Chickens and Beds

Well, the chickens have survived one night in our tender care.  Little boys want to pick them up, hold them, then put them down and hold another one, which I suspect is stressful for the chicks, so I've been limiting it.  Jazzy doesn't like me limiting it.  Fortunately the brooder box is high-sided enough that I am the only one of the three of us who can actually reach the chicks.  Squiddle named one (the Brahma) "Joe."  Given that they're all theoretically girls, I suggested it could be "Jo" and listed off some long names that Jo is short for.  He picked Joanne.

Wonderful Husband helped me build and place the third raised garden bed, and I got it mostly-level, then started sifting the soil from sod using the garden riddle I built.  Now that it's fully functional, oh how I love that thing!  I'm not sure it makes the process faster, but it certainly makes it easier, and the dirt ends up sifted and fluffy and rock-free.  And while we were building the bed, I finally saw a hummingbird approach the feeder!  I'd been hearing them but not actually seen any, so I'm pleased.  It was rust-colored, so maybe it was a Rufous Hummingbird?

I finished my reread of Uprooted, by Naomi Novik.  I have a pile of new books to read on my side of the bed, but I just don't have the mental/emotional energy to deal with new universes right now.  I know this is the stepping block too high because the only new books I've been able to read in a while were Knife Children, by Lois McMaster Bujold, and Golden Age and Other Stories, by Naomi Novik... both of which are set in universes I'm long familiar with.  Torn, by Rowenna Miller, on the other hand, I'm just stuck on.  I try to read further into it, and I just... can't.  Sorry, Morag!  When the world calms down some, I hope, because what I've read of it I have in fact really liked....

And no pictures of anything today, I'm afraid, because I stupidly let my phone battery run down earlier.  Tomorrow, I promise!

Chookies!

Today I finally bit the bullet and got chickens.  I blackmailed Squiddle into going with me to Wilco, where the stock they had on hand almost entirely did not match what their website said.  In the end, we picked out one each of five different breeds: a Buff Brahma, a Silver Dorking, a Golden Campine, a Brown Leghorn, and a "Color Pack," which I was told lays the blue-green-pinkish eggs.  I kind of was hoping for a Cuckoo Maran as well (dark brown eggs!) but there were none, alas.  A couple of them still have their egg tooth, so they're less than a week old.

We've set up their brooder out in "the barn" and will be building a chicken tractor over the next month.  Jazzy is utterly charmed by the chicks, and would spend all day with them if he was allowed, I've no doubt.

I also finished digging the sod up from the third garden bed, so hopefully tomorrow I'll get to help put together the raised bed and put it in place.

Approximating Finishes

Ugh.  Today was another energy ebb day, so not much got done.  I actually ended up napping on the sofa in the afternoon.  I did not dig more in the garden, and tomorrow's supposed to be rainy, so I probably won't tomorrow either.

Wonderful Husband, however, did figure out the table saw!  And ripped one of the 2' boards into four even lengths, which I screwed on to the bottom of the garden riddle.  Except they're each just a little longer than the other 2' boards I used for it, so they need to be trimmed down.  He thinks the circular saw will work for that.  Sooner or later it will actually be done, right? :)

Bit By Bit

I dug up half of another garden bed today which, when complete, will give me a total of 96 square feet of vegetable garden space.  Well, I guess I have the rhubarb along the back deck, and I need to put the asparagus starts in with them if Wonderful Husband's second application of spray has managed to kill the wasps, but... that's still not a lot of space.  Sigh.  A bit at a time, I guess.  I did find out in the process that there's a woodpecker interested in our weeping willow tree.  Now that I know what to look for... it seems he/she's been interested in that tree for a while.

The garden riddle did not get finished today, but I did start reading through the table saw manual, and the first two pages are horror movie fuel.  To quote Han Solo, "I can imagine rather a lot."

I did find out that three of the grafts I did to the apple trees have taken: two Huntsman's Favorite, and one Pendragon.  Given I know there was a learning curve, I'm pleased to have gotten that many!  But, sadly, all of my chard starts in the bed around the house seem to have been eaten.  Well, that's why I'm building raised garden beds with rabbit fencing....

And I discussed chickens with Wonderful Husband and he helped me troubleshoot the problem of brooding them, since they need warmth, light, and interaction, as well as a cat-free environment, and one that will not give him asthmatic fits.

We also discussed finances and raised our extra principal payment by $250 a month.  That on top of the extra we were already paying brings our 30-year mortgage almost to a 20-year mortgage!  We talked about calling our lender and seeing if it would be worth refinancing to a 15-year mortgage, especially given that interest rates are lower now than when we purchased, but the quick numbers we crunched made us leery of committing to an even higher monthly payment.  It's an emergency contingency; if worse goes to worst, we could simply stop paying the extra and free up some breathing room.  But we agreed that if rates continue to drop, we'll revisit the idea of a 15-year mortgage.

