While I've Been Gone,

While I haven't been writing, we have been busy, not just goofing off. The bell shop stayed open and we did two shows. Midland was good to Philip as always and the Huffines Art Walk was great. The weather even cooperated in Arlington this year. You never know with that show. Last year we froze most of the weekend.

Fall came and we did experience some color change, even here in the Texas Hill Country.

 

This sumac is out in the lower pasture.

 

Couldn't resist this weed picture taken at the county park near us.

Also from the county park.

                                 
I could not take a picture that actually did justice to this beautiful tree, possibly a Bradford Pear? It belongs to my neighbor who lives right at the turn onto Welfare Road. It is stunning every year.

From my front porch.

 

 

Update

The Midland Art Show was a great success. Philip went alone, but caught up on the gossip and Midland news from all the regular customers. Apparently some sort of confusion occurred and he was not assigned his usual booth space. We think most people who looked for him, did indeed find him. However, if you are reading this and you are a Midland customer who didn't see him, certainly let us know if you needed a bell.

The next show will be in Richardson, TX at the Huffhines Art Trails on Oct 26-27th. It is always a great show even if the weather can sometimes be a little chilly!

And finally, another picture of one of the bells in its new home. This one hangs from a tree in a lovely backyard in Austin, TX.

        And yes, there is a pipe chime hanging in the same tree, but that's ok with us. Really.... it is.

Catching UP

So, it has been a while since I posted. I will give a quick re-cap.

Here is a picture from one of our great customers. These are their bells hanging in the beautiful area of The Woodlands.

 

We visited with this couple and many, many more wonderful customers and friends at the Rockport Show. And while  it was hot that weekend, it certainly wasn't the hottest weekend we

ever spent there.

 

Since Rockport, we have been busy with lots of personal things. The most important of all was the visit from both of our daughters and their families. I will remind those of you who have known us for a long time, that those show notices that announced the birth of a grandchild totaled FIVE and all five of those cuties spent two weeks with us. There is one seven year old, two five year olds and two two year olds. Four boys and one girl. Now, there were six adults present, so we should have had no problems.  Philip and I forgot what it took to feed, bathe and entertain so many little kids. In fairness, remember, we only raised two sweet, docile (ha) little girls . Well, I have a new weight loss program for anyone interested. I will loan you these five kiddos... I lost five pounds trying to keep up!

 

But, we had a great time. They are gone now and we miss them (and their noise) and their parents very much.

 

So... now it is back to work. The next show coming up will be in Midland in September.

 

                                                           Septemberfest!!

                                              http://museumsw.org/septfest

                                                 

 

 

 

I





Happy Fourth of July

                                                  We hope you have a great day tomorrow!!

 

And then we hope to see many of you on Saturday or Sunday at the Rockport Arts Festival. Bring your bug spray, cool clothes and umbrella.

Plan to purchase a festival T-shirt. The shirt design is always made by a Rockport student. This year, this is the student with his T-shirt design:

This is Isaac Lane -
 and his cool shirt. It comes in several colors.

Here is a link to the Festival information: http://www.rockportartcenter.com/events/eventdetail.php?uid=1269

No Nashville

Sadly, we will not be driving to Nashville, TN for Father's Day weekend this year to attend the usual American Artisan show. Due to construction going on in Centennial Park, where the show is usually held, there will be no show. We are mailing out a card to our past Nashville customers to let them know about this situation. Although the drive was a long one, we did always enjoy the art show. We will miss this the show.

So, next we have the July Rockport Art Festival on the 6th and 7th of July. We are busy getting bells ready already!

Meanwhile, here is what is going on outside our shop....

This Tom turkey came strolling into our property, right down the driveway and down the back fence line one day last week.

The agave by our front gate is getting ready to bloom, which means it then will then soon die :(

 

There are three jackrabbits hopping around on all sides of the house and shop.

 

The cactus are blooming.

 

And... it has rained enough that mushrooms are growing and we are having to constantly mow.

 

So... that's all for now. We will keep working and hope to see many of you in Rockport next month.

 

 

 

A Brief Respite

Fayetteville was great. This was a nice show, as always. The weather was perfect and the people - both customers and the hosts of the show, were wonderful.

