Sticks and a stone....

While Mr. DEDS was away last week, I puttered a lot. Here is a result of one of my putterings.

A vase made out of sticks!  Artfully placed next to a stone. (I collect stones with lines on them.)

I tied the sticks together with thin gold wire I found in my junk drawer. I added beads as I went along looping the wire around each stick. This is a shot from the BACK, where I put a few dabs of hot glue here and there to give it all a little suppport.

Come to find out, the sticks were still a little wobbly when stood up, so I glued a piece of black felt onto the back to hold everything in place.

This is all wrapped around an empty spaghetti sauce jar. (Did I really have to say 'empty'?)

I also added a few more wires here and there with more beads and I twisted some of the additional wire into spirals.

Fill with water and flowers I found along the side of the road and voila. 

What a great idea....why didn't I think of this?

OK, I confess. I've been watching 'LOST' this summer on www.hulu.com.

I did not watch it when it was watchable, nor did I want to.

But a friend of mine mentioned shortly before school was out that she was going to rent LOST this summer to see what the hullabaloo was all about.

So I said, "What the heck". I was tired of watching Alfred Hitchcock Hour on hulu and thought I'd give LOST a chance.

Well, I'm into Season 5, Episode 11 as of today.

I     am      hooked !!

Come to find out, Hurley aka Hugo has a blog! He has two of them. (Maybe more...)

And one of the posts was this...... Genius!!  Check it out. (Nothing to do with LOST at all.)

click here

Agree?

It stinks....

....or at least it stank.

OK, so Mr. Downeastdoingstuff goes off for a few days. This is something that has been in the works for many months and marked on his calendar. This event was not sprung upon him at the eleventh hour rendering him a frenetic valise packing fool. Oh no. He knew about it.

I had to get up at the ungodly hour of 7 A.M. to transport him to the other people that also had this occasion marked on their calendars.....for months. I didn't mind (too much)....I love him....and I know that he would get up at any time, day or night to transport me to anywhere in the world that I wanted to go. 

So while I'm still bleary-eyed and semi-unconscious in bed at 6:45 A.M. he announces to me that there is a skunk in his havahart trap.

"A what?" Blink. Blink.

"A skunk. And I don't have time to do anything about it, so you are going to have to handle it."

Sensing a nervous breakdown approaching, I have a nervous breakdown.

(why, oh, why didn't he de-activate the trap the day before KNOWING he was leaving????)

sob. sob.

"WHAT?????#&%((@??"

"Yeah, but you know what to do."

(I know what to do. ) Blink. Blink.

ONLY because he has had to do it before, several times. And I've 'heard' him 'talk' about what he does. BUT, and this is a big BUT, I've never seen him do it, and I've never even operated the friggin Havahart trap. (Just the word 'trap' doesn't sit well with me. Things can go awry rapidly.)

So that's it. Off I go, good wife that I am, taking him to his destination designated in ADVANCE. Did I mention he knew he was leaving?

I drop him off, come back home armed with good intentions of taking control of the situation, and.........go back to bed.

Can't sleep. Toss. Turn. Thinking about something I shouldn't be thinking about. What are my options?

1. Do nothing. (I presume the creature will eventually go to skunk heaven, what in this heat and all....) (Heaven is supposed to be good, isn't it?) (But visions of the skunk named 'Flowers' from the movie BAMBI enter my head and this does not become an option.)

2. Have my grown son still living with us take care of it, which is the same as option #1.

3. Do 'it' myself.

So, after grumbling and pacing, I go up into the garden area to assess the situation.

Here is what I see.

It IS a little 'Flower'. Just a baby, all black and white and fluffy and pretty. 

Sheesh.

I KNOW first thing I have to do is to quietly cover the dang trap with a cloth of some sort. This apparently confuses the skunk and she thinks everything is ok. (Not too bright, are they?)

So I go grab an old sheet in the garage and like a professional stealthy burglar on cat paws, I slowly, carefully cover the cage and ......run like hell.

