Ugly Mirror Revamp

I LOVE chalkboards.  I love everything about them.  I grew up with them both in school and at home.  I was fortunate enough to have a large chalkboard in my home as a child.  This past Christmas my parents gave my husband and I one ginormous magnetic chalkboard.  The one I grew up with wasn’t magnetic, this one is fantastic!  BUT it’s ugly as all hell.  It’s been used and abused, but nothing a little refinishing won’t cure!

Now my board has this horrible green slate surface, which I desperately wish to change.  We’ve all seen that a quart of chalkboard paint anywhere is about 11 bucks.  Frankly… I don’t want to pay that since I have such a large surface area to paint and just one quart isn’t going to do it for me.  So fortunately I came across a recipe from Martha Stewart for DIY custom color chalkboard paint.  Sounds great to me!  Two simple things were all I needed: paint and unsanded grout.  BUT before I tried anything on the big chalkboard I was going to try this substitute on something I wouldn’t care if I messed up.  I had JUST the thing.  About a year ago I came across this Ikea hack and absolutely fell in love with it.  So I set about looking in mark down sections.  I managed to find this horrible gem at Big Lots it was marked down AND broken.  Perfect!  So I put it away until last week when I found it last week while cleaning the basement.

I primed and painted the frame, did my own little “rub n buff”, mainly because I didn’t want to buy it and wait for it to arrive.  SO with the frame done, it was time to try out my chalkboard paint substitute.  The Martha Stewart recipe called for 1 cup of paint to 2 tablespoons of unsanded grout.  Upon adding these two together I immediately noticed how thick and clumpy and NON spreading it was.  I have no idea what I did wrong, so I tried another batch, same result.  Ok I want to know how everyone else is having stunning results.  I finally added water to the mix to thin it down and using a foam brush because rolling it on is going to be next to impossible.  Using water DID thin it down enough, but there were still some small clumps.  The foam brush did get them out.  It took a little while and a few trials and errors I declared it a success.  After talking to my mother she suggested two things, that I try a water base glaze to thin it down and slow the drying time.  Second, that i use a paint strainer and get the clumps out.  I am officially an idiot.  THAT would have solved my problem completely.

Now  I’m in the middle of transforming my large board and will be using these additional details to complete the job.  So here is the finished product.  I’m really rather proud of this one and can’t wait to hang it up!

I forgot to take an actual before picture, this is from the box.

Bitter Sweet

Well I’ve had a busy few weeks!  Actually that’s just an understatement.  Firstly, I had a semi successful hatching.  Of my 15 starting eggs I hatched out 3 chicks and a duck.  I believe the problem was a user issue, me.  I believe the temperature fluctuated too wildly OR that I didn’t have as quite a reliable thermometer as I thought. Regardless, there were 3 chicks that successfully hatched, but one didn’t make it, and there was only one duck that hatched out.  The surviving chicks are wonderfully healthy so that’s a great relief!

The big chicks have finally been hardened off.  Yay!  They go outside in a makeshift pen during the day then come back in at night.  Unfortunately due to lack of man power and rain that occurs only on my husband’s day off, we haven’t even STARTED to build the permanent coop.  Hopefully since my husband isn’t going away next month we can get a move on.  Anywhoozle, the big chicks love being outside and are almost completely feathered out.  Of my 12 chicks, there is only one roo, a frizzle!  There was even a day that got to be 90 so even the wee chicks got to go out for a little while as well.

On my birthday I woke up and looked out upon my beehives and after suffering a minor burst of terror, I ran out to see that a bear had knocked over one of my hives and just destroyed it.  I’ve never been so angry in my life those are MY bees!  Unfortunately it came back every night until finally I crumbled and sent  them 85 miles BACK to my parents where there absolutely NO bears.  I stupidly, and naively disregarded the threat of bears to my hives.  Never having grown up to even THINK about bears I didn’t worry too much.  I wish now that we had set up a chain link enclosure with electric fencing.  So someday in the future, when I have the necessary protection I will attempt bees again.  Sadly I ended up losing 3 of the four hives.

One final note, as a happy birthday gift from my pheasants I got an egg!    Since my birthday I’ve gotten about an egg a day.  There are two different colors so I don’t know who’s laying what, I can never catch them at it.  My husband and I decided that to make up a regular chicken egg we’d need about 3 or 4 pheasant eggs.  They’re just so cute!  I’m waiting for my ameraucana girls to start laying.  Then we’ll really have an aster egg party going on!

