This morning we made a Thanksgiving feast for the chickens. Sienna had so much fun setting it all up for them. I took this video of them enjoying their spread: (click here if video doesn’t load)
They weren’t so sure at first:
Sometimes they look at me in disbelief:
“It’s all for you!” we told them. And they ate and ate and ate:
And then they were gone. (I found them napping in the garden later.)
Happy Thanksgiving!
Today my I went to visit my friends Beau and Ron. They surprised me with this rooster. I brought it home and set it in the driveway for the chickens to check out. Fo was the only one who was interested. She stood there for the longest time inspecting this new addition…and since she could only see his feet she probably wondered if he was just standing there inspecting her back:
I locked the chickens up last night and everything seemed as it should be. I closed the garage. We all went to bed as usual. Then, this morning Brett let out all the chickens and Foshizzle was missing. He couldn’t find her anywhere so he walked to garage and guess who walked out? Fo.
I must have walked into the garage at least a dozen times last night to get firewood. Foshizzle was in there somewhere but she never made a peep! We can’t even figure out where she was hiding. My only guess is that she crawled into something and then with her poofy blinders on she couldn’t find her way out. At least she was safe and sound in there all night! She’s a mess.
I wonder if any of the other chickens even noticed that she was gone. It’s like they barely notice her sometimes…or maybe they just let her be. There’s a pecking order among the chickens. They can be so mean to each other sometimes, just to prove a point on where they stand. But not one chicken ever messes with Foshizzle, and Foshizzle never messes with any other chicken. She just floats in between them all like she’s Switzerland. I think I should make that her middle name: Foshizzle Switzerland.
As part of my rustic farmhouse Christmas tree series I promised this How to Make a Chicken Weathervane tutorial and template download so here it is!
This was one of my favorite parts of this year’s tree and it was very simple to make:
First I drew a chicken for my template and traced it onto thin craft plywood that I picked up at Michaels:
I used a small jigsaw to cut out the shape. (If you don’t own a handheld jig saw you are missing out on all the small projects you can do with it!)
See the tiny blade? It easily cuts out the image. If you don’t have a jigsaw you can also cut it by hand with a small detailed saw or ask a neighbor! Someone near you probably has one.
You can cut in all different angles….so you don’t have to turn the saw so much:
I drew out the end of an arrow and cut that out too:
These are all the pieces needed for the weathervane. I used wood glue to attach them all, letting them dry at least two hours.
To create the faux metal finish I first sprayed the weathervane with a glossy gray color. It doesn’t really matter what shade because it’s just a base color. Black would also work.
DecoArt makes this metallic paste paint called Metallic Lustre (also available at Michaels). I used the color Silver Spark:
I coated the entire weathervane with a few coats of the silver paste:
Once the weathervane was coated in the paste I didn’t even wait for it to dry. I used a bronze metallic spray paint and lightly sprayed random areas of the chicken, concentrating on darkening the edges too.
I immediately used a rag to wipe off the spray paint and it leaves an aged finish:
The trick is to keep layering the metallic paste and bronze spray paint until you are happy with the aged metal effect!
You can’t really mess this up. If you don’t like an area just paint with the silver again and the restart:
I used the chicken weathervane for my Christmas Tree topper:
To attach it I put a small screw eye on the back and ran a wire through it:
I’ll use it year round too!
I just love that it’s lightweight and I made it myself!
Download the chicken template here or by clicking the image below!
You can view the rest of the ornaments I made by clicking here or clicking the image below. Thanks for looking!
