Laine Bell
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lainebell.bsky.social
Laine Bell
@lainebell.bsky.social
410 followers 310 following 740 posts
Writer, baker, chicken tender. Also love animals, nature, grilling, roller skating. Viable Paradise 2018 grad (VP22).
She/her.
Blog at lainebell.wordpress.com
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lainebell.bsky.social
The fig I picked off the fig tree (bush) yesterday. I don’t think this is really their zone so it takes forever for them to show up and ripen. This one is SO CLOSE to being ripe!! There’s maybe 2 dozen others that are still hard and probably won’t make it. Maybe next year.
A fig sliced in half resting on a yellow smiley face cutting board. The fig is a dark rosy pink in the middle and white around the edges.
November 9, 2025 at 3:17 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Last weekend and the past week were extremely busy, so today is when I get to catch up on things. On the list: wash winter-weight duvets for bed deployment, winterize the pop-up camper, mulch the front flowerbed, put up bird feeder, make chicken broth, put away Halloween decor.
A silver pot on a stove with bubbling water in it. Also visible in the pot are some onions chicken legs, cherry tomatoes, and carrots.
November 8, 2025 at 6:49 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Trouble Chicken. (They don’t really treat chickens here so everyone loves seeing her. I don’t love the vet bill but willing to do what we can for her within reason.)
A brown chicken with black spots near her neck huddled up against the wire door of a pet carrier.
October 31, 2025 at 5:56 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Part 2, complete! (Paint still drying.) it’s amazing how much the face stripes make a difference in how the character looks.

I might add more stripes to the back of the costume later but need to let the front paint dry first.
A blue bodysuit lying on a table and decorated to look like Derpy the Tiger from K-pop Demon Hunters, including large orange and yellow eyes, painted eyebrow stripes and dots on the face, and painted leopard spots on the chest. A crafting table with project in-progress; clockwise from top right, a light blue sewing machine, fabric scissors with an orange handle, two large yellow and orange eyes made of felt, a tomato-shaped pincushion, and a blue bodysuit with a nose and fangs but no other features crumpled in a pile. A close up of the hood of the bodysuit with the eyes, nose, and fangs all sewn on. No paint accents have been applied yet, and the expression comes across as a bit intense and maybe intimidating.
October 30, 2025 at 1:07 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Part 1, complete! Hat is a little wobbly so more glue may be required, we’ll see how he holds up tomorrow night.
A black feathered crow toy painted to look like Sussie the magpie from K-pop Demon Hunters, with white patches on his wings and chest, a black bulls-eye on the white part of the wing, and three yellow eyes glaring at the camera from under a small black hat.
October 29, 2025 at 11:55 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Part 2, more progress! Smaller eyes are better but still a little funky. The ears look like piggy ears? 😂 I think they need to be smaller and more triangular. Maybe move the fangs inward…
A woman hiding under a light blue hoodie which has large orange and yellow eyes and a pink nose made to look like Derpy the Tiger from K-pop Demon Hunters. The ears on top of the hoodie are a little long and a bit askew. Under the hoodie she is wearing a dark blue shirt with a Star Wars AT-AT walker on it.
October 29, 2025 at 12:56 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Crafting Halloween costume shenanigans part 2, in-progress. Still needs a nose and an ear adjustment. Debating: smaller eyes, bigger fangs?
A selfie partially blocked by a hand, of a woman hiding with only her mouth and chin visible under a light blue hood with large orange and yellow eyes and white fangs pinned to it, made to resemble Derpy the Tiger from K-pop Demon Hunters. Under the blue hoodie the woman’s white t-shirt reads “Brave the Sea.”
October 28, 2025 at 2:32 AM
lainebell.bsky.social
Hope everyone’s weekend was good! Mine was busy, but on the homestead the teen chickens were moved to the main coop and we planted a birch tree. Still covering the fig bush overnight in a vain attempt to let the fruit finish ripening before they freeze. 😞

Barbossa is extra snuggly in cold weather.
A gray tabby cat with broad black stripes asleep on a light gray blanket. His front paw is curled over his nose as if trying to keep it warm, and his expression is very content.
October 27, 2025 at 12:25 AM
lainebell.bsky.social
Put the teen chickens in the run (with the adult chickens elsewhere) for some exploration time at lunch. Didn’t realize until 4:30 none of them figured out how to go up into the coop, so they hadn’t found the feed and were very hungry. 🙃
Four teenage chickens of varying colorations and sizes clustered around a hanging feeder. A couple of the chickens are motion-blurred as they desperately stuff their hungry little faces.
October 24, 2025 at 8:53 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Crafting Halloween-costume shenanigans, part 1, still in-progress.
A black toy bird in profile with hand-painted white accents on the chest and wings and three yellow eyes, made to resemble the magpie from K-Pop Demon Hunters. It is perched on a sideways canister resting on a rainbow tablecloth with assorted junk on the table around it.
October 20, 2025 at 12:38 AM
lainebell.bsky.social
Photo break! Met a friendly forest giant and a lurking pumpkinhead in an adventure park today. Had a magnificent comfort food dinner. Drove thru horrible traffic for an hour and then up a mountain in the dark. This hot tub time has been earned.
A friendly forest giant statue half kneeling with autumn leaves around his head and ankle. A statue with a creepy jack o lantern head, green coat, and witch hat in a garden among chrysanthemums, reaching toward the camera with grabby stick hands.
October 5, 2025 at 12:42 AM
lainebell.bsky.social
Photo break! Marie Curiosity sees the chicken cam light up. (Sorry for weird perspective, the lens is at the rounded cage corner.)
Behind some warped-looking fisheye perspective cage bars, a white and black teenage chicken gives curious side-eye to the camera. In the background two brown teen chickens can be seen up on perches.
October 3, 2025 at 3:35 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Long weekend getaway. Guys are off to hike up and down a mountain. I’m enjoying this view and birdsong with some coffee before settling in to get some writing done. I don’t think despondent space opera will work in this setting, so need to figure out what to work on. 😎
A landscape of tree-covered mountains, the rearmost one somewhat hazy as if it is disappearing into the horizon. In the foreground are trees, and a sun with lens flare is in the middle of a light blue sky.
October 3, 2025 at 12:56 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Photo break! Here’s Wednesday enjoying a dust bath in the favored dust bathing spot in the run. (We’ve had no rain for a month until yesterday, so the dust has been perfect.)
A photo of a black chicken hunkered down in a bowl-shaped depression in a dusty dirt chicken run, with a fence and grass showing beyond her.
September 22, 2025 at 1:50 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Photo break! I think we have a name for one of the chicklets.

