15 Years

Today my hubs and I are celebrating our anniversary.  Fifteen years ago today we were married with my three daughters standing up beside me.  He has been and is the best.

Last Valentine Day church dinner.

 Being the dear that hubs is, this is what I came home from work to. 

A new  Keurig and a new mug.  Made me smile.  I now have a cup of afternoon coffee.  When I make coffee in the afternoon I usually end up having two cups this will lower my caffeine intake through the day.  And it is the perfect gift for the two of us.  I bought hubs the newest book from his favorite author, Terry Brooks.  It has become a tradition because he seems to always have a new book out around this time each year. Although hubs has a Nook he always wants the new hardback in this series.   Have a wonderful day friends.  Blessings!

Out of the Box

This storage container is mostly filled with Mary Engelbreit fabric.  I have been pulling together a project from it this week. 

 I also have been wishing I had bought more of it.  I am loving how it is coming together. 
Have a wonderful evening!  Blessings.

Today

Here I am day 7 of National Blog Posting Month and I was already at odds about what to post.  I see quite a few bloggers post about their day so here it goes.  I get up Monday through Friday at six A.M.  I would love to say I work out but I do not.  I shower, make some coffee and watch the morning news.  I leave for work at eight thirty A.M., I am a slow starter.  I have a part time job and usually work a four hour shift which infrequently turns into five to six hours.  I expect this sounds quite like a lot of your days. 
Today I paid bills, my least enjoyable chore, I know, yours too. Also did some of those normal house hold chores, dishes and some laundry. 
Of coarse there was some friendly blog visiting, I really spend way too much time at that.  I just cannot help myself.  And:

Organizing some projects in their very own containers.

 Forgot to crop the above picture.  You can see that there is more that needs picked up and put away.
And:

A little sewing.  Some Christmas presents started.

 That is it friends.  A day in my life minus some nutrition and phone calls from daughters and of course a couple conversations with the hubs thrown in here and there.  Nothing earth shattering, just my normal day.
Wishing you many blessings!

Sunday Praise

Have a blessed Sunday!

Not a Chicken

A couple of days ago I was looking out the front window and saw a bird that looked quite like a chicken.  It was about half the size of my hens and  was a color that I did not have, so I thought we had a rogue chicken in our yard.  Decided to go get the binoculars, because even with my glasses on I cannot see any distance, and found it was not a chicken at all.

 The description starts "A brown chicken-like bird".  This is the first Ruffed Grouse we have seen on our property even though they live in deep woods and we are surrounded by woods.  We have a Birds of Michigan Field Guide that we write down where and the date we see a bird on our land.  There is a spot in the back to place a check by the name but hubs and I wanted something more to remember where and when we saw it. 

It is really surprising that some birds that are listed as popular in our area we have only spotted once.  Our oldest grandson is visiting this weekend.  He is working on a list of chores to earn money for a parrot  that he wants to buy.  He needs to save quite a bit and has blisters on his hands from raking neighbors lawns in his neighborhood.  What a trooper. 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend and many blessings from our home in the woods.

A Very Pretty Gift

A couple of weeks ago my Mom-in-Love gave me a piece of furniture that she really could not find a spot for.  She finds wonderful pieces of furniture at consignment and antique shops and had too many pieces in her home.  So she asked me if I would want this piece.  Oh yeah!

This piece has pretty fall coloring to it.  I am hoping for some input on how I should dress this piece.  Do I leave it as is?  I have my favorite print above it right now.

Another problem I have is that the print is hanging to high over the table.  I had a taller table sitting under it before and I do not have any of this paint nor do I know what color the paint is because it was on the walls when we moved in.  I plan on painting this room in the next few months but I am helping a daughter paint some rooms in her house right now so I am not ready to paint quite yet.  Do I just move the print down and ignore any marks that might be left behind or do I put something tall on the table?  Or does the print not work with the chest?  I have to admit I have never been so stumped on how to use a piece of furniture.

What would you sit on a chest with a painted top like this?   I normally would fill something like this with framed pictures and a candle or some sort of decorative piece.  I would love a little advice if anyone would be willing to give it.  Have a wonderful weekend.

 

Blessing to all from our home in the woods.

A is for Afghan Number Six

I have decided to join in a weekly party over at Jenny Matlock's.  It is called Alphabe- Thursday and each week you link up a post with a subject that starts with the current weeks letter.  I have not played the last couple of rounds because I was having a tough time thinking of something each week to share.  This time I have decided to go with a theme.  Hubs and I are usually busy working on one or more projects so I am going to share a project that is in process or a project that one of us has just finished.  This may actually get me moving a little quicker on a couple of unfinished projects. 
This week I am sharing the start of the sixth afghan I have made this year, one for each of the grands birthdays.  This one is for one of the boys.

