Back and Forth Across the Pond

After publishing the last blog, I realized I hadn't taken an exterior shot of the coop! So I ran out and took one: Of course, since I was out there, I figured I'd visit with the babies. But I had to cut the visit short. They kept crowding the door. Daisy kept trying to climb onto my shoulder and even Luna tried to climb up! So I had to end the visit. I wish I could say my babies loved me, but let's face it, they thought I had more treats for them.

After another busy weekend and an early day home from work for Steve on Monday, the chicken coop is done!!The chickens were relocated last night and they're quite happy with their new digs. I went out around 11 a.m. It was 98 degrees, but the coop interior was nice and cool. We have a fan set up in there to circulate air, and it really seems to be doing the trick. I was worried about the birds being in the heat after growing up in air conditioning. It's cloudy today, which helps. But I think the coop design is proving to be a winner. Steve started Saturday by giving some extra support to the two roosting perches. Because they're eight feet long, they wobbled a bit near the center. Whilst he did that, I installed the vents. Steve decided that construction work afforded him plenty of opportunities to get a work out. Steve gets to work - sort of - on the framing for the roof panels. Steve doing some work on the coop in such a manner that was in no way staged to show off his mu...

Because we'll be in Jacksonville for our primary later this month, Steve and I requested absentee ballots. We got them in yesterday's mail and I've spent the last hour or so doing research on the candidates I hadn't already learned about. One thing really annoys me: Lack of information. Isn't it the most basic of concepts that if you want a bunch of people to vote for you, you should at the very least make the people aware of you?! Apparently not around here. The number of candidates who offer no information about their histories, goals, experience, values, etc., is staggering. I was looking at the information the candidates supplied to the elections office. One woman had an impressive amount of donations already accrued, but she didn't provide any information. Unlike many of my fellow Americans, I don't vote based on what the media tells me or where my dart hits the board. I realize they're all politicians, and therefore are most-likely lying through th...

After weeks of rain and very little coop construction, we had a productive weekend. At long last, the coops is taking shape. The coop, itself, is now well passed the half-way point. I'm very optimistic that it will be finished and ready for its tenants by next weekend. Woohoo!! It took Steve hours to finish the framing on Saturday. We awoke to rain, which really put a damper on things (no pun intended), but Steve rallied during the few rainless hours of the day to get this much done. He decided to add extra support to the floor. His progress was greatly hampered by his drill battery dying. Steve bought thicker plywood for the floor, figuring we'd have at least 14 chickens weighing an average of eight pounds each jumping around on it. He got it laid in place, but the notching would have to wait. More rain came in and the rest of Saturday was lost to it. Sunday lived up to its name. It was sunny all afternoon. The morning was overcast, but devoid of rain, so we got a lot done on ...