Stupid Birds and Bad Paint Jobs

Today I got the beat up old brush guard and the air filter pipe and canister assembly painted. I also got the hood about halfway finished as well.

This would go a lot faster if I could.... 1. Paint for shit and 2. had some tape that would stick worth a damn.

Truth is if I had ever tried to be a body and paint man I would have starved years ago. It's funny too since I am really a pretty good artist and even made a living sculpting miniatures for various historical and fantasy games for a few years. Problem is there is more of a science to getting the paint on metal evenly than art or at least that's my excuse. Not saying good paint guys aren't artist by any means because they are, it's just they understand the science they must do first to get to the art I think.

Here's what that air filter canister and pipe looked like while I was cleaning and getting the rust off it. It actually turned out looking pretty good and the clear plastic top cleaned up nice and I painted the band that holds the oil reservoir gray for contrast.

Where I really suck at painting though are the larger pieces like the hood. I had to start with it flipped over and got many runs. Runs in my paint is my biggest issue usually and why I hate painting sheet metal.

If you look closely you can see the evil runs. My other issue is that even though it is really warm for February the paint is still taking forever to dry and harden properly and I am running out of space. I had to paint the hood in the shop and I really didn't have room to get a good paint spread while painting it.

I am going to paint the center red section of the hood with a brush so it's going to take a few coats to get the brush marks out of it as well.

The stupid chicken antics continue to follow this project around like midget clowns running after a small car.

I had some parts from the air filter assembly soaking in a pan of kerosene and one of the Red sexlink hens came up and decided to take a drink. This morning I used a paint stick to stir up the rad paint and then dropped it on the ground only to come back and find one of the Red Sexlink hens attempting to eat the stick.

She now has a red beak.

We got three or four of these Red Sexlink hens that have zero survival sense. They come out from the protected barn lot and just wander around any old where completely oblivious to the world around them. We already lost one who walked right out in front of a car and this morning when I got back from buying tape the neighbor's dog had one in his mouth.

He didn't hurt it though as he is a big old stupid lab and was just trying to take it home I think. I honked the horn at him and he dropped the bird and came over to me with a stick. The bird appears to be fine I checked her over for injuries and found none and she is still eating every time I go out to check again.

When the other hens see a dog or hear a car any where near them they run/fly to the barn lot but not these couple of Sexlinks.

Last night Mrs. PP asked me if Turkeys would get along with chickens. I didn't think much about it at the time but the fact she asked that has been bugging me all day. I got a feeling she is up to something.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!