One step closer...

The chickens are one step closer to having a home outside!!  The back yard is really coming along.  I have spent countless hours weeding... with sore arms to boot.  We planted the raspberry bushes, should be getting a few blueberry bushes soon from a guy on criagslist, and I picked up some strawberries today from a lady on craigslist.  Pretty much I am obsessed with that place.  So many great things to find there.  I got my seeds from Tomato Bob's finally after weeks of waiting, they are all diligently growing.  I ordered some irish moss seeds, and started growing that inside also for the patio.  Marshall and I are trying to get so much stuff finished before Lucas and Maria come here in July.  We are also hoping that his parents will come and visit in August.  

The ladies seem to be really attached to this spot next to the garage, they don't stray far from there.  I can't believe how huge they are!  They are exactly one month old in these photos.  I was so worried when I first brought them home that Marley wouldn't get along with them, but it seems to be going really well, she could have cared less that they were outside yesterday, she really is a queen b... I even brought out her blanket so she could lay and watch us work on the coop and keep an eye on the chickens.

You can just see the tip of her nose there in the photo.  She pretty much stayed there all day.  Marshall, Dad and I went to Montana on Saturday to hike up into the mountains and get some slate for our patio and Marshall's bar.  We brought Marley with us, and she had a great time running up the mountain, it wasn't quite as exciting a few hours later when we were making our way down.  We brought back a ton of slate, and I am guessing we will have to go back and get more still, but our back yard is going to look so nice!

We are on our way to having the coop finished, it has been quite a project!  Good thing I have such an awesome dad, and amazing boyfriend who are willing to build me the coop of my dreams, which has been dubbed "The Palace" since it is going to be so kick ass!

Here is Marshall and Dad putting in the posts.  What started out as being a pretty chill, simple box coop has turned into to a 3x3x4 coop, with another 4 feet of area that will be enclosed with chicken wire and  clear corrugated fiberglass for the roof so that in essence the ladies will have a really kick ass sun roof year round.  I have been searching for a small solar panel to attach to the coop so that we won't have to wire out there for the heat lamp that they will inevitably need in our very, very chilly winters!  

You can kinda see the fence that Marshall and I built this last weekend...  I don't know why I didn't take a better picture of it.  But you can kinda see it to the left in the photo below.

It smells so nice!  I love how cedar smells!  I have to admit that now all I can think about is having a new fence in my whole back yard.  Marshall and I will keep doing 20 feet or so every month I think, until the whole back yard is done. 

Dad and Marshall are both out of town this weekend, so the coop will have to wait until next weekend to be finished.  I am pretty excited to have it finished, and to not have to force the chicks to be stuck in the extra large dog kennel in the basement anymore.  Not that they seem to mind.  They are always huddled up in the front corner of the kennel sleeping, and if they aren't sleeping they are eating until they want to go back up to the front and sleep some more.

Anyway, that is really all that is going on here, nothing too crazy, but enough that we are keeping very busy.

xoxo

A