Tea Bag Art, Organic Veggies, and Waging War

After being so crazy busy and fighting a virus for the last few weeks I hadn't had any time to get in the studio. I had a request to do a custom order for 5 tea bag paintings with monarch butterflies on them a week or so ago. I wasn't sure if I had the energy to take on the order with the farm chores  keeping me so busy. Plus as most artists know small paintings tend to be more difficult to paint then large paintings and tea bag paintings are tiny! But then I though it would be nice to spend some quality time in the studio and with all these extra farm expenses I sure could use the money lol. I have been working on the drawings over the last week and today I finally finished the last couple. Hopefully I will find the time and energy to start painting them tomorrow. 

A friend that works on an organic farm gifted us with a ton of organic veggie seconds that she gleaned from the farms compost pile. These veggies will be perfect to feed to the chickens and goats as the bounty of summer and fall gives way to the more barren winter landscape. 

 The goats were thrilled with their breakfast of fresh chopped veggies. I nearly froze my hands off chopping the veggies up in the barn after clearing the sheets of ice off the water buckets. We plunged in the heated water buckets tonight so hopefully there won't be ice in them in the morning.

When your daughter's big fat head is taking up the whole food bowl why not just use her head as your breakfast table?

 The chickens seemed to be enjoying some of the chopped up veggies this morning too, although some were more interested in free ranging outside the run.  Later in the day I made a huge pot of the steamed veggies we were given from the organic farm and I added apple cider vinegar, and a lot of minced garlic. I brought the mash out and shared it between the goats and chickens. I gave them the mash and the broth the veggies were steamed in and I think the warm food was a bit hit on this really cold day. 

We are officially waging war on the rodents in the barn that are stealing copious amounts of grain from the chicken feeders. We have put in a request at the local Animal Welfare for their "Barn cat program". They place cats that are too feral to live in homes with farmers that need rodent control in their barns. Until we hear back from them we needed to do something quick as the amount of grain the rodents are stealing daily is alarming. Grandpa's rodent and bird proof feeders have been around for generations and they seem to be very well built. We had put off buying one for a long time because our farm expenses have been way above what we expected them to be this year. Alas, if this feeder proves to be as rodent proof as the reviews claim then it will pay for itself in short order. I will post more about it once we get it put together and start the recommended 2 week training period with the chickens.