Gettin' It Done

Yep, it has been quiet around here.  Mainly because now, in addition to working full-time here, I work full time elsewhere.  And it's a lot.  But I know many of you do it as well, so I have faith that I can too. 

But that aside, all that explains is why it takes so long to post.  With the winter just dragging, it was so hard to find any days to do anything.  This weekend, though it was rainy, I got things done...finally!  And did it feel good.  :)

Firstly, the chicks that we incubated in the 4th grade class hatched on Thursday and Friday.  Most of the incubation period went well, however the incubator had hit a high temp of 108 one day and I was unaware that it had happened.  By the time I found out, it had been there all day.  Though the chicks looked unaffected, it absolutely affected the hatch.  Out of the 15 eggs that were left to hatch, only 7 did actually hatch.  Other eggs had chicks that fully developed, but their belly buttons didn't close, which I assume is because of the temperature spike.  Honestly, I HATE losing chicks that far along.  It hurt.  I brought home 5 of the 7, having given 2 to the teacher's son, but one of the ones who did hatch had a belly button issue and did not survive.  The little one died today.  The four remaining are happy and seemingly healthy, and I hope they will be ok. 

This pic was taken yesterday, before the fifth one died.

In here is an Ameraucana cross, 2 Delawares, and 1 Leghorn.  We will see how they turn out.  They are very cute little fuzzybutts.  Curious and funny, I am enjoying them quite a bit.

Rooming with them in separate pens, there are the Cornish Cross

And the Delaware cross

Having them side-by side has been so interesting.  The Delawares are so active and flighty, and the Cornish Cross are so....not.  Though I know how Cornish Cross act, I have enjoyed watching them in relation to a "real" chicken.  So funny.  Whereas if you startle the Delawares they'll jump and flutter away, you can startle the Cornish and they do a whole mob thing and jump on top of one another--if they move at all.  It's really been a kick.  As of tomorrow, both of these groups are 3 weeks old.  I am enjoying this experiment, and hoping for some good results. 

_____

Yesterday, while running around rain drops, I trimmed Max's hooves

 

One good looking boy!



And Stewart's hooves as well.

Who's a peanut-brain?  Stew's a peanut brain!  Yes he is!!

Trimming my boys' hooves is challenging most of the year, because 1)it's difficult to take them through the girls' pen when they're in rut and not have an "incident" (and they're not in rut now, but Stew went for it anyway) and 2) because of Stewart's sheer size.  Stew has topped out at 180 pounds, and is so strong that he went for the feed in the milking stand and damn near took the milking stand right over--twice.  He's a giant.  A gentle giant, but giant nonetheless.  And he's a peanut brain, so that doesn't help.  But I love that boy--he's a good, good man.  A bit feed-aggressive, but sweet as can be in every other way. 

Max turned 1 on St. Patty's day.  He's still fairly small, which I think has to do with the fact that Stew steals his food a lot of the time.  He could also be a slow-grower, though, only time will tell.  Luckily, the fact that he has horns makes up for his smaller stature.  Stew does bully him quite a bit, but Max has the horns, so he gives it right back.  And Max is as gentle as can be to me, so I have no problem handling him ever.  I got very lucky with both my boys.

_____

In addition, I took pallets and put together another kidding pen...

 

Scrap wood and pallets--can't go wrong!

 ...for you know who.

Dulcinea is bored.  So, so bored.

She's getting there!  T-minus 8 days and counting, and I'm almost ready.  Hopefully she is, too.  She's pretty big, but Dulci has always been wide, so it's hard to tell in that way.  I can really only say that she's bigger than normal, and that's a good sign.  I believe I have felt the kids kicking once, but she refuses to stand still to really let me feel.  The big giveaways have been her attitude--which sucks more than normal--and the fact that she seems to be developing an udder--but she did that last year as well, and she was a liar.  Yesterday, however, I noticed that her tail  ligaments seem to have dropped.  Dulci is usually flat and broad on the back end, but yesterday I could see that her shape had changed and could feel the end of her spine by her tail.  All good signs.  So here's hoping it's the real thing this time.  It certainly seems that way.

