Thursday, July 23, 2009

The craft room saga

I am working on getting the craft room to look like a craft room. The desk has come out of the living room - makes that a bit bigger. I hung the mirror over the sewing machine since my friends just come in when they know I'm home, and I didn't want to be scared to death if they surprised me. I'm looking for a home for some of the things that are sitting around. The table on the left will hold my serger.




This mess is also stuff I need to find a home for, but I think I'll have to wait until I get the book shelves into the room. They will go along the wall on the immediate right. I have a job ahead of me with the shelves as they are still FULL of containers and books, but I will get there.




Here is the walk-in closet that I'm starting to fill up. The dresser will be my yarn area ..and other locations yet to be determined!! LOL There will be two shelving units that will go in there to hold who knows what - anything is possible at this point in time.




Just another view of the room. I drew the curtains because it is starting to warm up and I'd like to keep the predicted high of 91 at bay as long as I can since I don't have a/c. Even though the curtains are good for keeping the heat out, they will be replaced with something better suited to a craft room. I'm mulling over the thought of making window quilts for the whole house to help keep the winter cold outside. I have 7 windows to do this for; 3 large, 3 medium, and a smaller one in the kitchen. More on this later.




I was going to pull up the carpet, lay some interior grade plywood flooring and paint it. I was also going to paint the walls, but all this takes a lot more money than I'm able to get my hands on at the moment. I may get done down the road, or never. Just depends. But I'll tell you something - it will get used A LOT. Should I upgrade it and call it a studio? I love that word. It makes what you create seem more creative when you have a Studio. By the way, the room is 14 x 11 feet! I kept the smaller bedroom to sleep in since all I do in that room is sleep ...

Let me know what you all think.

Ta ta for now.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

A little of this, a little of that

This past Saturday (July 11) Dale, Candy & I went out to get some firewood. The dead trees on our properties have pretty much been cut and burned, so we picked up some cutting permits for 8 cord to be split between the two households.

This we hoped was included in the permitted area.


We got a really late start, left my house at 10 and drove around looking for the areas that can be cut. Next time we will leave at 6:30-7:00 so we can cut during the cool part of the day! We worked for 1 1/2 hours for 1/2 cord of wood! Hot, hot, hot!! And we didn't bring enough water to sip - - go figure, we know better ...

These are the kind of piles that you can dig through for usable wood.


The truck doesn't look like it is very full, but we worked our fannies off!!


We headed home around 1 pm and as we pulled into our tiny town, there were a bazillion Harleys at the local watering hole! A Poker Run!

The noise was marvelous - LOVE that Harley sound!!


One of my chickens kept eating the eggs that were laid, which leaves me without breakfast. I had her prepped to go into the freezer for soup come winter. The other two take turns laying as I only have the open area of the dog house. I'd like a couple of nest boxes to see if I can get two eggs a day.

I found out that the dark brown one, her name is Cinnamon, is a Brown Sex-link and lays brown eggs. Don't ask me where they come up with breed names ... LOL. The other one (Frazzle) is an Araucana and she lays green eggs. Where she previously lived, she was picked on by the other chickens and looks really bad feather wise. She looks frazzled - hence the name. I think she will fill in her feathers over time, but frazzled she looks, and Frazzle she is!



Cinnamon decided at the last second that she didn't want her face shown in this picture ... LOL.


They are doing well. I let them out to roam and they have picked spots for dust baths and just relaxing. The dog is curious, but has learned to leave them alone. The cat, well ... he is VERY curious and likes to get close to get a good sniff, but the chickens will flap wings and the cat takes off like a bat out of hell!

I bought a feeder that will hang so I can raise it up a bit and they won't throw the straw into it when scratching around in the pen. It will hold enough food for 3-4 days, so I don't have to worry about them when we take off for a long weekend.

I thank you all for your comments and your visits and your questions make me do some research on the chickens...

Hugs to you all.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I have chickens

Starting about a year ago, I started thinking about getting some chickens. My room mate, D, said "no way!!!" OK, I let it go for the time being. Several months ago, when I knew D was moving, I started up again . . .

I mentioned to my friend Dale that I was again thinking of getting at least two chickens to help with the bugs in the back yard. Time passed and early last night Dale's neighbor showed up with three chickens in a cage. OK!!! I have chickens.



I have a kennel that my Houdini dog broke out of and I had thought that it would be a good place for the chickens after I fixed the hole in the gate. Well, I had to scramble to fix the hole temporarily last night and will do a better job today. I also need feed, but for right now there are weeds and bugs that they are scratching at right now.



I also need some straw. Dale's wife will bring me some this morning to carry me over for a few days. I have the dog bowl for water, so that is fine. They are full grown chickens so they won't drown themselves.

Now I need to find out what kind of chickens they are. I need to put together a coop for them - I just don't think the dog house will work ... LOL. Roosting area and nest boxes.

Those of you out there that know about chickens will probably get some questions from me. Natalie of Chicken Blog, and Siri of Knitting Iris are two of my favorites, and I'm sure they won't mind some questions.

... and if you find me and have some suggestions for me, feel free to comment. I appreciate all the help I can get.

I will keep you posted on the saga of my chickens.

Hugs

Sunday, July 5, 2009

4th of July camping trip . . .

Our group of friends usually avoid camping on any holiday weekend, but we decided that four days away from home would be nice - instead of just three, LOL.

We gathered ourselves up and went to our favorite little spot. This is the little campground with only 12-13 campsites that is 10 miles from home. What a wonderful surprise we all got. Very quiet, all campers were there to relax and not whoop it up to any major degree. Most lights were out by 10, just a few die-hards were up later!

There were lots of extra vehicles in most campsites, and lots of boats on the lake, but so nice and quiet. Courtesy at its finest!

The campground is locked from 9 pm until 6 am, but the camp host told everyone that if they wanted to go to town to see the fireworks (50 mi. round trip!) that they would accommodate every one and open the gate. Very nice. We stayed in camp.

The weather was HOT, at least for me, with temps in the mid 80's. If you were in the shade it was pleasant when the breeze came up, but being in the sun was terribly stifling, even with the breeze. There were chances of thunderstorms, but even though we saw lightning way off and thunder too, we never got a drop of rain.

I hope every one had a safe and happy Fourth of July!

See you soon . . .