A productive weekend.

I hate to see this weekend end...

 We spent a peaceful morning enjoying the sunshine, birds, and collecting rocks at Queen's bay beach.

(Note: The lake level is really low right now.)

                                     Then the weather changed quickly so we headed home.

 I dived into my studio to start my 3rd clay bird project. This one will be a bit smaller than the others, but only a bit.

         I also made some earrings (and a little pug "window jewel")  with the tiny animal beads I bought recently. 

 Taking pictures and listing them takes some time,

 but I managed to list a couple of them in my Etsy shop as well. 

Back to work tomorrow... time to change gears.

Finding treasure on a gloomy spring day.

 Short version:

Dave and I went for a drive, walked on the beach near Queens Bay and I found a neat skull.

  

Longer version: It was gloomy but mild today, so Dave and I decided to go for a bit of a drive to Queen's Bay. We parked at the side of the highway, and took a steep little trail down to the beach. 

 It was cold, windy and noisy! I was surprised at how big the waves were, so I took a little video .

The rounded rocks are hard to walk on, but I love beachcombing… every chance I get. I found a "couple" of rocks to take home…so many rocks, so few pockets.

  Then I made a most unusual find!!

The partial skull - of a small deer, I think.  One of the short antlers is broken, but the weird part is that they were growing in opposite directions!  If you know anything about this, let me know… PLEASE! (Here's more photos from different angles).

 We didn't walk too far, as the wind made our eyes water and our ears got cold, but I have a new treasure to show for our efforts :)

  Next we drove up to see the little church, of course I had to stop and take pictures. It's rare to find a church with an outhouse out back.

   When we got home, I took Spike for a walk to the mailbox, hoping for one of my bead orders to arrive... but was disappointed. Oh well, there's always tomorrow :)

 Have a great week...

1st Beach day- water

One of the things I love about rural living, is the little unexpected surprises.

The rain stops, the sun steps out from the clouds, and suddenly it's a beautiful day... drop everything, pack some snacks, drinks, camera, blanket & head for the beach. Sometimes there's other folks there and sometimes not.

Come home to get a shower, and then again, maybe not.

Today (May 11, 2011) was a sunny and warm spring day, so Dave & I took Taz (our grandpuppy) to Queens' bay, for our 1st beach day, of the season.

Dave tried to catch fish, while I played with pebbles & Taz, on the beach. I took some silly videos of Taz rolling in the sand, and some huge ravens that argued above us in the trees. Swallows, and Canada geese flew by, a couple of noisy osprey drifted by, while an amorous woodpecker, hammered on a tree nearby. We were lucky to have the beach to ourselves for a couple of hours.

By the time I thought about using sunscreen, we were ready to go home. Needless to say, I now have a sunburn, but at least I'm not greasy from the sunscreen….

We know it's spring time in the mountains, when our creek fed water gets a bit cloudy.

Normally, when we lose water pressure from our taps, we check our water filters to see if they need changing. That's also a warning (this time of year,) of the spring run-off and a good time to fill up a couple of jugs of drinking water, in case it gets cloudy and silty, off & on for a week or two.

Well, later this evening we lost water pressure, and checked the filters…Surprise! Instead of clear water, and the filters looking plugged with sandy bits, It looks like someone poured weak coffee into the filters… with cream… eewwww!

That would explain the brown, silty water coming out of the kitchen tap. Thank goodness the hot water was ok, I was able to fill the dog's water bowl before the hot water coming out of the tap, started to turn brown as well.

I'm hoping it clears up by morning, but I do have to work tomorrow, which means I will need a shower and to wash my hair. Since I was so lucky with the deodorant/antiperspirant situation, I looked up "How to wash your hair with out water".

Thank goodness for technology & Google. Once again, it's baking soda to the rescue! I'm glad I bought an extra-large size box, so I have a plan for my hair in the morning… as for the shower? Well, I can go to work early & give myself a "sponge bath" if I must.

May 15- Update...

Our water is usable, but not drinkable. We've had to get drinking water from our friends, and the Forestry brought us a couple of big jugs and a lot of bottles of drinking water. Turns out there was a slide that messed up our creek. (wondering if it's logging related???) Anyhow, we can shower again :)