Ahh... Come On Out!

Morgan doesn't understand that if she stands in the doorway and waits for the chickens to come out that the hens are not coming. The chickens are not afraid of Morgan, but there are only a few of them who will approach Morgan in the doorway and pass her. Morgan must look like an obstacle to the girls or Morgan is to be avoided?

So, just to confuse things some more, I called Morgan into the pen. The hens are still not all that excited about leaving. What gives? Poor Morgan. No. Don't go in the pen. Yes. Go in the pen. How can I expect Morgan to know the rules if I break them.

This old thing was laying all over the place with nails sticking up, so maybe Morgan got hurt on this little disaster. I picked up the pieces and leaned it back together. I need to get some nails and some wood and stick it back together. My brother built this little dog house and used it to cover the faucets. Works great. It keeps the faucets hidden and relatively clean except for spider webs. The real pay off is that it protects the faucets from the wind and cold during a freeze and keeps the pipes from freezing.

On the way back to the house after locking up the chickens tonight I took this picture of the opening in the trees over our house. My view of the sky is kinda limited unless I get to the side of a mountain. Kinda pretty blue and pink skyset?

[8 eggs today]

The Hen Cam lady on her blog here

said that her hens are molting and have stopped laying.

So, I guess I can expect that to start happening

around here pretty soon.

She also has a new Goat Cam.

I think it would be neat to put a cam on a hen and let it record as she went through her day in the coop and in the woods. I don't think the hen would be thrilled to wear a cam. I wonder how heavy they are? The Hen Cams look a bit too large for a chicken to wear. Maybe a goat?

Smiles

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Back On The Job

Look ma, no bandage. Just a cut on the side and stitches were taken out of the cut between her pads. Morgan is showing off her foot. I'm not too sure Morgan was that happy to go back to her chicken duties. She wanted to come back in the house with me when I came back from collecting eggs. I think she got to like sleeping in the house. Much cooler!

Morgan was waiting to greet the chickens as they made a quick escape from their prison. Henny Penny was first in line to find that the door was open and brave the big outdoors. The hens did some running around, flapping of wings and clucking when they were loose. I think they were happy!

This is my messy popcorn making last night.

[9 eggs today]

Smiles

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Party Tomorrow?

I was out collecting eggs again today and I found one out in the pen in the dirt, but the good thing is that the chickens didn't eat it. The bad thing I found was that the hens automatic waterer seems to be leaking as there is a wet area under it. I would like to think that the hens were dusting under or next to the waterer and knocked it about and spilled the water. I will have to keep a check on it to find out if it is leaking. Poor hens. They would like to get out in the woods and party. The pen is really too small for them. Tomorrow Morgan goes to the vet to get stitches taken out of her foot, but will she still have a bandage?

Here is my miter saw. Before I got this saw I used to make my angle cuts with a miter box. This is much faster and much more accurate. I am very careful and I wear eye protection. If I'm going to be making a lot of cuts I also wear ear protection because of the painful noise it makes.

[11 eggs today]

Smiles

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Socked!

Morgan is not happy with her sock. Kristine and I put the sock over her bandage to cut down on the chances of Morgan taking off the bandage again. The vet said that since dogs sweat between their pads that the sock should be ok as long as the sock let the air through. The vet also said that she put gauze between the pads to allow for air flow and that Morgan probably didn't like the feeling and that is why she took the second bandage off. The vet told Kristine to tape the sock on with the tape going up the leg as that would hold better than taping around the leg. Seems to work. The sock is still on. Two more days and back to the vet on Friday. Tom will take her. He is visiting his Mom on his birthday. Kristine and I get to eat the cake!

Tom put up a new ceiling light

and things were looking bright.

And then it went off again and then back on.

?

Here is my latest project. I built the window seat, drawers and hutch. Now I'm in the process of putting on the finishing touches. I wanted to put wood across the bottom. This is a trial piece of sheet rock to see what it would look like. I think I will take it off and cut a piece of plywood the same size to put behind it for strength. I also need to build some shelves for the hutch part. I found the windows in an antique store. I'll build the shelves last because I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to do that.

[7 eggs today]

Smiles

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Can I Please Go Out?

This is Morgan asking Kristine if she can please go outside. Morgan does the stare thing. This breed of dog stares at sheep to move them. The staring can get a bit nervy until you get used to being stared at. Morgan is ok and she didn't take her bandage off today. I watched her and she is blocked off the stairs to keep her out of the loft!

