Cooped up Coop!

After a lot of slow-poking, putting it offing, getting around to it latering..I finally fenced in the chickens! Nothing fancy, just wire fencing, 1x2 mesh; 4x4 posts, for the gateway; then t-bars and trees, for tacking up the fence.

The gateway. 4x4s set into concrete.

The view to the right, two hundred feet of fencing all the way around. The yellow ties on the fencing was put on after we put up the first panel. The chickens were running into the fencing trying to get into the coop. After I added the bows, cut from a plastic bag that once held dirt, the chickens could see the fence better and found their way around it, and into the coop.

Andrew's friend Jim brush-hogged this area for us last Spring, when I first starting doing this project. Yes, last Spring! Bought all the materials then let it sit on the back burner until finally completing this project last week!  Andrew has been burning, burning, burning away at all the weeds that grew back and made it really nice back there.

Truthfully, I think it took so long to finish the fencing because I didn't really want to fence them in. I like having the chickens out, watching them scratch in the yard, or in the front driveway. Their chicken ways fascinated me and I hated the idea of locking them away. But they were getting into things-- my rhubarb patch, the garden. And they pooped all over the sidewalk and patio area. Killed all the flowers planted around the house by digging into the dirt for their baths. And besides, after the harvesting of the fruit and vegetables, they can be let out again and enjoy freedom. They won't be cooped up all the time, I told myself, when I finally made the gate to shut the chickens in.

All they need now is a tin cup!

The gate is a simple frame made from PVC pipes, then covered with chicken wire. Held shut with a chewed through nylon leash, but still useful with the latch on the end.

Since they've been on lock-down? It's pretty nice. I still feel kind of bad about it, but it's great not having kids that were scared of the rooster, therefore scared to go out the door without a chaperone to guide them through the chicken gauntlet hanging out by the back door. Even after clearing a path, there was hesitation to run through and after 10 seconds too long, the chickens regroup and.. "Attackkkkk!!" Sure got tiring escorting multiple kids multiple times every day. Rescuing a kid too scared to move, panic in their eyes is something I don't miss one bit. I still plan to let them out come Fall, after harvest, but by then, there should only be one rooster left and he'll be too busy playin' with his ladies to worry about the kids.

Another project checked off my list!

Hand-Me-Downs

It's almost that time of year again, when I take things to the children's consignment shop to sell. Friends recently gave us some clothing from their children, so it was time to sort through all the boxes to see what fit, what to pass down from one child to another, save for later, and finally, decide which to donate, use for rags, or sell.

This was an all day job! First I sorted through the boxes and separated by gender, then by size. Working with the girl clothes first, I had Evelyn pull everything out of her drawers and we took out all the too-small clothing, and then let her pick what she wanted from the pile of clothes in her size.  10 short-sleeves, 10 long-sleeves, 10 shorts/skirts, 10 pants/jeans. Repeat two more times for Gretchen, then Sylvia.

Clothing that Sylvia no longer wears is an easy decision-- most of those will go to be sold or donated. Clothes too small for Gretchen or Evelyn will be saved for the next year or two, until they are too small for even Sylvia to wear. I have quite the pile of clothes that are in good condition to sell, and some that I know won't pass the consignment's store inspection, but still have lots of good wear left in them, they'll be donated.  Clothes with holes and bad stains will be turned into rags. There are some bright colors-- I'm thinking of a rainbow rag rug with some of those...

Well, how about that? I actually followed through on my idea and started a rainbow rag rug!! I may do a double rainbow, since this isn't very big and I've only 2 more colors to do-- blue and purple. Using kid-sized clothes presents a challenge, since as it gets bigger, I won't be able to take the color all the way around. See the yellow? I barely made it one and a half times around. It's looking really nice, though-- the colors are kind of muted in the picture, it's much brighter in real life.

I didn't finish going through all the boy clothes yet. I hope to finish that this week.

 Another advantage of sorting the clothes is finding out what we need or are short-handed on.  It's nice to see that I won't have to buy any clothing for at least a year or two, except for shoes. We're well stocked on pretty much all articles of clothing, which is a nice feeling when one's husband is out of work and money is tight.

 We are so blessed to have such good friends that think of us, and lucky in that we don't mind hand-me-downs. We've always practiced what we preached to the kids, about buying used at the thrift stores or yard sales, saving money, and making do or do without. I'm glad to see that the kids are happy with what they have and no gumbling about it being "old" or belonging to some other kid. Thanks for thinking of us!

<3

Just, Wow!

What a lovely white winter wonderland it is out there right now. No matter that it is still Autumn and still October. No matter that Halloween hasn't happened yet. No matter that all the winter coats and snow pants I washed last month and hung to dry, then got played in and soiled all over again and I haven't had a chance to wash them just yet. No matter that Peter likes to wear snow boots in the house and then leaves them where he takes them off, be it under a bed, or under the stairs, or between the wall and the back of the dresser (*#$*&^!!!), and I have to hunt high and low for a matching pair of boots.

Still, it's beautiful out there.

Not so sure about my poor Mulberry tree, though. All that heavy wet snow hanging onto the leaves that have yet to fall bent the tree nearly in half before we knocked the snow off it. I hope it bounces back. Andrew said he could hear tree branches cracking in the woods. So I guess if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, it does make a sound!

I'm glad we had no plans to go anywhere today. Very quickly, more than 10 inches of heavy, wet snow came down. We knew it was coming and prepared for it. Andrew gathered more logs, split and stacked the wood near the door. We pulled up posts and tomato fences in the garden, pulled up the weed covers, then tilled most of the garden. Cut the grass and mowed over the leaves. I raked leaves where the mower can't get to and raked the leaves into the chicken coop and the duck house for bedding and insulation. Closed up the window flaps on the chicken coop. Andrew took the trash out to the landfill. Cleaned up the toy vomit in the basement so we could fire up the wood stove if it got too cold. Filled up gallons of water in empty jugs in case the power went out. It did, but only for an hour.

