How I Spent My Day

I spent my entire Saturday in the barn waiting on these little critters to make their debut.

Nubian brown spotted boy, frosty black girl.

While waiting outside the labor and delivery stall, I took the opportunity to work on the Chesterfield.

Brass upholstery tacks as far as the eye can see.

Tom even got in on the action and helped me make lots of progress on the staple and brass tack removal.

These sweet little ones got to go outside for the first time today.

Boer/Nubian cross, white trim-color boy, brown girl.

The Rest of the Story

Sooo, you know how I said we had our first kids yesterday morning?  Well, throughout the day the story unfolded further.

I noticed that the mother continued to be restless and to strain sporadically as if she were pushing, or still in labor even though she had already had two kids and they were all cleaned up.  I didn't remember seeing her doing this in previous births, so I was a little concerned, thinking that she might be having trouble getting the last placenta out.  I often do not trust my memory or instincts, so I thought, at first, that I just didn't remember how she acted after birth and that maybe this was just normal for her.

I monitored her throughout the day and began to wonder if she was still in active labor and maybe there was another baby in there.  Late in the afternoon, I finally decided to put my hand in there to see if I could feel anything.  The problem is...what is an empty uterus supposed to feel like?  It's one thing to know there are babies in there, so you kind of know that a baby has feet and ribs and a head.  But, if you don't know if there's a baby, then what are you feeling when you stick your hand inside a goat?  I felt something lumpy.  Tom called the vet who dealt with the problem birth last year (same goat, by the way), who has since moved to another vet office.  I spoke with her and tried to describe what I was feeling.  Are you supposed to be able to feel the pelvic bone or organs through the uterine walls?  Well, it is possible, but I didn't know if that was it.  The vet's advice was to wait and monitor.

By about 7:00 p.m., she was still straining.  This is not normal.  I decided to explore and to not be so tentative this time.  I put my hand in, way in.  There was something in there that I could wrap my fingers around.  I gave a little tug, but was afraid to pull too hard because, well, what if I was pulling on a vital organ or something?  To give you an idea of what I was feeling...you know how, when you're getting the Thanksgiving turkey ready to cook and you have to stick your hand into the cavity to pull out the neck and giblets?  It's like that.  It was like feeling the neck and being able to hook my fingers around it, but it's still a little frozen and stuck, so I have to tug it.  Except, warm and gooey and scary and tight.

I called our regular vet.  Of course, it's after hours now, so I had to wait for the doc on call to call me back.  She said it sounded like there was another kid in there and that I could either try to get it out myself or load her up and bring her in and possible pay 700 bucks if they had to do a C-section.  Tom was at Bible study and I was alone.  I couldn't hook up the trailer myself and I knew we couldn't spring for 700 bucks, so I decided to try to maneuver the kid around and get it out by myself.

The only painkiller I had was Bute for horses.  I didn't know if I should use it, but I felt like Pansy was in for some real pain and I wanted to make it a little easier for her.  So, I gave her a tiny dab of the Bute paste before I started so that she could bear it a little better.  The vet later confirmed that it was OK for me to do that.  It's probably not what she would have prescribed, but I didn't do anything bad.

Tom arrived home to find me elbow deep in goat.  I was pretty sure the kid was dead by now, but it had to come out and the mother couldn't get it out after 12 hours of labor.  A baby goat is supposed to come out front feet first with the nose kind of tucked down by the knees, as if it is diving out of the birth canal.  It took a while, but I finally located the front feet and got them into position.   But, the head was not where it was supposed to be.  I felt all around and finally found the head.  It was in such a weird place that I was beginning to think there were two babies in there.  And no matter how much I tried, I just could not get that head into the proper position.  I spent about two hours digging around in that momma goat.  At least three times, I pushed the legs back in so that I could try to move the head to where it should be.

I was exhausted, nauseous, and felt like I was going to faint, so I decided to rest and let the exhausted momma rest.  I think I might have hyperventilated and caused myself to feel faint.  It's amazing how strenuous it is working in a womb.  Plus, I was on my knees and bent over in that same position for so long.

By this time, most of the fluid and lubrication had come out, so it was getting harder and harder to maneuver the kid around in the womb.  As hard as it is to feel and move things in a gooey slippery uterus and birth canal, it is even harder to move it around in a non-slippy environment.  So, I told Tom that we need lubrication.  The only thing I could think of was KY jelly.  We all know what KY jelly is, right?  Well, we didn't have any.  I'm exhausted, I'm fainting, and I'm about to puke and I'm telling Tom to get lubrication.  So, anyone who knows Tom will know that this is funny.  He calls the neighbor, Mike.

"Mike, this is Tom, we need help, do you have any KY jelly!?"

Now, Mike wants to laugh and make a joke, but he can tell that Tom is distressed and waits for the next sentence, which is, "We have a goat that is having trouble in labor."  Mike happens to be with his wife and young son at Walmart, so they dropped what they were doing and frantically grab a couple of tubes of KY and head for the express lane.

In the meantime, Tom has googled it and found that olive oil is also a safe lubricant.  And, in our desperation, we've called our neighbors, Otis and Joanne, who have assisted horse births.  How different could it be?  They arrive (with their young grandson) donning surgical gloves, we lube Otis up with olive oil and he takes a stab at getting the kid into position.  Joanne takes her turn.  Mike and family arrive with KY.  We call the farrier, Rhonda, who is also Joanne's horse trainer, to ask if she knows anything about birthing goats.  She says no.  Tom calls the first vet, Dr. Missy, again and entreats her to make a ranch call.  She agrees to do it., but she's about 30-40 minutes away.

So, we all sit back to wait.  We're all in the stall.  Pansy the goat is laying, exhausted, on the floor with two little legs sticking out of her behind.  Tubes of KY and a jug of olive oil are scattered about.  Two little boys are playing in the barn.  Somehow, now seems like a good time for us six adults to have a laugh over the KY jelly and how none of us have it in our house.  Who buys that stuff other than desperate people trying to birth goats in the middle of the night?  It seemed a bit inappropriate for us to be carrying on a normal and sometimes hilarious conversation under such circumstances, but, hey, what can you do?

Finally, Dr. Missy arrived and we all breathed a sigh of relief because the onus was no longer on us.  She cheerfully took over and within 30-40 minutes was able to get the kid into position and pull it out.  It was dead, as we expected.  She used loads of the KY, so we were glad we had that on hand.  She had, in fact, stopped at the pharmacy on her way to pick up her own tube of KY, so we know that we did something right.  Anyway, the vet brought a piece of twine about 1/4 inch thick and a yard long with a loop she had tied on the end.  She slipped that loop over the head so that as she was pulling on the legs, Joanne pulled on the twine at the same time so that the legs and head came out together (with the feet a little before the head) like they should.  After that, the body slipped out easily.  Another lesson learned.

So, it was sad that the baby was born dead, but the best news was that Pansy wasn't damaged by all of us amateurs poking around in her.  She's wiped out and very sore, but we got her some meds and she is, hopefully, on the road to recovery.  The first two kids are doing splendidly and are already hopping around playing like nothing ever happened.

Chesterfield

And, because I didn't torture myself enough with reupholstering the chair, I got this...

Chesterfield sofa.

For a few months, I've been searching craigslist.com for a vintage chesterfield to have redone.  I finally saw this one and convinced the seller to hold it for me a couple of days so I could pick it up after the monsoon we've been having here in east Texas.  One hundred fifty bucks, people!  Tom drove me two hours in our rattle-trap Dodge pick-up (that still has an amazing stereo, though) to get it.  Patient man.  He doesn't even want a new sofa and would be happy with sitting on bean bag chairs.

Some may wonder why I'd pay anything for a nasty old used sofa.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I think it's going to be fabulous when it's reupholstered.

I thought it was a gold velvet fabric when I saw the picture, but it's actually real suede.  It was probably amazing when it was new.  Now, not so much.  So, as was my plan for the chair, I'll do the deconstruction.  If it looks like I can put it back together myself, I will, but if it's too much, I'll hire it out.  Either way, it's far cheaper than buying a new one.

Don't remind me of how much I hated every minute of tearing the chair apart.

Time to google "DIY chesterfield reupholstery" tutorials.

It's That Time of Year Again

Kidding season!

Seems like Pansy is always first.  I've had some of the does in the barn for about ten days thinking they were going to kid at any moment.

Hosting a Horse

During the coldest days of this winter we've hosted a rescued horse in our barn.  Our neighbor adopted a couple of horses rescued from a neglectful home a few months ago.  The younger one is still skinny from his former neglect and sadly shivering out in the wet and cold, so our neighbor, who doesn't have a barn, has asked if he could put him in our barn to protect him from the weather.

He spent two or three days last week in one of our stalls, and was brought in again last night when the temperature was supposed to fall into the twenties.  It poured down rain most of the day yesterday, which turned to sleet and snow last night.

I'm grateful that we have this nice barn and happy that we can make this one horse's life a little more comfortable, but my heart aches for all of the animals that I know are out there neglected and abused and suffering through this weather.

It's kidding season, so the horse has goat company.  None of the goats have kidded yet, so I guess I brought them in too early.  But, I don't regret it because if I'd left them out, I'd be constantly worried that they were having their babies out in the freezing cold and that we'd have to go out to drag mommas and babies through the sleet to the barn.

DIY Daybed

I've been wanting to put a daybed in the room that we use sort of as an office in our house.  I shopped craigslist for a while, then decided to shamelessly steal this idea.  (A big thanks to Meagan for showing this to me)

First, I had to find a couple of twin beds with headboards that I could upholster and with rails that would be interchangeable.  I already have an inherited set of twin beds, but the rails only fit with the headboards and footboards a certain way.

I found these at an estate sale.  I set them up using both headboards with two rails to make sure the rails were interchangeable.

The headboards and footboards were both lightly padded and covered with this gold fabric. 

The footboards are slightly shorter than the headboards, but they could make someone else a nice bed or daybed.

They have these cool old bolts that hold the headboards onto the rails.

 

First thing to do was take the fabric off.  More staple pulling.

Then paint the frame.  I agonized over painting the green and gold, but in the end, decided I wanted more of a neutral background for the fabric I chose to recover it with.

Besides, painting it this lighter color somehow made the carvings stand out more.   I don't think these beds were originally upholstered because you see a dirty spot on this headboard that looks like someone's greasy head leaned up against it for years.  I didn't paint over that particularly bit of history.

And the bolts.  I don't know how old these beds are, but they are held together with wooden pegs.  There are no screws and no nails other than four of these bolts and the brackets attached to the rails that holds the box spring.

I planned to button tuft the upholstery, so I started out by measuring and penciling on a grid (which you can't really see in this picture).  That way, I was able to draw on different tufting patterns to see which I liked best.  After making the final decision, I used my Dremel tool to drill very small holes for the thread to pass through.

I bought two inch foam for the backing.  This is how I figured out that cutting the foam with scissors is not a good idea.  Scissors will cut it, but it turns into a hacked up mess.  Trust me - use an electric knife (which I did for my chair redo).

I was doing this and the chair simultaneously, working on one while waiting to receive supplies for the other.  It just so happened that I did the tufting on this before I did the chair.  If you double click on the picture to look at it up close, you can see what a mess the edges of the foam are.  It ended up working out because I softened the edges by putting a layer of batting over it, but it would have been better if I'd cut it right to begin with.

Here it is, all tufted.  I always thought that to do tufting like this, one would need to attach the fabric around the edges first, then just put the buttons in real tight.  After following the tutorial I posted above, and doing it myself, I don't see how it would work any other way than tufting first, then attaching the fabric. 

I was determined not to have this mess of staples on the back of the bed, but after trying two or three different methods, this turned out to be the only way I could get it done.  I had a grand plan of using flat plastic buttons on the back, but I just couldn't make it work at the time.

So this is what the back looked like after getting all the tufting done.

And this is what the front looked like after I attached all the fabric and cut off the excess.

So, for the base of the bed, I found this low profile, five inch box spring on Walmart.com.  It was just about fifty bucks and I had it shipped free to the store and picked it up from there.  As is usually the case with Walmart, this is pretty much a cheap piece of junk.  I don't know much about box springs, but I guess I assumed that they involve some sort of springs.  Well, I don't know about other box springs, but this one hasn't even seen a spring, much less contained one.

I took that dark grey fabric off the bottom and saved it to use later.  Under that fabric is just a wood frame with cardboard attached to the top deck.  If you want to be a little craftier than I'm in the mood to be, you could make your own out of pallets and a cardboard box.  Basically, that's all it is.

