Artist’s charcoal

On July 11, 2020 By CarynIn art, Craft

I have found a wonderful book: The Organic Artist: Make Your Own Paint, Paper, Pigments, Prints, and More from Nature by Nick Neddo. This is right up my alley! I haven’t read it all yet, but we had the opportunity to try making our own charcoal for drawing when I needed to make some wood ash for the dust bath for the chickens.

Grapevine, metal container, and steel wire

I had a grape vine wreath that I made over a year ago. It has been aging in the woods for awhile but was readily available for a new purpose. I also had a steel container that I used with my kiln that was a great shape for making charcoal (and it was already seasoned!) My eldest and I used pocket knifes to scrape the bark off sections of grapevine, and then we packed the container with the sticks and closed it securely with twists of wire.

We used the bark shavings as tinder, and built the fire around the steel box. I love it when I can light a fire with one match (it helped that I also used a bacon grease soaked paper towel with the bark shavings). We let the fire burn down, then cool before we checked the box. The charcoal sticks were perfect! Solid black all the way through and a nice texture for drawing.

Grape vine charcoal (unprocessed sticks shown below)

I just had to try drawing with it, so I did a quick sketch of some grapes on the concrete (Nick Neddo makes drawings of the source of his art materials, so it seemed appropriate).

Golf balls in the nest

On July 10, 2020July 10, 2020 By CarynIn chickens

A couple of months ago, I took all the golf balls out of my hens’ nests because we were seeing a series of broody hens. A few hens were sitting on only a golf ball and getting sassy about it! The golf balls have been in the nest since the chickens were pullets to show them where they should lay their eggs. Hens will look for the safest place to lay, and if another hen has laid an egg there, it must be a safe place. I took all the golf balls out to see if it would change their behavior.

I did see a dramatic drop in broodiness (where the hen insists on sitting on eggs), which could be because there were no fake eggs, or because it is summer and just too darn hot. However, several times I also caught a hen not waiting her turn for a nest, but just climbing in with her sister. Ugh. I’ve read that this is one way eggs get broken in the nest – overcrowding. The two nests pictured above are the two favorites. The other four nests have been completely abandoned. So I put golf balls back in the shunned nests to see if that will cure the doubling up, but not encourage brooding in a favorite nest. Time will tell.

Muddy Armadillo

On July 9, 2020July 4, 2020 By CarynIn Wildlife

Did you know that armadillos like to roll in the mud? We found out when going through the trail cam photos after a long dry spell. Our little creek is now a streak of mud, and the armadillo loves it! I put together some of the stills into an animated gif so you can get the gist of the joy.

Armadillo rolling in the mud (animated gif)

Momma Raccoon

On July 8, 2020July 4, 2020 By CarynIn Wildlife

We have a mother Raccoon and what looks like two babies in the back woods. Our trail cam catches some of the young ones’ antics at night. Momma looks tired. I feel for you Momma!

Flying purple goo

On July 7, 2020July 4, 2020 By CarynIn chickens

I noticed that our hen, Magic, had a wound on the back of her comb. Not sure how, whether she caught it on something or one of the other hens got her, but I thought it best to put some Pick-No-More lotion on it to help healing and keep the other chickens away from it. Yeah, that was fun. I was able to get a nice big glob on her comb, and she immediately shook her head and sprayed the purple goo everywhere. I’m glad this stuff smells nice. After a few hours, the purple stains even faded from my skin.

Critters and Craft

Month: July 2020