____

In fact, it was quite a goat-centric weekend.  My husband and I had to replace the doors to the girls' house, as they had eaten the old ones.

 

New door and a peeking Lilly

Yes, eaten!  I cannot get the girls to stop eating the walls of their house!  It's driving me nuts.  They've made a bunch of holes, and the doors were the worst of all.  Of course, once they make a hole, they just keep working on it to make it bigger and bigger and bigger.  One of the doors had a hole so big, I could have fit Cynthia through it.  It's been a real problem.  I think a lot of it has to do with boredom, since they started doing this during the winter when everything was covered in snow and there was nothing to do.  I think they are bored like little, bored kids.  With nothing to do, they do destructive things.  UGH! 

So the doors have been replaced.  Now I have to find a way to get them to stop eating the walls.  Good luck to me!

____

And then today I got something done that I have needed to do for a very long time.

I put an addition onto the girls' house.

The three outcasts, happy at last--Dulcinea, Tallulah, and Cynthia the tiny.

Oh yeah!!  Can you tell how happy I am about this???  These three outcasts are constantly excluded from the interior of the big house when it rains or snows, which means they get wet.  This winter, I found myself blow drying all of them several times.  No more! 

 Just a few supplies from the lumberyard, some leftovers from the garage (they have an unplanned skylight, did you notice?), and a few hours, and they have a nice 3foot by 8 foot lean-to that they can run in and stay dry in.  A great thing when Minerva won't let them in the house when it's raining (which she doesn't, because she's horrible) and a place out of the sun in the summer.

It doesn't look like much now, but what a help it is!

Once it's trimmed, roofed and painted, it'll look great.  For now, it'll keep them dry and happy.  I am so pleased with this simple little shed.  It's going to be a huge help. 

___

Let's see...what else...I lent my mother a rooster, as she was having some problems with her hens.  She's got all girls, and they have taken to suddenly beating up on one of them-a Silkie-just out of the blue.  My mother said that they just go after her all the time.  I know that the boys in my coop tend to keep my girls in line, so I suggested she borrow Elmer, the grey/partridge Silkie roo that Louise hatched last year.  He's not a particularly aggressive roo, and definitely not aggressive to people, but he's a roo, so he should be able to keep the girls in line.  It's been my experience that, though there is definitely a pecking order with chickens, the girls are less vicious about it when there is a rooster to watch over all of them, mainly because the roo always seems to be at the top of the pecking order, no matter what.  I am hoping that my mother will find the same thing and Elmer will solve her problem.  If not, I'll have to lend her one of my "tough guys", and we'll see how that goes!

____

What else?  Icky did the brave thing and took out an imminent threat the other day.

 

 

Yep, he took out these vicious paper towels.  The whole roll.  Because you never know, they may have tried to strangle us all in our sleep.  Thank goodness the boy was there, or this could've ended badly, that's all I'm saying.

And he couldn't care less.

He then went on to "kill" all the throw rugs in the kitchen, and knock the dangerous camera off the counter onto the floor.  Who knows what nefarious deeds that thing was up to!  Just to help him out, Phynn and Charlotte knocked over their waterer, dumping about half a gallon of water onto the floor.  I'm sure it said something rude to them and it was deserved. 

As for me, I'll sleep better at night, knowing these guys are hard at work destroying protecting the house.  Thanks you three!  You are the best! 

Another Off the List

My to-do list is long--stupid long.  One of the things on it (way at the bottom) was to finish the kids' tree house.  Well, tree platform, as it has no roof and walls.  Back when we moved in 3 years ago, we took apart an old cedar playset that was here, exactly in the spot where the big garden is.  I wanted the space, my kids are not playset kids, so down it came.  We used that playset in so many different ways, and still have some left.  Part of it became a platform up in a tree for the kids to play on.  A set of monkey bars became the ladder. 

For the past 3 years, my husband and I have cringed every time the kids went up in the "tree house".  No walls=fall.  Many times we had to yell "Sit with your back to the tree!".  I could have put it on tape and hit repeat, I really could.  It would have saved my voice.