This is the path by the front gate.

I'm either going to donate this climber or sand and paint it. I'm not sure which it will be yet. My brother put this thing together. What a puzzle that was. There are bolts sticking out that could catch and give you a scratch, so I will also have to go around and saw them all down first if I decide to keep and paint it. Maybe?

[9 eggs today]

Smiles

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Back To The Vet

Morgan pulled a sneaky attack on her bandage this morning. She has been so good, but this morning she went upstairs after she ate. I thought she went up there to be with Kristine. No. She went up there to be by herself. She misbehaves when she thinks no one can see her. She went to her hiding spot in the loft. She took the bandage off, so, Kristine had to take her back to the vet to have the foot checked and re-bandaged this time with a purple wrap. I will tape a sock over the bandage tonight and when I can't watch her tomorrow. I probably would put the collar on her, but I can't find it. I'm looking forward to Friday and getting that bandage off. At least I think that is what is going to happen. Maybe they are just going to take out the stitches and will wrap it again?

The chickens are doing ok.

It is hot enough that they are not very energetic.

And seem to be content to eat and dust.

And lay some eggs.

Today there was a little wind so I spent some time outside raking my paths and the wind kept the mosquitos away. I still have more raking to do. Hopefully, there will be a breeze tomorrow.

I think I will be working with the miter saw tomorrow and doing some staining, painting and working with the joint compound.

[9 eggs today]

!

Smiles

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'till Friday

Morgan is looking perky. She will have to wait until next Friday to get the bandage off. We have been trying to keep her off the stairs because she has slipped a time or two on the way down. There is a barking dog outside that has her all upset tonight. So, to keep her quiet we put her on her bed in my room. I keep checking on her to make sure she is not taking her bandage off. I tell her to "leave it" and she does. Good Morgan!

This is the state of my kitchen ceiling tonight. One of the light has stopped working and Tom is doing his electrical wizardry. I hear different things. Maybe the fixture is broken or there is something wrong with the wiring? Tom will figure things out tomorrow. I hope.

My scary looking dinner. Tom and Kristine made up their plates like normal people. I made a jumble of leftovers. Well, I did cook the asparagus tonight, but the spaghetti, tri tip, and corn were leftovers. I heated them all up separately and for some reason added them all to my bowl. Looks strange, but it tasted good. Kristine said I had to take a photo of my jumble dinner. How desperate is that for something to post. Kristine is behind the Mac giving me a bad time.

The chickens are fine. It is going to be a long week for them until they can be let out to free range next weekend. I collected one egg this morning and three this afternoon. Hmmm... So, are they not laying because they want out, or did they eat the other eggs, or is it time for them to slow down their laying? I'll just have to wait and see.

[4 eggs today]

4?

Where's the rest?

Did the chickens eat them?

Smiles

Poor Chickens

I'm in the coop collecting eggs this afternoon. The hens are remarkably calm and nice to each other considering that they are used to being out and about in the woods during the day. Morgan is doing well today. She hasn't messed with her bandage. She woke Kristine up three times last night. The first two times she nosed Kristine and then held her paw up for Kristine to see. I guess it was hurting. Awwwww. The third time she wanted out to potty. So, Kristine put her in with me, so she could get some sleep. Poor Morgan. I remembered to take her out today.

There are two hens sitting on this one nest area. Some of the hens like their own private spot to lay and other like to gang up and lay together. The most I have seen is three hens crowded together.

All the hens are either out in the pen or in a nest box except for these two, who are on the top roost. They are getting first dibs. The other night I counted ten hens crammed up there on the top. Amazing, but there are three or four hens who like to sleep on the ground.

I am still sheet rocking and will be painting tomorrow. Tom got the flat paint for the walls today, so I can always paint walls. I was hoping for some wood to use for finish work, but I will make do with sheet rock. Amazing what you can do with sheet rock. I'll take some photos when I get finished.

[8 eggs today]

Smiles

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New Bandage

Morgan had to go back to the vets today to have her bandage redone. She wasn't bothering the old bandage, but she took the tape off of the new one. Kristine held Morgan and I re-taped the top and bottom of the bandage. We are watching her to make sure she leaves it alone. We are concerned that when they did the re-bandaging today they put the new bandage on too tight?

I always wanted a glass pane door here, but have given up waiting and today I put up sheet rock, metal corner strips, and put on joint compound. It is going to need another application of joint compound before I paint. I'm going to hang a curtain eventually in the doorway. I did more washing windows outside. I still haven't gotten to the inside window.

