Pekingese Madness

Our big goal on April 4th was to plant some lettuce in containers. Originally, we were going to buy bags of dirt to fill the tubs but we stumbled upon a pile of nice black dirt on the dike running along the back of our property. Where we live it's hard to find anything but heavy dense clay so this was a real find. It was too wet to drive the mower so we dragged a little wagon to this spot, shoveled in the dirt, and then dragged it all the way to our backyard. We were proud of ourselves after we filled the containers with the black gold and planted the lettuce seeds. Gena, my partner, was so thrilled with it she was admiring it from the back window when she frantically screamed for me to come back and look at "something". I thought it was a rare bird but this is what I saw.

Dolly, our pekingese, was having a grand ole time digging in the dirt. We no longer have cats hanging around, so other than the cottontails looking for a nice meal, we thought we were safe. We should have known--you are never safe with a dog like Dolly. She also thought the dirt was exceptional and made a nice bed in it.

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A Day in the Coop

I wrote this in a notebook while "babysitting" in the chicken coop on Friday 10/2/15. I'm sitting on the bottom roosting pole in the chicken coop surrounded by six curious, lively baby chicks and one cranky older hen that Robin calls "Godzilla." She's giving them the "evil eye" while scratching and digging in the bedding and tossing it around, trying to scare them. Today, they seem less frightened by her, although they are still wary and scatter if she approaches too close. They're trying to scratch in the shavings just like big chickens; some of them are even flapping up in an attempt to perch on the roosting poles. They're a little shaky, but they'll catch on. We've been watching the babies, trying to sort out individual personalities so we could give them names. Some of them were easy: Amelia Earhart--the blue Ameracauna who was trying to fly at the age of one day, and Maggie--the other blue Ameracauna, a real sweetie who k...

Simple Watercolor Sketches

Sketching and painting from my photos hasn't been going well lately so after disgustedly throwing another one in the waste basket I decided to try sketching without any reference material. I figure I'm almost 60 years old so there should there be something floating around in my head that I can pull out. The first one I sketched was this Teddy bear sitting on a rug drinking a beer and eating snacks. I went to bed thoroughly bummed out after spending the evening trying to sketch an animal from one of my photos . While I was swearing I would never try this crazy stuff again I picked up my sketchpad to do who knows what. I had no reference photo and I wasn't interested in drawing a blob of fur from one of our two dogs who were already curled up in a ball and fast asleep. In around 15 minutes I had drawn this very simple Teddy bear and the following morning I added the watercolor which really made it pop. Is it perfect?...not by a long shot. Teddy lo...

Nest Box Update

On April 24, just over a week ago, I wrote about the two wood duck nest boxes we put up on our property. The box we put on the back edge of the pond is visible from our house and with our binoculars we've been able to watch ducks, sparrows and swallows checking it out. Nest box on the edge of the pond We're not experts on monitoring nest boxes of any kind so after doing a little research we discovered that the boxes should be checked in the morning to help keep raccoons away. I assume this is because the scent we leave behind will have a chance to dissipate before the racoons come out in the early evening. So every morning I have checked on our two boxes. The one on the edge of the marsh hasn't seen much activity yet but I'm pulling a huge wad of twigs, feathers, etc. out of the "pond box" that the house sparrows are trying to take over. Thursday morning I mistakenly thought the box was empty and when I started to open it a female wood duck flew out...

Robin Arnold Art

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