33

And then there was the time when I turned 33. The day was made special thanks to some amazing people! I found this very kind chicken themed card left on the table.

After Charlie was off to school and my little boys finally woke up and they started the day by Miles "reading" to Edwin. It was kind of perfect and calm.

  

We then got all the way ready and made our way to our Secret Garden with Heather and Ember. 

 My pictures are random but it was an enjoyable time getting out of the house and talking to another adult. Plus, it had been too long since we had made our way to the garden.

After our enjoyable garden outing, Heather took my kids to her house then I got ready to go meet Max for lunch near his work. We checked out a restaurant called the Local Cow which had really fancy burgers and fries.  And I don't even remember what I ordered but it really was amazing and we had lots of leftovers. And it was amazing to have a little time to talk to each other without children interrupting us every 10 seconds.

 So then the boys get home, Edwin is sleeping and I decided to go out and take glamour shots of the chickens, because, why not?

She was our first egg layer, so she is our favorite for now. (Skeeter)

Meanwhile, the weather was amazing and I found my big boys doing some "science' on the other side of the house.

 So then Edwin woke up and we played with the chickens.

And jump jump jump!

Fun fact: I walk through approximately 10 spider webs a day.

So then, Max finally gets home and he brings home gyro/shawrma dinner (kindly paid for from a dear friend) we eat then dip strawberries in chocolate. Then upon realizing I didn't have anything to put candles in, Max created this sundae.

Treats were followed by the present hunt and a quick round of Speak Out. This was the first time we played this and it was hilarious. 

 

 And then we rushed the kids to bed!

Chicken Coop Renovation

 So we made a chicken coop, and I wanted to document some of our process even though I wasn't great at photographing the steps and Max did a whole lot of the work. We had an old shed between our house and the rental property behind us. It was full of a family member's stuff and it was falling apart and rat infested as far as we know. It hadn't really been opened in the time we have lived in this house. So we got the idea that we could use it as a chicken coup, and much to our surprise, that family member came to empty the shed within a week! This is after a huge load was already taken!

Max cleaning out all the rat poop. So notice those 3 trees on the left, they were growing into the side of the shed and causing a lot of damage. So the next step was to move the whole shed over which was the trickiest step in this process. 

 We (Max) ended up taking off all the rotten siding and floor, then we needed to move those 5 beams to the needed location. Which included a lot of digging, gravel spreading, and trial and error to get it right.

But once it was finally in the right position, Max built a beautiful sturdy floor and put some leftover flooring down on it to make cleaning easier. The Max replaced some rotten boards and added the siding.

 And then the framing started for the door. We were kinda just making the plan up as we went.

I added the chicken wire...notice the little helper locked inside....separated from the sharp power tools. 

Then that dreamy man built these doors out of old closet doors from one of the properties, and leftover siding pieces. He had never done this before and figured it out as we went, we are both very pleased with the results.

 I planned and cut the wood for the roosts and Max helped me install them on hinges so we can lift them to clean. My silly roosters like them, the hens prefer to roost in the ceiling rafters.


Well these hens liked to roost on them. but when they died and we got the 2 new hens, they started roosting in the rafters. 

Then I needed to make some nesting boxes. I found a bunch of scraps of wood and Max gave me some tutorials for his power tools so I could build them all by myself. The chickies were very interested.

Ok, I had a tiny bit of help...

 I was really happy with how they turned out. However the chickens don't use them. They have been laying eggs on top. Hopefully the younger chickies will be interested and show the older ones.

  We have a doggie door that opens into our chicken run. It is a pretty good size run but doesn't take much space from our yard because it includes a bunch of our bushes.
 

 

And our younger chicks who are about 7 weeks old just moved out of their big box and into a section of the coop. When they are bigger, they will be able to move in with the larger hens.

And that is how our coop evolved, sorry it's definitely not a pinterest worthy tutorial. We are super happy with it and I still need to do some painting on the coop and predator proofing in the run.