Meet Warbeak.
A rust brown half-grown chicken with a slight mohawk and a dark stripe by her eye giving the camera some serious side eye.
September 17, 2025 at 2:04 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
IT IS HAPPENING. or will be in about 45 mins. 😱😎🥳
A scene of an auditorium pavilion with a stage and a huge screen proclaiming “Weird Al Yankovic Bigger & Weirder 2025 Tour featuring Puddles Pity Party” with a big photo of Weird Al as if he were King Kong knocking over the Empire State Building.
September 13, 2025 at 10:47 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Better shot of the frizzle Easter egger which we may name Miss Frizzle. But she’s also kinda goth, and she looks like a skeksis. 🙃

Also considering naming the second chick Curiosity because she is super bold and friendly. Wants to sit on my hand! Not afraid of the phone!
A black chick with funky feathers walking along a perch toward the camera. A golden chick watches from behind. Close up of a curious mostly yellow-white chick who is staring into the camera. Other chicks can be seen behind her, out of focus.
September 7, 2025 at 10:05 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
PHOTO BREAK. Chickens can be ridiculously hard to photograph. Best one I could get of the very-active chicks. And the sun on the adult chickens shows off Wednesday’s iridescent feather colors.

Baby chicks are 4 weeks old tomorrow. ❤️
Three chicks lined up in a row at the back of a cage, slightly out of focus, while in front is an extreme close-up of a sparrow-colored chick in profile. Two adult chickens behind a fence of chicken wire. The left is buff colored with black lacing and is giving the camera side-eye; the right is black and has her head down eating some grass. The sun on the black chicken shows shiny highlights of green and brown in her feathers.
September 7, 2025 at 8:37 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
DONE! I only use my sewing machine maybe once every 4-5 years (last time was sewing masks during the early pandemic) but it all comes back pretty quickly. It’s a great little machine.

I should prob do some maintenance on it or something. 😬
The blue curtain with white mesh sewn to the top of it. The curtain is folded on itself several times to show the blue gradually deepening toward the bottom. Also on display is the spool with less than a half inch of thread left on it.
September 5, 2025 at 12:23 AM
lainebell.bsky.social
I knew I was playing chicken with both the bobbin and the spool but the bobbin (dark thread) ran out first. So close!! 😭
A blue curtain folded over itself with wrong side up, showing dark thread that stops part way across. On top is a nearly empty spool of tan thread.
September 4, 2025 at 11:48 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Sewing again!! Raz has found a use for the old curtains.
A brown and white spaniel mix lying on some dark brown curtains, which are lying on a dark brown wood-patterned floor
September 4, 2025 at 11:18 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Tonight’s craft project: cut the mesh and hangers off the old bunk curtains from our camper, and sew them onto some pretty new curtains.

One down, three more to go.
A small blue sewing machine with several spools of thread, beside which like a blue patterned curtain with large grommets at the top, slightly overlapped by a dark brown curtain with white mesh at the top. The blue patterned curtain now has white mesh sewn to the top of it. The grommets are gone.
September 4, 2025 at 1:45 AM
lainebell.bsky.social
New album cover dropped: Jailbirds (and loving it.)
A close up photo of a cage; in the foreground is a dark brown chick on the ground, and past it is a yellow “electric hen” heater with three more chicks perched on top, arranged in a way that all their heads are visible. All chicks are facing left and giving the camera serious side-eye.
September 3, 2025 at 1:23 PM
lainebell.bsky.social
Today’s the day! The day the baby chicks move from a Rubbermaid tote in my dining room out to the big cage in the garage!

They’re still small and don’t have all their feathers yet, so they’ve got garage protection and their heater. But they were quite outgrowing the tote. 😬
A cage with cardboard lining two sides and pine shavings in the bottom. To the left is a large feeder with crumbles in it, and to the right are four chicks of varying colors all clustered together. The chicks have some full feathers but their heads and necks are still covered in downy fluff. A view from the end of the cage looking upwards. In the foreground is a watering jar with a yellow chick beside it. Beyond the waterer is a perch halfway up with a tan chick on it, and beyond that at the top of the frame is another perch with a small black and yellow chick. All three chicks are giving the camera side-eye.
September 3, 2025 at 12:42 AM
lainebell.bsky.social
IF YOU GUESSED DERPY YOU ARE CORRECT!
The cat mask is now painted to look like Derpy the tiger from K-pop Demon Hunters. It’s blue with dark blue stripes and light blue accents and yellow-orange cat eyes around the holes. It has a goofy grin with sharp white teeth, and a little pink heart shaped nose.
August 31, 2025 at 12:50 AM