Finishing the tree house was on the list for three years.  And it always was at the bottom.  The kids would ask and ask when it would be done, and I would say "soon".  But, not being "mission critical", it just kept getting bumped.  This year we finally bought some materials to make it safe.  It still got bumped.  But finally (finally!), 3 months later, after getting the stuff and having it hang out on the driveway, the tree house is done.

Hallelujah.  I crossed it off the list.

And just because I'm always telling them "Don't bring that up the ladder!" I got a little clever and made them a little hinged trap door with a bucket on a rope to pull stuff up with.

But no pulleys or anything, though.  What do you think I am?  An engineer?  HA!  I think we're all lucky I thought of the bucket to begin with.  It's on a rope with a hook, and it works just fine.  In fact, as soon as the kids saw the tree house was done, they started to move in.  This included trying to put the cats in the bucket to send them up to the top.  The cats were not amused.  They went up the old fashioned way.

Most important of all: Do the kids like it?

 
Yes, I'd say that they do.

She's Here, She's There

She's dang near everywhere!

Friday it rained.  Actually, Thursday and Friday it rained.  No outside for me.  So I worked inside, instead

Could I have relaxed?

Yes.

 

Should I have relaxed?

 

Yes.

 

But you all know me by now.  Was I going to relax? 

 

No.

 

So I did a little project.

We've lived in this house nearly three years, and things are getting done slowly.  We don't have a lot of money just kicking around, and that's a factor.  When we do have a little money, it goes to the outside and the animals or the crops or something to help us become more self sufficient.  It's very rare that we spend any money on the inside of our house because a) we don't have the money and b) the house is fairly new and technically doesn't need much.  We really can't argue with an 11 year old house which hasn't needed much but a few appliances replaced and some paint on it's walls--there's not much to do.  However, I do like to put my own stamp on things, so when we can I like to do something to the house that makes me happy (and hopefully everyone else that lives here, happy, too) and makes the house more like home.  On Friday I tackled a little project like that.

To say off the bat:  we live in a little house.  A little one-story house, to be exact.  No stairs, not many doorways, just a basic rectangle with walls inside (Do I love it?  Yes I do, but that's not the point).  The only entrance/egress in the house is the one in the two main areas of the house; that is, the big ol' doorway from the living room to the kitchen/dining room.  And it's boring.  And plain.  And, quite frankly, beat up because the kids wham into the walls when they go from one place to another, and they chip the paint. 

So for that fact alone (the chipping paint), I said to myself, "Self?  Time to do something about this."

So I did.

See this?  BORING!!!

So I dug up some leftover trim, bought a little additional trim, added a 1x8 and some additional pretty trim, and went to work.

 

I framed out the opening with the trim, and then gave it a "hat" of 1x8 and crown molding. 

 

On the other side, I put the applique from the sink cabinet on the 1x8.  Maybe you remember it from this picture?

 

 

As much as I liked that applique by the sink, I could not keep it clean.  It was so dimensional that everything got caught on it and it was always dirty.  So I gave up, peeled it off very carefully, and re-used it above the doorway.  It looks good there.

 

After the trim was all up, I painted, and Voila!!

 

One side....

 

And the living room side....

 

Taa daaaaa!

 

It's beautiferous!! 

 

I really like it, but I will admit, I am still getting used to it.  It's changed the room(s) a lot. 

 

That was my inside project.  I still owe you a picture of the finished kitchen, which I will take when I actually get the counters clean.  Along with that, I'll show you what I did with the extra tin from the backsplashes, which I think was kind of clever.  But that's another day, as the sun is out today, and I'm headed outside.

 

And speaking of outside....yesterday it was a nice day, so we did outside work.  One of the major problems we have here is MUD.  Lots of it.  Everywhere.  Messy, and I fall down in it a lot.  And get hurt.  And that stinks.  So we needed to put in paths.  The cheapest way to do it is gravel, called Item 4 here, used to make driveways.  We got a load yesterday and beat ourselves to death moving it.  But it was worth it.  See?