Such a day wrought with emotions my birthday was.  We no longer have to worry about the bear destroying my hives.  I have to say once my father and I loaded them up on the back of his truck I felt tremendously better.  I also don’t want a bear poking around for other obvious reasons, Penny.  Penny met with a porcupine (another animal I’ve never crossed before in my LIFE) this winter, lucky for her no vet trip for her.  Between my husband and I we were able to get all the quills out.  Small tip that would have helped greatly, take a pair of scissors and cut the end of the quill off and you should just be able to pull it out with no problem.  Ah how I wish someone one would have told me that sooner.  It’s just one of life’s lessons.  We’re forearmed for the future now.

CHICKENS!!!!!!!

I’m a little excited.  Just a bit.  This is the FIRST time in my life… that I can remember that I’ve owned chickens.  My husband spoils the crap out of me.  Our first ever poultry was an injured lady Ring-Neck Pheasant that came into my care in October.  She’s the start of my poultry-fever!  She only had a mild injuries and seemed to recover quite well.  A friend of the family who’s been raising birds and pheasants longer than I’ve been alive suspects she’s got some brain damage.  Poor Daphne.  She seems to be quite fine and I don’t notice anything really.

In February my husband and I got 4 young Ameraucanas.  I can’t wait for their gorgeous blue/green eggs in April!  Woohoo!  I first discovered the Ameraucanas and their beautiful eggs when one of my parent’s neighbors told us.  I’d come across a plain white chicken on the side of the road, in the middle of no where.  So I my hubby and I picked her up and brought her home.  What a friendly bird!  WOW!  she liked to cuddle, I never realized birds do that.  Heard it, but see it?  Totally different thing.  Unfortunately I didn’t have accommodations for a chicken, so I brought it to my neighbor.  A few months later- Bam!  She was laying eggs.  Beautiful blue eggs.  I’d heard of a chicken that laid blue eggs.  Compared to the girls we have now, I would never have suspected she had it in her.

This March I adopted 4 Golden Pheasants.  A friend of the family raises absolutely breath-taking pheasants and peafowl.  They’re kind of a little still awkward looking.  It won’t be until next year that they will be outfitted in their absolutely brilliant plumage.  Even without the plumage they’re pretty neat birds.  They’ll be laying eggs soon too!

March brought us chick days at Tractor Supply Company.  So for the first time in our lives we are raising chicks!  Holy cow are baby chicks and ducks off the cute-o-meter, especially the Bantams!  Of the 12 I’m positive of what 4 of them will grow up to be.  3 will grow up to be white Cornish rocks, and 1 will be a black Frizzle Cochin bantam.  The others are “assorted”.  It’s exciting every day we’re one step closer to solving our chick mystery!

Along with full-grown birds, nearly laying birds and babies, I wanted to try my hand at incubating.  I tried a few months ago but the eggs hadn’t been stored properly so nothing happened.  Needless to say I was a little bummed out.  BUT!  I was determined to try again!  I found someone with hatching eggs on Craigslist.  Hooray for Craigslist!  I got 7 of the Silkie/Frizzle crosses and 7 Pekin ducks.  I had Pekins when I was a baby.  So I’ve always wanted them again.  The person threw in a goose egg too.  Unfortunately the goose egg was a yolker.  Oh well.  I’ll give that a whirl some other time.  This incubating hatching eggs is super neat!  I remember when I was in second grade we learned about dinosaurs.  However, 2 years later when my sister was in second grade they incubated eggs.  Don’t get me wrong, dinosaurs rock!  But I feel that hatching eggs is a wee bit more practical knowledge.  You’re never too old to learn and experience new things, so I’m just making up for lost time.

The chicks are due to hatch on March 31st.  SO excited.  My duck babies are due to hatch April 7th.  My friend the other day asked me what I was doing for Easter, I should have replied playing with baby ducks!  This has been such an awesome little adventure.  I’m glad I’ve been given the opportunity to enjoy it.

