Birthday Card

Artist's Gallery

Simple Flower Card

This cheery sunflower made a lovely birthday card for one of my pen friends in Germany. Did you guess, it’s the same flower as in my last post? In fact, I’ve painted that picture at least four or five times! I used to use up extra paint from other projects by slapping it on cards. I’d actually build of a stock of near-finished cards to pull out for any occasion. I started out using pieces of cardstock, cutting them to size, but then bought pre-cut 4x6 cardstock cards to paint on. It wasn’t really paint-quality paper, and I had trouble with some wrinkling, but it worked well enough for countless cards.

Sunflower Card

Artist's Gallery

5x7 Original Acrylic Greeting Card

I have been painting greeting cards for almost as long as I’ve been painting. Naturally, I thought I should share a few here! I’ve always liked cards since they’re so small, easy, and not overwhelming to paint. And the recipients never fail to be so delighted to receive a handmade card! This card was for my Grandpa’s birthday a couple years back. It’s from a photo of a sunflower in our yard with the barns behind. I love that blue sky.

New Henhouse

Backyard Poultry

Inside the New Coop

Here is the interior of the new addition to the henhouse. We are looking in from the tan access door in the last picture. The old henhouse wall is to the left, shed wall to the right, and a closed-off door on the end of the shed is directly ahead. We built up the floor with skids and scrapwood pieces again, making sure it was sealed tightly. This new part measures about 5’x8’, making for a combined house of 8’x9’, enough for about 24 chickens with a good outdoor run space (not including the rooster). Coming next spring will be a pophole door between both houses, and one in the wall directly ahead to the outdoor runs. Now it’s time to settle in and wait for spring to come!

Expansion Plans

Backyard Poultry

Henhouse Addition

After enjoying fresh eggs all summer, we couldn’t resist planning to get more chicks in the spring. Who knows, maybe we could even sell eggs! Well, Ohio weather in November is a lot more favorable to building projects than snowy March or muddy April, so we began to make renovation plans for the fall. Our current henhouse sectioned off a corner of the shed, so it made sense to extend the wall to enclose the whole end of the building. We used OSB board again, and put in another door identical to the one already there (see, we do learn from our mistakes!). Coming next are a couple coats of paint on the door, and a hook and latch.

Winter Days

Backyard Poultry

Acorn in the Snow

Contrary to what I had read, the chickens were not afraid of the snow, and soon were venturing out into it. I actually worried about their feet getting frostbite! Here is Acorn checking out a new snowfall. The chickens loved to eat the snow, and eventually it’d all disappear from their pen! (I would actually put it in their house by the scoop full for them to eat!) I wonder, did it taste something like popsicles?

Pepper

The hens would often spend winter days up on the roost, especially when the afternoon sun was shining in the window. Except for Puzzle, who would only get up there if it was really cold—or really bored. Pepper (seen here) was the bottom one on the pecking order, so I think it had more reasons than one to spend a lot of time up on the roosts!

Fresh Straw

Backyard Poultry

Pepper and Midnight in Straw

We put loose straw down inside the runs frequently so the chickens would have something fresh to scratch in when the ground was frozen. Their droppings got pretty concentrated over the winter in such a small space. The hens always loved to scratch through and eat the hay seeds left in the straw. By spring there was quite a layer of (somewhat moldy) straw to deal with, but it worked okay. The straw made great compost!

Second Try

Backyard Poultry

Design #2

This tarp design worked a little better. Sorry I don’t have a better picture. This one is attached to the shed wall right above the run, over the straw bales, and held down by crates. The only drawback was having to clear the snow off as it accumulated so as not to bend and break the runs. The one around back of the shed was attached right below the window, slanting a bit over both runs, so the snow slid off somewhat. I still couldn’t let them in really severe weather, like when it got down to 0 or 5 above outside, but then they were pretty happy to hunker down inside anyway.

Stranded!

Backyard Poultry

Nighttime Dilema

Ahem...one detail we overlooked…. The tarp made the chicken house drastically darker. The window under that tarp is its only light source. Cover it up and the whole house gets dark at least several hours earlier. Which means the chickens must come in that much earlier or they can’t see to roost! Well, as you can see in this picture, they were taken by surprise and have gone to the place with the most light—the outside run—in the cold wind and snowflakes! I had to take a flashlight in to get them inside that night.
Oh well...it's back to the old drawing board!