But, for my purposes, it works.  I forgot to take pictures of the process, but all I did was put a double layer of batting along the front and back edges, stapling it to top and bottom, then I wrapped the whole thing like a package.  I did make welting for the corners, but you can barely see it when it sits in the frame, so it probably wasn't worth the extra time it took to do that.  Anyway, I stapled the fabric under the frame real tight, then used that dark grey fabric to finish out the bottom

Here's the box spring sitting in place awaiting the french mattress that I made.  For some reason, I totally neglected to take pictures of any part of that.  If you don't want to make your own, Target has them for a pretty good price.  You could probably buy one and recover it with your own fabric.

I used the quick method of making bias tape for the welting on the headboards.  It worked great.  I highly recommend it.

Then hot glued the welting around the edges of the headboard to hide all the staples.

And, here is the finished product.

It's weird how I don't see flaws like this until I photograph my finished project, but I'm a bit bummed that I didn't pay more attention and pull the rumples out of the fabric as I was attaching it to the back of the headboard.  The other end is nice and smooth, so I should probably turn it around so that it's "good side" will show.

So, if anyone is interested in making your own daybed, I have the footboards and rails that I will sell to you.  I'll even help you make it.

CHAIR...By Michelle

I love all the Haverty commercials (and another especially good one) starring Emily.
  This month I am Emily.

(This is a long post, get a cup of coffee and settle in for a long read)

I have this big overstuffed chair that I bought second hand.  I'm embarrassed to say that I think I bought it about ten years ago...with the intention of recovering it.  It is wonderfully comfortable and it used to reside in my master bedroom, where I sat in it all the time.  It didn't go with anything else in the room.  Since we moved to the farm, this chair has become a guest room chair.  It still doesn't go with anything in the room, or, in the whole house for that matter.

Really, the chair was pretty nasty.  At some point, years ago, someone spilled something on it, but this was under the cushion and you couldn't see it.  What you could see was the stained, discolored, faded, and ripped fabric of the arms and back.  Ugh.

I have found that if I have something long enough and live with it day after day, I sort of quit seeing it as it is.  Here's a tip...try seeing your things or your home through someone else's eyes.  Or, ask someone else what they see, or smell, when they come into your house.  You'll need an honest person.  Or, maybe just not a Southern Lady who will go to great lengths to give no offense.

Or, I'll lend you my husband or a member of his family.

My husband's sister, whom I love dearly, came for a visit.  She stayed in this particular guest room with this chair.  So, she said to me, "What's up with that... chair?  I mean, everything in the room is so perfect and coordinated and then there's that...chair."

OK, so I am adequately shamed into action.

Really, it is sooo expensive to have a chair reupholstered and it's hard to pick and commit to fabric.  At one point I was determined to have it upholstered in RED velvet.  What was I thinking?  I never do red.  It's a good thing I didn't commit at that time.  So, you see, procrastination can be a good thing.  Anyway, the guest room is cream, black and green.  So, I picked cream and black (I bought the fabric on-line and it turns out the "cream" is more of a taupe, but...it'll do) and I plunge head first into my first real reupholstery project.

And, was it a doozy.  On some areas, this chair had four layers of fabric - not reupholstery jobs, but the original upholstery was four layers.  Each layer was stapled out the wahzoo.  I think I removed a million staples.

It took a long time.  Not only because there were so many staples in so much fabric, but because I also have another furniture project running concurrently; I'm getting the garden ready for springtime planting; and the barn ready for kidding season.

I make it sound like I'm so busy and noble, but the real reason is that it's winter time, it's cold, and when it's cold, all I want to do is snuggle up with a cuppa and read a book.  And, I need frequent breaks from this kind of labor that I really don't like.

If you're thinking about tackling a furniture reupholstery project, let me warn you, the deconstruction is the worst thing about it.  Honestly, I hated the process.  You can't just rip it off.  You have to take each piece off carefully to save it as a pattern.  And, you have to get all of the staples and tacks out so that you have a clear surface to restaple and tack.

The only thing getting me through it was the knowledge of how much money I was saving and that, after deconstruction, if I thought I wouldn't be able to put it back together, I could take it to a professional and it wouldn't cost as much to finish it.

But, I got all the fabric off.  Finally.  And, by seeing first hand how it was all put together, I found I had the confidence that I could put the new fabric on.  Really good professional upholsterers will also remove all that batting and cushioning and start new with just the frame.  I didn't think twice about doing that.  It would have been way too much.  I decided the foam and batting was just fine the way it was.

