Archives for May 2011

We’ve Got More Windows!

Posted by on May 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

As my sister and I were leaving for the airport tonight I ran in the back and snapped a few quick pictures of the new windows in the goat house. After 3 days of absolutely no action out there it was exciting to see some progress this afternoon. Two small windows on each side of the entry door.


And a small window to the left of the back door. There will be one more small window between the two goat doors at the back of the building, but that hadn’t been installed yet. Inside they were putting up the walls finally! Over the thin luan plywood they will be putting up something called Glasbord, which is like a plastic sheeting that will make the whole inside totally washable and easy to keep clean.

The thin plywood being installed on the walls before the Glasbord is put up inside.

Hopefully they’ll have some exciting things finished by the time I get home from Atlanta late on Saturday night.

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The Williamsburg Rooster

Posted by on May 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

You may remember this lovely rooster from Williamsburg that I coveted. At $850 that was about all I was going to do with it though. Apparently it was made by an artist that apprenticed in Colonial Williamsburg and is now a hot folk art craftsperson commanding high prices.

Original Rooster Made by Folk Artist in Colonial Williamsburg for $850



I thought to myself “I can do that.” And so I did.

He’s got a little kink in the tail from the header it took off the table before I had the stand done. I’ll fix that when I get a chance. I’m pretty happy with the way it came out. While maybe not as beautiful as the one I saw by the artist, I love it more because I made it myself.

I started with simple materials. A large piece of basswood that I bought on eBay, a wood ball that I found by searching the internet, some steel rods and sheet steel that I bought at Home Depot, craft paint, crackle paint and shoe polish! The stand I took to a local welder and had made to my specifications. I spent less than $100 in materials. I did most of the work at home, and spent a few hours at the Woodworkers Shop to use their great sanding machines and band saws.

I thought I had downloaded all of the photos I needed for this post, but of course as I sit down to work on this I realized that somehow they didn’t all get on there. I’m in a hotel room in Atlanta tonight waiting for the BlogHer Food ’11 conference to start tomorrow morning, so there’s not a thing I can do about it right now on my laptop. If anyone would like to see more details on how I actually made the rooster, just leave a comment, send me an email, hire a skywriter, send me a smoke signal. Something. If there’s any interest I’ll post more. If not, I’ll consider this a done deal.


Filed Under: Crafts | Tagged:

A Farm Update

Posted by on May 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

Remember these guys? They’ve gone from this…


To this…

Here they are at about 3 weeks old


This little butterball, which is an Ameraucana, now looks like this.


There’s still a very big size difference between the regular sized chicks and the bantam.

Regular chick on the left and bantam on the right. The bantam is actually about a week or 10 days older than the other.


And this Blue Laced Red Wyandotte that I hatched now looks like this. I cannot wait to see this girl fully grown.

I wish I could tell you there was exciting things going on with the goat house construction, but we have had relentless rain the entire week so there is absolutely nothing new to report. The carpenter’s are working in their shop making the frames for the small windows and hopefully they’ve started on the storage cabinet for the goat house as well. We had our framing inspection on Tuesday and that got approved without a problem. As soon as the rain stops they can start with putting the interior walls up and the exterior siding and roof.

They cannot finish that up and start the chicken coop fast enough for me. I’ve got chicks busting out all over the place here and I need a bigger coop!!

Oh, and this is what happens when you let your goats roam free around your yard all day. Your ornamental trees get a little bare on the bottom. I can’t wait for that fence to get built either!

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I’m off to BlogHer Food ’11

Posted by on May 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

It’s been a crazy few days. Between Evan’s adventures in botany, his and Maia’s 11th birthdays (which were yesterday), and getting ready to go to Atlanta with my sister for the BlogHer Food ’11 conference, I’ve been a little busy.

Sunday night I was up baking sugar cookies until 1:20 AM.

Maia went with a mustache theme for her class cookies


Evan went with a cowboy and rocket theme, but I ran out of time to decorate the rockets.


Tuesday I was up decorating them until 2 AM! That, my folks, is the end of my adventures in sugar cookies. At least for a while. I was so darn tired by the time I finished that I didn’t even take any decent pictures of them when they were done.

Here's a sampling of the three styles of mustaches Maia had.


And here's a few of the cowboy-themed cookies for Evan's class.


I’m bringing my laptop with plenty of work, so while everybody else is out boozing it up I’ll be in my room working away. That’s the plan at least.

