Hip, Hip, Hooray

The deck stain for the front porch dries to touch in 1 hour at 50% relative humidity. It is a bit more than that here so it probably took a couple of hours, but many hours before last night’s much needed rain. Not enough rain, but some. Today’s rain chances dissipated, Sherman Williams is open for 6 hours on Sunday, and the stain was on sale, $16 off the gallon price, so a nice sale.

Because the older cans were totally unusable, though they were very old. We used a bit more than half a gallon yesterday doing the rails, balusters, and kickboards, so about a half gallon left to work on the floor, so we only bought one more gallon today. After lunch, I donned my painting outfit and got on my hands and knees to brush the stain on the floor. The boards are 4″ wide and I was using a 4″ brush doing 3 boards at a pass. It took about 9 boards before my knees screamed and I sat, scooting back and forth across the 8 ‘ depth of the porch, moving backwards, every 3 boards. When I got to the post that marks the east opening of the rail, I shifted to the west end to work back toward the middle. As I ran out of the first can, my knees said no and scooting was inefficient and I remembered a square oak plant rolling stand tucked away under the hutch. It was perfect to sit on and push myself back and forth. It took about an hour and a half to get the floor done with a coat and it had to wait 4 hours before it could be recoated. The only areas that really needed two coats were the 15 boards that mark the porch exit and the 3 boards on the west end of the porch that gets full west sun year round. We had put a coat on those boards yesterday while doing the other work, so they got their second coat. After dinner, the heavy traffic entry area got a second coat.

This presents a bit of problem as the dogs are used to coming and going through that door. The German Shepherd will go out the back door and down the deck steps or through the utility area and the garage if coaxed. The Mastiff will not do the open backed deck steps and he has been scolded so many times for going in the garage, he resists going through there even on a leash. A leash and a sliver of the chicken we were having for dinner and two adults managed to get him back inside. The dogs will have to take that route at least tonight and tomorrow morning before I am willing to remove the barricade that prevented them from coming up on the freshly stained floor. By Tuesday, I should be able to brush down the porch furniture and put it back in place, move the houseplants back to finish summering out there, and rehang the two hanging spider plants. I’m glad that job is done. The coop is remaining, but there are expected midweek showers, so it may not get done this week, unless it happens tomorrow.

My conclusion is that knees and backs with more than 7 decades on them don’t like this kind of work.

Almost there, but not quite

Up too early for a Saturday morning, but the young one had to be at Basketball Camp at 8:45 a.m. and it is a bout an hour drive over if there is no traffic, no accidents on the interstate, and they aren’t actively working on the expansion and sound barriers that involve the last 15 or 20 miles of the trip. Before we left, I had to make his lunch, pack a cooler with enough drinks and ice to last him til 5 p.m., get the 16 year old out of bed (no small feat in itself), gather laundry for a load, fix him breakfast that he could eat in the car. We made it and got back to the Farmer’s Market only a bit later than usual for a Saturday and yet many of the goodies I wanted were already sold out. Oh well, there will be another day.

On our way home from the market, we stopped to get a few more paint brushes that hadn’t been in the oil based stain so we could start on the front porch rails, balusters, kickboards, and floor that still needed to be done with the latex stain. We don’t want to wait too long as it was freshly washed Thursday evening.

Hubby and I got it all done except for the floor. He had to quit to go pick up the camper and when I opened the two old cans of stain, one was so separated it couldn’t be remixed even with the paint stirrer on the power drill. The other can that had never been opened except to tint it had sat too long (several years) and it was the consistency of set up pudding. We had one new can and used slightly more than half of it, so there certainly wasn’t enough to do the whole floor. We have thunderstorms, much needed, predicted for tomorrow, so I guess we will go get more stain on Monday and try to finish the job. What we got done looks good and the floor should be easier because it is flat and we don’t have to worry about drips or getting latex stain on the parts that were oil based stained. I’m hoping that by Monday or Tuesday, the staining on the house will be done for this summer. Still have the coop to go, but I will get my tall 16 year old helper to assist on that.