 

 

No more mud!  No more falling down me!  That is a happy, happy thing.

 

Yes, it's been a veritable hive of busyness here.  Today we will go outside and do some more stuff, because the list is long, my friends, very long.

 

Have a lovely day!

I Am My Home, My Home is Me

We have owned three houses.  That's not bragging, that's just fact.  I'm not proud of that fact, but it's there, nonetheless. 

Two of the houses I loved (this is one).  One, which everyone else loved, I didn't like at all.  No matter, though, because in each, I have left my mark.  I am not the type of person to live in a house just to sleep and eat and watch TV.  I will always change something somehow to suit what I like.  I don't know if this is because I'm such a homebody (and I really, really am), or if I just like to change things up.  I think it's probably more of the former, though.  I spend a lot of time in my house (and a LOT of time in my "yard") and I like it to be pretty to me.  So I change it.

In our first house, which I loved for itself, I stripped wallpaper, painted rooms, redid a bathroom, completely gutted a kitchen.  That house will always be special to me because my children were born while I lived there.  It was their first home.  It was the first home my husband and I owned.  We left because the house was on Long Island, and we couldn't deal with the people and their attitudes and living on top of one another, and so off we went to "upstate" New York instead.  The home we eventually bought I didn't like, but everyone else loved.  It was big and had a room or two extra and was set back in the 70s.  So I painted and redid a bathroom, stripped wallpaper, and renovated a kitchen.  It was a showpiece when I was done, even though I didn't finish.  We moved because my husband lost his job and we had to sell.  The ensuing mess that came from that and jerking my daughter out of school was a disaster I wouldn't wish on anyone.  But a year or so later we came home.

And here we are.  This house is the smallest we've ever owned, with the largest property.  I love this house.  I love this house.  I can't say it enough.  This house waited for us to be able to buy it, because when we saw it initially we couldn't afford it.  Months later, my husband had a better paying job, and the price on the house had dropped.  We knew it was waiting for us, as we were waiting for it.  We came back to see it again, and I didn't even have to go into the house.  I already knew it.  I stood in the back and listened to the stream and cried.  I was home.  I did eventually go into the house to look, but it was just to make our realtor happy.  I remembered every nook and cranny.  It was my house already.

We've been here 2 years.  I have painted bedrooms and a living room and a kitchen.  I have moved in, heart and soul.  But building a homestead means that most of the work is done out of doors, so I've been out of doors.  The outside is so different from what it was now.  It has a purpose, and I find that comforting.  The inside of the house is also very different, but some rooms haven't been changed because I just haven't had the time. 

Luckily, it's really cold out, so now I do.

This past week I've been working on the kitchen.  It truly is the heart of our home, save for the living room where we all sit together.  The kitchen is where I cook for my family, preserve food from our garden, correct homework, eat meals, come in from the outside.  There's truly nothing wrong with the kitchen, it's just not me.  But it will be!

This is my kitchen, as it was.

Actually, there is usually a lot of decoration on the top of the cabinets--beautiful old jars and chickens (of course) and whatnot, but I cleaned that all up.  Note that I didn't clean the countertop, though.  I wouldn't want you to think I didn't use this room!!

It's little, but the house is little, so it fits right in.  The appliances have all been replaced, because they've all died, one after another.  They used to be black, too, so that was really dark.

All I've done in here so far is to a) change appliances, b) paint the walls a nicer (to my eye) green, and c) paint and trim out the pantry door.  But then again, I've painted all the trim in the house, so that's why.

The cabinets are wood, as is the whole house.  The whole house was done with stained wood trim and doors.  Beautiful, gorgeous, but dark.  I hemmed and hawed about it because it was all so nice, but decided at last to paint it all.  Yes, I felt bad painting over the $100+ stained pine doors, but in the end, it is so much brighter in here, it's worth it. 

That left the cabinets.  They are really nice cabinets.  Wood, solid, beautiful.  And dark, dark, dark.  Changing out the appliances helped to lighten the kitchen a little, but the house is so small, it really needs a boost to help keep it bright. 