Pretty Little Row

Mid winter we moved the beehives from my parent’s house to our new home!  What an exciting trip that was getting them here!  Stuck in traffic for 2 extra hours.  All the strange looks we were getting was just hilarious.  Eventually we all arrived safe and sound.  The bees were placed all in their new homes.  Far enough that when they take cleansing flights the house won’t be covered in yellow bee poop.  Close enough where I can keep and eye on them from the house.  Also it was very important that they were positioned so that they catch the morning sun and afternoon shade.  They looks so cute all lined up in a row!

HOPEFULLY this year we can go out building crazy!  One of the buildings in particular that we wish to build is, well I don’t’ know what to call it but I’ve seen it called a sugar shed.  I personally would call it maybe a bee supply shed with enough room to extract honey.  I have no idea, it’s going to have to be something that we work out as we go along.  Since we’ve been extracting honey we’ve been doing it INSIDE the house, to escape the bees.  Anyone who’s ever extracted honey knows that its really, really, REALLY messy and sticky.  So my hope is to have an out building where I can make a mess OUTSIDE or in a building.  Maybe the bees can clean up after me!  That would be awesome!  Hopefully we can get that built soon.  We still have to haul all the rest of the equipment up, especially in order to put the honey supers on.  Oh spring hurry yourself up and get here already!

The end of this Feb we had almost a 50° day!  So my husband and I went out with hunks of fondant and fed our bees a little extra.  Just in case there were any issues in transportation.  While feeding the bees, I received a sting.  It’s inevitable, I’m not perfect, also I wasn’t wearing a bee suit.  I couldn’t find them.  It would seem that I’ve developed an allergy.  My face blew up!  Luckily that’s all that happened, no throat swelling or anything.  I read online that taking zinc will make your body smell less sweet or something like that, so I’ll be giving that a go.  I don’t think I can afford another sting, at least not without an Epipen within reach!

Winter Recap

So it seems I lied a wee bit. Fortunately it’s only because I’ve been working my butt off all fall/winter trying to get our house livable. We’ve been knocking down walls like crazy! We’ve been moving the kitchen around and things like that. During my down time I’ve been wasting my life on the internet searching for ideas for projects.

Before the winter hit I was able to finish one of my own personal loves, refinishing and painting furniture. The bureau was left in our house when we moved it. It was the UGLIEST thing I’d ever seen. But it spoke to me, it told me its color and new look. I remember that our realtor lady told us to just throw it out. I looked at her like are you nuts! I told her I already have plans for this beast.

This was my very first time ever using an air gun to paint with. I must say. I’m in love with my air gun. I was so sad when I’d finished painting. The coats went on so nice and uniform and smooth. I can’t wait for the weather to warm up so I can be a painting maniac! I have several chairs and a few bed frames to do as well as a very nice matching sideboard and hutch that I got for Christmas. Oh spring, I deeply look forward to your return!

The Return

I’m back and this time it’s serious! I took the summer off after my husband returned from Iraq. Well… to say that i took the summer off is a little incorrect. This summer I was no slouch! A hooray to us! We finally bought a house! My husband and I have been slaving away to make it habitable. We’ve been here for 2 and a half months already! Woohoo! we’ve managed to put new flooring and paint in the three bedrooms. The finishing touches are soon to come, but as of yet aren’t very important.
We soon aim to finish a cat pen…. We love cat pens, what can I say? CONVIENTLY there was an existing screen house quite close to the house. On top of that an even more well placed basement window. SO we have our cat door and the frame set and the wire laid. Hopefully before the ground freezes we can complete this project…. I HATE cleaning litter boxes.
Since moving to our new home we have adopted 2 more cats and a very random lady ring-neck pheasant. Our two new feisty felines fit in wonderfully with our current cat pride. Our youngest cat… kitten… came from a very good friend of my husband who actually has older siblings from an older litter. We absolutely fell in love with their very relaxed and docile temperament . True to the older siblings our new baby is quite the love bug! Our newest kitty was a stray that showed up on our brand new door step. To which I cried “how do they know where to find me?!” Unfortunately in our area there are no no-kill shelters. She is just a amazing little cat we outright couldn’t let her die.
Our addition of the feathered kind arrived via a good friend of ours who bumped the poor girl with her truck. In shock but perfectly ok, she’s been living in our cat pen….. Annnnnnd must be relocated before the kitties can use it again. It’s alright, I have a great idea! So starts our farm! Hopefully we can get some trees cleared this winter and start marking out the future sites of goat pens and chicken coops! Our bees will make the trip up this winter and be safely nestled in their own spot. We are very much looking forward to this great and fantastic adventure and all that it brings us! Hopefully we can inspire others in our trials and errors and hopefully more successful endeavor

