CLOSED: 7th Annual 3 B House Swap

Hi my name is Cindy (aka purpbutfly) and I am hosting a 3 B House Swap

Bats, Birds and Butterfly House

I am opening it February 17th, and will take names until March 3rd, then posts your buddy name and address on the March 4th. I would like to ask you all to mail your buddies house so that she may get it before the first day of Spring, March 20th. If you are not in the address exchange please dmail me your addy.

It does not have to be home made, it can be bought. If you want to make a homemade one it can be made out of ANYTHING,( old cowboy boots, cowboy hats, cans, gourds, you name it.) If a bird can get in it, it's a house, but bat houses and butterfly houses are a special type of house. Pictures alone do not qualify, but if you want to decorate with pictures that will work.

Anything goes so long as there is either Bat, Bird or Butterfly with a House, inside decoration or outside decoration.

When signing up please specify what type of house you want. Here are some links to some really neat houses.

As for $$$$$$, don't go bankrupt trying to find the perfect house, but do make sure it's a good one and won't fall apart before summer is over, lol. So let's have some FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


http://www.duncraft.com/index/page/category/category_id/217/category_chain/38,217/name/All+Bird+Houses/#.

http://www.bestnest.com/bestnest/bird_houses.asp


http://www.houzz.com/photos/birdhouses

http://www.wayfair.com/Bird-Houses-C417304.html

http://www.yardenvy.com/bird-houses.asp

http://www.butterfly-houses.com/

http://www.butterfly-gifts.com/butterfly-house.html





1) taters55 (LK) any type
2) Mud_Elf (Kris)
3) NF2932 (Nancy)
4) Froggies_Girl wren house
5) rouxcrew (Joy)
6) purpbutfly (cindy) Birdhouse







This message was edited Feb 7, 2014 8:33 AM

This message was edited Feb 17, 2014 5:36 PM

This message was edited Feb 18, 2014 10:48 AM

Sign me up. Any type of house.

I beez joining this... HEY Cindy!!!!!!!!!

Hi Cindy... so glad you're hosting this swap... I am excited to join in... still thinking about which type of house ...

I didn't see the link.... can you re-post it?

Nancy

Me! Me! Me! This was my very first swap ever! Wanna real birdhouse please. I have lots of places for them on my farm.

Hey Nancy!!!! And Joy too. This is shaping up to be an excellent swap!!!!

WOW!!! Hello Ladies,

Long time no see!!!!

Kris how are things with YOU??? Last I read/heard you had bought some property

Joy, still busy with dog shows?

Nancy, how are YOU?

Bought.. and paid for. I been very poor lately...lol. but paid off the house in Smiths Station and the land in Goodwater last month. So things are so much better. How are you doing!!!!

Long time no speak Cindy! I am running two dogs at the Fort Worth Stock Show this weekend, in fact. Lite is currently MIA with a long awaited litter of puppies.
That is fabulous Kris! I know it must feel wonderful to have paid them off.

Yes.. now to finish construction and I will be soooo happy. I am on a 2 year dead line as that is when I have to move the rest of my belongings out of the old house...

Oh Joy, those puppies are so cute! How old are they?

Kris, I know it is a big relief for you to have things paid off!

I am good, just dilly dallying around the house and my gardens. Our weather has been so crazy that my poor flowers don't know what to. I have Glads that are 2 ft tall, Lilies are about 4 inches up. I spent a week digging up front yard and made a cobble stone walkway. Still need to do some improvements, like a little fence along edge because my dogs keeps walking in my Iris' on the way to back yard, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Oh yea Kris!!! I also got a Harley that I am learning to ride. I had to put it off for awhile because I had surgery on my left hand and couldn't pull the clutch, after a year of healing I can finally pull the sucker!!! So I'm trying again and hope to get license by Fall (not rushing this, lol)

Yeah on the healing and bike Cindy!

The pups are two weeks old as of Monday. Just starting to open their eyes.

Whoop! Cindy! A Harley! way to go girl!

They are too cute.

LOL Joy, I have been riding for 40 yrs but never had my own. So many of my GF's are riding their own and go on some really cool rides. I want to be able to join them sometime.

Sign me up, please! I prefer a wren house, if possible, but anything else is ok... especially if it's homemade with love!

Hi Cindy....

I'm great .... so wonderful to be a part of this years swap.... I am still madly in love with my butterfly feeder... I was excited to see you were hosting the swap again.... it was so much fun last time! You did a great job on your cobblestone path.... very pretty.

