OH PETUNIA is going to make some mischief I'm afraid

OH PETUNIA is a character in The Lonely Little Owl. She's going to be getting a few of her own books it seems.

Then there are The Younglings of Dunnottar who are also about to set out on some adventurous escapades into the myths and legends of times that are even more ancient than their own (relatively speaking - their times weren't ancient to THEM although they certainly are to US).

And the characters of both MOON and SURPRISE are in line for their own turns at further adventures.

I've begun a folder that's rapidly filling with ideas for paintings for the gallery I want to create as a part of my shop area, with sculptures to to with them thrown in for good measure.

Meanwhile I'm supposed to be marketing the Mamm Books so want to work on a couple of things for that - trailers are great fun to do, plus I want to do a series of 'Character Interviews' videos for my YouTube channel, which has been sadly neglected but which I intend to give my attention to ASAP.

Luckily for me OH PETUNIA is a fun character, easy to write stories about. 

When it comes to that all of the kid book Characters are fun and going to be easy to write about. I've got a beginning for the first of the Youngling books, the first set where they make the rounds of the local communities learning about all the different specialties of the area they live in. This particular set is going to be aimed at probably grades five and six because they're more complex than the kindergarten/first grade ones.

At any rate, it's going to be incredible fun to do them!

So I'm looking forward to things settling down a bit around here.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

I have a couple of dozen new kid books running around in my head, several blog posts that I want to write, a bunch of paintings and sculptures nagging me to get busy on them, and some very fun trailers just waiting for my attention.

So why am I not doing any of the above?

I have no idea.

This time last year I had just gotten SONG done and The Mamm Books were beginning, not as a set of five books but as the first (single) book of a set of seven. Then they became the set instead and the other six books remain to be written.

Now there's no logical reason for me to not be tending to what I need to be tending to, so why am I not doing it?

Elephino.

Fatigue has me strapped at the moment, and I've got another day of shift-work tomorrow before Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday when it will be shop-work instead - then I head for the Forks and Bemidji until Sunday which is Home For The Holidays at the Festival Hall. Then another Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of shop-work before it's back to shift-work for me.

The good news is that the shop-work, once it's a more settled routine thing, will provide me with designated time to follow through on the things it inspires me to do - which includes most of the above. 

I can tend the shop and write kid stories (they aren't as emotionally involved for me as the Mamm Books so I'm not likely to spend hours on end in tears as I write difficult scenes), get the blog posts written, sketch out the paintings and sculptures and maybe even work on some of them if I can stake out a bit of a work-space, and even do the trailers.

I just have to focus on making that environment my new 'creative' place.

I sure as hell wish I had the resources with which to really stake out a space for myself and transfer my own working studio from my house to one of the empty shop areas.

I remember some places in Old Colorado City that artists used for their working studios - it was great! They had their finished pieces there for sale and their works in progress in front of them, getting done.

Huh.

If wishes were horses I'd have a herd.

A Lady Where I Work Had A Great Idea

At least I think it's a great idea!

Being unable to implement it my own self, lacking the requisite skills and history, I put out a Facebook post and we'll see what comes of it.

We were talking about the shop, Close To Home/Deronda designs, my sister has invited me to join her with at the local place that will soon be opening, called  ' The Q '  in our hometown.

This was a small group of elder ladies; we were talking about what kinds of shops would be good to have in our little town, and one of the ladies said, 'How about a Norwegian shop?'

The next lady added, 'How about a German one?'

Many of the early settlers in our area were of Norwegian or German origin; needless to say they brought with them their traditions - which are incredible (except for lutefisk) - and my eyes lit up at the thought of being able to see, taste, hear, touch, and smell a collection of the best of the best that the families of our settlers can and do still produce.

Being as I hadn't eaten in more than a few hours, my belly was the first to kick into high gear as I sat down to do the Facebook post - and just the thought of the awesome stuff that are traditional around here had my mouth watering. Minus the lutefisk, of course. 

