Faux Tin Tile Ceiling Reveal!

When I purchased my house the ceilings in the entire house were all covered with the one foot square tiles (I've been told the name of these but can't remember it right now - oh well). I had no trouble deciding that I didn't like those and wanted a different look. So the task began of bringing them down. Pictured below are my niece and nephew the day I bought the house, not sure why they wanted their picture on the counter top but it shows the ceiling tiles this way so it a good thing for me.

The ceiling I found that I loved the most were the tin tile ceilings.  I'd already decided on stainless appliances and a stainless back splash.  I knew a tin ceiling would look so cool with my red walls and appliances.

Then I calculated the price!

So much for a tin ceiling.  From my rough calculations (I'm an accountant, I do pretty good calculations), it was going to cost me over $4000 to install a tin tile ceiling in my kitchen & dining room.

After hours of research on the internet.....a found a faux metal tile ceiling look that interested me. I decided to use a paintable, textured wallpaper and a two-step metallic paint to mimic a tin tile ceiling. I purchased the wallpaper @ Lowes for around $18 per roll. It had the look of a 4" tile with a flower burst in the middle, not an exact match to my back splash but similar. I ended up buying 8 rolls but only should have used 6 rolls. I ripped the paper down 4 times before I finally got the seams to line up correctly ummmm old house = nothing square or plum. But hey, the fifth time was a charm and it only cost me 35 bucks to get it right - I've had more expensive mess ups before. I'm pretty sure the paper is made by Allen Roth, but forgot to keep the label. I followed advise I read on a blog while researching the faux tin ceiling look and decided to cut the wallpaper into squares (kind of like metal tiles would come). So I made the length the same as the width of the paper. I sat in front of the tv and cut these on the floor, it took several hours to cut it up - I won't lie to you. I started out using a utility knife but quickly switched to scissors. My lines weren't as straight with the scissors but they were so much easier to handle.

It was a pain at times to line up the seams of the paper tiles I'd created, but I don't see how I would have papered an entire ceiling row at once. A 20" square tile was more than I could handle at times. If you attempt this look, I recommend cutting the paper into tiles.This is my fifth attempt to get the lines going straight. The theory of wallpaper sounds so easy, I don't have a clue why I kept getting everything out of whack (this isn't my first time papering either). I gave up on the stated directions of starting in a corner since mine aren't square and choose to get the hardest piece out of the way first - under the already installed ceiling fan. If you look closely in the picture below you can see where I'd ripped off still somewhat wet paper and it left an imprint on the ceiling. Also, once a tile dries on the ceiling/wall - don't try to reuse it. Just bite the bullet and throw it in the trash - yes this was a lesson I learned the hard way. I know you can mix up a glue mixture and reapply it, but that mixture is stronger than the prepaste that comes on the wallpaper and is a tad bit harder to get down when you decide it isn't going straight again. The finished wallpapered ceiling. I did contemplate just getting a white gloss and leaving the ceiling white after I had all the wallpaper hung. I'm not sure exactly how long it took me to do this part of the job - I started and stopped frequently after my 5th restart. I'd work on it a little in the evenings until my neck would start hurting. I had other things going on so I didn't get to work on it every evening. I think it took me almost 2 weeks to finally get all of it hung. I let the ceiling "sit and rest" for a few days and then got out my Elmers glue and fixed a few corners that weren't sticking like they should be. Then on the following weekend I decided I was ready to paint.

The first paint in the two-step process is the Valspar Semi-Gloss Finish from Lowes. I had them mix it in the Pewter color (I looked online for color swatches of their metallic finishes but gave up on that search) - you can get a wide variety of metallic finishes, the copper looks cool too - I painted my utility room a light orange, a copper ceiling in there??

This paint kind of freaked me out when I opened it and started stirring and stirring and stirring, it was super thick and sticky (yes I mean sticky) - not at all the consistency of normal wall paint.

As you can see from the picture, it went on dark. For as thick of a paint it was, it covered the ceiling very well but you did have to put a little muscle into it. So similar to the hanging of the wallpaper, I took several breaks to let me neck and arms rest. But I did finish it in one Saturday afternoon. It was tacky to the touch so I let it rest overnight. The second coat - Valspar Brilliant Metals from Lowes.

This paint is a gloss and has the metal shiny, sheen effect. Plus it covers up any of the little bumps and ridges in the textured wallpaper that you didn't quite get enough of the thick, sticky paint on.

