Sassy & Sweet Notes

Name This Chicken!

Come on! You know you want to play!
Let's play Name This Chicken!

Let's meet our little pullet!

Our little beauty is a cross between a Buff Silkie hen and a Red Frizzled Cochin Bantam rooster (how she got such dark feathers is beyond me...). She is five weeks old.

Unlike most of her young chicken friends, she's not from a hatchery! She was hatched out right here on the farm!

She enjoys high perches, june bug snacks, and scratching in the grass.

And, she doesn't really care for photo shoots...

So, let's hear what you've got! Name This Chicken!

PS: You never know... there might just be a prize awarded for the winning name!
PSS: A "pullet" is a young female chicken who is less than one year old.

Meet Truman!

Finally, Hillary brought baby Truman up to the barn! She's kept him waaaaaaay out in the pasture since he was born. Alan managed to get the two of them into the barn yard so we can be sure to keep an eye on both of them, and make sure they can get out of the weather. Having him in the barn yard means he's always on hand for photos! Yay! ...if only there were more time in my day.

Everyone was interested!

Pregnant Princess was interested... *Princess had better have a GIRL this year!* Alan said he needs to go tie pink bows on her belly...

Pregnant Queenie was interested...

Pregnant Dixie was interested...

and even CRAZY Boxcar Betty was interested!

Of course, they were probably more interested in the grain Hillary was getting more than baby Truman, but STILL!

Good times in the barn yard!

Itty BITTY egg!

We've found tiny eggs before, but I think this one is the smallest egg EVER! I weighed it -- it wouldn't even register .1 oz on the scale! Jeepers!

I weighed it with a AAA battery on the scale as well so at least you could see the scale register weight. This thing is TINY!

...and we didn't even get a COOKIE!

The pasture is loaded with bluebonnets this year! Thank goodness! We only had a handful of flowers last spring, and it was just dismal. We had a few HOT days last week, so I knew I needed to get out and take some photos before the flowers were gone.

Miss Daisy was LESS than thrilled, as you can see.

Then something across the pasture caught her interest...

Mister Farley thought the entire scene was just too boring, but he did an OK job of listening to me -- he just wouldn't LOOK at me.

 
But he did think the flowers smelled nice!

Happy Birthday, Alan!

Whoop Whoop!! We've got a birthday boy in the house!! Happy Birthday, Alan!!

Tonight we drove up to Dallas and went to Medieval Times (a dinner theatre kind of event with knights and horses). We had a good time cheering for our "favorite" knights. We had front row seating, so the view of the arena was great!

It's fun taking photos at Medieval Times. You never know what you're going to get! Especially if you use a really long shutter time! The action shots are the best! Here are a few from the evening.

A beautiful Andalusian stallion.

The Black and White Knight, going HIGH SPEED!

Another shot of the Black and White Knight ... javelin?

The Green Knight... possibly waving a sword?

Help me wish Alan a BIG ol' HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

A bouncing baby BOY!

Well well well! If you're not into baby chickens, maybe you're into baby DONKEYS!

We KNEW Hillary was pregnant, but we didn't know the due date. Today, we learned that it was TODAY!

Hillary delivered this CUTE little fella this morning. This will be the last baby donkey born on the farm, as all of the boys have had their plumbing altered since Hillary got pregnant (way to go, Fitz...).

When this little fella is old enough, he'll make a visit to the vet's office as well for some alterations. Until then, he'll get to bounce around the pasture and sniff wildflowers 'till his heart's content!

I was able to run out to the pasture at lunch, so you're looking at high NOON photos (ack!). And by the way, it hit 95 degrees here today. *I wilted*

I think Hillary is happy to have lost some baby weight... it feels so GOOOOOOD to roll!

Ooooh yeah, right there....
"Tell me when you're done, Mom... I'm so embarrassed!"

A little to the right....

Which way, that a-way!
"You know, I could really go for a snack!"

