Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo - Page 87 of 663 - Living a simple, creative life in small town USA. Bryson City. A Lifestyle Blog.

Painted Rocking Chairs

June 18, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

I took this photo of the painted rocking chairs in our back yard that overlooks Bryson City. I painted our old rocking chairs over the past few days. I picked out a range of colors that I thought would blend the chairs into the landscape but also leave them with a little character. You can click the photo for a larger photo:

The chairs were in pretty bad condition before being painted…I bought them all from an old motel that was going out of business for $5-$10 each. Brett had to put about 20 screws in each one to pull them back together. If I had to do it over again I wouldn’t use spray paint on these chairs. The wood was too porous and old. I probably need a few cans of spray paint on each one to completely protect them from the elements. I think next time around I’ll try and match the paint color using an exterior paint that can be brushed on. Just for reference these colors go amazing together:

The rocking chair photo is from my Instagram account @lilblueboo where you can follow along with many more projects that I haven’t caught up to posting here yet!

We’ve decorated most our house with secondhand decor like these old rocking chairs. The old motel that we purchased the rocking chairs from is one of many old motor inns in the Smoky Mountains.

Chicken First Aid Kit (and Free Download)

June 17, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

Every backyard flock needs a chicken first aid kit. It’s the first thing I put together when we decided to get chickens. Trips to the vet are expensive and I don’t want any animal to suffer so I wanted to be as prepared as possible for anything that might come up.

I don’t plan projects like this ahead of time, but once I compiled all the parts my next thought was: wouldn’t it be awesome if I had a chicken first aid kit label? Of course it would be awesome. So I made one, printed it out onto label paper and put it on the front of this galvanized caddy:

We’ve already used it several times. Who knew chickens could get into so much trouble? One day Fo snagged her claw on something and it started bleeding. The other chickens started pecking at her (they are like vampires when they smell or see blood!). We had to put her into animal hospital:

I brought out the first aid kit and we stopped the bleeding using Kwik Stop Styptic Powder and then wrapped her toe with a bandage to keep the other chickens from pecking at it.

Oh, we also had to give her a bath because she’d tried to itch her head and covered her whole head in blood. Here is Nurse Boo helping her recuperate from the bath…the bath was probably the most traumatic part for her:

I’m sure the first thing Fo noticed was the First Aid Kit label:

You can download the label by clicking the image below, just print it out onto label paper or glue/tape onto a bin. You can download ready to print PDF pages (with two labels each) by clicking here.

I started putting together our kit before the baby chicks even arrived…just to be prepared. I had a lot of help from our local farm supply and a chicken-savvy friend. When our little chick Whittle died I ramped it up a little more.

Chicken First Aid Kit Contents:

Below is a list of what I have in our basic kit. You can purchase as your local farm supply or there are links to purchase (And thank you! Every little bit helps to support the cost of keeping up this blog!):

Nutri-Drench Poultry Solution

Helps appetite, eases shipping strain & heat stress. Delivers high energy, vitamins, trace minerals, amino acids, (electrolytes and anti-oxidants) in minutes to restore the immune system. I just put a few drops in their water if needed.

VetRx Poultry Aid

Supports respiratory function and relief from respiratory disease, crd, croup, scaly leg mites, and favus eye worm. It can be sprayed over the whole flock, mixed in drinking water or applied directly to a chicken. Awesome tip: Applying directly to underneath the wing will allow them to breathe the vapors in at night when they tuck their cute little head in to sleep. (Download a great resource here for how to use VetRx.)

Sav-A-Chick Electrolyte

The small packets are designed for small backyard flocks! The electrolyte supports hydration and bird health during periods of hot weather or other stress.

Vetericyn Wound and Skin Care

Spray on wounds, cuts, lacerations, abrasions, sores and skin irritations. It’s safe for use around the beak, nose, ears and eyes. And it’s safe for all animals so it’s great to have around for the dog too!

Kwik Stop Styptic Powder

Stops bleeding from broken beaks, clipped nails, small cuts, wing clipping and other minor cuts or scratches. It also has pain relieving Benzocaine.

Blu-Kote

An antiseptic protective wound dressing. Kills ringworm and fungus infections. Also treats surface wounds, cuts, galls, chafes, abrasions, moist lesions, itchy fungus, eczema and sores. You know…the fun stuff. The blue color keeps other chickens from picking at the sores and cuts too!

Elastic Wrap Bandage

This was great for wrapping Fo’s toe in and kept the other chickens from pecking at it. We used the beige color so it would blend it. If I was wrapping a wing I’d probably use black. Chickens tend to peck at anything bright and out of the ordinary!

Nail Clippers

For trimming a broken nail, or nails that are just too long. Can also be used to trim a beak if necessary.

