Breakfast Club

 Every morning I have this crowd. Two spiked bucks and their posse waiting for corn and chicken feed. They know me and my scent and they wait. I feed everything and they are the last. Sometimes the bucks can't wait and they dive right into the ducks bowl of feed. I have to shoo them away until I am done with chores.

Time Travels

Sometimes you got to take time off and spend time with friends.

We got to hand out with friends in Dogwood Canyon walked 4 miles and saw a treehouse.

Saw Laura Ingalls Wilder houses, they moved around a lot.

Had someone else take care of my farm.

And got to come home and show friends what is around our neck of the woods.

We walked, swam and hiked for 6 days. It was so nice to travel with these friends. We worked as a team to have fun.

 

Not the bee

So summer in the Ozarks means ticks, snakes and wasps. And the waspers like to move into any overhang and vehicle around. They love old  tractors, coops and truck door hinges. I put these stickers up on every thing I have to drive on the farm. This means stay away another wasp calls it home. It works I just need a bigger one for my roof.

This time of the year means birds attacking mirrors. I have 7 cats and not one wants to bother getting one of these birds pooping all over my truck mirrors. It is too hot outside this year and it is not even August yet. Going to be an interesting summer here. Haying has started and the baby deer are in the meadows. Have not seen baby bunnies but deer and ticks are everywhere. We have gotten ticks off both of us. My husbands tick bite got infected and had to see a Dr. That took 3 days to get an appointment! So I just gave him my old antibiotics and that got him healing. If you have Alpha Gal and are on steroids you can get very sick with tick bites and are more venerable. Finally saw a dr and she gave him the same antibiotics I had on hand. 

I am looking forward to planting pumpkins soon and waiting for fall. Summers are great for swimming and lightning bugs and that is about it.

a plus one for breakfast

I feed the flock and this guy showed up to join in the feast.

This turtle comes by each summer to eat food I put out for the poultry. Whatever is left over the deer and the wild birds finish off. The Muscovy ducklings eat a lot as they are growing fast.

 

Mechanical Monday

 

I have always loved robots and mechanical toys. Especially wind up toys with fur, camels, ponies, elephants, These were cheap in the old days and easy to find. Now they show up online in shops in shabby condition and needing work. They are large some are 4 inches up to 8 inches in size. Most are rusty, broken, missing limbs and not working. Thanks to modern crafter machines, I can remake missing and broken parts.

I thought I would restore them back to original but I think they would be so neat restored into something I love. Bedazzled with modern faux fur, rhinestones, new glass eyes and sequins. So I am collecting them here and there along with replacement parts, fabrics, vinyl, fur and other notions. After I get my other clients jobs done, I plan to redo a few wind ups for myself. These are vintage made in Japan that I got for under $12 each. I will post these after they are restored. These were throw away toys from the 50's and 60's, cheaply made of tin and mohair with watch wind up tin parts. All are missing the keys. I prefer the ones without batteries. This is a fun restoration for me.

Mary Mary

 

 

About two years ago someone vandalized our Mary statue at our church. There were no events and the statue was just left alone. Then a rosary event was scheduled and Mary needed work. Her grotto is over 20 years old and falling apart. Our church had the worst grotto around. The rocks were taken and thrown at the statue and a car. We asked our church if someone could restore this grotto and clean it up. No one stepped up. So I got bleach, paint, construction adhesive and got busy. I replaced most of the stones and filled mortar into the holes created by vandals and ice. The next day after the mortar was dry I covered Mary and painted the inside of the grotto gray to hide the uneven colors. I then cleaned the stones and Mary and repainted her. I added a crown made of zip ties and painted gold. I cemented the crown to her back. I think she looks pretty once again.

The nicks in the cement at her feet I filled with gold to become stars. She has real gold highlights painted on the details of her gown.

Cowith Lilith

Our neighbors raise meat and dairy cattle. This morning they greeted me with happy cow moos.

It is spring and my other Amaryllis are blooming. I do not mark/tag them and some are cross variations and it is always a nice surprise to see what blooms. It is always nice to have flowers growing in the house. After they bloom I put them outside to let the bulbs regenerate. When winter comes they are ready to show off again indoors. So easy to grow.

