Paige visited over Thanksgiving and we focused on the basics: eating and jigsaw puzzles. Paige and I ran the Turkey Trot again, and we ended up doing fine despite a couple of hiccups…the parking was backed up and we couldn’t get out and I thought we should bail but we finally got out of the traffic and found parking and ran to the starting area and joined into the race. Also, I tripped and fell due to a sandbag inexplicably in the middle of the course and invisible because of the hordes of people running in front of us.
Paige also has a fun activity with the dogs where she hides pieces of kibble around the deck/yard and then the dogs have to go find and eat them.
I took a class about making biomaterials and although it wasn’t directly engaging, I found a recipe as a result and made a batch of egg-based material since we have lots of eggshells. It involved using a large syringe where you squeeze out the material and it was super super cool and satisfying. I ended up with long, tangly strands. Haven’t figured out a good use, but this deserves more tinkering.
Meanwhile, I came across a couple of things in the neighborhood and ended up making little videos about them for the master naturalists: mistletoe and frostweed.
For Christmas we welcomed Raine, Paige, and Ananth so we were all excited for a full house! Once everyone had arrived, we opened a Santa gift which was a UV light and we tried it outside in the evening and sure enough, we saw a scorpion when we ventured outside the yard into a rock pile- it was glow-in-the-dark under the UV light!! Super cool, want to try again once winter is over.
Soon after that I felt a bit sick and so I tested and I had COVID! First time! So I isolated for most of the rest of the time we had guests. No one else was sick through Christmas Day at least, so they all could hang out and do presents and meals and all that. I believe only Ananth managed to escape that holiday without getting COVID.
At some point when Paige was visiting she decided to try out the dog beds again. Up until now, we only used kennels because it was chaos when we tried to allow regular beds. But this time, it seemed to work out and so now we use both beds and kennels. The dogs LOVE their beds!!
I also took a class involving using rust to stain paper and cloth. So now I’m adding embroidery to them as I have done with gelli prints.
I took a trip to California to help out my parents and to see Raine. It was fun to cook using some of the stuff they had growing in the yard including dino kale and kumquats. Won’t go into the details of that trip as this blog is about Austin stuff, but we did setup a Bird Buddy feeder so now my Mom can view pics from the feeder on her phone. Oh and also I counted the number of fake birds in their house (3-D birds, not 2-D) and I counted 12 if you include salt & pepper shakers.
One pic from Sonoma
While I was out of town Rob had to inform me that the Hash Brown died. She was one of the original chickens that lived on the property before us! We believe she died of “old age”. Rob said one day she just kind of stopped getting up and doing normal stuff and by the next morning she was dead. We were concerned about how Zsa Zsa would take it, since the Hash Brown was her only pal. But she seems to be doing OK, albeit basically on her own.
After a coffee gathering with the Dripping Springs Art League, I showed them some of my art and they urged me to sign up for the art vending event at Jester King Brewery (Feb 24) so I did. So as a result, Rob has been helping me prepare. This involves having a metal grid thingy to hang art on, getting framed art hangable, finalizing some pieces (some things we mount on wood and Rob does this for me), etc.
We ran out of hooks so are ordering more!
We talked to the guy at Primal Gallery and he informed us that he never sells anything at those events. He said at Jester King you’ll find tourists and not only will they not want to buy art, but they will be rude. Ha-ha-ha well, it’ll be OK if that happens. I plan to bring a book.
Some more pics below!
