our flock

 one chick saw me taking pictures and wanted in ..........as did one of our buffs.....

so she hopped up for her shot.....as did the next one lol

 the reds are always up for photos :D

not to be out done ........one of the Cornish/Rocks wanted in

 they are getting pretty big.....but moving around good... running even a bit of flying :D

One month ago tonight

..........we were out by our fire pit, when André went to stick the knife he was using into the ground beside him.....it hit a rock or something stopping the knife but not his hand...two of his fingers slid across the blade cutting to the bone......
since then we have been asked by a few how he could cut it so deeply....it was not a dull blade, nor small....

I'd like to add here André has owned knifes for many years without incident...he is not what one would call normally careless with tools. This was the first time he's needed stitches at all....being André he had to do it up big lol


We started Reiki on the spot.....


After the ER took a look we were told he needed to have surgery....as soon as we could if he wanted to feel or move them again.....


We kept the Reiki going and asked for help from other energy workers, after getting home from the the ER......you could see his hand light up, by this time we had stopped the bleeding and were working to keep the tendons in place...




About 12 hours after it happened we met up with the Doctor who we picked to do the surgery....he said it was as bad as it could get.....without taking the fingers off....in cases like this he would need to open up his palm and most likely part of his wrist.....he was worried that us using Reiki would make the tendons retreat even more because he could feel André's hand twitching from the Reiki.....


André on the other hand could feel it helping, so he wanted to stick with Reiki....he was able to go through this whole thing without pain meds. He did try half of one...said it didn't help like Reiki... the meds were kind of blocking Reiki a bit.....


Surgery took more than 3 hours.....the doc didn't need to cut open even his palm.....the tendons stayed in his fingers.....he did cut two nerves and two tendons in each finger....the doc put those back together, he did say he was surprised where he found the tendons though lol and told us to keep doing what we were doing, as it was working :D
So we go back the next week.....this time the doc was surprised that André could move his fingers more already ( was able to right away )

Today we go back and he is way more that surprised that André has feeling on both sides of his fingers.....didn't know how that could be....said by all rights he shouldn't be able to feel anything on the left side of his fingers.....those nerves had been split....
He was very happy how André's healing is going...they are a bit stiff but doing great....


Thank you to....
 the doctors and nurses who did a great job....and on the whole have been very good to all of us, not just André 


 The Doctor who did his surgery and his staff were so very nice and good at their jobs....I mean really sweet people who truly care....


  and to all of you who said a prayer, held him in your thoughts, sent good energies, lit candles, did spell work and Reiki..... we send our most sincere and heartfelt gratitude         Thank you 

Update time

 Check out these cool hats Kath made for us. We love them, they are so comfy and well made. Really good knitting. Thank you from all of us Kath :D

  

André cut the last two fingers on his right hand pretty deep.....3 hours of surgery to put them back together

 

The chickens are doing well :D Brent added to the yard size of their run, it's well protected from all sides and top. They are having a lot of fun running and flying around. It's not fully done yet, we plan on adding more for them to play with, but we are close :D
The Cornish/Rocks are already out sizing the Reds. They seem to be doing well, moving around good and are happy to be in a bigger area.

To broiler or not to broiler.....

We moved our buff Orpingtons and silver Ameraucanas 

out to the coop yard, in a large pen

they are quite happy in their new but temporary home :D 

had to bring them in for a bit yesterday 

when we got a sudden hail storm and I thought it was a bit cold for them…..

Wow did that tick them off lol

We decided it was time to put our Reds and Barred on pullet feed as they are getting to be pretty big now…….

that meant a trip to feed store

We took a look at the chicks while there

 a couple of white chickens, egg layers either Leghorns or Rocks are what we had in mind

 okay at this point I’ll say I have no clue where else in town to get chicks and was leaning away from mail order…..

We haven't been dealt real straight up at this store, it was clear we were new to this whole chicken thing....

 things like not telling us if the Ameraucanas or Orpingtons were bantams or not, after they thought I would rather have full sized birds……

 I was going to get them either way

 I just wanted to know what we had lol

The guy said to us……I can give you a great deal on the older ones…..