Other things you might want to include:

Tweezers
Disposable Gloves
Super Glue (for a broken beak)

For ongoing health support I use the following:

Sav-A-Chick Probiotic

The probiotic reduces pathogens in the birds’ environment and assists with digestive health.

Organic Apple Cider Vinegar

I add a tiny teaspoon to the chickens’ water supply to help keep the water from growing bacteria. It’s also said to help prevent worms. I also change out their water as often as possible.

Sweet PDZ

Typically used for horse stall, I sprinkle this around the coop to keep the moisture and ammonia down, which in turns helps respiratory health. It also reduces flies!

I’m sure I’ll update this as I go, but for now I think it’s been a good list for a basic kit!

DIY Camp Trunk Organizer – An Epic Camp Trunk

June 15, 2016 by Ashley Hackshaw

I am so excited about this DIY summer camp trunk organizer. Boo recently went to her first overnight camp and she was a little nervous about it. When I told her that I used to take a trunk to camp, and that I made organizers for it, she jumped all over the idea. She started searching the Internet and found all these great products for summer camp trunks but they all were so expensive, so we decided to come up with our own DIY trunk organization from scratch. We spent the last few weeks focusing on her “packing” excitement and it took away almost all of her jitters. When we finished the trunk she had one word for it: epic.

First, I had to find a reasonably priced camp trunk to start with. I ended up buying a blue Mercury Seward 30″ Trunk because it was made in the USA, reasonably priced, and has wheels on it for rolling.(You can purchase it in other colors here as well.) I am really happy with the quality of the trunk…it’s just like the one I used to have when I was Boo’s age:

We’d been collecting outdoor stickers and Life Outside stickers for a while and as soon as the camp trunk arrived she quickly got to work decorating her trunk. A few of you even sent some awesome stickers in the mail! Thank you! She is so excited to keep adding stickers as she goes…she even bought a camp sticker the first day to add to her trunk:

The inside of the trunk was a blank slate:

The first thing we did was make the lid a bulletin board/organizer. We took a piece of Elmer’s Cork Foam Board and used a utility knife to cut it to the same dimensions as the inside of the trunk lid:

I used E 6000 Adhesive Glue to keep it permanently in place. While it dried I place a few large books on top of the bulletin board just to make sure it didn’t warp:

To add lid organization I purchased a few different kinds of inexpensive pencil cases:

I only ended up using two of them because Boo wanted to use more of her bulletin board. We glued the pencil cases directly to the bulletin board as shown below:

Next we made dividers for the trunk using two sheets of craft plywood measuring 1/8″ x 12″ x 24″ and four strips of Balsa Wood 1/4″ x 1/2″ x 24″. This wood can be found at Michaels in the model airplane/craft wood section:

We cut the plywood into two pieces that fit the width and height of the open trunk. You don’t need any fancy saws to cut just a sharp utility knife. You may have to cut quite a few times though to get through each layer:

We also cut the basswood strips so that we had eight pieces that would fit the height of the open trunk, just under the lip. The wood was spray painted to coordinate with the trunk:

Once the wood was dry I used E 6000 to glue the strips carefully into place:

Here’s how they were glued, two on each side of the trunk for each divider to slide down into:

The finished basswood pieces:

Once the basswood pieces were dry I was able to slide the dividers down into them. Voila…removable trunk dividers:

You’ll have to plan out your own dividers as far as placement. We placed ours so that they would fit Ziploc bags at one end, a tote on the other, and a bath caddy in the middle:

I found this great canvas tote for under $5.00 at Michaels Craft Stores…it’s used for carrying paint brushes and other art tools but it’s the perfect tote for odds and ends in the trunk:

Everything packed and ready to go!

We packed each camp outfit in a plastic bag to keep them from getting that funky camp smell. Each ziploc bag holds a tank top, shorts, underwear, and socks:

This side of the lid holds pre-stamped postcards and notecards:

The other side holds odds and ends:

I printed off a few favorite photos for her to pin to the top of the lid. I covered them with layered packing tape before cutting them out to keep the ink from bleeding if they happened to get damp or wet:

The bath caddy I got from the Dollar Store and she can leave it out until the end of camp:

Everything else (sheets, towels, pillows) were packing into her huge (clean) laundry bag. I used puffy paint to put her name on it in huge letters. All the dirty laundry will come back in the same bag!

I read an article a few years ago that some parents stress out over camp so much that they pay people huge sums to pack their kids’ camp trunks. It doesn’t have to be hard or expensive. We had so much fun working on this project together. She directed the entire project and I just gave pitched in ideas on how to construct it all. Hope your kiddos have fun at camp this year!