At the lake during the summer, I have about 4 hummingbird feeders that I keep filled. These little creatures amaze me to no end. And they’ve scared me a time or two (their quick-flapping wings can sound like a large bee coming at you!!).

One morning, I was walking across the deck to fill up my other bird feeders and I noticed what looked like a leaf stuck in the hummingbird feeder. I went to go move it and noticed that it wasn’t a leaf, but a HUMMINGBIRD! I yelled for a friend and she came out and we gently got the hummingbird unstuck. It then fell/flew to the ground below.

And stayed there.

It didn’t seem hurt, just stunned. So I ran to get my camera.

I’ve never seen a hummingbird close-up. I was careful not to scare it so I didn’t get too close.

I love this next one.

We went out and checked on it every so often and after an hour or two it was gone. Hopefully it recovered and flew away.

I read in my bird book that it’s a common misconception that hummingbirds hide in trees for the winter or in the ground. They actually fly south and even though their wings are small, they can fly from north to south with no problem.

Have you ever seen a hummingbird up close? Without the aid of a camera?

At the lake, we try to keep a ‘fun’ atmosphere. So when it’s late and we’re all sitting around drinking discussing the classic novels we’ve read and the lecturers who have inspired us, we’re usually outside, surrounded by (what I like to call) TACKY LIGHTS. If you’re not familiar with these, they are similiar to Christmas lights, but have a plastic decoration that covers them, making them even MORE FUN than Christmas lights.

Behold, our Tacky Light Collection so far:

Flamingo Lights.

 Martini Glass Lights.

Fishing Bobber Lights.

Mill Lite Bottle Lights

Pumpkin Lights.

DragonFly Lights

Spider Lights.

This past weekend we took them all down and I cleaned them. You’d be suprised how many spiders were calling the Flamingo insides  their home. I’m sure we’ll add on to our lights as we find new creative ones. So which ones are your favorite?

We had a visitor at the lakehouse during the July 4th weekend…

Doesn’t he look cute?

Well, then you should see the rest of him…

all 5 plus feet!

After he scared the crud out of me (see the empty bird feeder there in the right hand corner? I was getting ready to fill it up and I went to go move the ’stick’ that was laying across the bird feed container and the snake’s head popped up! AHHH!! ) he proceeded to crawl up the doorway. He wasn’t aggressive, but we weren’t sure what kind it was and Mr. C killed it. I feel bad for killing it… but the thought of running into him again, maybe this time in the dark? Was enought to give me nightmares.

I still wonder what kind of snake it was. His pupils were round, I think that means that he wasn’t poisonous.

For those who don’t know, I love watching HGTV. This is especially true when I’m travelling for work.

I got this idea off of a show on HGTV (I can’t recall which one, but they’re all good so it could’ve been any of them). I was a little skeptical at first, but with the money it had the potential to save, I was all over it.  (And I think Mr. C was excited that this little HGTV idea didn’t involve him!)

To start with, we had this ceiling fan:

in the lake house. It looks to be a fairly new ceiling fan. BUT- It’s gold. And I’m really not into the gold. BUT- ceiling fans are expensive (or more than what I wanted to spend).

So, with the help of my sister (And with Mr. C’s help getting the fan down) we went to work taping up the parts that we didn’t want to get painted. (We used duct tape and masking tape)

You can see here where we taped the wires and the socket that the light bulbs screw into.

Here you can see that we taped around the motor since we didn’t want it to get painted. (Also the end of the ‘pulls’)

Then you add one can of spray paint (Yes! Spray paint! When I first saw it on HGTV, I was very skeptical!)

For us it was Rustoleum, purchased at Lowe’s for under $5.00. (Silver metallic)

We painted, let it dry, put the fan back together and wa-lah:

It’s now a silver fan! (Changing the fan blades was easy, we just had to flip them over)

I was surprised at how easy it was, really. But, a couple of things to remember:

1.) When spray painting, to get a smooth coat, start and finish off of the object.

2.) Give the paint 24 hours to dry before touching it. I read the can wrong and flipped all the bits and pieces over after a couple of hours and put fingerprints on them. (We needed to paint the other side)

3.) Keeping all the screws seperate and writing what area they go in would’ve saved us a good thirty minutes.

4.) Don’t forget to spray paint the nuts and bolts too, since you’ll be able to see at least some of them.

This is a great way to change the look of your fixtures without spending too much money! Let me know if you try it!

Go HERE to see the previous remodel work done at the Lakehouse.

 So a couple weeks ago, Mr. C and I painted. For the first time. For both of us. Painting is NOT as much fun as HGTV makes it look. (But don’t worry HGTV- I still love you!) So we painted primer in Bedroom #2. We got the primer from Wal-Mart. We also bought some plastic to lay down on the floor. You know- in case things got messy.

It was hard to get a pic of the previous color of the walls, but it was sort of a light cream/gray that just made the walls look dirty. (see below)

After we put the first coat of primer on, I was really starting to worry. The paint was looking VERY uneven. After we put on a second coat, it started to blend in together.

This past weekend, we put our first coat of color on the walls. It doesn’t look too hot. We only put one coat on, but we used rollers on the walls and a paint brush on the corners and around the trim and you get tell. Really badly. So we’re hoping a second coat of paint will smooth things out. Man I hope so!

