Re-Painting a Weather Vane, Chipotle Jackfruit Tacos, S.W. Vegetarian Salad

Before Shot

Re-Painting a Weather Vane-
Here's the post about how we bought this little cutie-  A Man's Life Saved...  After Dave put it up on top of the coop last fall I decided that I would just wait until spring to paint it. There's a photo below what the original look like that I found online, although there were lots of versions-

What it looked like when we took it down -

Basically years of weathering, etc. made it pretty faded paint-wise. The gold spheres in the photo were reduced to just silver aluminum. I decided to go with flat black for the basic components, the same green for the grass, and a medium brown for the spheres. Dave set up a workbench for me in the backyard. Sadly it was cool, breezy and a bit shady and so the paint took longer to dry. Was also a little challenging taking photos since the lighting was so random. First I washed all the components in warm soapy water with Dawn and then dried them. Next I just laid out all the paints and masking tape.

First I covered up the deer area with a clean ziploc bag and masking tape. I wanted to basically repaint the green area and not transfer too much to the deer and the black paint area. I decided to leave it as is.  Some of the versions of this had the light tan paint.

I started off by painting the green grass below the deer and then set that aside to dry. Next I painted all of the black pieces flat black, just shows very shiny when it was wet. I did each side and then waited a while and then did the other side.

Next I did the silver aluminum spheres. I knew they would be challenging since the aluminum was really smooth and probably wouldn't grab the paint as well. They took several coats and there were a few drip marks, but it's 10 feet up in the air, who will notice!

Last I just touched up in the areas that still needed a few spots of paint. After it was all dry Dave put it back together and up on top of the coop. I love the way it came out! Looks almost like new. Should last another 50 years hopefully.

After shot

Chipotle Jackfruit Tacos- 

I found this recipe and gave it a shot, and it came out nice! I did use about 1/3 can of  adobo sauce, too bland as is. Recipe here- Forksoverknives

S.W. Vegetarian Salad-
I used to make this with chicken, just omitted it, and used the rest of the ingredients. I used the On The Border Spicy Dressing, some Cojito cheese on top, came out great! The long thin strips are Jicama, crunchy, sweet and so good for you! Didn't miss the meat...