Swarm Wrangling

Monday afternoon I walked outside and I could hear a low humming…. from above.  I knew that sound!  As I gazed upward, I searched the skies for the  bee swarm.  Unfortunately it was a little too bright and I couldn’t see the swarm, but I knew it was there.  A few hours later I was called to assist in capturing a bee swarm.  I ran, grabbed a box to hold the swarm, located the small swarm on the foundation of the house.  Using a shovel and a piece of card board my mother and I collected the bees and their queen into the box.

The next day I set about putting together a hive for the new swarm.  All the parts were located, unfortunately I thought I could use the frames and established comb from a hive we lost this winter.  After spending all of Tuesday extracting the left over honey, I discovered that wax moths were the reason for the death of the poor hive.  Luckily we had the foresight to freeze the frame as soon as it was disassembled.  This honey will be for personal use.  Any and all honey has been thoroughly strained.  I pulled out 22+ pounds of honey!  I was happy/exhausted!

Wednesday I removed all the old wax, to be burned so as to not contaminate the rest of the bees.  It’s time consuming, exhausting and just a little bit gross!  BUT I do need the frames.  after they’re cleaned and washed off I tackle the rest the next day.

Today was the final day of my project, the frames were outfitted with virgin wax foundations.  The hive was finally assembled.  I unceremoniously dumped the bees from their box to their new hive!  I even got the opportunity to mark the queen!  I marked her with pretty pink nail polish!  I’m happy it’s done.  I just hope that there’s a while before the hives swarm again.

Spring Bee Cleaning

April’s VERY warm temperatures prompted us to check our bees. Unfortunately we lost a hive. We believe that the base was not level and snow melted and pooled inside causing damage to the hive. Luckily, our other three hives are doing wonderfully. We cleaned and inspected the other hives for any signs of damage or disease. The three checked out alarmingly well. The hive that didn’t winter over was disasembled, the frames filled with honey were frozen to kill the wax moths that began to move in. We’re awaiting a warm day(s) to thaw the honey out and to extract it. The wax will be burned so as to not contaminate the other hives. The remaining hives were outfited with a syrup to get them started after a long hard winter. We look forward to lots of yummy honey this summer!

Lattice House

Well, spring really seemed to creep up on us here.  The minute the weather broke and warmed up we were all outside working feverishly on the projects our winter crazed minds dreamed up.  Our first priority was to convert a previously standing structure on the property to a cat pen.  My lady cat having gone into heat in the late winter which resulted in spraying from the male cats.  SO both orange kitties are locked up constantly.  Unfortunately… both orange cats are the highest energy animals.  So now they have their very own pen to go crazy in so they don’t keep me up at night.

The new pen started off life as a two level play house for my sister and I when we were small.  My sister saw a spider in there and never went in again.  In it’s second reincarnation it became a cat house in which our cats could be boarded while we went on vacation.  One of our cats escaped while we were in Florida, and we never used it as a cat pen again.  Since that time it’s been a potting shed and became known as the Lattice House.

Modifying the Lattice House took very little time and effort.  The overall structure was already there.  We just needed to set up a frame work for an “outdoor” play yard on each side.  The play yard has shelves for the cats to walk on.   Cats love to use vertical spaces, so the entire pen is utilized not just the ground.  We COMPLETELY encased the Lattice House in chicken wire.  Ginny is an excellent escape artist and I rather enjoy her being safely secured.  Finally we needed to put a new roof on.  This project took remarkably little time, money and effort!  Well worth the effort spent.  The cats just love their outdoor space.

Let it Snow!

The first snow storm of the season was spectacular!  Just in time to hit AFTER Christmas.  Kinda snuck up out of nowhere.  The dog frolicked about wearing her jacket.  The kitties were experiencing the snow on their own for the first time, my cats were anyway.  As I expected, my two orange cats were loving the snow!  My family from Germany. who spent a snowed in period of time in the Netherlands trying to arrive here, ended up getting snowed in AGAIN.  At least this time, they were in the comfort of a house, instead of an airport.  All in all it was a great bunch of fun!  I love the snow!  I even love shoveling it!  I don’t have a bad thing to say about snow!