Drum roll please! The finished ceiling after the metallic gloss coat...... I absolutely LOVE it! I love the way daylight coming in the window shines off it.

When you stand long enough and stare at it you can see the seams from the wall paper, but hey tin tiles would have seams too and this cost me over $3700 less to complete plus I don't have noise echo issues like I would with metal. After buying 2 extra rolls of wallpaper I spent just under $250 for the wallpaper and metallic paint.

Now I just need to get the crown molding up, finish the shadow boxes above the cabinets, finish building & painting the kitchen island and install the flooring! Easy peasy, should be done in oh......3 months, ok maybe 4 months :)

When the ugly white tiles came down we found this....I wasn't happy about the wallpaper I found on the ceiling, I was hoping it would be all wood and I could just do a white-wash finish and leave it antiquey (I know this isn't a real word but you understand the meaning!). Anyway, I was told that I shouldn't remove the wallpaper on the ceiling do to the age of it and not knowing what type of 'glue' was used. You can see the pretty living room tiles in this picture too, I'm telling you the whole house had those tiles. and this would have been another problem with leaving the wood.....the newer edition has newer wood - imagine! I can't believe they didn't search around for the same wood as the 100 year old original house when they added on. Geesh, what were they thinking. So, when we hung the sheet rock on the walls I gave in on my hope of a wood ceiling and had the ceiling sheet rocked too. Then I started researching options of ceiling finishes.

From 78 to 30

Last weekend was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It was in the high 70's and I had the windows open all weekend long. I somewhat regretted not having screen doors (I took the olds ones off when I bought the house cause they were UGLY and haven't got new ones on yet). Then in the middle of the week the temp started dropping, I enjoyed last weekends weather much better.

I've been painting in the kitchen/dining room all day - I'll share pictures of what I've been up to either later today or tomorrow. Mom bought me a new gadget today and brought it over. A red tea infuser to match my red themed kitchen, isn't it cute!
Earlier today the sky was rumbling with thunderstorms (didn't rain much just made a lot of noise). A little after noon this is what I walked out to when I headed out to feed the cat my lunch leftovers......a lovely sleet/snow mixture. Mother nature is a little confused, she must have forgot that it's spring now.
After going out in the snow/sleet mix I decided to carry in a several armloads of wood and get a fire going, put on a pot of tea and rest for a few minutes.
My new tea infuser made a wonderful cup of tea - actually it made three cups before I got back to doing something. I was just so cozy with my blueberry vanilla tea sitting in front of the fire typing out this post that I didn't want to get back to physical labor.

While I should be getting going again on painting, it'll have to have to wait until tomorrow. A friend just called and I now have dinner plans with several high school friends. We're heading to a Japenese bar & grill (we'll sit at the grill enjoying old friendships while they cook our dinner for us), should be fun and my home improvement projects will be waiting here for me tomorrow - they always are.

I'm BACK!

Hello Maude, it's me again! I know I've been a terrible blogger recently, I just been so busy.....this is going to be a long post. I'll get pictures up soon of my progress and a recap of sports I've been shooting.

After Christmas it felt like I was at a basketball game 3-4 times a week, wait a minute I WAS at basketball games 3-4 times a week. I made custom storyboards in different sizes for each of the 8th grade boys that their parents presented them on the last home game. I also made an album for the coach that the boys presented to him that same night. Once junior high ball ended I was at the high school games and then volleyball began. Volleyball ended last night, track practice started yesterday with the first meet in 2 weeks - it never ends!

One weekend toward the end of basketball I had a 3 hour session with the junior high cheerleaders, it was a lot of fun. The junior high boys won regional and competed in state (didn't place but we're still proud of them) and the junior high cheerleaders also competed at their state (6th place but deserved 2nd at the very least in my opinion). I had a fun weekend in Springfield watching the cheerleaders, reliving high school memories.

I was hired by a couple other schools to shoot some of their sporting events - that's exciting! I didn't intend to become a sports photographer but always loved participating and attending sporting events of all types plus I understand the rules and flow of the events for the most part which I think is necessary to capture good sports pictures.

In addition I've done several newborns, toddlers and a few family sessions. I've also shot 2 birthday parties (80 & 90 year old folks) with extended family group pic's. So that's what I've been up to the last 2-3 months.......sports and pictures.

On the house renovation:

I'm having a love/hate relationship with red paint. I can't get it on without showing brush strokes and I've painted many a room, inexperience isn't the issue. I purchased an additive a few days ago on a friends recommendation that's suppose to reduce/eliminate brush strokes from showing. Repainting again this weekend and will let you know.