I say we were really looking for younger ones as we want them to be people friendly 

at least to us ;)

We know the younger ones stand a better chance...

I say I really wanted Leghorns, not fast growing chicks, as I have heard they have issues with health….

he tells us they are Leghorns just a little bit faster growing not too much though…..

I ask what kind of deal..... I'll give you a dollar off of each, is his reply

I ask why they have broiler in the name…..

didn't sound like an egg layer to me…..

he reassured me they were Leghorns, something like the tag wasn't right…….

okay I’m new to keeping chickens and haven’t read much about raising “meat” chickens…..

we wanted eggs….

a few feathers here and there…..

  what Jorden calls shoulder chickens…..

I really didn’t want to read up on meat chickens…..I love a good chicken taco and wanted to keep it that way ;)

I did know they are a hybrid of Cornish and Rocks...poor health, I assumed from poor care..... but not much more than that..

These poor chicks couldn’t even walk across a cardboard box…….

 I wasn't sure they would make it home…….

Even though I HATE being "played" 

we had to help them

 when ringing up our sale I heard him tell the girl that they were indeed fast growing broilers.....

     After some reading…..

ugh if they are lucky we might only loose a few before “harvest” time …..

6 to 8 weeks….

after that their fate is not much better…

worn though feet…heart attacks…broken legs

with good care

So what now, we got them knowing full well we had no clue about the breed…..

eat them, nope can’t eat someone I pet 

 besides we promised…… 

I’m not against raising chickens to eat …..

I am against raising them poorly 

as well as creating hybrids where their health 

or lack of health is of no issue…..

I waited until the next day after them coming home with us to attune them to Reiki….

we were doing hands on and distant…..

I wanted them to get used to the feel of the energy…..

it was really cool…. 

I've done a few attunements by now lol  a lot of animals….

but it was like a light went on…..

Almost two full days after bringing them home… 

when we go to by them, they let us pet them 

they are taking food from our hands……

walking, jumping and even small busts of flying :D 

They are getting big fast…..too fast…

However we are going to go with free feeding,

adding a bit of scratch around to get them foraging and moving more....

the fresh lettuce from the garden was a hit 

 I can't see a chicken being withheld feed....

that's their whole life....eating 

or looking for something to eat lol

Chickens

 I'm still having a hard time believing that we have CHICKENS

They are so cute 

Our Reds are very friendly love to be pet 

our new little ones are still a bit jumpy but getting better every day 

 Sam doesn't seem to mind at all 

Randy Granger

 

Randy Granger

We got another chance to see Randy play this week....what a show

I did take a shot with my phone, not even close to how good the setting was

his music and voice filled the room

it was Great

AND Brent got me a new knitting bag :D 

matches the color of my other bag, you can never have too many knitting bags ;)

I thought he got me a tee shirt as well, but now he's saying it might look better on him lol 

It really was a good show, we heard a song from his newest CD yet to be released, very moving....looking forward to hearing more....

It's always so much fun to listen to the people coming out of his shows.....he blows them away...the feeling and heart he puts into his music comes through so clearly

One young guy was so taken, he really wanted a CD but didn't have cash on hand.....he went out to his car and found enough to buy a disk....said he couldn't wait to have his friends hear it :D 

The only issue we had was a bit of allergy flare ups, for the guys mostly....I just got real dry and had a hard time talking near the end, but I had taken a sinus tab, they didn't take anything more than their Allegra the night before....not bad for the amount of perfume and air fresheners we were among...... we even took the long way back to our car, walking on grass with trees in full bloom all around us.....it was beautiful 

while we still have the small issues with our allergies, running nose and the like, it's no where near what price we used to pay..........

after we came home and cooked out.....Jorden's green chili on burgers.....life is good

Randy Granger and dragons

We went to see Randy Granger perform yesterday at the Cultural Diversity Day held at Dona Ana Branch Community College  

This is Randy playing the Halo and the Hang ( pronounced hung ) , his hands move so fast it hard to get a clear shot :D       

