We had a beautiful spring evening here in KC tonight, so after work we spent a couple hours catching up on some yard work & gardening. The neighborhood kids were out enjoying the weather too, so they came over to "help." Trinity did a good job of finding them some helpful things to do, and I showed them how to use the reel lawn mower. They helped Trinity clean out the winter mulch cover from the strawberry patch.

The chickens seemed to have a good night in their new home. Every time we looked in on them they looked like they just settled right in. We opened the trap door this morning so they could get down to the grass, but they never ventured down there on their own. So, when we got home, Trinity grabbed each of them and showed them the way down!

After showing them the way, they enjoyed dinner down there and then when it started to get dark made their way back upstairs for the night. Success! We built a coop and it works! As long as it keeps the predators out... We sent Benton (our three-legged cat) out to be the first predator - I watch him stalk birds out the back window often - and he definitely tried to get in there. So far, we still have three chickens and one hungry cat. Here are pictures:





Benton also basked in the sun for a while before he went back to hunting.

The Ladies

The Ladies are spending their first night outside in the new coop tonight! I finally put the finishing touches on it after work today and we just put them out there. We'll let you know how it goes!

I worked on the coop a bit more today. Here it is - the only thing left to do is figure out our roof. We were going to use some shingles that my Dad had left over, but our door is causing some confusion on my part as to how to roof it. I started to put them on, but the shingles need to overlap, and if they overlap at the hinges, then we can't open the door... Not to mention the fact that our moveable coop would be a lot heavier with the asphalt shingles. Today I slathered water-sealer everywhere I could reach.



I used some of the scraps to make a nesting box. The consensus online is that one nesting box should be enough for our three chickens. Speaking of the chickens, here they are, definitely getting bigger. They're starting to cluck a little bit instead of just chirping like chicks! I am eager to get the roof figured out so they can stretch they're legs outside.

We started the day with rain, so I spent a couple hours working on one of out other unfinished projects. We might regret this later, but we decided to take down the plaster walls in the bathroom. They were cracked and patched so many times that we decided they just needed a fresh start.


And, I'm also trying to start some seeds indoors. It's going okay, but our drafty house is definitely stunting their growth. It's been pretty slow going, but making some progress.