Knackered

I finished sifting the soil from the sod and have the second garden bed relatively stone-free and leveled.  It needs much most soil, of course, but I can't get any until I have the third bed ready too.  Wonderful Husband will have a fit if I have a huge pile of soil sitting on the driveway.  So tomorrow is staking out and digging bed number three.  And potentially de-virgining the table saw and finishing my garden riddle.

Squiddle did not want to come outside (he's using bees and coronavirus as his excuses, le sigh) but Jazzy "helped" for a while.  Though he's decided that worms are noodles.  Well, as long as he doesn't try eating them....

Wonderful Husband didn't manage to kill all the wasps last night, so he's going to try again tonight.

Sunday

Wasps' nest sprayed by Wonderful Husband.  Let's see if it took, or if it needs to be repeated.

I also picked up half a dozen tomato cages and put them over my tomato plants, as well as some 1/2" hardware cloth to make a garden riddle.  Lots of rocks in our ground!  And I got some more ceiling hooks since the ones we had seem to've gone walkabout.  Squiddle wants his mobile back up over his bed....

Ugh

Well, I finally found the wasps' nest.  Without getting stung again, even!  Unfortunately, however, it's in a location that is both inconvenient to access and close to the house.  It's tucked into the space between the patio handrail and the patio steps handrail.  So on my to-do list for today is picking up some wasp spray.  I'm generally a live and let live person, but I've already been stung, and the nest is in a high traffic area.  I don't want my children to get stung.

Catching Up

On Mother's Day I went over to see my parents' new place.  It has potential, but needs a bit of work to bring it out.  Lots of yard, certainly!  I took over a selection of jams, some cotton yarn I've picked up here and there, the driftwood/seashell windchime I made, half a dozen masks, and a rhubarb pie.

We had a heatwave over the weekend, but it's cooled off a bit again.  It reminded Wonderful Husband and I that we want to install ceiling fans in at least the bedrooms.

I also, amusingly, got a cold call on Saturday from Quilters By The Bay asking if I'd be willing to be secretary!  I give off secretarial vibes, I guess?  I said sure.

Today was started by Jazzy climbing into our bed at 5:30, then deciding he didn't want to sleep.  So I had to get up to keep an eye on him.  Early afternoon he fell asleep on the sofa, half on top of his brother, as they watched Teen Titans.  I did not nap.  But at least I finished making four more masks, so we're up to six again.  Need to dive into the stash in order to make more!

And our refrigerator, which like all the appliances in the house is three years old, has stopped chilling the fridge half.  We had a repairman out today who did something that might have fixed it, but given that the temperature hasn't gone down much, we need him to order a new part.  At least it's all covered under our new homeowners warranty.  And, hey, the threat of having a non-family member see our place spurred me into a massive cleaning/tidying session downstairs.

Sting Stang Stung

Yesterday, I tweaked my shoulder.  Today, I got stung by a wasp.  Not a good week for my right arm, I guess.

That said, I did get the operating garden bed mulched and I watered most of the garden in the late afternoon, since we're in a small heat wave right now.  I still need to water the cherry trees and two of the climbing roses, since I've confirmed the garden hose doesn't reach that far.  Wonderful Husband removed a small paper wasp nest from the boys' playset, but it doesn't appear to have been occupied.

I cut out four more face masks and got the halter-style ties lengthened and stitched, so the rest I'll work on tomorrow.  That's the end of this piece of batik, anyway.  The other piece I have ready is kind of a mottled beige, and I think that might look strange... beige masks on Caucasian skintones... so I may have to go rummaging in the garage to find more suitable fabrics.

Thursday Report!

I spent part of this morning wrestling with the embroidery dilemma, but in the end rolled it up inside a clean pillowcase and put it on a shelf.  I'm not a Karen; it's not worth risking coronavirus for my whole family just to get some art framed.

I did get three loads of laundry done and away today, as well as dishes, and steamed fifteen eggs, but somewhere in there I tweaked my right shoulder such that I had to use my non-dominant hand to fish the eggs out of the pot.  Acetaminophen didn't take care of the pain, so I also took some ibuprofen a bit ago, and between them they seem to be nullifying most of it.  I also discovered that the fabric masks need a quick pressing after washing in order to look decent again.  Meh, whatever.

My parents arrived up here today, though I haven't seen them yet.  They drove something like 1,140 miles in two days.  (As I said yesterday, I think they're insane, but whatever.)  Whenever I get the third garden bed built and put in place, I'm planning to borrow their truck and get some garden soil.  But first I have to get all that soil/grass separation done, which will take my shoulder being better!  And since it's warming up (my parents brought the California weather north with them) and will be hitting eighty degrees this weekend, I also need to get the straw mulch on my one planted bed....

Tuesday, Wednesday...

Ugh.  Despite going to bed at a reasonable hour, I keep almost dropping off in the afternoon.  On Tuesday, this led the the unfortunate event where Jazzy found the small knife Wonderful Husband had left on the kitchen counter (it was used to cut up lunch quesadillas), took it, opened the pantry door, and repeatedly shiv'ed a bag of flour.  Sigh.  At least it was only flour.  And this is why the knife block and the steak knives are stored out of range of the boys, and why I put dirty knives into the sink as soon as they're done with.