Since I'm not Norwegian, and only a little bit German, and not at all German From Russia, I'm not the one who has what it takes to produce the wonderful stuff that many in this area kind of just take for granted.

And the smorgasbord my belly craves is only just the beginning.

Into my head popped some of the traditional costumes.

Into my head popped some of the music.

Into my head popped some of the artwork.

Into my head popped some of the sweater designs, and scarves, and mittens.

Into my head popped accents of the languages of those who settled here.

Just sayin'. 

Me, I think it would be an awesome project to collect family stories 'from the locals', and photos if they want, and pictures of stuff they make, and recipes of foods they prepare (with tips and helpful hints), and at least the words to some of the songs, and traditions, and ... and ... and ...

And put it all together into another local book about Small Town USA! 

Think of all the stuff I'd learn in the process! It would be a rare and priceless gift, I tell you true.

So I personally would LOVE to have all the Norskys and Krauts in the vicinity get together and present to the rest of us a cumulative collection of everything they've got to show off - which is plenty, let me tell you! 

I would love to do a full color book of it all, but that's cost-prohibitive in print form so only the cover would get to be colored - BUT Kindle does color without the added cost that goes along with print so a 'match' deal would probably be a good idea for using the color photos ... they'd be greyscale in the print books but full color in the Kindle version ... hmmm ... I think I like that idea.

But it isn't going to be up to me so there will be no getting up of my hopes here.

HA.

My hopes are already up for what could turn out to be so much fun I can't even think of it without grinning - not to mention the heaven my belly would be in if our friends and neighbors can be talked into it. Mmmmmmm ... 

Right.

It's past my bedtime right now.

What do you bet I'll be dreaming of kuchen and knoephle soup and kraut and sausage and krumkake and etc. and end up waking myself up with a growling stomach and drooling all over my pillow? 

WHY can't I write about this stuff in the daytime?!?!

Promo Ideas?

Excited! ... And So It Begins ... Close to Home ... ' In the Q '

The Mamm Books, and all the others, are heading for a new home base.

Close to Home/Deronda designs has joined with  ' The Q '  on Main Street of Fessenden ND USA - and my books and I have been invited along on what's sure to be an exciting adventure!

Above is a photo of the very beginning of what we have in mind for the Mamm Books. Yet to be assembled for display are areas for 'Small Town USA' and the kid books (aka Juvenile Fiction), and a comfy 'Mamm Chair' for resting yourself in. I may well add some of my artwork as we go along ...

'Deronda designs' will stun you with creative uses of hand-made lampwork beads, precious metals, leather ... and whatever else the endlessly active mind of Deronda throws her way!

A bit of history:

Built in 1908 the Quarve Building is one of the oldest surviving structures in this small North Dakota USA town.

The two-story brick building dominates its corner of Main Street and welcomes one to Fessenden with its own indomitable style.

Originally the home of a furniture and home supply store, the double doors of the Quarve Building opened into the store's main floor - and a wide set of steps led directly into the lower level where you could find more merchandise, whatever you might need or want for your home. 

A secondary outside door led to the apartments on the second story, now inaccessible. Locals can and will tell you stories about the 'little old ladies' who lived upstairs. One local woman says, 'The stairs creaked, so by the time you got to the top you saw fourteen heads poking out of doors to see who was coming!'

Between then and now the building has sat empty, has been used as a Hobby Shop and Ceramics Shop, had a small library in it, been the headquarters of a couple of marketing ventures - and is now opening its welcoming doors once again.

This time it is home to  ' The Q '  which in turn is home to several local businesses.

Well, it will be as soon as we all get moved in and ready to roll!

The front window slots are taken by 'The Melding Pot' which is a sort of modern-day Curiosity Shop, and a Coffee Shop.

Next in line is Close to Home/Deronda designs, with me in tow as well as a vendor of Christian-Family oriented items including books and gifts.

Since we're only just beginning I can't say for sure who will fill the four remaining shop spots except that one will be a business office.