"Come on kiddo, we're outta here!"
(Oh, Hillary...I see your boobies!)

Residents!

Hmm... I guess the white trim with black polka dots isn't a hit after all! Good thing I didn't actually PAINT it like that before I found out it was such a bust of an idea! *grin*

I was asked to post a photo of what the perch ladder looked like when it was suspended from the ceiling -- there you go, Chris! There's a short chain above both of the outside legs of the ladder so the ladder is held up on both sides. Works like a charm! Sorry for the low quality pics -- it was early, I was using my point and shoot camera, and had to use the flash. Argh! But you get the idea anyway...

We knew it was going to be HOT today (in fact, we're at the beginning of a HOT spell), so bright and early this morning Alan and I added a layer of wood chips to the floor of the coop and moved the majority of the chicks into the new coop. We've still got the youngest ones in a brooder in the house. They need to get a bit older (and grow more feathers) before they can move out into the coop.

This is their first time on wood chips, and some were a little more comfortable than others. But after a short time, the babies thought it was a PARTY! The white and black chick on the left is Sweet Pea, the cute little white chick we had hatch from one of Olive Oye's green eggs. Dang it, I think it's a rooster. Poo! In fact, I think all of the chicks in this photo are roosters. Bigger POO!

 
The brown and black chick in the middle is Edwina, who is one of our farm hatched chicks (as opposed to store bought). Edwina is half Ameraucana and half Mille Fleur. The little dark brown frizzle chick on the right is another one of our farm chicks (yet to be named). She's half frizzle and half golden laced Polish, so she will have crazy curled feathers, and hopefully a plume of feathers on her head -- though I think if she does it will be small.

If you're wondering why they have bright green marks on their legs, that's how we marked them as we vaccinated them, so we could tell who'd been vaccinated and who hadn't been. Every now and then, Alan got a little carried away with the green grease crayon and they ended up with an entire green leg instead of just a green middle toe!

Here's another farm hatched chick, yet to be named. Every time I look at her I just LAUGH! She's half frizzle and half silkie. She's just the FUNNIEST thing on two legs!! Like the Polish chickens, Silkies also have tall standing feathers on their heads, but usually they're a bit shorter and not as "showy" as the Polish head feathers. Hers are a RIOT!! I think there are 5 feathers coming in. Hopefully she'll get a few more!

This is one of the bantam chicks we picked up at the farm supply store. She's the smallest of all the chicks, but she's mighty! She has big beautiful eyes!

"Whoa, is that my TOE?"

Peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck...

This is a Golden Comet pullet (girl). I love this in-between stage they're in. Losing their baby fuzz and growing in their first feathers. They're so awkward looking!

Here's the cute little frizzled Polish again, looking for snacks...

Yup, still too scary...

MORE Coop Progress!

We spent two or three hours working on the coop again this evening. We needed to get it to a point where we can move the chicks out of the house into the coop. They're outgrowing the brooder! We managed to finish all four sides of the vinyl flooring, installed insulation and wall boards below where the large window will be cut on the back wall, and installed PERCHES!

I wanted the perch ladder attached to the back wall with hinges so that I could lift up the ladder and have the perches suspended from the ceiling when I clean out the wood shavings in the coop. I think it's going to work PERFECTLY! (I saw this idea on a coop design shared at backyardchickens.com - I think it's a brilliant idea!) I don't even have to duck my head to stand under them when they're suspended! We put some short pieces of chain on the ceiling above each side of the perch. We added a couple of hooks to the legs of the perches so that the perches can be suspended from the ceiling. That, along with the vinyl flooring and the WIDE opening door will make cleaning out the coop a breeze!

I have a little wagon that attaches to the back of our lawn tractor -- I'll just pull right up to the front of the coop, swing open the doors, raise up the perches and sweep away!

Tomorrow evening, I'll add a layer of wood chips to the floor, a waterer and feeder, and introduce the babies to their new digs! They're too little to be outside just yet, so we have time to work on the chicken door, chicken run, and the window on the back wall. We'll also be adding in some nest boxes as well, but we've got plenty of time before they're ready to lay eggs!

