From thrift store painting to menu board

When I bought this painting at the thrift store, I actually intended for it to be a sign for my porch.  But then when I was spring cleaning my kitchen, I decided it would make a great menu board..  I had primed the entire thing off white when it was meant as a sign, but that just made it easier to make it a chalkboard.  I used raft paint on the frame, a deep dark red.  When I sprayed on the chalkboard paint some of the overspray got on the frame - I rubbed it on and added a bit more black craft paint giving it that sort of crafty antiqued look.

I'm really surprised by how much my family loves this.  They all really like knowing what is for dinner each night.  Especially my husband!

Giant Bubble Recipe

A Recipe For Giant Bubble Solution

Replacing The Broken Glass on Our Patio Table -

We have horrible winds here.  One storm picked up our large patio table & smashed it sideways against the deck railing, shattering the glass top.

After looking at a couple of options, I bought a piece of plywood (they cut it to size for me even) and a remnant of linoleum from our local flooring store.

We should have sealed the plywood with an all weather paint first. 

Then we attached the linoleum with contact glue.  The entire project cost me about $35 and took minutes to complete. :-)

-Update-

This held up great for us, for years.  I replaced the chair cushions two more times before we gave the table away and switched to a picnic table here - and that was just because I was tired of recovering the chair cushions.

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https://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/p/diary-of-housewife.html

Around The Farm This Week - May 6th (Building A Goat Playground)

This week we built a goat playground.

The baby goats LOVE it, and play, and sleep, on this most of the day.

I get a lot less done each day - because I spend so much time just watching them play.  :-)

The babies are starting to eat grass now too.

We moved all the goats that are not moms out of this pen.  Horton escaped the pen we put him in, and has been happily living with the horses in their pen.  Piper, who is still pregnant, is in the dog pen on the side of the house (where we have moved all the new moms when they first give birth, to keep an eye on them this year)

Dan and Matt used the skid loader to clean up around the hay troughs and smooth down the ground in a few areas where we had bad ruts - it looks so much better.

We also moved the ducks and chicks out of the garage.  We put them in the back of the goat pen, in a dog kennel, with a pen that has a heat lamp in case they needed it on colder nights.  That lasted for a day.  Then they figured out they could escape the dog kennel and roam the goat pen.  On Day 3 they were wandering around my backyard, and today they are in the peacock pen - they let themselves in and seem happy in there.  At night they appear to go back to their own pen, inside the dog kennel, all by themselves. 

 This week they discovered the little pond in my backyard flower beds, and they love it.  :-)

Dan blocked off part of the chicken coop run, and has put seed down.  I've been watering it, but it has not even sprouted yet.  :-(

I'm REALLY glad I put in a lot of perennials last year.  It's nice to see the rhubarb flourishing, and flowers like the bleeding heart pop up and bloom even though I haven't done a single thing in any of the gardens or flower beds yet this year.  I'm planning to look for plants and bushes at the flea markets on Sunday morning, then I will visit a couple of local markets and greenhouses to fill in some more

The pig pen is ready - but we haven't found pigs at the right price yet.

Around The Farm April 24 2015

So much for my intentions of updating every week.  :-)  It gets BUSY here in the spring! (everything in italics is copied from facebook posts)

We have babies!

Addie had a baby boy yesterday - leaving us with just one pregnant goat (Piper) left this spring. We have 10 baby goats right now - 6 girls, 4 boys.

 

At BSF this week some of the women asked how many baby goats we have now, & I told them I expected more by the time I got home today. Sure enough, another set of boy girl twins. Any time we have a storm come through, if we have goats close to giving birth they usually have babies then. I think it has something to do with the air pressure change. I don't know what it is exactly, but I do know we have had babies born with every storm in the past week

 

We got a llama!!

Statements normal people probably do not utter - "I'm running late, I can either feed you guys or feed the llama, I don't have time for both." (I made supper, Dan fed the llama)

We've been looking for a llama for awhile now. We've had a few others watching for us too - we wanted a really friendly one.  You can't get more friendly than Barnaby!  He comes running when we drive up the lane, and waits at the fence for us to come pet and fuss over him.  He's super, super soft too. 

