Welcome Feathered Friend!

I could not stand it anymore.

I can not stand being without a bird anymore. Ever since Merlin died...I've felt disconnected. I've always had a bird near me and to be without one has been almost...torture. I'm angry more often and more intensely than ever before. I bitch about everything. And most of all...I miss the company while the BF is at work. I want to CRY a siiiiiiiigh of relief as now a bird is back into my life. She (I think this is a female) is a 9 week old cockatiel...very sweet, very calm. She was not hand raised but was raised by her natural parents and is mostly hand tame.

I just happened to see this teeny-tiny ad in the classifieds of our local newspaper on July 4th when I went to get some coffee at the local fair trade coffee house. I called her and left a message. She called me back the same day but was not in town due to the holiday. I can understand that. So she said she would give me a call when she was available and we would set up a time see and interact with the birdies. That day was today.

I've purposefully looked every day since then for another ad for birds and I have not found one. The lady who was selling them said I was the first to call, and four more people have called since the 4th! Destined to be? I really could not tell yea.

She is cute as a button! Her wings are clipped and her tail is cropped (to prevent damage and split feathers). It was a hard choice between her sibling and her...but she was the first to climb onto my shoulder and whisper in my ear. LOL Literally she squeaked in my ear. OOOOH I'm in love! Her sibling was much more skittish and a bit peckish, but he settled down once we started talking to him. I would have took them both, but no room and I wouldn't like the noise. She was half the price of pet-shop cocktails, and I really wasn't keen on purchasing from a pet-shop anyways. This is this ladies third batch of babies and she claims to never have had a complaint about the babies in thier new homes. I am eager to see how this develops. I've never had a bird that has not been hand-raised (vs hand-tamed). I want to weep with joy I am so happy!!

She is very lightly colored, mostly pale yellow with grey here and there. I was so afraid they would look just like Merlin. One of the babies in a photo she showed me looked a lot like Merlin...it was freaky!

I'm not sure what I am going to name her yet. I always wait a while before naming pets unless one comes to me. I was thinking Myshilore (pronounced me-she-lore) but that is the name of one of my World of Warcraft toons. LMAO! Not computer generated either. I take great pride in picking names...even if it is just for a computer toon. We'll see what comes up here in the next week as she gets accumulated.

Photos to come soon. I just got her settled into her cage and I want to let her be and get used to the sounds & smells of her new home. She did not cry or make a single peep on the way home or as I shuffled her into her new home!

Until next time...

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Aye! There be Mycelium in me kitchen and a Hawk in a tree!

Mycelium: Mycelium is the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like hyphae.

Hyphae: A hypha (plural hyphae) is a long, branching filamentous cell of a fungus.

I've made several different methods of growing my Oyster shrooms. The first method (Photo 1) is on PDA (Potato Dextrose Agar) that was inoculated with a spore syringe that came with my Mushroom kit from sporeworks.com. Ironically I used regular sugar because I didn't know what dextrose was or where to get it. I now know that it is available through brew shops and we just happen to have a local wine and hop shop!

I inoculated two jars like this, but only this one seems to show any growth. And wow...what growth it has! It keeps growing and now...just a few hours later, the mycelia is growing up the sides of the jar! How cool is that! I am preparing grain to transfer a segment of this luscious growth to, and then...I will transfer the grain spawn (grain colonized by the mycelium) to a basket full of pasteurized, chopped, straw. Sounds like a lot work right? Not really. It happens in stages and the straw stage is still a few weeks off. I also plan makes some transfers to agar and attempt to gain hypha as this is just cottony growth that may, or may not fruit well. I shall keep notes and post me findings. I am loving this! I even built myself a positive air glove box with a $30 hepa air filter machine from Farm and Fleet. It seems to work really well in keeping contams (contamination like mold spores I don't wanna grow...like green mold or black pin mild....ichy stuff). I'll have to post about excursion that next.

The second photo if the Mushroom grow bag that I ordered from sporeworks.com. The white patch you see on the grain is Blue Oyster Mycelia growing. It too is taking off like a bat outta hell!

Third photo is of a transfer I did from a Pearl or Phoenix (not sure which) Oyster I purchased at the local farmers market. The cheapest way to expand my 'shroom culturing! This is what is termed as "cloning" in Mycology. The wispy white strands coming from the piece of fungus flesh is new mycelia growth. YAY! I took the biggest shroom of the bunch I got and cloned it. If anyone who reads me blog cares to get into Mycology and wants a free culture, just ask! It's easy as pie...although some kinds of pie are a lot of work...but this is a no-bake kinda deal...LMAO!! Pun-pun-puUUUuuun!

The fourth photo is a BRF-Tekmethod of cultivating shrooms. Lots of growth here! This can be crumbled and spread out on another substrate to colonize and fruit.

Fifth photo is of a red-Tail Hawk that was just outside our apartment, perched in a tree. There was all sorts of racket coming from a few Robins and Cardinals so I went out to investigate. WOW! What a beauty!

I'll keep this up to date as my shrooming adventures continue! I love summer!

I went and purchased some diatomaceous earth to put in the garden today because the leaves of my bush beans are getting chewed on by slugs I think. Several seedlings have been destroyed. I'll post photos of zee garden tomorrow as a well. I also bought a venus fly trap plant...I love them things...and maybe this time I can keep it alive over-winter!

Until next time...

***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website(text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited(linking to the post is OK).***

Happy New Year!

Here's to doing your own thing and not letting the worlds troubles weigh you down.

Here's to saving money for fun in the future and to being the best I can be at everything I do!

Here's to continued spiritual growth in every way and form!

Here's to new projects and new learning opportunities!

Here's to creating many more videos to help other crafters grow and create!!

Welcome to my work 2008! Let's make the best of it that we can! The only limit, is our imagination!

Until next time...

***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website(text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited(linking to the post is OK).***

Woot! Say Hello to Team Goddess!!

Since there is not much out there participation wise I created Team Goddess for Red Scarf Project 2008!! Team Goddess will facilitate communication and a sense of online community between those who venurate Goddess in the knitting for charity event. I've made several cool buttons with PSP, so check the blog out! If you would like to join, leave me your email addy and I will send you an invite (be sure it is the one that your blog is assigned to). After you recieved the invite, be sure to come back to your comment with your email addy and delete it to prevent your inbox from being floaded by roaming spam-bots.

Together we can make a difference while chatting with others of like mind! WOOT-WOOT!!!

Until next time...

***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website(text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited(linking to the post is OK).***

Red Scarf Project 2008

Hummm, I missed this last year. I think I may take a gander and knit a couple scarves for them this year. I'll add a note and a link to me blog and maybe I will get some thank yous back from someone who likes the scarf. :) Click this link for details on how YOU can make a difference in someone's life.

Here is the link to the KAL blog: http://redscarfproject.wordpress.com/

And here is yet another blog supporting this: http://nownormaknits2.typepad.com/red_scarf_project_2008

Thanks to Lime and Violet for notifying thier readers that the deadlines and guidelines have changed.

Until next time...

***All content is Copyright year and date of posting, and are the sole property of C4G/CCW unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this website(text, photo's, etc)is strictly prohibited(linking to the post is OK).***