Screech owls

On skunks, ducks, and new goals

Welcome, 2012. The only noteworthy event around here so far this year is a good sound skunking, received by Laika on the coldest day of the winter yet. Even an old arthritic half-deaf dog can still roll a skunk, if the skunk isn't in much better shape than the dog. Shouldn't a skunk be curled up in a holler somewhere, nose tucked under the protective loft of its stinky tail, on a 17 degree day?

Along with 2011, so went Laika's sparkly red holiday bow, befouled as it was. The whole scenario struck me as quite funny, and Matt pointed out that there is often nothing to improve my dreary mood like a small misfortune that results in an unscheduled period of scouring. It's true. If Laika makes a wretched mess on the floor, and then stands there considering the pile in the same ears-at-attention way she might track a shrew under the snow... Well, I just can't wait to tell someone all about it. Like it or not, I'm going to have to clean it up. So I might as well delight in the disgusting turn my day has unexpectedly taken. My parents, Matt, and his little sister can always be counted on to relish any pets-gone-putrid tale I have to tell.

On a grander note... I feel the need to set some goals for myself this year, to alleviate the dissatisfaction I've been feeling at being neither here nor there. I am ready to leave the city for the country, but the timing is not right. I am eager to quit landscaping for a living, but have no clear idea how to replace that income. We have plans to camp our way across the country, to buy ducks, to build a house... But it all seems so far off! I am not accustomed to waiting - I don't believe I've ever had to do it before. When I've set my mind on something new, I've just gone off and done it, damn it. Is this part of being all grown up, this planning and projecting? I seem to have an adult's time schedule, and still a teenager's impatience.

I am drawing a lot, and my goal for 2012 is to pursue that as hard as I can. Can I make part of a living drawing pictures? All I require is part of a living - I want to be outside the other half of the time, engaged in good old fashioned farm labor... splitting firewood, turning compost, conversing with goats.

And so. Along with the usual stuff, I will be posting one drawing a week, from here on out, until perhaps the day when I am too busy trying to wrangle my livestock. Or until my goals change.

Happy new year to everyone! I hope your dreams for the coming months are vibrant and inspiring.

Happy winter

The baker is busy in the days before Christmas. I stepped outside this morning to breathe in the darkness, while it still reigned. I hope to spend Christmas Eve afternoon sipping whiskey on the abandoned railroad tracks, toasting our new friend: the beaver who is constructing a dam in the valley where we often walk. There is a steep bank where we can sit and watch him tending his floats of branches. There are new little ruts - I call them beaver slides - going down the bank, into the water. I like to imagine him yanking his treetops over the edge, and then wheeee!!! In he goes after them. Plop.

Happy solstice to you, friends.

Animals

These Woodland Creatures have been making a mess of my desk (chewing up pencils, leaving dirty footprints about, etc.)! So I gathered them all up, threw them into the scanner, and slammed the lid shut. Ha.

But really... a friend asked me to draw some animals for her daughter's bedroom art gallery. Here's who I have so far.

The weather has gone a bit wintry, and consequently, I've spent a good deal of time at my desk drawing this week. (Also there was the heffalump trap. For anyone who is waiting with bated breath: we did not catch a heffalump. They are notoriously difficult to catch. For anyone who does not know what one is, below is a clue.)

Today we made a heffalump trap

Frosty morning

The boys are off for a weekend-long recording session. Laika and I are on our own. We intend to Get A Lot Done, and eat whatever we want.

So far, things are going well! Laika found her own yesterday's-barf, conveniently frozen in the backyard, and ate it. And I slipped on the ice, but did not fall and break my ass, and whenever that happens, I feel like it's my lucky day.