OK. Step One. Check.

Step two. Text husband. Check.

"Now what?", I type on my cell phone.

"Open the trap with a stick pushing the front lever.", is the response.

"&$(__&@$*&@^", I mumble. 

OK, I find a stick, expose the lever, and push it.

Nothing.

Push harder.

Zippo.

Text him again. "Try harder", he instructs. (YOU try harder is what I wanted to say.)

Now I knew I had to take matters into my own hands. So I did what any intelligent person would do. GOOGLE it!!!

After 45 minutes of watching videos about different types of traps and how not to get too close because these animals have TEETH, and how you don't want to get rabies and stuff, checking out the latest recipes on www.cookinglight.com , I come to the realization  that I can open the lock to the door if I have some sort of a hook apparatus. So I made one with some metal strapping, some pvc pipe and masking tape. See?

Now, if you look closely you can see a wire that's up in the air in the front of the trap. I did that. With my hook.

(key smug look).

Then I took the stick and pressed down on the front lever. The door opened! And I didn't smell anything! Flower was a good girl thus far.

Yeah!!!!! I took the stick off of the lever. 

The door slammed shut.

"*&^%$#^*" and "grrrrrrrrrr".

I had to think fast. How much of this ruckus was Flower going to take?

Aha. I did make a hook, didn't I?? So I opened the door again with the stick on the lever routine, took my nifty hook and latched it over the edge of the open door, laid the hook and pvc pipe handle on the top of the trap, placed a shovel over it as a counterweight and backed away.

(If you want to take notes, you can biggify the pic by clicking on it.)

Voila!!!!! Door open...... and I didn't get bitten or sprayed and it only took  from 7 A.M. to  4 P.M. for the  completion of the job. 9 hours. 

What was I going to do with myself  the rest of the day?  ;-/

Using my Blackberry (s)...........

We are lucky enough to have a field FULL of a million blackberry plants, give or take.

I look forward to this every summer. I will stand out in the field and using both hands, gobble down blackberry after blackberry. They are soooooooooooooooo delicious!

BUT, in a couple of weeks they are gone. Why I haven't attempted to freeze them in the past, I don't know.

But this summer I did just that.

Here's how.....

Pick non-mushy berries. Wash them and then dry them. (I put them on a dish towel and wiggle the dish towel around and then gently roll them onto another dry dish towel  and further dry them. 

Then I spread them out on a cookie sheet and pop into the freezer just as they are, overnight.
The next morning each and every berry is like a marble human zygote.
I immediately pop them into a zip lock bag (one of the greatest of inventions ever) and put them in the freezer. I have 4 bags frozen. 

Made a  cobbler  cobbler  yesterday. (Note: If you try this recipe, the baking time is too long. I set the timer for 45 minutes and when I checked it at 37 minutes, it was already too long. I would watch it like a hawk after 30 minutes.....)

One of life's greatest joys. Berry, berry good.

Road Trip downeast....

Last week we decided to take a drive up to Belfast, Maine for lunch. Here are some images.

Stopped in Wiscasset, Maine for a potty break at the boat launch. The famous Red's Eats wasn't even open for business yet. (When we left, after strolling around a bit, there was a line at Red's Eats, 30 minutes before they opened at 11:30 am)

Mr. Downeastdoingstuff, aka Birdman, lingered here....

Finally arrived at the historic, waterfront village of Belfast.

Quaint shoppes (note the quaint spelling) and eateries.

Had to stop at Perry's Nut House. (Some think Mr. Downeastdoingstuff aka Birdman was born here. I can attest to the fact that he was not. Wishes he was, but he wasn't)

I stopped here over 25 years ago on my way back from a workshop at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle and bought a pair of gold sanddollar shaped earrings, my favorite. After a while, the 'gold' wore off and I had to discard them. Hoped to replace them, but the inside of Perry's Nut House was not as I remembered it. Plastic lobsters and dog poop,  magic tricks, and, of course, NUTS, (They are big on nuts, it would make any man green with envy)

but no jewelry. 

