SOTS (State of The Station) Update

I suppose if we can have a State of the Union Address, the least I can do is sit down and update any one reading this about what all is going on around the Station.  Even though we are in the very heart of a Plains winter, things have not slowed down here.  Projects have been piling up, some are kind weather dependent, others can be planned, plotted, purchased, and even completed indoors, during the most wicked of weather.

Freyer vs the Snow - He plays the snow is lava.

As you remember, shortly before Christmas,  contractors were able to take full advantage of one not too horrible day, and managed to assemble the shed in the pasture. And then came the snow and the cold, the bitter cold, for weeks.  The camel colored blob stared back at me every time I looked out over the pasture, it's giant mouth agape.  We just had to have a nice day, or two, and get that beast painted.  Surely we would thaw a little bit in January?

As I poured daily over weather models, watching wave after wave of arctic air descend from the North or moisture laden air sweep from the Pacific Northwest.  I re-evaluated my list of projects to those that could be tackled inside.  The walls of the livestock barn needed built up and kick boards installed.  I could do that inside, unheated, but still inside.  I called up my local mom and pop lumberyard. While I waited for delivery, I decided to walk the orchard and do the winter clean up and pruning. Two hours later, I had a pile of plywood in the workshop driveway.  How's that for service?

Sadly, the driveway isn't where I was working.  All 22 sheets of plywood had to be dragged to the livestock barn before the next snow.  Sigh.  Did you know that a sheet of 3/4 inch ply weighs 70 pounds?  My flock of supervisors were of no help what-so-ever, but offered a number of suggestions.

A long, very long, extension cord from the workshop and a pair of saw horses, and a circular saw made quick work of the wall panels, and a portable power supply gave me the ability to run the drill with a screw bit to get the walls up.  Our cordless screwdriver just wasn't up to the task.  It took three full days, but the walls in the stall area are up.

The next day, which was a little warmer, coming in at 32 degrees, was filled to building the frames for the corral fence that are under the barn porches.  My fence guy wasn't comfortable doing it.  He just couldn't see what I was describing, so I said I would tackle it myself.  The second day of this project was still 32 degrees, but the wind was starting to howl.  The final boards went up and the confused birds in the corral couldn't figure out how to get back out and had to be shown the door.

The birds were lucky to get out for a few days and wander around, because the next day brought a blizzard.  What a mess.  It started just before sunrise but didn't really get going until morning.  Almost everything was closed. Every enforcement official was begging people to stay off the road, so naturally Doc's job was open for business.  He made it to the University, where classes were in full swing, but there was no way he was going to make it back home, uphill, down country roads, where snow plows weren't even risking going out.  Doc got to spend his night the dorm with The Boy (with full University permission.), which meant I got to plow snow all the next day and try to explain to the chickens why they couldn't come out to play.


The snow quickly melted away, and they contractors came (finally) to install the gutters on the livestock barn. While they worked outside, I worked inside on the lights.  Yes, lights. No, the livestock barn doesn't have power.  I found LED shop lights that put out an insane amount of light, can be hooked together in series, and run off the portable power supply! BOOM, let there be light.

The temperature was teasing me with warmer weather.  I wanted to paint the shed so badly, but the temperature just wasn't reaching the 50 degrees, without howling winds, that I prefer to paint in. But models suggested it was coming.  (But I've seen THAT before.)  I decided that the shed would have to wait, but the barn square that was going on it didn't need to, but for that, I needed a nice piece of 2x2foot plywood.  A trip to the Big Orange Box was necessary.  As long as I was there I decided to grab the paint for the shed.  It was there I noticed that the new paint only needed 35 degrees for 4 hours straight to cure!  Well that opened up a whole new world of possibilities!  But first the barn square.

A simple bold pattern using the colors already around the farm that can be easily seen from the road.  I tweaked a pattern that I saw on a small decorative cutting board in the Mennonite thrift shop and added a few touches of my own.

Temperatures continued to tease.  We were hitting 40 far too late in the day, so the next project was up to bat.  The kick boards in the barn.  Doc had to help me with this one.  Five 70 pound sheets of wood needed to get down to the pasture.  He helped me get them into position until I could get two support screws into them to hold them up.  When this was finished, I was left with finished walls 4 feet high and walls and studs above that.  I COULD just paint it all and call it a day, but the thought of painting all those exposed 2x4s was sickening.  For 5 sheets of half inch plywood and some elbow grease, I could have easy to paint walls.  And as long as I was ordering plywood for the rest of the shed, why not order the plywood for the rest of the inside of the livestock barn.  A quick cell phone call to Mom and Pop Lumber, and two hours later, another large stack of plywood.  But this time I was home and he drove right up to the barn to dump it.  I only had to pull it 10 feet to a dry interior.

