Feeling Gratitude & Grounded Beauty Nice Long Weekend

There is a true magic and beauty found in the quietness and re-connection with the land and nature. Spent the  long weekend  playing in the woods at my camp. There is a magic up at camp and part of that magic is that no technology works up there. no cell phones nothing unless it works on propane and the lower amp electrical plugs I have up there. what a beautiful grounded balanced feeling my spirit has after the time spent up here.

I spent the weekend hunting the wooded land around for dead trees and lugging them back and cutting them up for the weekend warmth it was a bit of cold yet beautiful weekend.

 The extra magic was the power of sanctification just being in the moment. no needs for anything extra and no extras where had either. Just a beautiful weekend shared by us that where there together.  

Cold Wet Spring Morning & Some Recycling.

I am not sure what silly non chicken people around are thinking but these 3 girls are a part of my family and yes that comes with extra loving care. I watch them like a mother hen and worry about the elements and such around them. This morning it dropped to a very wet damp 35 degrees outside after being over 80 degrees that last couple days. I got up and rushed before work to make them some warm oatmeal before I went off to work and I am hopping they liked it.They seemed all happy and cheery this morning. No sign the colder weather bugged them at all. I think it is just me and the new mother syndrome. My friends think I am just crazy nuts and that my girls are just chickens. I guess they just do not get it.

On a another note I have been saving up some pallets and collecting them to strip them out for the free wood value and recycle them into many different things. just last night I stripped this small pile here.  I was rewarded with a whole can full of scraps to burn at my camp site and a nice haul of lumber to be used for the projects I want to make and complete.  Below is the lumber stack.

Got The First Wall Up

Coop Progress is Slower Than I Would Of Liked Progress Made Though.

My girl looks over at me and says WOW your building that mansion for us! I will post a few progress pics below for you all to give me pointers, encouragement, or otherwise thoughts in the comments. 

Frame started 

Roof idea window and egg laying box is all rough idea in place 

I got the roof started. being a 1 womyn coop carpenter with no carpenter skill set I am learning as I go. I lost a fram wall and had to fix that and now everything seem really tightened up with the roof wood on. I am impressed I got this far and its really looking like a coop. I just thought it would be all enclosed and ready by now. I will get there soon enough. 

Water Mellon Loving & A Little Progress Has Been Made

Well everything I have read all over the net says that chickens love water melon and this is a big truth with my girls  too. here they enjoy some watermelon while I got  a bit more progress made on the new coop on wheels. The floor base is on and it seems to work great and and still tow around nicely. 

I am looking very forward to getting this nicely finished and the girls will have some more room and then I can tow them around to different grass spaces in a longer nicer run. while I am sitting on the deck sewing away and enjoy the great fun of watching them. 

Chicken Tractor/ Coop Engineering Changes & New Build

Angels lays with her new loved hens as I work on moving the heavy coop they are in now. 

Well I built my hitch axle and attached a new set of wheels. this much was a plus. I tested it on the coop they have now so I could move that and it was an epic fail. I did learn a lot and will be armed for the new engineering ideas.  Here is the failed attempt pic I am still impressed I did this all and got this far. Its truly a fun learning adventure with a lot of creativity.

I have the base with hitch finished on the new coup and I tested it towed it around the yard and it works like a charm. Fingers crossed it works that good with the coop built on it. I believe my sewing has helped my a lot in the shop as now I seem more patient and this is just a time like seam ripping I guess. 

Hildigar was very happy to have her coup back on the ground for sure. 

Upgrading A chicken Coup Plus Turning it Mobile & A Fast Wedding Quilt

Well now there has not been a lot of sewing as I am trying to make the Coup all ready to be nice and Mobile and make a new nice run to add as well. This will help in so many ways for maintenance cleaning and giving them the whole yard as I move them around.  So the first this I did was tile the floor and than hang the water bucket up.  a lot nicer look and easier to keep and to clean up. Here is an inside pic.

To keep my hens happy as well as myself I am so impressed at how I have recycled reclaimed and made a mobile  base that works and  I added new tires and new bearings for it too.  The hens needed to get to bed last night  so I will try and make it attached and working today after work.  Here is the test drive to see that it  hooks up to the mower and is working. 

I will work on the frame and getting the coup mounted to night. 

I can not post with out any sewing pics. here is another wedding quilt I I made last summer. After the chickens are all settled and made comfy I will be very happy to sew on the deck and watch the girls out in the yard. 

Mothers Day Sewing and A Few Chickens

I managed to get in some sewing time during this busy week with new things going on around the house. I am making up a small wall hanging for my mom for mothers day. I really am enjoying this applique thing lots lately  nothing recycled in this project but I am still working on all that too.

Well as always with my silliness I got this idea that a couple chickens would be fun to have and we could enjoy  some farm fresh eggs too.  So I went to look at a small chicken coop for sale and than we got to talking and he also sold me 3 Hens so wow in like a few hrs flat a became a chicken farmer LOL ok well at least an owner of 3 laying hens.  Here is my new Girls so far 2 have names Hildigar and Zelda the 3rd is still waiting for her name. Day 3 we figured out how to tell them all apart too.

Since we have a lot of red tail hawks over head along with many other predators I  built this  up fast so they be out and safe while we are around.  Below I will so my small coop they seem to love too. I am working on building them a mobile chicken coop or Chicken tractor for them to enjoy and it will be secure enough to have them be able to enjoy the outside safely and securely all day.  For right now this is my set up. 

I would love for them to be totally free range however I am guessing that I would not have my fun hens for very long with all the hawks,  fox, coyotes, coons, and many others roaming around that would just just to eat up my hens. 

Recycled or Re-purposing Fabrics & Some Stash Busting Bag Fun

Sometimes being creative means to let go of the hype surrounding the commercialism part of the craft and bust out the old fashion way with whats laying around. 

The above is a design from a Lunchbox embroidery set I got. this was the first block of many to come that involve almost all recycling of fabrics. I love new beautiful fabrics and all however I love sewing  and experimenting  so much that using less expensive or free sources of fabrics is the way to go for somethings too.  The Denim background is from old jeans and the black body of the applique is from an old tee shirt and the pink skull dress is a very inexpensive fussy cut fun remnant piece.  I am planing more stuff like this too. 

Also there is a time that stash busting is a good thing too and I wanted to try some raw edge improvisational applique so I looked around and found a viking shopping bag cut the seams out and made it lay flat  (another recycle) ready  to use as my foundation and busted into an already opened  jelly roll and just went to town.  See Pic

I now have the top finished and the skull yellow fabric is something I have laying around in my stash that  I will be using for the liner. I maybe adding some embroiderer to this too and redoing the handles.  I will keep you all updated as it takes more form and shape. 

A Beautiful Evening After Work Sewing On The Deck.

I love when the weather breaks and get a chance to take everything outside. This allows the magic of nature to caress my spirit will I feed my soul by creating anything and everything. 

I am looking into alternative power sources to add to outdoor sewing. Right at the moment I have a 2nd battery hooked to my pick up truck so I can sew off my tail gate. I want to try and take it to the next level and be able to sew any where my truck can not go too. Please share any ideas along the way you have.