In time, my dears, in time!

Cluck cluck!

Edited to Add:
I had to see what polka dot trim would look like. Here it is with a little digital editing magic -- HAA!!!

A new coat of paint...

...does wonders!

Here's the little polka dot cutie after her make-over! I removed the "tired" grape vine wrap and a tattered bow from around her neck (which I did before I took the "before" photo). I added a new coat of paint with some fresh colors, and updated the embellishments on the heart - a tin star, big brown button, and hemp twine!

I love her!

For now, she's on the door of the new coop, which will eventually have it's trim painted either red or white, I can't decide... maybe I'll paint the trim of the coop white with black polka dots! Hmmm... that's not a bad idea!

In need of a make-over!

Six or seven years ago I bought this wooden chicken to hang on the wall next to my front door. While "aged" and "rustic" is cute, it's time for this little gal to get a bit of a make-over.

Last night I drug out the paint supplies and fixed her right up!

Stay tuned for her reveal!

Coop Progress!

This past weekend Alan and I worked on the chicken coop. It's coming along nicely, but wow, it sure takes more time to do things than you'd think.

We started with stacks of supplies and amazingly enough, we've made good progress.

Some time last week we laid down the center of the sheet vinyl flooring. This will make for easy clean up, and will protect the wood floor of the coop. I got a steal of a deal on the flooring! $8 at Lowe's -- gotta love clearance!

We also started to frame in the internal wall that will divide the chicken area and the feed storage area.

The walls of the shed were not insulated when the shed arrived. With Texas heat, we thought it would be best to insulate the building to help keep it cool.

I hung the insulation while Alan framed in the internal door. The kind of wall insulation I bought is encased in a vapor barrier so it was a snap to install! We put weird foiled bubble insulation on the ceiling. It's kind of space-agey, and we're hoping that it will improve the lighting, making it a big brighter.

The foiled bubble insulation was easy to install around the roof beams. The shed stays nice and cool now!

Once the insulation was done, Alan started cutting wall boards. He cut, and I installed. We're a good team!

We also finished the internal door, added wire to the internal wall, completed two sides of the flooring (the other two sides of the flooring will get finished once we have the back wall where the chicken pop door will go).

Lots more to go, but so much progress has been made!

Look what followed me home....

I ran into the farm supply store this evening just MINUTES before closing to pick up two bags of pine chips and a little canning jar water dish.

They had a big trough full of red chicks.

They had a big trough full of golden comet chicks.

They had a big trough full of assorted bantams.

I'm not sure how it happened, but the Silkies followed me home.

Really! They just followed me home!

And I'm now banned from the farm supply store until WELL after "chick days" are over. They've never had so many "chick days"! I thought it was safe! Lesson learned... beware of parading chicks.

And Silkies!? They're the hardest to resist!

Oddly enough, I received an email from my Dad tonight. Yesterday, a new fishing boat followed him home! ACK! Could it be genetic!? ...I will say that at least they didn't ALL follow me home! See!! I ...I mean they... showed SOME restraint!

My Mom says she can't raise chicks this year -- I'll raise them for you, Mom!

*chirp chirp chirp*

I think it's time to dust off the old supplies, and get serious about stamping again. Can you hear the crickets chirping? See the tumbleweeds roll on by? Yeah? Me too.

However, it's not like I haven't been busy! I've been in illustration mode for some time now, and that always takes priority over crafting. Too bad I can't share with you yet!

Soon, dearies, soon!!

PS: Miss R, the buttons in the jar were an ebay purchase..... (just the buttons, not the jar) *wink*

Introducing Chicken's in the Kitchen, What's Cookin', & Simply Bloom

Surprise!! Today is release day for new Whipper Snapper sets!