I'm 75% done with my kitchen/dining room ceiling! WooHoo!! I only restarted it 5 times, Sunday I tore half of what I had done down and kept going until I was done with that part of it (my neck and shoulders weren't happy with me Monday morning). Tonight I'm going to buy the cabinets & supplies necessary to build my kitchen island. Tomorrow Michael is coming over to move my light (it's about a foot off from being centered over the island which will bug the heck out of me if I don't get moved). Once he moves the light I can do the last step of the ceiling and it will be DONE.

I'm also purchasing the crown molding tonight. Hope to find time this weekend to at least get it painted and maybe hung next week if I get the red paint to cooperate.

Once the ceiling & walls are done and the island is semi built, I can finally lay my kitchen floor. Am I ever ready to have an actual floor and not a wood sub-floor. The only major thing remaining in the kitchen/dining room is the deck door (it's a window right now). I still have to find the one I want at a price I'm willing to pay. It'll be a May/June project.

I still need to remove the bottom cabinet doors (again), sand them this time and repaint them. I also need to paint the shadow box area by the ceiling - I'll have to show you a picture to explain it. I think I've narrowed down my fabric for curtains.

Hopefully by Easter I can start to decorate this area - hopefully.
I think that's enough of a 'catching-up' post for now.

Quick Update....

Just a quick post to let you'll know where things are.....the drywall is getting finished this weekend!!! I can't explain how excited I am - this means that next week I can start to:

Clean, clean, CLEAN
Prime and Paint - the entire house
Install my fridge, microwave and stove
Apply the back splash in the kitchen
Get all the light fixtures installed
Tile the shower in both bathrooms
Install the stool and sink cabinets in both bathrooms
Install the kitchen/dining room ceiling - excited about this can't wait to share pics
Clean, clean, CLEAN some more
Wash all my dishes and put them in the cabinets
Remove the last of the carpeting and try to clean the hard wood (sanding it in the spring) - any suggests to remove carpet/padding marks without sanding are appreciated
Clean out the fireplace and haul a couple loads of wood - starting to get cool here
and then start MOVING IN!!

Time left before my first house guest arrives: 20 days
In that time I also have to get 5 more sessions already shot edited (one of which is a wedding with LOTS of pictures), attend and take a few pic's of a friends wedding next week, 7 photo sessions to shoot(which of course all need to be edited for possible Christmas gifts) and I'm decorating a wedding Nov 20th with fresh flower arrangements- only 40 tables, no biggie! Plus basketball has begun so I 'have' to attempt to attend as many games as possible every Tuesday and Thursday night.

This post isn't meant as a complaint in any way, shape or form - I'm LOVING life!

Ceiling Work!

When I purchased my home, it had these ever so lovely acoustical 12" spongy ceiling tiles in the entire house. If you've driven by my house you've probably seen these tiles neatly stacked up at the end of the driveway waiting for the trash man to pick up. You wouldn't believe how many 'locals' have commented on the neat piles of the ceiling tiles (that would be my father who neatly stacked them up).

The only room that still has these tiles is the mudroom. It's a winter/cold weather day project so they'll stay up there for a few months or so. I need to get the actual living space in working condition before I tackle this room.

As of Monday night, most of my ceiling looks like this (below)......drywall!! I'm not entirely sure what type of treatment I want in the living room so in the beginning it'll be flat white paint - exciting, I know. The kitchen is getting a faux metal tile application. Hopefully I can start on that next week sometime.

The two bedrooms have pine tongue & groove boards in excellent condition. I was hoping the entire house would have these, but no such luck. Let me rephrase that, it has tongue & groove boards but they're covered in felt and layers of wallpaper. I'm going to leave the natural wood in the two bedrooms. I have to caulk the cracks so the insulation will stop falling down and then I'm either going to varnish or white-wash them. May start with varnish and then white-wash if I decide the wood is too dark (rooms are only about 12x12).

Johnathon just LOVED taking the nails out of the ceiling! Can't you tell?

I've received some strange looks and comments on leaving the ceiling the natural wood and not covering it up. I think it'll give it a rustic look. I may hate it in the long run but want to give it a try and besides, what's it going to hurt to put a layer of varnish on my ceiling?

Bathroom Tile

I've been having issues determining what I want to do for the tub/shower surround in my bathroom. I made a trip to Lowes and purchased this tile (looks a little darker in real life). I was happy with my purchase and had convinced myself this was what I wanted.

