Tax Assessors Say the Darndest Things!

Bob and I appealed our taxes the other night. We've been taxed on things we simply didn't have when we moved in- like a whole house air condtioner and a "fireplace".  We showed pictures of insulation-filled holes in the living room wall; covered in plastic, no less. Also, shots of what could be a "hole house" air conditioner sitting outside in the woodland, waiting for a family of squirrels (or maybe that displaced skunk?) to move into. They had our house assessed at (get this) $365000! I said, "Hahahahahaha! we like our house, but please!" Anyway, midway through this (inevitably) rather dull back and forth about property revaluations and mil rates, the assessor to our left (a woman maybe in her sixties) inexplicably interrupts with. "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Barbra Streisand?" Hello? First of all, Babs has a big nose and I fancy mine to be petite and... well, no, no one has ever suggested this resemblance but it certainly made for an interesting reassessment. We're supposed to hear back in a couple of weeks, but I feel like dropping an autographed copy of Yentl in the mail to Tax Assessorr #1; maybe that will lower our rate.
And on more projects on the home fornt, I took advantage of the super warm and benevolent weather on Wednesday to de-sod and prepare the edge by the house for quartz rock mulch. Bob put in a metal strip to edge it with and keep the quartz off the lawn. It was easy as the soil was remarkably rock-free and nice to dig in. Figures! We should have made our vegetable beds here not in the gravel pit that is the vegetable garden. By late afternoon, this is what it looked like:

Time Change

I've been blogging about our move to the BauHaus Chicken Coop for a little over a year now. We really have done an awful lot, but there are all kinds of annoying things to administer to- like the stupid, unattractive and useless towel rack on the downstairs bathroom door. (As in hang a towel up and wait for it to hit the floor. The rack looks like it came out of a 1960's car; chrome and oddly shaped. And there's this oozy blob of old glue seeping out of one end... I won't even photograph it! ) We're making an entirely new list...
But outside looks pretty swell. The pond (above) has been entertaining ducks and I sawed off a bit of the elder tree that had been cracked in that freaky snow storm of last October. Just straightening things up a bit. Bob has done a dynamite job down by the stream, clearing away old piles of sticks and making the swampy area look much more pleasant and festive. There is even skunk cabbage appearing. And I just had a tick crawling on my hand. Must be spring!
Now that it's lighter outside later, it is a great motivator. I can come home and have time- and daylight- for projects or just fooling around with The Dog. I'm going to de-sod the strip by the back of the house so we can continue to mulch with white quartz rocks and make a border all the way around. that's on the table for this afternoon. I don't want to be inside as its so warm and sunny but I do want to get some work done in my studio.

C-C-C-limate Ch-Ch-Changes

I'm surprised that we have any horse left! Because the weather has turned warmer (well,  maybe not tonight but it is supposed to up to 60 degreess by Wednesday!) Crispin started to shed his impressive winter coat- with a vengence. I began to casually curry him on Sunday and 45 minutes later, I was still coming up with clumps like the one above. I left wads of horse hair around for birds to use as nest making materials. I am certain that Crispin enjoyed getting a lengthy grooming session as I'll bet all that departing fur is itchy. He was less crabby for a little while.
Has anyone else noticed that there are a great deal of spring birds singing already? We even have ducks on our mini-pond. Last year, they had to be satisfied with swimming on the stream as the pond was frozen solid and under snow. And they're back so early!
On a particularly warm day a few weeks back, I spied a snake on the dirt road. Talk about bad luck! Not only does the snake come out on a 60 degree February day, but then he gets run over by one of the two or three cars that travel down that road on a typical day. I returned the next day, armed with my camera, but the snake was long gone. No doubt someone else's lunch.
I had to go back and read my several previous blog entries as I couldn't remember if I posted about the snake or not. I've told a few friends the snake anecdote and let's face it; the weather this winter has been super or scary depending on which side of the bed you wake up on. A friend reported on blooming crocuses and we've heard stories of all kinds of other anomolous spring appearances. I saw a forsythia bush blooming on the way to my mother's house. I'm glad to embrace an early spring (despite groundhog prognostications) but I'll be the first to admit that it also alarms me that everything is a month or so too soon.
And then a friend reminded me that they're changing the time this weekend. Am I crazy? Didn't that used to happen a month later too???