This time my helpmate was at work, but I wasn't going to let a 35 degree morning, albeit windy, go to waste.  There was no way I was going to be able to control full sheets of plywood in 25mph winds, AND be able to lift them, hold them, and secure them 4 feet off the ground alone.  I decided to cut them as close to in half as the stud spacing would allow and take them down the hill in smaller pieces.  It took a ridiculous number of trips up and down the hill, and a silly amount of swearing, but the final pieces of wall were up by lunch.

Well by lunch it was 45 degrees and would stay at least that until hours after sundown.  Again I tromped up the hill and returned with my ladder, rollers, and can of bright Lapis Lazuli paint (think dark, bright chickory flower blue).  Each of the three coats was interrupted by me having to break up fights between Andy and Wookie, but eventually the interior was complete.

The next day started out warmer and was a designated shed painting day!  The textured, grooved wood proved to be a royal pain to paint and about an hour into the project of the day, my body was screaming from days of long hard work.  This day was the last in a while that I could paint, so I pushed through and kept painting.  The day allowed for three solid coats of storm paint in Dark Truffle brown.  The only downside was that I was unable to reach the top 12 inches of trim work on the downhill side. Being trim, I couldn't paint that area with the small roller.  Disheartened, I decided to mount the new quilt square and call it a day.  (I did call the neighbors on that side of the shed and apologize for the unfinished top, and assured them it would be painted as soon as we hit 40 degrees and either Doc was home to hold the taller ladder for me or my arms grew 6 inches, whichever came first.)

Three days later, Doc was indeed home, took the long ladder down the hill for me and held it until I could paint the tiny area that was still tan.  As long as he was being handy, I had him drag the ladder into the corral and hold it for me as I installed the screech owl house.  Yup that's right, a screech owl house.  Why not?

This amazing little house quickly became my project nemesis.  Hang a bird house, easy right?  Sure, 10 feet up.  No problem.  I have a ladder.  The post it goes on is on a slope, so just lean the flattened ladder on the hill against the post and hold onto it with one hand, lift the bird house up with another, hold the top hinge door open to access the screw holes with another, hold the bolts with another, and then simply grab the drill to secure it to the post.  What you don't have 5 hands?  Ya, me either.  Once your kid is out of pre-school, all those extra, invisible mommy hands magically disappear, unless you have more toddlers in the house.

I finally came up with a plan about 3am one day.  I would hang a large head roofing nail to the post.  Attach a sawtooth picture hanging bracket on the back of the owl house, and use long pieces of painter's tape to hold the top hinged door open to access the mounting holes.  With Doc holding the ladder, I hung the house on the nail, pre-drilled the holes for the bolts and mounted the house and tossed in handfuls of bedding.  PHEW.  We mounted a perch post and called it a day.


I still have plenty of projects lined up, but the light is on at the end of the tunnel.

The wood in the corral still needs painted, as do all the wood walls in the livestock barn.
I need to finished the wood walls in the non-stall area of the livestock barn.
Dirt and gravel needs added to the corral and shed area.
Sand and gravel needs added to the stall area.
The stall walls need (ordered) and assembled with a LOT of wood pieces.
Rubber floor mats need (ordered) and installed.
The electric fence needs installed, all 7 wires and the control box needs mounted.
The rain barrels need installed and their lids built and painted.
The chicken coop needs a fresh coat of paint as does the concrete on the house and the posts on the deck.
All the fun stuff for critters needs installed, stock tanks, tools, feeders, bins, etc.

As if my list wasn't long enough, I also decided that raised bed planters are the way to go.  Sure why not?


