Fur and feathers

This beautiful baby girl is my pet goat. She just celebrated her four month birthday so I put together a few of her photos to share her how adorable she is.

She enjoys her naps, a lot. 

It's always best to sleep with your "herd" haha the dogs have really taken to her. It's a good thing too because the big guy can be a blanket hog. 

When the dogs are too busy doing there own thing Bella will "herd" with our chickens. The little lady in this photo is Blackie. She is super docile, loves being held or picked up and her favorite summer activity is laying eggs:) 

Bella does crazy things like this just for cuteness. Love her.

The post is titled fur and feathers so here are my flamboyant duckies. 

They love the camera so much.

Hope you enjoyed. I will have more craft and home projects soon, it is just extra hectic around our farm right now. We are expecting ten chickens to hatch next week and join our family:) 

Macrame plant hanger DIY style

 Macrame Plant Hangers are making a big come back. Here's a quick tutorial on how to make your own using just twine. 

Supplies: 

Twine

Scissors

Optional - beads

You need 4 pieces of twine (cord, rope, yarn, t shirt yarn, etc. ) using more strips would allow for more knots. 

1. Gather all twine strips and fold in half to gather 8 strips. 

2. Tie together the twine with another small piece of twine. Do this with a simple knot and tacky glue as you wrap it around.

3. Divide twine into pairs

4. Tie the pairs together with a square knot (or a double knot) 

5. Divide the slack of the pairs so that you can make another square knot using one piece of twine from one pair and the second piece from another pair. (See photos as this is hard to explain ) 

6. Finish the loose bottom by gathering all twine pieces and tie them off with the same process as the beginning. . . Tie a single knot and wrap the pieces around glueing as you go. 

7. Add plant, or just a bowl to have a hanging place for your keys or wallet. 

Hope you enjoyed. Happy Monday:) 

Wings and Tail

Mr. Bill and Pete Pete have been such a joy to our life and a wonderful addition to our small farm. I wanted to share a few of their moments from the last two years.

They love bath time, worms, digging for "treasure", mud is their absolute favorite, but they can also be spotted napping on the couch while watching tv. 

Pete Pete is the awesome iridescent black one one the left and that brilliant guy is Mr. Bill 

You can see some of his radiant shimmer on his head.  Sunlight works a million times better than the article light in this picture.

 

Repotting plants

Like many of you, I received flowers and plants for Mother's Day. I got everything replanted and wanted to share a few tips for transferring plants to their new home. 

When repotting make sure to use a soil base that fits the plant you are transferring. For instance, if working with a plant that needs "well-drained" soil you need to add a medium that helps increase water drainage. I use hydro ton rocks for this. These are small balls, or rocks, of a special clay blend that gets a heated process. The result is that you have "rocks" that can't hold water so the drainage flow is increased but an added bonus is that your soil's pH balance isn't effected by the material. Check the plant's needs at websites such as BloomIQ.com 

This is a Portulaca sundial mix which calls for well-drained soil. I repotted it to this super cute boot with birds nest but before building my soil mix I drilled holes all in the bottom of the shoe. Pretty much any container can become a plant pot as long as you have water and ain't flow, hence the bottom holes. 

Soil can be compared to a good outfit. Your attire isn't made up of just one color; your soil should be a variety too. Another common soil type is fertile. Now, this just means that the plant needs food as well as water. The "food" could be in form of fertilizers/compost that are added to the soil or added to the water. 

When a label reads "full sun" it doesn't necessary mean full sun for you. Check to see what zone you live in because the sunlight is stronger in some areas. always take in to consideration the elevation, the temperature, and the humidity level as those are major factors in a plants growth and developement. 

While trying to snap these pictures I got a visit from Bella. She was begging for a bottle. 

She tried to get a quick nibble from this little guy:(  

Tell me, who says no to a face like that?

Dang, she got me all distracted again:) back to potting. When you transfer the plant it's easiest to water it slightly. Then tip the plant over and start to squeeze in on the bottom of the container. The water acts like a lubricant to help slide the roots out. Don't pull the plant as this can cause root damage. 

Once you have the plant out run your palm over the bottom to help loosen the dirt and encourage roots to explore. It's important that your palm has dirt on it when you do this so that you are not spreading your hand's oil on the plant. Some plants are so sensitive to human's oil that a touch to their leaf will kill that leaf. 

Now, your plant is ready for its new pot. If the plant is sensitive to transferring add a small amount of raw honey to the roots. The honey is an organic alternative to rooting compound. 

Thanks for reading. Have a great day and as always please post/pin/share :) If you have any questions I would love to try to help lakesidehomestead@gmail.com

Brighten your Produce Basket

This hanging produce basket is so reminiscent of the 70's and 80's when people didn't have the super advanced refrigerators with separate temperatures for fruit and veggies...don't get me wrong, I love a super advanced energy efficient refrigerator like the next guy but all I can afford is the energy efficient; so some of my produce has moved on up to the east side in this deluxe basket in the sky:) 

This was the easiest paint transformation ever. The only supply you need is the paint. 

How to DIY 

Take the chain off the basket. They are attached with something similar to a keychain so just turn it until the chain comes out. Repeat on all sides. 

Next, take your paint outside. It's important to always have proper ventilation when working with paint. Open the paint can and dip your chain in.  It really doesn't get easier:) if you don't have gloves or don't want to get paint on your hands you could use a paper clip to attach to the chain as a temporary handle. 

The chain needs to be free of any obstacles. So, don't lay it out to dry, hang it. 

Once it is dry just reassemble, hang, and fill it up. 

Ok, now this next picture has been borrowed from craigslist (in Texas) I post this today not to hate on Texas because it's awesome here. We really do have some of the friendliest people (yes, some of them are a bit wild and out there) but isn't diversity a great thing:) 

This is either the work of a madman or a genius, I can't tell which.

If you have made it all the way to the end, thank you my friend for joining me this morning:) I can happily report that the outdoor pillow from my last post held up to the rain. 

DIY Outdoor Pillow

I made today's project out of recycling, of course. While in a dollar store, Dollar Tree, I came across the table clothes. I saw the words "flannel back", "wipes clean", and noticed the edge was sewn. A light bulb went off in my head, I can use this as if it were fabric and sew myself up an outdoor pillow. 

Genius right? Haha well maybe I wouldn't go as far as genius but I'm comfortable calling this a bright idea. Since the pillow is going outside I didn't want to use any form of tradition stuffing because most material would soak up water. Now, let me start by saying that whenever you go grocery shopping, or any shopping really, you should have reusable bags. Try try as I might I just can not remember to bring bags every time I go shopping (sometimes my shopping is spree of the moment, those "oh look they have a sale" kind of moments. Just because I have dipped into the "dark side" (small inside joke about not recycling and being aware of the trash you leave behind) doesn't mean that I just break all rules, I do recycle the bags but today we will repurpose them into the stuffing. 

Treat the table cloth as if it were fabric and sew up a pillow. For mine, I kept it really simple. I traced a "pillow" shape (rounded corners on a small rectangle). Headed to the sewing machine and used a long straight stitch. This is vinyl we are talking about so there isn't anything to fray, just trim the excess and fill it up.

In the back of the pillow I used the wide clear packing tape to seal things up and, fingers crossed, make the thing water proof. It is forecast to rain on and off all day so it will be put to the test. I will report back tomorrow. 

Mr. Sainic jealous of all the attention Sir Beckendorff was getting jumped in on the photo shoot.

Clearly, he doesn't fit so I had to just put the pillow on him:) These guys are why I don't spend money on exterior decorating. Hope you enjoyed and as always please follow, post, and share. Thanks, y'all have a great day:)