These little shops extend along the front and the south wall of  ' The Q ' leaving a large space open. On the north wall of that large open space is a bank of six small cubby areas suitable for doing homework and/or on-line time, or whatever you might need a quiet work space for.

I believe the plan is to use the big open space as a 'community living room' of sorts, with seating where friends can meet and share a cuppa, where groups can host showers or meetings or ... who knows?

A smaller raised area, set apart by a half-wall, has been suggested as a place for local artists to have shows of their work.

' The Q ' is a work in progress and is only just beginning to tap the creativity of local artisans, business-people, and gifted people of all sorts.

Me, I'm darned excited, thrilled actually, to be a part of the whole thing.

' The Q ' might surprise you; it will almost certainly please you. This is a local venue for us to show you what we're made of and what we make of the gifts we've been blessed with.

Duke's Loon

A while back my grandson and I got ourselves matching stuffed loons who sound KIND of like loons when you squeeze them.

Just today Duke, who is fond of stuffed critters, found mine!

He brings it to me.

He guards it.

He carefully sets it on the table beside where I'm working.

Then he looks at me until I pick it up and give it a squeeze.

He's always been very careful with his critters - hasn't torn a one of them, although I had to stop letting him have golf balls because he'd get them opened up in a few seconds.

This critter he seems to be extra gentle with, or maybe I'm just more noticing. When he picks it up, it's always by one of its little wings, and he carries it around that way. And he never exerts enough pressure to make it do its loon call (of sorts) but brings it to me instead.

This guy makes me smile.

I'm Not ONLY Just About 'The Olden Days'

Here are samples of some of my more abstract type of work.

The first one is a contemplative piece. 

I call it that because I was contemplating it when I got it to this stage to figure out where it was going to go, right? 

A hint of tint here and there, greens and blues and browns, a little gold maybe, a dab of orange or yellow or red ... to subtly bring out the meadow, stream, rocks, sunrise/set I saw when I looked at it first.

When the next day came and I was looking at it again, I saw none of those things.

I saw a desert.

The next day I saw the ocean.

Then it was mountains.

That's when I figured out that this piece had already gotten to where it was going.

Different people see entirely different things, and some are like me and see completely dissimilar scenes from one day to the next.

I did these circles to go with the big piece - it's 41x42; the piece (below) on black is 15 1/2 by 16 1/2 and the solo circles are in 7" embroidery hoops.

They're plaster textured with copper and bronze metallic glaze. The big one is on canvas with a narrow black frame; the middle one is on wood painted black; the small ones are on fabric stretched into the hoops. 

These photos are a far cry from good enough - the texturing picks up whatever light is around so there are highlights and shadows and such.

Anyhow ... these are definitely unlike a lot of my stuff, especially recent work. 

Heating With Wood - and other stuff

I'm feeding my fire and thinking that I want to get that stick pile by the windows used up (or moved) so I can get those windows sealed/covered and move this little work table in there. This room (the 'dining room') is always cold; even in the hottest part of summer it's barely sixty in here so you'd think the insulating would be awesome - but it won't really warm up ever, no matter what. So ... I'll move my work station into the kitchen which DOES warm up!

I've got a big quilt I'll hang over the attic hall door and the door to the butler's pantry from the dining room side; then I can open the kitchen door into the attic hall/bathroom/back bedroom and see how that works. 

If the back bedroom heats up better than the dining room, that would be a good thing. My big desk is in that room.

But we shall see what we shall see I reckon.

I've got a bunch of cutting to do downstairs, getting the sticks and logs into lengths I can use. Since I have to take the window sticks down there to cut them anyway I may as well just throw them down there now and get that window area opened up, huh? 

And, while I'm thinking about it, I'll need to see if the thrift shop has any quilts or bedspread or such that I can hang over the windows in the dining room. I like having the light come in, but don't particularly like the cold coming in nor do I really enjoy looking out the windows and watching the snow come down (like it is now) out of a bleak and cold sky. If I move my work station to the kitchen or back bedroom, the only use I'll have for this room is if I can't keep the back bedroom warm enough to use and have to come in here to sleep in the platform bed with its heated mattress pad and electric blanket.

