Lulu, Our Little Chicken Tenderer

One of my favorite things to do is to go over to the Hunt's to play outside with the grandkids.  Dacey Lu and Cuyler race to the chicken coop and we make sure they are fed, watered, and eggs gathered.  Sometimes we let the ladies out to roam around for good greens and bugs to eat. 

 Dacey loves picking them up and holding them.  One day I was able to capture some photos from my iPhone and knew right away that I wanted to try painting a watercolor.  It's not exactly right but I think it captures the moment.  I also need more practice.

Creosoap: Arizona's Fragrant Rain Soap

Almost any native Arizonan will recognize this fragrant bush, Creosote. It's what makes the desert valley smell so good after a rainfall.  I just taught my brother Kevin how to soap and he experimented by infusing the creosote in oils and making soap out of it. He dubbed his invention: Creosoap.  

I just had to try this myself and so Kevin brought me some creosote and we infused it in oils.  

I ended up with this:

The brown soap color is a natural reaction from the creosote and has a cool leather look.  I then found an old rubber stamp with my grandpa Brooks Bryce's name and thought it would be fitting to stamp the soap in honor and remembrance of him.  

Grandpa Brooks loved the desert and was in his element roaming it's valleys, plateaus and mountains.  He would find artifacts from prior desert dwellers (artifacts that now reside in the Pima museum), rocks in all their varieties were on display on the walls and shelves of their home, and some of the most pretty ones were displayed on a shelf with a black light to illuminate the crystals.  As kids we used to love looking at these treasures he unearthed. 

My dad says he used to bring in creosote branches and put them in the evap cooler to get that special desert rain smell and so apparently we all inherited that trait from him, this love for the desert.  Don't care for the rattlers at all but the smell, now that's a whole different thing. Ahhhh! 

Creosoap captures some of that fragrance and although it's not quite as good as the real thing, it does have that hint of desert rain.