I love the cell phone pockets that I put in my capris this summer, and I decided to put pockets in all five pairs of my jeans. Rather than hand sew, I decided to use my sewing machine to speed up the process. It was a little trickier to get a neat pocket (I consider myself an adequate seamstress, my seams are mostly straight), but reinforcing the corners with a satin stitch was much easier.
Ice water is great in the summer, not so great in the winter. We’ve had another cold front bringing sub-freezing temps (again, this is not normal for Texas). During the last freeze the chicken waterer outside froze, but the inside waterer was OK. Not this time. After breaking out the ice twice in an hour I headed to the farm store for a solution.
I found a heated dog water dish for about $20! (There was a chicken set up, but the warmer and the metal waterer together was over $80.) I was again very thankful that my husband installed power in the coop, and put outlets on three walls, inside and out. The outside outlet is in a perfect place to plug in the water dish.
I’m still quite good at freaking out the chickens, like by carrying a ladder around a corner. But I am improving because I noticed the freak out, stopped, waited for them to stop bouncing off the poultry wire and put themselves away in the coop before I took the big scary ladder in the run. The heated water dish fit where the hanging waterer was, so I moved the hanging waterer over a bit (which is why I needed the ladder).
The bowl had a thermostat that only heats the water if it is cold enough to freeze. The next morning showed that it worked! And I witnessed a chicken drinking from the new bowl. Phew!
It is November. This little guy jumped out of my path, which is the only reason I saw him. iNaturalist IDs him as a cricket frog, which makes sense since I have seen crickets bigger than this well camouflaged little guy! Apparently it is their call, which sounds like a cricket, that gives them their name. And here I thought it was actually crickets calling at night. Interesting.
It has been cold and rainy and I tried to make the chicken’s covered run more exciting by putting in a large branch. The branch has been sitting behind the coop for awhile, so cleaning off the tiny branches to make it more roost friendly was easy.
The chickens are not impressed. They love their branch perches in the uncovered runs, but this new one has been met with incredulous skepticism. If after a few weeks they still don’t like it, I’ll come up with something different.
But hey, I still have a lap chicken!
My eldest usually carries her cell phone in the back pocket of her jeans. This actually works surprisingly well most of the time, but not when she rides. We have been brainstorming acceptable alternatives. She is not a purse person, nor a fanny pack person, nor one that likes the riding pants with the special pockets. We needed a solution for jeans. I saw some clip on pouches, and she made a positive noise, so I made one!
I bought some goat leather in natural so that she could decorate it herself (if she wants), and swivel clips and a heavy duty zipper.
It works! There is enough give that it doesn’t interfere with her riding, and the phone can’t fall out of her pocket into the dirt. I would make it differently if we need another one, but the basic concept is sound.
Critters and Craft 