Random Farmily Pictures

This is a randomly put together post. The pictures are not in any particular order and some are a couple years old but what the hey, it's cute animals and that's always worthy of a post:) 

This is my handsome Pete Pete. 

Teenage chickens, all in a row:) 

This is our version of duck lips, haha. The actual ducks didn't think it was very funny. 

Sir Sainic and his crazy face plus his bad to the bone sidekick Mr. Beckendorff.

My handsome Mr and his favorite Mr. Bill

I thought this picture was funny because the sign reads "attack ducks" yet there are only chickens in the photo. 

This chicken ended up being my little buddy. I'm thinking it might have had to do something with the kisses that I constantly gave her. 

I just love when they are so small. 

Till next time y'all keep it green, clean, and classy. 

Shalimar

March Reading Adventure

Narnia 

The Narnia book series has been out for some time now so I'm not introducing a new author here, but it's a favorite. 

This picture is actually one I took myself while living in Colorado. I ran across it and instantly thought of the light pole that grows in the story. 

Green, clean, and classy. 

Shalimar 

DIY Plant Pots from Recycling

Bringing y'all another DIY planter from recycling.

I started with a textured paint. Side note about paint... I have used textured paint before and it wasn't as difficult as this one. I will say that I've had the paint in my storage for several months, all of which have been freezing, so maybe that had something to do with it, but whatever it worked. If you have a difficult paint, by difficult I mean that it didn't want to spray, just keep shaking the can. I found that that helped and would get things flowing again. 

My Mr got me a few new plants for valentines and not having any extra plant pots laying but I did have recycling so I came up with these. 

See how the lid is bigger than the bottom. I thought I would use the lid as the water tray so I painted those up too. 

I don't like to heavily spray on paint, especially with a slick surface like plastic or glass so don't go for the one and done attitude when painting. You don't want to get runs in the paint, plus this stuff dries so fast that the wait time is nil.  

Another coat later and they are ready for drain holes. 

I used our drill because it already had the bit on it that I wanted to use but you could just stab it with a screwdriver or use an exacto knife, whatever you have that cuts plastic. 

I added several holes on the bottom but I also added a few around the lower edge to ensure that I had a well draining planter.

Easy peasy, it took less than an hour and I was also working on putting up the hardiplank from my previous post so it's a doable DIY :) alright y'all know the drill...green, clean, classy

Shalimar

Iolaus runs and jumps

http://youtu.be/vefkNKmuv9o

Got another Iolaus video up. I love the little guy so much and hope y'all do too:) 

Back wall siding

So, we got hit with a crazy storm that had our neck of the woods flooded. My Mr and I  are both solar powered so we were in a funk with the back to back gray days but to make matters worse we discovered a leak, eck! 

Flash forward to this picture. That's Mr replacing the plywood. The leak, although small, had done some damage. I considered it salvageable but Mr pushed his desires and got new  plywood. Better safe than sorry. 

It was sad seeing our little home all opened up. We went on the side of caution and bleached the area to prevent anything from the moisture.

Next up was to get the wall covered with tar paper. We wrapped it over the sides so there will be overlap protection.

You start at the bottom and work your way up. Special nails are needed, they have a "washer" so they catch the paper. 

... avoid staring at all our construction mess:/ 

Once the wall was covered with the tar paper we started putting up the hardiplank. Which, my neighbor informed me, got its names from the creator of the material, James Hardi. 

The paper goes up quickly and it's even labeled with multiple level lines to help you with placement.

For the hardiplank we added chalk lines to keep everything even. That isn't just my first tip but a money saver too. You could buy the hardiplank that already has an edge but that's a lot more expensive and the hardiplank is already an upgrade to siding. 

We used the small nails from the tar paper earlier but had to remove the green washers.

Another tip for this is the predrill. We used a small bit, one of the same or slightly smaller diameter of your nails.

We chalked the hardiplank while it's on the ground. You have too, if you try to chalk it while it's up the chalk will fall leaving your line faded. We did the predrill after we put it up with just edge support, but as we worked up we had to predrill on the ground.

This was kind of a challenge. If y'all also have plumbing to work around may I suggest what we did. Measure the placement for the piping and drill the appropriate sized hole. Then cut the hardiplank vertically down the center of the drilled hole. That way you can push the pieces together for a perfect seam. Then caulk that seam.

The plumbing had originally been on the other end. When we changed the studio into our home we moved the water intake and drain to the other side to take advantage of a better layout. The holes from the original plumbing ended up being the culprit to the leak. 

Get an assistant :)

Fine tuning may be nessacy.

I will have more for y'all but until then keep it green, clean, and classy.

Shalimar 

Farmily

Sharing with tall more pics from around our homestead.

Iolaus has appointed himself my lead assistant and with the close proximity he got into some paint. Too cute.

Green, clean, and classy.

Shalimar 

Tiny DIY Kitchen

This little corner is our kitchen. I will show y'all how Mr and I put together our own kitchen, DIY style of course.

We started with just one twelve foot board. We are living small, extremely tiny to be more accurate :), but even a tiny house needs a kitchen. I wanted our home to feel more like a lounge not just the basics of a home reduced down. So, for the kitchen I put it in the corner and made each shelf a foot deep. Most kitchens have such deep counters that you can easily clutter them up. Clutter is my nemesis.

We used brackets that are really strong and attached them to studs so each shelf can easily hold all our dishes, appliances, etc.

For our kitchen sink Mr drilled a hole for the drain. Our tip for this is to first put a bucket underneath so all the wood shavings and dust will be easier to clean. Start drilling, on the top, but don't try to drill the hole completely. To keep the hole smooth, drill from the bottom once you have the center hole drilled to line up. 

Ta da, a smooth drain hole. Plus, the basket helped keep everything clean. We added two more shelves for a total of three. I really like to do things in three:) Next up, I lightly sanded the top and bottom of the shelves and sealed them with four coats of polyurethane. 

The polyurethane will leave the wood looking "wet" but it doesn't change the color, it isn't a stain. 

We also DIYed our sink. It's just a plastic bucket that was the perfect size and only a buck. I very carefully drilled a hole in it using the same bit for the drain hole in the wood. The bit is designed for wood so the center piece was too broad for the plastic. What I did for that was predrill a centered spot with a screw. Then the bit fit in that and the white teeth portion could catch on the plastic, but you need to be nice and easy with this. 

Next up, Mr added the faucet. I had purchased this faucet months before with the plan of having it come from the wall. We could have done that but it would have involved so much more work, with Sheetrock repair and extra complicated plumbing and blah blah blah. I said to myself "keep it simple, stupid". 

Oh yeah, all that mess. Um...just don't look at that:) 

Ok this photo has nothing to do with our kitchen, but I just love this picture of my Mr. 

Happy Friday the 13th. Y'all keep it green, clean, classy.

Shalimar