Meet Peabody the 2nd

I found a gorgeous, older, peacock at the Middleburg livestock auction today, & was prepared to pay a ridiculous amount of money for him. I won't even tell you how much - just know it was a truly ridiculous amount. (I don't care for jewelry, I'd rather have livestock & amusing poultry) And yet I was still outbid. The kicker? After they outbid me, they commented that they didn't know where they were going to put him, they guessed they would have to move some chickens. I have a backyard landscaped around a zoo sized peacock pen, and a female peahen here - but they spent all that money and don't even know where they are going to put him. Life is so not fair.

Then a few hours later:

So Dan found me peacocks. smile emoticon I'm going with "because he really loves me", but it may be that he found out what I almost spent today & decided to make sure that didn't happen again.

And

He rode home in the car, on my lap, because it was how I thought he would be safest. We passed a truck driver, and I think he almost wrecked his truck after he looked down into our car... Peabody on my lap, tail over the console and back across the folded down back seats...My life is just plain weird. But it's never, ever, dull. (Sometimes I pray for a little dull. Just a little.)

I went to Middleburg this week - 

Every Tuesday there is a livestock auction in Middleburg.  They have the largest weekly poultry sale that I am aware of, in this area.  I went looking for a peacock, guineas, and silkies.  I came home with Lavendar Guineas, and a silkie with 6 babies.  

I had forgotten how noisy guineas are.  :-)

(We have 5 of them - at least one is a girl)

The Cows

We're down to just the three cows (2 steers and 1 cow technically) - we sold those black ones that we simply could not keep fenced.  They were angus limousine cross, which apparently is one of the worst breeds - VERY high strung.  The one almost broke a wall, and the auctioneer hid from her, at the sale.  I'm so relieved they are gone!

 This cow isn't ours - it belongs to our neighbors.  I love her.  Dan won't let me have longhorns, and I've never seen another breed with this coloring.


Dan and the boys took down the fence on the center island here, and rebuilt it.  It looks so much nicer!

Right now we have the billy goat in there, along with the goats that are not pregnant this year.  That freed up the goat pasture for just the moms & babies.

Garden - 
I haven't planted a single thing yet this year.  Not so much as an onion.  I'm kind of glad I didn't - we had a hard freeze last night.  Because I'm so far behind, I didn't have to cover anything.  :-)  I'll try to have the beds all planted and nice looking for the Skeet Shoot here on May 9th.

I know you are all very upset over this cold weather, but I'm over here going "yay! It's ok that my garden isn't in & I haven't planted any flowers!" smile emoticon I'm looking forward to two days of catching up on things inside this house.

All of that tiny green plant all over?  I think that is sweet annie.  It's seeded all through the herb bed, and through a lot of the yard - especially where the mole had dug up around the outside of this herb bed earlier this year.

Around The Farm March 13, 2015

Looks almost peaceful, doesn't it?  Pics can be deceiving like that.  We were up half the night looking for them, worrying about them as we listened to the coyotes hollering, and knowing it was icy hoping they hadn't slipped and broken a leg.  We drove around before it was even fully day light, but still couldn't spot them.  At 7am a neighbor called with their location - they were on the opposite side of 8th street.  That's about the busiest street around here at 7:20am (when we got to them) - it's the street that leads to the school.  We had to get them across the road, through traffic, then walk them home.  Dan didn't stay here in the snow long, he brought them down to the road - it was too icy and difficult to walk in the fields.  Dan fell down the bank, landed on his knee, and I walked them the rest of the way home.  One of them got her nose in the feed bucket I was using to lure them home, and pulled my shoulder back at an angle, so that I've had pain all week from it.  

Then add in that we had never properly fixed the gate they tore through in the upper pasture, Friday afternoon we were chasing horses.  They went through the broken gate.  The guys had the horses almost home when someone drove by and beeped their horn, spooking the horses.  It took us another hour, and the help of a neighbor, to find them.

I'm so done with those cows, but they are still here. Dan wants to keep them until April.  For now they are in the goat pen.  

Between chasing animals, a funeral, and a new baby to visit (I have a new nephew), and some just plain general laziness on my part, I got very little done on the farm this week.  With the snow melting, it is more and more obvious how much there is to be done.  I wish I could afford to hire help, but I don't think that is going to be in our budget this year.  And really, there is no good excuse for me not getting more done.  Like that gate - if I had gotten Matt to help me fix that gate earlier this week, I wouldn't have  been chasing horses this afternoon.  Pure laziness on my part, no other excuse for it.  It's time to transition from the lazy days of winter into the full force, get things done, mode of Spring.   If I just tackle one project a day it will make a big difference.  Eventually. :-)

The decorative pond thawed enough that I could remove the dead fish.  :-(  I am so sad that I killed them - we thought they would be ok in there all winter, but it was a rough winter and the ground froze too deeply.    On the positive side, that is the longest I have ever had carnival fish survive - usually we keep them in the house and they die within a week.  The pond is still pretty full of ice, I'll probably shop vac all the water out and start fresh this spring - it's full of leaves & debris.  I need to read up on pond care.

Piper, who is extremely pregnant, also has CL.  I'm so discouraged.  The hair has fallen off, so Dan will take her out back (always to a field we don't keep any livestock on at all) to clean it out and hopefully she and her babies will be ok.  (I'm guessing twins, but it could only be one).  The first goat babies should arrive early April here.

Yuck.  This is what spring REALLY looks like.  :-)  The pastures are all starting to look a mess too.

I cleaned up some of the hay from outside the dog pen - where we had  Ugie the goat for the last couple of months.  It was ice under the hay yet.  I put the hay in the chicken coop to help with some of the mud for now.

Peterson the peacock is still loose.  I have not seen him at our neighbors since we attempted to catch him - but my sister in law did spot him there, so I am hopeful he's still hanging around.

Washing the eggs.  :-)  This was a few days worth.  The hens have slowed down a bit, and keep going broody, I've been kicking them off nests all week, but today I left one nest to hatch out.  I like baby chicks.  :-)

 

I started cleaning up this area so I'd have a place to sit down while working out here..  but it just looks so sad to me, with the one faded chair cushion and the faded umbrella, and the dead leaves in the stones...  it's  a start.  I'll want to paint those basement doors again too, once it is warm enough

This doesn't show the mess as much  - but off to the right is almost all mud.  We had a ground mole last fall that did a lot of damage.  I did a google search and found out I should have put down seed in the fall (there is so much I should have done in the fall, and did not, leaving extra mess this spring).  I did find this "In order for you to seed, the ground temperature has to be warm enough for the seeds to get established and the roots take hold. I would also recommend to aerate your lawn in the spring, seed, you can also fertilize, and water regularly. Aerating will allow the seeds to penetrate into the ground better. "  It sounds like mid april - so just a month away - before I should put seed down.

Upcoming Projects

This rain barrel is for sale for $300

I'd love to make a similar one - but I may need to hire someone to paint it. 

I spent a lot of time researching rain barrels, and how I want to make mine.  Mostly I want to paint them (which you should all know I'm not very talented at, but I do love Krylon..) but before I can do that I want to put them together.  I've done my research, you can see everything I have found here - http://fieldsofhether.blogspot.com/2015/03/making-my-own-rain-barrels.html
I'll update as I make them.


I'm researching an outdoor bread oven, and a smoke house too.  I don't know how far I will get with those projects, but I am hoping to build both this spring.

Around The Neighborhood - 
The  farm on the hill, where we learned how to grow & harvest tobacco last year, sold for $600,000.  For just 60 acres.  But it is a really nice barn.  The new neighbors will be Amish as well, from Lancaster County. 

They appear to be tearing down the farm house on Hickory Grove road - Jay Showers old house. It's owned by an amish family, I'm pretty sure they will build a big new house in its place.

The Lapp's are building on again - 

I think it's a porch.  We'll see.  They also built this recently -  (sceenshot of someone's facebook post)

Making My Own Rain Barrels

This rain barrel is for sale for $300

I'd love to make a similar one - but I may need to hire someone to paint it.  

I needed to draw up a plan for my rain barrel project, and I decided I might as well put it right here - that will enable anyone with experience to comment and give input.  I'll update as I progress - right now the barrels are frozen to the ground in half a foot or more of snow, but with the temps in the 40s all  next week, I expect to be able to get them to the garage to work on them soon.

