Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Dominion Auto Group - Holiday Commercial
Enjoy Flake and a few of her "tricky" friends, as they prepare for the holiday season. For those of you who don't know Flake well, she is the one who looks "sad" when asked what she wants for Christmas, and also the smiling dog in the back of the toboggan. Many thanks to Ted Linhart and Dominion Auto Group for their generous support of the Richmond SPCA!! And thank you to all of the other dogs (Stewie, Daisy Jane, Rocky, Kandi Ann, Bernard, Lucy and Buddy) and their handlers, who made this series of commercials possible. Watch for several more versions to air before year end.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Chicken Little Update
Miss Chicken Little is moving up in the world and I think she approves of all improvements so far. In the past week, she has requested a split level condominium and a weather resistant radio for her chicken enclosure --- and these were promptly installed. She made it very clear that she likes to roost high at night (requiring a bar on which to roost) and to nest slightly lower during the day (requiring a nesting box). Who knew? Actually, anyone who found the time to read a chicken book BEFORE getting a chicken would have known, but that (alas) was not me. Better late than never I suppose. The radio was my friend Jay's suggestion and I do believe she spends her time talking to the radio or at least singing along to chicken-approved songs.
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She continues to seem happy in this new location and is absolutely unflappable with my dogs. They are of course never inside her enclosure and she has yet to come out, but they can be right next to her enclosure, barking and playing, and she ignores them completely. She has actually pecked three of the dogs square on the nose when they tried to poke their noses through the wire mesh. Silly dogs. None of them will do THAT again. :-)
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Her appetite is still good and she is SO enthusiastic about new food items. It is much fun to surprise her each morning with something different and watch her gobble it up. So far, shredded cheese and almond slices appear to be her absolute favorites.
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Chicken Little's First Egg
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Chicken Little
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Fast Asleep --- First Night on the Farm
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Please welcome Chicken Little, who came to live at my farm yesterday. She was previously living at large in an urban neighborhood without a roost to call her own. Here's hoping she likes her new digs. She seems to have settled in quickly --- and has demonstrated a healthy appetite and some clear preferences with regard to food items. Thus far, her grading scale appears to be as follows: chicken feed (B), product 19 cereal (B+), spinach leaves (A) and cheese (A+) --- all eaten directly from my hand, which I think is a good start. She also has a wonderful range of chirps and clucks that sound pretty happy to me. I have been told she is a Rhode Island Red hen, although I have no idea how old she might be.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Visiting the Jefferson
Wow. Big and Beautiful. Those are words to describe the holiday decorations at the Jefferson Hotel. Candy house is one of the best I have ever seen --- and I believe the (spectacular) tree will be up until the first week in January. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the Richmond area!!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Still Feeding Birds
One of my favorite parts of life on the farm is the amazing variety of birds I can (and will) see on any given day --- and often right outside of my kitchen window. Before moving away from Church Hill, I honestly never realized how many different kinds of birds there were in this area, nor did I realize how colorful the birds might be. I was a bit spoiled living in the metal building apartment (in the back part of the farm) for my first two years out here, at least in terms of bird-watching abilities. The bird feeders there were only about 8 feet from the apartment and I could use a telephoto lens from just inside the bathroom window very easily and get great images. Visit http://sarahsbirdreport.blogspot.com/ for a bird inventory I did a few years back.
The new house does not (yet) have a great location for doing that kind of photography, although I an determined to find or create one soon. I did recently get a see-through birdfeeder for the window of my laundry room (see above), but the window is very close to the heat pump and A/C unit, so only the bravest of birds seem to have found their way there. Alternating between sunflower seeds and safflower seeds has helped --- and appears to to be getting a strong vote of approval from all my visitors.
For those who asked for details, I keep two feeders on my deck and they are filled most of the time with either sunflower or safflower seeds, plus one hummingbird feeder. There are additional feeders along the perimeter fences, but I don't worry about keeping them filled as often. I have one squirrel who visits on occasion, but not so often as to be a pest. After NOT seeing one single squirrel on the property for the first 4 years I was here, I still get a kick watching his antics.
The new house does not (yet) have a great location for doing that kind of photography, although I an determined to find or create one soon. I did recently get a see-through birdfeeder for the window of my laundry room (see above), but the window is very close to the heat pump and A/C unit, so only the bravest of birds seem to have found their way there. Alternating between sunflower seeds and safflower seeds has helped --- and appears to to be getting a strong vote of approval from all my visitors.
