Happy Birthday to ME!! Gift #2 & 3

Gift #2
With the possum out of the way, it was time to move on to bigger and better things.  Hubby purchased a power sprayer to help clean the chicken coop.  Call me weird, but I am actually happy with it.  The second box was a little more interesting.

Gift #3
Magic Man and I met six years ago.  My friend Nancy likes Bruce and our relationship, we compliment each others creativity and humor.  Nancy is a gifted quilter, as you will see, wanted to capture that relationship in fabric.

She found fabric shortly after we married and was inspired to start a quilt for us.  The colors are the primary colors in the Magic Museum.  The quilt pattern is Card Trick.

Inspiration Fabric

Card Trick

 This project took a few years, revisions, consultations, and a whole lot of love to complete.

Quilt Front

There are 89 different fabrics in this quilt, gathered from all across the great USA.  Each one heart selected, based on Bruce and my professions, hobbies, passions, and faith.  She took the time to cut out the pattern in the fabric to piece into the quilt.  What kind of love is that?

The back is filled with applique bunnies, using the quilt fabric.

Nancy pushed creativity to the limit and appliqued rabbits on the back of the quilt, hopping around cards and more bunnies in the center of the quilt back.

Quilted pillows back

She took the time to quilt the backs of the pillows...

Quilted pillows front.

And honor Bruce's parents by printing photos of these rabbits they made and painted many years ago.  

The ensemble is beautiful.  BUT now we need a bigger bed.  :)

I wish I had words to express my joy and gratitude for this precious gift.  The time, expense, the love that went into this project cannot be measured.

All I can say is the God is so good to me for giving me the bestest of friends and family.

Happy Birthday to ME!! Gift Number 1

Normally, I like to keep my birthday quiet; slip past the desks at the office and celebrate with my family.  However, today is a little different.

It began last night.  After visitors most of the day, it was well past the Girls bedtime when the last one left.  I ventured into the darkness only a porch light to guide my way.  The girls were fed, watered, and locked in for the night.  Then I heard it.  A strange sound in the trees on the south fence.  There is was, staring at me, a possum perched on the fence, visible only by the beam of light from the porch.  I hissed and barked and the thing did not move.  

After walking away, I turned back one last time and the possum slipped into the darkness and the yard next door.

This morning I woke and realized this possum was a gift from Gerald, my dearest friend killed in a motorcycle accident last May.  The photo below is the only birthday card he sent me, and it's upside down on purpose.  Here's the story...

The year was 1980 and I accepted a job in AZ with the current contractor rather than the new contractor at Ft Hood. My apartment wanted a full month's rent for the last 2 weeks, but Gerald offered his couch in exchange for the materials and labor to build a deck. (That in itself is another story). I was sleeping on the couch, when a scratching sound from the kitchen awakened me. I opened my eyes and standing on the stove was the biggest rat I'd ever seen.

"Rat! Rat!" was all I could manage to scream. Gerald came running down the hall and started laughing. It was a 'possum. We painfully managed to remove the varmint from the premises.  I poked at the possum with the fishing pole and Gerald waited for the possum to run out from the lit broiler.  Gerald was in shorts armed only with welding gloves.  The possum grabbed the fishing pole and tug-a-war began, along with a tad of panic while Gerald laughed at me.  The critter ran out at long last, Gerald grabbed it by the tail and it was hanging upside down as we took it out to dump it.  All the while, the possum was making growling, gurgling noises.  He returned twice more. On the third morning, Gerald hauled the possum several miles away.  That did the trick; he returned no more.

Gerald swears that when I hollered "Rat! Rat!" the possum was yelling back "Human! Human!" It was one of his favorite stories to tell on me. Last year, Gerald sent me this birthday card with a possum on the cover. Your call - coincidence or is Gerald still having a little more fun at my expense?

Birthday card, with instructions to view upside down.  Inside the words Rat Rat & Human Human were scrawled under the birthday wishes.

I am convinced the nocturnal visitor was a gift, a gag gift from Gerald.  After all, his sister found a brand new Black and Decker flashlight on her way to work for her birthday.

Souped Up Coupe

This morning was "Modify the Coupe Day."  Magic Man decided we needed to enhance the "Coop de Ville," making it maintenance friendly.  Step 1, add a hatch system and Step 2, an improved feeding station.  For someone who groaned "Oh dear Lord!" when he first heard the coupe coop idea, he's taken quite a liking to the concept.

You may have seen the first posting of the Coop de Ville, in its early, but livable stage.  But here's what we did today.

