Friday's Hunt v. 4.06

Last night I was at my spinning group evening, so I didn't get around to doing Friday's Hunt until today, Saturday.  The prompts this week are Starts with F, New, and Self Portrait.

Starts with F
Fungus starts with F.  Here is a little mushroom that I found this week in the goat and sheep area. It has been very dry here for the past few weeks, if not months, so we do not have much fungus growing in the form of mushrooms in the woods.  This one was the only one I found.  I don't know the species and I doubt it's edible, but I liked the glowing creamy surface colour and the way that it somehow managed to avoid being stepped on by one of my critters!

New
I am really excited about my new chicken coop that is still in the process of being built.  There used to be a dog house in the yard which was fine, except that our dog doesn't use a dog house, and it wasn't useful for much else!  Here's how it used to look from the balcony on our bedroom.

And here's how it looks now!  I tried to take the picture from the same angle - the old one above was from the house listing photos from before we bought it, so the tree on the right is larger now.

I really wanted to re-use the roof, which was extremely well built with cedar shingles and proper ventilation.  This dog house was built like a fortress!  It took the guys who were building it for me several hours to dismantle the dog house enough to get the roof to a point that it could be lifted. They created a frame on which the roof rested while they built the taller walls for the chicken coop. 
This way I will have a small but secure coop that I can easily enter and clean out entirely.  The chickens will have plenty of space for nesting boxes and roosting places.  This is much more useful than a dog house for us.

Quite quickly, the new walls were up and in place.

The roof had to be put back in place using a tractor with forks on the front.  It was a delicate operation.

The guys didn't exactly follow standard safety procedures (the kind that I write about for my clients!) but they did a great job and the roof was carefully put into place and re-attached to the new building walls.

Now they just need to install the door and the board above the door and the coop will be complete.  I still need to build a few nesting boxes and roosting areas.

There is even a 3 foot square window with a screen installed, for ventilation and sunshine.

There is an electrical box on the back of the coop that used to power heated blankets that the former owner used in the dog house.  Now I will use it for the heated water bucket for the chickens in the winter.  When I opened the panel after the building was finished yesterday, I found some existing residents.  I didn't have the heart to evict them - they are so adorable!

I will try to find them a new home away from the electrical wires and re-house them.  Maybe I will build a mouse house on the back of the coop.

Self Portrait
I didn't like this category very much, because I don't like pictures of myself very much.  I took this picture in my yarn and fibre area today using the self timer.  I took it in this place because I wanted not only a picture of myself, but a picture that shows what is on the inside, just as much as what is on the outside.  Here, I am surrounded by things that I adore.  I love yarn and fibre, and my loom (to the left of the picture - my hand is resting on it).  I love colour - especially bright greens and blues.  I have rabbit and chicken figurines on the top of my shelves - favourite animals of mine.  I have some hedgehogs up there too.  In the background are things from my childhood like my mouse house (the bright yellow item on the bookshelf top in the back) and the miniature display case my Dad made on the wall.  There are mice that my mom made in the mouse house.  It's also a bit of organized chaos in my craft area, which is rather like my brain - organized chaos.  So even though I don't like self portraits, I do like the things that surround me, and the they are the things that make me who I am.

Tree Ornaments

It was great to spend time with my parents, decorating their Christmas tree.  Our family tree has many ornaments on it, a large majority of which are handmade.  Some also come from trips that have been taken to various places, with the ornament having been purchased as a memory of that trip.  It is wonderful to get the ornaments out each year and remember their stories.  I thought I would share some of the ornaments (especially sheep themed ones!) for a post to share with the All Seasons meme hosted by Jesh in California.  Lots of pictures here, so sit back with a cup of tea and enjoy!

Here's a little cross-stitched ornament I made many years ago as part of a set of 4 farm-themed stockings.  There's a sheep, a chicken, a bird feeder, and a pig.  They're cute little ornaments that fit our mostly-handmade theme.  You can see a handmade straw ornament from Europe in this picture to the lower left.

Here's a little alpaca ornament that I love - so fluffy!  I crocheted the star on the right, and my mom needle-felted the owl on the left.  We do love fibre arts!

Here's another little woolly sheep with a scarf to keep her warm.

This sheep is one of a set of 3 ceramic ornaments - a sheep, a cow and a pig.  They are quite heavy so this one needs to go on a sturdy branch.  To the right, you'll see a wee nativity scene that is a very old wooden ornament, and in the background there's a wooden bird that I bought on a visit to Prague.

Here's a pear that I knitted for the tree (yes, there's a partridge, keep scrolling!) and next to it is a little felted hen sitting in a golden walnut shell nest.  My mom made a set of those cute hen ornaments!

Here's the partridge - but he's crocheted, not knitted.

This lovely woolly sheep is a Nova Scotian artist's ornament - such a neat design.  Behind it is a felt snowman couple that was made for me when I was a little child by my next door neighbor's grandmother.  She made several lovely ornaments for me then.  I think that was about 40 years ago.  There's also a star made from wood shavings under the sheep.

This is a silk hand-painted parrot ornament - very tropical!

Here's another sweet little hen on her walnut shell nest!  My mom does a great job on her needle-felted ornaments.

I don't recall where this ornament came from but it is so cute!  It's a little mouse and she's sitting inside a thimble, which you can't see in this picture.   Very detailed work, but so effective!

This is one of my mother's favourites - it's a little wooden tree with cut-out gingerbread men hanging on it.  We haven't seen any like this again - quite unusual.

 Yet another woolly felted sheep!

This little dog on a cushion is an ornament I made in my teens.  I made ornaments to sell one year, and this was one of the designs.  They sold really well!  We still have a couple of these on the tree.

Here's a traditional Christmas pudding that I crocheted.

Here's a sweet little felt mouse in a stocking, handmade and embroidered by my mom.  It's one of my favourite ornaments, too!

This owl was also made by my childhood friend's grandmother.  A simple but cute design!

My parents have a Welsh Terrier, Bella.  She's their third Welshie, and here's an ornament depicting a Welsh Terrier made out of felt.  You can also see a couple of ceramic mouse ornaments from an artist I like who has ornaments made of some of her paintings.

This pair of mice are also hand-made from felt by my mother, and she gave them very snazzy outfits for the holidays!

This mouse is another cute ornament, although I don't remember where it came from.  He's wearing a sweet little chef's hat and carrying a candy cane.

I hope you've enjoyed this little tree "tour" around some of my favourite ornaments, and maybe even have some ideas of some ornaments to make for yourself!