Thursday 30 April 2009

No Project Updates

I know I owe you updates on the bathroom and the chicken coop projects, but I don't have them yet. The bathroom project has gotten put off in order to finish the chicken coop before the chickens get too big for their current residence. We've worked on it after work the last few evenings, but by the time we finished it was too dark to take pictures.

So, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of the beautiful clematis that is blooming out by our mailbox. I planted this thing 3 years ago and this is the first year it has had more than 1 or 2 blooms. Isn't it beautiful! Only problem is that it is growing in a big cluster at the base of the mailbox rather than climbing like it is supposed too. Oh well, it is still beautiful, don't you think?




Monday 27 April 2009

My Weekend In Pictures

Since the Easter Bunny brought me some new chick babies, we have to build them a place to live. They just can't go on staying in my living room, they are not good house guests. So, we chose a spot in the back of the house:

It's right next to the old chicken coop, so if we end up with roosters and need to separate them, we can put them in the older, smaller coop.

Then we started putting together the deck of the coop in the garage. It was over 90 degrees in there, so we worked as fast as we could.


Then we moved the framework to the new location. We attached one end to the lawn mower and lifted it up with a chain. My handy man put a concrete block on the furniture dolly and put it under the other end. My in-laws helped to keep it balanced and off we went.


We set it at the new site and got it all leveled up. That's the old coop on the left.

Put plywood on the top and a piece of sheet vinyl (for easier clean up),


And started framing it up.

That's about as much as we could get done this weekend. We hope to work on it some in the evenings this week. I'll keep you posted.

Thursday 16 April 2009

Look What the Easter Bunny Brought to My House!

Six of the cutest, week old, Rhode Island Red chicks of unknown sex.

And six of the tiniest little bantam chicks you've ever seen. I haven't measured them, but I'd bet they are only about 1 1/2" tall, if that. I don't know what sex or breed these are, but I'll know when all of their feathers come in.

This one DH calls Number 1 because it is the only yellow one we got.


I call these two Baby Blue (George Strait Song) and Bonnie Blue (Gone With The Wind).

And then there are 2 like the one on the right, and this dark one. As you can see, they have feathers on their feet. Sooooooo cute!


Here is a picture of DH holding the little dark one.
All 12 are currently living in my living room in a dog kennel that we wrapped with chicken wire to keep them from getting out. We placed a heat lamp over the top to keep them warm until all of their feathers come in. I can't tell you how much time I've spent just watching them.
Now we have to build a bigger chicken coop and enclose a bigger run for them. Our other 5 hens have no idea their territory is getting ready to be invaded!