 Bookmark us
|
Already a member? -> Sign in |
Bike conversion picsPosted: 04 Jul 2008 Posted: 16 Jun 2008 Posted: 09 Jun 2008 Posted: 05 Jun 2008 Posted: 04 Jun 2008 Posted: 20 May 2008 Posted: 06 May 2008 Posted: 02 May 2008 Posted: 19 Apr 2008 Posted: 11 Mar 2008 Posted: 07 Mar 2008 Posted: 13 Dec 2007 Posted: 30 Nov 2007 Posted: 16 Nov 2007 Posted: 10 Oct 2007 Posted: 08 Sep 2007 Posted: 09 Aug 2007 Posted: 06 Aug 2007 Posted: 30 Jul 2007 Posted: 19 Jul 2007 |
CritterPainter's BlogVarious ramblings of a country gal
Bike conversion pics
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 5:36 pm I have yet to paint the bright flowers on DD's taxi, and am still looking for a little windsock to fly from the post that use to hold a flag, but we took her out for a spin in it this week. Several old, unused railroad beds around here have been paved over for use as bicycle paths. I'm still optimistically waiting for them to pave the one that runs near my place, but DH loaded up the bikes and drove us to this one. Oh, first the bike conversion. Here's the bike when I started: 
After much rust-scrubbing, removing the basket, and constructing my brilliantly engineered conversion. 
I picked up an old car-booster seat at a yard sale, but it didn't work to hold DD in. I tore it apart and modified the belt structure. It's looped around the bike frame for security, and has an adjustable buckle for security. A friend was going to toss some sofa cushions, and I salvaged one to pad the seat. I stash it away when it's not being used 
Here's how DD fits in her seat. She can't get her fingers into the spokes now, and it's actually pretty comfortable. Still need a foot rest, and a bike basket to hold her water bottle & such (did someone say garage sale?) 
One last shot, DD & DH. I'd just pedaled the taxi up an incline, DH took over because I was just worn out. I took several shots here, the others were all blurry since I was actually riding while shooting. 
This blog entry has been viewed 48 times
not time to miss my boy... yet
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:26 pm My son moved out yesterday for his Summer job at a campground. He's done this for the past couple of summers, this time was odd because he's lived elsewhere for the past month already. My Uncle, his great uncle, had major surgery and rehab time. My aunt has a rare degenerative neurological disorder that precludes and possibility of her living alone; they are both at a care facility for now. So DS moved to their place to house sit for a month, right up until he moved out to the campground. I't's actually one of those look-back-in-old-age times, though of course he can't see it now. Have I written about the house here already? Don't recall. My uncles house is built on a piece of land homesteaded by my great-grandfather. It's on a hill, and great-grand logged it for his sawmill (the first steampowered sawmill in the county). But way up there at the top of the hill is a spectacular view skimming the tops of the Black Hills (the same range that runs by my place here). Unbelievable sunsets that go on forever. My uncle built a house, a cabin really, right at the edge of the hill. It's all sided in local cedar sawn in my great-grands still-usable sawmill. And has a positively enormous covered porch overlooking the hill view, an excellent spot for a young musician to practice his guitar. That's a little awe-inspiring for DS too, since my aunt's nephew (from her side of the family) was a Very famous musician, and actually did that very thing. So DS was there for a month, now he's living at a camground, running meals to the far cabins in a reconstruction of a pioneer town called Harmony. Some of the "businesses" on main street are actually sleeping areas, other folks sleep in teepees or covered wagons. And there is a big open dining hall called the Black Bear Cafe- not really any cooking facilities in there, which is why DS will spend the summer driving a golf-cart sort of thing out to Harmony three times a day to set up, monitor, and clean up all the meals. I hope he writes a book about it all someday. I'm just scrambling with end-of-school-year stuff for DD, having the plant sale committee out here tonight for a wrapup barbecue (and today's panicky housecleaning), and engineering an alteration to an adult tricycle to make it into a sort of pedicab so I can keep biking this summer, with DD safely riding along. Huge challenge, but if it turns out it should be fun. And yes, I will include pics if it works. I'm planning on painting it Very bright so cars can't miss us. Probably something along the lines of a gypsy caravan with lot's of Bavarian-type folkart flowers on it, just so we are sure to be visible, lol! So why am I sitting here typing a blog? Good grief, I gotta get crackingI This blog entry has been viewed 43 times
