Chicken Mama

Introducing the Flock!  Currently we have 8 hens and a rooster.  Here is Virgil, the man of the coop. He will celebrate his 2nd birthday next month.

Chickens were the first farm animals introduced to the farm.  Our first flock was a barn yard mix of some of the prettiest birds I'd seen.  They were all different in color and when they started laying, the eggs were brown, peach, green, blue, and white.  I loved it!  A couple of dog attacks later, Virgil is the only one left.  We replaced our hens with the red ones you see in the photo above.  We get 6-8 eggs per day usually.

Come Spring, I plan on building these guys a new coop.  I want something pretty and white!  Currently our coop was built off of our barn and works just fine, but I intend to use it for meat hens I'm going to start this Spring as well.  Here is the current coop:

We were certainly newbies when it came to this.  First we secured the coop area, the part under cover of the barn, which is completely secured with 1x1 wire.  The run we did by setting 4x4 posts and 2x4 supports, encasing the whole thing with chicken wire.  The wire was buried about a foot inside to prevent predators from digging in.  We did that right, nothing can get in there! Inside the coop we used closet rod poles attached to the barn with brackets for them to roost on.  We converted an old wooden box into nesting boxes.  Works nicely.

Here is my inspiration for the new coop I'm planning:

source: Country Living

Hopefully I will be able to accomplish something similar.  This is actually quite perfect since we let them out to free range during the day, they just need a cozy little coop and run.

Wishing you a beautiful day!  Thanks for stopping by.

Shanna

uh-oh....

Well this is more than I bargained for! My "sneak peek" of what was behind the drywall was way off!! The ONE little piece that was actually painted was where I peeked. The rest.....WALLPAPER. So, out comes my alcohol and chisel once again. Can't say I've missed them.

This really drove home the whole "don't assume anything" rhetoric. You never know what's under the surface. It may not be what you'd planned on, but once you're uncovered it there is no going back. While there is much more work here than I anticipated, I will push on and be even more proud of the accomplishment. 

Happy day to you!

Shanna

Hello Friends!  It has been quite frigid here in my neck of the woods the last week.  The temperature finally is starting to warm up so I am no longer dormant.  I do not like the cold.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday.  We sure did, lots of family came up to visit.  I sure love having them all here.  With things getting back to normal I need to get back to work!  I promised my son that I would start working on his room next, so that it shall be.  His birthday is next month and I would love to give him a lovely new room.  His is the last of the kids rooms to be renovated, I haven't posted about the other two yet, but will real soon.  I have some tweaking yet to do for them to be post worthy.

I'll share pictures of the room I'm about to start on as it sits now.  I usually don't like to post "before" pics before I am done but maybe this will light a fire to get it finished quickly!

I just adore the emerald green carpet and cracked drywall, don't you? And that ceiling fan fixture is just to die for!  Haha, I kid.  I will be stripping out all the trim, sheetrock, and carpet first.  Under that sheetrock is more of my amazing tounge and groove bead board.  This stuff is 1/2 inch thick, I kid you not.  What 10 year old boy wouldn't love this room?  Ha, right. He does have an awesome view though!



Here is what I found peeking through the drywall a few months back.  By peeking I mean I used a nail bar to yank off a chunk of drywall  :)

I will simply repaint the walls once uncovered in my favorite shade of beige and add new trim molding top, bottom, and corners.  I love using 1x's for trim.  It is simple and fits what the style I like, and it's EASY!  I use 1x4's for crown and 1x8's for baseboards.  I'm going to repaint the ceiling which is also beadboard and install an new ceiling fan.  Eventually, he would like carpet but that just isn't in the budget, so for the mean time I will sand down the original wood floors hiding under that lovely green carpet.  

The majority of my house was "updated" in the 1970's so there are lots of interesting things I find unwrapping it all.  It may be taking me a looooong time to get through all this renovation but I do see the beauty in the end.  I am doing this all by myself while raising three very active kiddos with insane sports schedules.  My hubs works very long hours and I like to have it "cleaned up" somewhat before he gets home in the evening.  That and dinner, gotta cook dinner!

Lot's to do, guess I better get started!  I can't wait to have this one checked off my list!