Christmas Break Projects - 2021

Christmas Eve...it sure doesn't feel like it.  Temperature outside is about 68 degrees right now, and it's sunny and windy.   But the warm weather has given me a chance to work on a few projects that I needed to get wrapped up.  

Project #1 - Fix the roof on Zelda Scissorhands' house. 

Zelda's "house" started out years ago as my recycling bin.  It was made out of treated plywood, with the intention that it would sit outside, giving me a place to put my recycling until I could haul it to the recycling center.  The initial build had a single lift-up top that I, in my brilliance, decided to cover with some asphalt shingles.  I happily shingled the entire thing.  But when I tried to lift the top to put in my first bag of tin and plastic, I shocked and dismayed when I discovered that I could NOT lift the roof!  (I should have know that, since I couldn't pick up a bundle of shingles either!)  So off the shingles came, and the roof was cut into two sections.  I put the shingles back on, and although it was tough, I was able to lift the half-roofs.

But I had not counted on mice.  In just a matter of days, they had discovered the bin, and yee-haw!!!  All kinds of plastic things to chew on!  What a disaster.  The bin was full of plastic shards, the bags had holes in them, and everything had mouse poop in  it.  Sadly, I concluded that my brilliant recycling bin idea was just not going to work.

So I decided I would turn it into a house for the outside cats.  I cut a hole in the front, and put some hay in it.  I tried to entice them into their new house by putting their food dish in there.  No good.  They simply refused to live in it.

Since the recycling/cat box with a roof wasn't going to hold my recycling, and since the cats wouldn't use it for their house, it was just in the way where I had put it.  RAF helped me move it out under the old pecan tree, and there it sat.

A year or so later, I decided to get some laying hens.  The cat hole was covered up, a new larger hole was cut on the other side, and the recycling/cat box was converted into a little hen house.  It actually worked pretty well for that.  I took the shingles off, screwed down one of the roof sections, but left the other half so that I could lift it during the summer to let the breeze blow through.  I fixed a wire screen to cover that half, and added a roost/nest box for them on that end.  My two little Bantam chickens (Russell Crow, the rooster, and Dorothy the hen) along with the two Rhode Island Red hens, Rhodie and Louise, all seemed quite happy.  It was so sweet to go out late in the evening to close their roof and see them all sleeping together on their roost.

Then came the terrible summer day when I got home from work and found Louise dead and Rhodie dying of heat stroke.  I didn't realize they couldn't get enough airflow through their outside pen and by the time I figured out what was wrong, it was too late to save them.  And it wasn't much longer until there was another terrible day, when the neighbor's dogs broke into the pen.  By following the trail of feathers, it looked like Russell Crow put up a valiant fight.  But little Dorothy was no where to be found.  I supposed the dogs had gotten her too.  A couple of days later when I started to clean the hay out of their nest, I found little Dorothy.  She had been fatally wounded, and had taken shelter under her roost, and that's where she died.  I guess that was a place where she felt safe.  

Once again the box was empty.  

Zelda Scissorhands had lived in our bathroom for about two years.  I had put her in there to recuperate from yet another sinus infection.  She never acted like she wanted out, always seeming content to curl up by the heater in the winter or just stretch out on the floor in the summer.  She had a litter box, food, and water, so what more could a cat ask for?  She's just weird.

But in fall 2019, for whatever reason, she decided she was done with being a house cat.  I had opened the bathroom window for her one day and she jumped out, and refused to come back in the house again.  As the weather got colder, I was worried about her, so decided to see if she would sleep in the old recycling/cat/chicken box.  I put fresh straw on the chicken roost, lifted the lid and set her gently down on the straw.  She made it back to the carport before I even got around the building.  Try again.  Same result.  But after a few cold nights, she did decide to sleep in there, and now it's her house.