Then my brother informed my that a tile that heavy (these are stone tiles) has to have a backer hung, it can't be hung on the sheet rock. So they'll have to tear out the sheet rock they just installed.

I stopped that quickly and decided to take the tile back (actually it's still sitting in my bedroom - that stuff is HEAVY, need to get it back to Lowe's soon). Now once again I need to decide what to do in my bathroom!

If you know me very well and have been in my bathroom at different times through the year you know that I typically change my bathroom 2-3 times a year. So I'm thinking to keep it as simple as possible I'll just put up white 4" ceramic tiles. My sink/vanity is white and the tub is white so white tiles on the tub surround will fit in nicely. As an added bonus I can change the wall color and accessories in the room to just about any color I desire and my tile won't clash with it!! Isn't what I originally thought about doing but the more I think about it the more I come back to white tiles..........

I'm not sure I'll have time to tile the bathroom next week but everything else should be complete. Before and after pictures of this room coming soon.

House Update: Week 22

So it's been a while since I gave you updates from the house. I decorated way too many weddings/events this summer and any free time I may have had was spent at ballgames - seriously, they're never ending and basketball starts Saturday! As is with most old home fixer-upers one thing has lead to another and then another......my thoughts of simply tearing down a wall and building a bathroom and closet have morphed into pretty much gutting the ENTIRE house.

Good News! I hired my Uncle yesterday to help my brother/dad with the remodel - upgrade. My cousin called and told me she's definitely coming for Thanksgiving so I now have a deadline to be in a 'live-able' home with house guests! Figured an extra set of hands was needed to achieve this new goal.

So here's where we're at:

1) Most demolition has been completed.

2) My new bathroom has walls, electrical ran, plumbing installed, light fixture installed, tub installed, pocket door installed, walls mudded and waiting to be sanded. My sink, vanity and stool are there ready to be installed as soon as the walls are sanded and I get to prime & paint. I need to purchase tile for my tub surround and get that tiled. Then I'll just need to 'decorate' it - woo hoo it's almost done.

3) My new closet has walls with sheet rock on the inside, walls are mudded waiting to be sanded. Electrical is ran along with a light fixture. Once the room is sanded I'll prime & paint it. We still need to hang the door and install hardwood flooring which I still need to pick up.

4) Guest room closet has the 2x4 frame but no sheet rock. I need to determine what kind and size door I want on this and go get it.

5) Two bedrooms need sheetrock on the hall between them and the doors hung. Both rooms need the cracks in the ceiling filled with caulk, lightly sanded and varnished - leaving them the pine wood. Both also need a couple coats of new paint, floors sanded and sealed, and window treatments.

6) Demolition of the existing bathroom is 'in progress'. Cast iron tub should be moved to it's new home in the guest bathroom today! Guest bathroom has had nothing done yet. So it still needs the framing, sheetrock, electrical, plumbing, painting, and fixtures - it's just an empty space in the living room right now.

7) Kitchen: I've painted the cabinets, they're pretty much ready to go. Old bedroom wall has been removed along with the ugly ceiling tiles. New outlets have been installed along with a gas line for my stove. Carpet should be coming up & out of there early next week - YAY. We have to lay a thin subfloor over the existing tile before I can install the new flooring. A new back door has been cut, the old doorway needs to be framed out then we can sheetrock the walls and ceiling, mud, sand, prime, paint, install laminate floor, and move in the appliances! I've purchased new cabinets for between the stove and fridge but need to still get a few more for my island. I want to replace the dining room window with a door that will eventually lead to a back deck too.

8) Living Room: not much has happened here. It'll kind of be in limbo, don't want to put much into it until next spring when the front door gets moved. The ugly ceiling tiles have been removed though and the carpet in this room will also come out sometime next week! This room has beautiful oak hardwood floors hiding under the carpet. The ceiling and south wall will have sheet rock hung, mudded and sanded soon too.

9) Utility Room is where the existing bathroom is, so it's waiting for bathroom demolition to happen. A washer and dryer were left in the house and are hooked up somewhere else so the utility room can technically wait until after the holidays.

10) Mudroom: nothing has been done. It'll be a project for the cold winter months with nothing to do. Plan to paint the existing paneling and paint the cement floor, new window treatments and maybe a few shelving units and some cool hooks.

