Friday, June 19, 2009

New CoffeeShop Blog Design, Chickens, and Snakes OH MY!

So I had a few minutes during nap time (the kids, should have been me too...) and I decided to redesign my blog. I had received this great photo of a wall with Coffeeshop and a coffee cup painted on it from Sarah (thank you so much, I LOVE the photo!) and I had to incorporate it into my blog somehow. So you can now see it in the header, plus I made a brush out of it (you can see one place I used it here). I can't tell you how excited I was to get this great photo and this might be a blog design I stick with.

Well, then I needed a new background, and I searched Flickr and found this great brick texture from pareeerica. I love all of her textures, but this one was perfect. Now my blog is complete and I can take my nap tomorrow. :-) Plus, this design hopefully won't send my male blog readers running for cover. After all, much of my stuff is gender neutral and not at all girly, right? I am the CoffeeShop, not the TeaShoppe. ;-)

The Smith Brothers cut and bailed our hay this week, so photos to follow soon. I took my traditional photos of "Boys Sitting on Hay" and I think have some really cute ones. Plus this is going to be a busy weekend chicken-wise. When we ordered pullets (baby girl chicks) our order was small and instead of paying for insurance I agreed they could throw in a few extra rooster chicks for "warmth" (this was February, and everyone knows we have warm winters in Texas). Well, it was cold and I now have 15 roosters when I ordered 1. And roosters are MEAN and they not only peck you, but peck and twist and then try to spur you. Needless to say, I have to watch the boys like crazy and keep them away from danger, and our 16 hens are living in fear (imagine 16 hot young women in prison, and then throwing in 15 lusty bad-tempered jealous men and you get the picture). Feathers fly, chicken curse words are thrown, and my boys are learning about nature in ways you don't see on the Discovery Channel. Violence and sex, it is like NBC during prime time. Try explaining these things to your four year old.

So this weekend it comes to a head and we have to do something. Kind of like the something we did to the 5 foot chicken snake that loved hanging in the rafters of my chicken house and giving me a nice little surprise (miniature heart attack) every evening as I counted my chickens. Duke went to collect the eggs one afternoon and our little friend was in the nest box (during the day!) and he (Duke, not the snake) almost had a stroke. I spent 15 minutes chasing that huge snake around with a hoe in the coop, screaming at Imp to stay away, reassuring Duke I was not getting bit, and not making a dent on that snake's skin or swagger. That snake loved sneaking up on me and the boys as much as he loved fresh eggs.

I am not going into any details, but I will tell you as much as I love animals, I love my boys more. Mess with my boys and all bets are off! Sure, chicken snakes are not deadly, but at 5 feet long they are stroke/heart attack inducers which can kill a perfectly healthy woman in her 30's. And if that darn snake bit one of my kids, I know I would convince myself it might have been poisonous, so then I would be running them to the ER like a crazy "city" woman. Not to mention they would probably never step foot back in the chicken pen again and have a lifelong fear of snakes (like my dear husband who still feels they are the reason we were kicked out of paradise and have to live with humidity and mosquitoes). Suffice to say I went to my husband and told him that I was putting the snake in his court and do as he must. After all, I love snakes and wouldn't even hurt a fly (hear that Mr. President!). ;-)

Have a great weekend! I am working on a great LR/ACR preset that is like my Little Perk action plus some tutorials and new storyboards. Plenty to come to the CoffeeShop.

Summer Hay Sitting

11 comments:

  1. Fun story! Have a nice weekend, without snakes!

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  2. Great new design...very different look but should be a big attention grabber...especially the FREE STUFF! All you do is so appreciated:)

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  3. The Header looks great! I love what you did with it. I'm glad that you could use it! I had chickens as a child and I agree wholeheartedly, Roosters ARE mean!! My sister locked me and my other sister in the chicken coop once. It was a frightening experience.

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  4. Love the makeover!

    Chickens and snakes? Yuck... not for this girlie girl (also a fellow Texan)!

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  5. your new blog design is just great! thanks very much for sharing free stuff!

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  6. Your new blog design looks great!!

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  7. ROTFLMBO!!! We have a farm and raise a lot of birds like peacocks, rheas, fancy chickens, various pheasants and the like. I completely identify with your story. We had to move the peacocks off site at the beginning of breeding season because bad weather destroyed our peacock pens in April. My husband thought someone was stealing eggs (unfortunately a valid concern) because he was only getting a couple a day and got padlocks to keep the thieves out. The next day he found the thief... a GIGANTIC chicken snake. Needless to say, it was dispatched quickly. Now we'll see if we don't get a lot more eggs. Those roosters can definitely be obnoxious. People think turkeys are mean but they don't have anything on the roosters. Love your new blog look too.

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  8. Great new look and fun story! Sometimes harmless snakes just don't remember to stay harmless!

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  9. Girl you are amazing! Great job on the new blog. Love it!

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Rita