bumblefoot

Lucretia, my free flying spunky little leghorn, developed something called bumble foot - 

most likely due to her high jumps off the tall fence every day. 

It is an infection chickens can get from small cuts in their feet. It swells up and develops an infection which gets hard and turns into a type of kernel. 

When infected, a staph infection, it can lead to death in the bird. 

I could not let that happen to my girl.

So I read up a lot about in on the web and we decided to try the surgery ourselves. 

We set up surgery outside in the gorgeous sun for the best light we could get. 

(I wonder what the neighbors were thinking about our set up when they were driving  by.....)

Soaking the her feet to get them soft was the first step. 
Holding a Chicken in warm epson salt water for 15 minutes is more exhausting that I thought, as you know from my post about Lucretia how freedom loving this gal is. 

Then we wrapped her in a towel and Robert gently scraped, cut and pulled the infectious core out of her feet while I held her and the feet still. 

I was surprised how calm she was during it all. She barely moved during the first foot surgery, and got a little twitchy on the obviously more infected one. But overall she did great. 

The whole procedure took a good amount of time, and it was more emotionally taxing than it was technically difficult. I think we got it all out, bandaged her up and now she is segregated from the others in a little dog carrier. Which also breaks my heart. But until she is mostly healed and the swelling in her one foot has gone down, I need to keep her separate from the others, clean her bandages ever day and pray she makes a full recovery.

As I know how sensitive some of you in the audience are to gore, I did not take any pictures and won't post any of the surgery. 

new canning shelves

today was my first day back in the studio all month. 

After doing the first milling of the wood for my next commission, 

I built these new canning shelves in the guest room closet.

             

I know its not a very pretty or artistic thing to do my first day back,
but it was a necessary thing to do.
all 6 of my other canning shelves are brimming over with all kinds of canned and dried goods:

it was a good and easy project to get back into the swing of things.

now there is plenty of room for canning more things delicious!

peppers:

-jalapeños stuffed with cheddar and cream cheese, sweet peppers stuffed with cheddar and venison-

dill pickles:

-pickle me this-

todays garden:

-a beautiful sandy in the garden-

-squash blossoms still cranking-

-lettuce-

-mini gherkins-

-morning glories-

-some of the last tomatoes-

-dinner!!-

carrots got harvested today:

- best and biggest harvest we have had yet! -

chalkboard ledge 2:

here are some images that the owner of the chalkboard ledge sent me of it mounted in place 

in its new home in Nashville, TN

its nice to get these, as often i have no clue where my work ends up or how it looks like in place.

.....how cools is that spoon collection on the wall??

chicken and waffles:

I guess it means I am turning into a southern girl when I have a craving for chicken and waffles:

these were delicious gluten free waffles, grilled chicken with a breadding of gluten free, multigrain Puffins, and eggs from our chickens, topped off with homemade apple sauce. ohyeahbaby!

Lucretia: caught in the act:

here is a pretty blurry photo taken with my ever-dustier-getting camera: lucretia flying the coop

chalkboard ledge:

recently i received a little commission via the interweb from a lady who asked me to make her a ledge to go with her chalkboard-paint painted kitchen wall:

Sandy helped a lot, once more. she is awesome.

46"long, 2.5" deep and high - made from locally sourced cherry, 

grooves carved into it to keep the chalk from rolling off, 

little hooks to hang rags/sponge/whatever on, 

finished with danish oil -hand-rubbed - as they like to call it.

Lucretia:

i have a chicken. 

her name is Lucretia. 

she is a white leghorn. 

she is a crazy free-spirited spunky little one. 

she is not to be caged in. 

she will get out of her habitat. 

it used to be just once a day.

after she lays her egg, she gets very excited, makes a lot of noise, 

flies about 5 feet high on top of a ledge on the fence, 

struts around, then flies over the other side, and explores the yard.

i used to have to catch her and guide her back in. 

she is not to be caught. 

nor is she guided back in if she isn't ready yet. 

recently she figured out how to get back inside the chicken habitat all by herself.

she finds just the right spot, flies back up, then jumps back over on the other side.

i am so very thankful she has figured it out. 

it makes me worry about her less.

since this has happened, we have seen her out and about the yard at least 4 times a day. 

brain keeps an eye on her.

we watch her, too, if we are at home.

it is way better than tv.

and one day I will have some pictures capturing this crazy event.