Yesterday, I was asked why the chicken coop is up on legs.  The question jolted my heat-fried brain into the realization that I never explained our design and engineering choices regarding the chicken coop!  So, guess what! Today, I will explain it all!

To answer the question at hand, the chicken coop is up on legs for ease of access. 

Since were weren’t building a large outbuilding kind of a coop, we didn’t need space to walk into the coop.  Chickens don’t need much headroom, so we built it as a shorter building.  However, for accessing the food bucket, water bowl, cleaning, etc., it is just plain better on my old back to not have to bend and stoop so much.   So, we brought the floor level up to meet me!  The other advantage is that having space under the coop gives the chickens a guaranteed shady spot and refuge from hawks and rain. 

The two front windows on the coop are for air circulation and so we can see in and the chickens can see out.  The coop also has a window on one end in the peak of the side.  This is to allow hot air to escape….which it truly does.  On hot days, if I hold my hand up in front of that little window….I can totally feel the hot air coming out. (It’s the round window in the picture below.)

Also, in the picture, I circled areas that are gaps between the eaves and the side framing.  As you can so, those are carefully covered with hardware cloth and also act as vents for the coop.  All the hardware cloth is well secured to keep predators from ripping it out and getting in.  The square windows are very tight (as they would be most likely to be breached) as not only are they well stapled on, but the hardware cloth is between the frame and the siding.  I made sure the screws attaching the siding go right through the hardware cloth too.  Those windows seem impenetrable!

Under the round window, you will notice I put numbers 1 and 2.  These are parts of the coop not yet finished.  The number 1 spot will be where our nesting boxes are (we’ve got a couple of months before we worry about eggs).  The number two spot is going to be a little storage box accessible from the outside.  The storage will be added at the same time as the nesting box.  The siding boards are already cut to allow for these uses.

The coop has two entry/access spots.  One, on the back, is for humans.

And the other, on the side, is for chickens.

The chicken door opens right up into their yard.  They do have a ramp for getting in and out. While chickens can actually fly, we discourage it as we want them to stay in their yard.  We also clip their wings so they won’t be able to fly so well.  This involves clipping the flight feathers on one wing so the birds will be unbalanced. (Believe it or not, if you clip both wings, they still can get some flight!)  They can flutter and get some lift, but not any great distance.  For us, this is very important as we live near a park with a lot of dog patrons.  When we had chickens several years ago, we lost a couple to dog attacks from dogs at the park.   This means that we have to fence our chickens (we would truly love to have free-range lawn chickens) and try to ensure they can’t fly out.

That side door on the coop is currently a piece of plywood.  Because it is on the south end, we have plans to make it a plexiglass window-door so the chickens can get as much sun (solar warmth) as possible in the winter.  Dh was thwarted in the making of the door, so it hasn’t been finished yet.

The picture shows the door dry-fit. However, the frame pieces all split when dh tried to nail them together. And after a surprising display of frustration (Dh is not one prone to outbursts, but I’ll pretty much say he threw a tantrum over this door!) we went with the plywood door for short-term with plans to finish up the window-door at a later date.

Speaking of windows, we also have cut pieces of plexiglass that we will use as storm windows in the winter to keep out the elements.

As you can see, we have a few little bits and bobs to finish up.  Besides the things I have listed here, I also want to trim the front of it in white and hang flower boxes on the windows.  

I hope that is a pretty good explanation of our design.  If I missed something, or you are curious for more details, feel free to ask!

And speaking of chickens…I guess I’d best go let them out!  I’m off to do my chicken chores!

It has been quite the week around here!

First, it has been blazing hot. I mean, unbearable and awful.  Yesterday was a relief…and when you are in Vermont and consider 82° a relief….You know it’s been hot!

Second, the Craftymomma purge-fest continues.  I am cleaning and purging, cleaning and purging…It is very satisfying! 

Third, dh is home on vacation.  It is a stay-cation and low key and relaxing.

Because it was supposed to be so hot and we didn’t want the chickens to fry what few brain cells they have being slow roasted in their coop, we spent some time last weekend getting their yard fenced.  Here are some pictures.

Happy chickens!

It has been blazing hot here the past few days.  The days start off sort of cool and gradually heat up and up and up until by afternoon, it is nearly unbearable (for me at least).  Being outside in the sun is out of the question, I just break into an insta-sweat!  The shade isn’t quite so bad as long as I don’t really move or think too hard.  Indoors with AC is even better!