One thing I did find helpful is to put tape down on the carpet around the walls. So when I’m painting the bottoms of the walls, I don’t have to worry about keeping the plastic out of the way of the paint.

The same weekend we painted with primer, Mr. C tore out the shower.

It looked like this before:

This was how it looked mid-demolotion:

And finally, the shower was out:

Even though we haven’t started working on the Guest Bathroom, I’ve been ‘theme searching’ for a while. A local home store had a lighting sale so I found a light fixture that wasn’t overly expensive and looked neat.

Old lighting:

Boring.

And we (and by WE, I mean Mr. C) replaced it with this:

Ignore the stripes, eventually they will be painted over. Eventually. Hopefully when our painting skills improve.

That’s the excitement so far. Did I mention painting is horrible? Or that we’re really bad at it? Feel free to offer advice or opinions. Whew.

Note: I am replying back to your comments ON your comments. If you’d rather get an e-mail response, let me know!  

Apparently, I have a broody hen that’s a slacker.

(For all you non-chicken types… when a chicken goes ‘broody’ it means she’s trying to hatch eggs)

I saw her on a nest Thursday night, Friday morning, and Friday night. So I started getting excited. Baby chicks! At J&J Acres!

Then on Saturday, she was up off the nest. And I was sad. Then she was back on it on Saturday night. Then on Sunday, she got off and four chickens laid eggs in that same nest… and when I went in there later, she had given up setting on 14 eggs and was now setting on 3 new eggs.

Argh. I tried to put her in a cage with the eggs, and she freaked out.

So I took away all the eggs and she clucked around for a while, peeking into each nest.

I just don’t think she’s ready to be a mom.

From what I’ve read, chickens set on the nest for days at a time, and get up for a few minutes to get a drink and eat. This chicken was up for hours at a time the first couple of days… so maybe she just needs to grow up a little bit. Who knows.

Garden Stuff

I love pulling carrots out of the garden. Maybe because up until this year we had never grown carrots. And I still get excited because they look exactly like they do in cartoons. (Hello Bugs Bunny!)

Mr. C laughed at me for picking such a puny carrot to put on the farm blog. But I think it’s perfect! And it’s really not that puny… it just has a long stem!

It’s hard to believe, but Mr. C and I have almost picked (and given away or eaten) ALL of our corn this year. We’re already making plans to have a bigger garden next year!!

Lake House Stuff

We didn’t go to the lake house this past weekend b/c gas is killing us, but here’s a picture from two weekends ago when Mr. C borrowed my dad’s pressure washer and I witnessed a miracle:

The deck is going to look great with some fresh stain (and paint for the railing).

Thanks to all who made suggestions about the walls. It looks like Kilz Primer is a good starting point… once we get the texture worked out of the walls!

As I mentioned, Mr. C and I bought a house on the lake.

It’s not a super-fancy place, but it’s OURS and I want it to have that ‘vacation/cottagey’ feel to it.

That being said, the colors that are all throughout the house are BLAH.

And trying to find help on how to replace the Manufactured House stuff is NOWHERE to be found.

The gypsum board (or whatever it is) is covered in this:

(It’s got a ‘distressed’ look, it’s not dirty.)  

Red. And Green. And it’ll only go with the Christmas decorations about a month out of the year. Not good.

Then, in the spirit of red and green, I give you the wall panelling type stuff. (Does anyone know what this is called? It’s a border thats about waist-high, but it’s completely removable by removing nails- or is it staples?)

The countertops aren’t bad, but there’s more GREEN:

The cabinets are the brown color you see above.

So far the only thing I’ve done is get a couple of cute Sunflower kitchen linens from Kmart.

What I’d like to do is take out the wall-panelling type material and replace it with a light-blue material (I think blue because it’s a cottage type color- and water- and we’re on a lake!). The kitchen and living room are adjoining, so it would go all the way around both.

The kitchen? I’d love to paint it a bright, cheerful color… like yellow. (Or is yellow a bad kitchen color?) Then maybe throw a splash of color using striped kitchen blinds.

But then the question comes up as to if the yellow paint would cover the gypsum board (or WHATEVER it is) correctly, or if it’s too much work and I should just work with the red and green.

Also? The guest bathroom is done in the red-and-green striped gypsum. (You get it by now right? I have no idea if it’s really gypsum board, or what they make the walls out of) Which thwarts the cute bathroom-decorating I had planned.

Does anyone out there have any advice? Or know what in the heck the panel around the rooms is called? Or what the walls are done in?

Farmily Updates

In other news, we ate some of our FIRST ears of corn yesterday! They were fabulous (even if I did pick them a little early, I was impatient)

Yumm. And there weren’t even any bugs on them. I should probably thank the chickens for that.

Also, Mr. C and I picked up our new Maytag Washer and Dryer! Our old clothes washer quit working right about the time we bought the lake house. (Isn’t that how it always goes) So we had to get new ones. Yay!

Speaking of clothes washers… the HE-front load washers are a good $1000 more than the one you see above. To me, they’re not worth getting. It’ll take 10 years before you can recoup that extra $1000.

Or maybe we’re just tightwads and are perfectly happy with our less-than-$400 washer. Hmm… yep, that’s probably it.