Dh’s father painted the chicken house for me.  I had made a trip up J. town and picked up the paint swatches (that took me all of 2.5 seconds, because I knew exactly what I was looking for).  He picked up the paint and supplies and it turned out nice.  I was going to credit my FIL for the wonderful idea of the trim along the corners, but that was actually DH’s idea.  He also had the idea of doing the trim around the chicken door to look country-ish.  I was amazed at his creativity!

The door still needs the knob put on, but that won’t take long.

This is what it looks like on the south side, going into the chicken yard.  We still have some fence work to do, but it’ll have to wait.  Dh is going to be working 2 hours away starting next week, so he’ll be gone for a week at a time.  I see lots of homeschool lessons being completed in his absence!

This is the other window.  No, there is not a window on the north side, you’re just seeing a reflection.  We still need to hang the nest boxes, and DH has a few minor things to do to the building, but overall it’s done!  Now we need to grade the soil, and next month I’ll plant the shasta daisies and rudbeckia that are growing in the garage.   So picture yellow and white flowers growing on the sides… Pretty!   Hopefully the chickens will think the flowers taste bad and not eat them….. Guess I’ll have to wait and see what happens there.

This is what the canning kitchen looked like on Saturday.  Our Easter was spent putting boards on perpendicular to those beams.  I’ll get photos of that later (like, when it’s not raining and cold out).

The tree between the canning kitchen and the pole barn was finally cut down.  It had lost several large limbs in our ice storm and didn’t look very nice anymore.  It’ll look nice in the bonfire coming late June.

My chicks came yesterday, and they are all looking healthy and strong (not to mention incredibly cute!!)  Several will be feather footed, and they have little baby feathers on their legs and feet. 

Dh went out to feed the grown-up chickens earlier, and found one wyandotte hen cold and stiff.  No obvious reason could be identified, except her head was wobbly, so maybe she broke her neck?  No teeth marks or nibbles out of her flesh, so maybe it was just her time. 

I might put my purebred rooster in the dog-pen with the two remaining pure bred wyandottes to get some hatching eggs, but the hatch rate on those is pretty poor.  We’ll see, though.

Oh, and changing the subject, I got my tiller back from FIL’s house.  It runs beautifully!  I can’t wait to use it.  It rained yesterday and some today already, but the next few days are supposed to be mid-60’s and sunny, so maybe by this weekend…. weather permitting…  I’ll get a few things into the garden.  Yay!

Sorry, no pics yet, but the chicken house is coming along quite nicely.  There are walls, windows, and tar paper on the roof.  It’s raining outside right now, otherwise I’d go take pictures.  I wanted to get pics yesterday, when the sun was shining, but I ended up getting sick again in the afternoon, and spent the rest of the day going between the bedroom and the bathroom.  Dh just went to the store to pick up shingles and one of his buddies to help him, but from the sound of thunder outside, they won’t be crawling around on the roof any time soon.  Yesterday DH’s dad came over to help, and boy does he make him run!   FIL did have some good news for me, he got my tiller fixed.  They couldn’t find a carburator for it, so he had them put a new motor on it.  All it’s going to cost me is zucchini and okra from the garden… never grew okra before, so I guess I’ll be learning how this year! 

  Before I fell ill yesterday I had to go get more transplant flats, lights, bulbs, and potting soil.  So far I have 8- 18 hole flats filled with flowers, and the starts aren’t even all transplanted yet!  That doesn’t include the tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro that will need to be transplanted, too.  So I figured if I sell half of my starts at $4.00 each, I would be way ahead… until I went shopping yesterday.  Now I’ll be ahead, just not WAY ahead.  That’s ok, the lights I only have to buy once, and I did try two bulbs that were on the expensive side for two reasons.  1.-they were out of regular grow light bulbs (I bought the last 3), and 2.- I figured it would be a good experiment to see which ones grow the plants better. 

  SO here’s the run down.  If you ever want to start flowers, these are my recommendations:

1.- Purple cone flowers, shasta daisies, gaillardia, coriopsis, and butterfly weed all sprouted wonderfully for me (90% or better germ.).  If you keep them moist, lavender will  grow well, too (plus they smell nice when you spray them with water!)  So Don’t sow them heavy, like I did… One shasta daisy had 12 plants growing in the starter pot!  I transplanted all but 1, they all had decent root systems.  Rudbeckia grows good, it’s just slower, and maybe had 70-75% germination.  Delphiniums were at maybe 50% germ, and are very slow.  Petunias, at this time, I don’t recommend.  All of my flowers were Burpee packets from the store.  The petunias had, literally, 10 seeds, and only 2 of mine grew.  That’s like 20% germ, and they are incredibly SLOW growers.  Like, if I try them again, I’ll probably start them in January, it’s that slow.

