Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

I thought of you late last night when I went out to check on everything before bed there was the biggest slug I have ever seen crawling up the foundation of the Chicken Palace. It was stretched out and was a good 5" long and fatter than my thumb.
I tried to get you a picture but it was dark and I was carrying stuff and I couldn't get flash to work.
I think even my ladies would have had trouble with that monster!
And indeed I was just like you:

 

[Marie2020]

BY Bob to the Rescue

Monday
I arrived at my daughter's on Monday night and they had gotten their part done. The floor and tub were tiled and the walls painted. The first thing I did Monday night was to install the toilet.

There had been no toilet for a week. Did I mention the house only has 1 bathroom and was built in 1948.

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There was no door so I grabbed a rug I keep in my car for emergencies and tacked it up.
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Since it took me 7 hours to drive there, it was midnight Monday when the toilet was operational.

Tuesday
We woke up early Tuesday and went to work. Tuesday's priorities in order of installation.

1. Vanity Light
2. Medicine Cabinet
3. Vanity
4. Sink and faucet
5. Caulk tub
6. Install shower head and shower fixtures

By the end of the day, all was completed but a flaw was identified in the shower control knob. The shower was usable but it was 12:30 am when we were done and showers would wait until morning.

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Wednesday
It was hard waking up on Wednesday until you realized a shower was waiting. Everyone showered before we got started. There were a lot of smiles.

The big project on Wednesday was to install a new door. I hate installing doors. Along with the door we wanted to install

• GFI outlet
• Towel rack
• Toilet paper holder
• Exhaust fan
• Baseboard molding
• Window trim
• Marble window sill
• Bathroom door trim
• Door knob

We got the door installed, outlet, towel rack, exhaust fan, toilet paper holder, baseboard, and marble window sill.

It was when I was working on the window trim when I made my first error. It was about midnight and I mis-measured a cut on the left side trim. I had them purchase extra trim but before I cut that window trim again I wanted to cut the door trim.

Once I cut the door trim I uncovered issues mounting it to the door frame. Nothing was even. The door frame, studs, and wall were all at different depths. There was no good way to fasten the trim. At that point I pulled the plug on everything. I put on the door knob and sent everyone to bed around 1:30 am.

Thursday
I only had a half day on Thursday as I had to drive home. Everyone was up early and off to the home improvement store we went. After searching through all the trim options, I found two things which would make a nice fix. We bought the trim and headed back.

Everything went together beautifully. It turned out like it was designed that way. I finished the window trim and I was done.

Close up door trim. There are 4 pieces of wood making up this trim. I am still surprised at how well it came out.
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The rest was on them. I left them with a functioning bathroom again.

As I pulled out of their driveway, my son-in-law's father pulled in to complete the electrical and help with finishing the trim and painting the door.

Here is the bathroom as I left it.

Bathroom door, inside

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Outside
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Vanity, sink, medicine cabinet, and window.
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Window and bath tile.
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Bath tile and shower fixtures
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Light fixture and exhaust fan
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Water running into the tub.
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Well done Bob

Would you and your dear wife (brilliant cook) like to come and visit me please.

Not to say I would have you working here the whole time and your wife doing what I've heard she is amazing at

 

[Marie2020]

I thought of you late last night when I went out to check on everything before bed there was the biggest slug I have ever seen crawling up the foundation of the Chicken Palace. It was stretched out and was a good 5" long and fatter than my thumb.
I tried to get you a picture but it was dark and I was carrying stuff and I couldn't get flash to work.
I think even my ladies would have had trouble with that monster!
And indeed I was just like you:

I'm so pleased your camera didn't get that shot.

I was looking up worms in chickens last week and then had a horrible dream about chicken poops and wriggling worms.

I honestly do not need any dreams on these slugs.
I'm not kissing my chickens ever again. No way

 

[BY Bob]

Amazing!! Good job!!!

Thanks. I'm still tired Saturday morning. Moving slow.

 

[BY Bob]

Bluey put that word in your vocabulary?

You know it. I love it!

 

[BY Bob]

Woohoo! Well done, Bob. What a dedicated dad you are!

Thanks so much. I do what I can. These were things I could do.

 

[BY Bob]

Remember it was your description of your lovely Patsy and Lily that pushed me over the edge when I was contemplating if Marans might be for me. I will be forever thankful for that as they were everything you said and more. I love them.

They say you have influences in life that you will never realize. I'm sad that I do not remember that exchange with you but I am so happy with how well it has worked out for you.

They really are wonderful chickens.

 

[RoyalChick]

I did it! I am feeling proud of myself because I actually got the Shad method of taking a chicken off the roost to work for me. Admittedly not with Maggie - but to give Diana her medicine last night it worked like a dream. Very proud of myself - feels like a useful new skill.
I also have a question - I am doing a much-needed tidying up of chicken 'stuff' - mainly I bought in a panic when I first got the Princesses because I wanted to be a good Mom and have everything a chicken needed. In the heap are two bags of food grade diatomaceous earth. Why would I need that? I think people add it to dust baths - is that why it was on my essential chicken supplies list? Or should I have been doing something with it all along and I have been neglectful of my ladies?

 

[BY Bob]

Yes Daisy is a Black Copper Marans. She lays a super dark egg, but she is one of my 2 pure hens that are clean legged. Her daughter Clover is also a pure Marans and inherited her mom's clean legs. She also lays a egg almost as dark as her mom.

And she is beautiful!

 

[BY Bob]

As long as there is one functional bathroom, it’s not a problem, it doesn’t even need to be nice or pretty; but if you have a 1 or 1.5 bathroom house and it’s torn apart and abandoned by the contractor… that bathroom becomes the priority really fast! We had a downstairs one to use while we renovated ours, inconvenient but not impossible. It took me a whole week to get complete and boy was I glad my uncle made us finish the basement suites bathroom before tearing out ours! For a while there was just a bed sheet tacked up between our roommates bedroom and the bathroom. We literally re-plumbed the entire house (while my Uncle did no silicone involved) and replaced the main ventilation stack as well, which was why the wall was totally missing… there was no getting the cast iron pipe out with the wall intact!

Excellent advice. Unfortunately, they only had 1 bathroom.