The Great Chipmunk Adventure
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:49 pm My head's still spinning from all the organizing details and such, but the plant-and-handcraft sale at my church was a big success. Even with quite a few plants left over, folks contributed far more than enough that we will be able to buy a really good chainsaw to cut firewood for those elderly folks I talked about earlier! We all got to know each other a bit better too. Several ladies brought homebaked goodies, our pastor made ice cream with his daughter, and we even have a fellow who custom roasts coffee to support his family (and a little villiage where the beans are grown) bring in several pots of coffee, so everyone stood around, choosing plants, and socializing... it was just wonderful. But, being the animal nut that I am, even with all that, the high point came for me after the sale was over, when almost everything was packed up to leave. We discovered that a tiny baby chipmunk was hiding under the plant trailer. He was none too keen to leave, either. The gentleman, Ray, handling the trailer was very concerned about pulling his truck out; the little chipmunk was so scared that he kept darting under the tires. At one point, he wedged his tiny self right under the front tire of the truck, which was running and in gear, and Ray had to keep the brake jammed to the floor- meanwhile, a church Elder dropped to the ground and reached in to coax the little guy out. One slip of Ray's foot would have meant death to the chipmunk and a broken hand to the other man. But the coaxing worked, the little rodent scurried back under the trailer. As Ray sloooowly inched the truck & trailer out and away, the baby kept scurrying under and around the trailer. Finally, the trailer was moved away, leaving tire tracks in the grass and a befuddled baby exposed to a group of Very Large Humans. After a moment of panic, it made a mad dash between the feet of the very man who had risked is hand, and ran off into the azaleas. At last sight he was crouched by the trash receptical munching on some delightful thing that had been dropped there. Here's a truly fun website to check out: http://www.oldgeezerbooks.com/ That's the fellow who was driving the truck. He turns scrap metal into the funniest and most amazing garden sculptures, maybe they will inspire one of you to create something for your garden! This blog entry has been viewed 43 times
quick followup to these bike posts
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:52 am I listen to music while I ride, and tend to swerve my bike on the empty road in time to the music, swooping it so low I've fallen over a couple of times. O well- I just really like riding. And my bike and I have been through alot together so it's a tad beat up. This morning I rode in my sweats, orange safety vest, and apparently old-fashioned helmet. Whatever. But I passed the funniest thing. Two bikers standing next to a spotless pickup. In really fancy skin-tight cycling gear, cycling shoes, really dope helmets. And really jazzy bikes, of course. Standing by their bikes stretching their legs to get ready to ride up the trail I'd just come down. I just peddled by, dipped my bike 45 degrees to the ground in salute, and waved; they gave me a really odd look. I don't know why it struck me so funny, but it did. Guess I'm guilty of reverse snobbery, lol! This blog entry has been viewed 42 times
Scenes from a bikeride
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 4:09 pm Wow, it's amazing to me how the site floods with posts when I'm away! Between DD and I battling a flu bug, whipping myself into cycling, trying to convince the veggies to grow, and organizing a plant sale fundraiser this weekend I barely have time to breathe! I took a couple of reference photos the other day when i was riding in the forest. Folks from around here will just go, oh, that's a bunch of trees. But I thought those of you who live in more arid places might be interested in them; this forest isn't too far from the Hoh Rain Forest up on the peninsula, and even here you'll find trees dripping with moss. 
And here's a deer that hung around while DD and I waited for the bus. He moseyed away by the time I got back with the camera... 
This is the backside of the prairie perserve by my house. The building off in the distance is the studio of an artist/art teacher. I try to take a class every now and then, but she's a very Good teacher, and gets paid accordingly! 