Kris - congrats on paying off your properties... that is most excellent. Is Goober all better? Last swap we were in... she wasn't feeling well and you were concerned. I haven't been on many of the threads this year as we are recovering from a house fire and that has kept me so busy I can hardly wait to complete it all and get life back to normal.... so forgive if that is old news...

Joy... what kind of pups are those? They are ADORABLE! -:)

Thanks for the links Cindy.... they are very helpful. Nancy

Sorry to hear about your house fire! Hope it was not a total loss?

Hi Linda...

Thankfully no... one room was severely damaged by the fire and rest were so smoke damaged you would be shocked if you had seen it. We are a year and almost 3 months down the road and the house is repaired, but the property damage is still being dealt with. We had a total 'pack out' down to the toothpicks... and sad to say the restoration folks did more damage than they did repair... I could go on and on.. tons of 'issues'.....but we are fortunate that the only loss of life was some fish in a salt water tank in the fire room. (not that we weren't distraught about that... but we were glad it wasn't any worse... neighbors house was fine etc... etc....) No one home when it started and the outside cats skedaddled... the dogs and bunny in the back yard were fine although a bit anxious for a while until we got moved back in and things settled down. (the big firemen coming through the back doors and windows gave them some stress.... as well as the smoke/heat etc.... but thankfully they weren't anywhere near the fire and were safe) We lived in an extended stay hotel for several months.... so things have been topsy turvy for some time now.... I am fortunate that we are almost back to normal now and I can give attention to the garden and the birds once again.... I really missed my time in my backyard last year.... thanks for asking! -:) Nancy

Nancy, they are Border Collies, and are working dogs as well as my pets. Crush and Jam represented me well this weekend, winning and going second in the average. Pups have opened their eyes and started developing personalities.
I am sorry to hear about your house and dealings with the restoration people. My mom's house went through a fire and our experience was wonderful. I feel your pain and frustration.

Joy

Nancy.. So glad you and your family are ok. Goober is doing good. Gryphon will be 16 on Wednesday. I am taking him out to dinner where ever he wants to go. Also going to take him shopping.

Nancy, so sorry about the house fire. i think that must be among the very worst things that can happen! What about restoration people? They made Things worse instead of better.?

goldhillal....Yes... unfortunately.... they broke almost everything... especially the big things... we had a large rear projection TV that was ruined, both vacuums broken, Thomas Kincade paintings destroyed by the cleaning - which was supposed to have been sent to an art gallery and professionally cleaned - these were paintings that Thomas Kincade himself highlighted - which obviously cannot be restored.... My father-in-law is a dragster chassis builder so we had lots of antiques and one of a kinds that were ruined, models with broken parts and missing pieces etc. And then the folks that took the fabric items managed to shrink everything... shirts came back and we had crop tops instead of shirts, zippers broken... you name it... it happened. We also had finish taken off of furniture during cleaning, seals removed from the refrigerator and not replaced, wiring damaged from removal of vents etc... it was a huge fiasco. They removed our dishwasher and broke it, they broke my computer, they took color out the fabric of chair cushions so they looked blotched and spotted... it was ridiculous. We had glasses broken in transit, fine china that came back broken and glued - trying to pass it off as if it wasn't broken. Metal objects rusted... they poured the cleaning chemicals down our toilet in the master bathroom and flushed cleaning rags down the toilet... now we have issues with our plumbing.... I could go on and on and on and on... it was a Murphy's law kind of situation. And then we found a ziplock bag full of batteries that they had taken out of anything electronic and tossed in the bag together where the terminals were touching one another... considering we had just had a house fire... I couldn't believe what I was seeing... and the complaints went ignored... anytime we called they didn't seem terribly concerned about their employees. They hired subcontractors to come in and fix the things their employees broke and the subcontractors were worse than the restoration folks. We had a panel missing off the back of our refrigerator and a subcontractor actually came in and cut a panel out of a cardboard box and installed it on the back of the refrigerator because the part wasn't available any longer! We finally banned them all from the house and did what we could on our own to repair what was salvagable. I had to file a complaint with the DOI against the insurance company because they kept telling us that our things had to go through the restoration process... we told them just to total loss them and move on.... they paid over 47K to the one company and over 13K to the other and they ruined almost everything we had. They could have paid us the combined 60K and we could have replaced everything and had far less stress. As I said... I am very thankful it's just about over. After next week I shouldn't have to deal with any of them ever again.

Kris... 16? You'd best take him to an 'all you can eat' restaurant! -:) My husband still jokes about when his grandmother took him out for his 16th birthday... he just kept eating and eating and eating... bottomless pit... -:) What a nice thing for you to do... and I am glad Goober is better... great news.