 

Horses and Emu

 

A friend spotted me at a farmers market and asked if I could restore her plastic garden pony. It was from a yard sale, decked out in fringe and rhinestones and put outside in yard for years. Under the blue paint is a Wonder Horse saddle. The saddle had been plastered over and the hot glue had succumbed to UV degradation. I will be chipping off the bondo and restoring this pony with flexible resin scrolling painted in gold. Just need the rains to stop long enough to work on it outside.

 I went to an animal auction and spotted a single emu chick for sale. I wanted one but it turns out you need 2+ to keep these birds happy. The price for this chick run up to $200+. I asked my husband and he was interested but wanted an Alpaca more. We will wait on both. For now our animals numbers are fine and manageable on our farm.

Book Creepery for me

Our church secretary & book keeper is moving back to her home state to retire. Our church recruited a sister church secretary but she declined. This left us with a big problem, no one to keep records and books for our church. The rest of the congregation was either too old, unhealthy, unskilled or not available to take on the responsibility. And hiring a local one was not affordable for a small church. My husband asked me to step up and do it. I have no skills in this area but I do have more time to spare than most and he has the computer part down. Our priest has too much to do and can't take on office work.

I feel like a dog trying to be a dolphin. I wear many hats and have a lot of skills but not in this.

But after training with her for 3 months I am about to do this for our church.

Luckily most of the restoration and sewing for the church has come mostly to an end.

I have done just about all the seasonal colors the church requires for the year.

It is not easy running a business like this. Luckily I can do most things remotely and only have to be physically there 2 days a week. Our retiring secretary did a lot of things to keep the church running well as did several of the former ones. She is the 5th one in 12 years! Usually, death claimed 2, health 2 and one found another job. It is non- paying volunteer job. Larger churches can pay to keep one but we need paid lawn care more. This is going to be an interesting year to say the least.

I can still farm and do restoration work but now I can get out more away from my studio as the church is a half hour away one way.

 

The restored tabernacle

 

There it is in all its restored glory. Hard to believe it was in several pieces in my husbands office over the winter. Our priest could not wait until Easter to show it off. The weight is in the top part of this tabernacle.

I also sewed the red jacquard drapes and linens for Palm Sunday.

I had to use a blowtorch to get the old lacquer off. Still missed a part in the back but this was as good as I could get it without sending out to a professional. It cost only my time and elbow grease. it glows like gold like it was new.

I sewed the altar cloth as well. The old linens had not been replaced in over 30 years. It takes time to measure, sew and steam these new church linens.

The ambo with gold ribbon at the bottom. I am happy this all worked out. This was a huge responsibility for me to get all this done. My studio is a huge mess with all the polishing stuff, sewing stuff and my other interests, plus farm and puppy stuff. Yes, good thing I live on a farm, I can work in chaos and make it work for me.

Brass Tacks

I have been asked how I restore things. I take lots of photos as I take the item apart, label and bag all the parts and document it all.

I make sure the item is 100% brass is not magnetic before I proceed. I have several large and extra large stainless steel pans to boil the brass in a pool of vinegar until the lacquer falls off. Indoors this makes it hard to breathe so if you can do outside do it. Also, old lacquer gets all over everything when it boils off.

This is thick old lacquer that is peeling and shedding. However I used a torch to burn off this hard lacquer.

All the pieces ready for polish with 0000 steel wool ,the alcohol to remove grease then lacquer by Mohawk and put back together again.

I use these buffers on a drill for extra shine.

 

Tabernacle Before

This looks fine but up close all the lacquer was crazed, flaking off and crackled. It shed all over the counter it was stored in. It needed a full removal of the old lacquer and a polish of the solid brass under. This lacquer made the brass look like gold. The restoration bought out the copper in the brass, more natural color.

Found the iron weight on the top of all places.

Cracked lacquer close up.

Inside was shedding as well.

Hot vinegar bath took some off and the rest of the hard stuff was torched off.

 

Ent cutting day

My husband fully outfitted in safety gear for chainsaw work. The chaps jam up the chainsaw if it hits his leg. This happened once and this is his second pair. So worth the cost. 

These storms threw several trees down along our fences. He took them down and now we have to re string the electric fences for the horses. It is an on going problem but part of living in the woods. This lets us move our horses into pastures for grazing once the grass is up.