Our house is a very very very fine house…

On By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized7 Comments

I was digging around on the laptop, cleaning up, when I found this picture of our house under construction, which I found on the county permits website. This was 1994, 5 years before we came along.

So here we are at our new (to us) house, complete with my Mustangs in the driveway. I really miss that white one, that was a nice car – black leather, big stereo, comfy. Terrible handling though. Maybe I don’t miss it that much. Notice the color of the house. Dave said it was taupe. I don’t think that’s a real color. When people asked me what color my house was I’d say yellow, and Dave would say ‘no it’s not’, so we’d go outside and look and sure enough, it wasn’t yellow, but it wasn’t really any color! Note that it looks the same color as it does in the picture above, and that picture is black and white! Well, we soon solved the color problem.


We have LP siding on our house, and you may remember the LP siding class action lawsuit because their siding wasn’t properly sealed so it would soak up water and rot. Our choices were to replace it, or deal with it. The LP settlement was ridiculously cheap, it wouldn’t pay to actually replace it, so we decided to deal with it. One hot summer we went around the whole house, cleaning up the edges of the siding and treating them with a rubberized polymer to seal them. Every single exposed edge of siding was treated with this white rubbery stuff. And when we were done we had to paint the whole house.


No, it’s not pink, it’s ‘morning rose’. We have no CC&Rs so we can do whatever we want 🙂 No matter what the neighbors think. I liked it, it was bright and cheery. Oh look, another mustang!

But a couple years later we added the big shop, to contain our business. With the prospect of a two story pink shop towering over the neighborhood, we knew we needed a less obnoxious color. We picked a dark forest green. Some people said that would be too bold, we should paint it taupe! But with the stand of trees behind the house, I think it blends right in and looks very sharp, especially with the white trim. Our painter suggested going with a lighter color on the sun porch to brighten it up. I really like it.

We’ve been here ten years, almost exactly – I think we moved in on valentines day and celebrated by sitting on the floor and eating pizza. This is the longest I’ve ever stayed in one place, and I have to say I feel like we’ve really made it our own.

Oh, and you can’t see it because it’s covered, but there’s still a mustang in the driveway 🙂

The new, expanded chicken coop

On By stefrobrtsIn chickens3 Comments

When I built my chicken coop I expected to have maybe five chickens. I didn’t know chickens were like potato chips, you can’t have just one – or three, or five, or..well, you get the picture. So they were a bit crowded in there, and I ended up having to leave the top open so there was room for everyone to roost. Plus, when the snows came I had to open the coop to the rest of the shed to give them a little room to move around until the ice storm passed. So I knew I needed to expand to keep my 8 girls and one roo happy.

I spent quite a bit of time saving up bits and pieces, and planning it out. Finally I dug in today, planning to finish it in a day, because the chickens needed a place to sleep by evening.

I started out by pulling the old coop apart, carefully unscrewing everything to save the pieces, and shovelling out all the old cedar chips and poo.

I cleared out the shed on that end and laid down a 9 x 6 roll of floor vinyl, then screwed it to the floor with wood strips on each end.

The flock had to check out all the old pieces of their home which were now on the lawn!

I started rebuilding the nest boxes, expanding to four instead of just two – not that two hadn’t been enough, just that now there was room for four. I kept a piece of the ladder for the hens to use to climb up there.

I added another roost on the wall across from the nest boxes, but I’m not happy with it, I think I’ll build another one tomorrow to replace it. I also hung the feeder, which will keep them from pooping on top of it. Then built the wall between the shed and the coop and finished it with chicken wire. There’s a door on the end of the wall by the nest boxes to clip in and collect eggs. I was particularly proud because I reused almost every board out of the old coop, plus a few more scraps I had around. The only thing I had to go buy was the vinyl for the floor.

The chickens moved right in to check it out, and by evening they all seemed to be finding their new spots. Except the ‘wild’ chickens, they were so put out that last I saw they were sleeping in the tree!

So it was a busy day, and by the end I was tired and sore, but satisfied by a job well done. Then a friend sent her son over to take away our remaining hay (I traded it for petsitting later in the year, and she needed it to feed her horses), and our herding teacher came over and took Houdini to his new home guarding her sheep. As I sat on a feed bin in the shed watching the chickens exploring their new coop, warbling and clucking as they checked out the new nest boxes, while the sky outside grew dark, I couldn’t help but feel a tingling sense of peace. I miss the livestock but right now I think two dogs, two cats, and nine chickens is just the right amount of responsibility.

Henny Penny the Cochin

On By stefrobrtsIn chickens, video3 Comments

http://i358.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid358.photobucket.com/albums/oo24/stefrobrts/MVI_0801.flv

If I’m ever having a bad day and need a laugh I think I’ll pull this clip up. Penny makes me laugh whenever I look at her! First off, she’s got hardly any tail or neck, so she’s shaped like a bowling ball with a head, second, she stands upright and looks like she’s wearing pantaloons right down to her ridiculous feathered feet, and third – well, you really have to see her come running when I show up with treats!

