Finished Coop & The New Yard

We wasted no time getting the chicken coop finished once the parents got whisked away back to California. Here are a few photos of us finishing up the coop-mahal:

Jenni finishing the door

The inside with nesting box and roosts

Installing the wheels

Rowan's special window feature

We saved some of the old original redwood siding from our house to use on the coop.

The next photos of the coop will be when we get the chickens in late August. We decided we will purchase them from the 4H kids at our local county fair, so stay tuned.

Our next summer project has been getting the entire yard re-graded and adding new soil and a new driveway. The guys spent about a week digging, scraping, adding new top soil, drainage and a flagstone paver driveway/walkways.

First order of business was to get the old driveway removed. Thank goodness the Bobcat made easy work of it.

Once the old driveway and top soil was removed,  Rowan and I helped supervise the drawing out of the driveway/walkway design. We painted out the basic design first so the guys could follow the pattern.

 Installing the forms

 A couple of truckloads of gravel went down first.....

 ........then a couple of loads of sand and everything was leveled off.

 Then, the pavers being laid down.....

The locking sand being brushed in.......

 The vibrating machine packing the sand into the cracks

Once the stone was laid, the new topsoil and mulch were added.

 The end result is very nice indeed. Now we will wait until our heatwave here in the midwest is over and plant the new yard in the fall.

In spite of all of this yard commotion, we did have another exciting new birth in the yard (see the Doe birth in my last post). Our Carolina Wren couple that moved into our little birdhouse a few weeks ago now has a family of 4! Here are a couple of shots of the new arrivals:

Getting vegetables from the garden is a very entertaining experience as the bird box is just above the cucumbers so every time we are out there, the babies think we are there to feed them. 

Where is my worm? Wait, you aren't my mom!

 It seemed like no time at all and the wee ones were out for their first adventure in the bush. I just happened to be out in the yard as they came out of the box. Just too cute! We hope they made it off on their first flight........

Next..........travel news is coming from Across The Pond...........