For those who asked for details, I keep two feeders on my deck and they are filled most of the time with either sunflower or safflower seeds, plus one hummingbird feeder. There are additional feeders along the perimeter fences, but I don't worry about keeping them filled as often. I have one squirrel who visits on occasion, but not so often as to be a pest. After NOT seeing one single squirrel on the property for the first 4 years I was here, I still get a kick watching his antics.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Thor Turns 14!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Happy Halloween.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Kelsey's Box House
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Pool Deck
Big weekend of projects around here. One of the most significant accomplishments of the past week was that I finally got the filter and salt treatment system working on my tiny backyard pool. Thank you Ed and Jay for making this happen!! My pool is 12' in diameter and came from Wal-Mart about two years back. It has never gotten much use though, because of (a) the no-filter-no-salt problem and (b) the no-easy-way-to-get-dogs-in-and-out problem. So, with the filter now in place and working perfectly, I decided to tackle the second problem immediately and build a "pool deck" for my dogs. Found old plastic shelving in my shed and bought additional (new) shelving at Lowe's. Used my hacksaw to adjust leg heights as needed. Bought a few rubber door mats and secured them to shelving with zip ties. More zip ties were used to attach shelving to the pool frame and a few cinder block pieces were used to provide weight on the bottom shelf. You can see the results here, but I can report that the new deck worked exactly as hoped and all dogs seemed able to get up and into the pool and then (more importantly) out again. Only two of my dogs (Flake and Pilot) are showing much enthusiasm for the water at this point, but I am hopeful that the others will come around. Canine swimming lessons and water aerobics start this week. :-)
Oops.
Oh dear. Slacking off again in the blogging department. Where has the year gone?? Has it really been months (??) since I last updated this blog? Will once again renew my commitment to posting here with regularity and see if I can do better in the days ahead. Plenty going on and plenty more planned, so I shouldn't have trouble finding things to report.
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Metal Building
Metal building renovation project started with a new staircase, so that I could access all of the nice storage in the loft area. Previous access via a leaning ladder was never a good/safe option, with the result being that I didn't go up there much. Also ended up adding a railing along the edges of the loft for more safety, which can be seen in the pictures below --- and all of the above was eventually painted.
Followed with massive cleaning and decluttering and organizing. This is the load that went to the dump and a similar (slightly smaller) load went to the Salvation Army. Less is more, right?
Here is the area post-cleaning.
Hooray --- another BIG project completed!! The large metal building (quonset hut) on my property had become more of a large storage unit than anything else in recent years. I don't have any pictures of the total mess that it was, but you can probably imagine lots of piles and containers of stuff with very little rhyme or reason to what went where. I have always wanted to be able to use the building for other purposes (training my dogs, entertaining, etc), so a major cleanup and cleanout was in order. Happy to report that it was less painful than I feared and the results make me much happier than I could have anticipated. Thank you to Joanne and Tray and Dustin for all of their help with this project!! I couldn't have done it without you.
Here is the area post-cleaning.
And here it is with the spiffy new cushioned floor for dog training and everything else. For those who might wonder, these are just foam squares that interlock like puzzle pieces, which I purchased at Sam's Club --- and I put down the whole floor myself in about 90 minutes.
Hooray --- another BIG project completed!! The large metal building (quonset hut) on my property had become more of a large storage unit than anything else in recent years. I don't have any pictures of the total mess that it was, but you can probably imagine lots of piles and containers of stuff with very little rhyme or reason to what went where. I have always wanted to be able to use the building for other purposes (training my dogs, entertaining, etc), so a major cleanup and cleanout was in order. Happy to report that it was less painful than I feared and the results make me much happier than I could have anticipated. Thank you to Joanne and Tray and Dustin for all of their help with this project!! I couldn't have done it without you.
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Sunday, January 30, 2011
Pump House
that have served that purpose for the past decade or more)
and gray deck paint on the floor
More actual progress to report this week! The Pump House (or "Shack") is a small building behind the main farm house that used to feature really dirty indoor carpeting (and under that an uneven floor) and holes in the walls and gaps up near where the walls met the ceiling. Decided to transform it into a dedicated storage building with some much needed repairs and a coat or two of fresh paint. Ta da. Mission accomplished. It looks SO much better and is already neatly storing tons of stuff on very organized shelves. Thank you Tommy and Charles and Richard and Tray and Dustin and Joanne for all of your help! Hooray --- crossing another project off the long TO DO list.
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