project?  Sadly, I couldn't find any class like that.  And there it sat.  For even more months it sat.  Until last week!  I realized I had some extra flannel that I would probably never use again.  I needed some rags that I could dust with, mop up spills with, all the things you use rags for.  Hmmm...why don't I take this flannel, cut out some rags and use the serger to stitch them up?  Brilliant!  I found a tutorial on the internet on how to serge square corners and I've been happily making myself a useful rag and learning to use my serger.  My serging is still pretty wonky but these are rags for goodness sake!  Who cares what they really look like?  Who besides me is likely to see them?  And so my newest Elna is beginning to bend to my will not I to hers!

Life is good sometimes.  And when life is good, people need to eat.  I got to spend the entire day yesterday in the kitchen baking and cooking up a storm.  When you don't have to get a meal on the table for ravenous appetites but can cook and bake at your leisure it becomes a pleasurable experience for a lot of us.  And so it was at the Cottage yesterday.  I first made bread, my favorite loaf I shared here.  After that I decided I wanted to make Oatmeal Whoopie Pies.  I had never made them before but after reading someone else's blog about making them, I have wanted to try my hand at this treat for ages.  I used the Pioneer Woman's recipe here.  These are wonderful!  I now want to try chocolate whoopie pies!

Sorry, I didn't remember to take a photo of the finished treat, but trust me.  They won't last long!

Life at a less hectic pace at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  Won't you come join us for a spot of tea and a Whoopie Pie?

Audrey

Summer is in full swing

Have you found yourself busy as the bees that visits your flowers?  We certainly have.  Lots of new happenings here at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  Lets see if I can catch you up.

A bit of a garden got planted.  Peas planted back in April gave us some delicious snap to our salads.  Lettuces and radish planted didn't sprout even one leaf but we are having some moderate success with tomatoes.  All of the plants here are very short and we've decided it's due to the ever present winds.  Plans are in the works for some hoop houses and we also may put a wood 6 foot fence up to block the wind.  We got some pumpkins planted late so now it is a race against the frost.

The chicken coop My Ever So Handy Husband was building has been moved and will become a garden shed.  Some progress is being made but he has been working on so many other projects this one keeps getting put back on the back burner.  A much larger shed was purchased off of Craig's list and we have plans to make that into the coop.  It will hold many more birds than the original.  One major problem with this project is when the shed was delivered, it got dropped about 3 feet and damage was done.  Side walls needed to be taken down and the framing needed to be repaired.  It too has taken a back burner as of late.

Speaking of chickens we are sadly down to 2 .  Poor Miss Pearl was found dead one afternoon.  Again, no known cause.  The remaining two are happy as can be and I suspect there may have been some fowl play in Pearls demise.

The big project that has taken our time and attention has been planting 250+ seedling trees in shelter belts around the Cottage.  Between site preparation, planting, drip irrigation and such, we have been busy as Johnny Appleseed.   In probably more years than we have left, the Cottage should be protected by Ponderosa Pines and Junipers in the winter and Ash trees will provide shade in the summer.

Friends of ours have bought a vacant parcel in our neighborhood and are in the process of building.  Since they had no place to live we offered to let them set their bus turned RV up at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  It's really nice on the inside, she even has an old claw footed tub in there.  They have been great helping out around the cottage.  She owns a tractor and was kind enough to prepare the shelter belt site for us.  Yes, that is her on the tractor.  She is a dear person and a fellow sister in Christ.  We've really enjoyed having them this summer.  They have a Rat Terrier who has become Little Black Brindle's best friend.  They also have 3 cats, one who is very old and has taken a liking to Tabby and being in the house rather than the RV.

 



Another project that has consumed much of our time has been painting our old house in Colorado.  We are down in Colorado often enough that we never sold the house or rented it out and we needed to paint the exterior.  There was some damage to the siding on the kitchen bump out so we tore off the old siding and replaced it.  Next up is to get the roof replaced.  Colorado is known for hail and the former Cottage suffered some damage last year.

