So Much Talent!

We are a large family and there is a lot of talent shown in lots of people within this family!  I am going to feature one brother in this blog.  He is the middle brother of 5 brothers and his name is Roy.

                                                 Isn't he a handsome one?!

His talents are many and include woodworking.  He has made many furniture pieces for me and I am so blessed to have a custom made cutting table/storage unit in my sewing room, a stand for my aquarium, a custom made turntable for my dinning table, several shadow box display cases, a storage shelf for painting supplies, a tall cabinet for projects, etc., etc.,  He does intarsia work and did this eagle for my husband.

This eagle has a wingspan of 30+ inches!

The work Roy does is what I call excellent!  He has done toy wooden "vintage" vehicles, puzzles, and some wonderful things for himself, including an Irish harp, which I am sorry to say, I don't have a photo of!

What I want to feature here today are these scroll saw designs that he did for my daughter's horse 4-H club fundraiser.  We will be selling raffle tickets for these, but I wanted to show them off here and brag a little bit about my brother!

 The little cowboy

   

This reminds me of Charles, one of the boys in our club!

(I have to apologize for the photography!)

Dog leading horse

Several people loved this one last year because of the golden retriever!

And last:

Cowboy and his horse

Hope you enjoy seeing these pieces of artwork.  They make me smile!

Thank you, Roy!





Chickens!

Some of my flock including the cock of the walk!  Isn't he a beauty!  He is a buff orphington rooster about three years old that I bought from local feed store as a day old chick.

These are year old hens, except for the other buff orphington there eating hen scratch with the Rhode Island Red hens.  She is old! about 6 years old.  She still lays a few eggs in the springtime!

Here are the Bourbon Red turkeys that live with the chickens.  All the neighbors get a kick out of watching the tom strutting and gobbling whenever someone comes within his eyesight!  The hen lays lots of eggs starting in spring and going all summer!  She will lay a dozen or so, then go broody and tries to set.  It takes several days of keeping her from the nest to get her out of the broody mood, then she starts laying again.

Here is the nest with a couple eggs freshly laid.  We love fresh eggs and when the hens can wander around the yard and eat greens and bugs, the eggs are really full of nutrients.  You can tell when they have been eating lots of greens when the yolks turn a really rich orange color.  I love my flock and always enjoy spending time keeping their feed container filled and the water fresh.

Now, here are some of the tote bags I have made from the chicken feed sacks that I have collected.

Several years ago I decided to make some tote bags out of animal feed bags.  The first ones were not very attractive even though they were and are still functional.

I carry all sorts of things in these totes, and the big one is used for our supplement containers whenever Bob and I go on overnight jaunts. I have worked at getting the dimensions just right and now I can cut and sew one of these wonderfully strong bags in less than an hour!

Here is one of the latest totes, made out of pig feed.  Some people love green and some people love pigs!

These are the baby pigs born recently at the pig farm where I get the pink and purple feed bags from some wonderful, generous and friendly people, Greg & Susan Gonzalez at West Coast Show Pig Genetics.  Aren't they just the cutest!!!?  You can find them on Facebook.

These totes are strong as iron and can be wiped clean with a damp cloth.  Some of them I use plastic grommets to  make them more "stylish"!  My daughter posted a guest blog on her blogspot PonderedPrimedPerfected.blogspot.com and it was picked up and featured on Roadkill Rescue and most recently, BetterAfter!  What a kick in the pants! There is something fulfilling and rewarding about making something useful out of something that would otherwise be thrown away.  It is something that makes me smile.

This blogspot is still in it's infancy and has lots of room for improvement, but it will come with time and study, when I am not making more totes.  Hope you find something that makes you smile every day!