Safe and sound

On By stefrobrtsIn farm2 Comments

I got news from the goat rescue this morning that everyone made the 2 1/2 hour journey without incident. She let them out into the pasture and they stayed in a flock away from the existing residents, but she’s sure they’ll settle in and they’ll all be hanging out together soon. She said they look beautiful grazing peacefully in her pasture, and she promised to give them a safe home until she can find the perfect permanent home for them, which is all I want for them! So that’s good news. I’ll admit after the crazy time we had herding them up and putting them in the truck, I was feeling uneasy about the whole thing yesterday evening (and I’m still sore from all the sheep wrestling), but I feel much better now knowing they are safe and sound in their new home.

Also, I’ve found a new home for Houdini. Our herding instructor has a large sheep herd, and she breaks them up onto different pastures during the year, and needs an extra llama so each group can have their own guard llama. So hopefully this week we’ll get him moved over there.

Sheep and goats move out

On By stefrobrtsIn farm2 Comments

I have no pictures because my hands were full helping out. The rescue showed up this afternoon with a pickup with a stock bed,and although she was certain it was safe for the sheep and goats, I was not comfortable letting Houdini ride in it. So the sheep and goats were rounded up and put in the pickup (not easily, I might add), and Houdini is still with us out in the paddock. I hope in the next few days to find a good home for him as well.

Mouse

On By stefrobrtsIn cats, mouse, pets3 Comments

I went out this morning and after doing the morning chores I took nice headshots of all the animals so I could print them out along with their information to give to the rescue lady. Today is moving day for them. More on that later though.

Mouse was helping, and I snapped this nice picture of her in the morning light. She just about glows!


Mouse is having her 15 minutes of fame on Petduel.com where she is the worlds cutest pet for January 2009 thanks to a picture a friend submitted. Click through to see her in all her laid-back glory 🙂

Tough decisions

On By stefrobrtsIn farm3 Comments

Things just keep getting harder it seems. Business started to pick up and we thought we would work our way through this mess and then we get a notice from our health insurance that it was jumping up our bill to over $500 a month! And we never use it, we’re healthy, we just have it in case something catastrophic happens. Like last year I think they paid out when I crushed my finger while putting up a T-post and had to go to the emergency clinic. But $500 a month? Really? What do they charge people who aren’t young and healthy? And they’re a private company so it’s within their rights to do so. Those guys in DC better get their act together and come up with some kind of a national medical plan regular people can actually afford.

In other news, on Sunday the livestock will be going to a goat rescue up in Kent, WA. I contacted her for advice about placing the goats, and she said she had room for the whole flock. She will find them good pet homes. I am very relieved someone will be able to find them homes where they won’t get eaten, and that I won’t have to spend any more money on feeding them or worrying about their health care. I really just don’t have a dollar to spare right now. It’s just a blessing that there are people who are looking out for the animals, even the farm animals, who can step in to help.

Here is her website, so you can see what a fantastic job she does rescuing goats.

Naughty Goat Animal Rescue

My view has expanded

On By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Our ‘territorial view’ was always a nice peek at the hills, and just the corner of the cattle barn up the road. Last summer:


Then a few weeks ago DH said ‘could we always see the road going up the hill?’ and I said yes, because we could just see a bit of it. Then one day he said ‘could we always see that house up the road?’ and I said I didn’t think so. And then a couple days ago I realized I could see a barn I’d never seen before. Seems the neighbors are cutting down the trees on the other side of their rusty barn. Well, it’s nice having a bit more view, just don’t tell the tax man!

Leftovers Frittata

On By stefrobrtsIn food3 Comments


What do you do when you have nearly two dozen eggs in the fridge and no one to give them to? How about make a frittata? This was actually inspired by having nothing on hand for breakfast except eggs. Eggs are the one thing we have too many of!

I sauteed half an onion, then added some cut up chicken left over from one of those roasted chickens from the store (which gave us enough chicken for three meals, I might add), then I shredded up two leftover small hunks of cheese – one pepper jack, one gruyere. Leave the cheese too close to the edge of the counter so Barclay can steal about a third of it. Crack open a dozen eggs and whisk them with a little dash of milk. Put half the remaining cheese in the eggs, dump them into the skillet with the onions and chicken, and stir. When it’s starting to set up put the rest of the cheese on top, pop it under the broiler a few minutes until browned and puffy – I was really surprised it got puffy like that – and it’s done! I put a dab of sour cream on it, but it was just as good without. Easy and delicious, and used up a bunch of leftover tidbits, so I always like that.