East Texas Roses

East Texas is famous for it's roses.  Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Seriously, type in Google search, "rose capital of the world" and see what comes up.

I got serious about my roses this year and after a little Pinterest searching, I pruned them up good and it has really paid off.  I'm thoroughly enjoying the fruits of my labor.

This one is not quite in full bloom, but it is loaded with buds.  I'm amazed at all the different colors on this one bush.

There's this pinkish color.

Salmon.

Reddish orange.

And orange.  It blooms in clusters.

This yellow one is fabulous.  The faded ones have a pink tinge.  It blooms with one large bloom on each stem.

I'm being diligent to cut off the spent blooms to encourage it to bloom all summer.

The irises are making quite a showing, too, but they always do well.

There are just two colors blooming at the moment, but several more to come.

Kamikaze Guinea

We only had five guineas left out of 17 after some predator, possibly an owl, picked them off one by one in the fall/winter.  They started hanging out with the chickens and frequently going in the chicken coop for the night, which is probably the only way those five survived.

But yesterday when we got home from church, Tom heard a big commotion in our bathroom and when he went to look, he saw that the window was broken and a guinea flew out the window.

The bathtub that we never use sits under this window.  And, because we never use it, I keep the laundry trolley in the tub.  There was glass everywhere.  I asked Tom if the guinea was OK and he told me that, yes, it had flown out the window.  So, I set to work cleaning up the glass on the floor.  When I got the the tub and started to move the laundry trolley out of the way, this is what I found.

Pretty gruesome...and sad.

Four guineas left.  I'll definitely have to make sure that some of their eggs get hatched this season.

Kidding Season 2016

Well, for the third year in a row, Pansy had trouble delivering her kids.  She started labor on Saturday morning so I stayed in the barn observing.  When she started pushing in earnest and pushed out only a clear, fluid filled bubble about the size of a softball, I knew there was going to be trouble.  Usually, when a bubble like that (which is the birth sac of one of the kids) comes out, two little feet and a nose can be seen in the bubble before it bursts.  Sometimes it doesn't even burst until the kid is out.

After the clear bubble came out and burst, she pushed pretty hard for about an hour and nothing was happening.  So, once again I had to put on my midwife hat and put my hand in to see if I could feel the baby.  You also know that if you don't feel feet right there in the birth canal...trouble.  So, there were no feet.  I felt all around and all I could feel was the body.  I was working against the clock because I knew the vet closed at noon.  Tom wasn't home (of course), so I was alone and had to get Pansy in the trailer, which just wasn't gonna happen.  Tom called upon our neighbor again and he ran right over.  Thankfully, Tom had hooked up the trailer and had it ready for such an event, being as how we've had to go in the freezing middle of the night before.  Neighbor and I pushed and pulled and shoved until Pansy was in the trailer, then I took off like a shot, calling the vet on the way to let them know I was coming.  I had time to spare because by then it was 11:00.

When I arrived at the vet, they were working on a cow in labor that was having the same trouble we were.  I hung out in the trailer with Pansy for a while just in case she was able to birth her baby, but nothing was happening.  She wasn't even pushing.  So, I went to watch the birth of the calf, which was pretty amazing.

When that was over and the vet was washing up, the vet tech went with me to check on Pansy.  She had had the kid!  My first thought was to feel dumb for rushing to the vet because she ended up having it herself, but I noticed right away that it appeared dead.  Not breathing, sac over it's head.  The vet tech cleared it's mouth with his fingers, and alternately held it around it's middle with it's front end hanging down, shaking it, laying it down and doing chest compressions.  After a few moments of this, he instructed me to go tell the vet what was going on, which I did.  So, the vet hurried over and said, "give him to me".  He took him by the back feet, held him upside down, and swung him like a pendulum with moderate force.  After that, more chest compressions, rubbing and shaking and finally the baby started to cough and try to breathe.

When that one was sufficiently revived and breathing, the vet went to work on Pansy.  He felt around inside her and said, "there's all kinds of goats in there, all tangled up".  He sorted them out and pulled two more out, lickity split.  So, triplets for Pansy.  All alive...barely.  Tom named the first one Lazarus.