I painted this door last night with semi-gloss. Tom was going to get me a can of flat today, but he can't leave Morgan in the car while he shops, so no paint. I've got other stuff to do. The hallway is kinda narrow, or at least it feels that way, and I was always hitting my hand on the doorknob. So, I found a closet doorknob that has a little twisty handle on the inside and put it on the outside. No more banging my hand on the knob. The water heater lives in there.

[12 eggs today]

Smiles

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The Painting Continues

Morgan slept all day and she feels much better this evening. I can tell because she is walking on the foot and she is wagging her tail around in circles. She is being very good and has not bothered the bandage. I hate putting the collar on her, so I hope she continues to leave it alone. I am used to having her outside all day and since I was painting and busy; I forgot about her and didn't take her out. Poor Morgan. She was so quiet all day that I didn't notice her.

Well, that looks a bit better than yesterday. Tom already had a new green tarp. It is a little smaller than the ratty blue one I had one there yesterday, but it works! I gave the hens lettuce and veggies for a treat this morning.

The basket on the left was blue

and the one on the right was a dirty off white.

As long as I was painting I decided to paint them too.

I'm painting woodwork and doors today.

This was overkill. I was used to the killer oven cleaners of the past and so put my burner racks outside and sprayed them and left them for two hours. Gee, I should have read the directions. Next time I will do this in the sink. Much less trouble. The cleaner didn't smell bad and it worked fairly well. I only had to scrap off a few spots. Next time I will leave it on longer.

[8 eggs today]

Smiles

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Back From The Vet

Poor little squint eyed Morgan back from the vet and recovering from the drugs she was given. First to knock her out so they could probe the wound and stitch it up and then the drugs they gave her to recover. Tom took Morgan to the vets this morning and they were gone from around 10:00 to 1:30. That was a pretty quick turn around. In the past she has had to stay overnight for treatments that involve stitching. The gauze is pink with little purple hearts. There is tape over the gauze to make the bandage more secure. She doesn't have to wear a collar unless she starts trying to take the bandage off, but so far she is not messing with it. She has to take pills twice a day and will need to return to the vets for bandage changing and eventually stitch removal. Morgan is sleeping now.

Since the chickens have to stay in their pen while Morgan recovers, I worried about the chickens getting too much sun. I remembered there was an old tarp out in the woods covering a pile of leaves. (my idea of composting) I snatched it and used some bungie cords to hook it over the fence to give the girls some shade in the afternoon. The trees shade the pen earlier in the day. This isn't pretty, but it does the job and keeps the hens cool. I don't know how long I can stand to look at this old tarp. I think I will ask Tom to pick up a green one.

See. Happy chickens.

Well, not really, they want out!

I finished painting this back wall and hung the chicken plaque that my brother and sister-in-law gave me when they were here for a visit. I spent today painting the ceiling and another wall in the kitchen. Then I cut sheet rock to finish a doorway. I found a container of multi-purpose joint compound, but it was thin and watery. I'm letting it sit out open tonight and I'm hoping it will thicken up. If not, I'll ask Tom to go pick up some more tomorrow. I need some metal strips too for the corners.

[11 eggs today]

plus one broken egg = 12

I picked it up and it broke.

Smiles

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Ouch! Poor Morgan :(

Poor baby! See the sock on Morgan's foot? I don't know when she injured her foot, but I noticed she was limping this afternoon just before Kristine called to say she was on her way home. So, I got a bucket of warm water and soaked her foot until Kristine got home, which was a good thirty minutes. When Kristine got home she brought me a sock and after I dried Morgan's foot we got the sock on despite Morgan's cries of pain.

We took a good look at her pads first and could see that she has a combination puncture and tear wound inbetween two of her pads. Kristine called the vet and he said that we had done all the right things and it would be best to bring her in tomorrow morning. We are not to feed her because she will have to be sedated because they will have to probe the wound and maybe suture it?

We are very careful not to leave anything around that she could cut herself on, but this wound could have been from stepping on a broken branch on a down tree limb. I hope all the soaking will have helped. Tom or Kristine will take Morgan to the vets in the morning.

The chickens are going to have to stay in their coop and pen unless we are outside with them until Morgan is all healed up and able to guard them. Morgan gets to sleep downstairs with me since we don't want her to fall down the stairs.

