Odds and Ends

New Chick Pic in the Banner

As you can see, the chicks are growing fast! Yesterday the weather finally warmed up (more later) so I took them on their first field trip. They spent a couple hours in the dog's ex-pen while I cleaned the chicken tractor. It has been sitting since Bess died and it needed a good spray of water to dislodge the black widows and some bleach to disinfect it. I was surprised that they didn't seem scared to be out in the open. They were quite interested in the weeds that were just outside the pen, even though there were plenty of them inside the pen! They came back inside to an expanded brooder. I put the two halves of the dog crate side-by-side lengthwise so now they have a "double long." An old window screen over the top holds them inside.

Weather

Two words...marine layers. And I do mean plural--layers and layers and layers of oppressive clouds. Along with wind and cold. Yesterday finally warmed up and the sun broke through, but the day before, after a week of the crappiest summer weather in the history of the world, I had to escape. I headed up the highway looking often at the temp gauge on the rearview mirror. I expected to see some increase near San Juan Bautista, but it had only gone from 63 to 65 and there were still quite a few clouds. So I continued into Gilroy. By then it was still only 66, but the car had warmed up so I turned off toward Hollister. The gauge briefly hit 67, but then back to 66. I decided that I would take a chance on San Juan Bautista after all and circled back. Temperatures held at 66. (This is crazy! It is ALWAYS hot in SJB.) I was wearing a t-shirt under a turtle-neck cotton cable-knit sweater as I walked around town. I wasn't cold, dressed like this, so I took my book and found a table in the sun at JJ's for a milkshake.

Inside Project

Due to the weather, I started an inside project. The vanity table that is built into the dressing room area of the bedroom is a real eyesore. First of all, it used to collect all my junk. Second, the previous owner painted a black stripe down the middle and wallpapered each edge with black and beige toile. Done as a temporary, just-for-looks thing, the wall paper peeled off early on (and I helped it!) and the black latex over oil paint was also peeling off. I have no "before" pictures of the vanity from before we moved in, but here it is as it looked a couple days ago.

Now my newest project is to take off the black stripe. In the process the beige paint underneath is also coming off. So it is being stripped in preparation for repainting. This will hopefully lead to repainting the dressing area. I have one of those cute vanity chairs and I am picturing a little skirt where the chair goes and a mirror tray with perfume bottles!