I need to find a better source for my fine jewelry.

Stopped at Camden Harbor for supper.

There's money here......

Mussels in wine sauce...yum.

The weather was around 80, sunny and breezy. A perfect day with my sweet Birdman.

Do you find this scary?

It's called a scarecrow. It's supposed to be scary. 

It scares me. I don't think it scares the birds. Which is what it's supposed to do.

Mr. Downeastdoingstuff made it. I'm hoping it's not finished yet, a work in progress. I don't dare ask him. It's been at least a week. Maybe it's the best he can do. 

I think he needs my help. He just has to ask.....

At least this guy is scared.....

P.S.  To be fair, he DID ask me for help when he started and I, good wife that I am, said "no way".

What's important....

photo credit

During those 45 minutes that we were seeking shelter in our basement during a tornado warning, I was thinking about what I should have grabbed before the tornado rips my house apart akimbo.

Mr. Downeastdoing stuff already did this self evaluation and his determination was: beer.

I, myself, gave this more thought than that.

Many people say family photos. Yeah, maybe, but I can see with my 89 year old parents that they are trying to foist their collection of family photos onto me and I really don't want them. Oh yeah, I took a few so that I would remember that even I, was once a baby and I did  graduate Junior High, High School and College in an actual cap and gown. But other than that, I didn't really take any other 'black and white' and faded color snap shots. 

So who is going to want the 8 organized in chronological order albums I made? Not my child who doesn't want anything that isn't on his i-phone.

So family photos....maybe.

Let's see...here is my top ten list of what should be grabbed just before your life is going to be torn apart...

10. Family photos...maybe. 

9. Family documents....I guess....although they can all be replaced....for a fee, I'm sure.

8. Recipes....especially old, favorite ones and the Slovak family ones (that's what I am). I should type those onto my laptop, now that I think about it. Yeah, good idea.(That's why I keep this blog, makes me think about these things...)

7. Hairdryer and round brushes....I know, I know, I can replace these, but I would need them the very minute the tornado is over and Mr. Downeastdoingstuff  starts up the generator. (I have major hair issues and I would think the humidity would be high after a tornado is over, what with all the ripped up water pipes and stuff.)

6. Jewelry.....not that I have anything all that great, but I've already been through having my house robbed and ALL my jewelry taken at one time and then having to replace it.  (NOTE: My advice to anyone that wears jewelry. DO NOT, I say, DO NOT keep all your jewelry in one spot, ie. a jewelry box. All the burglar has to do is to grab it in one fell swoop and it's gone.) Rather keep your jewelry all over the house or in boxes that say Rat Poison.

5. A coffee yogurt and a Diet Pepsi. You probably will be hungry right after surveying the damage and digging around for your family photos. Don't forget a spoon.

4. My purse. I might need my credit cards and car keys, assuming the car is not in a tree somewhere. Lip gloss and sunglasses, too.

3. My paintings.....although this is too daunting a task, it would be nice to have.

 

3a. My Laptop and charger. (use with generator) 'nuf said.

2. My Cats.....Little Molly and Sophie. Can't live without them, cause they're purrrrfect.

1. My retainer. OK. Yeah. My retainer. 

Being an adult orthodontic patient, insurance didn't cover any of the million dollars it cost me. Everynight I have to wear a clear plastic retainer for the rest of my life if I don't want to revisit the Orthodontist. And I am fully aware that every night when I put it on, it is tight and is loose by morning. So my teeth shift even during the course of the day.

 JUST IMAGINE sifting through tons of debris that used to be our house after a category Fujita scale-5 tornado looking for a clear, plastic retainer. Ain't gonna happen. And it takes weeks to get a new one made. So, that is the number one thing I should have grabbed.

(Well, it's tied at number one with the cats, truth be told.)

That's it. 

There's no place like home.

What would you take with you?

Hunkered down in the *&%$# cellar for 45 minutes.......

or, this isn't Kansas anymore.