The Barrels - 
I have 55 gallon white barrels that my husband got from someone last year when I  first started talking about wanting to make my own.  After reading a LOT of websites, I think I decided I want two barrels by the garage, and one off the corner of the house.  (There's really not room for two at the corner).  Eventually I want a whole row of them up at the upper shed, but I'm starting with the backyard first - where I keep my raised garden beds.  

Ask around, someone is likely to know where to get food grade barrels.  Apparently many places have to pay to dispose of them, because they are plastic, so they are often cheap or free.

The Base
I will most likely elevate them off the ground with pallets, or some sort of wooden structure built from scrap our rough cut lumber.

I found this information at the Rain Barrel Man site - I'm thinking 2 feet of the ground, approximately.  (But after reading more, closer to 3 feet might be better)
The higher the elevation the greater the water pressure will be at the lower point. Each foot of elevation change is equal to 0.433 PSI (pounds per square inch) of water pressure or every 2.3 feet in elevation you will get 1 lbs of pressure. So if you place your Rain Barrel on a 2 ft. stand you would have 2.165 pounds of water pressure. To give you an idea as to how low that is, is to tell you that the plumbing in your house is between 40-80 PSI and you would not want that in your Rain Barrel because it would be empty in seconds! 2 to 3 PSI is a good operating mode especially if you connect a drip irrigation kit to it.

Getting the Water IN the Barrel

I really like this for getting the water from the downspout to the barrel - but I want to see if I can find a cheaper version.  ($32 for that???)  I'll take the photo into our local hardware store and see what they recommend.

I love the river rocks on top of the barrel.  My plan is to cut a large hole into the top of the barrel, cover it in screen, then in river rocks as shown here


Then I want to cut (drill) two small holes (one inch diameter? ) at the top of the barrel for overflow.

I love this site - one of the things I learned there was this- 
Don’t get bugged. Mosquitoes are naturally drawn to stagnant water and rain barrels provide the ideal breeding ground. Screens will stop some of that, but not all. One year, I had mosquitoes crawling in through my overflow pipe.  Adding several drops of baby oil to each rain barrel will create an oily film in the water, and should stop mosquitoes from laying eggs in your rain barrel.

This site suggested a food grade oil, which is probably wise - but also mentioned that some people use goldfish in them.  Huh.  I like that idea...  no oil with the fish, and you have to make sure they always have water.. and of course there is the added concern of how big will they get, where will I keep them over winter if they are huge...  maybe I'll use olive oil

http://www.searshomes.org/index.php/2011/05/14/the-top-10-most-important-things-i-learned-about-harvesting-rainwater/

I also loved that he just tossed an old window screen over the top of the barrel.  :-)  I also noticed that his gutters appear to just be shortened. the piece that is already on the bottom of mine, at the ground, is now above the barrel.  If I can shorten my spouting like this, it would save needing that "rain saver" part above.  He notes "Your downspout might not quite hit the sweet spot on the rain barrel.  A little extra piece of aluminum downspout is probably the simplest solution. I used a piece of Plexiglas, which also does the job nicely."  - You can see that more clearly on his site.


The Spigot

Isn't that cute?  It's also $46.  So no thanks.  :-)

This Youtube video helped me A LOT.  I needed to see how the spigot actually is attached.  I made this materials list after watching it, I have a small town hardware store with helpful staff, so this basic list should work for me, they will make sure I get the right sizes.

At the instructables site, I read this comment - 
"skip the garden faucet, get a 1/4 turn 3/4" ball valve. 
Compare water flow with regular garden faucet and 1/4 turn ball valve 
(both screw into same size hole and fit a garden hose): 


Ok, I am not sure, after watching the video, that I need that much additional pressure, but I sort of love how the water comes through the stand, not the barrel.  I'm envisioning some sort of hose out of the bottom of the barrel, enabling you to completely empty it, which is awesome.  But I will probably settle for a spout near the bottom of the barrel

This site has two spigots - one at watering can height.  Something to consider...
http://www.atlantarainbarrels.com/


Painting The Barrel
Do a google image search on painted rain barrels, and the results are pretty awesome.

With all of the plastic paints (like krylon) out there, it shouldn't be too difficult either...  not that I could paint the more intricate designs, those are beyond my skill set, but I can probably come up with something I have fun doing.  And maybe I can hire a friend to make me that peacock one...

This site shows entries from a rain barrel painting contest - what a great idea!