PRACTICAL PARSIMONY: cow costume

Showing posts with label cow costume. Show all posts

Monday, June 4, 2012

Questions For My Savvy Readers + Me in a Cow "Costume"

I bought this bowling ball, washed it, and intended to use it in the yard with a piece of pipe or rebar to sit as a display amongst flowers. See how it shines? However, it is very dulled now. Do you have any experience with dull bowling balls? My pretty blue, marbled bowling ball may never see another alley, but won't put it outdoors. I am thinking car wax might work. What say you?

What is this?

It is black, not silver. The circle is about 10" in diameter. It is sitting on four legs in the picture above.

In the picture above, you can see the little legs. It is much blacker than it appears, once again. Which way does it go? I don't even know where I got this!

Do I look like a cow?

Don't get snarky! I mean a cow in the field, like the one on the Chic-Fil-A ads? I wore a black pair of pants and black tshirt and scotch-taped white pieces of stretchy fabric to both, only on the front. The cow hat was furnished by CFA. Can you see the scotch tape? Why did I do this? To get a free chicken sandwich.

I asked my friend to take a picture with my camera (not my house! NOT my taste.), the only way I can ever get a picture of myself! She said she would never dress like this in a million years, even to get free food. Her grandchildren 93 and 4) thought it was marvelous. I have a small fan base of small fans.

Beforehand, I called and she said people wore brown pants and black tees, white pants and brown tees. Other people wore short and tank tops. Some had spots. She said, "We are not picky."

This event will take place sometime this summer. Check it out. Whole families were having their sandwiches. Some mothers had painted acrylic paint spots on children's clothing for the event. One woman had a tightly fitting white tshirt on with black acrylic paint spots. Her little teeny shorts had acrylic paint spots, also.

I was reminded of this on Saturday when Lena had cards for a free sandwich. I got my free sandwich and the carrot/raisin/pineapple salad. She got sandwich and fries. My hens got my bun.

Your turn

Would you dress like this for a free chicken sandwich? How about the shine of a bowling ball. Do you know what the black, metal object can be?

The Cast

Fancy is my favorite hen. She is one of the three youngest hens I adopted. Because she is so gentle and friendly, she may be the one I rescued when she was being pecked to death after she could no longer stand. She got to live in the house in a box. Sometimes, I let her sit in my lap while she was convalescing. Now, she comes to sit in the swing with me, cuddling up to my body like a cat or dog. She died in February 2012.

Fancy follows me begging, complaining, needing me to do for her. She talks to me in various voices. She allows me to pick her up and carry her. When she became an adult, her head was a darker red and her body was light brown. Around her neck were tips of black feathers. It appeared she had a necklace of jet around her neck. When I showed this characteristic to a friend, he said, "Oh, you have fancy chickens and plain chickens."

Chessie has a broken toe. I broke it! She had a habit of jumping really high and almost sticking. A raccoon ate her in October 2009.

Thelma is the blonde. She is also the largest hen and the alpha hen. I suspect the gigantic eggs are from her. She often squats and presents herself to me. She is top hen, but I suspect she knows she had better be deferent to top feeder of the flock--me.

Louise is the auburn-feathered hen. She looks like the true Rhode Island Reds in pictures. She is almost as large as Thelma. Some days I suspect she is trying to be top chicken. When I got Pepper, I found out Louise is the Alpha hen.

Pepper came here from the same home as the first four. We were discussing putting red pepper on their food, wondering if it really would increase egg production. Pepper is the only name we agreed on. She is terrorized each day by Louise. Even after the worst was over, she was and is still filled with terror and very wary.

Linda is owned by four hens. They allow her to fetch for them. She loves them dearly, so she allows them to boss her around. Linda comes out in the rain to perform chores for them and make sure they have food and water. She begs scraps from all sorts of places to make sure they have fresh fruits and vegetables.

Parsimony is not a vegetable

Parsimony is extreme care in spending money. Stick around and learn about my random thoughts on accomplishing goals economically--dumpster diving aka safari, gleaning, do-it-yourself, sewing tips, recipes, and whatever is happening in my life.

Okay so maybe "parsimony" is not your thing. How about thrift, frugality or just plain saving money? I try not to go the tightwad route as that seems to imply others will suffer from my habits.

Some of my not-spending habits have very much been a part of my lifelong habits. Other habits are newly acquired and are an extension of my lifelong not-spending habits.

I am very imaginative when it comes to substituting or making instead of buying. I will tell you about making a heater for the chickens' water. Not one dime was spent since I had everything I needed right in my basement.

Practicality must rear its head alongside parsimony. For example, I will use the dryer in bad weather or because of allergies in the spring. But, I will not wash clothes in a tub as long as I have a washing machine or can find one.

You may hear more about my four Rhode Island Red hens than you care to hear. They lay delicious brown eggs.

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Monday, June 4, 2012

Questions For My Savvy Readers + Me in a Cow "Costume"