Rocking Chair Renovation

My grandparents have these old rocking chairs on their front porch.  I sat down on it a few weeks ago and got a paint splinter because they were so old and worn.

So I stole them off of my grandparents porch and took them home.  I intended for this to be a secret Mothers Day present for my grandma, but it ended up taking a bit longer.  She got a little mad when she thought someone stole her chairs.  So I re-assured her that they were in good hands.  My mother just happened to be out the weekend I worked on them so I had a little help from her.  We started out by sanding them down.

We tried to get as much of the old paint off as possible

 I used a palm sander that helped this process go by so much faster.

I took a dry brush and brushed off all of the sanded dust so that I could begin painting.  Here are the chairs with their 1st coat of paint on them

Here is the almost completed chair.  2 coats of paint was added and the old seat cushions were replaced with new cushions and cute outdoor fabric.  Before installing the seat cushions I sprayed several coats of Scotch Guard to protect them from water and sun damage. 

Here are the chairs all finished with the cute pillows my mom made that make a great accent to their porch. 

I love how they turned out.  Now that I'm an expert upholsterer, maybe I'll tackle some furniture in my house next.

Beekeeper All on My Own!

At the beginning of the year.  I decided I wanted to have bees of my own.  I had been a beekeeper at work for about a year and wanted the benefit of my own honey each year for my family and food storage.  So I finally convinced my grandparents to put a hive out in the corner of their property.  It is in a horse pasture by the secondary water pump.  My grandpa decided to build a fence around it so that the horses would not disturb the bees. 
I ordered my A-Z beekeeping kit from Havest Lane Honey where I found it to be the cheapest place around.  I actually got the Jail to start buying all their products because they were so cheap, and the owner is  retired cop, so he gives us an even bigger discount.  I'm not complaining.  Yes it is a good 1 hour and 20 minute drive one way, but was worth the savings from all the supplies I got.
My grandparents actually got me a full set of boxes for Christmas, so all I really needed was the bees, the suit and tools.  That all came in the kit I bought from Harvest Lane Honey, even the bees!

So on the 2nd Saturday of April, I set out on a journey to Tooele, UT to pic up my package of bees.  I drove 1.5 hours with a couple thousand bees in my car.

 They sure were pissed after that long bumpy car ride.  It was a cold and dreary day.  So I had a lot of bees not figure out where to go that ended up dying outside.  But they are fine and dandy now. 

 A couple weeks later, the sun finally decided to warm up Utah a little bit, and that made the bees extra happy!

Here is a cool shot with their pollen baskets full of bright orange/red pollen.  Love these little creatures. 

Garlic Scapes Who Knew?

Most people do not know that a hard neck garlic will produce a false flower.  Hard neck garlic actually has a much stronger flavor than most store bought garlic.  So if you like a strong garlic flavor like I do, try to find hard neck garlic, or better yet, grow it yourself!  The false flower of the hard neck garlic usually gets cut off and discarded.  But what one doesn't know is that it is full of a great garlic flavor and very tasty!  At my garden at work, we grow about 10 rows of garlic.  Now garlic is a very special plant.  You actually plant it in the middle of October, cover the soil with a little bit of straw and let it grow all the way till the following June, when it decides to produce a false flower.  This false flower looks like a little piggy tail.  You are suppose to wait until it curls twice before cutting it off, to then help the garlic bulb bulk up over the next couple of weeks.  Once those false flowers (or also known as a garlic scape) are cut off, they can be used for a number of things.  Most popular is Garlic Scape Pesto, mmm my favorite!  But it can be used basically any way you use garlic, but looks more like a chive. 
Here is what a garlic scape actually looks like growing:

 

 Pretty cool huh?

Well after the scape is cut, I make pesto out of it every year.  Here is the recipe I use for Garlic Scape Pesto:

1 lb of Garlic Scapes cut into bite size pieces

3/4 c freshly grated Parmesan

3/4 c freshly grated Asiago 

1/2 c pine nuts

1 c extra virgin Olive Oil

Here is the process.  You want to wash the scapes first before cutting.  

Cut the hard stem and the false flower off of the scape

 

 Cut into bite sized pieces

 Add Olive oil first in a blender or food processor and then all of the other ingredients and blend until it is in a paste consistency.

To make this last longer.  I spoon it into ice cube trays and freeze it and pull it out of the freezer when I want to use it.  It helps it to last almost an entire year that way.

My favorite dish with garlic scape pesto, is to add cream cheese to it and make a creamy pesto sauce over pasta! 

Let me know if you get a chance to try this.  You can usually find Garlic Scapes at your local farmers market this time of year.

Enjoy!!

Big 'ol Chicken Run

It has been a busy past couple months, but they have been good ones!  At the beginning of spring once the snow all melted, I decided I wanted to move the chicken coop into my fenced off garden area so that they had a little bit more room to roam.  My husband used his brain and muscles to get it lifted up and over the grow boxes.  As the years have gone by, my Box Elder tree has now grown to shade my garden most of the summer, so I cannot grow much of anything in shade.  So my garden became the chicken run.  It worked out great and my girls loved the extra room to roam and do their foraging for bugs.

My grandparents decided they wanted to buy little chicks for every great-grandchild.  She had 11 then,  so she bought 11 baby pullets and raised them for a couple months.

Now I live in a city where they are not allowed on any land less than a 1/2 acre.  And we of course only have maybe 1/4th, so basically its illegal.  But if you have been following my posts, I tried to change that ordinance and was denied.  The City Planner called me the day following the decision and told me that the Ordinance worker only goes out on a complaint basis.  So unless my neighbors complain, I shouldn't have any problems.  My neighbors love us, so hopefully nothing will happen.

Back to the baby chicks my grandma raised.  Well there was only 2 of my cousins that actually wanted the chicks.  One cousin wanted 4, I only wanted 2.  My little Carin Terrier ended up pulling one of the babies through the fence and that left me with only 1 little chick.  Out of the 11 chicks that was purchased, that left 6 extra chickens that no one wanted.  I already have 4 chickens, and I did not want to push my limit with a bunch of chickens.

My Aunt and Uncle acquired the 6 that no one wanted and added them to their flock.  Their chickens did not accept the babies and ended up killing 2 and 1 almost pecked to death, so they brought them to my house.  Now I have 9 chickens more than I am suppose to have.  So I used my cold frame building knowledge and built a little fenced in chicken run so that neighboring cats, and my dogs could not harm my chickens.  I basically used 3/4" PVC pipes, zip ties, a couple re-bar stakes, and deer netting. 

 Re-bar pounded in the ground on one side with the PVC slid over the top and then I just drilled a couple holes on the other end and zip tied the other piece to the fence.

 Netting added and zip tied on.  Just missing the last piece of PVC to complete it

 Completed.  I just used a piece of wood to hold down this end and there is a little hidden door in there to let me get in to collect the eggs and clean up. Turned out great I thought!

A few of my girls.  It was one hot day.  For some reason they love this dog water dish to drink out of!

I love raising chickens.  Lets just hope and pray no one complains about my girls!