Stuff is Springing Up Around Here

Another busy week on the homestead. Warmer weather brings not only the necessity, but the desire, to be outside and preparing for spring. We had 6 dump trunk loads of gravel delivered this week to help repair our driveway. Winter is tough on gravel driveways - so is 4 years of heavy equipment traveling on it to put in a well, septic, etc. So we got gravel delivered, and Bernie spend some time shoveling it around. I honestly can't remember what else he did, but I know he was busy every day and seemed to love all of it. He is so darn happy here. It makes my heart happy.

I had to go into town early this morning to deliver some soap, get my hair done, and meet up with a good friend that found someone who may buy one of the way too many motorcycles we own. I didn't get home until just after 1PM, and as I pulled into the yard I saw that Bernie was working on my chicken coop! Yay! He had just gotten the foundation level, so I ran in and changed into some grubby jeans and a tee shirt and went out to help him. I have never built any sort of building in my life. In fact, I have rarely used a hammer. I mean, I have certainly hung my share of pictures - but I typically use the heal of a shoe - something that drives Bernie to the brink of insanity. But today I used a hammer to hammer nails. Lots of nails. And the result was a floor for the coop and one whole wall. My arm was rubber by the end of it, but even when it assured me it could not lift that hammer one more single solitary time, it came through for me.

This chicken coop is WAY better than I ever anticipated. I figured we'd throw up a lean-to and be done with it. But Bernie has designed a Chicken-Coop-Deville. My little chickens will be proud to live in it. They may even be obnoxiously obnoxious to all other chickens that don't live in such a nice abode. He wanted to keep it chicken coopy (I think I just made that word up) but, at the same time, he wanted it to look presentable, as it is in our front yard. So he designed an 8 X 8 slant roof coop. It will have 2 windows, a door, and a little chicken door with a little chicken ramp. It's within a couple feet of my new garden shed, and it has the same exact siding. I'm going to post pictures of what we did today, and our progress along the way, to the website in the next couple of days. My arm is still not functioning quite right, so I'm pretty sure I won't be posting them tonight.

I did manage to get my arm to cooperate enough to post the following pictures, though:



That's my wildflower garden that Bernie help me put in last weekend, using a few of the several million rocks we have around this place. You probably can't tell in this picture, but the wildflowers are coming up! Several broke ground the past few days. I just love that little garden.



That's a picture of the lettuce we planted in a container. I'll admit, it's a close up. The lettuce is really not very big at all. But it's so darn cute, I wanted you to get a good look at it.



That's my radishes. They'll need to be thinned. They are larger than life in that picture, too. But they really give the lettuce a run for their money in cuteness.



Those little blades are the spinach that just decided to pop up today. They are so delicious looking already. Don't they make you just want to run outside and start eating grass?

We'll be working on the chicken coop each day when I get off work this week and I'll be taking pictures along the way. Bernie even got one of me hammering today. I look like I really know what I'm doing. In reality I was on the brink of tears and praying my rubber arm didn't flail uncontrollably just as he snapped the picture. I'll let y'all know when I get all the pictures posted.

The homestead is always a joy to us - even when it involves a lot of work to maintain it. There is a feeling of true accomplishment and pride when you can look, and I mean really LOOK, at the results of your labor at the end of the day. Tonight my poor body is feeling the results of my labor. It's a good feeling though. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Bee Free,
Penny