I spent most of the day washing windows and screens. The outside. Tomorrow I get to wash the windows on the inside. I love clean windows!

Tom got a lot of lettuce and veggies for the chickens. I put an eggplant, a tomato, and a nectarine in their pen. Happy chickens!

[4 eggs so far today]

Smiles

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Apricot Seashell

The Apricot Seashell is on the right of the beam and the orange I'm covering up is on the left. There is so much dark brown in the house that I was looking for something to brighten the place up and decided to try orange. It does seem to liven the brown up and make for a more cheerful aura.

There were lots of cobwebs up there. I tend not to notice the webs because I don't look up and check. They are good for catching spiders, so they do serve a purpose.

The apricot toned it down a bit, just enough I think, it is brighter in real life. The original orange was a tad too much. I am going to keep one wall in the original orange as an accent wall at Kristine's request. It was too hot to continue to paint today, so I took the day off and watched some more Sherlock Holmes shows. YouTube is pretty neat.

Morgan doesn't like it when she can't be next to the chickens. I won't let her in the pen, so when the chickens go in to eat, she waits not too patiently for them to leave the pen and join her in the woods. Morgan is so cute.

[4 eggs so far today]

Smiles

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Happy Chickens

Today (the 9th) I spent most of the day painting and then watched a YouTube Sherlock Holmes movie. I was enjoying the movie when I noticed that I missed my daily post by about 45 minutes. So there will be two posts for the 10th. I'll get some photos of my painting later.

I found some great paint at Home Depot that doesn't have an odor. Kristine has asthma and I have been putting off much needed painting because the paint fumes make her ill. I have the first coat on the walls and will put on the second tomorrow... well, later today.

This is a video I took yesterday of the chickens and Morgan.

[9 eggs today]

Smiles

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Chicken Pen

This is a photo of the chicken pen

before I hauled in a bunch of wheelbarrows of dirt.

And here is a shot of the pen after I raked it flat. The pen will be much easier to rake clean without the holes the chickens dug. I expect the hens will have a lot of fun digging new dusting spots. Tom put the gate back up for me. I can get it off the pins, but I can't get it hooked again.

We didn't get any rain and the thunder storms passed over headed up the mountains. It was cool enough today to spend some time shoveling and hauling dirt. The hens like their new dirt pen. I'll post a video tomorrow.

[9 eggs today]

Smiles

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Checking For Eggs

Several times a day I go out to the coop to check for eggs. In the morning I'm looking for eggs for my breakfast and the other times I am just looking for eggs to put in the refrigerator. I don't like leaving the eggs around because the hens might break them and I don't want them to turn into egg eaters. That sounds bad.

I like being around the chickens. I like their antics and their cooing clucking hen noises. Chickens are fun to have around.

This afternoon while getting a lemon out of the frig I noticed that there was one moldy lemon in the middle of the bag of lemons. So, there was a moldy thing in the frig. We didn't notice it because all the other lemons were just fine. I will have to trust Kristine to sniff out any bad things in the frig.

[12 eggs today]

I noticed yesterday that Tom was collecting eggs

and putting them in the cartons.

This was throwing my count off.

Tricky

Smiles

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Rain?

Since we are supposed to have thunderstorms I swept out the coop,

took a photo of a rain cloud on the way,

and moved the chicken feed inside.

I have two of these barrels that used to be used in a candy store. The barrels were filled with candy and the candy was also used to fill the lid. I found the barrels in an antique store and never saw them full of candy. The store must have looked pretty neat with all the tops of the barrels full of different candy.

I'm pretty much a failure at trying to post earlier in the day, so I guess I will give that option up for now. Maybe in the winter I will try again to post in the morning.

[8 eggs today]

Smiles

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How To Get Your Refrigerator Cleaned!

Kristine took this photo of these red potatoes and said,

"Post about them!"

Ok, Ok...

Kristine is interested in the potato story because she ended up cleaning out the refrigerator. I admit it must have been a traumatic experience for her. She was trying to find what was making a funny moldy smell that was getting into everything. It made her tea taste funny and I guess that was the tipping point that launched her into cleaning mode.

I came home and found her cleaning the crisper drawers and complaining that she couldn't find what was making the smell. I couldn't smell much of anything and didn't offer much in the way of consolation. Hey, I was getting my refrigerator cleaned! I'm not complaining.

Kristine said the smell was still there.

