It's pronounced Matt 😉

[Chick-N-Fun]

Welcome to our FUNomenal community!
Best wishes.....Be well!

 

[emMAyTeeTee]

Sounds beautiful! Looking forward to hearing about the addition of chickens.

I met my first cochins at what was then called OLD Fort William in Thunder Bay. We did historical re-enacting there, and cochins from the park's farm would wander over every morning to see if they could scavenge any of our breakfast.

Among my flock today are two bantam cochins -- who do not get to share my breakfast!

I greatly enjoyed your "rambling" into and expect more in the future. Welcome to the group.

There's a fat blue Cochin (yes blue) roosting on top of the cabinet above the microwave in our kitchen keeping an eye on the comings and goings. She's there to remind use not to overcook the eggs. Lok
She's potter born and aside from a bath now and again very low maintenance. Lol
I guess that's my first chicken so far
Convincing someone else the benefits of keeping a few birds around the yard is the hard part for me... We'll see how that goes.

 

[emMAyTeeTee]

Welcome to our FUNomenal community!
Best wishes.....Be well!

Thank you!
Nice pun.

 

[Brahmachicken240]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens!

Feel free to drop in and share your flock

Updates for 2020 with us here in my 2020 flock life thread



https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/2020-flock-life.1351080/

It’s nice to meet you!
great introduction!

 

[emMAyTeeTee]

Hello, Matt, and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Incredible introduction! When you convert some rooms over for your bed-n-breakfast, please extend me an invitation! Are dogs welcome?
Speaking of dogs... and you are an auto upholsterer, what type of fabric can be put on the roof of a vehicle so that it does not attract Doberman hairs by the thousands and never let them go? I have the hairs of 7 different Dobermans embedded in the roof of my current car like the quills of a porcupine, never to come out again. I was thinking vinyl is the only thing that will stop this.

Thanks for the warm greeting.
Love pups. I used to work in K9 security with both red and black dobes (amongst other various breeds). My truck was full of hair! Our Molly's gone now. She was a jack russell terrier and there's white hair in vehicles she was never in! Every customer vehicle I've had ended up with Molly hair custom detailing, often stitched in! Smooth coated dogs actually shed more than a rough coated or curly breed. There are options for your headliner issues. Most modern(30 years or so) car headliners are foam backed very light knit fabrics that collect hair, dust, stains... But they look great and are very easy to install in production time frames. They also insulate nicely making for a quieter more comfortable cabin. But the more you try to clean it the worse it is going to look. They pill easily and the foam to fabric bond is affected by any cleaning method. Microfiber cloths with a spritz of clean water just to slightly dampen the cloth is the only cleaning agent that I professionally recommend. Steaming is an option but can be problematic in itself.
One shop I worked in had several shop dogs and I've spent time trying to get Saint Bernard hair out of a fresh new bright red carpet for a thunderbird that had been laid out in the sun prior to install. Apparently new carpets are better than dog beds.
A rubber bristle pet brush works marvels for stripping a smooth coat btw. It also might help clean your headliner of hairs. But yeah vinyl or leather are better options. Also non - brushed polyester like used in newer Jeep Wranglers with hose down interiors are an option.
As for Bn'B, there's a few near me. My friend Joe has a wonderful retreat overlooking lake Erie from his century barn. It shares property with his stone cottage home.

 

[DobieLover]

A rubber bristle pet brush works marvels for stripping a smooth coat btw. It also might help clean your headliner of hairs.

I use one on her and a soft bristle horse face brush to brush away the loose hair and dander.
I've tried everything to get the hairs out of the roof of my car. Weeks with tweezers is my only option, so, yeah, they're staying put!
I want vinyl for the roof material in my next car. The manufacturer can back it with whatever they want. I just want something more practical for hauling my girl around in.

 

[emMAyTeeTee]

Your descriptive prowess leave me in awe, then you gave us a picture too, I am so jealous. Makes my scrawny unkept half an acre seem miniscule. Welcome home to BBYC and let us know what you get. Personally I have been wanting to try cochins myself...

You're very kind!
It's not difficult but does take effort to make it look good. Most of the time it's in desperate need of attention somewhere. Half acre is much better to work on than four acres of yard. That's what I had before to garden.
I have both a gardener and a lawnmower rider in the house. Lawns get cut as much as three times a week when he's bored and the weather permits. Having a rototiller makes things easier! I have retired from landscape horticulture as it's getting hard on the body. The gardens you see were not there in 2011 save for the mature trees and lilacs and two globe Cedars fifty plus years old flanking the porch steps. Everything else came in the move from the old house my family built in 1944-5. I need to move some hostas this spring and make a new bed for those who have outgrown where they are now. Some I have will be six feet across soon and require some extra attention more than their smaller counterparts. I edge the driveway every few years and that really makes visual impact!
Ooooh! Also, design beds so that somebody doesn't have to get off the mower at all. We do not edge trim here more than once a year! Spring cleanup is it! Thoughtful bed placement be damned. Let the lawn grow a few extra days then ride your mower around and drop the deck and cut where you want your lawn to be, leaving the tall grass where the beds will be dug. Leave it for a few weeks. You'll get the idea of what the bed placement will look like. Put some potted annuals in the "bed" for visual impact if you need more visual cues. If you change your mind about placement just cut the grass and try again. Gardening an estate is more abstract painterly than architecturally strict in my opinion. Have fun and enjoy yourself. If you don't like what you see, alter it until you do. If you don't enjoy doing it what's the point of having it? I have a few beds that I do not enjoy. My rose bed needs a redo from scratch and a few new additions this year. Most of it will be burnt in a drum. It's very shoddy at the moment and an eye sore. It's NOT pictured lol.
I'm educated in plant lore and know what I like. David Austin roses and old fashioned rambling roses with fantastic perfume that perhaps only bloom for a short time but put their all into it. Irises and lilies and anything with interesting foliage. I grow perennials in a border in front of the roses because they are fleeting in their beauty. Right now everything is neglected and hideous after a years hiatus from the gardens and two winters worth of news to tidy up. Much work ahead for that rose bed.
Gardens are a lifelong project that one tinkers with and toils in. Landscaped architectural beddings are a lower maintenance option more easily kept. Proper design is worth paying for, specially if you are not passionate about being outside and gardening.
But my gardens are more intuitive and left more to their own organic devices than not once they are planted. They literally get ignored a lot once they are established.

 

[emMAyTeeTee]

I use one on her and a soft bristle horse face brush to brush away the loose hair and dander.
I've tried everything to get the hairs out of the roof of my car. Weeks with tweezers is my only option, so, yeah, they're staying put!
I want vinyl for the roof material in my next car. The manufacturer can back it with whatever they want. I just want something more practical for hauling my girl around in.

It's a minor detail, but so worthy of consideration isn't it? Custom headliner upgrades are available. I've done start from scratch on classic cars and I've installed kits for factory products for restorations. Any headliner can be wrapped in new materials.
Check out Jeeps and Toyota suv's for the headliner choices. If it's in production vehicles chances are its available to the aftermarket industry as well. I cruise car lots and dealerships now and then just to educate myself on what's out there for options. I should do it more often than I do lol.

 

[drumstick diva]

Thank you for joining us at Backyard Chickens.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Welcome, welcome! Love the intro... er.... you really must promise us a murder mystery/romance/tragedy/something in this beautiful setting. Anyone who writes like you do owes it to his readers to devise a well-crafted novel worthy of that word-crafting! Get busy now, we are all waiting!!!