Chicken Update

OH, remember how I said Andy and Wookie were fighting?  Boy, oh Boy were they ever.  Wookie is about half again as large as Andy, big boy. He was in the spa for almost 3 weeks while he rested his twisted ankle from a hen chase down the hill.  Doc and I were headed into town and I decided to toss Wookie back in the coop before we left.  BAD IDEA.  He had been gone so long that he and Andy were no longer tolerant buddies (father and son).  A battle for the Alpha rooster happened
while we were gone.  When we returned, the run was splattered with blood and the coop looked like a scene from a horror film, a dark mass cowering under the nesting box.  I thought it was Wookie, daddy having put him in his place.  To my surprise, it was Andy.  His giant comb a target for an angry, hyper, hormonal child.  A week in the spa for Andy, but he would not return to the coop.  Even when free-ranging they steered clear of each other. So he lived in the workshop with Cirrus, who was molting.  This past week they noticed each other again.  One fight I broke up was so full on that Andy broke off a spur.  Wookie had to go.  He now lives on another acreage with two hens of his own.  I will miss Wookie, he was gorgeous, and sweet, snugly, and a good protector, but peace in the coop is important.  Andy is again king of the coop.

The Icelandics are crazy.  They all have their coop names now.  We have Freya, and Freyer, Delmar and Inar, and finally Ari and Astrid.  They all sleep outside in the run, even when the temperature drops to the -20's. Amazing.  They are fast, skittish, smart, and very inquisitive and vocal.

Top L to R Merriweather, Freya, Astrid, Freyer, Inar
Bottom Ari, Delmar

We Bought A Barn

Yep, that's right.  I finally worked up the courage to sign on the dotted line and order our barn.  GULP.  It should be delivered and built sometime in January, as the weather permits. 

We went with a Cleary Building that is 30x40 feet with two 8 foot long overhang porches on each long side.  (Not included in the footprint measurement.)  This will provide additional shelter and watershed for the windows and stable doors.  We chose antique bronze for the entire building, no trim colors, and a deep rust red for the roof.  From the street, the steel will look like old, deep brown wood panels, and the roof, like a rusted tin roof.  The windows will be white, as that is the only color they come in and I haven't decided what color to paint the doors for the humans.

Now that the contract was signed we had to make haste and get the pad built up.  As you remember, the garden was the only close to flat bit of land we had on this property.  With that completely stripped out, the pad builder could more easily see the slope of the land and gave us a quote.

With impending, possible horrible weather on the way, I called to let him know that sooner would be better to work on the lot.  Once my hill gets wet, it becomes a slip and slide.  Seeing as he would need to bring in 6 fully loaded trucks of earth, he agreed to come last week.  The lowest end looked like it was only 8 inches from the highest corner of the land, which we needed to match.  (We don't dig into the hill to build.  The water runoff would undermine the foundation and cause for a wet barn interior.)  After the landscaper began working and put his laser to work, it turned out the 8 inches was closer to 18 and the lot didn't slope in just ONE direction, but in TWO.  So 6 loads of earth turned into 15!

Three Days later, my wallet now much lighter, we have a flat area for our barn.  It will sit and wait patiently for the barn raising.  In the meantime, Mother Earth will snow, and rain, and settle the earth.  (Earth mover worked three days at 45')  The day after he finished we got 4 inches of snow.  The trucks never would have made it.

Meanwhile, to save a little of my sanity, I decided the new barn needed its own painting.  Not just a simple barn quilt square this time.  Nope.  As a nod to my Pennsylvania roots, this barn would have an Amish Hex sign on it.  Full of history and meanings, I spent several days designing and drawing the pattern out.  It would need to be much larger than the standard 24 inches to be seen from the road.  I decided on a 40 inch circle and pointed the fiberglass steed towards the local big box store for plywood.

I also picked up a quart of base paint.  Instead of using a traditional stark white, I went with a slightly tinted white which leaned towards almond.  With the barn being a deep dark brown, I felt true white would be too stark.  For the other colors, I already had several small jars from other projects.  I did pick up a botanical green, a deep red called No more Drama, and an orange called Inferno.

Back to the workshop where a nail, piece of string with a loop, and a pencil worked to draw out a circle for the jigsaw.  After the shape was managed, a quick few passes with the sander on both sides gave me a great surface for the primer and paint.

Both sides were treated to two coats of paint and primer.

I then transferred my drawing to the board. (The drawing looks off center, but it is the camera angle.)

It is always the first brushstroke that makes me nervous.  After that initial stroke, creativity takes over and the only thing that slows me down is slow drying paint.

I started with the Distelfinks. This was done in the Turkish Tile Blue of the front door.

I added some white to the paint for some rosemal effects and to add dimension. Traditionally, there is a heart above the birds.  As I cannot stand the heart shape, I had to be more clever.  Watch the space between their tails and between their faces.