Goodness!  That is more than enough business for this gal.  I plan on taking things a bit more relaxed for what is left of the summer.  I hope you find your days with plenty of time built in to enjoy the summer sunshine and gentle cooling breezes.

Thanks for taking a break with us at Prairie Cairn Cottage today.  Come back again and we'll drink some Lavender Lemonade and watch the breezes blow the grasses out on the prairie. 

Audrey

A Resident of Prairie Cairn Cottage is Famous

Happy June to you all.  Little Black Brindle has some very exciting news to share with everyone!  He is on youtube in a video made by his rescue group, Colonel Potter Cairn Rescue.  Watch it and see him 14 seconds into the video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4ZyVj2ehu4&feature=youtu.be

Make sure to look for this picture

His foster Mom took this picture the day she put him on the plane so he could come live at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  He knew he was on his way to his forever home and couldn't wait!  It was a sad day for his foster Mom but a very happy day for me!  A day that changed my life for the better. 

Colonel Potter is also doing a fund raiser auction.  I just got this email today:

Col. Potter is proud to present the first annual Father's Day Festival.

We are happy to be able to show all our little boy dogs who spent so much time in unsavory conditions, that we love them. So we are taking this opportunity to honor our own volunteer father's and raise some much needed money for Cairn Rescue at the same time.

The Auction will end Sunday June 9, 2013 starting at 5PM EST. You can see all the wonderful items at:

http://stores.ebay.com/Col-Potters-Eclectic-Corner/Fathers-Day-/_i.html?_fsub=4613921011&_sid=240343341&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

Please feel free to cross post far and wide. Please send this to anyone who has a dog or who ever had a father!!

Colonel Potter is the best!  Thanks coming to see the happenings at Prairie Cairn Cottage today!

Audrey

How to Entertain Your Cat

Cat TV

 

The Nature Channel on Cat TV

 

Notice the snow caves they are making to keep them out of the wind.

Doesn't this fellow look like he's commuting to work?

Meadow Lark with Horned Lark in background

Junco

Sparrows

Killdeer

 

Flicker

Mourning Dove

White-Crowned Sparrow

Brewer's Blackbirds

What a time we had a Prairie Cairn Cottage yesterday!  May 1st and we had yet another snow storm dumping an additional 15"!  This storm didn't have the winds with it so not near the drifting problems we've had with the other two storms.  I noticed that in the bare spots of the back yard the Horned Larks were coming in droves to shelter themselves and find food.  As the day progressed more species arrived.  I haven't seen this variety of birds in a very long while so Tabby and I had a great time watching them and picking out the new arrivals.  I even went out and spread some bird seed on the ground for the seed eaters. 

I am ready for spring to arrive though.  The seasons seem to be mixed up this year on the prairie.  We had a very dry winter so the moisture in these last 3 storms have been very, very welcome.  Soon the color will burst forth on the prairie and we should have a spectacular wildflower season.

Thanks for visiting the Cottage today. 

Audrey

Rest In Peace Golda

Sad news today at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  I went out to the coop this afternoon and found my dear sweet Golda dead.  No indications of fowl play (yes, a horrible pun).  The last I saw her she was happy and healthy and eating her favorite meal worm treats.  She brought a lot of joy to my life and I will miss this dear chick.  She was the one that molted early, she was the one the others picked on and I had to doctor her up a few times.  She was also the one who would bow down and let me pet her and would come up to see what I was doing when I was working near her.  She enjoyed being able to free range in the backyard and was always a happy girl.   

I will miss you Golda.  Thank you for the happiness you brought and the eggs you gave us.    

In Which I Become That Crazy Chicken Lady

The last I left you, we were enjoying a nice snow day at Prairie Cairn Cottage and catching up on some crafting.  It continued to snow Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  I dug the chickens out 5 times on Tuesday and woke to even more snow on Wednesday!  I was faced with a drift that was 5' tall and 3' wide just to get the pen open before I could check on the dear chickens.  After digging out enough to get the pen open I discovered the snow was blocking the main door to their coop.  I had tried to put a cover over the top of the coop to keep the snow from blowing in on them the night before but the winds got through anyway.  The wind was unbearable, stinging my face and eyes.  The wind chill was -22 and I was fighting a loosing battle with the snow.

