I am in LOVE!

My ankle is much better. Just a bit tender but I still must be careful as it is easy to turn it if I step on uneven terrain.  I can at least walk with no obvious limp now so I no longer resemble Long John Silver.



I kept off it most of Monday though I did try to water parts of my garden that were suffering.  It was done here and there between sitting back and elevating my bum ankle. 



Tuesday we made a big shopping trip to the Big Valley.  Costco being the main destination but also some craft stores for supplies.  I have painting to catch up on and I need to get at it.



For over a year now I have coveted a new camera.  I have outgrown and used to death my current DSLR but I would not cut loose my strangle hold on our budget to actually buy myself one. 



As I stared longingly at the display of my dream camera in Costco my husband grabbed the box and put it into our cart, and yes I did protest even if I wanted it more than you can believe. 



But my husband can get stubborn at times and he insisted that I was a money nazi (this is true) most of the time and he just goes with it but this time he had his secret stash and he had set it aside just to get me something I wanted and I was not going to dissuade him. 

Plus, he reminded me, it is a business deduction as it is a piece of equipment used daily for Backwoods Cottage.  How I love that man!  He knows just how to sweet talk me.



Today we had a nice heavy thunderstorm that left water droplets on the roses and overcast skies both perfect for photography. 



I love my new camera.  It is better than I dreamed.  Being it is a Nikon just like my older camera the settings, dials and buttons are in the same place so I can jump right in and just enjoy and learning the improvements will be a snap.



None of these photos were touched up, I only added my watermark.  Did I mention I love this camera??? 



Though a good portion of the morning was spent enjoying my new tool/toy I did get some of my new painting classes started. 
As I came and went in my office I heard faint cheeps coming from these lovely Black Copper Maran eggs.

This will be the last hatch this year, I do hope to get a couple hens.  This breed seems to be notorious for producing a larger ratio of Roos so it is a gamble.  I don’t need nor wish for any more roosters but I know it would be impossible to get all hens.
 


So tomorrow should bring some new little chicks.  I need to get the brooder ready tomorrow morning for them.

I will share photos of the new peeps asap.

Good Night all..








Fertilizer Friday

We have MORE peeps!

Good Monday morning!  Because of a lack of sleep last night I am quite brain dead this morning so forgive any typos. 

My latest nephew gave his mom and dad a false idea last night that he was ready to come into the world.  Me, being the fabulous Auntie I am drug herself from her bed at 1:30 in AM to go and try to sleep in a foreign environment (with a dog whimpering and cats jumping on things, phone ringing and 4 year old nephew climbing over me to sleep beside me). The idea was so the big brother nephews did not have to be roused from their own beds and that part of it all worked, they slept on.

But being the little dickens he is, the new one decided to stop it all as they reached the hospital. I think his nickname will be BRAT!   I will probably get the evil eye from his older brothers if I call him that but being I am a pushover for my sweetie nephews Brat would be an affectionate term.

I did catch some z’s between 11pm and 1:30 am so I am in a better boat than my sister who did not even get that much, I am sure.  Now that I have included you in my pity party I will share what I really was piping in about. 

New babies! Can you see her crunched up against the side of the incubator, her egg left behind. 



Her sister is pipping her way out as well. 



I am remaining positive that these are mostly hens, which is what I am after. 



These are Black Copper Maran eggs, the very dark ones that are richer in flavor than other brown eggs.  (or so everyone swears, I do know the shells are much tougher)

My older chicks, the Swedish Flower hens are old enough to have their own pen inside the chicken run.  I still keep them separate as they are on a different feed. They are kept apart from the other hens by the fencing but they can see each other, so this should help when I integrate them in with the larger hens.

I think this beautiful white one is a rooster.  I did want one rooster out of this bunch. I love his red top knot. 



The colorations on these ladies is stunning and each one is so different.



Some have more spotting and others less. 



Another shot of the (hopefully) rooster.



Last but not least, my first rose of the season.  This is one of those miniature roses you pick up at Wal-Mart in January in a little 4 inch pot for $5.

I have potted it up into a larger decorative pot and I overwinter it in my greenhouse each year.  I have had this about 5 years now and I keep it in the greenhouse until about to bloom, then I whip it out and put it on my dining table to enjoy, for awhile.  Then back outside it goes, they do not like living in the house for long, not enough sun. 
 


I think I got thru this halfway legibly.  Now out to the studio to paint.  I have signs galore to get done. Not complaining just the facts. (I think I will avoid using power tools today, especially the chop saw, I am definitely not 100%)

I better get moving, I am running late.

Just checking in.

We had a lovely weekend even if Sunday turned out cloudy and cold. 

Saturday was warm even if the breeze had a coolness to it. That just made it more comfortable to work outside.  I weeded the front flowerbed and decided to plant my broccoli there. It gets great morning sun then when it is hotter in the afternoon it gets the shade.  We shall see how the broccoli plants like it there.  I have a small lot so I must make the best use of space that I can.

This is the before…



Yes, my front yard looks a bit shabby still. 

My husband was helping me Saturday by hauling wheelbarrow loads of compost from one spot to another and he perused the homeliness of this front space and asked with a disdainful curl to his lip, ”Does it always look like this at this time of year or is this year particularly bad?” 

It does look bad this year but you would too if you had 6 feet of snow sitting on top of you for several months!

He is more used to it looking like this, and this is not really up to par. 



This is my broccoli in the ground.  It is small and if the deer will leave it alone it will fill in fast(note hoof print in ground, already, and I am missing a broccoli plant) , also we need the sun to warm back up.  We had starting temps in the mid-30’s this morning…brrr. Last week it stayed in the 40’s at night.



