Emergency Bee Evac! Garden ReHab Phase 4 Fencing, Coop Rehab 2.0

Emergency Bee Evac! 

I love bees, always have, always will! When I came out mid-afternoon Wednesday, into the back garden, I noticed there was something all over some fence boards. When I looked at it for a minute I realized it was moving and it was covered with bees!

I called Dave right away to see if there was a beekeeper who could come and collect the swarm safely and keep them. Luckily we had two bee keepers come over, one was a master, one an apprentice. They came over and removed the swarm gently and safely. Took them several hours, luckily we haven't planted the veggies yet so they had plenty of room to work. They said we were the nicest people they've ever worked with and will bring us some honey from their other hives! We had to give them some money even though they refused at first, because they were in 95-degree heat, cooking trying to save these bees. It was 103 yesterday, record heat!!! Apparently they were looking for a new hive and were Italian bees which I have never heard of. It all ended up very well. The swarm and the queen found a new home and all is well in their bee world! Maybe someday I can have my own hives! They removed several fence boards and put the hive box (not sure waht it's called?) in the easement. They found the queen in the grass behind the fence, and got her safely into the new hive box thingy-

Bulk of the bees on the back of the boards

Still swarming a bit

New hive box mostly full

By 9 pm Dave got the fence boards up back up.  We let the hens out of the coop and the hive box got picked up after dark. Good outcome! 

Garden ReHab Phase 4 Fencing-

The garden fencing had been around for about 10 years and basically works as a separation between the chicken run/coop and the main backyard garden. When we first built that we used a lot of recycled wood and new chicken wire. With all the weathering it was getting pretty dilapidated, so we decided to do something about it. Dave priced panel fencing and new 4' x 4's. As everybody knows by now lumber prices have really skyrocketed. When I was looking for a gate to go with with the potential new wooden fence I saw a gate and got me thinking. Started wondering what the pricing would be for metal fencing instead? Something that would be really durable but didn't need to be heavy since it's basically just keeps the chicken out. It won't have any big heavy dogs jumping on it or kids climbing on it. Dave and I picked out the design we liked and he went to Home Depot and priced it-

$50.00 for 3 panels, about 3' x 4'

Turned out to only be about $50 more than what we were going to do, but it was much much less labor.  It will probably last longer since it's powder coated and certainly looks nicer. Total was about $250.00.  Here's the before old fence shots-

 

Hens in the shade area with the mister, nice and cool!

So here's what we did-  temporarily fenced the hens into the shade area with access to the coop-

I helped Dave pull the old fencing out and we made a pile-

We saved some of the chicken wire in case we need some. Dave cut up the wood and it went into the compost bin to be composted by the county. Chicken wire went to recycling. We started with the section closest to the coop-

We leveled as we went (lots to level!) and otherwise was pretty easy! Add the stakes and go on-

Photos From Home Depot

We had some leftover 4x4's that we were able to use to brace the gate. Dave turned one panel into a gate but it was a bit wobbly. A post on either side, worked great! 

Gate made by attaching hinges and a clip

The rest of the sections-

Attached to fence with clip

I will add another ornamental grass to the right of the gate, veggies coming this weekend! 

Shade area, attached to the coop on the left

We added some scrap 2x4's to prevent digging

Attached to the coop with washers and screws

Temporary gate clip, fence attached to post

Again attached to fence

We LOVE it, should last for years to come!!! The yard looks really empty but we will fix that soon! 

Coop Rehab 2.0-

Last week we got the coop pretty well rehabbed. We realized after we put the door up and it was pretty awkward getting in and out. It opened on the right. Dave thought he could go ahead and rotate the door and flip it around, which he did. I went ahead and pulled off the screen panel and replaced the screen with new-

big hole

tools makes it easy!

New screen up, glass cleaned

Dave thought it would be a good idea to put a screen protector up and it was. This weekend one of our grandsons started heading toward the coop and pushed on the screen protector! Great idea!

Time To Hire A Pro/Bathroom Tile Upgrade!

Time To Hire A Pro/Bathroom Tile Upgrade!

Back in 2014 we re-modeled our old main bathroom due to rotting floor issues. The tub was probably 20 years old, tan ceramic tiles, etc.  Here's the full re-do we did Bathroom Remodel Reveal  As part of the remodel we installed a new tub and the shower walls we did with three vinyl walls. We were on a tight budget/short on time for the shower walls. Looked much nicer at the time-

We LOVE the window over the tub, lots of natural light! 

Fast forward-

Scale buildup

We decided to invest our Covid $ in the house. The whole Boise valley has very hard water which made this hard to clean after years and years. We tried all kinds of products! I had wanted subway tile but after seeing larger tile we decided to go with that. Large white matte tile (no gloss with hard water) and very light grey grout. Dave and I both decided to have some pros do the install. We thought we just wanted it to be perfect, with re-sale value and all. I also have hand issues, which would have been an issue handling so large heavy much tile, grout, etc. There was an issue with the installer not wanting to look at the job in person and bid, so we did photos and went into the store. We had three three panels, but the bidder thought it was a full shower surround.  On the day of install they realized it. That was good, as the labor went down and speeded up the process! Good news, we saved $800.00! We only have one full bathroom in the house. We will use part of the savings for our next project, the coop/ garden fencing. I was also happy to hear about the new technology that is the epoxy grout. Supposedly lasts forever and should be pretty mildew proof. We choose large 12" x 24" matte white Porcelain tile. I had seen this before with light gray grout and loved it! We added a new shower head/rod as well. I deep cleaned the faucet spout and handle/cover and we re-used those. 

We had planned on having a niche with a shelf put on the back wall, but the studs were too close together. We had planed on adding one heavy, stainless steel shelves to the front corner, decided to add two more to the job for more storage instead-

Love the floral pattern

The workers (two) removed the panels fast, scraped down the old adhesive, then sanded. I didn't take photos of this since it was a small space and didn't want to freak them out. They sanded and smoothed the walls. They added a water barrier, on top of our cement board, mesh up for the tile-

Next tile went up, with spacers-

I ran in while they were out

When they got all the tile up, with spacers, they left for the day. We choose a light gray grout Grout Epoxy listed as Cape Gray. It was darker as first and lightened up as it dried. Here's all the details-

Two shelves rear and one front

Front shelf

New hotel style shower rod/head

Tile around the window, looks much more finished! 

They drilled thru the very thick porcelain tile into the studs for the rod

Shelf floated between the tiles 

As this house was built in the 70's not a surprise when the worker told me the wall wasn't quite level. He had to level the tile by using thicker adhesive/grout. You can see on the edge the gray is wider. I may paint this white. I emailed the grout manufacturer and they said I would have to use an epoxy paint. Will live with it a bit, Dave says it looks fine. They used a white metal edge on the tile, bull nose would have been really expensive! 

I bought new towels from Ikea since the green ones were pretty well done. Sadly they discontinued their apple green color I LOVED!!! I bought a nice Ikea set of blue ones with some edging- baths sheets, hand towels and wash cloths-

I kept the same Ikea shower curtain since it was only a few months old-

Shelves work great!

I added two Ikea shower hooks under the front shelf to hang things from. I had also bought a basket to match but looks like we won't need it. We may put it right above the edge of the tub on the wall if we take baths. We are more shower people-

 

Art work back up

All in all it came out great! We will be able to maintain this tile easier with the matte porcelain finish. We're looking at the kitchen counter next, time will tell!