These Nubian triplets were the first kids born this year.  The one standing was breach.  I was able to help the mother enough so that we didn't have to call on the vet.  When I saw that intervention was inevitable, I carefully reached in to see if I could feel feet.  Nope, no feet, only body.  But, I did feel something that I thought was an ear, which gave me hope that I would only have to maneuver the feet in position.  But, when I pulled the little ear out, it actually was a tail.  So, for several minutes, the momma goat looked like she had two tails...her big one and tiny little one that was actually wiggling back and forth.  I was dismayed because I thought I was going to have to do some major birthing, but when I got my hand in there, it must have triggered something in the momma.  She gave two mighty pushes and out that baby came, bottom first.  After him, the other two, one boy and one girl, slipped out easily and in quick succession.

Big Momma was the next to kid.  No problems with her, thank goodness.

She has some big chunky babies.

Sweet.

They run and jump and play right away.

Lazarus.

Lazarus' brothers.

Last born were these triplet girls.

Alien...Goat Kids

In all these years of kidding seasons, I have never witnessed movement of the babies like this.   I'm glad I was there with my phone to capture the moment.  Usually, it's just gentle waves of movement that may or may not be the rumen.  There was no doubt what this was in Pansy's tummy.  She didn't kid until several days later and, even though I thought she'd be first to kid, she turned out to be next to last.

How the Mighty Have Fallen

We have the rooster, Tubby, who has been with us since the beginning.  When we had our first flock of Rhode Island Reds we kept two roosters , Tubby and Hubby.  Tubby was the King of the Coop and regularly attacked Hubby until Hubby was killed by the neighbor's dog.

For a while now, we've had a Black Astralorp rooster named Blackie (original, huh?).  He is very fine looking, but Tubby has kept him in his place for the past two or three years.  The balance of power has now shifted.  Tubby is old and lame.  He's was still very fine looking until Blackie figured out that he is BMOC now.  He started attacking Tubby in the mornings and evenings while they were in the coop.  He pulls out his tail feathers and jumps on his back, tearing up Tubby's comb.  Poor guy, his head is all torn up, comb deflated, and there is blood in each corner where he has huddled trying to protect his head from Blackie.

Tubby is no longer allowed to be anywhere near the hens, so I've tried to minimize his humiliation and misery.  When I feed the chickens in the evening, I go ahead and lock them up in the yard, shutting Tubby out.  He's on his own to find a safe place to spend the night, but I figured it was better than being attacked every night.  I think he's sleeping in the mower shed, which is where I put his own little stash of scratch for him to eat.  Since I've been locking him out of the coop, his head comb is healing and the feathers on his head are growing back.  He's even getting a few of his tail plumes back.

I guess he's lonely because he has taken to hanging out with Harry during the day.  Here he is sunbathing and napping with Harry.  He even hangs out with me while I garden.

Harry doesn't mind the occasional peck.

See how he has his foot lifted up.  He does this all the time...picks his foot up and shakes it.

He does it with both feet and one of his legs is very bent.  I recently did some googling and I'm thinking he might have scaly mites.  I'm going to try treating him for it and see if it helps.

Chicken Coop Remodel Update

I wanted to do an update on the chicken coop remodel after living with it for a while.  It has been great!  It's so much easier to keep clean.

Since my last post about the chicken coop, we made a couple of changes.  Husband installed a roost on hinges.  I can lift this up to clean if I need to.  We also added a dropping board underneath the roost.  We just used some old closet doors because that's what we had and they were the right size.  Ideally, a dropping board wouldn't have seams for gunk to get stuck in, but this was a trial.  I may make a proper one covered with linoleum at a later date since this one has worked out so well.  I scrape it down every day with a wide tool that is made for spreading tile adhesive.  Then I use a kitty litter scoop to pick up whatever droppings are left in the sand overnight.

Since making this change with the sand on the floor and the dropping board, the chicken coop never stinks.

A new issue was that several chickens decided to roost in the nesting boxes.  This is not good.  When they sleep in the nesting boxes, they poop in them all night.  Then during the day when they go in to lay their eggs, they lay them in the poop.  Ugh.  Eggs with poop stuck to them is gross!

I've been mulling it over for some time and searching through Pinterest for solutions.  One chicken owner actually made curtains for her nesting boxes to discourage the chickens from sleeping in them. I seriously considered that, because, how cute is that...curtains on the nesting boxes and one on the window to match?  ooh...ahhh!

But, how long would that last?  They'd have to be washed and replaced.  Nah.  Not for me.  So, I had this idea...just drape a sheet over the whole unit.  Pull it up in the morning, then let it down at night.  In the above picture, I've got it up for the day.