There are three new sets being released this month, and I am so excited about them! I created this VERY simple card using images from two of the new sets called Chicken's in the Kitchen and What's Cookin'. I stamped the images in black Memento ink and colored them with markers. I added faux stitching around the edges, and add a cute red and white gingham ribbon, tied with a button. Easy Peasy!

The three fun new sets releasing this month are Chicken's in the Kitchen, What's Cookin', and Simply Bloom. Click images for a larger view.

Be sure to check out the galleries and blogs of the March/April Featured Designers as they showcase these sets! You're sure to be impressed!

Bev Rousch
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/BevMom
Blog: http://bevithia.blogspot.com

Danielle Kennedy
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/dpkennedy
Blog: http://wilddragonflydesigns.blogspot.com

Lori Craig
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/stamp_momma
Blog: http://loricraig.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com

Natasha Trupp
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/tashers
Blog: http://palmtreesandpogosticks.blogspot.com

Shannan Teubner
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/steubner
Blog: http://withfeathersandsequins.blogspot.com

and Me! Anna Wight
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/sweetmissdaisy
Blog: http://sweetmissdaisy.typepad.com

Just a reminder, you can see all of the projects current and past Featured Designers have uploaded to their SplitCoast galleries by viewing the Whipper Snapper Featured Designer Gallery. Have a look -- it's a great place to find all KINDS of great inspiration!

Have fun!

Happy Easter!

Alan and I, along with all the critters here on the farm, want to wish you a very Happy Easter! Cluck cluck!!

Beginnings of a Coop

I've been wanting a larger chicken coop and yard for the girls. Since Alan and I have busy schedules and building a larger coop would take an enormous amount of time for us, I decided to make things a little easier on both of us. I ordered a locally built 10x16 garden shed that we will convert into a coop. If the building is small enough, the company I ordered it from will build it at their location and deliver it to your location, set it, level it, and drive away. Or, if the building you want is too big to transport, they offer on-location building. Ours was small enough to have built at their location and be delivered.

Last week, a man in a truck pulling a really cool hydraulic trailer showed up with the shed, complete with wide swinging doors and one window. The trailer did all kinds of strange maneuvers until the shed was set very gently in place on our property.

Today we started customizing the building into the new coop! We added hardware cloth (sturdy woven wire) around the base of the coop to keep things like cats, raccoons, armadillos, and chickens out from under the coop, and then "disguised" the hardware cloth with short cedar flowerbed picket fencing, purely as a "cute factor" detail and to further discourage critters under the coop. The pickets are made of wood that I *might* paint white since they're currently all different colors of cedar. We'll see. *grin*

Tomorrow we'll start modifications on the interior. We'll be adding insulation, adding a dividing wall so we can have a feed storage area separate from the chicken house area, installing linoleum flooring for easy cleaning (we scored a new piece of linoleum flooring on clearance at Lowe's last week for $8.00), creating a large window on the backside of the coop and two smaller windows on the storage end, adding nest boxes, perches, brooders for chicks, and of course CHICKEN doors! We will also be constructing a large run that will connect to the coop, so the girls can safely get out and scratch around in their yard and do what chickens do.

Of course not everything will be done in a day, but we'll get there. I'm excited!! I have plans to do a little painting on the coop -- some red and some white, and maybe even add some shutters! Or a flower box beneath the window!

Every coop needs a good name. Care to offer up suggestions - I KNOW you'll have good ones!!

PS: See the band of purple in the background? That's one of our pastures, filled with bluebonnets! Gorgeous! Now that the cows and donkeys are all out of that pasture, I'll be able to take the dogs back there and get some photos. That'll be fun!

Hey Buckaroo!

I thought I'd share this little 3x5 card made with fun The Cat's Pajamas stamps, in honor of Alan selling three of our calves! Tomorrow, Chuck will go to his new home where I have no doubt he will be spoiled rotten.Next week, Cleo and Cup will go to their new home where they will be introduced to their new herd friends. They'll make cute babies for their new owners!

