Saturday, May 28, 2016

Breakfast of Chickens


Instead of Breakfast of Champions, I get Breakfast of Chickens.  

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Herb...the Flower and Herb Garden

Finally, we finished fencing and mulching and laying down drainage rock by the foundation! And we named this little slice of flowery and herby goodness, Herb...because, well, obviously.  It's an herb garden, why not call it Herb?

Yes, my husband and I are weirdos...but we're nice weirdos.

This is the purple bearded iris that I thought was dead when I transplanted it from my old house, so I threw it next to the bulkhead, thinking it would mulch into the ground...it did more than mulch, much to my delight!

Herbs and catnip - yeah, I'm probably asking for it, growing this with neighbor cats out patrolling.



I planted lupines and a low growing verbena in this corner.



This old, green mailbox used to hang next to the porch door at the house I grew up in.  You have to pull down on the handle to roll it open.  I put my garden spade and claw in it. To the left is bee balm in both red and lavender. To the right is an orange double day lily.



We still have a lot to plant, but I love looking out my kitchen window and seeing this lovely patch.  I have designs for a trellis floating around in my head.  That may be on the agenda for this long holiday weekend.

Monday, May 16, 2016

The Thing About Meat Birds

The thing about meat birds is they eat, and drink, and poop…and that’s all they do.  The meaties and the layers are now eight weeks old, and if not for the cold nights last week, they would have been out of my basement sooner than Saturday!  Except that we hadn’t built the new tractor and my sister had the old one.

The meat birds were double the size of the little layers, eating everything, spilling the water twice a day, and pooping in the feeder.  The poor layers weren't getting the feed they needed, and I realized that too late. But they had to go out to the coop with the other layers.  My house smelled like a dirty chicken coop and I just couldn't handle it anymore.

This year, I employed some tricks from Pinterest with these meaties, though.  I bought extra chicken wire and we repurposed the old deck canopy into a lightweight tractor. It's a 10 foot square that you can actually stand up inside (once you duck really low to get through the door).  We had also picked up a couple of camo tarps to cover it.

In the past, I’ve had to fill the waterer a couple times a day and they never seemed to have enough food.  I picked up a fount waterer that is suppose to attach to the spigot on a rain barrel, thus creating a near never-ending supply of water for them...except that it didn't fit the standard spigot and I had to go look for a reducer hose.  Big surprise, I didn't find one!  I thought about changing out the spigot, until I saw that it was epoxied in place. I said the heck with it and had Nick put the big 5 gallon waterer in there.  It'll work for the time being until I find that damn hose!

 

I also picked up a big, plastic garbage can and PVC elbows and couplers to create a gigantic feeder. The idea was to fit the elbow inside with a PVC coupler on the outside, so the birds could stick their heads through and feed...only Nick convinced me that the elbows were too long and the birds would never get their head through it.  "The feeder will be fine with just the couplers," he said.  Um, nope!  I dumped a bag in and WHOOSH! it all came pouring out the couplers (insert forehead slap here - Nick's forehead, not my own).  By then, I was hot, tired, and getting annoyed, so I said, "Forget it - they can eat it off the ground!  I just want them out!' And out they came! Nasty, stinkin' birds!

They're happy little buggers now, though. They have grass, sunshine, the layers who like to circle the pen and check them out, and they have 120 square feet to run around!

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Huzzah!

Saturday, we took a road trip to Kingston, NH for opening day of the New Hampshire Renaissance Faire. Miss Shorty wanted to be a dragon (but of course), so I sewed her a lightweight dragon costume with wings and a tail.  She was the only dragon there and received many compliments, which thrilled her to no end!

I found a great, lightweight, cotton shirt and vest from Zootzu Garb on Etsy. I was very impressed with their products and their shipping was quite speedy. Nick loved the way they felt and he was comfortable all day. Unfortunately, it was rather chilly and misty, so we vowed for next year, we'd get cloaks...or I'd attempt to make them (watch, next year will be sunny and hot!). 


I didn't get any picts of me, sad to say.  But I spent the day wearing a fleece jacket over my tunic dress and leggings.  

I really loved listening to the music! 

We saw a knight in full armor, on his way to escort the Queen:
 

Wandered through the encampment:



Saw the jousting games:
 

 

We just had a ton of fun, wandering all over, and after about 2 1/2 hours, we decided to pack it in and head for home.  Next year, we want to come later in the day and stay for the Beltane celebration.

Guess I better start thinking about costumes and cloaks for next year!

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Baby Goats!!

No, we didn't get baby goats.  My friend had two does kid this past week, so now she has 5 (FIVE!!) baby goats running around.  These two little ones are the bottle babes who are hanging in the house.


They were adorable! And yes, we totally wanted to take them home with us, but I think our neighbors would shoot us.  We may be in the country, but our neighbors are close by and we already have a rooster...and two dogs that bark.  I think adding a couple of goats right now wouldn't win us any friends!

But man, those little ones are putting the goat bug in my head. Having fresh goats milk every day would be heavenly! I have a half gallon in my fridge right now and more to come.