Okay, what do you do with an old, rickety ladder that's been around a long time and served you well but can no longer can keep up? (literally, can no longer keep me up...lol.)
I thought and thought of different ways I would use this old thing. Hang plants on it? No, that wasn't it. Towels? No, not that either...not really the right style. I know. Use it to put a few of my favorite books on, my garden hats and some garden trinkets.
It's always fun to do something new and unexpected at the beginning of Spring. Going into my kitchen is this little entry way that was perfect for this little old ladder. Every time I go into the kitchen and see it, it reminds me of all the weeds that need to be pulled. But what the heck, I'll open one of the books instead.
I love the shape of this little green urn. It is super heavy and I found it at a Miracle Hill store. Also, one of my favorite books to get inspiration from is Junk Style by Melanie Molesworth. I've had this one many years and never tire of it.
The bag the gardening magazines are in came from the Home Exchange party I had last month. It is one of the things I chose. It matched perfectly with this little group.
Mr. Bunny used to be on the front porch but now is peeking through the small fern. Maybe he needs a little Shakespeare.
Just for the time being, I think I'll like this little niche. I need a little gardening motivation. Happy Hump Day!
Good Friday morning to you all and I hope this has been a nice week for you. Today on Friday Finds instead of suggesting a product to you I want to share with you some beautiful surprises I saw on my daily walk.
Many of you have seen the post about the addition to our old barn a few weeks ago. I walked out past there yesterday and looked up and this surprise was there.
Wow, how fast these birds move in getting their nest built. This beam is about 10 feet up, so I had to climb up on my ladder and I still couldn't see into the nest. I didn't want to touch the nest so I just held my camera over it and started to shoot hoping I would get a picture of what was inside.
There was only one egg and you can see it is a pretty large one. And isn't it just beautiful? So bright and perfect. I'm not sure what kind of bird it is but I'm going to keep a look out to see.
Here are a few other pretty amazing things I saw on my walk I thought you'd like to see. Sometimes If we take a moment to stop and "smell the roses" we are surprised at how much beauty there is in the fast paced, hectic world we live in and it refreshes our souls. I know it did for me.
It's early Spring and with that brings hope, new beginnings, and beauty in small places. Take a walk, breathe deeply and snap away.
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I'm not sure how many of you know what a barn quilt is so let me explain a little. A barn quilt is a barn or other farm building that displays a quilt square. Usually these barns are very old and have historical or landmark significance in the area, but aren’t limited to that significance. While traveling I've seen many of these and have been facinated by them. I wanted one for my own barn. Here's a neat one I found online.
Many of the quilt square patterns chosen for display on the barns reflect the owner and his way of life on his own farm. So they are very personalized.
Quilt patterns are appearing on barns all over the southern states. Donna Sue Groves, purchased a barn in Adams County that had the “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco” slogan already painted on it. She wanted to replace the slogan with a painted quilt square, to honor her mother, Nina Maxine Groves, a noted quilter who learned the craft from her mother and grandmother and the barn quilt was born. Here are some examples on a few neat barns I found on google images.
I designed a quilt square that represented the four generations that have lived here on my little farm. To begin, I drew a grid on a piece of paper to draw my design on which made it easier to transfer onto a plywood square. Since the board was 4 x 4 ft I drew the grid 4 in x 4 in and each inch represented 1 ft. Here's a photo of it freshly painted before we put it up.
You can still see some of the grid pattern in pencil on it. I used a craft acrylic paint and then applied several coats of polyurethane to protect it. Here's my hubby climbing up the very tall ladder to put it up on the barn for me. He’s such a trooper. I love it.
Now we have a neat topic of conversation when people see it. There are four of everything on the board; 4 generations on this farm, and 4 of us. The stripes are for our gardening rows, the corners are chickens, black wings, yellow bodies and there are 4 crosses in the middle representing our Christian faith.
. Oh yes, can you spot the 4 J’s for our last name?
This was a fun project and one I have been wanting to do for a long time. Glad I finally got around to it.
Try one for yourself. You can even have a small square on a little tool shed in your yard.
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Some of the people who read my blog will know that we have a small 5 acre piece of land that I like to call a farm. We garden, can vegetables, grow flowers and raise hens for their eggs. It gives us a lot of satisfaction to know we are eating freshly grown veges and freshly laid eggs. It gives a great sense of satisfaction to know we are contributing to our livelihood. I thought I'd share some picture of our hens with you. They are easy to care for and so much fun to watch pecking around.
As you can see, we have a mixed variety of colors and types. This gives us different kinds of eggs.
Don't you just love all the different colors? It's hard to see in this picture, but some are blue and green. Each hen lays about 1 egg a day each, so that is a lot of eggs if you have 25 chickens. Of course, we give them away to our family. Here is a picture of the chicken coop in the snow.
The chickens have two large covered yards to roam in during the day and then a house to nest in at night. We keep the hen yards covered to keep preditors out and the chickens in.
My husband built this little portable hen yard that will hold about five chickens to be able to move them around the pasture to scratch the ground. It's called a chicken tractor. This is good for the soil and it is fun to see them in different spots of the gardens.
I also found a metal rooster at a consignment store, painted it bright yellow and placed it on top of the hen house. We don't have a real rooster so he stands guard.
If you have never tried raising chickens, I think you should give it a try. They are loving, easy and lots of fun.
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