Hey, I live in Maine. We're not supposed to get tornado warnings.  Are we?

It started out a gorgeous, warm summer day. Weather forecasts were predicting severe thunderstorms in the afternoon, but we've heard that before.

Not a cloud in the sky.

By late afternoon the weatherman had hi-jacked all 3 Portland stations. They were showing non-stop radar maps of the rapidly changing weather situation. 

"See this hook? Sure sign of rotation.  Wait...yes....our doppler radar indicates two rotations (code word for tornado) right there and there.", says the meteorologist as excited as I've ever heard him while using a pointer aiming right at where we live !

"You're sh!ting, me!" I proclaim.

"I must stress", says the weather guy, "this is a serious situation. A warning is much worst than a watch. You must take precautions right now."

Promptly a graphic comes up with directions for what to do. 

1.Go down the cellar if you have one. If not, go to they furthest place in the house away from windows. Do not open any windows.

2. Cover your head and neck with pillows or mattresses. Try to go under a sturdy workbench or table. (Workbench...ha...ours doesn't get any work done on it....plus it's out in the garage, But that's another story.)

3. If you are outside, do not attempt to outdrive a tornado. Get out of the car and lay in a ditch.

(I have issues with this one, but nevertheless.....)

In a controlled panic I ask Hubby....."how do we know when to go down the cellar?"

A confused look is all I get. My interpretation of the look is, "I'm not going down the *&%$# cellar!"

Five minutes later we are down the damp, unfinished 200 year old *&%$#  cellar with every pillow I could find, 3 flashlights, 2 cats and a portable radio that emitted static.

It was way to creepy for me. Scrunched up on one of the pillows, I was just waiting for the sound of a freight train. Thank God, it never came.

But it did come elsewhere.......

Despite the tree damage, there appears to be little structural damage. We lucked out....this time.

UPDATE: The National Weather Service confirmed that 3 tornados touched down in Maine that day. The above pictures show the damage from one of them.

Thank you Brattcat....

Mr. Downeastdoingstuff, aka Birdman, and I have been blogging only for about 1 1/2 years. It's really been a lot of fun and we have 'met' many, many interesting people. (YOU guys!)

 We have actually, in reality, met, in real life, Mr. and Mrs. Brattcat from Brattleboro, Vermont last December when they came to Portland. 

They were gracious enough to invite us to their neck of the woods this past weekend. 

It was a blast spending time with 2 very talented, very nice people in the Green Mountain State.

Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Brattcat for a wonderful time.
P.S. On the way there, somewhere west of Keene, NH, we stopped at rest area. It was a quaint, tiny little building with a kindly gentleman offering help to weary travelers, a cold water dispenser and rest rooms. That was about it and that was all anyone needed.

But just in case, posted on the inside of the ladies room door, was this map. 

Notice the 'You are Here' marking. I shudder to think what would have happened to me if I didn't see that. I probably would have been lost forever.

Thank you New Hampshire. Live Free or Die.

Random thoughts....

(image credit)

I saw fried ice cream on the menu at the beach. OK, someone tell me, why would ice cream need any help at all, especially from oil? 

And think about all the molecules of ice cream that have melted away in the frying process. 

What a waste of resources.

My husband, Mr. Downeastdoingstuff, is always thinking. His thoughts really flow with a bottle of wine.

(Ask our contractor, most of the work and additions to our house popped into Mr. DEDS head via vino. All worth it, I might add.

This time he E-MAILS me this tidbit. (yes, we do live in the same house. I was actually IN the house with him when he e-mailed me this.) (although I should talk....I've actually called him on his cell from my cell while we were both in the house!)

Nevertheless....here it is.....

"Hey, it's HOT out but...

Ok- maybe I've been out in the heat a bit much. I've been thinkin'--- here are some innovative ideas that should be tried immediately

1. in summer wash shorts and wear immediately! Wet. Real cool! Try it!