Chickens said "Hell, no!" to the snow and stayed inside the coop all day. Ducks never saw snow before and didn't know what to make of it. They were mostly outdoors before they called it an early night and went to bed.

I finally got smart this year and put up an indoor clothes line in the sun room. Previously, I used a clothes drying rack, but it couldn't handle the weight of the wet coats and pants and the kids were, let's be honest, just too rough with it, tossing heavy wet pants in it's general direction, knocking it to the floor until Mama comes and picks everything up and rearranges it so it can air dry. I'm learning from my mistakes, indoor clothes line it is!

Also new is the coat rack. Put up in the Spring since Mama was tired of hollering at the kids to pick up their jackets and sweaters off the floor after they fell off the puny little coat rack with tiny little pegs obviously not meant to hold 341 coats/sweaters/jackets. Fashioned by yours truly out of an old fence rail and vintage clothes hooks, it works great!

Also with the snow, comes the wet, muddy floor and strewn boots kicked off, left to sit in melting puddles of snow and when Mama comes to help hang up wet snow things, guess what I step in? Brr!

We tried, we truly did. We tried so hard not to have a fire until November, but when the temps dipped into the 30s last night and we woke to all the snow, and it was oh so hard to get out of the nice warm bed, it had to be done. Maybe November will bring us some warm days to make up for winter in October, but I won't hold my breath. More likely, I'll see my breath from now on.

Working on Halloween Costumes. Cannibalized a men's XL grey fleece jacket from the thrift shop and using up what's left of my fleece scraps to make something special for Peter. Nearly done.  Any guesses?

Evelyn wants to be the Bride of Frankenstein, easy enough-- pulled together an outfit from her clothes and a bit of fancy hair styling and make-up will do the trick.

Gretchen and Sylvia both want to be princesses, so fancy party dresses and vintage tiaras borrowed from Mama, and make-up will do.

Plans are to go trick or treating at a local Church that hosts a 'Trunk or Treat' in the parking lot. We went last year and had fun, so unless we get more snow, that's what we'll be doing. And mayyyyybe a little walk around town, too, wait and see how cold it is.

Scratching the Itch

I've been itching to get on the sewing machine lately and it's so hard during the day with Peter fiddling around with all the buttons on the machine, pulling the spool of thread off, walking around me and tripping over the cord, that I just wait until the kids go to bed. But by then I'm too tired or I have something else more pressing than sewing, so it gets put off and put off and put off.

Sewing and crafting is good for me. It's good for my soul. Sooner or later I have to make time to do something and get it out of my system and when it's finished, I feel better.

Last year, a wonderful bloggy friend sent Evelyn a box of fabrics for Christmas (Thanks, Karen!).  I gave Evelyn most of it when I put it inside her very own sewing box, but kept out a few things-- either I thought she wasn't ready for it, or *ahem* I wanted it for myself. heh. Included in the box of fabrics was a set of charm squares, I think that's what you call them.  A rainbow of colors in the same design but different colors, all pre-cut into 4x4 squares. I've been itching since before Christmas to make something with them, but didn't know what.

Finally, inspiration struck and I spent several days looking at different pinwheel quilts on the internet, looking for a design I liked. I don't have enough squares to make a full size quilt, but I wasn't looking to do that. I just wanted to make something quickly. I needed my fix!

Ta-dah!!

 My first tiny mini-quilt. It's the exact size of a potholder! hahaha!

It's not perfect, some of the corners don't match up and I flubbed the binding.

I like the orange and turquoise together.

I like how if you stare at it long enough, the pattern starts to change-- squares, diamonds, triangles, squares within a square...

I'll probably end up using it as a potholder. 

I used a scrap of fleece as batting in the middle.

 

I see a lot of quilters adding a little something-something to the backs of their quilts,

giving it that extra special bit and I ended up with an extra pinwheel left over after I pieced the front together, so why not? There's my little extra special something-something!

I did this one, too. Can you see the diamond pattern?

Trying to line up all the tiny squares on this was tough!

I should have used a different fabric, switching out one of the red-and-white ones.

Like keeping the stripes, both the green and the red/white, and adding a different color stripe. The red-and-white polka dot is cute, but it doesn't help define the diamond pattern.

At least I got all the stripes lined up the same way.

This is also the size of a potholder-- the squares are the size of a dime.

 I'm thinking I'll finish it and let the girls have it for a doll quilt.

Fall Color Week:: Thursday

This color week is going by too fast! I'm rather enjoying this, posting simply and with a few pictures that speak for me. Anyway, my entry for today's color-- Chestnut Brown::

This chest(nut) of drawers.

I bought this at a yard sale the first year we lived here, 4 years ago.

I meant to sand it down and re-finish it and bring it back to it's former glory,

but then baby #3 came along, and paint fumes don't mix with pregnancy.

Just when I started thinking about it again, baby #4 made his appearance.

Baby needs his own chest of drawers, as his clothes are in a pile on a shelf in my room.

So I dragged the poor, neglected drawers out of the basement,

and I am preparing to start work on it.

Soon!

Before it gets too cold.

I mean it!

Really!

Honest, I do!

Love this dark brown color on the Speckled Sussex hen.

Of the six I started with, I only have 2 left.

I think the girls named this one Freckles.

Henry, my beloved Speckled Sussex rooster, the day before he disappeared.

Since he's been gone, I've learnt not to get too attached to my chickens.

***

Tomorrow- Plum

And for extra credit, I'm going to post an extra color on Saturday:: Cornflower Blue

Who's with me?