But again, they are really nice cabinets.  The people who built the house spent a good deal of money on them, and I know that.  So I've really been hemming and hawing about it, but I finally took the plunge.

And

Naked cabinets!  Woo woo!

 Painted

Primed


 

Above is where I left it yesterday.  The frames are completely painted out, and the doors are being painted today.  It is already 400x brighter in here, and 1000x more me. 

There will be a tin backsplash put in, a shelf added in a space under the counter, and then I'll trim out under the counters and cabinets.  Fiddly trim work is my favorite thing to do.  I hate building, but I love detail work, so I'm going to unleash my fiddly detail work genes to do their thing here. 

One fiddly detail has already been put into place, but that's because it had to be:

Pretty!

The rest will come along as I go. 

So there it is.  I am moving into the kitchen at last.  And yep, I'm super thrilled with it already.

Stay tuned for many more pictures to come.  I'm off to paint some doors!

Well, Hello Again!

Long time, no post. 

It's been very busy here, and though things keep happening, it never seems like they're newsworthy.  So here's a mish-mash update instead:

The garden is giving over to my old nemesis, powdery mildew.  I never win with it.  Once we get cool nights and damp mornings, it hits and that's it.  Now things are catching it like wildfire, and that's what'll be the end of them.  This is one of the challenges of organic gardening, I find.  I have not yet found a nice organic solution to powdery mildew.  If you have one, please give me a holler.  It's unstoppable this time of year.

Luckily, things are still producing, though the garden is not so pretty.  Today's harvest:

The white thing is an eggplant.  The flowers on top are Calendula.

The basket is full, so that's really good.  The tomatoes are coming in hard and fast, and now I'm getting the larger ones instead of just the smaller ones.  For example,

Kellogg's Breakfast

Mortgage Lifter

This is the first time I've gotten any Mortgage Lifter from the garden--they've always been green.  But good things come to those who wait, and they are heavenly!  Yes, they've gone on my next year growing list.  Along with them, my list contains Pearly Pink, Grape, and San Marzano.  I've grown the San Marzano as well as Roma this year, and though San Marzano has taken longer to ripen, they produce bunches of 8-10 meaty tomatoes on each little stemlet, and there are several stemlets per plant.  They're a very nice canning tomato.  I think they've blown the Roma away, but I'll wait until the year is over until I do my tallies to know for sure.

8 million grape tomatoes and under it all, some Pruden's Purple and a bunch of San Marzano

The Grape tomatoes are just like little machines.  They were always coming in fast, but now they're coming in at light speed.  Makes me think I'm getting the last hurrah.  I hope not!  I need some for the harvest festival!  We will see what we will see.

You know how when you homestead, you're always rigging up something?   Well, with the Calendula flowers, I needed a way to dry the petals.  I didn't want to lug the dehydrator up for that, it seemed silly, so I thought "solar dehydrator".  But you know how I love to build (ahem).   And the list for buildings is kinda long right now, seeing as I adopted some rabbits, so it's not on the top of the list.  Then I had a brainy idea.  What is a solar dehydrator other than a piece of glass or plastic, and some reflective material to catch the sun?  Well, taa-daaaa!

Genius!  It's a danish pan from the supermarket.  I think I took it from somewhere at some point, thinking I could use it, and then didn't.  It's been in the basement pantry for quite a while.  But then I thought, hey, that could work!  And it does.  Those petals will be dry in no time flat.  I'm not saying I could dry foodstuffs in there, but it works very well for these flowers.  Cost?  $0!  I like that.

As to the rabbits?  They are doing just fine.  Philip Johnny Bob and Ygraine have accepted me and are dealing with me handling them.  Ygraine is being plucked by me slowly, and I can see the improvement in her coat from it.  I do it by hand, with her on my lap.  It's actually very relaxing.  Hopefully for both of us.  Now when I'm done (or she tells me I'm done), I can put her down and see where I've done and where I haven't.  She is starting to look much better, and I'm getting some beautiful fiber from her.  Philip Johnny Bob is not ready to be plucked yet, as he's been shaved down recently, but he'll get there.  Right now he's just getting used to being handled.  He seems to be getting better.  I think the green beans are probably helping my cause alot.

