House bound and loving it

I like being able to stay home and stay in when the weather is crappy outside. That is when I get things done inside. Things like painting, cleaning, you know the things most people choose to do in spring. I had gotten the paint to re-paint out kitchen a few months ago and just had not got started on it. So with it being cold outside and nasty and me with no real need to be out there I decided it was a prime time to get the kitchen painted. So that is exactly what I did yesterday. Actually, OVER- did it. I should have known better than to tackle a job that big in one day. But in my mind, just a lil bit more wont hurt me. Well those lil bits added up and dang it I hurt last night. Not to mention how sore I was this morning. But mission accomplished and I like the fresh coat of paint. Makes me feel better anyway.

It actually is the same color only a different finish. The paint color is Apple-a-day in satin finish over candy apple red in semi gloss. I do know one things for sure, if you have slight imperfections in your walls it is best to use a satin finish. A gloss with show every lil tiny bump in the wall board no matter what you do.  But things always look better with a fresh coat of paint. OK, OK, I know the pictures are not straight. Damn, was not even noticeable till I took a photo. I might change them, or not. Still have half a gallon of paint left so maybe I will paint the dining room below the chair rail this weekend if we get snowed in. Which IF the weather man is right we will get between 3 and 5 inches more of snow tonight. This time of year is when I can get lots done in the house without having to run in and out doing stuff outside too. I really want to repaint the whole house this winter before I get busy with greenhouse and garden stuff outside. Not sure yet about colors for the rest of the house tho. Probably close to the honey color I already have. Hopefully sometime soon we can get our kitchen floors done. I am so looking forward to something besides this linoleum in the kitchen. And as of right now we have carpet in the dining room. It has lasted well and still doesn't look too bad but will be a welcome change. Too cold out to mess with cutting flooring and such right now so that might wait till the weather is a lil more cooperative in early spring.

I did venture outside today long enough to take care of the chickens and let them out for a bit. They are perfectly happy to stay inside the building and be warm. They have plenty of feed and corn, its just a matter of making sure they can have water. No matter what kind of waterer you use in this weather it will freeze. I have been just putting a bucket of fresh water in to the chickens morning an night and putting out a bucket of water for Luna and the cats as well. I went to get the water bucket to refill with fresh water this morning for the chickens and they had come out of the building and were eating snow. They really were thirsty even as cold as it was. But they went right back in as soon as I put new water in the house for them. They hardly eat any laying pellets in winter but eat lots of corn. Nothing outside in the yard for them to eat with all  the cold and snow we have had. Although they do get out long enough to venture to places in the yard where the snow has melted off and will get plenty of grit to help grind up the corn they eat. And most of my lil hens are still laying in this bitter cold. So all in all I guess they are warm enough in their house. Rodger picked up a couple more bales of straw from the feed store and put another bale in their building so they have plenty of warm bedding. Warm happy hens = eggs all winter. I really hate to butcher off this flock and start over but they are getting older and should be replaced. It is time to start thinking about getting my order in for chicks soon so they can arrive and be big enough to not be a big problem for the house sitters when we leave to go to Nevada this spring. And I do want to have some Cornish in the freezer before we leave as well. I am running really low on canned chicken and chicken stock in the cellar. I really noticed this today when I went to get some chicken and stock to make chicken and dumpling for supper. Talk about good country comfort food. Chicken and dumplings with green beans and dutch apple pie for dessert.

All from home grown and canned food. I did add a little bit of dried carrot and dried onion to the chicken stock when I made the dumplings. Not sure if I was just hungry or if they were that good but I think I ate too much. Now to dig into the apple pie a lil later. I don't have ice cream but I think snow cream would work just as well. Might wait till tomorrow to see if we have fresh snow to make snow cream with. We will wait an see.

When I stopped to see my friend Rosie this week on my way home she was telling me that someone close to her town that she knew had lost all their potatoes in their root cellar. She said they had froze with this bitterly cold weather. Kinda had me concerned about how ours had faired with the cold here. I went and got some taters from the cellar to use on the green beans for supper and they were fine as can be. They got lil green sprouts on them from it being warm in the cellar. And we still have our vent open too. Rodger keeps wanting to take the soil off ours and add a layer of Styrofoam insulation and put the dirt back to help keep it warmer. I think that would be useless work as it is working fine as it is. Thankful for our cellar and that it stays warm and keeps things from freezing.

Not much else happening here on the farm right now. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella