Masks and distance and more...

 I had to zip out to buy a quart of paint for a project on Friday. On my way home I saw this masked shrubbery and laughed out loud. I had to pull over and snap a picture of it. It's wonderful when people share their sense of humor with the passing world. 

The local store has this sign on the door. Mainer humor delights me. 

Talk radio was playing while I drove, the man was postulating that he believes there will be food shortages in the coming months. Normally I order broiler chicks every spring and raise them to put in the freezer. Because so many people are home and not at work now, lots of people are buying chicks, and the company I normally order mine from is sold out. I was regretting that I had not put my order in a few weeks ago. No sooner did I arrive at home when Marion pulled up and dashed to the door. "Tractor Supply has broiler chicks, but not many. You should get over there and grab some."  I didn't have anything set up to house chicks, and I didn't want to leave home because I had a contractor here working on a project. So I called Rachel. She and her husband had hoped I would raise some birds for their freezer this year, too, so she agreed to drive to the store and get the chicks. This left me time to rig up housing for them. I went out to the pasture and pushed, pulled, dragged, hauled and muckled a heavy, awkward, calf hutch across the paddock, out one gate, through another gate, up over the lawn, through a third gate, and into the garage. Then I found our heat lamp, feeder and chick water container. I got the feeder and water container cleaned and arranged the heat lamp so it was safely affixed. Then I put a thick layer of pine shavings down and waited.  After a while Rachel appeared with a peeping box. 

40 downy chicks were snuggled in the box, and we tucked them into their new home and sat watching a while as they explored, ate, drank and settled into an adorable pile under the warm, rosy glow of the light. New little faces at FairWinds. 

The contractor I mentioned was here laying a new floor in the grooming studio. The old floor was original wood and I hated to cover it up. When we first turned the porch into a grooming studio we painted the floor. It was badly weathered and had dark water stains that couldn't be repaired. The paint looked nice, but had to be redone every year or so, and that was a project. It was also nearly impossible to sanitize, and if a nervous dog urinated, the liquid would vanish into the cracks of the floor. So I made the decision to put industrial grade linoleum down. It was early when he arrived, "I'm Guy," he said, and went right to work. First he laid a sub-floor of plywood. Then he used thick paper and made a template of the space. He rolled that up and took it back to the shop. After an hour or so he was back, with one, long, perfect sheet of flooring. 

This is what the floor looked like before.

 Here is Guy, on the newly installed sub-floor. Before he left to go back to the shop I asked him if he thought they  might have an remnants there. Our ducks live in a calf hutch in the hen yard. There is no floor, it sets right on dirt, and that makes it tricky to clean. It occurred to me that if I had a piece of flooring under it removing soiled shavings would be much easier. I explained what I wanted to him and he nodded, thinking.

When he came back he was all smiles. He had a perfectly sized piece of linoleum for my ducks. "Look at the pattern," he said, proudly. "It looks like rocks, they will feel right at home. There was another piece but it had black speckles on it and I thought that might drive them crazy, thinking it was bugs to eat." It's hard to know who was more pleased, me because I'd scored a nice duck floor, or him for choosing such an appropriate pattern.

I puttered around doing things, nervously waiting until I got to see the floor. Choosing it was tricky... looking at tiny samples and trying to imagine what the pattern will look like covering an entire room was a real challenge.  Finally the time came, and I was delighted to see how light, bright and clean the whole place looked.

The dogs checked it out and seemed to approve. Now I need to get everything back in and nicely arranged. I'm itching to redecorate a little while I'm at it. Perhaps the end results will show up in my next post.