11) Basement: nothing has been done (except for me piling up loads of 'stuff'). Need to get everything out that I've carried down there and seal the floors (course in reality I'll just move it to one side, paint, and then move it to the other side). I hope to get lots of electrical boxes ran down here soon cause I NEED them! I'm going to paint the walls (probably different colors in different areas) and partition off areas of the basement: photo area, scrapbooking area, wedding prep area, and general storage. Too bad there's a monster furnace in the middle of the room! Eventually I'll get some type of storage going - shelves and/or cabinets. Also need to move the light switch and build the stairwell wall up to the ceiling - kind of has more to do more with the mudroom.

12) Doesn't have anything to do with the remodel but I need to get firewood gathered from the woods. Sounds like a good job for Johnathon and I! Temps have started falling into the 40's at night so here real soon I'll have to get a gas tank too :)


My dad and brother were making steady progress, but I think an extra knowledgeable person will make a huge difference. Excited to see what was accomplished today when I go home tonight!

House Update: Week 7

It's been 7 weeks now since I signed on my house. The past couple of weeks haven't really had much progress to speak about.....sorry.

I learned the hard way that I 'DID' need to sand my base cabinets. When we put the doors back on, one stuck and when I opened it paint peeled off. So the cabinet doors are once again off and we've started peeling off paint and sanding the bases. It was kind of one step forward, two steps back. Better to find out now before the cabinets are full and everything else is done in the kitchen - less mess this way.

My bathroom & closets are waiting on plumbing, electrical work and sheet rock. Unfortunately it's been way too hot to climb into the attic to do electrical work and my brother and I have both been too busy to help dad with the plumbing/sheet rock.

Thankfully baseball/softball for the summer has ended! I've done about 10 photo sessions since the end of ball season with about that many booked in the near future. I've also decorated a several weddings and have one more wedding this month along with a 55th anniversary party. This past weekend I did floral arrangements for 30 tables (with 6-8 candles on each table too) along with 14 bouquets & 2 corsages and delivered it all to the Chase Park Plaza in St. Louis. That was the first wedding which I traveled that far to. It went great - of course I didn't get pictures to prove it! Side note, I had to rent a cargo van to get everything there and am very thankful that I did - Arielle and I would have never got all that stuff into two cars.

This week we're to have record temps, in the 3 digits with heat index's of 115 to 120 degrees and I HAVE to get pictures edited. Those two factors mean that not much will get accomplished this week on the house. By September the temps should be decent again and once we get started on what's left it should go pretty quickly. Still shooting to be in by Halloween!

Crisis Averted

Just a quick update - the fridge mishap from yesterday has been resolved without having to frame a larger (36") door on my house. Once all the great minds gathered last night, took a few measurements, removed the front door off it hinges........

.....the basic answer to our dilemma was to remove the fridge doors making it 31 and 3/4 inch deep, I have a 32'" door. When we pushed the storm door (ugly storm door) open all the way it pressed against the brick and broke one of the glass panels. When we started to move the fridge in it was determined that the storm door needed to be removed to give us enough clearance to get the fridge in (water hose was going to catch in back). The door was ugly and with it now missing glass panels it's not going back on, see we killed two birds with one stone - didn't like that door to begin with :)

First mishap

So I ordered this fridge........it's nothing elaborate, just a stainless side-by-side.

I was excited this morning because it's getting delivered to my new house today. Well, my father just called (he met the delivery guy for me since I'm @ work) and I found out the first issue with this home that I'm going to have to FIX and fix soon.

Both my front and back doors are only 32" wide - my cute new stainless fridge is 35" wide.....oops! The width of a door has never been an issue before and it crossed my mind for a fleeting moment, but then I skipped over it and ordered the fridge anyway.

So tomorrow I'm going to visit Home Depot and get a 36" or 42" door! Hopefully I can get the brother or cousin to install it quickly.

I'm sure this is the first of many mishaps to come.

On a good note, dad & I started tearing down the closet in the bedroom that I'm turning into a dining room and we pulled up the carpet (hard wood floors under there!!!! yeah!). So the only room in the house that doesn't have hardwood floors is the kitchen - which to me is the most logical room to have them. Where I want to move the kitchen door runs directly into the existing closet, this door move will also have to be completed before the fridge can be moved in. Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend - DEMOLITION!

I have a new KEY!

Part 2 of my big announcement....

As of 10am yesterday morning - I'm a HOME OWNER!! wooo hooo!

Below is the home I just purchased. It's an old country home that is going to take a lot of work, but in the end I think it'll be perfect for me.