We came home, rested up a little, but also worked hard to get the orders out. These were orders from all three recent shows. And... we did it. So, then we took off for a trip.

We went to Tampa, Florida to visit with friends, lay out in the sun and celebrate our anniversary. Yes, 42 years married, thank you very much.

I took lots of photos. Here are just a few.

One morning, I watched lots of pelicans outside the window of our hotel room.

                                          I caught this guy as he finished his morning bath.

                                                                   More pelican shots.

                              The pelicans and the cranes had to share their fishing area with this guy.

Then we flew out to Indiana to daughter, Carla and family for a few days. All was great with them. The grandkids are a hoot and growing like crazy.

Now.. we are back home, catching up on sleep and gearing up for the Fourth of July show at Rockport!!

Getting ready for Fayetteville art show...

Yes, we are getting ready for this show. We are welding, cutting sails, putting on the finishing patina on the sails, etc, etc. Meanwhile, Mother Nature has been busy on the ole Dewey Compound as well.

In this little evergreen at the back of our house, I discovered this nest.

 

                                                        These are baby cardinals.

Then there is this nest sitting atop a naked outdoor light bubl up against the front of the house.

 

I think there are three little birds and they belong to this parent. The other parent was nearby chirping at me. I haven't had a chance to hunt through the bird book to identify this guy.

 

Then out in the garden there is this little mama dove sitting on her nest. She is very patient and does not fly away even when I work in the garden right under her tree. She is too high up for me to photograph the inside of the nest.

 

And the agave spire is still growing right at the gate.

 

 

And lest we not forget the squirrel relocation program.

We are up to squirrel number NINE. In fact, we relocated two in one day, yesterday.

The last three have been kind of small, so we are assuming they are of the youngest generation.

 

 

So, that is what has been going on out here besides bell making!!

 

After King William

We had a  great show last Saturday at King William, the end of San Antonio's Fiesta. In fact, we were so busy, I didn't take any pictures. A light rain came along at about 5:00 pm. That actually worked out ok as far as getting the crowd to finish buying and start to head on home or to get their seats for the night parade.
HOWEVER... our booth was under some trees, so the tent became wet and dirty and we had to pack it away like that. This meant on Sunday instead of getting to rest up, we had to clean the tent. Unpacking and packing it back up was bad enough on Saturday. Then we had to do it all over again so we could wash it on Sunday.

                                         While we were at it, we washed all of the curtains.

                                                 Here I am scrubbing the tent top.

                                             Oh yeah, and we relocated squirrel number seven.

Between Shows

We are very busy getting ready for the King William Show this coming weekend. But... we have been doing a few other things too.

We moved squirrel number six so he could join his relatives at the new squirrel resort a couple of miles away.

We have been keeping an eye on our two little deer herds. We have both a white tail group and an Axis group. Here is a picture of the Axis group dining during the afternoon down below the house.

I have also been keeping track via photo of the agave at our gate this is about to bloom. Believe it or not, in all the time we have lived here (since 1982) this is the first agave to bloom on our property.
Here is how tall the bloom is as of yesterday.

                            The cactus, transplanted from the New Mexico desert, also bloomed.

And, lest you think all we do is work on bells; here is the first of the harvest from my garden. Small, but more to come!

Ok.... back to work!

Whew!!

                               The Woodlands Waterway show is done and it was GREAT.

The weather was perfect. Loading and unloading went very, very well.  This is one of the best run shows we participate in. We saw repeat customers who have become friends over the years of this show. We saw old friends who we have done art shows with for a long time; long enough to watch their kids grow up and become adults!

                 Here are Chip and Debra DuPont booths at the far end of the show from us.

                                                                       Deb's work.

Chip's work.

                           Two great people, as are most art show folks. Here is a link to their website:
                                                              http://dupontstudio.com

This is a picture of the townhouse complex across the waterway from the art show. On an earlier entry, I posted a picture of one of our bells on one of the patios. I managed a picture of another bell that has been there for a few years.

Now, we are home getting orders finished up from this show and getting ready for the King William show on the last weekend of Fiesta in San Antonio.

By the way... we are now up to 4 in the squirrel relocation program. One more was relocated to the creek area on Tuesday. We have seen another one but it has avoided the trap so far.

