7th Bead Soup Blog Party

I am part of the current bead soup blog hop swap! Yeah! I am now trying to figure out the things I need to do for my blog. I am seriously computer challenged so this will be the hardest part for me. Here is the blog button. I hope :~)

Bead Soup Blog Party

Fledgling crow part 2

Well the crow went to the vet and was pronounced sound. Great news !!! And after another excursion into the gully , he is home with his family. Even better great news, Ha?

Only 1 bummer, his family moved :(
The family of crows in my backyard/gully have gone. No doubt as a direct result of the crazy woman who kidnapped there fledgling and held him prisoner for a day. It is worth it for him to be healthy AND with his family, oh yes. But I miss them, and now they think I am horrible. Despite the hoard of food I left them. If only they could read..... sigh.......

I SO hope that the pied crows at Birds Unlimited will get "busy". I would love to have one in the family. Or 2  :)
Enjoy your Tuesdays out there!

Fledgling crow

Yesterday I did something I abhor, something I am constantly complaining when others do. I saw/heard a crow in distress (crows are my favorite birds) and I went to try and help.
I like to go out when they are all "talking" amongst themselves and eavesdrop, trying to ingratiate myself into their lives, like I said , I love crows. :)
Well, it wasnt a party, they were all upset. I wondered why and peeked into the gully. There caught on a tree was a crow. OH NO!!! A crow! I went inside grabbed my shoes and my son and propelled myself down into the gully ( i will be paying for that for awhile!) I was hoping it just needed to be freed, it was caught by its leg in like a tangle of branches and vines, thrashing about. By the time we reached the bottom it had freed itself and was laying on the ground.Phew!
 Now I can see it is a fledgling, and that it is not doing well.  And now he sits in my house waiting for the wildlife rehabilitator . I spent last night sleepless, in prayer and worried about the crow and its family. My DH is being suportive but keeps popping out with less than helpful stuff like, how do you know its injured, or you should have left him out there. UGHhhh. I know I should have, The Lord God made them and The Lord God takes care of them, I have no business trying to "help". But. hmmph, the world is full of buts. But no, really. It was just about dark, he was right near a yard full of dogs and he was injured. ughhh. But. I brought him home.
And this am , as we wait for the wildlife person the crows of his community are out looking. Its breaking my heart. His poor Mama. Now before you get all " they are crows, they think like birds" remember they are crows. I dont like them just because they are so beautiful. I love them because they are such cool beings. They have a strong sense of community, they will all help each other. They are smart, very smart and they choose a mate and keep it for life. they morn when others in the community die and they watch out for each other.
I pray he gets better and his Mama isnt sad. more after we see the wildlife person.
And no pictures, don't want to make it any more alien abductedish than I have too, poor little guy.

Grommet

Hunter took some pictures of Grommet, here is the best one. His eyes are an awesome Mediterranean blue.

Grommet, our kitty

Annealing bubbles

 I continued to have trouble with the vermiculite and scarring, If I tried to let the beads cool even the tiniest of a bit they stuck to the mandrel and I had a heck of a time getting them off. Obviously the fireblanket was out, it was NOT the safe material I thought it was.

So Billie Anne, wonderful person that she is, exchanging emails with me, offered a possible solution. 

Can we all say YEAH BILLIE ANNE!!!

She told me about a product made for lampworkers that is actually perfect for what I needed. They are called Annealing Bubbles. I found the person who is selling them the least expensively online. (unless you want to purchase them in a fire resistant tin that is available)  His name is Malcolm and he is with the company called Artco. This is the link  http://www.artcoinc.com/annealing_bubbles.php

They don't have a cart system yet,  but when I called he was very helpful, and sooner than you can say Bippity Boppity Boo my annealing bubbles were on their way. They came from Californin and arrived in NewYork 3 days later!  Now I call that speedy service.

So today I tried them and I really am impressed. They are light little bubbles of silica so when I dropped anything in there the pieces automatically bury them selves in. They dont stick to even the hottest stuff and they keep what ever i drop in there hot for a long time and they cool super slow. In my opinion that is the trick to the chipping on the pennies and maybe even the large smooth bead I am having trouble with. The more dense the item being torched, the greater occurance of shock, In my opinion. 

I ordered the $7 bag and it was enough to fill by BPS pan AND my crockpot. I had the crockpot on with it filled with the bubbles and the crockpot warmed up but the beads didnt seem to get hot, maybe a little warm. I am sure it will hold the heat though bcz I tried to retrieve some annealed pennies from my BPS pan after about 45 minutes and they were still hot.

This is the box they came in, to give you an idea of the size of the bag.

A close up of the box with a ruler

My BPS

The annealing bubbles in my hand

The amount of bubbles left AFTER i filled my BPS pan

My full crockpot

My Baby with a bagel ( hey, its my blog!)

The babys name is Gibson Trommler Kelley
Trommler means drummer boy in german.
When he was a  smaller puppy his feet sounded like drumming on the hardwood floors.