Woo Hoo!  I put the second coat of polyurethane on today.  It took me five hours for each coat.  I will be officially done with the stairs after I take the painters tape off and tighten the shoes back down.  So here are the stairs in all their glory.  Be glad you didn’t have to do the work.

As soon as I got the last of the coat on the stairs I went out to the chicken coop to add my little outside enclosure for the baby chicks.  I got the frame work up and ready for chicken wire.  I ran out of time to get it covered before it got dark.  I just dug through the scrap wood pile to find stuff to use.  Annmarie came out to inspect (talk to me) my work and she noticed a dead chicken under the coop.   The cats had moved a rock skirting the coop and they were dragging my baby chickens they killed under the coop to snack on.  The chickens were under the coop too far to reach.  So I just rocked it over and left it.  When I went inside it was starting to smell in the storage room (dead chickens underneath coop).  So something to look forward to for the next three weeks.  So on Wednesday I will get the enclosure covered up.  I am getting a solid 18 eggs a day now, from about 29 chickens.  After the babies are bigger I will lock up the hens a couple at a time and start thinning out the ones that are not laying.  I only have 11 babies out of the original 24 I started with this Summer.

Above is my new enclosure for the babies.  The section farthest from the window is were the babies are kept inside the coop.  So my door will go in that four foot section of the wall.  You can see the top rails at the top of the picture.  I used an old screen door that was kicking around the farmhouse that I kept (just in case I would need it) for a door into the yard.  I think I will even plant some more grass in here (now if I can just get the chickens to leave it alone).  I just need to hook up the sprinkler system(attach it to an outside hose)  I added to the coop two years ago.  I am going to put a wire roof over the top of the baby enclosure.  NO MORE dead babies.  Fort Knox for the babies.  You can see the rocks I have piled up at the base of the chicken coop.

Here are the lucky survivors checking out their new abode (they don’t know it yet).  Eleven babies (did I say that already?  11 out of 24)  I had a Turken (chicken with no feathers on its neck, or naked neck chicken) but it got eaten.  All my other odd random 79 cent chickens survived.  I tried to feather sex the cheap chickens when I picked them up.  We will know in another 3 months if I got it right or not.  The black and white mottled chickens are silver laced wyandotte pullets (baby hens).  The white crested chicken is a Polish.  Three of the multiple color chickens are supposed to be Araucaunas (probably just easter egger chickens).  The little tan chicken is a banty brahma and the Big chicken next to the banty is a surprise.  I don’t what it is.

I am gonna sleep well tonight, starting to yawn and crash, later.

I am actually making progress on the stairs.  Some days it seems like the project will never get done.  On Friday I had to go pick up more stain and polyurethane to finish the floor.  I had used the last of the stain on Tuesday night.  I used the last of the three year old stain.  Which means it came out very dark.  Very dark.  It is having to grow on me.  So on Friday I used some of the stain to spot touch up and get ready for the sealant.  I spent Friday night till 0200 putting clear coat on the hallway and stairs.  Now mind you, Sarah has been sleeping at her Great Grandmother’s house all week and Annmarie has been sleeping on the futon in the living room. It is getting old.  The futon is pretty good, but not something I want to sleep on for eternity.  The floor was ready for a second coat of sealant yesterday, but I had told Ruby (Great Grandmother) that I would come down and help plant her garden this weekend.  That translated out to mean Saturday for her, and then my Dad’s wheelchair broke and he called Saturday morning.  So I just went over and took the broken part off and fixed the other wheelchair so he could use it temporarily.  Then I went down and helped plant a garden.  Her neighbor had made three elevated beds with rails she could sit on.  Well, we planted all three beds and then I dug four spots for pole beans then we planted three rows of corn, but when she started talking about pumpkins I drew the line!!  Her garden is very large and we planted the hole thing last year.   Ruby is 85 years old and doesn’t like weeds.  So she was out there every day last year trying to beat the weeds back.  I went over every week.  We couldn’t keep up.  So this year the plan was boxes only, I will weed eat the weeds and throw straw down so the weeds don’t get out of control.  So we were not going to plant anything in the ground.  Now we have onions (left over from last year), snow peas (she and Sarah planted 3 weeks ago), four sets of pole beans with poles in ground and three rows of corn.  Plus, she wants me to get pots for her rock garden so she can plant some herbs.  I needed to finish rebuilding the rock garden (we ripped it up last year, was overgrown with weeds and needed a new border) as it is only partially complete.  So I have to add that onto the do soon list.  It was mid afternoon by the time that was done.  


