We've got a Chicken Town on the Homestead!

We had a lot of rain on Monday and Bernie wasn't able to get outside to do much. He spent the day taking care of stuff inside the house. Tuesday he had to go to Richmond for the Governor's Motorcycle Advisory Board meeting. Wednesday he mowed the yard, weed whacked, and raked. Thursday he had to go into town to take care of the house there and mow the lawn. And Friday, he finally got to spend a little time working on the Chicken Coop DeVille. He's almost finished with it! He just needs two more boards to put up fascia on the sides. And then I'll get busy painting the coop. Once I finally get that finished, we'll fence in the chicken yard and then sit back and wait on our chickens to get here! Yay! You can check out the work he's done on the Back to Basic Living website. If you just want the bottom line of where we are with it, here's a picture of how our little Chicken Town looks right now:



I am really proud of the Chicken Coop DeVille. Bernie did such a nice job. He designed it and did most of the work. I was just labor for him when I had time to help. To answer a couple of email questions I've gotten over the past couple of weeks - we did not have any blueprints or plans. Bernie designed it in his head and then started building it. He'd be the first to tell you he's made mistakes along the way, but nothing he couldn't recover from - or cover up! When I tell him about the nice emails I get that complement his work and say they are not talented enough to build a coop like this, he always responds "If I can do it, anyone can do it!". And while we did buy material to build this coop, we got a lot of it basically free from FreeCycle. If you're looking to save some money by getting FREE stuff to build with, or free items for your home, sign up for FreeCycle. It's also a great way to recycle stuff you no longer want or need! Through FreeCycle, we met someone that not only gave us a truck load of doors, windows, and more than I can remember, he sold us a bunch of lumber for $1 a piece that he had laying on a flatbed trailer we asked him about - and that includes the floor and roof sheeting we used on the coop! FreeCycle really rocks!

As Bernie finished up yesterday evening, and was sitting in a lawn chair, basking in his accomplishments, I went around the edge of the woods and snapped a couple of pictures of trees in bloom. I think this is a Hawthorn:



Can anyone verify that for me? We have several of these in bloom right now. I just love them. It's a really nice looking tree.

We have so many Dogwoods in bloom right now through out the woods. Here's one that's right on the edge of the woods in the backyard:



I may get some painting in this weekend. I need to check the weather and see what it looks like for rain. I may even convince Bernie to help me with it. He often assigns me a task, and then I whine enough about it that he breaks down and helps me with it. I better get to whining real quick.....

Bee Free,
Penny