Chicken News and More

Mind + Body = Drained. But hey, Life is Good!! There has been much going on here, and I’m sure the same is true with all of you as well.

The chickens are moved into their big Happy Home and big run  (Thank you, my Dear Mr. W for all your hard work!!)

Flight netting is in place over the run. Take that, Mr. Hawk! :)

Girls chillin’.

Shotgun Red makin’ trouble
(the rooster formerly known as “Reba” – this was the “extra” chick who turned out to be a HE). Hmmm… two roosters… let’s just say it’s been interesting so far!

Sappo, #1 Rooster, mid-crow.

There are a few loose ends to tie up on the chicken project – finish painting the coop, finish the interior, *decorate* the interior :), and fix up this vintage nest box before the girls begin laying their colorful eggs.

 

Oh yes, there have been other happenings besides chicken activities.

Flowers to enjoy.

Garden produce to pick every few days.

2+ gallons of Garden Pickles made using Linda @ Prairie Flower Farm's recipe. Delish!

Gracie & Ruby… waiting to be tucked in for the night. Each night, they are locked up in their stall (with “screen” door) -- with background music from their radio, hay and tiny bit of grain and water.

Now to get some rest to make it through the remainder of the week. Hope all is well with my friends!

Nighty night!

A Succulent Old Chair for the Garden

“What???”… you may ask?? I turned an old chair with a worn out seat into a container for some of my favorite plants: Succulents.

A Succulent Old Chair. See??

I’m going to pretend this is a real tutorial, but truth is, I did this a couple of months ago and didn’t take any before or during pics. I was inspired by a post I saw somewhere. I am 99% for certain it had something to do with Donna at Funky Junk Interiors, and perhaps some inspiration pics she posted on Facebook (although I can’t find it now!). I’ve always wanted a Succulent Wreath, but this Succulent Chair was much more doable. For me, anyway. It took only a few minutes to complete.

I began with an assortment of succulents from our local greenhouses. Our Lowes also had some different little cuties I threw in. I already had eyed an old chair with a worn out seat down at hubby & father-in-law’s machine shop. I had just enough potting soil left over for this project. And also a scrap of hardware cloth (from the big, huge Chickens 2010 project.. hehe), and burlap, plus a trusty staple gun.

I knocked out what was left of the seat. The hardware cloth was turned into a very crude bowl formation and placed in the area that was the seat . Gloves work well for that task as hardware cloth can be a little wicked to work with at times. The “bowl” was covered haphazardly with burlap, which I scrunched around and stapled to the chair here & there. Then the potting soil was added, the plants, and finally I threw on a little mulch & some pebbles.

Voila. An almost maintenance-free little garden, sitting in an old worn out chair.

It takes very little water. I keep it under the shelter of a porch much of the time to protect it from the occasional torrential rains we’ve had this year.

I simply can’t do a post without at least throwing in a little something “chicken-y” (since this is the year of the Chicken here…), so I must show you our big run, still in progress. We still need to add some boards along the sides, the cover (flight netting to protect from hawks), as well as some hardware cloth around the perimeter about two feet up (to protect from raccoon and cat’s paws). Special thanks to the Fiddler for helping on the Run project over the weekend. It has been incredibly hot here and it’s not pleasant to be out in very long!

It is 97 degrees here at 5:30 pm and I’m headed back out to refresh the cool water for everyone. Almost makes me wish for Fall!

Hope your week is going well!

p.s. Thanks for all the nice birthday wishes!!! :) :) :)

For the first time ever, I'm linking up with a party. My friend Andrea over at Rural Revival hosts Thrifty Thursday. Check it out! You won't believe the fabulous thrifty treasures! In Andrea's words - "Recycling, up-cycling, reusing, re-purposing. Whatever you want to call it, it's being thrifty and walking with a softer footprint."

I.am.alive

Please excuse my unplanned absence. Somehow life got in the way. Thanks for the well wishes and concern! I’m really just fine, just a bad blogger these days! I’ll try to do better.

Several things have transpired around here:

1) We have new, faster internet as of today. Yay.

2) I turned 50.

3) We traded our dune buggy for a four-wheel drive farm truck. How’s that for practicality? We were both a little sad to see the buggy go though…

I have about 1000 pictures and other things I want to share, but first I promised Mr. W I would finally post updates of his wonderful chicken coop. This is his project and I think he should be very proud. I am! There is more to be done, plus the Aviary/Run has to be started soon. The coop will be red, just like my little coop. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. He also added the niftiest little chicken door today. I’ll have to post it later. Ok, no more chit-chat from me… here’s the coop from almost beginning to present.

And, the journey to the permanent location… which will be near the Donkey Barn.

I will be repaying the neighbor in eggs for quite awhile (once they start laying). He donated the wonderful, insulated tilt-out windows. Too fancy, and much fancier than what we have in our old farmhouse.. hehe!

Since I have a better internet connection, I don’t have that excuse anymore… so I DO plan to be back soon. In the meantime, a few gratuitous critter pictures.

And the garden ~ doing well, but oh so muddy.

See you soon!