Last Fall, my friend Sarah asked if I would like to go with her to gather some barn wood from an old barn that was being taken down.
Of course I said yes! Actually, I may have squealed yes. I can't remember for sure. Hmmm
Anyway, wielding hammer and pry bar, I came away with a sweet pile of beautifully aged barn wood and a very sore shoulder. It was totally worth the sore shoulder!! I had so many ideas for putting my reclaimed barn wood to good use.
But my sweet pile of barn wood ended up sitting on the side of the garage through the winter. -sigh-
Project ideas continued to swirl through my mind though. In particular, I could picture a lovely old barn wood headboard for the bed in our guest room, which was headboardless!
Sad isn't it?
So as Spring, sprung, I laid the barn wood out on the patio to dry. I was so ready to begin a barn wood project!
Then it snowed. Grrrr
Barn wood projects as well as the chicken coop project were delayed.
And since the chickens were growing at an alarming rate, the coop took priority when the weather got nice again.
And, well, life happened.
Anyway the barn wood was once again tossed into a pile to wait. -sigh-
Guess what the Husband and I finally got to working on last weekend!!
Yep, we pulled out that barn wood.
Chose the pieces we thought would work best for the guest room headboard.
There was a lot of measuring.
Okay, I'm going to admit to you that the Husband measured. I said, "That doesn't look right! How can that be right?" I then went and remeasured. He was right.
I'm saying it here for all to see...
I was wrong. HE WAS RIGHT.
Eh hem
We then cut all of the barn wood boards to the correct length for our guest bed.
Once the boards were cut we removed the old nails. Wow there were a lot! Wouldn't be good to have guests getting caught on those now would it?
We brushed off dust and debris.
Then we attached new boards, cut to the height we wanted the headboard to be.
Finally we gave it a good coating of clear matte finish to seal the wood.
Then we had to allow the new headboard to sit in the garage for 24 hours because the smell was something else! Whew!
Once the smell began to dissipate, we attached a support beam to the bed frame and mounted our new headboard.
Hope none of our future guests see that photo. Could be cause for nightmares!
Anyway, done!
It looks great!
Barn wood project #1...complete!
Woohoo!!
Now on to the next project!
Christine
I let the chickens into the garden to play yesterday.
As usual, they rushed out of the coop in a flutter of spread wings and excited squawks!
After checking the progress of the cucumber and tomato plants I realized that only 3 of the girls had come into the garden to play. Jade was mysteriously absent.
I called out, "Here chickie chickie" and she quickly peaked her head out of the coop house. She was reluctant, but finally made her way into the garden with the other girls. (and by girls I mean chickens. You knew that, right?)
I made a beeline to check the nesting boxes! I thought...this is it! She must have laid her first egg, that's why she was late into the garden.
No such luck. The nesting box was empty. -sigh-
I went about my other chores.
Minutes later however, Jade returned to the coop house, went directly into a nesting box, and began scratching and shifting around. I knew this was it! It had to be! No chicken in her right mind would hide away in a nesting box when she could be out playing in the garden! Right??
I rallied the family. We all stood outside the nesting box waiting. That's totally normal, right?
We waited 25 minutes quietly cheering Jade on! Go Jade! Go Jade! Push it out! Push it out! Waaaay out! Every family that raises chickens does this, right?
Anyway...
25 minutes later Jade emerged from the nesting box. We gave a cheer, opened the box...
NOTHING!
-double sigh-
It was a bit of a let down. Oh well, soon, right?
Later in the evening the kids went out to the coop to check on the girls. You know I went running when they yelled, "We have an egg!"
I was so excited!
I expected to look into the nesting box and see egg laying perfection, the sight of a beautiful brown egg, gently deposited on soft pine shavings.
Not so much.
After all the time Jade spent in the nesting box, she deposited her first little egg in the middle of the coop run.
Yep, right there in the middle of the run. But hey, we have our first egg!! Woohoo!
