Weekly Update: chicken herding, lopped limbs, and greenhouse jungle...

-Those rascally chickens! trying to keep them from going down the driveway to the road, or out of the front yard even, is turning out to be a fun challenge! Although they killed my miner's lettuce, they still seem to be a source of amusement every single day! I am so entertained by how intelligent they are, and by their individual personalities (naturally). Big Momma is still rooster her 1 egg. The babies are getting HUGE! some are as big as the layers now!

-Jack & I did some simple pruning around the yard today. Mostly around the arbor. Got to let that sun shine in!

-Some of our starts are going in the ground this week... And high time to do it! It is a practical jungle in there! Not to mention the untrimmed grass that is now at chest level - oops... never trimmed it when we put the greenhouse up, and now that the weed-eater is broke, it looks like I will have to pull it out by hand! I plan on laying some sort of ground cover in there when I am done...

-Helped Jack haul in his Hot Tub, and got to planning more of our hot tub adventure. Same place, but now that my shoulders lifted part of the 800lbs of his empty, figured I better start planning the footing structure and getting it done, because once it's in, it's in!

-Just found out that Glory Bee sells their second-hand 55 gallon food grade barrels, for $10 - That's $5 better than the other place I found, and I believe they are closer! So the rain harvesting system is on!

coop

I have finally seemed to have gotten the frame for the chicken coop done. The rain has wrecked havoc on my schedule for it, and the fact that the lumber is scattered all over Benton County... hahaha. It seems sturdy enough! Thank you Jack & Ethan for donating scrap lumber to the cause.

After finishing the floor frame, I put up the 4 corner posts, followed closely by the 2 side posts. I then put up bracing and put the window in. After the ceiling braces were completed, I drank a beer to celebrate! The frame is done, yeah! Oh yea, I also added a bit of the floor so I could have something to stand on! Now to cover the durn thing in plywood and install the doors and gutter/rain catchment system!

-UPDATE:

other than the roof, and a little bit above the door, and trim, the coop is done! A temporary latched on tarp is supplying the cover, and today I spread straw on the bottom. To keep the young-uns separated from the mature birds, I have strung fencing through the middle of the coop. I plan on adding a ceiling stick between the sides to hang the feeder from. Today I also changed the chicken nipples from their small bottles to larger, more efficient bottles, and strung them up in the coop. I am building the gate for the enclosure today and stringing up the upper flight deterrent on top of the already in fence. A few ground stakes should secure the bottoms temporarily. YEA CHICKENS!