Finishing the closet floor.

It has taken a long time for the mud floor to dry. Even though it has not rained, the moisture in the air is enough to slow the drying process. We poured the floor on May 3 and it is July 29th , 3 months before the floor was dry enough to put the sealer on.

I first filled in the cracks with more of the mud mixture and let that dry for a week or so then I did it again after the cracks shrank again. I then sanded the floor where I filled the cracks to make sure the floor was as level as possible.

The sealer mix is linseed oil mixed with turpentine to help it penetrate the clay. I put about 5 coats on the floor and let it dry well in between each coat.

Chicken Coop Continued....

The coop is painted and we are starting on the varmint proof yard measuring 18 feet, the width of the coop ,by 24 feet long. We planned the yard to be in increments of 6 ft. That is how far apart the posts will be to give the best strength for the chicken wire that will be stretched between them. We put posts down the middle of the coop as well.

The chickens and Ginnie hens were busting out of the brooder box at 6 weeks of age, so we finished up the coop as fast as we could and put them in the main building before the yard was done. We had them in a larger wire cage when we put them in the
coop and it took them a few days to venture out into the room. We ordered the chicks in the beginning of May and got them at 3 days old on June 1st. We ordered 12 Guienies and 12 Australop (the black ones) chickens, 2 of which were roosters and a month later we got 8 Aracana chickens.
Oh, and I almost forgot, our neighbors gave us some pigeons. Richard raised pigeons along time ago and has wanted to have them again, so we also have the pigeons in the coop as well.
Then another neighbor gave us a Peacock, it too was a baby, about the same age as our chicks. She is the one sitting on the box looking at all the
others wondering why they don't have a tasle on their heads! .

Garden bounty , wild flowers and It happened again...

These watermelons are from the garden along with squashes , tomatoes, beans, cucumber and bell peppers. So I decided to can some of it. The vegetables need to be canned under 10 to 15 pounds of pressure in order to kill all the bacteria that can kill a person if the vegetables are not canned this way. My canner will process 7 quarts , I have found this to be a manageable amount to process at one time.












The sky rockets are in full bloom, they always amaze me!!! Each year we collect the seeds and throw them out in the early spring, we got these seeds from the side of a road that had thousands of them.





On the fourth of July, just after I got back from a trip to Oregon, I was in the Chicken coop and turned , starting to walk out of the grain room and tripped on the door threshold falling HARD against the opposite door . I was in a lot of pain and my shoulder was bulging out. I could not move my arm , it was locked into a weird position. I knew it was dislocated and was hoping I could somehow with Richards help put it back into position, but it just hurt too much and I could not relax it at all. So we headed to the emergency room after calling around to see how much it might cost. I was told about $500.00 . That is a lot of money for us
at the moment but I didn't have a choice.
When we got there I was the only patient around, so I went right into the treatment room. I received an X-ray and lay there a while until a nurse gave me an IV of what they call a "conscious sedation" WOW I was in LA LA land because I do not take any drugs or even drink coffee so I was WAY OUT THERE!!! AND SOOOOOOOOOO RELAXED!
After a while the Doctor came in, had someone hold me from the top and he pulled on my arm slowly and firmly and my joint popped back into place in a second because I was so relaxed and had no resistance to do other wise. It felt so much better , what a difference! They told me to come back in two weeks to make sure I was healing, but I went to my acupuncturist and he helped me out more than anything.

I am being very careful, holding my arm close to my waist until it feels strong enough to start exercising it to get back my strength. This last picture was taken the middle of June, it was the only one I had showing my pick of the day, but the first picture of me in the kitchen was on the 8th of July, you can see the strap of the arm brace if you look close.