Taco is a strange bird. Well, her name is Taco. She is the least people friendly and the hardest to catch. When we sit in the coop, she is usually the farthest away. I caught this picture of her taking a nap as my youngest and I hung out with the flock for a bit. With her tail feathers nearly straight up in the air. The others settle with tail feathers up as well, but not nearly to that extreme angle.
My eldest purchased some recordable buttons to train the dogs. She recorded the word “outside” on one and put it by the back door, and our job was to push the button before we let the dogs outside to give them the idea. Flash forward one day and Missy the puppy is pushing the button herself when she wants out. Color me impressed.
Three years ago I used erosion control blankets to keep dirt in place while my grass seed could grow (which it did with only a little success). The label said that the mat would degrade. Nope. The string used to hold the straw together is still there after three years. The freeze killed most of the St Augustine grass (yay!), and I am raking and thatching the front yard to seed with a buffalo grass mix (which is native to the area). Between pulling up the St Aug runners and the embedded strings, raking is slow going. Live and learn.
I have a small arm bag that I made to hold my crochet yarn while I work. It hangs on my arm, so my supplies are close and don’t get tangled. I thought I would try the bag for fiber management for spinning, but the bag is full of a current crochet project, so I made a new one! This is my favorite fabric. When I found it in the store years ago I bought the whole bolt. I have been slowly working through it for various projects, and each time I marvel at the colors and the composition. Since it has a thick border and the rest is a more subtle background vine, it works perfectly for a lined bag.
I started by folding my fabric to the height I wanted for the bag plus seam allowance (about 11”). With the folded fabric cut for height, I then cut the width double at 17” (to avoid one seam). I folded this piece in half and cut shallow arcs from about two thirds down, to the top, which makes a wide strap to hang on my forearm. I opened the side fold, then with right sides together sewed along the cut edges, leaving a space in one side to turn it right side out.
I clipped corners and turned the piece right side out, then with the patterned sides together, sewed the bottom three sides and the top, leaving the arcs open. Another inside out and the bag is serviceable! A nice touch is to over sew around the arcs to keep the seam neat.
Saying “rogue arugula” just makes me smile. That one arugula survived the freeze in a completely different location than the original planting is also amusing. There are no plants where I planted them two years ago. I must say that I don’t like arugula. I think it tastes like rubber smells. But the flowers are pretty.
Critters and Craft 