It will be as it will be and I'll learn as I go here. 

I give the fire its final feeding before I head for bed, and the temp drops about fifteen degrees in the eight hours I'm down for the count. When I get up and start feeding it again, it doesn't take long, maybe 20 minutes, for the kitchen itself to make up that fifteen degrees but the bleed into the dining room seems to take forEVER. And of course it isn't really all that long, an hour or so all told once the kitchen's hot and the butler's pantry door gets opened ... it just feels like a long time.

#
Got that stick pile down below the level of the window at least. Grabbed one of the little chain saws and started cutting away on the long sticks I'd stacked in front of the window.

Those are my cooking sticks and my hotting the place up fast sticks. I go through quite a few of them so it's a good thing I have lots of that size. They're kind of a pain in the behind to gather but I need them. They not only get a good hot fire going really fast, they're the ones that lay down that bed of hot embers for the bigger pieces to go onto. So yeah, I like my sticks that are a finger or two wide. Yep. Just big enough around so I can't break them by hand or foot and have to cut them.

Personally, for my particular stove, I'd love to have a whole supply of pieces that are that size, plus of course the kindling twigs for the initial starting, plus a LOT that are as big around as my arm, and a bunch that are as big around as my legs - which you have to remember I have chicken legs and can almost reach around my upper thighs with my hands. That way I wouldn't have to split any.

The fire box of my stove is only about 8 by 8 by 20; there are times I wish it was way bigger, but it serves well enough for the most part. Coincidentally, the space alongside of it between the wall and the back door frame is the perfect size for me to stack wood of just the right length on. The old radiator is there so I just pile the wood on top of it and it's all good.

There's a little rod above the cooktop's six burners, connected in front of and just below the warming boxes that comes in handy. That's where I hang my wash cloth, dry cloth, and most generally a pair of wool socks. The wash and dry cloths are right there when I wash my hands and face in the wash kettle of hot water I keep on the stove, and the wool socks are almighty toasty when I put them on.

[Why in the world there's a rod on the front of the stove I have no idea. Whatever you hang on there is just going to be in the way if you have to open the oven door or get the ash box out to dump it.] 

Right now I also have a big kettle of dye on the top of my stove. It's got elm bark in it, and vinegar (since whoever said that elm bark has enough tannin in it to make things dyed with it colorfast either has different kinds of elm trees or lied) and a cotton dish towel that I want to become brown.

I doubt the dish towel will take any color as I already used that batch of dye for a long length of cotton fabric. But you never know. It's just a dish towel that I'm going to use for a dish towel so if it comes out looking like a dirty brown that's okay. One of these days I'll re-dye it and see what happens.

Made a nice brown skirt out of that long length of cotton, I did. Cooked it a good long time over the hot part of the stove top and let it cool down some before taking it out. Twisted the water out of it and left it twisted tight while it dried in my little roaster in the oven (which wasn't very hot right then as I was letting the fire go out for the night). Dried right nice I have to say, and I've got myself one of those crinkle skirts to wear with my yellow Sidhelagh outfit, the one with the plaid wool pants and yellow tunic with long sleeves. Since I'll have the brown crinkle skirt on I'll just leave the tunic long instead of hiking up one side like I usually do. It goes down about to my knees; the skirt's just about full length on me. Throw a belt around the whole works to hold the pants and the skirt on and cinch me in and I'm good to go. On the belt will likely go the felted wool bag with belt slits in the back of it - just because I like it, and because it's a great place to carry stuff like my phone, card case, pens ... whatever. I can even fit a book in there if need be. And I can wear a pair of the felted wool boots if I want warm feet, or ballet flats, or heeled boots. 

Back to topic, b.

Oh yeah.

