Halloween In September

Since I have been sorting through lots of boxes and finding things that have been buried under other stuff, I found a box of Halloween decorations I haven't seen for a while.

Today I emptied Halloween boxes and scattered Halloween items around the house. This year I'm going to be ready for October!

I thought there was going to be a lot more stuff in the boxes than there was, but it turns out a lot of the space was taken up by packing material. 

There are four of these little scarecrow people put back to back which makes a total of two that I hang in the window. They are my favorite decorations and I leave them up for Halloween and Thanksgiving (two months.)

I gave the chickens organic pellet mash this morning and then opened the coop so the hens could leave the pen when they wanted to head out to the woods.

I checked the pen later and found Lonely all by herself in the pen eating up the mash that was left. Poor lonely. Even the other hens that are low in the pecking order aren't very nice to her.

Kristine and I spent the evening watching Jeeves and Wooster shows.

Peek at the Past

Chicken In Duct Tape

(September 23, 2009)

[2 eggs today]

The hens are molting

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Smiles

Happy Halloween!

Some of the chickens came up on the porch in hopes

of getting some of the pumpkin brains and to watch Kristine.

But then just as I was going to take a lot of photos Morgan showed up.

And she shooed the chickens away. Morgan wants her dinner not pumpkin.

Cute!

This year Kristine made a smiley face pumpkin.

One year she made a dragon that went all around the pumpkin.

But we couldn't find a camera and there are no photos.

TaDa! And here they are in all their splintery wonder. My planter boxes are actually together. Well, to be truthful each board has only one nail on each end. Tomorrow I need to drill some more holes and use the power screw driver and put in a bunch of screws to hold the boxes together securely. Also, since there is still a lot of wood laying around I think I will look around and see if I can't build something else in the garden. Then I won't have to haul it away.

Kristine brought home pizza for dinner. Yea!

[3 eggs today]

Boo!

Smiles

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Kristine will carve the pumpkin when she gets home and I'll post a photo of it and a photo of how far I have gotten building planter boxes. The other night she carved the apple with her teeth. Pretty cute! An apple pumpkin. Well, the battery for the drill finally charged and I have no more excuses. Back to work.

Boo?

This little fellow is not scary at all. In fact he is rather cheerful and makes me smile. I have four of these and hang them back to back, so I have a pair in each half of the slider window. I got them on sale, after Halloween one year, for only a dollar each. I still haven't found my Halloween stuff. But then I haven't looked in the Christmas boxes yet.

I did more chicken herding again tonight. This is what the late hens usually do. They hang out under the chairs, on the chairs, or roost outside on the old horse feeder. Maybe the other hens pick on them, so they wait until the other girls roost in the coop? Beats me. Mostly I wait until it is almost dark and by then the tardy chickens have given up and are in the coop.

This may not look like much, but it is a sign of progress. I have two coats of primer on each side and one coat on the board balanced on a box. That board will be used for the end piece on the counter. It has some cutouts on it that I hope will be covered up by the kick board. I measured and it will be close, but I think the holes won't show. If they do I will have to fill them up before I paint. I think I will have to put two coats of paint on these cupboard doors and on the board too. As soon as I post this I am going out and put another coat of primer on the board, so I can start with the painting tomorrow. That primer is covering, but it is strong and is giving me a sore throat. I will not be able to use it in the house. I'll have to put on lots of coats of the non-smelly paint to cover the dark wood on the kitchen cabinets. That's ok, it will work.

The only thing I don't like about painting is cleaning the brushes. I really don't like cleaning brushes! This is my trick so I don't have to clean my brushes until I am finished with my painting project. Between painting, I first wrap the brush in saran wrap (or something like that,) then I wrap it up in aluminum foil, and if it is going to be more than a day I then put it in a zip lock baggie. After the brush is wrapped up tight, I put it in the freezer. The only problem I have is when I forget to take the brush out a half hour or so before I want to paint, so it has time to defrost. Can't paint with a frozen brush.

[4 eggs today]

Bad me. I didn't work in the coop today.

Smiles

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Chick! Chick!

I took the chickens some lettuce and tomatoes for a late snack so I could lock them up for the night and all except one Wyandotte followed me into the pen. The Wyandotte remained outside, wouldn't come in, another Wyandotte was in a nest box and two hens staid on their roost; but the rest of the hens had a great time. I felt sorry for the Wyandotte and brought her some lettuce. She jumped off the wooden box and I think she ate a bit, but I finally had to herd her into the pen. I went back to check and there was still lettuce. So, she is not only anti-social, she is not a lettuce lover. The Wyandottes are not as friendly as the Brahmas and Orpingtons. I guess they are a bit wild, however, that wildness has enabled them to survive. We still have the four we started with.

Don't know where my Halloween stuff is hiding? I found a few things and set them out. I have a feeling I got rid of a lot of stuff in one of my cleaning sprees. Or? I'm going to look in my Christmas boxes. I might have put stuff in there.

I'll paint tomorrow. That's the plan.

[6 eggs today]

1 with a puncture.

Tricky chickens.

Smiles

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