And Bella?  The bunny from the garbage?  She doesn't like us.  She doesn't trust us.  It's going to be a long road with her.  But I hope we'll get to a mutual "ok-ness" someday.  We'll have to see.

And I think that's all the news that's fit to print here at Chicken Scratch.  I hope you all have a fantastic day!

Goat House and Yard--Old and New

Well, I promised you some pictures of the goat house, and here I am to show you!  This project was made with mostly new materials, but we did get a little bit of reusing in here, too.  And yes, that makes me very happy.  Last weekend my husband and I roofed it, then I did the painting and all the fancy-schmancy stuff.  Those girls should have some snazzy digs, right?

Ok, ready?  Front shot:

As you can see, I went with yellow.  I love yellow!!  Which is good, since Minerva decided she wanted to wear it.  I had thought to go with green, but husband said yellow, and you know, he gets so little say in things, I just had to give him one.  :)  I love the yellow.  It was a good choice.

Wait, you say?  You can see something written on the front there?  How very observant of you to notice!  Yes, I did pretty it up a bit with some writing.  You know I love that sort of thing.  Would you like to see what it says?

Yes?  Ok then!

Taa daa!

Why yes, that did take a long time to do, standing on a chair with unhelpful goat people trying to knock me off/eat the paint/chew the brush/take my chair.  Thank you for asking!

I had gotten the house (and Minerva) painted yellow and put up the trim, and thought it needed something.  Enter the reused part.  Or part of the reused part.

Shutters!  Made from pallets!  Woot!!  And painted turquoise, of course, the same turquoise I used on the duck house.  So I reused that too! 

But the best reused thing?  The roof.

Can you tell what it is?

How about now? 

I bet not, it's a toughie.  It's an old pool! 

My parents got a new pool installed and were generous and gave us the sides from the old one.  We cut it down to size and put it up there.  Eventually I will paint it.  I used the same pool metal for the roof of the duck house, so it's gotten quite a bit of mileage.  It makes a fabulous roof.  I am thrilled!

Once the house was done, I thought the yard needed something.  The girls already had a play area,

Minerva models and scratches herself at the same time.  How does she do it?

which is the bottom of the old duck house, with a pallet on top to be a step up to the top pallet deck, which is behind Minerva's big head.  Then there's the Leaning Pallet of Scratchability, and the balance beam.  This is all well and good, and we also have this:

Oh, I declare!  I am SOOOOOO lovely!

Which is being demurely modeled by Lilly.  It is, of course, the Mini-Platform-On-A-Stump with tire and platform step up.  Glamor!

But also in the yard were two old chairs that I got from the side of the road last year (yes, I pick things up from the side of the road all the time).  They were in there from when the goat house was built--for people to sit on.  But the goats liked them so much, I left them there.  They were boring and drab and brown, and I thought "You know what those chairs need?  Fuschia".

Turkeys do not model as well as goats.

Could I have been more right?  I don't think so! 

They needed fuschia, so I went out and got a cheapie paint sample and painted them up.  Then I sprayed them with protective spray, and screwed them to the trees, because the girls also enjoy knocking them over.

So now there are the two Standing Chairs in the yard, nicely fuschia-ed up, for me to sit on and get knocked off of because they are, in fact, the Standing Chairs and not the Sitting Chairs, silly human lady. 

But I digress.

The inside of the house remains the same,

Seems I caught Lilly mid-poop.  Sorry.

two hayracks, no waiting.  But I did discover why the hay is always flat on the left side, there.

Minerva will demonstrate for us.

She goes from the mineral tray,

to the hayrack,

and stands in

the hay.

Ah yes, Minerva is a pest.  In fact, she's learned to escape the confines of the yard, so we now have this

AND this

 on the gate.  Clever girl.  So far it seems to be working, but keep your fingers crossed.  She's persistent.

She's ruined escaping for ALL of us!  Selfish!

And there you have it, Goat House Extraordinaire.  I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Stay cool!