A beautiful day..started with feeding the animals and discovering 4 very curious playful kittens in the shed. I knew they were there but hadn't seen them yet. This was the litter that the spay neuter clinic wanted me to let die so we could get the mommy spayed. 2 grays and a tabby and a black one. The 3 apple trees are in bloom. More blooms than I have ever seen. These trees are very old. Too tall but the windfall is a favorite for wildlife and the horses. I stood beneath one this morning to take photos against the sky and the hummmm of the bees was overwhelming. I could have stood there all day !!

Then i went to the overgrown already front yard and looked at the tulips and the lilacs. The aroma of the lilacs was what put me to sleep last night!

Yesterday Hubby began to enclose the old kennel building for the new chicks. He built the kennel several years ago and it worked well for the German Shepherds..but I prefer my doggies inside so it hadn't gotten much use. We began to put the chickens in it when we found the small coop too small. Problem was that it was not raccoon or cat proof..but if they got in the chickens couldn't get out and were snatched from their perches!!! The raccoons could get into places where my husband thought they couldn't..no amount of telling him otherwise worked until we were down to the 2 hens we now have. It is always trial and much error with the out buildings and enclosures. Long ago I told him to think as if he were building for elephants!! The horses can be hard on fencing and buildings, the raccoons can into gates and through small holes, it is a game of outsmarting the animals. I didn't have much money and so was able to buy 3 sheets of particle board. I hate particle board but at least this area is not too exposed to the weather and hopefully a good coat of paint will keep it from disintegrating over time. Just need to get those chick babies out of the spare room..they are too big for their box!

so today we will be able to put the chicks out.. I get to buy poultry netting today and some compressed bales of hay. 4 tons of hay made it through until this morning. The other thing I did this weekend was a map! I have been following Arthouse Co op on Facebook. A part of the Brooklyn Art Library. They have many projects that anyone can participate in. The best known is the sketchbook project. Every year they accept 2000 participants and the sketchbooks (which they provide for a $25.00 fee) are displayed all over the country in a traveling display. Then they become a permanent part of the Brooklyn Art Library. You can have the sketchbook digitized and put on their files for another $35.00 but I decided not to spend the money. Anyway I will be in the 2013 Sketchbook project. In the meantime I have participated in a few free projects. One was a 4"x6" project. Your flat artwork is sent to the Co op and then after they are displayed, every artist/participant gets one in return.

this is the one I did. Back to the map. It is to be a map about anything. So mine is called "The Not So Secret Life of Chickens". The map has to fold up to 4"x6", and you send a SASE to have returned to you.

the next project is a free one that involves doing some art, putting it somewhere for others to see or take home..more on that one later..have a great day!!!