Laurel

Aaron has been putting off trimming this laurel for months.  The man who lived here before said it was the biggest job on the property.  So two months ago we bought a hedge trimmer.  Today we used it!  Unfortunately I have no after pictures, because it was after dark when we finished, including clean up.
Before:

During - thank you farm truck!

Our neighbor was so happy to have this done.  Aaron also trimmed up a shrub in her front yard.  I had her and a friend come over to look at my paint colors.  I think we have our colors picked out.  I really wanted to get a picture up tonight, but I didn't get one taken due to the laurel project taking over 4 hours.  I was able to get the paint for the shingles and the door at Sherwin Williams on the last day of their 30% off coupon.  It's not 40%, but it's still a good deal.  

Coop

I just lost my whole post that I stayed up too late working on.  So not a lot of commentary from me this time.
Working on the door.

Color choices

Fish scales that we made!

Cute chicken door.

Lower roof about to be finished.

Everyone getting along.  Names have been decided (all but one) so stay tuned!

Work work work

We got a lot done again this week/weekend.  We finished installing all the windows, got some trim up, put the floors in, got the nest boxes mostly finished, worked on the upper roof and maybe most importantly...found a door!  We had been waiting for just the right thing for weeks, checking the Re Store, craigslist, every store that sells used/damaged doors.  

Aaron found this door for free on his bike ride home from work!  Total score.

It needs a lot of work, I got most of the old paint off one side today.  Luckily Aaron saw online that you can use a heat gun to get the paint off more easily.  

And, also luckily a heat gun came with the house.  It does work well, and made the process much less tedious.  

Lots of little helpers!  It turns out, I think all of my chicks are girls.  Good because they are all girls.  Bad because I was really banking on that Welsummer (bottom left) being a boy, and because of that got some extra chicks.  Now I have 9 birds, which is wonderful, but I think too much for our city lot.  I have a home for the brown one in the middle if it's a girl (it's the only one I'm still unsure of).  He/she is way too skittish even with all the people time I spent with it.  After having Bert, who we can't even get near, I'm not doing that again.  It makes it so hard when you can't catch them easily.  So I think Bert is getting the boot too.  Anyone want a 3 year old easter egger?  7 birds sounds much more manageable.  

It's really hard to take good pictures of the coop, it's really tucked in, both behind our garage and near the corner of our lot and next to a tree.  Kind of too bad because it will be hard to see once it's all done. But we like that it's not visible from the street.  

I'm hoping we can get everyone moved in by next weekend.  We still need to finish the lower roof, the nest boxes and the door, which is going to take some time since it needs to be cut down and mended in some places.  I'm ready, I miss my automatic door locking everyone in and letting them out first thing in the morning!

Bigger, Better.

We worked our butts off this weekend and made good progress on the coop.  Thank goodness for sun breaks in all the rain we've been having.  Two more sections of wall to put up and all the windows but one (along with lots of other things).  I didn't get a picture of the window we put in tonight, it is to Aaron's right in the photo.  

The babies are already loving it!  And practicing laying eggs!

Slowly but surely.

Progress has been slow, but we were getting somewhere until this bad weather hit.  We found all the windows we needed in Junction City at a place called Discount Windows.  They must have had an acre of windows, it was crazy.
Hoping for this rain to let up this weekend so we can get some work done and move the chickens into better digs.

It's Happening.

It's happening and there's no going back now.  The big chickens will be sleeping in the garage until further notice.  We're planning as we go, so hopefully this will turn out well and go quickly!

Coming Soon...

Coop upgrade and expansion project!