2. -So far I like Jiffy mix and Miracle Grow seed starter and potting soils.  I tried Schultz brand and I don’t like it one bit.  The water sits on top and doesn’t absorb well at all.  If you find yourself with an undesirable bag of soil, you can mix it with a more desireable bag, and then it’s better, but not wonderful.  For starting seeds, I would use the Jiffy, then transplant into Miracle Grow.  Or just mix your own with a combo of perlite, vermiculm (vermiculite, as it may actually be called, I can’t remember), and peat moss.  This is great for starting, but it has no nutrients, so after starts have their 1st or 2nd set of true leaves, you’ll need to transplant into more nutrient rich soil, and fertilze, too.  Some of my seedlings only had one set, but were going to be root bound by the time the 2nd set of leaves grew, so I had to transplant them.  Most of the literature I read said to wait until the second set, but my little starts really put a lot of effort into growing those roots!

3. Keep them warm and moist!  You will probably have to spritz your seeds twice a day until after the majority has sprouted.  That is what happened to my lavenders.  Purple cone flowers are pretty forgiving when compaired to lavender, so don’t get lazy or slack off thinking that they have the same needs.  Also, don’t grow cilantro in the same flat as bell peppers.  Cilantro will sprout faster, and eventually touch the plastic dome cover before the peppers are up… when that happens, the constant moisture on the delicate “head” causes it to rot off… I think a few of my cilantros are doomed.  But I’ll let you know what happens.  Also, they do need a few hours of darkness, so turn off the grow lights at night, or set a timer.  I read that pepper plants will set more blossoms when raised inside, having cooler evening temps (like in the 50’s) and darkness.  So now I turn the whole thing off when it’s not going to get too cold outside.  Except last night.  I was too sick to do anything.  Thankfully I had watered earlier, though.

  So there’s what’s worked for me, so far.  Hope it works for you, too!

This will be for growing chickens:

A view looking north.  I am leaning against the fence of the chicken yard.  You can tell by this photo where the two south facing windows will be.

A view looking east.  On the far right of the building, where it looks like we forgot to put one of the studs, is where the door will be.  The ”short” end of the building is 7ft tall, so I think the front is like 10 ft, but I’m not sure.  It’s pretty tall.  The framing isn’t done yet, but this is what it looks like today (since DH hasn’t been out there for 2 days to do anything to it… he will later today, though.)

Seedlings in the kitchen.  These are purple cone flowers.  I have lots of ’em.

More purple cone flowers.  I haven’t counted how many I have, but they are coming out my ears.  Maybe I’ll count them tomorrow.

A view of the whole stand lit up.  I think I might try getting the 4 bulb lights and seeing how they fit, with the 2 bulb lights removed.  Otherwise I’ll be setting up sawhorses and plywood ”tables” in the basement.  The tomatoes, peppers, delphiniums, half the shasta daisies, and all the rudbeckia are not transplanted into bigger pots yet…. so I have a lot of work to do yet.  Guess I know what I’m doing tomorrow….. 

  We are trying to find someone to help us with the reconstruction of our canning kitchen.  Pics were taken during the deconstruction last April.

  The first company I contacted left me with little hope.  He says, “I can’t even give you a plan, because that type of building isn’t recommended” and “we’ve only build one freestanding building, and it blew down in the wind, blew into an airport and into an airplane.”  That didn’t leave me with warm fuzzy feelings.  Not about MY building, but about his ability to construct them.  He wants us to either attach it to a building (not gonna happen, I told him), or build a stick built roof and use the panels for the sides (no, thank you).  He said he can get us a few parts, but that was about it.  And he said “get that tape off, it’s bad for it”.   Wha?

  The second guy contacted me and said he knew the company that origionally built this building, but just needs to allocate some of the pieces we told him that needed to be replaced.  At first I wasn’t left with warm fuzzy feelings, but our second contact left me feeling like there is hope.  He, as opposed to the first guy, actually sounds like he wants to help.

  So wish me luck, hopefully someone will come through and save the day!

DH has the support beams up for the addition.  If I had come outside a few minutes earlier, I could have had a pic of him falling into the hole surrounding the beam he’s working on in the pic.  That’s why, if you look really closely, you’ll see his butt’s covered in dirt. 