I will be glad when it is done and this furniture put back on the porch.

The pullets have been allowed to free range for the past few days. At first, they stayed very near their coop and pen. Today they have ventured over toward the house, especially if they see me come outside to set sprinklers on the flower bed and vegetable garden. I don’t want them to get as comfortable around the flower garden as the old hens did. I don’t need 13 of them digging up the bed. They are a prolific lot. I have gotten at least 8 or 9 eggs from them every day this week. That’s a lot of eggs, but there are folks that appreciate them.

Here is a basketful, but not all of this week’s as a dozen and a half went to daughter’s house, there are a dozen in a wire basket, we have eaten nearly a dozen this week. The spindle and ball of wool were added to the basket for the last day of July spinning challenge. We had to put our spindle with something that was too many to count. I did this, then also did seashells, because there are too many of them to count. And here are gals that provided them right after they were lured in from free ranging this evening. They still aren’t real good at that skill.

One more day of travel to and from camp and then some other chores can be done.

Freezer Camp

Yesterday afternoon, Son 1 and Grandson 1 arrived. Son 1 only to stay one night, but get a lot done. We had rented a 3000 psi power washer and he scoured the front porch floor and railing. They will be repainted with the latex stain this week to finish the summer maintenance on the house. The coop still needs to be stained and I will enlist the aid of Grandson 1 who will be staying with us for about two more weeks, going to Basketball camp this weekend, then here for fun and work. He and hubby returned the washer, purchased the Gatorade that I forgot yesterday, but he will need at camp, bought an ethernet cable so Grandson 1’s computer which does not have WIFI can be used to continue with what he learned at Coding and Gaming residential camps while he was back home for a few weeks.

While they were out running errands, Son 1 and I set up a makeshift processing station. We had designed the perfect one a few years ago, but it requires a unit of scaffolding and a walkboard and we have loaned all of ours out to a friend trying to get siding and guttering on a house they are building.

All 8 of the old hens and the two young roosters were slated for freezer camp today. I went to the Palace to grab the first one and in the flutter, they got the door open and one of the roosters escaped into the yard. I have never seen a chicken run so fast or so far. He took off across the east field and almost crossed into the next farm. After the other 8 were done, Son 1 and I decided to see if we could get him. He would run up into the rock piles, over into the woods with a 41 year old man and a 73 year old woman running after him. Finally laughing, we decided our chase was silly and we needed lunch, so we broke down the makeshift processing station and were hosing down the grill we use to heat the dunking pot on the side burner, tying up the bag of feathers and stuff, hosing down the area we used when Roo 2 crowed. With my hearing impairment and hearing aid, I have difficulty with sound direction and was headed down to see if he can gone into the Palace looking for his ladies when Son spotted him under the pullet’s coop inside the fenced and covered run. We quickly closed the gate, grabbed the big fishing/butterfly net used as a last ditch means of catching the last few and with me holding the one area that a panicked chicken can flutter between the fence and top, he caught Roo 2. If he had waited one more minute to show himself, he would have lived another two weeks until Son 1 returned. Instead, we worked together without our station to get him processed and in the freezer. As we were working, we realized that one of the hens was polydactile.

She had the normal 3 front toes, but had two back toes, quite odd. In the past week, those 8 hens produced on 12 eggs total and ate 15 pounds of food, not economical.

Last night I finished putting twenty of my squares together for the breed blanket. There are enough to do more, but I have to evaluate what fibers I have left, what colors they are to get the pattern for the last rounds. The next row will go down the right side in the photo.

There are still two dyed squares and several gray and white squares remaining already spun, plyed, and knitted. I may use them randomly.

Early in the week, I was able to purchase another Jenkins spindle in their newest design and size. It is so much larger than my others that it will take some getting used to and will probably be used for plying only. It is a pretty spindle.

I tired from the morning’s efforts, need a shower and clothes change so we can drive to the “big city” as folks here call Roanoke to take Grandson 1 to his introductory evening of camp.