Getting an Early Start
It was a matter of course that the lucky one whose holiday (birthday) came around could expect a present from everyone in the house; and of course, one didn’t just go to the store and buy with cold money something turned out by a factory with no relationship at all to the young sister or brother. A loving heart and gifted fingers can produce a wonderful of little miracles.
Maria Augusta Trapp from The Story of the Trapp Family Singers
While reading through this book (which is fantastic by the way, if you’re looking for great winter reading material add this to the list), I came across so many wonderful little quotes like this one. So true that the best gifts we will likely receive this year are those made with a loving heart and gifted fingers! Like these lovely stepping stones my nieces & nephew made for me.
We like to celebrate a homemade Christmas with my family, which means it’s time to start thinking about getting to work. I have a few great ideas, which I can’t share here since my family does read the blog, I’d hate to spoil the fun. We have a lot of options including home roasted coffee, what coffee drinker wouldn’t want that?
I’d like to encourage you to think about making a few gifts this year. You’ll save some cash and no doubt they will be greatly appreciated.
Do you make any gifts? What’s the best handmade gift you’ve ever received?
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Friday Unfavorite: Feet
I must admit, I have an aversion to feet. Not my own feet, I don’t mind them. Other people’s feet however kinda make me cringe. Not all the time, just if they get too close to me. If Mr Chiots’s feet accidentally tough me it sends a shiver up my spine.
It’s not that feet gross me out or anything, I simply do not like them. It’s even more strange since I’m a barefoot kind of person.
Do you have any aversions like this?
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The New Digs
Yesterday, Jaye asked about how all the other cats were doing and I realized I’d only talked about Dexter (he is my favorite after all *ssshhh* don’t tell the others). Samson & Soafie, our two indoor cats have adjusted well. They did their share of exploring in when we first arrived, now that it’s home, they’re back to sleeping all the time.
The Sweets, our little feral cat, is also adjusting well. We kept her in the house for a week with us, though she is not an indoor cat and does not have indoor cat manners. She’s very sweet, but she’s still feral and prefers being outside. We moved her up into the garage and kept it closed for a few days and even left Dexter up there with her.
She now seems to be fully acclimated to hew new larger digs. At first she was leery of coming outside, but she’d follow Dexter on occasion. She’s obviosly back to her feral self as she’s got her little stash of various trophies in a corner of the garage. Looks like no mouse will survive if they enter into the garage or the area around it. No doubt she’ll do just fine.
She’s a very smart little cat and seems to have a good grasp of how to survive in the wild. If you’ve never heard her story, read “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, it’s quite amazing. We’re thankful everyone adjusted nicely without too much trouble. All the cats seem back to their normal selves, I guess the same could likely be said for Mr & Mrs Chiots too. After a month, we feel like we’re finally settling into a routine.
How long does it usually take you to adjust to new situations?
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The Hot Box
Nothing makes a tough outdoor cat go soft and want to spend his days inside like a fire in the wood stove. We decided that the cats call it “the hot box”. Some mornings Dexter will even come in and look at it like he wishes it was on.
We’ve had a couple chilly mornings here, the house was down into the 50’s, so we lit a fire in the stove to warm it up a bit. It’s so cozy to stand by it drinking a cup of coffee. Dexter is loving it as well, if there’s a fire he’s in front of it until it cools down. No doubt, he won’t be much of an outdoor cat this winter.
We’re looking forward to heating with wood, something we were in the process of implementing at our house in Ohio until we decided to move. One of these days I’ll do post on the big wood fired furnace in the basement that will also heat our water in the dead of winter.
Do you, or have you every enjoyed warming up by the fire on a chilly morning?
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Small Changes
Way back before I even had chickens, I started reading about them. Of particular interest to me, was the deep litter system. Sadly, I cannot implement this type of system in the coop, it has a wooden floor which prevents it. I can however implement a deep litter system in the run.
I’m in the process of doing this. When we arrived the run was one giant mud puddle. As I’ve been working in the garden, all the weeds have been going into the run, along with other dry material. The results are quite remarkable and the chickens are loving it.
The chickens were also happy to roam freely about the garden yesterday afternoon. I’ve been keeping them in their run to keep them out of the potager since I planted seeds. I finally collected enough little bits of fencing from other areas to put around the edible garden. Now my little seedlings will be protected. Eventually, a permanent fence around the potager would be nice.
Another thing I want to work on is growing more food for the chickens. For the same reason I like to grow the food we eat, I just like to know exactly what’s going into it. I won’t be able to do much until next spring, but I did start some flats of wheat grass for them. I plan on doing this throughout the winter to give them something green to eat.
Hopefully in a few years we’ll have a new coop with a dirt floor, a fence around the potager and we’ll be growing more food for the chickens. Until then, I’ll work with what I have and implement small changes here and there when I can.
Are you implementing any small changes in your garden with hopes of bigger changes down the line?