Those are the sonna tubes for the canning kitchen, and the pipes sticking out of the ground where the water and electric will go. 

The future floor for the chicken house.  The concrete is being poured later today, and construction of walls can start 24 hours after that.  Yay!

A pic of the fresh paint in the BR. We are done in there, except for the cover over the heat lamp.  DH needs needle nose pliers to put the cover back on, and he keeps forgetting…. geeze, can’t image why.

Our new carpet, and new furniture.  It’s not beautiful furiture, but it works.  I freecycled our old couch and loveseat.  We have a rather large reminant left, not sure where I’m putting it yet.  Probably in the laundry room.

So there, now you are up to date, at least until later on today… but I have to work so you’ll have to wait for pics of concrete.

Got Dirt? day 2…

  So day number 2, which was on 3/14 came and went.  We had gravel for foundations laid that day.

Future home of the new chicken house.

Future home of the addition to the pole building… where the lawnmowers will go.

The long dirt pile is where the tube encasing the electrical wires is now at.   You are standing up by the pole barn addition looking down hill.

Still by the addition, looking at where the anning kitchen will be.

The French drain, plus loads and loads of rocks picked up by hand on my own property.  First my MIL and I picked up bigger rocks in the dirt pile by the chicken coop spot, then we found the mother load across the property for the moderate size rock.  It was easy pickings from then out.

Standing by the drain spot, looking back at the pole barn, it was dug out all along the side of the building by DH.  He messed up his electric (but it’s already fixed, thank goodess!), and he hit and dented the gas line ( it’s still ok, though).

So we made lots of headway that day.  I would have posted these sooner but my computer was disassembled for a few days while the carpet was (finally!) installed.  I’ll post those pics soon.

So got dirt?  Well, we can use some…. don’tcha notice that there’s all SAND!  Who want’s to play in my sand box??? Just go dig out back….

Taking down the house: day 1

    On March 13th, our equipment to take down the chicken house came around 3pm.  The first thing on DH’s to-do list was dig out the cat-tails growing in the pond. 

The boys and girls were a little upset by all the action going on.  They kept their distance that first day.

Then it was on to the chicken house:

First they tried lifting and pulling with a chain.  That didn’t work.

Then they pushed it from one side.  That worked some, but pushed it in the wrong direction.  Dh is driving, and that is DH’s mom’s husband there supervising. 

Then he pushed it from another angle.  This one worked the best.

It came down pretty easy.

Where it used to stand.  After all of that, we even found an egg in that area!  I had picked up earlier, but a few hens had to be chased out when we started.  I floated the egg, and it sank like a rock, so I knew it was fresh.  So we ate it the next day.  Tasty!

That’s all that was left, a big pile of rubble.  Sunday we had a nice big bonfire.  With some of the branches downed by our ice storm added to the pile, that sucker burned for 2 days.  I could probaby stur the ashes today and get it going again, but since I have to work today I won’t be doing it.  Oh, and we also had a visitor during all of the noise:

His name is Charlie.  He’s probably going to be our dog before summer gets here, but for now he lives down the street, just a few houses away.  He’s such a good boy, too!  He doesn’t pee on all of our stuff, or eat the kitties, but he does need to learn to not chase chickens.  That’s ok, we can fix that one.  If I can teach two weimaraners not to chase them, he should be a snap.  He also had a slumber party that night, and did great, too.  His current owner was in the hospital having her baby, so his puppy sitter was a little careless.  I took him back the next morning.  We’ll see him around soon, I’m sure of it.

Our projects so far

The first one I started was peeling off the wall paper in the bathroom.  We still have to clean off the old glue residue and mildue, then prime and paint.  I’m going with the excuse that I’d like it to be warmer out, so we can open some windows for ventilation.  Here’s a small sample of what it looks like right now.

Yes, I know, eewww….

Oh, and for your lovely viewing pleasure, perhaps you’d like one last look at this:

Now sing with me, “I’m gonna wash that man right out of my hair…”  Aside from the black fuzzies growing along the seams, that was the second reason I wanted it down.