Joy... I am glad to hear that your mother's experience was better than ours... I think it was just luck of the draw... we got the lemons.... it happens. I am glad it is almost over. Your collies sound sweet... and they are gorgeous... it must be so much fun!

Nancy, so sorry to hear you had to go through all that. I sure hope you finally got things replaced, or the money to replace some of the items! So sad people work like that!

Nancy, so sorry to hear about your loss. Any kind of loss like that is devastating and it's hard to get back to "normal."

I have 2 border collies that live side-by-side with my chickens! All in the same fenced area! I trained the collies when they were small by using firecrackers to stay away from the chickens! People are just speechless when they see them together! LOL

I'm taking the kids to Gatlinburg this summer and for the first time, Liam will vacation with us! I'm so excited! First vacaction with his Nannie! Can't wait for the smores!

Nancy, that company was not Serv-Pro was it?

goldhillal - We had Servicemaster - our neighbor across the street had a similar experience with Serv-Pro about 10 years earlier. The Servicemaster group that worked on our home was franchised, they were actually recommended by the insurance adjuster who came to our home. He brought in a representative of each team... Servicemaster and FirstTeam - they each spoke to us and told us what they had to offer and we just assumed they would be fine - after all, it's not a difficult job when you have an entire crew working on it. The adjuster told us that our insurance company had worked with each of these teams in the past and had good results. I think what happened with this situation is that the Servicemaster foreman left and took another job with one of their competitors about 3 weeks into the claim... things seemed to fall apart after that, even though they brought in another foreman who had worked for them for over 20 years. I think there was some kind of a disconnect internally... some angst going on with the teams and the internal changes within their company. Just my gut instinct.

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

Julie... that is interesting about the chickens and the pups... I have wondered how to make that happen myself as I have two dogs in my backyard and would like to get some chickens. I have a golden retriever and a min-pin. The Min-pin is a real hunter... he stalks everything... squirrels, mice, possums, birds... and I am afraid he would harm the chickens. He has caught and killed possums that are twice his size... he reminds me of a rat terrier in that regard. I would love to have some chickens - I did many years ago and really enjoyed it. My husband is considering some alternatives on our side yard away from the dogs... but where they could still scratch and have access to some yard. More to follow... hubby is still considering... -:)

Well... I'd better get back to work.... enjoy your day everyone! Nancy

Julie... when are you going to Galinburg.. my grand kids want to go too. We might could arrange a meet up. Or if you are driving we might could meet in Birmingham al and take the kids to the zoo and the golden flake potato chip factory tour.

We are going either the first or third week of June, depends on when I get Liam. . I've never been to Gatlinburg, so I'm doing a lot of research on where to stay, what to do, etc. I want to stay in a cabin and I know my son wants to go to the Hard Rock Cafe, but also thinking of doing the Titanic museum and Ripley's.

Ok Ladies!!! we need to get peeps to sign up....If I don't get at least 12 I will close this swap

I will spread the word to help out!

I'm not listed and is goldhillal lplaying? Not enough I know, but every little bit helps.

Thanks LK, You are in a lot of forums so that helps ^_^

Sorry about that Joy. She didn't say that she wanted to join, at least I can't find it anywhere and I reread this page 3 times just to be sure, lol

I am not joining this one. Sorry for the confusion. I have been watching it and trying to decide and have stuck my bill in, but am not joining this one this time.

I didn't mean to push Crystal, I just didn't want you to be missed if you had decided. You are always welcome in our discussions.

Joy

Julie the aquarium in Gatlinburg is awesome. Lots of fun for kids. There is also a very nice artisan area just out of town near where a lot of cabins are. Hard Rock Cafe is OK usually crowded, food is expensive and so-so.

Thanks, Karen! We are planning the aquarium. My 15-year-old son (a musician) wants to go to the Hard Rock to see the exhibits. I do want to stay in a cabin! Planning to take my 5-year-old grandson on his first vacation with us and want him to experience the joys of making smores over a campfire and such! Gonna be fun!

My subscription expires tomorrow. So I have may have to drop out. I over spent on my Grandsons birthday,,,sigh. I will be renewing my subscription on the first after Ralph gets paid. So if you donot mind me being unsubscribed for two weeks I can stay in. And no one is to pay for my subscription.. Yes LK that means you!!!!! I will have the money,,, just having a birthday boy who can drive and is 16 now was a little more expensive than I thought it would be..lol

There was also the $1200.00 bath tub I won at auction for $68.00!!!!!! Plus I have to go pick it up. So bad, bad, bad, Elfie.

This message was edited Feb 18, 2014 12:33 PM