Gettting Ready for The Woodlands Waterway Festival

Ah... we were going to be so well prepared. And actually we did pretty well, just had a few interruptions.
First, because we ran out of bells last year... on Saturday, we thought of a way to have more bells with us but yet still not have to haul the big trailer over here. Last Sunday, we loaded my poor little car down with bells and drove over to The Woodlands and stored that load into a storage facility.
So, back home, we are ready to get crackin on Monday with no interruptions. However, the contituation of the squirrel relocation program gives us some pause when we catch squirrel #2

And just so you feel ok about this relocation effort, here is a picture of the Joshua Creek area not terribly far from where we live, which is now the new squirrel habitat.

The water is actually running in the creek now and their are lots of oak trees to the left of this shot, which is where the little squirrel took off for.

So... we worked all week with plans to leave for Houston by noon on Thurs. But, mother nature delayed us a little on Thurs morning when I went out to check the Have-a-Heart trap again for another squirrel, only to find something a little bigger in the trap.

A grey fox. We weren't sure about the "release" thing for this little guy, since we know they sometimes carry rabies. So we called the county animal control person, who showed up promptly, made a visual assessment and determined he/she looked healthy and offered to release the little guy elsewhere. We had to spend some time pondering the solution (valuable bell making time!).

 But since we no longer have any outdoor animals to worry that they might be prey for the fox, we just released him right there. After a good growl at us, he/she took off for the lower pasture and we went back to getting ready for the show. 

How Many Squirrels Does It Take To Stop a Truck?

Remember the earlier posting about the big white truck used to bring your bells to you at the show?? And how some cute, little furry creatures DESTROYED all the wiring in its engine when they built their gigantic nest under the hood?
Well, the truck is back from the shop, ready to travel to Houston next weekend... and we have started a squirrel relocation program.Most folks have advised us to start the squirrel eradication program, but we wanted to be humane.

Squirrel #1 left on Friday and went to the Little Joshua Creek area to live.

Now don't worry about this little guy. He seemed quite happy upon release and headed down to the creek (probably to catch up with the racoon we released down their last year).

New Thought on Bells as Wedding Gifts

Over the years we have had customers buy a bell and explain that this was not their first bell. When we try to help them chose a bell to "go with" their others, they explain that this is really a replacement bell for one or more bells lost in a divorce.

 Recently, we had a customer buy such a bell because he has now lost his second bell in a divorce. He has been divorced twice and lost custody of the bell each time. Hmmm. This caused us to think that we need to create something to help out in these situations. So, we are thinking perhaps we need to create a document that the purchaser of a bell as a wedding gift can give to the receiving couple... like a Pre-Nup???

 

Now, what would make this easier for the future divorcing couple, is for the gift giver to give TWO bells as a wedding gift so that if a divorce occurs, the couple can at least split up the two bells.

 

Just a thought. You know, we just want to be helpful.

 

We head to the Woodlands Waterway show in mid April. Hope to see all Houston area folks there.

We Could Have Been On CarTalk (on NPR)!

We have listened to CarTalk for years and laughed so hard sometimes, we thought we might have to pull over to the side of the road. So, not long ago someone called in to tell about their car that wouldn't start and the two hosts came up with the solution that a squirrel had probably built a nest in the car's engine. Ha Ha, very funny.

Hmmm, not so funny when it happens to us! We hadn't driven the truck in several days. We had been on our trip to CA, so the truck had been sitting for a while. AND... it has been unusually cold for this time of the year. So... this is what happened to us.

 

If you even wondered what a squirrel nest was made of?? Well this one was made of moss from our oak trees and No, there were no babies in there. But, what was under there was several chewed up wires. So much damage, that the truck had to be hauled in to get repaired.

We don't want talk about how much money this little squirrel family adventure is going to cost us. But, the truck has to get fixed in a hurry so that we are ready for the Woodlands show in two weeks.
I think I mentioned in an earlier post that our last shop dog passed away. The last two dogs we have had around here were good squirrel chasers. One of those was Carla's dog, Eva. She is up in Indiana now... we may have to get Carla to bring her back. She would climb right up into a tree after the squirrels. The dogs never caught one, but them kept them in check.