For their crests I used Behr Tropical Skies. It's kind of an electric Teal Blue.  I added white dots of decreasing size.

Red ring to match the DunRovin' Station star ring, the laurel wreath, and tulip get their first coat of paint.

Eyes are added and the book of knowledge.

Bird beaks and tulip leaves and stamens.

Tiny dot details and the Tropical Skies waves/ raindrops take shape.  Phases of the moon are added

and it is then I realized I was missing a wave to the right of the tulip.

I added an acorn to the bottom.  The stamens kept grabbing my attention.  It looked like a bug with

its antennae sticking out of the tulip.  After Doc looked at it, he saw slug eyeballs from the children's movie Epic.  So here's our little secret laugh.

Here it is completed.  It still needs 4 or 5 coats of polyurethane, but I've got time to do that.  It will hang on the barn, facing the house so that we can enjoy it.  (See the two negative space hearts?)

As long as I was in a painting mood... The DunRovin Station Star

The great barn square project, yup, I just HAD to do it!

Being a former quilter, and living just up the road from the National Quilt Museum, and having a blank canvas of a barn, it was kind of a no brainer to join in the party.  The Barn Quilt Project and Trail have been around for a while.  My barn however, is new to me.   With a stunningly bright teal chicken house set against the dull, dusty sienna grassland, I thought the tan barn could use a boost.  Thus another project was born.

A barn square is a 4x4 foot square of plywood.  The pattern can be a traditional one, or an original one.  It can be chosen at random for the simple love of the pattern, or can have a family link or history, or can be picked for a significance to the name.

I looked, and search, pondered, and studied.  I couldn't find anything that suited the style I wanted, which is transitional with a modern flair.  Nor for the area, which is land and beach.  Or the color combinations I wanted to use.  I knew I wanted to use the bold teal on the coop and a neon yellow.

When all was said and done, I decided to come up with an original square.  I started with the traditional mariner's compass.  I decided to make it dimensional.  I also wanted a wedding ring, but then decided to intertwine it in the star.  Then I decided to balance the front star with a peak a boo star behind.

A 4x4 foot square of 1/2 inch plywood. Smooth and sanded.
I sealed it on both sides with left over light coloured exterior storm
coat paint.  Light colors layered above will come out cleaner looking
if painted on a lighter base.

The pattern was measured off and drawn with a watercolor pencil.
I then used FROG painters tape to mask off areas so I would get clean lines.

I only needed small amounts of the secondary colors, so I opted to
purchase small sample colors from the hardware store.  They only run
$2-$3 per container and are perfect for smaller projects.  In this case, bright
yellow and a classic gold.

I moved on to the background teal which matches the henhouse.  Valspar's
True Teal. Then taped off the next section of points.

Just look at the dimension starting to pop right off the board!

Each layer of yellow/gold took 4 coats to really make the color sing. The background
Needed two coats.

The ring is Cut Ruby.  It took three coats to be solid and bright
enough.  I just freehanded it.  I created the arc with a pushpin, some string
and a pencil.

Getting there.



I taped off the background star and painted them with two coats
of white primer sealer.

I taped off one side of the background star so I could paint it
Homecoming Blue.

UPDATE - I called several local contractors as this project was going to need a small cherry picker to mount on the barn.  The grade behind the barn is not favorable to using a ladder and the extension ladder was 2 feet too short.  The size of the square and the wind we normally have would just make it lethal for US to try to put it up.  This is one of those situations where it is well worth it to hire someone to DO it for you. 

All of the contractors were not only disinterested, but booked out for months.  Brain storm !  A TREE TRIMMER!  This isn't their busiest time of year, and with the holidays, who couldn't use some extra cash?!  I called the closest tree trimmer to the house, 30 miles, and described what I wanted done.  He'd seen some barn squares, but didn't know about them.  After I assured him that he could drive his truck right up next to the barn and screw in the board, he gladly said yes!  We had to wait ten days for the weather to cooperate, but he came today and it's UP!  I had it all predrilled.  I put 1 inch thick silicone grommets on the back to hold it away from the siding, which he thought was BRILLIANT!  There is a screw at each corner, and one on each side.  It's NOT going anywhere.

In the bright sunshine (NW) roadside of the barn, it shines like a diamond.  It is the same teal as the coop, which also shines in the dusty grey winter, and the bright winter snow!  We've already had people slowing down on the road to look.  YAY!