Filed Under: Thoughts | Tagged:

Water-Soaked Tree Peony

Posted by on May 18, 2011 Leave a Comment

This is the fourth year I've had my lovely tree peony and of course it started to bloom just as it started to rain this week. Today, during a break from the showers, I ran out to take a picture of it while I could. It figures the first year it has lots of lovely blooms on it instead of just one or two meager ones it's getting completely beat up by the relentless rain.

Filed Under: Photos | Tagged:

What Else?

Posted by on May 16, 2011 2 Comments

This entire week has been a comedy of errors. I guess that would be the right word for it.

First there was the pregnant goat who turned out to not be pregnant, just very very fat. Let’s not even get into all the time, energy and lost sleep over the kids that will never arrive.

Thursday my son, who will hereafter be referred to as “the Knucklehead”, decided with his friend that it would be a good idea to rub poison ivy all over their faces. His friend told him (the Knucklehead claims) that it was a good way to get out of going to school). Brilliant, huh?

Saturday was my sister’s 50th birthday. She was having the party up at her weekend place in Stafford Springs, CT, which is about a 2 hours drive from me. I ended up spending the entire time worrying about Evan, who was clearly miserable and suffering greatly, and finally ended up taking him, in the middle of the party, to the local emergency room. They wouldn’t give him a shot of steroids there for some reason; claimed “they didn’t do that”, which is what his friend, Knucklehead II, had to get that morning at his doctor’s, only to be sent away from the ER with a prescription for steroid pills and arrive at the local pharmacy 3 minutes after it closed for the day. Two hours later we returned to the party in time to grab the leftovers of dinner, and I missed an opportunity to get to know a bunch of my sisters’ friends that I hear about all the time.

Evan thought it would be a good idea to rub poison Ivy all over his face


This is what Evan normally looks like.


I spent my night and into the wee hours of this morning straining the honey I harvested on Thursday and washing and cleaning the wax, only to discover in the end that the honey had a smokey flavor from smoking the hive. Who knew you could smoke honey?? I suppose it might have some uses for a savory dish of some sort, but it’s certainly not what you expect from a spoon full of honey.

Smoked Honey Anyone?


And I am ending my night – please note the time of this posting – beginning to make the 100 sugar cookies that I’ve promised my twins for their 11th birthday celebrations in their classrooms on Tuesday. I’ve only gotten half of them done tonight. In the morning I will finish the baking and spend the rest of the day decorating them. How oh how do I get myself into these things.

Birthday Sugar Cookie Mustaches

Filed Under: Thoughts | Tagged:

The Farmer’s Market

Posted by on May 15, 2011 Leave a Comment

I thought since our towns' farmer's market officially opened this week that a farmer's market photo was appropriate.

Filed Under: Photos | Tagged:

Robin’s Nest

Posted by on May 14, 2011 Leave a Comment

At my sister's house today I took this photo of a robin's nest that had been made in a wreath hanging on their door. What worried me was that the mother had left the nest - probably because of all the people there for her birthday party - and the eggs were unattended. I'd hate to think they were now not going to hatch. Only nature could make a color as spectacular as robin's egg blue.

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She’s Off to Weight Watchers

Posted by on May 13, 2011 1 Comment

Well, it was confirmed this morning at the vets; Melina is not pregnant. She is off to Weight Watchers in the morning.

Seriously though, there is reason to believe there was a bit of a false pregnancy going on. She is huge, and I didn’t increase their feed when they got pregnant. I have mixed emotions. I’m sad she won’t be having a baby. I’m relieved there’s nothing wrong with her and she’s not in any medical emergency. I’m sad that will mean one less goat to milk and get milk from for the cheese, soap and other things I planned on trying.

Cissy &* Kate cleaning off the bottom branches of my burning bush today.


Cissy, however, does have at least one kid in there. We could see one on the x-ray, but it’s not impossible that one was hiding somewhere. My maternity watch won’t start with her until about Tuesday the 24th. I’m looking forward to getting a few good night’s sleep in the meantime.

I've got big windows and a side porch now!


The four big windows and the side porch for the entrance door were installed today. The 4 small windows will go in next week.

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Make Tacos Not War

Posted by on May 13, 2011 Leave a Comment

This was in the window of a home in Texas. I thought that was a pretty funny thing to have on your house window. And did you notice the colors of the house? Obviously somebody that enjoys life lives there.

Filed Under: Photos | Tagged:
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