Background

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Cute Chicken Coop

The new coop. . . complete with fake plants.  The chickens ate the real flowers!
 
I have chickens.  I actually should say that Little Papi has chickens.  We got them in March when they were tiny and fuzzy.  Now they are huge and beautiful.  Right now they are laying 4-6 eggs a day, but the best part is just having them around.  It makes me feel more grounded and self-reliant.  In a true emergency, we'd still have eggs.  And a stew if we got truly desperate.

Chickens are pretty hardy characters and are pretty easy to care for.  They need a coop or some shelter with roosts to keep them safe from predators at night.  They need laying boxes or they will lay eggs wherever THEY choose.  They need food, water, and room to scratch. 

This is the coop and the run. We keep food in one can and treats/supplies in the other.
 
There was no way that I was going to have some ugly ramshackle coop in my backyard.  I buit a smallish coop out of a large cabinet and the girls have lived in that for four months, but they needed something larger for winter.  I've looked at plans and made decisions about what I wanted, but I just never got around to building the coop. Last week I bought one!  PDog and his buddy, the WingMan brought it home for me  and the BandMan helped me paint and shingle it.  If you undertake a project like this, I strongly recommend that you own a pneumatic nailer/stapler.  It is a life saver!

A little ornamentation makes all the difference.  The wrought iron rooster on the coop was purchased at Hobby Lobby and then I used satin white Valspar paint to give it a happier look.  I love how it spruces up the coop and everyone exclaims about how cute it is.  The chicken sign on the run started with a piece of sheet metal that had holes in all four corners and the sides rolled over.  I bought it at Wooden Connections in American Fork.  I used paper to make the circle stencil and used Glossy Red Valspar spray paint to make the circle.  I used a chicken image that I found online, enlarged it, printed it in sections, taped it together, and cut it out to make the chicken stencil.  That was painted with Glossy Black spray paint by Valspar.  I used stainless steel zip ties that I found at WalMart to attach it to the fence becaust the sharp edges of the holes would have cut right through the plastic zip ties. 

All in al I highly recommend keeping chickens.  They are hilarious and worthwhile.  And my 14 Y.O. has a great sense of accomplishment from taking care of HIS chickens and selling the extra eggs to neighbors.

  The eggs.  Rinsed and labeled with the day they were laid.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Easily Separate Eggs

Believe it or not, this helpful hint is from Papa C. He saw it on TV, but I had never heard of this trick, so I thought I would share.  All you need to separate eggs is a water or 20 oz soda bottle. 

1. Crack the egg into a bowl.


2. Hold the bottle upside down and squeeze the air out of it.

 

3.  Place the bottle opening over the yolk and release the pressure on the bottle.  The egg yolk will be sucked up into the bottle.

 4.  Taa daa!  Let the extra whites run back into the bowl.
 
Check out our beautiful eggs!  We have some backyard chickens and 14 YO Little Papi takes care of them and gathers the eggs.  They are organic and partially free range.  He rinses and dates them to ensure freshness.  Yum!
 



 

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Late Summer Printable

I am ready to re-decorate, but since there's no holiday looming (I mean. . . how would one decorate for Labor Day?) I wasn't sure how to decorate.  I decided to go with a sunflowers look and I needed some subway art that reflected out lives right now.  If you enjoy the same aspects of late summer, please feel free to print and frame this subway art.  In a few days I will post a photo of my mantle.

Late Summer Printable