Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Miss Hattie is the most comical chicken!  Do you get tired of hearing stories about her?  Do you know how boring my “chicken family” would be without Miss Hattie?  I like her so much!  She really knows no limits.  I’m surprised at the things the chickens have learned but we surely have not been able to teach her to stay off the front porch!

She knows to watch the bird feeders and if there’s a bird at a feeder, that means seeds are falling on the ground so any time Miss Hattie sees a bird land on the feeder, she makes a mad dash to get under the feeder and hang out there to nibble on the falling bird seed.  All the chickens know that when Vince is carrying a bucket, that means there are treats for them but they don’t seem to differentiate between the bucket and a purse or a bag of veggies, or a bucket of sand for the garden.  If we’re carrying something, they think it’s something for them and they will follow us all over the place.

They know that when Vince whistles, that means he has something for them and they can hear him even when they’re way out in the woods and they come running.

They know the sound of the Honda and when Vince drives up in the afternoon, they’ll come from wherever they are to meet him.  They don’t do that to me when I come home but I don’t leave and come home every day like he does.  It’s the sound of the Honda that they’ve learned because the few days he drives the pickup, they don’t come running to greet him.

Yesterday, the wind had blown the gate on the pipe fence shut and Vince had to stop the Honda, get out and open that gate.  He said the chickens all ran to meet him when he stopped outside the gate and he had to shoo them off just so he could drive into the carport.

Yesterday I had errands to run and as I was walking out to my car, I was halfway looking for the orange kitten, and something caught my eye in the RTV.

Miss Hattie in the RTV

I have no idea why she was up there.  It looks like she’s kinda expecting to go for a ride.

She Doesn’t Understand!

I walked over to her, rubbed her on her head, explained that she really should stay away from the vehicles . . Vince gets kinda grumpy when he finds her in the RTV . . but she doesn’t understand.  She seems to think if it’s ok for us to use the RTV, surely it’s ok for her to use it too!

I picked her up and set her on the ground, I went to get in the Highlander and she followed me like she thought maybe she could have a ride in the Highlander.  Nope, I love Miss Hattie but I draw the line there.  She’s not getting inside the real vehicles and if she knows what’s good for her, she won’t get on top of those vehicles either . . or at least she won’t do it when Vince is home!  :)

This is the blog post about when we first started talking about getting a dishwasher.  I had not been willing to give up a kitchen cabinet . . I have so few . . and Vince suggested having a cabinet built along a wall in the dining area.  This is the drawing done by Home Depot for the cabinet we were thinking of getting.

Home Depot Cabinet

There’s a 12′ wall right off the kitchen and we’re thinking of putting an 8′ cabinet along that wall.  There will be 2′ on either end of the wall not covered by cabinet, mainly because at the right end of the cabinet, at the end of that wall, there’s about 18″ and then there’s a window and I don’t want the cabinet covering part of the window.  That wouldn’t look right.

We’ve ended up getting a local cabinet maker to draw up a plan and give us an estimate . . which is pretty similar to the Home Depot drawing.

Cabinet

At the right end, those cabinets are just the side view . . there really aren’t cabinets there.  That’s about where the window is located.  I am going to get him to build book shelves in that 2′ . . between the cabinet and the window and I can put cookbooks and display things there.

The countertop will be used for rolling pie crusts, cookie dough, kneading bread, etc.  There will be no hot pots and no water (except for cleaning).  I’m really struggling with what to use there.  I know granite is the “in thing” but I just don’t see granite in that room.  This is a view of my kitchen when we first moved in . . obviously when I still had the little fridge from the sewing room in the kitchen.

Kitchen

The countertops are individual tile.  The bar is mesquite.  To me, and I’m not a decorator and don’t have much interest in decorating, the granite just seems cold for this room.  My house has such a “ranchy/campy” feel, and granite just doesn’t seem right.  But honestly, there’s just nothing else that seems to excite me.  I’m not opposed to laminate but for rolling pie crust and kneading bread, granite would be better as far as function but I just can’t get over that I don’t like the way it looks.  I guess it all goes back to my love for tone on tone/solid fabrics.  All the mottling and veining causes confusion in my head.

I went to the granite store Monday and this is the one I chose while there but I’m not at all sure it’s a good fit. This is a photo of the whole slab but I’d be getting mainly the top third . . more speckles than veining.  I don’t like the vein but really, I don’t like the speckles either.  Vince and I went back yesterday and he liked it but I just don’t.  I keep telling myself I’ll get used to it and be ok with it but . . what if I never like it?  I surely couldn’t say . . Oh, honey . . can we get rid of that slab of granite and replace it with laminate . . since the laminate is 1/10th the cost of the granite!

Granite

My guess is that  99.9% of you reading this have or would love to have granite and that doesn’t make me wrong . . it just makes me weird!  :)

I’d probably be happy with stainless steel for the countertop but Vince said it seems so “institutional” and I probably couldn’t get it made here locally.

If I had to decide right this minute, and I don’t, I’d go with laminate.  I could get a solid or “solid-ish” and I think in the long run, that’s probably all I’m going to be happy with.  There’s no reason I should be struggling so much with the countertop portion of this project, but I am!

Have you ever seen a Texas Jackrabbit?  I had never seen one and when we were looking at this place before we bought it, we were riding around on the land with the realtor in her RTV and saw one.  We all thought it was a deer . . they jump that high.

My pictures aren’t great but we were outside yesterday and there was one just on the other side of the fence.

Jackrabbit

As I tried to move in closer, he ran off.

And He’s . . Gone!

They are really fun to watch and the woods seem to be full of them.  I keep my camera with me so hopefully I can get better pictures some day.

See how much excitement we have around here?  A new kitten and Jackrabbits everywhere!  :)