Guinea Hens, Schminny Hens

At first, I balked at the idea of raising Guinea Hens. Sure, we have the land, but did we really have the time for it? What if they flew to the road and got hit? What if Moose ate one? How was I going to take care of them when Dave is gone?

These are the words of worry-wart Colleen. I have learned to blindly trust my husband on things he swears "will be fine". So when he told me the keets (the name for baby Guinea Hen chicks) were born at the end of June and hens going to get them the very next day, I was intrigued but kind of dreading the thought of livestock in the basement with an 8 month old in the house. On June 30th, there was a lot of peeping in our kitchen, as baby birds stumbled around in a large box under a heat lamp with a big brown dog anxiously looking on at what he thought was a tasty live snack.



Like human babies, they slept a lot:


They were moved to a larger box in the basement and Dave spent a lot of time handling them and feeding them. Eventually he "keet whispered" them well enought to do this:


Moose also spent a lot of time with them.


Wouldn't you? They're very cute babies:



While they grew, Dave built a brooder box that would serve as an in between stage house in the garage. On July 15th, he moved them into the new box under the watchful eye of Moose.


They seemed so tiny in such a big house:



They quite often had the bejeezus scared out of them from underneath:


Now that the 2nd house was built, it was time to start on the 3rd and final hen house. It's a shed sold by Lowe's, delivered in a million pieces for one lucky guy to put together:




Well, more than one lucky guy put it together.


With constant dog supervision:


Working long into the night:


Amadou spent about 4 days here helping Dave finish building it in late August


We painted it together and later on, Dan & Suzi came by to help Dave dig holes for the fence. It ended up being a REALLY big job because after about 12 inches of soft dirt, it's just solid clay and rock.




Then came the big day. The guineas, no longer considered keets, were let outside.





They stayed inside the fenced in yard for a little while but are now adept at flying over the fence to get in and out.


We have one little runt that Dave picked because he thought he "was cute" (which still makes me smile) but the poor bird didn't grow as well as the rest. His legs don't work so well and his toes are curled. He gets along pretty well for all of his handicaps. He's usually the last one out of the house every day though. I can usually find him still roosting inside the house.


It's amazing how much they've grown. I can't honestly still call them "cute" but there's a little place in my heart for these crazy birds. Here's a video of them landing on the ledge Dave installed. He's currently working on running electricity to the hen house for a heat lamp, outlets and (eventually) a web cam.



With the exception of one incident early on, Moose has been VERY good with the birds. He doesn't even seem to care about them anymore. Having him outside with them is probably a good predator deterrent too. No hawk is going to swoop down and take a hen with a giant beast walking around. I tried to get the birds to eat from my hand yesterday. As I sat there, crouched down in the yard, hand outstretched with seed in it, Moose came up alongside me and ate the seed. At least one of our animals trusts me enough to eat from my hand.

Kitchen Upgrades

It never takes me long to decide what to do to a space but it takes me forever to decide on little things like fabric, colors, patterns...so my projects take a lot longer than they should. There's a space in our kitchen that remained empty for most of the year, often collecting shoes, baby toys, more shoes, tools, did I mention shoes? I knew I had to make this entryway area sort of functional but it took a while to find furniture that would fit.

I don't have a really good before shot of this little area I'm talking about but just to remind you what this kitchen used to look like, here's a shot taken while standing in the space I just re-designed.

We of course painted, put in new floors and lighting.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found this great idea for making a cute white board that's not white. I had been writing the week's menu on a piece of paper but it often changes due to me forgetting to buy items or evening plans changing at the last minute so that piece of paper gets re-written almost once a week, which was getting old. Now I can just wipe it off and start again! It's just a picture frame with scrapbooking paper behind the glass.


While I was shopping for the supplies for that I found sheets of cork and made a cork board out of a larger picture frame. It's a perfect place for all the things that have been cluttering the refrigerator for too long.


I found a solution for the shoes problem with this bench and the part of me that's afraid of color officially died when I bought this rug.


This cabinet fits perfectly in this little space so I bought it even though I have no idea what we'll put in it. I'm sure it'll fill up quickly though I am aware everything in that bottom basket will be pulled out daily by Mr. Clark. I might just make it a toy basket.


