Vacation....Tennessee style!

Finally!  After nearly 2 years...we made it back to our favorite stomping grounds....Chattanooga, TN.  This trip was specifically engineered around attending the 2016, 4 Bridges Art Festival...as a personal favorite of mine...not to mention was my birthday week.

We usually take our two toy fox terriers (which is always a hoot) to romp around in the woods with us (they make great tick magnets).  Chris and Pieces are sporting a smile in the photo below.  This time we purposely chose places to hike that would be least likely to have ticks crawling around. (That worked out real well...only one tick this trip.)

We also visited some of our other mutual-favorite places in the "nooga" such as McKay's Used Books, The North Chatt Cat (which is now the Pub), various shops and galleries on Frazier Ave and a few new one's on Main Street.

Thrilled to have AMAZING weather...we stomped around North Chickamauga creek which is an amazing outdoor extravaganza of mountain stream meets mountain trails.  Dodi...pictured here with me above...especially loves swimming but he didn't seem too crazy with the numbing cold temps of the fresh mountain water here. 

Seems like we were both especially drawn to water this trip. Most of what we spent our time doing involved the Tennessee River one way or another.  Here's the TN river above in front of the TVA Raccoon Mountain complex. Both dogs did play around in the water here some...and we just soaked in the beauty of the place...one moment at a time.

No vacation experience is complete without some wings and beer so naturally we visited Buffalo Wild Wings in Downtown Chattanooga.  We enjoyed sitting on the patio while watching the Grackles and Sparrows sweep in and grab the bits of fries on the ground.  Probably could have fed them by hand if we wanted to.

And then there was the actual birth date!  Here I am above enjoying a birthday morning campfire...in the still of the morning.  Doesn't get much better than that!

Stay tuned...always more adventures to come!

Spring turkey aerobics..

Well, it's that time of year again...where any available wild turkey tom comes to visit.  Who then visits over a period of days...and challenges our tom through the fence in an effort to court our female turkey.  It's quite entertaining to watch.

This year's wild tom visitor we have already named "TJ" for "Tom Junior" as he's been hanging around for about a week now.  My GOODNESS look how BIG he is!  (TJ is the one on the right in the photo above and our Tom is on the left.) Sugar Pea (our female) doesn't seem to be all that interested in TJ.  Time will tell I suppose.

Guess we shall see what happens.  In the mean time, we don't dare open the fence for the males to get a chance to fight one another. We're betting that our tom would likely be injured at best and possibly even fatally at worst.  So they can just do the turkey tom aerobics through the fence...until one of them decides enough is enough.

So goes the adventures of random wildlife showing up in our backyard.

Stay tuned for more adventures!


*******UPDATE*******
Well, Sugar pea disappeared with I assume to be the wild male tom for about a week. She has since returned and we no longer get visits from the male tom. So...time did tell.  We are glad sugar pea returned. We like her here.

Chicken celebrities!!!

It's happened!!!  Our chickens are totally legit now!

I opened up the May/June issue of Chicken Magazine today to find our photo published!!

Hokey Toe is a STAR!! (she's the brown hen on the right and the only hen still living from when this photo was taken. The three barred rocks at the top we gave away because they were mean bullies, the black hen in the center disappeared one day [we so miss her...the only hen we've had that hatched multiple groups of chicks], hokey toe is on the right...note she has short toes because just after we got her from a neighboring farm she had frostbite on her toes and Amelia is in the front...who unfortunately also disappeared one day)

THANK YOU Chicken Magazine!

Although the image of our girls wasn't selected as the winner to receive one of those super COOL nite-guard devices...still fabulous to see our birds published nonetheless!

I probably should write the nite-guard company and explain to them that only one of the six birds shown in this photo is still living...therefore...we NEED your device.

Anyhow, what FUN to enter and be one of this months' 7 finalists!

Next up....to enter the "rooster of the year" and "hen of the year" photo contest!

Free rent! Tenants wanted.

   

   

   

 

 

 

I've been inspired by the season.  The SONGBIRDS are back!!!

Red-Winged black birds, Robins (of course), blue birds, blue jays (these guys stuck around all winter) and the vultures to name a few.  Haven't seen the little wrens yet....but we're ready for their arrival!

So....I decided to make preparations for their baby hatching needs...and build birdhouses.  And what FUN it is to build birdhouses.

First I started with tweaking the birdhouses we already had that were in various forms of dis-array.  And now I'm started to design and build my own from scratch.

I absolutely love designing new things with re-purposed and various found objects.  Currently my rainproof roofing material comes from re-purposing colorful beer and energy drink and tea cans. 

Have many many more ideas in the works.  Eventually these birdhouses will be for sale...but for now...they are being put through my outdoor birdhouse lab tests for user friendliness and functionality and such.

Unfortunately, I don't have any tenants at present.  Excited to see just who might come to roost!

Stay tuned as I'll be posting updates as to if any of these houses prove to assist any bird birthings.

free rent

I've recently been bitten by the bug to build my own little bird houses.  I've traced out a ton of ideas...and have lots of old barn wood to work with. 

But I started first with re-working some old bird houses we already had laying around in need of repair or a face-lift.  Who knew how fun it is to build bird houses!!  Definitely have many many more in my future to create...so far I've completed four. Free rent for any songbird seeking a place to raise their young!

The photo of this bird house here shows my attempt at a graffiti type look...not really sure if birds will mind sharing the same space like this...but time will tell.

And....furthermore....I NOW have an excellent reason to buy some of those bright crazy-colored spray paints that Lowe's offers.  I think bird houses are supposed to be brightly colored...but...my jury is still out on that.

Yeah!!

TWO years in a row! Way to go Bell!

Super proud of Isabella (Bell)! She is Chris' 16 year old who recently created these two paintings.

Second year in a row now Bell received an award for her art entry into the annual Black Swamp Art Association's high school art competition!  Last year it was for a 3d ceramic piece. (click here if you want to see last year's entry) This year it was for her two abstracted acrylic paintings on vinyl records for which she received the award for "Outstanding entry in mixed media.".

Congratulations Bell!! We are proud of you! and We think you're pretty outstanding too!

Simplification at it's finest!

I'm a HUGE fan of the iHouse (shown above, Clayton Homes experiment with modern modular homes)...or I WAS a fan.

Unfortunately, my dream of owning and living in one of these super-cool, simple yet modern homes won't come to fruition because Clayton Homes quit manufacturing them.  Figures.
(I even went to Maryville, TN a few years ago where they made these cool houses to see the display model for myself! So cool!!)

So anyhow...my newest idea on the subject is along the lines of the recent trend of "Tiny Houses"...but in more of a re-purposed sort of way.  The whole idea being that of simplify, Simplify, SIMPLIFY!  Love the idea of living small.  Who needs tons of stuff anyway?

Railroad Shipping Containers
 

I spend a lot of time these days looking at railroad shipping containers seeing as I work as a conductor for the Norfolk Southern Railroad.  So the concept of living in one or more of these shipping containers is WAY COOL to me! 

Container Homes














Shown above is just one sample of the sweetness of the design possibilities of a shipping container home.

One day...maybe I can make this happen. Downsize into a container less that 200 square feet?  We shall see!!

First things first...gotta convince Chris that this is really a great idea.  I think that so long as there are modern conveniences I stand a chance.  She's already told me a composting toilet was out of the question.  hmmm, well I might can still work in an outdoor shower though. 

Regardless, adventure awaits.  Always!