     Randy's web site

We really weren't sure what we were walking into, but any chance to see him play live we try and make it there, it is always a lot of fun...... it's never like "been there done that" kind of thing, each show has it's own feel about it, his talent is amazing......the guy can even make tapping on a table sound good lol

We get there and it's clearly set with a Asian theme COOL

When I think of Randy and his music I never really thought Asian

but he really fit in well, he even played an impromptu encore with one of the professors singing

not only did we get to see Randy play

we got to see some really nice art work

 This was embroidered all in satin stitch, my phone did not take as good of a shot as I would have liked ( never does, like I need the help getting a bad shot lol ), it was done so well it did look like a photo

                and check out these silk fans

and dragons ( embroidered as well )

not only great music and cool art work but they fed us sushi :D

We heard some poetry and kids singing

they really put a lot of work into it :D

the only issue we ran into was we were sitting in the middle in front of the stage ( we were lucky enough to have a very nice guy let us sit with him ) we kind of got surrounded by everyone who wanted a good photo line up, the applause was so loud the guys were dang near deaf after the show lol

 Thanks to all of the performers

it was a great show

Spring

Woo Hoo it's Spring :D
I was so happy to see these little guys
still going strong


was worried about them
it got cold a few days ago

heard on Face book that it was snowing ......
we go take a look as we were just out there ....... it was snowing lol

all around we could see tiny flakes dancing in the wind.... so pretty :D



We found this cool kids weaving set at a thrift store
not sure how old...no date, guessing a few years as it's made of metal ;)



Even came with some newer ribbon...the date reads 1980 lol

Guardian Angel Baby Bath Towel with hood

Guardian Angel Baby Bath Towel with hood

The angel is surrounded by stocking stitch. The main body of the towel is done in knit stitch. The hood is grafted at the top.

Sz 9 US circular needles ( knit flat )
26 inches tall by 33 inches wide
Gauge 4 stitches by 6 rows per one inch done in stocking stitch
400 yards approximately of worsted weight 100% cotton
　
k = knit
k2tog = knit 2 stitches together
p = purl
yo = yarn over needle
( )x = repeat directions inside brackets as many times as indicated

New pay pattern on Ravelry

buy now
 

Hope everyone had a good St. Patty's Day

It went really good for us yesterday :D

We went to a performance by Randy Granger ( http://www.randygranger.net/ ), he sings and plays Native American flute among many other talents.
Check out some of his you tube videos, if there is any reason for me to get off of dial up internet it would be to see his videos ( I can make red sauce now :D ), as it is I’m willing to wait for a few hours for them to upload lol …. good uninterrupted crafting time ;)

We have been able to see him a few times.
One show was at White Sands, it was to be outside in the dunes. It started to rain, along came the thunder…..
We were a bit late, by the time we got there they were moving everything into a large room, big wooden beams across the roof…...not only was that the prettiest I’ve ever seen White Sands, but the music was magical, even the thunder was well timed ;)

Yesterday it was the wind…....it gave you this feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere..... when you closed your eyes you could lose where you were….it just added this cool background sound.... even though Randy was playing a flute in the wind it sounded great, he worked it so well, and his voice…….again the magic of his music comes through

We were a bit late to this show again ( I swear I’m driving next time lol ) but it turned out really cool.... we got to see how his playing was hitting people the closer we got…....people were just stopping in mid speech to listen, even walking away from who there were talking to lol
At one show I heard a man ask his wife as she was getting one of Randy's Cd's, if she was sure that it had the song that made her cry on it, as he liked that one too :D ( Hallelujah )
Even though the weather may kick up or something comes up, he is always professional in a light hearted easy manner, quick with humor….and that music…..

We went book shopping after that. Got me some beading books on clearance.
Lucky thing the book store is right next to the craft store, so got me a few things to finish up some bead work…...hit a thrift store too :D

We went to the park after that it was full, made sandwiches and kicked back watched all the people........

Got home in time to spend some daylight time outside in the garden :D

Worked on beading….had home made pizza that everyone one helped make ……..yep it was a good day, hope yours was too