The Woman Who Mistook the Laundry Pile for Her Dog

Isn't that cool? When Jules and I are out on our morning walk, we like to jump on the frozen puddles and break the ice. (It makes both Jules and I very silly to do this). But as we approached this particular puddle, I was drawn up short and pushed Jules out of the way because it formed a perfect ice spiral. Of course, I had neglected to bring my camera and I had to return about an hour later to shoot this picture. Bob observed that it looked almost like the rings in the center of a tree. I pointed this out to a couple walking their dog and they were suitably intrigued by it, too. Luckily no one had smashed the ice!
Getting back to the title of this posting, however:  I sing to Jules fairly frequently (between you and me, Jules is a saint because I'm no great singer). So because of my messed up left eye and the habit I now have of taking my right contact lens out when I'm in the house I see in a corrupted and odd way. I was changing my clothes in the bedroom and I glanced over to Bob's closet and saw (what I took to be) Jules. I started into some (truly stupid) song about going for a walk with my dog and I was going on for quite a while while I tied my boots and simultaneously realized that the large black shape was really a laundry pile and my dog was just then entering the bedroom, wondering for whom I was ululating. Jules looked embarrassed for me but I  think our dirty socks enjoyed it. Maybe I should take the laundry on our walk tomorrow.
Here's another shot, but including my feet for scale (shod in my new hiking boots).

Sick O" Single Socks

The equivalent of airing one's dirty linen in public is exposing the alarmingly disorganized contents of one's sock drawer on the Internet. But I'm nothing if not brave.
Bob says (correctly) that whenever he washes the laundry, he winds up with a fistful of singleton socks.... and they're all mine! I have no idea where they have all fled to; they're probably seeking sock asylum , longing to reunited someday with their straying mate. I just bought five new pairs of socks and do you think I can locate half of them already?
I suspect Jules (who's father was a thief) swipes some of them. I have spied him slipping down the stairs with head tucked low to his chest, slobbering over one of my socks. If only he'd take the whole pair!
I haev vowed to spend a rainy afternoon sorting and discarding those socks who have been orphaned for too long- or maybe I'll just resort to furtively wearing mismatched hose.

A (Free) Chicken in Every Pot

Bob and I were told, by a Stop and Shop check out person no less, that if there were no rotisserie chickens done when you arrived starving and impatient for rotisserie chicken, you are to be given one free. This started a free rotisserie chicken avalanche of sorts. For the last month and a half, I have arrived at somewhere between 4:30 and 6:00 and I have procured a free chicken on every Friday except one. We have had at least four (and I think five) free chickens. The poor young woman who mans the courtesy desk sees me coming and has a free coupon ready Maybe it seems like sort of a scam, but they guarantee the readiness of their birds.
Now it's become a game of sorts; will dinner be free? Or will we finally have break down and pay the already reduced price of $5.00? And the chicken is consistently delicious, too.
It was even weirder tonight as I left the Stop and Shop after being told that the chicken wouldn't be ready for another 35 minutes and went to KMart to "kill time". I selected a (highly reduced) pair of really outrageous rainbow woodgrain tights (that were all of $1.00 after discounts). A message promptly came on the intercom, "Attention KMart shoppers..." Apparantly, there was a cosmic glitch and none of the cash registers were functioning and absolutely nothing in the store could be sold. We were told that we either could come back in an hour or return tommorrow. Do they want to sell us this stuff or not???
Following a lovely- and free- meal I have an appointment with destiny to obtain those thrilling leggings...
Lucky me!

I Dunno... Is It Me?

Maybe it's that spell of winter (even if we've barely had a winter) that is highlighted by president's birthdays and apocryphal ground hogs (that do or don't see certain shadows), but there is sure is a lull that kicks in about this time of year that makes it hard to get going. Today was (unexpectedly) cold and windy and drove me running indoors with an unattractive red dribbly nose and no urge to visit the great outdoors. So I cast about the homestead- interior style- for a likely subject to photograph. See, I've even had a tough time posting a blog entry...
Bob and I are enjoying the gentler pursuits of serious studio time, so househole projects be damned! (Plus we've had no money to really buy and install raw materials.) But come this spring, there a few things coming down the pike. Like planting the gardens: only this year, the beds are dug and there is manure a-plenty so we're expecting a bigger, more managed harvest. Also, the top o' the stairs is slated to become Rita's clothing closet and I just cannot wait. I spend major amounts of time running up and down the stairs gathering elements of my wardrobe from several far-flung closets and dressers. We'll also be slathering stucco and quartz rocks on the face of the chimney and making it a worthy and artistic statement. And recreating the outside seating area (loathe to call it a terrace; sounds too grand!) in cement and stone instead of rotting wood. I'm tired already.
The only photo I succeeded in concocting today was Jules's fishnet pantyhose laying on my studio floor and resembling a dancing frog... or is that me? I think we all suffer just a bit form darkeness and cabin fever.