My first 'official' house guests - Katie & Matthew who decided they needed to get up on the kitchen counter. Matthew proceeded to check every drawer and cabinet in the entire house looking for something to eat. I guess I'm going to have to get some snacks to keep there for when he comes to visit while we're working on the remodel.

Katie and Matthew were there because their father (my brother) was helping our dad replace my locks, the house didn't have dead bolts on it when I bought it but does now!

I plan to document the improvements I'm doing to my new home so be sure to check back for updates on my progress which I know will be slow, but one of these days I'll get it the way I want!

So, Katie has been a little worried for some reason about me buying a house and moving out which is one reason I invited them over as soon as I signed the papers and got the keys (other reason is so the brother could help with the locks). Couple of conversations we had yesterday:

Katie: So when you move in your new house are you ever going to go see Grand MaLou and Pappa Deaner again?

Me: Why yes, I'm only moving a mile down the road.

Katie: I just hope when you move in here you can still be my Aunt.

Me: Your father is my brother, I'll always be your Aunt no matter what house I live in.

Katie: Ohhhhhhh, thank goodness I was worried you wouldn't be my Aunt anymore.

Matthew: What kind of food did this house come with?

Me: It didn't come with food.

Matthew: WHAT? Why would you buy a house without food in it?

Me: .......... (didn't really know what to say)

Katie: When you get done with this house can I have it?

Me: Sure, why not. When I'm done I'll be sure to let you know.

I have a well along the side of the house, yesterday alone I think about $4 was thrown in it in the form of change and wishes.

Free Range No More!

Well as most of you know my father has chickens. For some time now we've talked about increasing the height of the fence on the coop. The chickens fly out, wondered around the yard (pooping all over the place) and yesterday morning ate the freshly planted lettuce seeds out of the garden. This last act was the end of the line - you don't mess with Pappa Deaner's garden and since it was a warm day, well we tackled the CHICKEN COOP!

In addition to the chickens making a mess of everything outside their coop, dad's only been getting 1-2 eggs a day from all those chickens. I kept suggesting that the chickens were laying elsewhere.....well, we found out one spot yesterday - under the blackberry bush! All kinds of eggs under that thorny, monstrous sized blackberry bush in the back yard. Of course we can't eat the eggs now, but how in the world do we get them out of there so they don't stink to high heaven when the weather warms up a bit? ugggghh

In the beginning......the pen was surround by a once white picket fence. Unfortunately this fence wasn't exactly tall enough to keep the chickens cooped up (as you can see a few escaped ladies).

A few essential tools required for any 'fix it' job.

The building of the door frame.....

Johnathon helping Pappa Deaner set the post, hard work for Johnathon as you can tell!

Johnathon learned how to set a fence post and he so loved helping. He did a great job on the fence posts. Pappa Deaner and I liked not having set them all ourselves. Plus he made a good gofer, well we'll work on the gofer part - has a hard time 'finding' the items he was going for so then I'd have to go show him what we were talking about that was usually right in front of him and exactly where we'd said it was. He'll learn, there are a few more "home improvement" projects scheduled for this spring that he'll get to help with.

In process.....where we were when we took our lunch break
The new door is hung, now we can get into the pen (not sure why anyone would want to be in there, but should you so desire you can get in there easily now).

The new fence/pen is DONE!! And the best part is that this morning there were NOOOOOO chickens in the yard or garden or flower beds or field. All chickens were accounted for inside the coop. WoooooHooooo
....and where we/dad pulled up the old fence that had sunk into the ground and unearthed many a ground worm I learned that chickens LOVE worms. They were quite happy with the freshly tilled dirt and had a heyday with all those worms. The little black and white chicken has hawk eyes, spotting a worm from across the pen and running to retrieve it - somewhat comical to watch.

.....and the chickens! There are yellow, brown (I know these are New Hamp Red's), black, black & white (2 different kinds) and the turkey that showed up one day. No kidding, my parents came home and this turkey was walking around the coop. Dad opened the door, he jumped in and made himself at home. It's not a wild turkey but we're not sure where he came from???
Well, I have a full day so I'd better get to it. Roast is in the oven and is smelling wonderful, need to peel some tators and get them boiling....take a shower....edit a few pictures....arrange some silk flowers for a May wedding....bridal consult at 2pm and finish a baby afghan. I really excited about my to do list, today is the first day in a week that I've felt like well, felt like even getting out of bed. Only made it to work ONE day this week due to a respiratory/sinus/ear infection that settled in last weekend and just wouldn't leave!