I started a different pattern with these same yarns last week and did not like how it was turning out.  So I tore it out and decided to make another Navajo afghan like I made for one of the older boys.

Last April for brother number two.

The color scheme is different and I still need to get one more color of yarn so I can continue.  I hope you will go check out the Alphabe-Thursday party and maybe even join in because this is week one.



I also wanted to mention tonight that you will probably be seeing a lot more of me this month.  November is National Blog Posting Month and I signed up with NaBloPoMo to post every day of the month. 

The weekend is just around the corner!  Blessings to all from our home in the woods.

Birthday Party

This past weekend we celebrated our youngest granddaughters 5th birthday at her home.  Picture taking was difficult.  Their house is small and it was packed so I will just show you a couple.

Granddaughter and cousin, one of my grandsons.

Just got a real camera.  She takes wonderful photos, wondering if that will be her profession.  Older sister is behind her.

The afghan I made her.

 I showed you the afghan on this previous post.  Granddaughter number two really did like it but she was having trouble keeping her eyes off the toys she received.  Most of the children at the party had just gotten back from a day of Boo at the Zoo.  They were getting tired and so were their parents.  Hubs and I opted out  of the zoo trip since it is close to an hour drive to my daughters home for us. Our granddaughter's birthday is actually on Halloween.  Have a great evening.  Blessings from our home in the woods!

Hen House Hop

Deborah Jean is having the first annual Hen House Hop over at Dandelion House and I am joining in. 

I am giving you fair warning this is going to be a long post.  I could not decide what to leave out.  We have been asked to give our story of how we started keeping chickens, show our hen house and share pictures of our feathered ladies.  When we sold our home in the city and moved to our house here in the woods I told hubs  I would like to  keep chickens.  We lived here a couple years before we were able to build a hen house.  Hubs did the research and designed it and built it himself.   It was built, painted and ready late fall of 2009.  I ordered my first chicks spring of 2010.

Day One Spring of 2010

I started out with 15, lost one and gave my daughter 2 to add to her flock.  We had 12 for a full year, lost 1 to a fox and 1 died from unknown reasons.  When I cleaned out the hen house last week I took some pictures to share today.

Door to egg boxes.

I grow planters of flowers on this shelf during the summer months.

 

The run off the back of the hen house.

Inside the run.

 Would you like to see the inside of the hen house?  There is nothing fancy, I have not added any frills although I think about it when I see some of your hen house decor.

Loft and egg boxes.

The ladies roost on the right side.

Food storage in the corner as you come in the door.

I named about half of my hens after mine and hubs deceased grandmothers and the rest took a little time to come up with but they all have a name. 

Esther, Black Jersey Giant

Florence Barred Rock

Garnet is a Welsummer

 

I have three Buff Orpinton's, the one above is Sweet Mary.

Helen still looks a little ruff from the fox attach.

This is Ethel, she is very loud and runs for me each time I come out of the house.

 There was another red Welsummer named Lucy but she disappeared after the fox attach.  Most of my hens were very friendly and liked me to pick them up until this past spring.  Quite a few of them were missing feathers and we thought we had mites in the hen house.  We went through quite a few dusting's and other treatments and now they do not want me to pick them up so much.  When it was all said and done, I bought a flock block for the hen house and they have all started growing their feathers back.  Seems I have one or more bored bullies in the house.

Millie and Tillie, Gold Laced Wyandottes.  Tillie was almost bare from lack of feathers a month ago.

Dottie, Ameraucana and you have met Esther.

Lou, Ameraucana #2 and Florence

After the fox attack this past spring we do not let the girls out for the complete day.  But later in the afternoon if the weather is nice, the fox shows up on overcast days, they get out to scratch around the yard for a 2-3 hours.

They really like to scratch in the leaves that boarder the woods that surrounds our yard.

 When we had the full dozen healthy and happy we got beautiful eggs like this daily.

All the hens are getting their feathers back and starting to look their beautiful selves again. The above pictures of the chickens were taken last week  We are only getting around 3 eggs a day right now because of the daylight shortening.  Last year we had lighting on a timer but this year I am going to let them rest in hopes of some larger egg production in the spring.  I hope you enjoyed the hen house tour.  Thank you for stopping by and hop on over to Deborah Jean's Dandelion House to check out the other hen house's that are joining the hop.  Blessings to you  from our home in the woods!

Sunday Praise

Have a glorious Sunday!




Blessings from our home in the woods.