Then, I do this for the night.  The hens have no access either to the boxes or the roosts outside the boxes.  Last night was the first night for covering them.  Everything seemed to go well.  The nests are still squeaky clean.  I think this is a good solution as long as we can remember to raise and lower the sheet each day.  Maybe after a while the hens will break the habit and we won't have to cover it anymore.

DIY Ottoman #2

My living room is in a state of flux.  I'm slowly changing it's look and working towards replacing all of the furniture.  I still have the Chesterfield sofa in the barn that I'm planning to reupholster, but it's on the back burner for the time being.  I plan to work on that this winter.  You might be thinking, "It is winter."  But, hey, as I sit here typing, it is 77 degrees outside and my azaleas, roses, and irises are in full bloom.  No wonder I'm confused.

Anyway, daughter found this old table at an estate sale for me.  I was actually looking for a round one in this style, but I thought having an octagon would be interesting.

 It's sort of Louis XVI meets the 80's.

Once again, five inch foam.  Luckily, the table is short enough so that putting this big chunk of foam doesn't make it way too tall...just barely.

I cut the top to fit, allowing for a half inch seam all the way 'round.  By the way, I found this fabric at Hancock Fabrics and I loved it right away.  However, I didn't realize how much purple it had in it until I got it home.  Hmm.  Not loving how the purple in the fabric clashes with the red in the rug.  And, you know why this isn't working for me?  Because I don't love the rug.  Never loved the rug.  Even less so now.  I bought it because I was desperate for a new rug in the living room and this one was a decent price for the size I needed in the color family that I needed.  On-line, the red didn't look so red and I thought it would be neutral enough to work with the other ideas I had.  That's what happens when I ignore my own rule about decorating with things I love.  Why do I keep having to learn this lesson over and over?

So, anyway, I went back and forth on this...cut one strip to go all the way around the sides, or cut each of the eight sides individually and have seams at all corners.  I opted for the eight pieces so that the corners would be crisper instead of looking like a round cushion on top of an octagonal table.

More welting.  Man, am I ever glad that I found this tutorial on making bias tape for welting.  It saves a whole bunch of time and is so easy!

Self welt on the top of the cushion. contrasting welt on the underside to cover the rough edges.

Basically finished, except that I'm going to put four large buttons and very slightly tuft the top with them.  I've learned that the buttons I can buy at the fabric store are really not that great of an option for upholstery.  The fabric is too thick, it's hard to put the buttons together and they come apart too easily.  From now on, I'm either going to have buttons covered for me at an upholstery shop or find some better quality buttons that I can cover myself.

Now.  What to do about that red.  Ugh.  Does anyone know if I can paint a wool rug with fabric paint?

Ottoman DIY #1

Whew!  I've been busy, folks.  After chalk painting that old dresser, I got busy on this coffee-table-turned-ottoman for my daughter-in-law's birthday present.

I found this coffee table at the flea market.  Coincidentally, my son and daughter-in-law need a coffee table and I need a project.

It had this interesting pattern on the top that I thought might be fun to try to ceruse.

But, I couldn't find any liming wax locally.

And, daughter-in-law wanted a deep tufted upholstered top.

So, I stripped it down in preparation for painting it.  I stripped it before I discovered the chalk paint, then wished I hadn't gone to all the trouble of stripping when I could have just painted over the finish that was on it.

 

So, painted the bottom, shellacked the top.  Even though the top was destined for upholstery, I though it should have a finish on it.  Just in case...whatever.

I thought I could simply drill holes in the top and tuft the foam and fabric right onto the table top, but I realized that wasn't going to be possible.  There was no direct access to the actual top because of the  box-like structure and the drawer.  So, I tufted it on a piece of plywood first.

Then attached the plywood to the table top.

Then, uh-oh.  I didn't think ahead when I was ordering the five inch thick foam.  It made the coffee table ottoman way too tall!

Look at that!  Giant ottoman.

 

Solution.  New legs.  Little legs.  Painted and waxed.

Double welting hot glued to cover the rough edges.  Note the box construction of the table that prevented the tufting.

Welting finished.

Voila!  

Dresser Redo

I have a couple of pieces of furniture that I needed to redo and while searching for various ways of refinishing, I came across a tutorial on using chalk paint.  Since we live near the flea market, which is a DIYer's paradise, I was well acquainted with antique furniture painted with chalk paint and I love the look.  But, I didn't have any idea about how it was done.  I imagined that it was the same ol' process of stripping and sanding like anything else.

