Just Another Busy Weekend Day

Since we now have a chicken laying eggs regularly, we decided that the back of the nest box ought to be, you know, attached somehow (Liza has knocked it off and ended up in the shed already, which is just confusing for her). So this morning Noel went off to the hardware store and got some hinges, cupboard latches, and a handle. And look at that.

And here's the view inside. My own morning project is visible there: a pair of privacy curtains for the box.

See, there was this piece of paper in the box that I was using to block the light from the gap in the back cover. Liza pulled it free and was sitting with the paper over her head, presumably to get a little privacy for her laying. So I made her a pair of curtains.

The dog fabric was just some extra stuff I had around. I also had cats, but I thought the chickens might prefer the dogs. I basically made two hemmed pieces and stapled them in place, so when the girls want to redecorate, they're easy to replace.

Joan was not sure what to make of the curtains, but Carole went in and hung out for quite a while (they're practising for when they start laying).

Well, with that out of the way, I went inside and prepped the pantry (which is to say, put away a bunch of tools), then taped it:

And mudded:

I discovered when I was mudding the parlours that it works best for me to do the non-corner mudding first, let it dry solid, then do the corners. Just in terms of not having to rework the mud all the time. I also do thinner layers and more of them, which professionals would never do because it takes so much longer. I find it easier to do that way, and time is not a huge issue on this project.

I also find that using lightweight drywall mud works much better than regular weight: it's a lot easier to sand and it is faster to dry, or so it seems to me.

I got around the pantry pretty fast, and tomorrow I will do the corners. I find that the corners are what makes it feel really solid and room-like for me. Then we have some sanding, and another coat of mud, and more sanding.

When I'd finished the pantry, I went out to do some weeding. I signed up to be on the Bay-friendly gardens tour, and they called to ask to see the garden. So of course it happens to look really bad right now, with piles of stuff from making the shed and waves of weeds in the roses, and tomatoes totally out of control, and I think I lost a large planter under a branch of the nectarine, and so on. It's really kind of chaotic right now. So I took the mower, the loppers, and my little wagon and went out front to rip out wagonloads of Bermuda grass from under and inside the roses, and to do some much-needed summer pruning (in this climate we prune roses twice a year, or we have eight-foot rose bushes).

The chickens appreciated my work. I brought them piles of weeds to peck at and eat through, and lots of fresh snails to eat. The crazy thing is that I hardly made a dent in the Bermuda grass. That stuff is phenomenal: too bad it kills every plant it encounters. Time to get a backpack sprayer and deal it a heavy blow with herbicide; my weeding only seems to rejuvenate it.

Technorati Tags: bermuda grass, chickens, garden tour, gardening, grass removal, plaster, renovations

posted by ayse on 08/09/08