Blame the Grandkids

We let our grandchildren name the chickens, so meet

Brownie, Stripey, Cinnamon,

and Hot Dog.

I named the cats--Penny and Dale, two Ginger Rogers characters in Fred Astaire pictures, but I bet you knew that.

Strategies

Kitten Penny patiently tracked a small lizard. She persevered, finally pounced, and caught it.

Kitten Dale yawned and watched, seemingly not interested in such goings on.

Then she calmly walked over and stole the lizard. Her growls made it known to all and sundry that the prey was now hers. Dale toyed with it for awhile and then ate it.

Treachery wins over honest hard work again.

Reminders

Helping grandma make ice cream

I apologize for the lapse in posts; we're involved in a real estate transaction.

What a minute! Didn't I already post, moan, and groan about that? Yup, but it's happening again. Still.

The first offer on our house fell through--much stupidity and weirdness on the buyer's side.

This time, we have a, well, shall we say inexperienced (anal, incompetent, obnoxious?) assessor who is holding up the deal. Fates preserve us from bureaucrats with a little bit of power.



Sweets for the sweet


Anyway, in the meantime we got a fun visit from kids and grandkids. There is nothing like a 4 and 7 year old to remind you what's really important in life!

What's Old is New



Table made from recycled teak, from www.exbali.com

 Recycling is the rage.

Bloggers boast about turning old dog chains into jewelry, vintage oars into scarf racks. Glossy magazine articles feature crafters who repurpose bed frames into benches, plastic framed mirrors into chalkboards. The end products always take your breath away with the artistry.

I needed a plant table. Tom took 6 pieces of 2'x4' and a ratty, wormy piece leftover from the doghouse we demolished, and voila!, a work table.



We've been reusing and recycling our entire lives but this creation, although functional, is never going to make the cover of Dumpster Delights*. I'm betting it will hold plants just as well as teak, though.



Tom showing pride in his work.



*There MUST be a magazine by that name!

Island Style

In our search for scrounged materials to use in the chicken coop, we found surfer dude under a cabinet in the garage. I think it's a sign, a reminder that the spirit of aloha should always be in our lives even when we are far beyond the Pacific.

Shaka, brah!

Eggs-elent!

Picked up four layers Wednesday evening.

Had our first egg Thursday afternoon.

Yippee!

Cooped Up, part 3--Chicken Eve

Penny: "I heard we're getting chickens tonight."

Dale: "Wow, that's great! What are chickens?"

The coop is done, finished, completed. Whew!

All we had to do after the last post was:

    

     Add the chicken door

     Glaze the window glass

     Caulk

     Add drip edge to the roof

     Put polyurethane on the door

     Fence a small run

     Add a gate

     Add nest boxes

The chicken door is Episcopal church door red--ever notice almost every Episcopal church has a red door? I thought the coop needed some color and it was the only other outside paint I had.

We made a miscalculation on the roof (for some reason, we always have trouble with roofs) so added drip edge to cover a small gap.

We decided to not only fence in a small run area but also fence around the base of the coop to discourage whoever might want to dig under and take up residence. We got it all secured, made sure we hadn't fenced in the cats, looked five minutes later and Penny had managed to get under somehow. Sigh.

The nest boxes are two plastic cat litter buckets I retrieved from a recycling bin. The roost is a long dowel we found in our garage.

I didn't keep track of how much the project cost, I'm guessing about $150 and a lot of sweat and sore muscles. Here's a rundown of what we bought and what we "repurposed":

• Lots of 2'x4's--we had bought about 20 on sale back in NY and brought them along, we did buy about 10 more and there were a few in the Lick Skillet garage.
• Cement blocks--found here
• 2 sheets of plywood--bought new
• 4 sheets of osb--bought new
• Primer, white paint--bought new
• Waterproofing--brought from NY
• Siding--T1-11--found here
• Metal roofing--found here
• Screws--some we had, bought more
• Roofing nails--found here
• Roofing tar--bought new
• Door--found here
• Gate--found here
• Fencing and posts--brought from NY

Our heartfelt thanks to the previous owners who left such great stuff lying around! New metal roofing and T1-11 would have easily cost another $200.

I'm picking up four layers tonight; we're more than ready to get back to fresh eggs and are sincerely hoping NOT to tackle another construction project for awhile--I'm tired!