Magic Man decided on a "hatch system" that 1) offers protection (we have raccoons, wild cats, and 'possums roaming about the 'hood) and 2) provides easy "open and close" access between the coop and run.  

The Hatch is two part system, one hatch attaches to the coop and another to the run.  The hatches can be coupled securing the living quarters together or quickly decoupled to ease cleaning and relocating the quarters in the yard.

Installing half of the Hatch System to the coop

Hatch closed

Hatch opened

Top view of the coupled hatch, now attached to the coop and the run.  The doors slip down closing either section.

The best part about this system is we can quickly close one or both sections, locking the girls in either half.

The next modification was the feeding system.  Every morning required cleaning the poopy feeder, sighing over wasted feed, and adding a fresh supply of feed.  We repeated this task each evening.

Then we found this feeding station on Pinterest.  We made a few tweaks, using 3" PVC and parts rather than the suggested 2" and we secured the feeders at the base instead of tying them to the walls.   Also, our feeders are 24" tall, purely a cosmetic choice, shorter than 4' tall feeders. 

Magic Man cut three holes in the trunk area, just large enough for the PVC tubing to slide through.  We attached the WYE and bases inside the coop and secured them to the floor.   And finally filled the feeders.  The material cost for three feeders was $30.  A fourth can be added for $7 for the extra WYE and Caps.  Not a bad deal, value-wise.  We can fill the feeders to capacity and the girls will be happy for a week.

Feeding Stations inside the Coupe

Feed Filling Tubes, easily accessed

Wow, what used to take us a good 30 minutes each morning, is now accomplished in about 10 minutes.

Finished Coupe, today

One problem we did not foresee.  What will granddaughter do?  She knows we carry feed to the chickens each morning and battle the chickens to move to greener patches.  She'll have to accept the fact she has more time to play in the morning before school.

Care to guess what the next addition will be?

Chicken Coop, no Chicken Coupe

Magic Man is very talented.  Here in the Big City North, he has a magic shop, theater & party room, and a workshop normally used to build large cabinet-styled stage illusions.  But then he has this wife who, on occasion, makes special and strange requests.

You may recall that about 6 weeks ago we brought home some baby chicks.  They lived in a brooding house for a few weeks, but grew so quickly we needed to transition them to a chicken coop.  I worked on design after design, never quite satisfied with the final idea.  Then one night, it came to me in a dream.  My girls need a Chicken Coupe.

Magic Man shook his head when I approached him with the request.  He took my sketch and "disappeared" (ha! pun intended) into the workshop.  A few days later, he called me to the workshop, handed me a can of primer and a brush and instructed me to get busy, priming the coop inside and out. (I found out just how limber I am not).  I primed on day one and painted the next day.  Day three we added the almost finishing touches.  It was enough for the girls to move in.

So here is their new home, the Coop de Ville.  The nesting area is under the hood, feeding station in the trunk.  The girls can roost in the driver's seat and enter the run through the passenger door.  We can open both side doors or the hood and quickly clean the coop.  Functional and fun - I'm happy.

Coop de Ville

 The girls love sitting the in Driver's seat.  Oddly enough, that is Daisy on the passenger side.

Driving Miss Daisy

 It is difficult to see, but there is a chicken run, that ghost-like image in the photo below, for the girls.  It looks a bit like a submarine.  The run has a "conning tower" to roost and observe the surroundings.  Alas, Magic Man will NOT let me paint the run yellow.  All together now, let's sing "We all live in a yellow submarine..."

Chicken run

I'll be adding more sections to the run as the days grow warmer.  I hope the girls won't think they are gerbils.

Two Weeks and Growing

Ooops!!  Someone forgot to hit the post button last week.  The Golden Girls are developing into haggard looking pullets.  This must be their awkward stage.  No, me thinks "awwk" is for parrots.

From last week...

It's nice we only have an occasional snow in the Big City North.  The Golden Girls spent happy hour outdoors these last few days.  

How quickly The Girls are growing!  Everyday they change; I sit and go through their names, making sure I can identify them.  Yes, they are changing that much.  Two weeks ago, all six fit in the feeder; today the feeder holds only two.  New feathers sprout by the hour, and fuzzy feathers are everywhere, or maybe it's the pollen from the trees.

The brooding house is 3 times as large as the day we brought them home.  The outdoor pen is twice the size of the new brooder.  They run every inch of the new space.

This my first experience with chickens.  They are fascinating to watch.  Here they are the day they came home.