If you go back up to that photo up there, you'll see some of my pans just this side of the stove. They're sitting on top of the little parlor stove I had hooked up before I got the big one. I like things handy so I had put a small wooden cupboard there to set things on top of and put stuff into (non-perishables and spices and such) but switched that out of there in a fast hurry when I realized that there's a vent out from the fire box along that side; the wooden cupboard was NOT okay where it was. But the cast iron parlor stove is great there. I can put hot pans onto it and keep the ones I'm not using at the moment on it too. 

That's one of my cast iron skillets, with a cast iron griddle setting on top of it and a copper bottomed sauce pan on top of that. The grey enamel-ware coffee pot is sitting on top of an enamel-ware double boiler insert on the other 'burner' of the little parlor stove. 

When I start griping about having to cut wood to fit into the fire box of my cook stove, I remind myself that the little parlor stove's wood has to be twice as short and quit griping.

The point is that you do NOT put anything that can burn anywhere near that fire box on the wood stove, only inside of it.

Stacking the firewood next to the other side (the oven side) is fine, though. Just don't put it right up against the stove. The two burners on that side are the 'cool' ones, with the two in the middle being 'medium' and the ones directly over the fire box the 'hot' ones.

Also, the wall behind the stove is lath and plaster; there's 'always' been a big wood stove right there in that kitchen but I still painted that wall with fire-proofing paint and put some tin panels behind the stove.  Just because.

You'd think that the stuff up on top of the warmers would get really hot but it doesn't. If I put those empty enamel-ware things (big coffee pot and roaster) down on the cooktop they'd be in sad shape in short order and I'd be mad as hell at myself. But they're fine up where they are. I keep a long-handled flipper up there, and a dipper too.

The dipper is for when I want really hot really fast and use cedar. It burns furiously and sometimes I can see flames jumping up the bit of chimney between the cooktop and the warmers - there's a vent in it that I keep open so I can watch for those little flames. When they show up I take off the back burner and drizzle a little water onto the flames at the back part of the fire box (only directly onto the burning wood mind you) to slow them down. Works every time. Having a nice fire going is good, but not if it flares up like that. So I watch.

And you can't use just any old pans on just any old part of the stove. That sauce pan, for example, has a plastic handle so I can only use it on a part of the stove where the handle can stick out over the side and not be over a hot part of the cooktop.

The only other thing I can think of is that when you're done cooking whatever you're cooking you have to take the pan off the cooktop. It's not like you can just turn that burner off you know. Learned that one the hard way I did, when I left a skillet on there and sat down to eat my bacon and eggs and the bloody leftover bacon fat ended up smoking me out. Hence the parlor stove right there. You could just move the pan to a cooler part of the stove I suppose, but better safe than sorry sez I. Take the pans off the cooktop.

And never ever ever set anything burnable on it.

Also, and this is something my grandmother taught me many long years ago, never wash your cast iron stuff like you do regular pans and most certainly don't put them into a dishwasher unless you plan to re-season them before you use them again. Re-seasoning them isn't hard but if you forget you're gonna be almighty sorry because you'll have stuff sticking to them like crazy. 

To season cast iron all you do is coat the inside with cooking oil and set it in the oven. Well yes, when you're using your wood stove. Or if you have a regular range, cook the pan for while but not on high heat. You'll want to do this once in a great while no matter what, but you won't have to worry much about it usually.

Cleaning them is a matter of just rinsing and then wiping them clean and calling it good. If you're persnickety about having to boil everything and using soap on even your cast iron things, just don't forget to make seasoning them a regular part of your clean-up routine or you'll end up hating them with a passion.

Just sayin'.

Anyway, the wood stove is wonderful for more than you'd think.

Here's Duke curled up on his bed in the kitchen, in front of the old trunk I use for pieces of lath from demolishing old lath and plaster walls. Rather than haul them out to the dump to be burned (wastefully, in my opinion) out there, I've kept them to burn my own self - they're easy to break to size and are just as great as the sticks for my cooking and hotting fires. You'll see a few pieces of scrap lumber that are going to go into the fire, too. Yep. And my sock dryer. Works like a charm that does.

