Thursday, April 30, 2009

chicken coop

I'd set aside about a thousand dollars to build a chicken coop here,
So I was absolutely thrilled, when I finally got into the back of one of the outbuildings and found this...

It's a little ragged and for sure needs some repairs and some cleaning, but has everything from laying boxes, and perches

It's even equipped with a heat lamp already. So minor repairs, Kicks butt on having to start from scratch (was that a pun? chicken scratch???)

The outside run area of the coop


Nathan and I exploring the outside parts

...and Nathan demonstrating how the chicken can move from inside to outside!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

note

any post may be few and far between for a bit since we do not have internet out there yet...

keep your fingers crossed that'll we'll have access again within a week instead of over a month like our last move!!!

and so it begins

WOW- I don't even know where to start.
We took possession of the acreage yesterday at noon. And it's been an event filled time ever since.

Nathan and Maggie are in absolute heaven running around checking out everything. They'd be thrilled to spend all day every Day out there playing and exploring and climbing and carrying on. which is great except that we need an extra pair of eyes. Because the moving van still needs to be unloaded, and it's hard to carry boxes and watch what those two are in to.- but we're getting there. We're back to take the last of the stuff from the condo today...and then everything should be in...not unpacked mind you, but at least in.

Our night was chaotic last night.

Nathan loves running around outside, but wasn't to thrilled about the house...or sleeping in the house. In fact he was down right temper tantrum. It took us 5 hours to get him to go to bed, only to have him wake up 2 hours later screaming again.
I think we didn't bring enough of his toys in our first trip, so he wanted to go "home" to his toys, and his stuff. He kept asking me all night..."boots" "coat" "car ride". Not to mention its pitch black at night...so we ended up leaving his light on all night just to calm him down.

and then on top of Nathan, freaking out, Chris goes outside at about 1 am. and there is coyotes howling in the next field...and there's our city dog fast asleep.
She came in and slept in the mudroom after that.
but were having some serious problems figuring out what to do with her.
If she's not chained up, or being watched she wanders off to go "exploring" but if she is chained especially outside at night...she's pretty much coyote bait...especially since she can obviously hear them but doesn't seem to think it might be a problem in the least.
I'm thinking we may have to find a dog that has already lived on an acreage or farm and adopt it to give Maggie some boot camp training fast!!!

Although the highlights of last night for me,
was hearing 2 owls in the trees across the road,
being able to see stars again
and finding out the back of one of the out buildings is already set up for chickens...complete with nesting boxes, heat lamps and perrches...I was absolutley in heaven with this little discovery (it was too snowy, and unaccesiblle every other time we've been there to see this little hen house) This means I won't have to put ou a big outlay of cash to build anything...it looks like with a good clean out and a few minor repairs to the chicken wire we could be up and running with come chicks right away...so happy!!!