Looking out the morning room door.  That is a push lawn mower up against the house.  Yes the snow drifted this high!

The poor dears are buried!  This is the backside of their coop.

You can just make out the edge of the main coop door towards the bottom  left.

The morning room.

 

What  was I to do?  I didn't have the strength to keep digging them out and if I left them they ran the risk of suffocating if the snow covered all the vents in their coop.  I was mounting a major expedition just to get out to the coop walking through the drifts with the blowing snow blinding me.  So for my sake alone I made the decision to abandon the coop to the elements but I was not about to abandon my girly girls.  I quickly went in and set up a temporary coop in the basement then mounted a rescue mission.  I had to take the roof off of their coop and scoop them two at a time  into a waiting dog crate.  They fretted and worried until all 4 were reunited in the basement then they set about investigating their new abode.   

A tarp on the floor in the corner with two dog exercise panels as walls, pine shavings sprinkled on top.  A large cardboard box for the coop and two smaller chicken sized boxes as nest boxes.  Their usual water and feeder and poof, an indoor coop.

 

And that, my dear reader, is how I came to live with chickens IN Prairie Cairn Cottage and my friends labeling me That Crazy Chicken Lady.

 

The snow finally stopped with this storm but the drifts were so high the hens couldn't move back into their coop.  And this week?  Well, we've been hit with another 17" of snow!  This week it's been snowing since Monday.  The weather prophets keep promising us it will stop sometime tonight.  I'll share with you the big dig out that is to come.  I'm hoping we can relocate the girls back outside by late this weekend.

 

It has been quite an adventure here at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  I'm glad you donned your snowshoes to come for a chat.

 

Audrey




Uh Spring?

The Cottage is being slammed by the big storm pushing through the US today.  The poor dear chicks are snowed in again and I've had to dig them out 3 times thus far.  I will do it one more time before night fall.  You can see a large drift in the corner of their enclosure. 

We've gotten over a foot of snow and with our ever present prairie winds the snow tends to drift.  The drift off the patio is now over 5 foot high.  Lucky for me I had planned a couple of snow days and don't have to try to go out in this in the cairn mobile.  I just have to go out and shovel and shovel...well you know the drill.

The funny thing about the wind, it piles the snow up 5' in places but scours it bare in others.  This is  the rest of the back yard at the Cottage:

At least I'm not trudging through 5' of snow to get to the coop.  I just have to walk to the back fence then come back up to the coop so I can shovel to get the enclosure open...then dig them out...when I'm done I get to shovel to get the enclosure closed back up.  Not to mention having to shovel a path for Little Black Brindle to use the loo.  Whew!  Quite the work out today!

Between shoveling, I've been enjoying my snow day at the Cottage.  A little sewing, a little knitting, a lot of blog hopping, some texts with family...

I certainly could use the finished version of this knitting project.  It will soon turn into Fear of Commitment Cowl found here.  I got tired of only knitting dish cloths and am pushing myself to try different projects.  The yarn is Lion Brand Hometown and is deliciously soft.  It should feel good against my neck next fall and winter.  Big size 13 needles and only 35 stitches per row should have this done in no time. 

Last but not least, I am very pleased to announce the soon completion of my muumuu!  I only need to hand stitch the yoke facing and the hem band (pinned for the picture).

Remember, this is the first piece of clothing I have sewn since Home Ec.  For my first attempt in decades, I am rather pleased.  It's too large and I will be making the next one a size (or two?) smaller.  It will be only for around the Cottage, so no matter.  I've been dreaming of sewing my own clothes for some time and feel this is a step in that direction.   

 

I know you won't be driving up the Lane to Prairie Cairn Cottage today (you'd get stuck in the snow silly) but I'm ever so glad you popped in to see us.