Then we (by we, I really mean DH, with me observing, and helping only a little) started the basement project.  Here we are so far:

The black hole on the left is the door to the well house, aka: my emergancy tornado shelter.  It’s really yucky, but I doubt I’ll care if comes to choosing between yuck and tornando.  We haven’t finished in here because, as you can see under that shelf is more mold.  DH is going to prep it today while I’m at work, and paint it either later today or tomorrow.  He’s doing it while I’m at work so I don’t have to smell the fumes.  Here’s the other wall:

I’m standing over near the well room looking to the doorway by the stairs.  This is where my canning stuff will go when it’s all done.  From here we tore up the carpet in the living room and attempted to lay down some fabricated wood-looking flooring.  This is what it looked like yesterday:

The other project that we’re working on is sorting thru his G-ma’s old Norman Rockwell collector plates.  We have them listed locally for sale, and then if that doesn’t work they’re going on ebay.  The boxes are now neatly sorted and put along the wall in my bed room.  Hope they sell fast!  That made a big dent in the junk pile in the garage.  Oh, and the new carpet should be here and installed by next week. 

So the last project I did yesterday was really fun!

I started 5 different perennial flower seeds.  They were Purple cone flower, Shasta daisy “Alaska”, Rudbeckia “Goldsturm”, Delphinium “fantasia mix”, and Butterfly weed.  Most of them should be germinated by the last week of March.  I seeded the cells heavy, just in case the sprouting is poor.  You can’t really tell, but the front of the cells are marked with the name of the seed planted there (I cut the tag off the packet and taped it on).  Then I wrote on a notebook page what I started (including yesterday’s date), how long it takes to germinate, and the dates I expect them to be germinated by.  If I have a high germination rate,  I will save myself a small fortune when it comes time this summer to landscape around the canning kitchen.  I’m really excited about this one!  It was nice to start seeds again, I haven’t done it in a few years.  The smell of the soil really got me in the mood for spring.  In a few weeks I’ll be starting tomatoes and peppers. 

Last April we purchased the growlight stand for $40 at the same auction where the canning kitchen was  purchased.  DH says it was the best $40 he ever spent, since there is more than $40 in lumber alone.  That is excluding the lights, plexiglass covers for the front, the electrical lighting and timers.  It stands about 6 1/2 feet tall and is about 5 ft long, and deep enough to put the starting flats side by side narrowly, and not have them touch the back or front.  So that’s what, at least 2 ft deep?  Yep, I agree, that was the best $40 ever spent around here

Well, I’ll try to get more pics up when the carpet comes, and when the heavy equipment comes on the 13th and we start the outdoor projects.  I see a busy season coming full speed a head!

The links aren’t working, so cut and past the sites.

The first biggest scam is this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090220/ap_on_bi_ge/bank_fees_jobless_benefits_12

This is true, because my DH is receiving unemployment benefits, and they sent us a Visa debit card from the bank of Illinois. Who the heck has ever heard of that bank? Maybe it’s in Springfield, but it’s certainly not around here. So every time I use it as a debit, or take money out, it’s gonna cost me money. We are going to spend some time online trying to figure out how to have our money mailed as a check, because I don’t feel the goverment should allow big companies to make money off of our benefits. Visa is going to make millions, if not billions, off of this recession. Off of the unfortunate. It makes me mad.

The second is this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090220/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/lahood_vehicle_mileage_tax_3

Another prime example of privacy lost. They are trying to tell us that our fears are unfounded. That’s a crock. I live 35 miles away from my work, and do you think my employer will take this kind of tax into consideration when it comes time for a raise? Nope. Many people in Small Town America must drive to find good paying jobs. So if they have a job, they’ll lose money by going to work. And if they are laid off, they’ll lose money because big companies are sucking money from their unemployment benefits. And guess what? NO one who can stop this crap cares. If Obama really wanted to help the common man, this crap wouldn’t happen. It’s one of his appointee-buddies from this most corrupt state of Illinois recommending the miles-driven tax. People are so bedazzeled with Obama, it’s a damn shame he doesn’t don a hero suit. Their bedazzeled eyes are so glazed over people aren’t seeing our freedoms slipping away.

The other thing that has me irate is the attacks on the “octo-mom”. People who, mind you, don’t even know her, are trying to get the California CPS to take her kids away. Since when does everyone get to have a say in a person’s life? People are giving her death threats because of her decision to have those kids! Would anyone have cared if only 2, 3, or 4 of those embryos implanted? NO. Guess what world? She’s not the only unmarried mother with a mess of kids, on public aid, losing her home to foreclosure! So she has 14 kids, guess what? At least she loves them! That’s more than we can say for other mothers out there. Should CPS take her kids ‘cuz she’s out of work and soon to be homeless? Well, there are millions of formerly “well-to-do, keep-up-with-the-Jones’s” who are now in that boat, maybe we should take those kids, too? All you other stay home moms out there, what if your husband suddenly had no job? Maybe this case will set a precident and allow CPS to just take kids willy-nilly. I work in OB and see homeless, jobless single mothers quite often. Maybe CPS should get those kids, too? Shoot, maybe we should start making families fill out some application questionaire before they conceive. Should she be treated differently, because she had her kids all at once, verses the woman in the same financial boat, who has repeated pregnancies and ends up with a mess of kids? I’d rather my hard earned tax dollars go to save her butt than bail out these maga-corporations who’s CEOs make millions a year.

