Saturday, May 19, 2012

Versailles Garden,Peace in the coop, upcycled furniture

Just an update: Jimmy's Versailles Garden is almost done... and for the most part I have stayed out of it.  He hand terraced two  14x5  rows.  I did  build the foundations for the boxes for him.  I'm not much of a carpenter but, the last five years of backyard farming has taught me how to build a box.  You would be surprised at how handy  knowing enough carpentry to build a box can be.  We  had five yards of planting soil  delivered  a couple of days ago  and we are ready to fill the boxes this weekend.  We will be buying our starts this year but that's OK.  What it took us 5 years to build up too in the old place we will have built in 3 months here. And we have the aches and pains to show it. But enough whining.  The 7 new  chickens are thriving.  The three old girls are grudgingly accepting them.  One of the ancient reds has made it her sole intention to torment them.  Hester has the situation in hand though. Reluctantly as usual.  She doesn't want to be a leader but knows that she is the only one with the brains and strength to handle the job. A few days ago I was throwing out feed for all of them  right before bedtime.  The ancient red was chasing the little ones around and stealing their food.  Hester was casually enjoy her bedtime snack and  suddenly , without warning, pounced on the ancient red, pecked her once the neck, stared her in the eye for a few seconds and then got off of  her and went back to snacking.  The ancient red slowly  stood up  gave what could only be an "i'll get you later" look to the little ones and then quietly followed Hester around  snacking.  Hester definitely told the ancient red "leave the kids alone... I'm tired of the noise and I want to eat in peace."  Poor Hester.... She's so.... Audie Murphy  in 'to hell and back'. 
Jimmy and I have been looking for  furniture for  our 'veranda'.  What is out there for out door furniture is  butt ugly.  I don't care that it is all marketed as designer...  the crap is hard to look at.  The lines are harsh and most of it is (yecchhh ) battleship grey.  It may be 'designer'  but it has no grace.   After  a few trips to brick and mortars and a lot of looking online, I decided on a completely different route.  I  have a couple of  metal  ,wrought  iron looking, chairs  that I bought at goodwill  6 years ago (cuz we needed them for when company  came over) that I took apart and painted with  tractor paint yesterday. I also painted the  graffiti tagged table that Feral Jane and I found in a back alley  in the U-district (I have been using it in the studio).  All were pieces of junk nobody else wanted.   I used oil based  farm and tractor paint on them.  I left them to dry on the veranda and this morning they look amazing.  They need one more coat of paint and I will have a   bistro set worthy of any  sidewalk cafe.  The grand total   for the lovely  patio furniture ? $20 ....  for  paint and  stay-dry vinyl  to recover the seats. The color? White.  Shiny snow white.  ....and so... She is pleased.

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