Easy Vintage Thermos w/Flags Display, Chicks Progress

Easy Vintage Thermos w/Flags Display-
Ironically I was tapped for jury duty the week of the 4th of July! I had set up Monday/Tuesday this week as vacation days and Wednesday our clinic is closed. I already checked and tomorrow no jury duty, I'm thinking probably none on Tuesday. One of my doctors joked oh you know all those judges and lawyers want the days off and I said yes I'm hoping for lots of plea bargaining. Dave will be working but does have the 4th off for the holiday and I'm scheduled to go back to work Thursday, unless I have jury duty. Friday also wound up being a vacation day since we had too much coverage and only one doctor in clinic. So anyway it will be a fun week with some time off , or I will be in jury duty, but I doubt it... so....

A few years ago I found this vintage 1 gallon Thermos jug with cup built into the lid for $3.00 at Goodwill-

With lid off-

We actually used it on a couple of road trips, it kept the water and ice pretty cold! I started thinking that I should use it inside during the summer as some kind of display, but I didn't really know what to do with it? I thought maybe put it on a shelf as a summer travel display, but drew a blank. Then I saw the display that I decided to copy on Houseofhawthornes.com Basically take the lid off and fill it with some small flags and that's it! I washed it really well, then bought a pack of thirteen American flags for $10. I did find that all 13 was a little bit too many and obscured the thermos, so I took out about four or five that I used outside. So it was fast, easy and when Fourth of July is over we will still have the thermos for road trips. I should add I was really surprised how many amazing thermos displays there are on Pinterest! People have turned them into lamps, all kinds of things, and there's lots you can do with them if you're interested in looking.

Chicks Progress-
It was perfect timing to have the chicks out roaming around and my being home to keep an eye on things.The chicks were outside and had their area opened up to the main part of the garden all day yesterday. The two large hens seem to pretty much ignore them, except for once when Rosie decided to eat a little bit of their feed and pecked at one. No big deal, nobody hurt normal, just the "pecking order" developing. After the two large went hens went in around dark we moved all three of the babies into the coop and closed the door. There was some peeping but that's normal. This morning I woke up about 6:15 to one of the hens really making a racket in the coop. I decided not to have them wake up the neighbors, so I went out in my pajamas. Because the chicks spent the first night in the coop I had closed the main door that the hens use. I went and opened it and the hens came flying out. I think it may have startled them to wake up and find the 3 chicks down on the floor below them. So I went back to bed for an hour or two and then Dave told me two of the chicks had gotten into the Blackberry area-

Pru the black chick taking a dust bath

Out in my pajamas again we thought they had either jumped over a low fenced-off area or something. So Dave got them out and replaced the low hardware cloth with taller chicken wire. We had a scrap piece of hardware cloth to cordon off the area from the main garden.

Yesterday Dave deconstructed their separate area and removed all the bird netting, etc.-

They're hanging out this morning in the shade where it's cool and I will train them to start going to the area behind the coop later in the day-

Next to the coop, then turn right-

behind the coop towards the shade area...

Since they're still exploring they don't realize that there's a large shade area under the maple tree-

The area they're in is fine with shade from the berries and fence. They're enjoying having more room and are now eating some rolled oat treats. It is a lot of work at this stage, just keeping an eye on any gaps that there may be. Little trouble makers! It's worth it though... Safety is always the first priority when they're small like this. Our neighbor cat Poesy came through earlier and I watched her jump the fence and just observed. She looked at the chicks and just kept going, left the garden. Hawks not quite as much of a concern for me now since the chicks are bigger. So far so good, but a little drama this morning. It's amazing the little areas they can squeeze through or jump over. I told Dave I'm going to keep an eye on them the next several days and will adjust needed.