If God didn’t want that woman to have 8 kids at once, then all or few of those embryos would have not implanted, or her body would have terminated the pregancy early. Heck, I’d like to high-five her, that’s just one heck of a uterus she has there! Way to go! She made it 31 weeks, does anyone out there realize what kind of miracle that was? Shoot, some twin gestations don’t last that long. And if she was offered selective reduction, what mother can say “well, I’d like to eliminate that child, and that child, and maybe that one, too.” If you have personally done that, then great, that works for you. But not everyone can do that. Kinda like pro-life vs. abortion. Some people do one, others choose differently.

The only bad decision she’s made was coming out to the media. I think she should have stayed in seclusion. I hope when those babies are released she gets out of California. Have you seen the prices of homes out there? If you haven’t, look them up! A poo-hole dive of a “fixer upper”, that really can only be fixed with a bull dozer runs $200,000. No wonder their house is in foreclosure! It probably cost half a million dollars since the pix I’ve seen didn’t make it look like a big pile of poo.

This world is getting scarier and scarier and freedoms are being lost. Doesn’t anyone else see this????

  Monday we ran some errands, and also made a trip to the furniture store in a the nearby town of C.C.  There we looked at new beds for DS, who’s bed looks rather girly, in a rather 1950’s sorta way…  We also persused their books for beds, since the store room is smallish, and only has a handful of children’s options.  Well, in our search we found a crib that converts to a toddler day-bed, then to a full sized bed.  Got the price quote today, and though it’s a little expensive, it is only one purchase, good for the next 20 years, so it’s on order.  Hurray!  Although that left DS without a new head board.  DH has his old headboard in storage at this mother’s home, so we’re going to look at that before deciding on that purchase.

  We also stopped at the local big-box hardware store, who happens to carry a brand name type of seed.  I managed to pick up most of my spring seeds there.   I’ll just need to order a few pepper plant seeds, so I can get the variety I want.  That saved me some $$.  I also bought some perenial flower seeds that I hope to start this weekend.  That’ll save me some $$ this summer on landscaping.  yay!

  After that I had a OB appointment.  DH was able to hear the FHT by the doppler, with little earphones attached.  After that he sat back in his chair and spaced out, supposedly since my and my Dr’s conversation was going over his head.  Well, the Dr asked him if he was excited, and of course, DH was spacing out, blowing at a fuzzy floating in the air, much resembling a small child.  I felt like telling the Dr that “no, his gene pool really is deeper than a puddle, but thanks for the genetic testing anyways,” but I held back.  Admittedly, I did marry him out of love, and not because I think he has fabulous chromasomes.  Perhaps he can just come for the ultrasounds and the delivery?

  On to more exciting news… At the last posting, my weim managed to catch the same hen twice in a row, and chew on her a little.  She suffered an open fracture to her left wing tip.  After a failed attempt by DH with a .9 mm to relieve her of pain and suffering, I felt that it must be a sign from above to let nature run it’s course.  Well, one week later and she’s still perky, and hasn’t lost her rank in the pecking order (which is up near the top).  I took a quick look today and it kinda looked scabbed over (or maybe it was just dirty??), but it seems to not bother her much.  She can’t fly anymore, and it droops a bit, but unless I find her stiff in the next day or two, I think she’ll live.  Good thing DH isn’t very accurate…. I guess??  I hope to get outside with my camera in the next few days and get pics of my roosters.  They looks sooo handsome, with their full, long tail feathers.  Quite striking, indeed. But also horny little devils they are…. one hen I thought was missing was just hiding really well yesterday… I guess just tired of all the action.

  Oh, and on a not so lovely note, the black sheep in the family, who shall on this blog be known as F. B. (watch Austin Powers, F.B. plays the bag pipes… you’ll see) is in town.  Guess we’ll be locking the doors this week.  Feels like we’re transformers, with our armour plating zooming out to surround our home.  He needs to go back to the rock he crawled out from under.  Ugh.

  And on that note, I’m going to bed.  G-Nite!