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...........

Family & Chicken Coop 101

Family Visit and The Coop......May/June

Spring is always our favorite time here in the midwest. New beginnings of all sorts. Everything in bloom, baby bunnies, birds, bugs, deer and all sorts of creatures in the garden. It is always the perfect time for our parental unit from California to come for a visit (and to build something!). Mom & Dad paid us a visit in late May with ideas of chicken coop building, antiquing, movie watching, eating (of course) and some local sightseeing in their heads. Well, we got right to all of that once they arrived.

First, the chicken coop is such an exciting endeavor, Dad and Rowan and I couldn't wait to get going on the design and build. We made a trip to the local book store (yes! we still do have book stores here), to pick up the 4H Guide to raising Chickens and the Backyard Chickens Guide to Coops and Tractors (here is the website this excellent book comes from: http://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/2/Coops)
Anyway.......we (especially dad) couldn't wait to get to building the coop. Luckily we had many building supplies left over from our house remodel, so the coop was an adventure to build.
The really cool thing is that one can build a coop out of just about anything, so that's what we did!
The most important feature is security. Security from predators such as raccoons, opossum, birds of prey and especially domestic dogs. You will see how we dealt with that in the following photos.

Dads feet barely hit the ground here and he was ready to get to work. Laying out the framework on the garage floor was the first order of business. We built an A-frame chicken coop tractor on wheels (this way we can move it around the yard and distribute that excellent poop to fertilize the yard).

Here, dad and I are laying out the template for the framing on the garage floor and building the A-frames:

 Rowan and dad

 The 3 Stooges :o)

Meanwhile, mom is playing an extremely important role on the inside: finally writing down her macaroni salad recipe for me. I realized after all of these years I don't have it written down by her. So now I do!

Mom was making this salad for a reason. We had a neighborhood party for Memorial Day, so the macaroni salad and a waldorf salad and deviled eggs (YUM!!!) will be our contribution. A bunch of our neighbors joined us with all sorts of other goodies. I also grilled up 3 beer butt chickens. Of course by the time I took any photos of the party we had already finished eating and just about cleaned up (too busy to host and take photos too), but here are some of our guests:

Our neighbors Jane and Judy

 Alex, Lee, our German guest Heike, and neighbor Werner.

 From left: Heike, Werner, Mom, another German guest Oliver, dad and Alex

We also took mom & dad on a trip south to West Baden Springs and French Lick for a day of sightseeing and delicious food. Go here for more info: http://www.historichotels.org/hotels-resorts/west-baden-springs-hotel/   -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Baden_Springs_Hotel  - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Lick,_Indiana

Me and mom kicking back on one of the fainting couches in the dome of the West Baden Hotel.

 Mom & Dad on the veranda

Back to the coop...........
It only took us a couple of days to get the structure to really take form. We had to buy very little new material as most of the supplies were left over from the re-model of the house. So.... the coop just happens to match the house pretty well! :o) The floor for the inside just happens to be made out of left over ceiling boards from the front porch!

It is really a joy to have mom & dad come and visit.

We had a very special thing happen while mom & dad were here........a very pregnant Doe (as in deer)
appeared in our side yard and decided to make it her home. Well, a few days later, there was Bambi. We have to remember we are living in their living room so no reason to complain about all this wild life. The folks really enjoyed seeing all our rabbits, birds, deer, etc.

Here is our doe right next to the car in the driveway:

Here is a short video of our cat Fergus getting a bit too close to mommy deer.

Our cat Fergus thinks he has a chance against a pregnant doe. Yeah, right!

And finally, here is little Bambi in the yard across the street from us.

There go all of the flowers in the yard! :o)

The finished coop and more animal farm news coming. Stay tuned...........

March/April Update

May 5, 2012
Spring Has Sprung (early!)

It seems like forever since we have posted to the blog! Must be that spring fever that's been distracting me from sitting at the computer. The weather here has been so fantastic all winter with very little snow and pretty mild temperatures with lows only in the 40's. Tulips, daffodils, crocus, Lilly's, iris have all come up about 1 month early this year. These developments have caused us to get right down to planting the vegetable garden extra early.