Looks like the weather has decided to not improve, so I'll just give up on it and head out on my bike anyway! This blog entry has been viewed 31 times
Bicycling
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 5:04 pm Whew. OK, I'll admit it. I let things go over the winter. And the fall. And, OK, much of summer too. But lately I'm back to riding my bike again, even today. Today, when I discovered that someone moved my bike out of the garage to make space for the *gasp* car. And left it where it would get wet if it rained. It did and it did. So my tucas is wet, but I am unswayed. After I had that lousy stroke in 99, and couldn't drive a car for several years due to eyes that refused to work together (and are both blind on the right side anyways) I started to ride my bike. It gave me some sense of control over my life. My goal was to work up to being able to ride to the little grocery store, just over a mile and one steep hill away. You'd have thought I'd landed a dismount on the moon the way I trumpeted when I was finally able to ride up that steep hill without pushing partway. From there I went on to further challenges until I could ride the 10+ mile round trip to the library and back, all while DD was in school for the day. About two years into my riding I began experimenting with driving a bit, first to the end of the driveway, then the end of the road, then to the grade school. I'd park there and ride out on my bike. But as I became steadier driving, my eyes cooperating better, the problems I was having with bicycling began to be less tolerable. I was nearly swiped by cars a couple of times, a close call or two with a logging truck, a doggy that didn't take kindly to me, I gradually became discouraged with bicycling as a means of transportation, and decided my limited range of driving would have to do. I eventually stopped riding entirely . Problem was, my mood suffered from it. Perhaps as a side effect of the stroke, I don't know. But I was becoming pessimistic, and introspective, horribly negative at times. I was in a stalemate place where I was entirely too aware of the limitations and inabilities in my life. That, and flabby muscles, drove me to start cycling again. I did have a brush with a logging truck this morning. But then I also came really close to a fat brown rabbit breakfasting on the roadside. Several swallows felt the need to inspect me as I passed the nest boxes placed on fenceposts by the local scout group. And even after writing all this, my bum is still wet. It's all good. This blog entry has been viewed 60 times
The sun paid a visit...
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 2:59 pm And just in time, too. We had a couple of friends over for lunch- between them they have 4 little girls. Little girls plus a prairie full of wildflowers means parents clicking away like mad with their photo cameras. I'm hoping to get a pic of our little friends in the flowers, to do a painting (of course) but here's a bit of what they were playing among... 
The wildflowers are so thick this year! every clump of prairie violets is so full of flowers... it's breathtaking. And as you can tell, the color and number of the rare-and-lovely shooting stars is amazing, we've been seeing about half this number of blooms per stem. Clearly, all the rain, rain, rain and late snows are doing something good. It takes a bit of work to keep the invasive scotch broom off this place, but the payoff in spring is unbeatable! For our prairie day, we printed out photos we'd taken of the flowers (I say "we" but it's all DH, he's the techy one!) and sent the girls on a "treasure hunt" to find and identify them. One little sweetie couldn't bring herself to pick the pretty flowers, but she won the treasure hunt anyway. It's so funny to see our place through new eyes. They all were enchanted by the little animals we have tucked away here and there; the goldfish in the three little ponds kept rising to the top to sun themselves eliciting squeals and giggles. It felt a bit like that old sci-fi film, "all summer in a day", and it's back to chilly this morning, but I'm happy with it! This blog entry has been viewed 55 times
Rain, an exercise in blank verse...
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 5:49 pm The joyous, carefree child, May, awash in bitter tears, Her locks hung with bedraggled blooms, bowing with their burden Below the persistent, unyielding, relentless curtain. Birds sing flat notes that beat the ground, unheeded and unheard, Heavy-lidded eyes watch... and wait... and wonder ... This blog entry has been viewed 68 times
My spring break, weather record
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 4:48 pm I actually have been back a week, but the day after I got home I had a massive fever a couple of days, and have been sick ever since 'cuz it went to a sinus infection. I woke this morning to snow. The weather experts say that in recorded and oral history it has never snowed this late in April,. Darn global warming anyway. So my week of spring "break"... We had been invited and authorized by a tribal elder of the Yakama Indian Nation to come help out, part of an ongoing effort to do some projects there. Together, our three teams re-roofed a home that was in dire need of it, chopped several cords of firewood, and did some yard work. Doesn't sound like much, but let me elaborate. The firewood is to go to the oldest tribal members. They can no longer manage to chop enough on their own, and that sets up a vicious cycle. When they run out mid-winter, they are forced to use electric heat. But since the homes often have broken-out windows replaced with boards, it costs an awful lot to get them even tolerably warm (it hovers in the 20's in winter around there). The electric bill comes and there's no way they can pay it; electrical programs to help the elderly are nonexistant since the tribe is a separate, independent nation. So the power gets shut off. The person is forced to find somewhere else where they can stay for awhile- if this was an easy thing to do they would have done it