2. Eliminate the month of March immediately!  Each month takes on 2-3 extra days. Birthdays moved to other months. The month is a mental DRAG!

3. Buy a car--- the car is immediately registered for 100 years! No charge! No questions! Also-- a one time inspection sticker is given at that time.

4. Make it REAL hard to fall in love!  You know make it emotionally and physically challenging.  Make it like a Game Show! I haven't got this one all worked out yet. THEN--Incentives should be given 10 years, 15, 20 and so on you get valued coupons. (too many divorces on this planet)

5. No more irons... put on your clothes with a million wrinkles, then walk under this quick-iron machine, like the metal detector at airports. An instant dry mister(like at Disney in summer months) filled with water and Wrinkle-free. Sort of like getting freeze-dried, fast, no curling of hair, and clothers instantly ironed and pressed. This would save me lots of time and complaining! Both by me and others I love."

The last one may have been a residual inspiration from one of my previous posts on ironing. Or maybe it's because I refuse to iron any of his stuff.

I'm sure he'll email me and let me know. Looking forward to hearing from him.

Birthday week is finally OVER!

Can't wait til my birthday week, although being in October, I'll most likely be celebrating it in school with 12 year olds. Happy days.....

But back to the topic at hand. Mr. DEDS requested going to a restaurant in Portland for Brunch. This is a neat little place across from the Post Office that I've been eyeballing for many, many years, but have never been to. 

It has always intrigued me, especially at dusk when the lights are on inside.

It's kinda funky inside... eclectic .....just like we are. 
Here is Mr. Birthday boy, on his actual birthday, toasting with a Bloody Mary, outside on Bintliff's funky deck.
The breakfasts here are quite a feast....and yes.....kinda funky and eclectic, too. Perfect place.
Once back home, we had Birdman's brother and matey over for Sapphiretinis, a beverage inspired by the cruise......Curacoa....coco rum.....banana liquer...and pineapple juice. (it does not turn your mouth blue like sno-cones do)

We had appetizers and dessert. As far as I'm concerned, you never even need a meal when entertaining. Appetizers and dessert and booze. That's my idea of a party.
He wanted blueberry pie for a birthday cake. (I think that WILL turn your mouth blue) and icecream. Ever thrifty, I recycled my son's birthday candles. He's not really 24, or even 42 for that matter. 
And finally some of his gifts. Key elements of his personality: Beer, Birdfeeder, necktie from the Portland Museum of Art, and Needhams! 

Perfect day to a perfect week. I hope you enjoyed it, sweetie. 

Forever young.

May God bless and keep you always 
May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others 
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars 
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous 
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth 
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous 
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy 
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation 
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful 
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
May you stay forever young.

--Bob Dylan

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEETIE !!!

Happy Birthday Birdman!  Kiss. Kiss

At the end of today, officially, it's the end of Birthday Week! (I KNOW it will be only 4 days and a week is 7 but, shhhhhhh......)

So, to recap yesterday, Day 3 of Birthday Week...

Woke up to a dark, rainy, dreary day....

So what to do today, on the 3rd day of Birthday Week, Mr. DEDS? 

"OK....hmmmm.....Rain......cool.....bad hair day (really bad hair day).....dark and forboding.......I know!

Let's go to Hampton Beach for some French Fries!!!!!"

A man after my own heart.
So we pile into the car, and in the late afternoon (I had to go to the gym first...) head south about 1 hour and a half and end up here, at this bar called the Sea Ketch, up on the 3rd floor deck.

Actually, it was a Corona Lite.

That thing that appears to be an island is actually land connected to the main land. Some very low fog has obliterated much of the earth.

The bar from below.....sky is clearing.....

PLENTY of places to buy horrible, delicious, unhealthy food. yum.

Ever the nutritionist, this was my approved selection for supper.

Every night there is a different band that plays, right on the main street. It's nice.

Got home at about 11pm. It was fun!

Now to get ready for my beloveds real Birthday.....more on that later.

I love you Birdman!