Now the real fun begins.  I made the seat bottom by sewing a strip of the new fabric to a piece of muslin that I had cut out using the old stained seat fabric as a pattern.  I doubled the seam over and sewed it again to make a good strong line to attach the fabric to the springs underneath.  I used a curved needle and just whipstitched it all the way across.  

I pulled the fabric through the back and stapled it onto the frame, on which I had made written notes so that I'd remember where everything should be reattached.  Then I turned the chair over and stapled the printed fabric to the bottom of the frame, pulling everything very taut as I stapled.

Next up, the arms.   I'm recovering the chair exactly as it was with the only exception being no "dressmakers skirt".  The fabric will all be attached tight on the underside of the frame and the legs will show.  Fortunately, it has nice legs.

Following the pattern of the old chair fabric, I just folded and tucked real tight, then stapled.

Then the back.  It is button tufted, so I made covered buttons and went to work.  My other furniture project (which I'm still working on and will post when I finish) has some button tufting, so I kind of knew what to do with this part.

I had even saved and reused the wads of batting that were originally used for the tufting.

The back of the chair has this heavy, kind of plastic, fabric that covers the springs.  I used a six inch needle, pushing it through the wad, through the heavy fabric, springs, then printed fabric, looped it through the button, then back through the way it came.  The wad of batting is used so that the thread has something to attach to.  You have to pull really, really hard to get the button tight enough for a tuft.  I even braced my feet against the back and wore my gardening gloves because it hurts to pull so hard on the thread. 

One tuft.  Nine to go.

After the tufting was complete, I pulled the fabric very taut over the back and stapled it to the frame.  I've discovered that upholstering involves a whole lot of pulling.  Everything has to be tight, tight, tight.  And, you can't keep long fingernails looking nice.  I finally gave up and cut mine all off.

The back fabric is also pulled down through the same space the seat fabric is pulled, then stapled to the frame in the same place.

After getting all the fabric on the front of the chair, I replaced the gauzy underlayment, stapling it to the frame, and restuffed the innards.  Then I got to work on the seat cushion.

I bought a new piece of foam from an upholstery shop, then using an electric knife, cut it to fit the seat, using the old cushion as a pattern.  Seriously, this is the best DIY way to cut thick foam.  Scissors just won't get the job done right.

I needed welting for the cushion and for a couple of places on the chair.  So, for welting, I need bias tape.  Here, I have cut some fabric on the bias to make the tape.  There is a quicker easier way to make bias tape, but it requires a good size square of fabric, which I didn't have.  I had barely enough to cut out all the major pieces, so I waited until I had everything cut out, then I used the scraps to cut the bias tape.  Rumor has it that one should cut off the selvage because it stretches different than the rest of the fabric.  It seemed like a waste of perfectly good inches, especially since I was running short on fabric, but I didn't want to risk messing up, so I cut it off.

Since I'm covering the back and sides of the chair in black velvet, and I have plenty of that fabric, I made the welting to go around the back of the chair with that.  Here, I'm attaching the welting around the back.

I so wanted to finish the chair this day because all that is left to do is attach the metal tack strip starting at the front bottom edge, on the underside of the rolled arm, up around the back top edge all the way to the other side.  Then, attach the velvet to that.  But, alas, my electric stapler is not up to the task.  It barely will staple the fabric on and I've probably removed as many mangled staples from the chair as I have left solidly attached staples in it.  So, I had to wait while Tom went to town to buy me a new staple gun that attaches to our air compressor.

One word.  Uh.Maz.Ing.

With the new compressor staple gun, I was able to attach the tack strip lickety split.  Well, I got it halfway on, realized I had it on backward, took it off (more staple prying), and then lickety split.  Look at that sssinuous, sssnaky curve.  This is deeply satisfying to a person like me who likes to see crisp, clean edges.

After attaching the tack strip, you pull the fabric tight over the edge, slip it into the groove, then hammer the two sides closed.  It holds the fabric tight so you can pull it down and staple it on the underside, which I did. 

Finished chair!

Black velvet sides.

Smooth, sleek back!

No more 80's pink Waverly.

I'm holding my breath just a little bit, in fear of the chair somehow busting a gut and the fabric popping off.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.