It's beautiful!
And so tiny.
And very photogenic!
And tasty!!
Did I mention tiny?
Finally one of the girls is laying! Only 3 more to go!
Chop chop ladies! You're falling behind!
Christine
Our once little chicks,
 |
| So Cute! |
will be 17 weeks old tomorrow!
I know! I can hardly believe it myself.
In fact, I hadn't been paying much attention to how old they were until one of the chickens dropped into a squat when Miss Sofia tried to pick her up. This squat action is very unlike the normal routine of trying to run away when someone is trying to pick them up. This squat action is, from everything I've read on raising chickens, a good indicator that a chicken will begin laying eggs soon. -squeal!-
Of course I wanted Sofia to make the chicken do it again!
Did you know that chickens begin laying eggs between 16 and 18 weeks old?
This squatting action made me decide it might be a good idea to count the weeks since our girls hatched.
17 weeks!! Whoop Whoop!!
Definitely time to prepare the nesting boxes which have been closed up to prevent the chickens from making them a place to sleep when they were younger, and since chickens poop right where they sleep, to keep the nesting boxes poop free. Yes, poop free nesting boxes are ideal!
I purchased a couple of (the humor is not lost on me) roasting pans to line the nesting boxes. They were the only thing I could find that was the right size to fit inside the boxes. I'm not sure if the chickens will like roasting pans as nesting box liners, but they will make for easy work when it comes to changing out the nesting material.
While the Husband removed the board that closed up the nesting boxes, I filled the pans with pine shavings and some lavender sprigs (lavender smells so nice) and placed them inside the nesting boxes.
Within seconds the girls arrived to checkout what we were doing.
It's all so very egg-citing!
And now we wait.
Pretty soon!
Waiting...
Any day now!
Waiting...
It's gonna happen!
Waiting...
Christine
We made homemade giant soft pretzels the other day.
I got the recipe from a friend.
These pretzels are so good and they're pretty easy to make.
And fun! Don't forget the fun!
One word of advice, don't let the kids/teenagers be the designated pretzel salters. Whoa Nelly!!
There are plenty of other steps they can help with.
Especially the last step.
Oh yeah! That's the stuff!
You really want a giant soft pretzel now, don't you?
Oh yes, I know you do!
You can get the recipe at my friend's blog Chew Out Loud. Then you can make your own and satisfy that giant soft pretzel craving that suddenly popped up.
Enjoy!
Christine
The chickens have their own little doorway for entering and exiting the coop house.
We can very conveniently open and close the little door from the outside of the coop with a pulley system.
This handle connects to this cord.
This cord leads into the coop house.
It trails along the coop ceiling dropping down to connect to the little door for the chickens.
You pull, door opens!
Very convenient!
At this time we don't close the door very often. The chickens enter the coop house at bedtime and leave the coop house in the morning. The door remains open.
The entire coop is secure so we don't bother to close the coop house door at night. If the chickens had free range of the yard during the day instead of an enclosed run we would definitely close the coop house door at night to protect our girls from predators! We will likely close the coop house door winter nights for added warmth. But until then, the door remains always open.
Unless...
It's possible that one of the younger members of the Family closed the coop house door yesterday while cleaning the coop house and didn't open it again.
It's also possible that the chickens huddled together last night, falling asleep on the ramp leading into the coop house, because the door was closed!
It's also possible that the Husband and I, once we realized the situation, woke the chickens at 10:21 last night, causing one of us (me!) to receive a nasty peck on the hand from a barely awake and therefore somewhat agitated chicken, so they could be ushered into the comfort of the coop house for the night.
It's highly likely that the person responsible for barring the chickens from the comfort of the coop house last night found this on her bedroom door this morning.
The guilty party, who shall remain nameless, as she is embarrassed, humbly cleaned the coop today and remembered to leave the coop door open!
And they lived happily ever after!
The End
Christine
Head of Coop Oversight Operations and Procedures / C.O.O.P.