One last thing: I looked at that photo up there again and noticed something fairly significant. See the handle sticking out of the burner top nearest us? That's the HOT burner and if you leave that handle on it and forget to pick up a potholder before grabbing it you're gonna get burned. Do NOT leave the handle there! Move it to one of the cooler burner circles where it's handy but not liable to burn your hand. If your stove has been going for a good while even the middle circles are going to hot up so move it on over to the end.

There. That should do it. If I think of anything else of vital importance I'll add it.

Brann Sails

Amazon Address

https://createspace.com/5095176

Kindle Address

what the heck - totally forgot to kindle this one so it will be a day or so before I have a Kindle Address for it

Brann Bides

Amazon Address

https://www.createspace.com/5094920

Kindle Address

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PDKI0IG

This is the first of The Younglings of Dunnottar books.

Brann's having one of those days.

Mama Aine can't keep up with him and is frazzled and frustrated.

Luckily Mamm has an idea.

Brann ends up having a quiet little adventure and settles down to bide for a while.

So does Mama Aine.

The Surprise

Kindle Address
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PCHSZJY


Amazon Address
https://www.createspace.com/5093206

This cover is still in review but ought to be cleared shortly!

Jessie and her best friend, a faerie called Sedge, find a surprise on their path and take it home.

As the days pass the two friends tell the surprise about the walks they take.

One day there's a change in the surprise. Sedge wants to fix it but is happy when the change brings something special.

The Lonely Little Owl Addresses

Kindle Address

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PC3A3FC

Amazon Address

https://www.createspace.com/5093153

Little Oscar the owl is nocturnal and lonesome.

He goes in search of friends who are awake in the night and finds Barry the bat - or Barry finds him!

Together the two flying nocturnals go on a quest along the night-time forest path. They find more nocturnal friends than they expected!

Illustrations : Works In Progress

These are a few of the rough draft drawings for some of the kid books I've been working on.

From here I'll take their individual working files into a couple of computer programs to clean them up some and get them formatted and print-ready.

Then they all get sized, again individually, for their respective places on the pages of the books, aligned just right, and inserted into their spots in the text files.

Then I get the cover designs and artwork done (the covers get to be in color!).

Then the book files get a final edit and off they go. 

IF I manage to do it right, The Surprise, The Lonely Little Owl, Brann Bides, and Brann Sails ought to be available on Kindle and at Amazon sometime next week. I'm also re-doing a Brann book that I'm calling Brann's Picnic Adventure but that one will take longer ... 

Has America Found Her Voice?

I seem to hear the stirring of an echo in the air. 

Could it be a refrain from an old song we had long forgotten?

I hope so.

I really really hope so, because the melody is lovely in my ears.

It is the sound of many many Voices Singing.

It is the Song of America and We The People of the United States of America have begun to Sing it.

We are many.

We are diverse.

Our Voices rise in distinctly differing ranges, each and all separately beautiful; when they join it is a Symphony of Unity.

And so I say: 

SING together, People of the United States - please please don't stop Singing. 

Your Song is strong, and proud, and so beautiful, so very beautiful.

Seein' A WHOLE Lotta Red in ND

Fancy that.

Now to check out the rest of the country.

North Dakota Isn't Broken. It's not even broke.

Just a thought as the time draws nigh for us to cast our ballots.

There are several items on our voting agenda this year besides the people we will vote in or out of office.

North Dakotans, 'old family' members and 'newcomers' alike, need to remember something about this state.

When the rest of the world got itself into the red, North Dakota stood almost alone in the black. 

It seems we're not all that susceptible to the 'peer pressure' that the rest of the world puts on us; we don't particularly care all that much about 'keeping up with the Jones' from what I've noticed.

People have moved into this strong state for a reason. The reason is that it has remained strong through turbulent times. The reason behind THAT has been the way we choose to vote.

Think very carefully as you cast your ballots, people of ND. When others flounder, ND keeps its balance. 

If you disagree with the way we're doing things here and think this state needs fixing, the rest of the world is right outside our borders. ND isn't broken. Go fix someplace else.