The only thing I had put in the refrigerator that was new or different was a bag of onions and a bag of potatoes. I don't usually put them in the frig, but I did this time because it was so hot I worried about them going bad. So, I thought I would take one of them out and see if there was any change. We had checked the potatoes and onions and they had passed the sniff test.

I took the bag of potatoes out of the frig and in a few hours the smell was gone. Well, Kristine said the smell was gone and, since I could only smell a musty odor, I could say that it was gone too. All I can figure is that the potatoes have some kind of mold or something that was blown around inside the frig and caused the smell?

Anyway, I figure two things need to happen to insure frig cleaning will occur: I need to leave the property and make sure something stinky is in the frig before I leave. Of course I do realize that I lucked out. Kristine could have just waited until I got home and dumped the problem on me. Lucky for me that she was impatient. Or maybe she was just curious?

Once, many years ago, when I had to put my stuff in storage I had made sure to empty the frig and I even used cardboard taped to the door to insure it would stay open a crack and allow some ventilation. I didn't want to get my frig back with a stinky mess inside. Imagine how surprised I was to open the frig a year later to find a Tupperware lettuce container. But I was very lucky there was no smell. Then I remembered I had kept the lettuce in the frig to make sandwiches and had forgot to take it out. Bad me. Evidently the Tupperware had contained the lettuce and the door being cracked had allowed for any bad smells to escape. So, hurrah for Tupperware. I guess everyone has refrigerator stories.

Moral: (If there is a moral to this story) Don't put potatoes in the refrigerator?

[9 eggs today]

Smiles

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Crumby Stuff

Here is a photo of an old wooden tin grater that was passed down to me from Tom's mother's family. They know that I like old stuff and so were very kind to think of me and make a gift of it when they were sorting through family stuff.

I call it a bread crumb box, but I supposed it could be used to grate most anything, although I would think dry things like cheese, old biscuits or bread would work the best with the wood. And the drawer would work very well for storing bread crumbs.

I guess you could use it to grate carrots or other vegetables, but I would think that would make a mess and might warp the wood. I used to have it hanging in the kitchen as a decoration and just to admire. I have yet to put it to use making bread crumb, but maybe someday I will. For now I just like having it around. It makes me smile.

I have been having a lot of fun watching Margaret Rutherford, Miss Marple movies on YouTube. Last night, just when Miss Marple was going to lift a lid to find a body, I heard an explosion and the power went out and I was left sitting in the dark. Spooky! I had to make it to the kitchen and find a candle and matches. Turns out that a car accident in the area took out a power pole and some transformers. I was worried that I wouldn't have internet access today, but the power was back on when I got up this morning.

[7 eggs today]

Smiles

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Simply Peachy Peaches

My neighbor gifted us with these lovely homegrown organic peaches from her backyard peach tree. She gave me a call this morning and met me at the gate with the peaches. I was very happy to be able to gift her back with a carton of fresh eggs. I remember when I was a growing up how the neighborhood families would always share the bounty of both their flower and vegetable gardens. People would share cuttings and starts of their flowers and trees. It was just a natural thing to have a stranger come to the porch and ask if they could have a cutting off of a garden plant that they admired. Not much of that kind of thing happening anymore I would expect except between families or very good friends.

[2 eggs today so far]

Smiles

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Summer House Flag

This is a happy house flag for summer. I have a Fall flag, but don't have one for Spring. I have a winter Christmasy type flag, but I would like to find some chicken theme flags for the other seasons. I forgot I had this flag and found it in a box of stuff I was going through.

This post is an effort to post earlier in the day as I am a night time poster, which does enable me to post on the happenings of the day, but does mean the post is read a day late. I'm going to try out making a post in the morning and then adding to it as the day progresses.

[9 eggs today]

Smiles

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Old Pins

Here are some of the old timey clothespins that came with the old clothespins bag. I especially like the two on the right and the ones with the metal wire around the top of the opening. I suppose the wire was to cut down on the possibility of the clothespin splitting.

These may not be old clothespins because I know they sell clothespins like this for craft projects. However, I would like to think that they have been around for awhile and are still giving good service. I really like them!

And here a view of an old table I found at a yard sale. It has a drawer in the middle on one side. I don't know if it was originally painted or not, but I just love the old table. I moved the table out on the porch so I can use it when I hang up laundry or to hold a cup of tea when I sit in the swing seat.

I fed the hens watermelon rinds and lettuce today for treats.

[11 eggs today]

1 egg found in the dirt.

Smiles

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