Later this year, our cows will start having their 2009 babies. I think Princess will be first, and either Lucy or Pixie will be last to deliver. New calves are so fun!

I've been featured!

Not too long ago I hinted at a special project I was working on, but couldn't share it with you yet... Well, seems that now I can!!

Shortly after CHA (Craft & Hobby Association convention) in January, I was interviewed by the ever-so magnificent Warren Greunig and asked to be a featured artist in Scrap & Stamp Arts magazine. How fun is THAT! I expected the article to publish a bit later in the year, but come to find out that it's in the current issue!

I don't have a copy of the magazine yet, but for those of you who do, I hope you enjoyed the write up and projects. I'll share one of the featured projects with you...but you'll have to snag a copy of the mag to see the other! *grin*

This is a 12x12 layout I put together to feature this handsome young cowboy that I had the privledge of photographing. I used delish Cosmo Cricket papers, buttons, hemp, and even created a couple of cool embellishments for the project. I added faux stitching, inked the edges of the paper layers, and tried to put my own flair on the design. Hopefully, if you know my style, you could recognize this as one of mine! (Click on the image to view larger.)

Thanks to Scrap & Stamp Arts and to Warren for the opportunity to be featured! What a THRILL!

Chick Pix

I took a few photos last night of some of the new chicks we've got in the brooder. This is the little chocolate colored chick we had hatch about 10 days ago. I was going back and forth about who it's mama was, and clearly I was WRONG! Turns out, this chick has Silkie toes and frizzling feathers! So there's no way her mama could be Doily, Pearl, or Tina! You can kind of see her wing feathers sticking out as they do their cute frizzle curl. It will be fun to see her grow up! (Sorry it's not all in focus... it was dark and I needed to use a shallow depth of field to allow enough light to even take the photo at all!)

This is Edwina, a cross between our Mille Fluer Peanut and our Ameraucana Edward Scissorbeak. Peanut lays the smallest eggs on the farm, but hatching from one of Peanut's itty bitty eggs didn't stop Edwina from growing and growing and GROWING! She TOWERS over all the other babies in the brooder! And look at all her pretty feathers coming in! She is a very sweet, mild mannered chick. Except when a bug gets in the brooder... then she gets a little CRAZY running and jumping and peeping like mad. Bugs in the brooder are VERY exciting! Hopefully, Edwina will lay green eggs...

This is one of the little Golden Comet chicks we brought home from the farm supply store last weekend. Golden Comets are a sex-link bird, meaning that the pullets (girls) are a different color than the cockerels (boys). So it's easy to tell the males from the female birds. She'll grow up to be a pretty gold and white colored hen and lay nice, brown eggs. Can't wait!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

One Sick Chick.

Thanks for all the notes about my missing "mojo". It's been a while since I've gone through such a slump. I thought it was over last week, but wow... this week proved to be just as grim! I'm glad I'm not alone, though... sounds like many of you are off your game a bit too.

In desperate attempt to do something about it, I put together this card tonight. But, don't get too excited... I actually colored the image (Get Well Chicken) at least a month ago, so all I really did tonight was dig through my scrap pile to find the scalloped later, the piece of green, and dig out a rustic orange colored note card. Oh, and I did some sewing on the card. That's IT -- but it's something.

This card is kind of timely as I lost one of my Cuckoo Marans hens on Friday. *sad* Unfortunately, I couldn't nurse her back to health. She was what's called an "internal layer". Internal layers have trouble laying eggs, and they can (and often do) accumulate egg matter in their abdomen, which leads to swelling, and often internal infection. I've done extensive reading about it and understand that survival for much more than a year is rare, and treatment is limited. It's possible to have a hysterectomy done (rather expensive, and difficult to find a vet able to perform the procedure), and even then survival is uncommon. Poor girl... she was a very sweet hen. She had a wonderful chicken life with us here on the farm.

Yoooo-hoooo, crafty mojo....

....where are you....