Annmarie and I went to the Live Action Pendleton Underground Tours last night.  They do an annual fundraiser where  volunteers come and play different parts during the tour.  It was good, we enjoyed ourselves.  The tour is fantastic.  I have done the underground tour in Seattle and San Francisco and Pendleton’s is hands down the best.  At one point in Pendleton there were over 70 miles of tunnels throughout the city built mostly by the Chinese railroad workers.  We had dinner afterwards and came home.  It was our Anniversary present to ourselves.  I will post pictures of the stairs soon.  


The chickens are still locked up in their chicken yard.  I need to add a pen for the babies before I let them back out.  No more free meals for the cats.  Due to the stair work, my chicken project is on hold.  But this week I will get outside!

So, Steve has made great progress on the upstairs floors. After 1 1/2 full days staining, he has the entire upstairs hallway done, the handrail, both newel posts and half the stairs, and actually, he’ll probably be finished the stairs before bedtime tonight. That will just leave the trim in the hallway for Friday. I’m actually very happy with his progress, as I had estimated that this was a 4-6 day project, not including time off for pesky things like paying jobs. That translates into 7-10 calendar days. Steve, however, had estimated that he could have the entire staining process done the first day (that 1/2 day he posted about earlier), and be completely finished with the sealant today. Needless to say, he’s not nearly so happy. But really, the stairs are looking great. We had been concerned that the old wood on the kick-boards and risers would take the stain very much differently from the new treads . They are matching very very well. The handrail is a slightly different color, but that’s OK too. Steve thinks they are too dark, but I think the bedroom floors started out this color too, and lightened after the sealant was applied. Isn’t progress wonderful?

Well I found one of my chicken predators this morning.  I went out to get the eggs this morning (too busy yesterday afternoon) and found one of our outside cats snacking on one of my new chicken babies!!  She was in the chicken yard (the door has been open all the time), just snacking away on tender baby chicken breast (must prefer white meat).  So I ran around the coop counting my babies.  I only have 12 out of 24.  Ugh.  So the cats have been eating well.  It doesn’t help that the chicken babies are the size of a large quail right now.  Once full grown, the cats leave them alone.  So Annmarie’s idea of a separate run (suggested last year when I had this problem last time) is going to have to be implemented.  Of course not until the stairs are finished.  So I verified that the electric fence is working and locked the chickens into the chicken yard.  I am sure I missed a few, but they should show up later today.  Will have to keep the chickens locked up for a few days.  Also, going to have to get a recount on the babies and adults tonight after dark so I know where I am again.  It just never ends.  There is always something.  Now luckily the cats did not kill my daughter’s favorite new chicken, a little banty brahma with feathers on her feet.

I came home from work yesterday to stain the floor and stairs.  Now mind you, I had to get right on it, because I had to take the child to the dentist right after school and then take her to swim practice.  So I picked up the plastic got the stain, rags, tack cloth and old work disposable nitrile gloves (in an attempt to keep my hands clean).  I opened the two cans of stain, one was dried out and crusty, so I only had about 1/3 of a gallon.  I started to clean the floor with the tack cloth and in the end now have several splinters in my hand.  I forgot how much stain is used.  I have to fill up the cracks so they stain and give the floor an even color (there are lots of cracks and holes in the floor).  Oh don’t forget I had to have the knee pads.  Not as young as I used to be.
As soon as they are done I can go outside!!