We only have air conditioning in the bedrooms (to keep them cool for sleeping), so retreating to our bedroom after lunch gives some good respite.  It also gives good incentive to clean.  The past two days, I have spent considerable time cleaning up in our bedroom.  The first day, I cleaned off my bureau, the windowsill over the top of the bed and my spot of floor between my bed and bureau.  It is amazing exactly how much clutter one can accumulate in a small spot.  I have hated the mess and decided to simply make it go away!

Yesterday, I did a bunch of cleaning on the other side of the room where my “office” is. (We have a very large bedroom.)  I cleaned off a bookshelf of old stuff, organized another shelf, then I pulled out all the OT manipulatives I have been collecting and organized it onto shelves.  All the OT stuff had been shoved under the table I use for a desk, so I was relieved to get it organized and put away in a more tidy manner.  I even cleared up room on one of the book cases for some of dh’s hobby supplies.

I have pulled a ton of paper recycling out of our room and I have thrown out a fair bit of stuff too.  I do have some more work to do, I need to organize some knitting supplies and yarn, but I am making steady headway to making our room a peaceable retreat.  It is satisfying work.

Since today is forecast again to be blazing hot, I expect I will get up there and tackle some more of this project!

Another big project I want to do this week is to clean and organize is our dining room.  I have also been working on this, but more slowly.  However, by the end of the week, I expect to have made some really good progress!

Right now, I have laundry going, yucky smelling towels getting bleach.  I have some of my own laundry to do too.  So do NB and dh. Oh! Did I mention? I quit my job as laundress.  I did this once before, when I started school…but without being home to consistently reinforce it, it sort of fell apart.  As of about a week ago, each person in our home is responsible for his or her personal laundry.

I have a couple of gladiola stalks in my living room.  They are from a bed I planted a few years back….but then didn’t bring the bulbs in during the winter, oops!  Glad bulbs don’t overwinter very well in Vermont!  However, I did find two blossoming…They are so pretty!

When the heat let up a bit last evening we went outside and started putting up the fence so the chickens could go outside.  It was hot in their coop in the afternoon yesterday, and with today forecast to be even hotter, I wanted them to have a chance to get out into the breeze.

We got most of it done last night and then this morning, I got up and was out there by seven to finish it while it was still cool.  I am pleased to say the fence it up, the chickens wings have been clipped, and they are now in their yard pondering the vast expanses of our universe.

In other randomness….Our cat, Huckle, likes cantaloupe.  He doesn’t eat it but will lick the rinds, or lick pieces of melon.  I consider this behavior strange but charming.

Nature Boy was concerned people wouldn’t believe we had a cat that licked cantaloupe and kept telling me to get a picture with Huckle’s tongue actually licking the melon.

Believe or not, a couple of shots later, the timing was right and……

Yup, a tongue shot.

I aim to please!

Yesterday, Speedy and I headed out for some morning yard saling…I don’t quite understand this trend of yard sales that start on Saturday….but I am more than willing to take advantage of it!

I was delighted to find a bunch of linens at the yard sales.  We went to one sale where there were bunches of hand embroidered linens.  They also had beautiful vintage feed sack quilts. <sigh>  I didn’t buy any of the quilts as I just don’t know what I would do with them…They were beautiful but worn and fragile and I don’t have the wall space to display them.

However, I did buy a bunch of embroidered table linens at the sale.  I have been trying to step up beauty and function in our home.  These table linens were older and mildly stained (though I washed them and that helped the stains a lot!) 

Here are some pics.  I should warn you, the pics are a bit washed out as it was super sunny when I took the pictures, but you can get an idea of the handwork.

The table cloths are all about 2′ square.

And there were smaller linens too.

So pretty! I am going to put some of them on my bureau…Others will grace other spots in need of beauty.

I also found two crib/lap sized quilts at a different yard sale.  The woman was selling them for fifty cents a piece!

Yes, I especially love the purple and green one!  I bought them to use on our couch. 

Today is a special yard sale day.  It’s the big yard sale at the fairgrounds and Speedy and I will be there in line before the doors open!  I have a list of a few items I am looking for….And I’m sure I will find some treasures too!

I just don’t feel like I have a ton to write about these day…My life is slow and boring and I like it! 

However, I got my cookbook yesterday…That’s something to talk about!

