Yes, The Coop Again

Aaahhh yes! The never ending chicken coop. I think we really are going to finish it today, tho, for real this time. Every waking moment around here (besides the time spent doing laundry, cooking and school work) has been spent working on that chicken coop. We are not taking for granted the beautiful fall weather that God has granted us and have used up every moment of sunlight that we can (besides all the running to football practices and games in between)~ hence the reason for blogging at 5:30 A.M. Good Morning Sunshine! Hello Coffee! ~ I've seen way too many sunrises the past couple of weeks. I have been having blogging/writing withdrawals but my little hens need some shelter for the winter and I need some eggs. So where were we last in the updates?? ~ Oh, yes, working on the covered porch.

I found a couple of willing young men to climb up and help me with the rafters, along with a couple of young ladies to help stain the beadboard. After cutting off a couple of inches from my posts I was able to get a good enough slope on the porch roof. It isn't as charming as the picture that I had in my head, but it sheds water already, so it will be allright. I've had serious thoughts about just tearing the whole porch roof off, but I really don't want to start it again...... winter's coming you know.

In between working on the porch roof the boys helped me construct a door out of some scrap plywood, left over beadboard and 2" ripped boards (that I learned how to cut on the table saw all by myself:)). It turned out to be rather heavy, and we ran out of white paint so we had to paint it tan until next spring when we will be able to give everything another couple of coats of white paint.

Rob insisted that we put plywood on to reinforce the porch roof so we spent the good part of another day figuring out the not-so-square measurements to piece and cut and install the plywood, then it was up on the roof to screw on the tin. I was hoping that I could sweet talk Rob into doing that for me but he was pretty busy working on his own projects so I had to go up there myself. It wasn't very long before somebody came and stole my ladder. Something about a quarrelsome wife and a corner of a roof came to mind...... they did bring it back when supper time got closer.

There was also the cement pile that was still in the way so that Rob could move the whole chicken coop over about 10 feet. A couple of days of skid-steer work quickly solved that problem. To my great relief Rob was actually able to move this beast of a creation and was even able to make it sit level.

Then there was the last section of the old chicken fence to take down, as well as move all the miscellaneous farm/project junk that gets strewn around while you're working on so many things at one time so that we could start the new chicken fence.

We figured out how to install the doors~ the nice heavy inside door and the cute {free!!} screen door from an Uncle Jim job. I had to break down and spend some money on hinges and hardware (ouch ~ those are expensive!) Russell saw us out there working so he came over and lent us his muscles, carpentry know~how and some big screws.

Being he was here, and we were also in the process of planning where to build the fence, he stayed for lunch and to help for the afternoon. By the time we were done we had all of the posts in and were ready to put the wire up. All the while praying that the storm would stay on Russell's side of the road~ which it did, other than a few minutes of rain when we took cover under the new porch roof.

The Tour: A deluxe chicken chalet complete with cathedral ceilings, insulated walls, a double floor for added protection to keep those little chicken toes warm, two windows, plenty of room to roost.....

and plenty of nesting boxes to lay all of those eggs in......

It holds the kids and the dog and the cats so it should hold the chickens.

A stained and poly-laminated floor, a little chicken door with a ramp......

that even opens and closes properly.

Outside we have a covered porch with a sealed bead board ceiling, a stained and poly-laminated floor, white wooden railing and a window box. And of course it has to have a few little things to make it cute. For starters Micah and I built a little wooden bench and then Grace and Micah painted it with some left over maroon paint.

I found some cute little baskets at the thrift store (with the theory being that when we do actually start getting some eggs there will be plenty of baskets to carry them in).

For now we filled them with the cute little pumpkins that grew on the old chicken fence all summer.

And a little wash tub to be filled with something spectacular when the idea comes to mind.I am almost looking forward to winter and snow (did I really just say that??) so I will have a good excuse to just be done with all these farm projects for a while and not feel guilty about snuggling on the couch with the kiddos and reading some good books while sipping hot chocoalte and eating donuts, working on quilting projects, and visiting with friends and family, and returning all those calls and e-mails, and becoming a regular blogger again. But there's still the calf shed to build, and the fence posts to get in before the ground freezes, and a horse barn to start, and a goat barn to finish ....... Time's a wasting~ better finish my coffee and get out there.