So slowly I am getting the yard tidied.  I cut back my broken down Butterfly Bush, it should recover quite nicely.  My tulips out front are starting to bloom and so are my Hyacinths. 

My tomatoes in the greenhouse are more than ready to be planted, but I must wait until after the 3rd weekend of May.  Our last projected frost date.  Lots of Brandywines, some Marzano’s, Camp Joy cherry and my favorite sauce tomato, Costoluto Genovese.



My English Delphiniums are coming along, I have only lost one seedling and that was my own fault, it dried out and keeled over. 

When I get so many plants going in my greenhouse some get overlooked.  I need to get rid of what I am not keeping then it will be more manageable.  Plus it got fairly warm last week, 2 days it hit 80 degrees here so it really heated up in the greenhouse. 

This is one of the mixed colors but my blue ones I started a couple weeks after these are catching up quickly.



The chicks are getting big, the 4 to the right are the Black Copper Marans and the 2 on the left are the Welsummers.  All lay the darker brown eggs.  I can’t wait until they start to lay to see how dark.  Of course, some of the Black Copper Marans may well be roosters.  I know one is as he is noticeably more aggressive than the others. 



I now have them in the pen with the older hens. I only keep them cordoned off so the big hens do not eat their special food and visa versa. 

You can see the fencing separating them in the background where the green waterer is

I have let the hens out a couple days this last week to forage and scrounge for worms, they love pecking the green sprouts (be gone weeds!) and roaming.  I keep an eye out for local dogs (I need my yard fenced), coyotes or other chicken killin’ critters!

I was thrilled to see that not all my Raspberry Ripple geraniums were taken out by a weird fungus.  This one survived, thankfully.  I love the fun sprinkles on the bloom.



Yesterday afternoon I tested the Chalk Paint I want to use on my potting bench. 

I am painting a sign using the leftover cedar fence boards from building our potting bench and I base painted it with the Old White and some of the Country Gray.
I have to say I am already loving it. 

 Karen at Classic Wall Finishes explained to me that the Chalk Paint weathers beautifully outside with no protective finish, like wax or the varathane I use.  I am anxious to see how that does go.  I will only use the paint on my potting bench with no other product and give it a test run. 

Well, today I need to get all my shopping and errand running done.  I have a large order of signs on my docket and I need some painting supplies.  I need to make out the weeks menu so meals are easy and I can be sure to have all ingredients on hand then the rest of the week I can focus on painting. 

Happy Monday!

To see my signs just click the photo below, it is a link to my website.

It’s sure a Monday!

Hi everyone.  We had a lovely little getaway weekend.  The weather was so nice and the rolling hills along the way were grassy and green. After getting more snow last Thursday and Friday I really needed to see green and grass.  The only downside of the weekend was a nasty tooth aching.  I need a root canal and finally got an appointment scheduled for early tomorrow morning.  You know you have had enough of the pain when you look forward to the root canal! 

I have a couple photos to share from the weekend.

First off, I have to bring a smile to your face…this is my nephew, Cayden and my mom..isn’t that little face kissable.


He was all duded up for Sunday.

His brother, Jackson was just as classy looking.


That was the only decent shot I got of Jackson.  I just had my point and shoot camera.  I will have to ask Leon (the gentleman taking there photo with his great camera) for some of his photos, I think he captured some better ones than I.

Then there is us…my hubby and I. 

I did not do anything with my hair that morning, I had had a rough night with my tooth aching and what my hair may have looked like was of no concern at that point.

We got home before dark on Sunday evening.  I was greeted by a lovely bloom on one of the geraniums I had brought inside last Fall to overwinter in the warmth of the house.  It is called Cherry Glow..I started a bunch of geraniums last summer from seed and this is one of them. 

You can see why it has that name, it certainly seems to glow. 

After getting our state taxes done this morning I started working on some special order signs.  I received 3 orders over the weekend, which is good, it will all help to pay for this expensive root canal.  Have you had one lately?  Good grief, it is a house payment!

I got what I could done on the signs, then I walked over to my mom’s to check on the progress of our chicks.  It sure looks like we have quite a few roosters out of the batch of of 10 straight run Black Copper Marans we picked up about 6 weeks ago. 

They are getting so big.  That is a good thing, in about 4 weeks they will be ready to be put in with the bigger hens. 

Towards the back there (the lighter brown ones) are the Welsummer chicks, they are all girls, and only a week younger than the Marans.  You can tell this Maran is a rooster, see his larger comb and the wattle under his neck, both are larger than the hens.

In the photo below the guy in the very back is obviously a rooster but the gal towards the front and to the right does not have the larger comb or much of a wattle,, the one to the left of her is questionable, not as big of a comb and barely a wattle.  That one could be a hen.  The chick behind and to the right of the hen is definitely a rooster as well, big comb and wattle. 


We were hoping for more hens than roosters but you can get any ratio when you buy straight run.   We were just thrilled to be able to find some available, they are tough to come by so far. At least around here. 

Tomorrow morning I go in early for my root canal.  They have a tough time getting me numb so it ends up being an ordeal so I will be toast.  I hope to be able to paint some once I get home but I rather doubt I will be able to accomplish much.  I should just plan on using the rest of the day to recoup and be ready to tackle the world again on Wednesday morning.

May your Tuesday be enjoyable!  Once this tooth is done I will be back on my game!
To see some of the signs I paint just click on the photo to visit my website