Chicken Coop Condo

For their birthdays this year Amy and Emily asked for chickens. Yes, chickens. Not a Barbie or a My Little Pony, but chickens. Problem was, the chickens needed a place to live. Backyard construction projects are Sean's forte. He likes to build. He needed to build quickly because baby chicks don't stay chicks for long.

Sean designed a big sturdy coop. It took him several weekends to build. Evan added muscle to the heavy lifts. They even added power so that the heat lamp and cooling fans could be plugged in without runing extension cords from the barn.

The result of their efforts is our new "home addition" to house our new "babies."

We selected a small pasture near the barn so that the chickens would be safer (we saw a bobcat out there two nights ago!).



Sean framed up the chicken coop on 4x4 posts. Its heavy duty.



The finished project has eight little doors on the end to make egg collection easier.



There is a cute little door for the chicks and another service door for the little people to take care of the chicks.


Our new additions. There are four Buff Orpingtons, three Golden Campines, four Andalusians, and one that might be a Sussex - but we don't really know. Amy can tell the 12 chicks a part and knows them all by name.


Last week we adopted four grown hens and a beautiful rooster to the mix. They are separated from the chicks for now because, well........ chicks are food to chickens. So the chicks need to grow so they won't be food. The hens are already providing big brown eggs for our family.


We are looking forward to the added eggs once the chicks become hens and lay their own in about five months. I'm sure there will be extras to go around!

Evan and PaPa Hiked the Grand Canyon!

Last week Evan and my Dad hiked the Grand Canyon "rim to rim!" They started at the north rim and hiked through to the south rim, camping four nights in the canyon during the process. All told they hiked over 25 miles with a 5,000 foot elevation change!

Making Hay While the Sun Shines

I've been reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series to the girls at night. Yesterday we got to live out a scene from one of the books. Laura helped her Pa make hay by trampling it down while he pitched it into the wagon. Haying was a two person job. Well, we actually buy hay for our horses. But our city has a regulation that our weeds have to be cut down so many feet around our property and our house. Evan is out of town, and it's a two person job! So the girls and I helped Sean as best we could. After cutting down so much grass we figured we could at least feed it to the horses. I'm sure glad we don't have to do this in order for our horses to eat. It's a hard job!