When I read the tutorial, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that just about any surface can be painted with chalk paint without having to be stripped.  That was the deciding factor for me.  I found a local "stockist" for Annie Sloan chalk paint and went to buy my supplies, which included the chalk paint in Pure White, wax, and a wax brush applicator, right away.

Here's the first piece of furniture I wanted to get done.

I decided to set up in the house since I wasn't going to have to use stripping chemicals and I preferred to do this in the comfort of my home instead of out in the barn.  I laid plastic down to protect the rug.  Then I washed the whole dresser down with TSP (trisodium phosphate).  Boy, was it dirty!  

I'm not going to do a tutorial because there are plenty of those on Pinterest, but I do have one important tip.  The Annie Sloan website says that some pieces of furniture from the 1930-40's era have a finish that may bleed through the chalk paint and if this happens, to just paint it with a coat of shellac, let it dry (it takes just a few minutes), then paint over it and that should stop the bleed through.  Well, being me with my attitude of "it won't happen to me" and "hurry up and get to the final reveal", I ignored that warning.  If you never listen to a word I say, at least listen to this...if you're going to paint a piece from that era, go ahead and paint on the shellac.  Just do it.

Here's a picture of the top with two coats of paint.  The original finish was still bleeding through.

 

So...thankfully, I had bought some shellac for another project I thought I might do.  I put a quick coat on over the paint.  When it dried, I put another coat of paint over it.  For the top, I did a light sanding and put yet another coat of paint just for good measure.

After painting, I applied two coats of the Annie Sloan wax and did a light buffing.

The wax gives it a nice glow.  I think if I used my electric buffer, I could have gotten it a little glossier.

I lined the drawers for a little pizazz. 

All done.  I finished this dresser in four days with lots of breaks in between.  If you have the uninterrupted time available, this could probably be done in one or two days.

This was a seriously easy project with instant gratification....right up  my alley.  I just might be chalk painting everything in sight.

Yard Birds

Only one of Broody Hen's chicks survived her last broody episode.  I took it from her when it was a couple of days old because she had killed two others.  I didn't want her to kill the last one.  It had hatched at about the same time the guineas hatched, so I took five guinea keets and the one chick and raised them together in the guinea coop.  The guineas have a way of disappearing one by one and I wanted to make sure that at least the unusually colored ones survived, so those are the ones I took.

After we got the chicken coop remodeled it was time for the chick, who thankfully turned out to be a hen instead of a rooster, to be integrated into the flock.  I put her in a cage and kept her in the coop for several days.  Integrating her in that way had two benefits:  (1)  Chickens are mean to each other, especially when there's a new chick in town.  Keeping her in a cage kept her safe from the bigger hens pecking her, but allowing them all time to get to know each other.  (2)  Keeping her in the coop for several days "coop trains" her so that she knows it is her home that she will come back to each night after free ranging all day.

The coop training worked, but the hens are still mean to her.  She's pretty much a loner, except when she hangs out with old Tubby, our original Rhode Island Red rooster.  He's nearly eight years old now and is showing his age.  He's still big and glossy, but not nearly as grand as he used to be.  He limps, doesn't have his beautiful arching tail feathers, and the ruff around his neck is looking a little more "rough" than "ruff".  So, he doesn't go as far afield as he used to.  He mostly stays close to the coop.

I call this chick Shaun, after Shaun the Sheep.  Why?  Because, either by injury or birth defect, her beak is wonky and reminds me of how Shaun the Sheep's mouth in the Shaun movies.

Double click the pic to see her wonky beak.  I'm surprised she can eat or drink, but I guess she's doing just fine.

And, for some reason, she is very personable.  When I go out to clean the coop, she runs to me, getting in my way, and even jumping up on the roost so she can be right in my face, like a parrot, as I clean the roost area.

Tubby in the foreground with his stubby tail towards the camera, and Shaun in the background.

As for the other yard birds, the guineas, I kept the young guineas in the guinea coop until they got most of their grown up feathers, then I opened the door to let them come and go as they please.  Since then, two have disappeared.  We have a predator that is picking them off, but we don't know what it is yet.  We've also lost three of the adults in the past month or two.  I suspect a coon that can get up in the tree at night while the guineas are sleeping and the dogs can't do anything about it if it's happening up in a tree.

This silver guinea is the one I really want to survive.  I want to see what she looks like all grown up.  We had one hatch last year, but it disappeared right away.  The only way I could think of this year to ensure its survival is to keep it penned up until it was big enough.  But, still, there is no guarantee.