Thursday, July 28, 2016

Livestock and Projects



      I glanced over the kitchen sink last night and saw movement below the window.
This wasn’t exactly newsworthy since our yard is a hotbed of activity in the squirrel and chipmunk world now that we are without cats.  As I drag out the hose to water and hear all the scurryings and chirpings, I sometimes feel apologetic for throwing off their schedules.

          This was something different, though. The Mojave-like state of our back yard in this drought must have driven our resident woodchuck out from under our shed. Having worked his way through the bee balm, black-eyed Susans, and hosta in the more distant part of the yard, he had moved up to greener pastures. In fact, it's about the only green pasture (albeit mostly weeds), thanks to our septic system.

    
      I could have watched him for hours. He squatted fatly in the shade and chewed and chewed and chewed. Each weed – and thank you, sir, by the way – disappeared into his face like an animated cartoon.  




          On the DIY front, I’m starting one of those projects that at first seemed so simple in my head, but then multiplied by ten in the cold light of reality.

          This old stool is in perfect shape, aside from the fact that our beloved but long-taloned cat Satchel had turned parts of it into furniture confetti. We had upholstered two chairs in the (too-distant) past, so I felt confident that I could pop some fabric over this stool, add some piping, followed by a skirt and voila!  
 



Then I hit Staple Land. After 45 minutes I had only removed one half of the skirt. And I’m trying not to think about what may have taken up residence in the lower portions.



          Meanwhile, my artist-in-residence has begun another painting.

 This all ties together nicely because it will be of Satchel –the furniture destroyer – and his fellow squirrel and chipmunk control officer, Sydney.

6 comments:

  1. I would love to have personal closeness to a painter so that I could just sit and watch!

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  2. I remember having a resident groundhog, years ago. I wonder what happened to him? The cats certainly did not drive him off, though one had a serious vet trip for trying, and the dogs did not scare him off, though Angus spent years barking down his culvert pipe.

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  3. An artist in the family? Colour me jealous.
    Sigh on the drought front. I hope you get some life giving rain soon.
    Satchel the furniture destroyer has some relatives here too.

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  4. I would love to meet a real live woodchuck. Never seen one. Count me out on upholstery. Learned my lesson on a sofa years ago. I'd love to have an artist in the house. Lucky you.

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  5. I'm such a klutz, I wouldn't even dream of re-upholstering anything.My daughter did a great job with a couch several years ago, but when she packed away her tools, she said 'never again!' Then she bought a beautiful old bedroom chair in poor condition and went to work on that, restored to former glory it has pride of place in her bedroom corner.

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  6. I've also never seen a woodchuck before. It was interesting to think of him chewing his way through massive amounts of greenery. And I too am impressed by the painting and hope you share the final result with me. :-)

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Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think.