So finally the point of the story.  The house needed a new roof to keep it from leaking water in at the middle.  I had just put a board over the center seam, and it kept most of the rain out, but the center part of the box still got wet if it rained very hard.  RAF helped me cut some old tin we had saved from his roll-off roof observatory, and I think it will work out quite well.  My confession...on the first attempt, I put the tin on horizontally.  Dumb mistake.  The horizontal tin acted just like a funnel to direct water right into her house, and her basket and pillow were complete soaked at the first rain.  So RAF helped me switch it around, and I think this time, it will keep her dry.

I couldn't find her today, but thought I'd put her dried out basket and pillow back in the house.  I lifted the lid and there she was, just as snug as she could be on the bed of hay.  I think it must have been 90 degrees in there, but she acted like she was really enjoying her warm bed.  

She comes out in the mornings to be fed, and usually sleeps somewhere out in the sun during the day.  But she goes back to her house at night.  I think the old recycling/cat/chicken/cat box is being put to good use, and I'm glad.

Project #2 - Repair the bluebird box.

A few years ago, RAF and I replaced some old boards that made up the posts on our front porch.  I built bluebird boxes out of the old boards.  One was put out in the field on a fence post, and it was used every year until last year, when one of the boards had finally rotted enough that the house twisted and fell off the post.

I fetched the box back home one evening and discovered that it was really in decent shape other than that one side.  

I found some scrap wood in the shop and replaced the missing bottom and the rotted out side.  I then added a perch...I think it was a piece of hardware I had saved from the swing set the girls had when they were little!  A new board down the back, some wire and hay string to fasten it to the fence post, and there it is, ready for its new occupants. 

I hope they don't think it looks too "trashy" - it is rather rustic looking, isn't it.  

You can see where I split the left bottom part of the front when I was screwing down the new side, and I didn't get things lined up quite right so the bottom is a bit crooked.  But it sure beats the birdhouse that was on the post!  That one was just a hollowed out log with a top and bottom on it, and it had started to rot and come apart.  I don't think the bluebirds nested in it last year.  

A little gray tree frog had taken up residence there the last I knew.

Now that the bluebirds have a more proper house, the old log house has been moved down into one of the flowerbeds, near where I plan to put my frog pond.  There it can be a proper frog house.  

I kind of like it there, really, barbed wire, rotted roof, and all.  

Project #3 - Get the new blueberry bed ready

In the picture of Zelda's house above, notice the area at the base of the house where the grass has been cleaned out.  That's where I plan to put the three blueberry bushes I've ordered from Nourse Farms.  I'm not sure if the soil is acidic enough for the blueberry plants so I am taking advantage of the free soil testing offered by the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.

 

I got my sample dropped off at the extension office on Wednesday, and because they're closed for the holiday, won't get any results back until after the first of the year.  But the blueberries aren't expected to ship until late April, so that will give me time to do a bit more work on the bed before it's needed. 

Project #4 - Plant daffodil bulbs

Several years ago, I got the bright idea to plant some of the daffodil bulbs that I had separated in the flowerbed on the east side of the house.  They did great there, but the problem with daffodils in a flowerbed like that is that you can't plant annuals between them when you put them so close together, and you have to leave them alone until they die down in the summer, otherwise they will eventually stop blooming.  So that meant the flowerbed was just daffodil leaves for over half of the growing season, and I just didn't like it.

I dug up about half of the bulbs last summer and had never decided where to put them.  They should have been planted in the fall - some of them were already starting to put out leaves - but maybe it's not so late that they won't bloom this year.  I ended up planting them out by the mailbox in a spot where the lawnmower can't go.  That patch of ground was being overgrown with Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) so that had to be cleaned out as much as possible before the bulbs could be planted.  I got most of it, but just like the Bermuda grass, honeysuckle is something you have to just keep after if you ever want to control it.  I'm not real good at "keeping after stuff" like that, so it may very well turn out to be another gardening mistake to have put them there.

Oh...and of course I dug up another toad while cleaning out the honeysuckles.  Thankfully, this one didn't appear to have suffered any injury so I hope it's ok.  I dug a little hole and "planted" it back in the ground near the fence post.