So the gist of this book is that you buy bulk of an item and then package it up as a ready-to-cook entree. (There are also some side dishes and desserts, but the majority of the recipes are entrees.) Each recipe yields 3 entrees which serve 4-6 (depending on recipe).  For our family of 3, that means some recipes will really yield 6 entrees and I will package them accordingly.  You mix together the ingredients, divvy them up in freezer Ziplocs and pop them in the freezer for quick meals.

I pretty much like everything about this book.  The recipes look good.  Most are reasonably healthy and those that seem rich….well, I do know how to tweak recipes to be lower fat.  The book is well laid out and easy to follow.  I especially like that you can print the cooking directions for the entrees on to Avery labels and slap them on the freezer bags and you are good to go.

I am going to start by making about 6 entrees, though in two separate batches.  I am going to do chicken first, making Cashew Chicken (we love stir fry here!), Pecan Crusted Chicken Strips (breaded with bread crumbs and pecans) and a barbecue chicken recipe.  Those recipes will yield at least 9 entrees for us. 

The second round of cooking will be beef, Mozzarella Meatballs (which have a sort of tangy/bbq sauce) and Ginger Beef (good plain, or for stir fry).  That’s at least another 6 entrees.

I am also going to make garlic baked potatoes, red sauce and some ginger cookie dough. 

When finished, I will have a minimum of 15 entrees, 8 sides, 10 cups of red sauce and dough for 60 cookies in the freezer and ready to go.  I figure that is good for about a month of meals.  Some of the entrees will leave us with leftovers and making only 15 entrees also allows for flexibility in cooking other things we like from our usual recipe library.  Once I get this going, I hope to cook up a couple of new entrees every couple of weeks, to keep the freezer stocked.

So, I am very excited to try this…I have been so frustrated with being tired and not wanting to cook (and dh being tired and not wanting to cook!) and the fact that that leads to more convenience kinds of foods.  I don’t like that convenience foods are less healthy and more expensive.  I will be very happy to have entrees ready to go in the freezer!

It is my plan to do this cooking sometime next week. Dh will be home on vacation and will help me out.  I’ve been peeking at the long range forecast…We are due for a spell of miraculously sunny weather (Yay!) and then in the middle of next week, more rain.  So, likely I’ll be cooking up these entrees the middle of next week!

And of course, I will fully document the event for blog sharing!

We have been in home mode around here the last couple of days.  It has been a mix of doing quiet activities and relaxing and doing chores.  Monday, I took Nature Boy up to his bedroom to do some organizing.  NB’s bedroom has knee walls and there are built in closets that run the whole length of the knee walls.  One side we use for general family storage, the other side is for camping and seasonal items.  The general storage closet needed some cleaning and I had a bureau I wanted to slide in the closet in which to store our extra bedding.

So, Monday, with the help of Nature Boy, we filled two 33 gallon trash bags, a big box of recycling (there were lots of cardboard boxes up there) and had some stuff for giving away.  I got the closet all tidy, got the bureau in and was quite happy!

Then we worked on Nature Boy’s room a little bit.  His room is actually not ever super messy, but it was time to go through and get rid of some stuff.  He purged some stuff and reorganized other stuff….All in all, it was a good morning’s work!

The chickens are settled in their coop outside.  The very first night they were out there, they had a nocturnal visitor.  However, our coop is solidly and securely built, so they are safe.  In the following picture, you can see where the raccoon put his paws on the house so he could peek in the window.

I bet that gave the chickens quite a start!

My scrubs shirts for work came.  I am very happy with the fit, style and look of the ones with lycra side panels…They have give and ease without looking boxy and too big.  I ordered some regular style scrubs shirts too, but I am going to send them back as I don’t care for the fit.  Here are my new scrubs shirts on the line.

I have been thinking a lot about going to work and how we will manage meals and healthy eating.  We did not do so well the past year at all….And I want to change our eating habits.  I ordered a book from Amazon on once a month cooking…It had great reviews and looked pretty interesting.  I am hoping to get some food in the freezer so we have nutritious meals at-the-ready.  I also ordered the Artisan Bread book.  Do you remember the dough slug? That was from an article in Mother Earth News about the book.  I ordered the whole book so I could get more of the recipes as we did enjoy that bread a lot!  I ordered another cook book too….I’ll give an initial book review of all the books after they arrive.

Dh has vacation next week.  We were going to go camping, but have decided to have a stay-cation instead.  We are all looking forward to a week of relaxing quality family time.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

As you can see, our hard work has paid off and the coop is pretty nearly done.  Even if not quite complete, it is done to the point that I no longer have chickens in my living room….And that was the goal.