So TA-DA! Here's my little kitchen corner, finally completed! It took us both about 2 days to get used to the idea that our shoes are all in one spot now, instead of in 4 or 5 places all over the house.

 
Another project I found on Pinterest is this awesome little jewelry holder. While I am not the biggest jewelery wearer now (Clark pulls on everything), I do have a good amount of stuff and until now, it's lived in heaps on my dresser. Using drawer handles, a 2x2 board and some fabric, I made this:




I've noticed the inverted cup drawer pulls don't work out that well because I don't want to dig through a bunch of tiny earrings in them. So I think I'll replace them with more knobs.  Also, I think the handles should have been more straight and even in thickness for them to be 100% perfect, but they work OK as is.


Lest you think Dave took it easy while I did all this, here is his latest project. He installed a gate opener on our cow gate (that's what I call it) which operates via garage door opener. It's really nice now but it'll be about a thousand times nicer in the dead of winter.



No, he didn't run electricity way the heck out there (it's over a tenth of a mile from the house). He installed 2 solar panels to power it. I know, I married a genius.


Lastly, good ol' Moose has been desperately trying to lose his extra 15 pounds and has succeeded in shedding 3. Here he is after a frisbee workout. (He's thinking "Just open the damn door so I can go get some water.")


and here's one more of moose just because he's so adorable.

The Great Outdoors

We've spent a lot of time outdoors this Spring and Summer, working on improving the appearance and functionality of the outside of the house. Dave impressed the heck out of me by re-building the back deck with no prior deck-building knowledge and ZERO help. He pretty much taught himself how to do all of it.

So to refresh your memory, back in July of 2010, Dave and Amadou ripped out the old deck because it was covering access to the erosion problem that was causing a leak in the crawlspace.

We lived with this deck area like this all winter, with just a few cinder blocks as wobbly steps

And finally - the completed deck!!!

We spent a lot of time outside and Dave was often seen doing this: 

   

 





And whenever I was outside, usually during short baby naps, I was battling the horrible monster that lives out in front of our house that goes by the name of "garden". I used to think "oh it'll be so nice to have a little garden" I retract that quaint little notion. I weed and weed and weed for hours and everything grows back at an alarming rate - faster than even seems possible. Here's a very small section of the garden that I weeded that is now totally full of weeds again. Notice the plastic lining emerging  - it's everywhere!

Many of the weeds are entangled with plants that I have toyed with trying to save but now my plan is to just dig up the entire garden and start fresh next year. But even that plan is turning out to be an uphill battle. I turn the soil and hundreds of tulip bulbs are unearthed and I have to stop, separate them from the dirt before moving on. Here's a nice sampling of bulbs

I have saved those bulbs in a big bucket, there are hundreds...but who knows if I will ever plant them.

I have to admit that I totally quit working on the garden after about 90 chigger bites showed up on my legs and I itched like mad for 8 days solid. Believe me when I say...this garden is pure evil and it gets worse by the day.

 So I moved onto more rewarding things. I figure if I'm going to put so much time and effort into taking care of a plant, it better give something back to me. Enter: tomato plants.

Dave planted them in a sunny spot near the creek and I've been weeding and watering them ever since. He helped me cage them up once they were big enough:

 I found a beautiful gradient of tomato ripening on a vine but by the next day, something (deer, I'm looking at you) ate all but 1 of these beauties.

The first few cherry tomatoes of the season ripened on my windowsill, safe from the deer. 

  I have a lot of updates coming very soon, including home projects, kitchen upgrades and little baby birds. Stay tuned! 

Finally, Moose sends his warmest regards and best sad eyes to all of you! 

Tree hundred

Dave ordered about 300 trees from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to plant on our property. They arrived in small bundles...much smaller than either of us expected.


Dave set to work digging holes and planting what looked like christmas tree clippings.




He dug so many holes he actually broke that shovel (the metal shovel head part), stopped working, ran to Home Depot and bought a new one.


It was a lot of hard work so Clark and I brought him some gatorade and admired all of his digging.


He put in little flag so he wouldn't accidentally mow over the little saplings:


Today I have a "before and after" for my Moose ending and it's not a happy one.

Here is Moose last fall, at about 85 pounds.


And here he is at his current weight...103. Fat boy on a diet...don't try it...and so on....