Friday, March 25, 2011

Sage Green

I've always been very good at putting colors together. Such as paint colors. Over the many years that I've decorated various houses and painted rooms, I've been happy with just about everything...until this house. I have always wanted a room that was painted a pretty sage green. I attempted a nice sage-y color for my kitchen, but it's much brighter than sage. But, I liked the color, so left it.

Last year, I painted our room another "sage-y" color...and hated it. In this photo below, it looks pretty pastel and soft, but in reality, it was almost florescent. I kid you not, that room could glow in the dark. Here's another view--it's a little darker looking on this wall but isn't sage and isn't a soothing color at all.

I re-painted our bedroom last week. This time, I chose Glidden's Olive Green. I liked it, Kevin liked it too, so it was a winner. And I love it. It's much darker, but warm and very soothing.






It goes well with our furniture and our bedding. I'm much happier, and... I think I'm over Sage green.








Thursday, March 24, 2011

Spring & babies

It's spring and babies are abundant at our house these days...

These girls are NOT babies.
Now, these girls are babies.
25 Buff Orpington Chicks, who will someday look just like those biddies above. They arrived last Wednesday and are enjoying their nice big, new brooder that Kev made. They're also in the nice clean chicken house that got cleaned out just a few hours before they arrived. Word of advice: Don't clean out your chicken house when the wind is blowing 20-30 mph. No matter how hard you try to stay upwind, you won't, and you will have chicken "litter" in your hair, in your eyes, in your nose and even in your mouth.
Right now, I also have these precious babies.


Except they aren't so precious anymore. They are now 2 weeks old. In these pictures, they are just a week old. But now, they are bigger, they drink their bottles better and faster, and they twine themselves around my legs and feet and cry for me all the time. But they are still cute. And I'm not keeping them. They belong to some friends of mine who were a little overwhelmed with bottle babies this spring. So, they are only mine until they're weaned.

For the first few days, I kept them in the garage and took them outside when it warmed up. Emily followed them around, smelling, mothering, and being annoying--to me. I don't think she bothered the goats much.

The kids are now living in the chicken house with the chicks and chickens. The hens really don't enjoy having these energetic kids around all the time, but the kids don't mind; they enjoy chasing those old biddies!
We also have at least two cats who've had kittens. I haven't gone looking for them, but I hear them everytime I'm in the shop.
Spring and babies...they just go together.




Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Hoosier, part 2

Remember this? It's my Hoosier Cabinet that was my Grandma Woodruff's.

On Saturday, while Kev and I were wandering around the antique mall in Wichita, we found one exactly like mine...

Well, kinda. It didn't have the enamel top, but the original glass was intact and the tin bread drawer, but it didn't have the sugar bowl, spice rack or rolling pin rack.

But whoever had "restored" it had used the ugliest cabinet handles. They were from the '70's and were the ugliest and stupidest handles I've seen. Oh, and they'd put a new back on...1970's paneling. It was simply lovely...not.

But, we did discover the manufacturer. Klemp Furniture of Leavenworth, Kansas. I tried to research Klemp Furniture online, but struck out. But, at least I know the manufacturer.

And, as an interesting side note to Kev and I...the unit in the mall didn't have legs. So we wondered if maybe they originally didn't have legs, because Grandad had raised mine by 4 inches with 2 x 4's attached to the base. A mystery. Maybe we'll find another one--one which was restored more accurately.

If we don't find another one, at least I now know something about my beloved Hoosier.

Monday, March 07, 2011

A day trip

Kevin and I took a quick trip to Wichita on Saturday. We've kind of made it a tradition to go to the Wichita Garden Show since we've moved here. Kevin is our gardener. He likes to play outside with his pond and yard and the green house and garden. Me? I like to watch him play outside, but somehow, I always get roped into helping.

Now, if I could get flowers to grow like this in our area, I would. I love ground cover with lots of color. Kev made me take pictures of every waterfall there.

The Theme for the garden competition this year was "In the movies". We saw the "Secret Garden," "Up," Mr. Miagi's Courtyard," (From "The Karate Kid"), "Avatar" and "Jurassic Park."

Guess which one he lived in. It was also the most popular exhibit there. Long lines all day long.

Kev really liked this small waterfall on this ONE rock. I told him he could probably find a rock this big to use at home, but he informed me that he'd need a bigger tractor to move a rock this big. And then, he proceeded to stop at every single tractor vendor there and look at bigger tractors. Did I mention that I have ONE payment left on our tractor?

We always have fun at the Garden Show. After we left there, we walked through Gander Mountain...and didn't buy a thing! Then, lunch at Red Lobster followed by a trip to Lowe's where I picked out some pretty new garage doors. We priced them and decided that we didn't like those garage doors after all.
Our final stop was at the local antique mall. We made it around the outside edges of the store and bought my Dad a birthday present and ourselves a small copper skillet to hang on the wall. We decided we'd have to go back because we saw a lot of cool stuff.
It was a nice day trip and it was nice to get away and just do something fun for a change. No pressure to buy anything, we didn't have anywhere we had to be, so we just saw what we wanted to see, went where we wanted to go and had a nice time...just the two of us.




Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Farm cat snacks

Over the past few days, I've noticed the barn cats have been spending a lot of time in the chicken pen, sniffing around, going in and out, joining me in egg gathering chores, and being somewhat annoying. In fact, the yellow tom, who so affectionately twines himself around and between my legs as I walk out to the chicken pen, abandoned me upon our arrival in the hen house and parked himself on top of the old cabinet and stared at the wall.

The old cabinet is one we took down from the laundry room. Last spring, I moved it out to the chicken house hoping my broody hens would use it instead of the nesting box as a hatchery. The hens hate it and ignore it. But, it's been a handy shelf for me to store feeders and such on it; so I left it sitting on the floor.

Last night, Tom took his spot on the cabinet and again, stared behind it. I am nothing but helpful, and moved it while asking Tom, "Do you think there's a tasty mouse behind that cabinet?"

There wasn't a mouse behind the cabinet.

There was a nest of mice under the cabinet; a mouse village, home to newborn through geriatrics in one small location.

I managed not to scream, or run from the building. Instead, I yelled to Tom, "Get them, get them." And then I stepped out (while making sure no slimy mouse ran across my feet) and hollered, "Here kitty, kitty, free supper. Extra protein! Come and get it, tasty tidbits of Mice."

Four cats came running. And they had a heyday. Baby mice are a nice snack, just grab and swallow. Teenage mice are stupid, and easily caught. They're a nice size to play with as well. Older, more experienced mice make a mad dash up the walls, or across the floor. Making the hunt more fun for the cats.

Each and every hunter was rewarded with at least one mouse. Cutie came in and caught one, but took it outside and gave it to the teenage cats instead of eating it herself. Some mice the cats quickly killed and let the chickens dine on them. I like that, cats and chickens working together. Of course, the lucky hens with mice were chased around by other hens who wanted a taste...quite comical.

I did shovel out some of the babies, and I know that some of the mice successfully evaded capture. I know this because after 20 minutes of watching the massacre...I mean smorgasbord...I had to forcibly remove two cats out of the chicken house. They were stalking the grain barrel; tails twitching, but I was ready to close the restaurant and put the chickens to bed.

I'll let them back in tonight and we just might have a repeat hunt. Only tonight...I'll make sure that more cats join me and let them in the chicken house before they eat the dry catfood.