I'm bashing my head against the next watercolor project I want to do, so that's on hold.

I pulled out the Celestial Picture cross-stitch I finished while in England, and washed, ironed, and blocked it preparatory to lacing it around sound acid-free backing board to go into a frame... and I discovered it fits the frame.  But not with any room for a mat, and embroidery needs matting when behind glass.  Sigh again.  So I need to go to Michaels at some point and get a frame and matting and  if I have to have them custom-make a frame I'll probably have to let them do it all and they won't lace it, they'll tape it to the backing, which I don't want, and just... ugh.  Sigh.  Maybe I'll just go and look for a frame first, bring it home and cut the backing board, lace the embroidery cloth onto it, and then go back and have them do a mat?  If I can find a frame that will work.

(And I shouldn't really be going to Michaels anyway because of coronavirus, but OTOH I kind of don't want to roll or fold the embroidery back away and deal with this all again some months down the line.)

I found a couple other almost-done embroidery projects, but lack the motivation to work on them (and I can't find the ones I was looking for, or my counted linen.  Must scour more boxes.), so I've picked up the runner I was embroidering in my spare moments, and have been putting more stitches into that instead.

Yardwork is kind of stalled for now because the yard waste bin is full and doesn't get picked up until Monday morning.  But my radishes have popped up!  And at least one of the jalapeno plants has decided it's good with the transplant, so hurray!

And my parents are en route from SoCal.  They were trying to drive all the way from Fountain Valley to over the southern Oregon border today.  They started at 5:30am.  I think they're insane.

May the Fourth Be With You

So over the weekend I picked up the lumber for two more garden beds.  On Sunday, between rain showers, we constructed one in the pergola:

Since the ground was still very wet, we left it there overnight and until this afternoon, letting the grass and dirt dry up a bit.  Then Wonderful Husband and I hauled it over and nestled it in place:

Now I need to separate the dirt from the grass in that heap in the background, and then dig up the third bed right where the heap is.

Today was also a walk on the beach day, followed by McDonald's for the boys, and a prescription pickup.  These days I'm really happy that our local Rite-Aid has a drive-through!  I also finished sewing another four cloth masks, these ones with halter-style drawstrings.  Sadly, Wonderful Husband thinks the drawstrings (cut from the width of fabric) are just a touch too short, but they're perfect for me, because I hated tying the knots on the bottom stings and getting my loose hair caught up in them.  I also experimented with making an extra pocket and putting a twist tie or two in to help the masks fit better to the nose, but the twist ties appear to be too lightweight to do any good when worn.  Oh, for my jewelry wire to experiment with!  Oh, for my lucet to make long drawstrings!  They're all out in the garage.  SOMEWHERE.

And!  Tomorrow is my parents' moving day!  It's kind of sad, because they've sold the house my grandparents bought when my mother was a teenager.  Our family's the only ones who've owned it up until now.  65 years!  But I'll be really happy to have my parents sort of nearby again, and I know my sister and my boys are looking forward to it too.  (Squiddle today asked when we were going to see Nana and Gampa, and I had to explain that they wouldn't be up here for about another week.)  And I think my parents are looking forward to being near their kids and grandkids again.

Also, sorry to my sister-in-law, who I think reads this, but Squiddle doesn't like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  We tried showing it to him and Jazzy today.  Jazzy didn't mind the film but Squiddle said he didn't want to watch it again until he's my age.  (I think we'll try again a bit sooner than that.  Maybe in 2-3 years he'll like it better.)

Wet Weather and Making Masks

It did indeed rain today, and at one point was an absolute downpour that almost overwhelmed our house's gutters!  So I didn't get outside other than a walk to the mailbox during a break in the rain.  In fact, I actually ended up taking a nap for a couple hours to get rid of a headache.  It was very nice, laying under a quilt with the bedroom window wide open, listening to the sound of the rain....

I did, however, finish the set of the first four masks, and cut out and am working on the next set of four.  My parents have requested a couple each, for when they get up here in about a week.

And since tomorrow is supposed to be slightly less wet, I've put in another Home Depot order: lumber for two more beds, a bunch of 6' bamboo stakes that I'm going to make into trellises, and some bamboo plant labels, which I've learned from experience are necessary.  Not necessary for me, per se, but if I ask Wonderful Husband to go out in the garden and get me some thyme or parsley, he will inevitably need direction as to which green thing I mean.  He's just not a gardener, poor thing.

One and a Half Beds

Tomorrow it's supposed to rain pretty much all day, so I spent part of today digging up the next garden bed!  All by myself.  Well, Jazzy "helped" a little.

And Wonderful Husband mowed the lawns today, for much the same reason.

I finished the first face mask last night, and as a proof of concept, it works.  I need to make the ties for the next three and finish them as well, but I think that is a task for tomorrow, because I'm flagging already tonight....