Month: March 2019

Bradford pear

On By CarynIn Flora

It is spring, and trees are starting to bloom. One of the first to bloom is the Bradford pear, which turns out to be a huge horticultural “oops”.

Bradford pear at a local elementary school

Although it can be beautiful, this ornamental tree was supposed to be sterile. Mostly it doesn’t bear fruit and mess up the carefully groomed sidewalks of suburbia, unless there are other pear trees. Then it apparently can pollinate with every other kind of pear. And those offspring have 3″ thorns, choke out native trees, and are considered an invasive species. Lovely.

And spotting the invasive Callery pear is also pretty easy in the spring.

Invasive species Callery pear along the road side.

Bradford pears are EVERYWHERE when you know what you are looking for. These are behind a local business.

Line of Bradford pear trees
Bradford pear blooms

Faverolle Paper Popup

On By CarynIn Craft

It has been cold again. So cold that it is not nice working outside. Being stuck inside all weekend is frustrating; paper craft to the rescue! A nice spring theme activity was in order.

Faverolle hen and chicks paper pop up project

I have shared how much I like paper crafts, so when I saw a new (to me) way to make a popup, I had to make one with chickens! Since we are getting Faverolles, I needed a Faverolle hen and chicks. I made pencil sketches to get started on forms, then used Adobe Illustrator to refine the shapes. I’m quite pleased with the hen, she is a cutie with her beard and feathered feet! I will probably use her in other projects.

I made a video on how to assemble the popup:

And here is the image file. It works best printed on cardstock. Free for personal and educational use. Please link back to this post to share.

Bluebonnet?

On By CarynIn Flora

Last fall I spread Texas wild flower seeds (the Lady Bird Johnson mix), and I think we have a blue bonnet growing!

It was hidden in among the dead leaves, but it looks like blue bonnet leaves. After walking the meadow, I only found the one. I am hoping that it is just early. Having a field of blue bonnets would be very Texas. It is a Texas tradition to take pictures in the blue bonnets every year; it would be neat to have a nice patch on the property.

Coop Doors (people sized)

On By CarynIn Coop

Our weather continues to vacillate between winter and spring. This week I was able to use one of the warmer days to start making the people sized doors for the coop.

Rabbet joints cut for door

I measured the size of the door frame and subtracted 1/4″ on the width (to allow 1/8″ on each side), and subtracted 1 3/8″ from the height (our threshhold will be 1 1/8″ high plus the 1/8″ easement). I used standard 2×4 lumber and made double rabbet connections at the corners and for the cross brace. My bandsaw worked well to cut the rabbets on the ends of the boards, but for the rabbets in the middle of the board I used a handsaw and chiseled out the material.

Door joints secured with glue and screws

I then glued the joints and used 1 1/4″ screws to secure the frame, making sure that the corners were square.

Dry fit for back door of the coop

The door fits well! (The gap on the top will eventually be a gap on the bottom for the threshold.)

And here is the front door:

Front door of the coop

This one was a little more temperamental, but it might be because it was about 33 degrees out when I finished it. I kept the garage door closed as long as possible, but to get enough light to chisel, I needed to open it! Cold! So I probably worked with a little more haste. Still, it is fun when the grain lines up with the dado and a few chisel strikes excise a nice chunk of wood.

Waste wood from dado.

Ice

On By CarynIn Garden

Ice scraper with ice flakes and the reflection of trees on glass

We really don’t get ice here often, but growing up in the midwest I still carry an ice scraper in my vehicle. It came in handy this morning! Yesterday was beautiful until the front came through and we dropped 30 degrees. I’ll be waiting to see what plants made it through. It wasn’t a heavy frost, but there were some very sad daffodils on our way out the door this morning.

The “catnip” that grew yesterday wanted outside, felt the cold, and immediately changed her mind and came back inside where it is warm. Temperamental plants.