The GG first day with us.  They were about 2 weeks old, I was told.

After one week, not much changed.  Still cute and fuzzy, but they were bigger and food consumption had not increased.

Two weeks and the girls are unrecognizable.  Not only are they sprouting feathers, their colors are pronounced and richer.  It is easier to tell them apart.  Annabelle is still the leader.  She flits and sits atop the cardboard box they call home-in-a-home.  She dares another to share her space.  Edie is the friendliest and most vocal.  She takes after her name sake.

Holy Cow.  Look at all those feathers!

The Girls love the outdoor pen.  Back to the brooder late afternoon, they sleep most of the night.  Tomorrow we're expecting rain, I'm expecting unhappy girls by evening.

The GG love the outdoor life.  

 Oh, and the appetites have increased, by 3 fold.  It's time for a bigger dish!

I learned a valuable lesson.  Keeping water clean is a challenge.  They've grown into Mr. Whiskers', the magic rabbit, water bowl.  We change it several times a day - and night.  Granddaughter and I love to sit and watch the girls and we noticed they love to jump on things, then sit.  So this was the test.  Elevate the water bowl on some bricks, and put additional bricks all around the water bowl.  The water was untainted for 36 hours.  

Awards and "It Must be a Sign"

What a weekend...

     In case I failed to mention this tidbit, Magic Man and I moved from the Big City to the Big City North last summer. My job keeps me racing back 300 miles to the Big City every couple of weeks, but that's another story.
     This past weekend, my dear friend M and I headed south.  He did not know he was the recipient of the prestigious "Volunteer of the Year" award at the FRC Regional event.  Surprise!!  Neither of us could participate this year due to conflicts, but I had to get him there for this one day AND keep the award a secret.  It was good to show up, even for a few hours.  We missed the kids, the volunteers, the coaches - and they missed us (hurray!).  Good, good times.

M sharing the joy with another recipient

      Did I mention how much we enjoy the kids?  These students are great!  They are innovative, creative, and a lot of fun.  They ARE our hope for the future.  STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) events are an inspiration to learn and apply learning.  They are, contrary to popular belief, not always the "smart kids."  They simply have a hands-on activity that gives them the desire to learn and to express themselves.

Teams create and design their uniforms and work clothing...

All-girl team sporting their work aprons

Team Shirt

... and are responsible to keep their machines running.

Quick maintenance between matches

     This year, each team made a shirt for the EmCee to sport during introductions.  This one is my favorite.  Can you find the shark?  Poor guy, he had over 50 shirts to wear over 2 days.

EmCee and the Shark Shirt

It was a fun day.  Lots of wonderful memories.

     On the way home, we detoured by Mom's out in the "Middle of Nowhere."  I love it there, so does M and his wife L.   A quick night's sleep, breakfast, and we were on the road again toward home (after raiding Mom's garden - shhhhh!).  But first, we stopped at the Tomato Stand, a little self serve place just off the FM road.  You don't see these places much anymore in these parts, so I frequent them as often as I can.

Tomatoes

And more

     20 miles further up the road is the Egg Farm, another self serve spot off the road.   It's an understanding with the customers; no sign needed - and Mrs. B only sells eggs.
     Finally, there was a quick stop for lunch.  This sign made me laugh as is evident by the poor quality of the photo.  I couldn't take a better picture.

Take a Number Please

    It was good to get back home.  I missed Magic Man and the Golden Girls and Granddaughter..., oh and her parents.

The Golden Girls

Our visitors arrived yesterday.  Six young ladies with all their belongings have moved in and found themselves very much at home.  The light freeze last night prompted me to keep these young girls in the living room for warmth and to see how well they adjust to their new environment.

Oh, did I mention the Golden Girls (GG) are our new chicks?  Little Gold Sex Links.  Annabelle, Blanche, Constance, Daphne, Edie, and Fiona.

GG6 - Just Arrived

Annabelle

Granddaughter, now 13 months, is excited about her new playmates.  She hovers near their brooding house imitating their cheeps and peeps, bobbing her head in unison with them, dragging her parents to come see her friends.

The GG seem contented, adjusted to the location of food and water, accepting the heat emitted from the heat lamp without question.  18 more weeks until the first egg, according to the books.  My patience will be tested.

On the less happy note, Mr. Whiskers, the famous magic rabbit is none to happy with the attention competition.  He bounces in his cage demanding to be noticed.  It won't be long, normalcy will fill the household again.  I'm sure of that fact.