The coop needs a paint touch up here and there and the chicken door to the side yard is not completed.  Right now, the door is just plywood, but dh is going to make a nice window-door with a piece of plexiglass we have.

Also, I would like to trim out the coop in white….Here is a pic I did drawing in the white trim.  Also, notice the decorations on the bottom board….(Please don’t notice how crummy I draw with the brush tool!) Nature Boy really wants to have it decorated with eggs and chickens…..Fine by me!  So, this is my vision for the completed coop.

All I have to say at this point is thank goodness it is done!  This was a grueling project and took way longer than we expected.  I am glad it is done! <phew>

Yesterday was a kind of around the house catch up day! Since the weekend and Monday and Tuesday were mainly devoted to the chicken coop, we had gotten behind on dishes and laundry and general house maintenance.  I did about 4 loads of laundry yesterday. I even used the dryer as I was so far behind I just wanted to get caught up!  I also did two loads of dishes, plus vacuuming and general tidying.

I also did something wild and crazy yesterday….I pulled out my sewing machine!   Yup, that’s right! I do actually sew….not that you would know it the past couple of years!

I had a hankering to make some hair bun twists.  I finally found wire to do it, but unfortunately, the gauge is wrong and it is too thick.  That’s okay though, I will get some different wire and try again!

Perhaps I should point out that my hair isn’t even really long enough for that kind of a bun anyway….I was kind of hoping if I made a bit smaller of a twisty thing that it would work on my hair…Really, what I just need is to figure out a way to make my hair grow faster.  Any tips?

I also saw another nifty thing I’d like to try. It’s a cloth hanky dispenser, brilliantly and simply done.

I feel like I have a bit of the sewing bug!

This is turning into a marathon chicken coop building project.

We spent all day working and that darn coop and it is still not done! We are exhausted (weary to the bone) sore, frustrated and perhaps there is even a bit of crankiness about the whole thing.

Yesterday, we moved the coop to it’s resting site. (Site leveled and prepared by me…..I now know I hate site work!)  I spent a lot of time yesterday doing little fussy jobs, like making a feeder, as stand for the water bowl, putting on side panels, fussy fitting door pieces, painting, etc., etc.

Dh made the frames for the side, made the roof trusses, worked on the door that will open to the chicken yard……It all just seems like endless work.

So, where are we now?

We still have the chickens in our living room.

The coop has three sides on it and no roof (but the rafters are made).  Oh yes, and we have the first coat of exterior paint on it, Royal Indigo.

Inside you can see the feeder I made…..Lemme tell you how I did that!

Because I am cheap thrifty, I wanted to make a feeder instead of pay $30-$40 to buy one.  I had seen pictures online of folks taking a five gallon bucket and a plant saucer and making a feeder and I wanted to do it too.

I dug an old five gallon bucket out of the barn (free) and bored holes in the bottom and then made the holes a little bigger with the jigsaw.  Then, using nuts, bolts and big washers ($2ish), I bolted the blue pan to the bottom of the bucket. (We went to the feed store/garden store for a plant saucer, but they didn’t have any, but they did have that handy blue feed pan at $4.69). 

So for less than $7, I have a handy, dandy and huge feed bucket.  Now, I just gotta dig the bucket lid out of the barn to keep the chickens out of the bucket!!!

Behind the bucket, you may note another one of my projects.  It is a stand for the water bowl.  Though there are fancy waterers akin to the feed bucket, we stick to the more straightforward approach: a bowl.  This is mainly because it is easier to wash out and because in the winter the water freezes in the container.  We use a rubber feed bowl for a waterer as it is simple to flip over and pop out the ice chunk.  Anyway, the stand is to keep the bowl out of the wood shavings and cleaner longer.  It is good and sturdy and won’t tip (important because chickens do all kinds of silly antics that involve trying to knock over their water bowl).  I demonstrated to dh the sturdiness of the water bowl stand by climbing on it myself and doing a little dance.  He was very impressed, though I am not sure if from the carpentry or the dance.

Today we rest.  Dh has to go back to work.  I am too tired to do another day. And, thankfully, it is raining…So I don’t even have to feel guilty for taking a day off!

I am thankful for a not-chicken-coop-building-day so that I can return to my mundane life of laundry and grocery shopping.  That was only a tad bit sarcastic….I really need to run to the grocery store and I am getting low on clean clothes…..I am glad for a chance to attend to these matters!!!

The coop will have to wait until the weekend to be finished.