A little aside about this wacky weather..........today (May 5) just happens to be Climate Impacts Day. If you'd like to check it out, go to http://www.climatedots.org/ there you will find posted photos from around the world connecting the dots to show what climate change is doing to this planet and human kind. And go here to watch a short movie clip - http://act.350.org/sign/video/?akid=1890.571713.TFujPg&rd=1&t=4
Today is also Cinco de Mayo. This celebration commemorates the Mexican army's 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War (1861-1867) http://www.history.com/topics/cinco-de-mayo always interesting to read about who was trying to conquer who throughout history. Too bad that hasn't stopped! :o)

Moving on.....here is what has been up with us, in our little corner of the mid-west, over the last part of March and month of April, ..........

Lulu is still playing in the box our worm farm came in. The simple pleasures of being a cat! And we wonder why we don't have room in the house to actually have furniture!

We have been busy in the yard trying to get our vegetable garden boxes ready for planting. We decided to build a new stone box in the front yard out of some of our extra stone from the house construction.

We also modified one of the old boxes to make the path down the side of the house wider. This is where the chard will go.

Rowan loves to run the tiller, so she took on the task of preparing the back bed for planting.

Here is the new front bed about 2 weeks after planting the lettuces and radish.

Here we have tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, spinach, parsley and rhubarb.

The rain barrels (water butts) are already completely full and ready to water all the veg.

We don't have much else in the yard after all the construction in the last couple of years, but what we do have is FABULOUS. The Iris are exceptional this year and bring much needed splashes of color to the front yard.

And of course there are the poppies. Nothing will keep them from coming back. Poppies and cockroaches will inherit the earth :o) 

Now on to food.........with all of this warm weather, we are moving right on to lighter food choices. Most of what we cook now comes from the grill out on the front porch.

Here is one of our favorite Mediterranean meals- grilled garlic and lime chicken, couscous, tzatziki yogurt sauce, feta cheese, olives, greens/tomatoes, hummus and pita bread. YUM! Now, all we need is the ocean and we are in paradise!

Here is another favorite - roasted beets, butternut squash and sweet potatoes. We do these on the grill to keep the stove off and decrease the heat inside the house. The grill gives them extra flavor.

Steel head and scallops will go with the roasted veg.

Sally and Rowan are obviously very excited about what we are eating.

Everyone wants to celebrate the great weather, so our friends Graeme and Millie had us out to their country home for a feast of black bass. We sat on their fabulous screened porch overlooking the woods and all of the wildlife as we had dinner.

Another animal aside.... Lulu has decided she is taking over the linen closet. If we open a door to anywhere, especially a closet, its like sending up a flare to this cat that it is time to 'move in'. If you turn your back for a second, she slips in. Such a bundle of love! Whenever we can't seem to find her, we just start opening up all of the closets and eventually, there she is!

Back to outside and Spring...........In our preparations to get our yard ready for landscaping AND that impending flock of chickens, we are taking drastic measures to prepare our yard. We have had a gigantic black walnut tree (at least 65 years old) removed from the backyard to make room for our chicken coup. Black walnut trees are so acidic nothing grows under them, so we figure this tree is the most OK to remove from the yard, since nothing can grow under it anyway and the walnuts taste like engine oil! We have had our tree guy, Adrian, take down the over 50ft beauty and cut 20ft of the fabulous trunk into two logs we will eventually have made into boards. We will make a bar top and coffee table out of it for the house. Here you can see what we did.......

Adrian, our monkey boy tree trimmer, is an expert at this kind of thing.  Not too many guys in town who will climb a tree to take it down. You will see how good he is as you go on in this post.....

I think he needs to join the US Olympic team as a gymnast. Could you do this while hanging from a rope??

It is really amazing how this man takes down a tree bit-by-bit while he is hanging by a rope! 

 So, you all don't realize yet that he has taken down this whole tree in a 12ft wide area between the neighbors fence and our garage. Talk about holding ones breath when things start falling.....well not one thing hit our garage or the fence. AMAZING!

Approaching the moment of truth.......

This is where I really held my breath......TIMBER!!!!!

What an awesome moment! Adrian has now cut our two 10ft logs and will move them so we can dry them out and have them made into boards. We will store them in our backyard for about a year so they can dry out and then  have the boards planed so we can use them to make that counter top and coffee table for the house. This tree will continue to give us its beauty even though it no longer stands in our yard.

 We are looking forward to seeing how this timber dries out in the next year. We will need to keep it wet over the summer so it doesn't split. Luckily we have those gully-washer thunderstorms to help us out with that. It will be very exciting to see what we come up with this time next year. Stay tuned :o)

Oh, and of course we saved some firewood from the walnut to add to our already very full wood shed.

 Where once was a walnut tree, will now be a chicken coop. Oh the excitement of it all!

don't worry, there is more coming............. :o)