I was starting to think that my mealworm setup was flawed. I set it up over two months ago, had beetles over a month ago, and kept checking the egg drawers and nada, nothing. I even threw out a drawer full because I figured it was too early for the beetles to lay eggs. Oops. The hatched mealworms are just TINY. I looked again and actually saw movement! I took a picture, circled the end of a mealworm, then when I put this post together, saw several more in the picture. Tiny. Smaller than a rolled oat. That the lettuce leaf (my darkling beetles like lettuce better than carrots) I had in the drawer now has holes was a good indication too. Ha!
Goodness, the toads are big and friendly this year. Thanks to the nice contributors on the iNaturalist app, I believe these guys and those I’ve found in the chicken coop are Gulf Coast Toads. We have many, many, many tiny variants of toads and frogs around the yard, but these big guys like to hang out by our doors.
Gulf Coast Toad at the back door
I’m half waiting for one to come in the house and ask for tea.
Hand made nals for nål binding both from cherry wood. One on the left has been used, one on the right has not.
I made myself a new nal for nålbinding; a little longer and with two holes so I can work with longer lengths of yarn. I thought it was interesting that the previous nal darkened so much after just two projects. I made them both from cherry wood, both from scraps from the same plank.
Hollowed out eyes, to better allow yarn to pass through the work
I saw another crafter with a nal that had been hollowed out behind the eyes. I like that this helps the yarn pass through the loops better, so I used a small gouge to do that to my nals as well.
Yes. I took the pictures on my calico. She was handy.
We had 13 coop residents in the morning. A rather large toad was sitting in the chicken foot bath. The chickens were all leaving it alone, which I thought was interesting, since chickens eat some reptiles and amphibians. Now I have found maybe this same toad in the coop before (or maybe a similar one, there are lots), and have relocated it (them?) out of the coop several times. I thought I had a fairly tight run with all the hardware cloth we put up, but there is a spot somewhere we he gets in. Hmm. The concerning thing is that if he can get in, so can snakes. Hmm.
The chickens are still a little overwhelming for my youngest, and sitting on one of the benches inside is still too much. So I started to think about a way to make her a bench so she could sit outside the runs and watch the chickens. (We are all about little steps.)
The size of the bench was determined by the size of my scrap. I measured out everything and cut it (I recommend cutting the cross pieces on the legs after assembling everything else; the dimensions changed after I screwed it together). I then used 2 1/2” self-tapping screws to join the pieces, checking square for each leg piece.
I marked opposite corners for screws
I used opposite corners for each piece as I assembled so I wouldn’t accidentally run one screw into another. I also used more scrap to support the leg pieces as I assembled.
Assembled seat
After the seat was assembled, I sanded surfaces and the edges.
Completed seat ready for chicken watching
I quite like the little seat, and where it is sitting. I think surrounding it with mint plants might be in the future. I already have one chocolate mint plant out there. Sight and smell therapy.
Critters and Craft 