in the first place. While they are gone, their home freezes, pipes burst, and when they thaw they further cause havoc to the home. If the person has to stay away any length of time, the home gets broken into and everything taken. All this is to say, firewood is no small thing. The yardwork crew was where I worked. Whenever the elderly gal left her home the neighbor could see and would come break into her home, often. So a crew, the week before us, built a solid board fence so the neighbor can't see. We stained it, and another fellow replaced a couple of windows that needed it. Three of us just couldn't stop there; we went to the nearest town and bought gerbera daisies, thyme, and lavender to plant by the front door, and painted a pretty , picketed "welcome" on a leftover fence board for her to see when she came home. That was the fun part! Then we went and played games with the kids in the town farthest into the reservation. Blowing bubbles, kicking a ball around, giving the kids a snack (don't mean to make anyone cry, but that was the only food some of them got that day). And there were dogs everywhere, often feral. I had met a really sweet gal from the high school there, waaay back when I was in high school. But the town has taken a severe downturn since then. It is very much like being in the most intimidating inner-city now, in some ways more third-world. I guess the adults have pretty much just been overtaken by apathy and other things; one young friend I made was proud because he'd made it all the way through 8th grade, two grades higher than his father had completed. They have different rules for school attendance I guess, because this is very typical. In all, it really opened my eyes to what I take for granted. And I'm not just talking about lights that come on when I flip a switch. I mean, here, if a car is flipped over in the road with gasoline flowing out, there will be a patrol car there in minutes, and people redirecting traffic. We unexpectedly wound up driving through the gas trail; when others in our crew drove through some time later there was still noone directing traffic. I was going to tell more on this but still can't without crying... We were honored to be allowed to do work on the long house. The tables & benches needed sanding, priming & painting. The only downside was that we didn't have time to get a second coat on, but it was cool how that spiffed things up. The splinters on the benches would catch on the older folk's ceremonial clothes and damage them, we sanded & smoothed that away. They even let us eat dinner in the long house one evening! A very interesting thing about the long house- if you ask someone traditional where they live, they will direct you to the longhouse. Their house is just where they stay. As for tribal etiquette, you never interrupt a speaker, even to tell them it's time to wind things up. And a firm grip when shaking hands is regarded as hostile, though they are very understanding of noodleheads like me who don't know that! This blog entry has been viewed 82 times
My garden wedding 20-odd years ago
Category: gardening among the rocks | Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:22 pm DH and I met on an island when I was just 18 (a story for another time) so it stands to reason that we couldn't have anything but the most romantic wedding possible. We decided on a summer wedding- the end of July, when some of my favorite flowers are at their peak. But where? Our little startup church was still meeting in a rented auction hall, not very romantic. Turns out a friend from that church had a very large backyard- and had always wanted a gazebo! So while I was up in the San Juan Islands, fulfilling my commitment to complete my second season of being a park aide there, my sweetie was busily helping our friend build a gazebo. He would mail me things from time to time, not just letters but a photo of the tuxedos that he and the guys were renting, and a dozen roses sent via ferryboat from San Juan island to Lopez island, where I was working. (I had to walk down the dock in my uniform to pick them up, and everyone on the boat watched me cry!). When I got back, folks were expecting a mad rush- I think there was actually some disappointment when I decided on only the fourth dress I tried on. Why not? It was perfect. And I'd dreamed since I was a little girl of a long flowing veil. So a friend of my moms, a seamstress by hobby, sewed tiny seed pearls all down the flowing length of tulle. Most of our friends were young and broke, so we put together masses of sandwiches and salads. And another friend, a professional cake baker, gave us a great price on a very complicated cake- big enough that anyone who wanted to could take some home. I had saved all the petals from all the flowers my sweetie had given me while we were dating, mixed them with the petals from the dozen roses, and a little girl we were very fond of threw those for us. We were heading up the little youth group at the time, and a very talented young man and his sister performed the music. If you listen to Christian music at all, his name is Darrell Evans and he's a truly gifted guy, several albums out now and his songs often pop up on the list on Sunday morning. Very fun to see. When we finally tore ourselves away, we left in another friends vintage Cadillac, then drove to the train station to catch a long ride to our honeymoon destination, the very romantic Bay area of California (where DH grew up, but having only once been out of my home state, seemed like another planet to me!) Yes, the sun shone all day. And it wasn't too hot. And birds sang during the ceremony. Maybe I remember the day through rose-colored glasses, but isn't that how a garden wedding should be? This blog entry has been viewed 192 times
You're reading one of many blogs on GardenStew.com.
Register for free and start your own blog today. |
Blog Author
 CritterPainter (view profile) Entries by Category All Categories Archives All Entries |
RSS|
Uses some functionality from phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
|