Chickens, Part 1

Well, we have a coop!

After a few days of hemming and hawing about the merits of building versus buying a coop, we found a pretty good deal on this little guy.  Honestly I'm a pretty handy guy, but limited carpentry skills combined with our lack of garage would have made this project about a nine hour one, in my estimation.

The builder of this coop advertised that it was build out of "reclaimed redwood."  I'm pretty sure he's a fencer that uses torn down fences to make these and sell on Craigslist.  It is a pretty nice little unit, though, with a hinged roof for cleaning and an access door by the nesting area to grab out the eggs.  Now we just have to fill it with some hens!

My plan is to build a small frame enclosed with chicken wire around the front of the coop, so the hens can hang out outside.  That's something I can make relatively easy.  We are really excited to learn the ins and outs of chicken care and the kids are super anxious to get some chickens, they already have names picked out!

We'd love to hear your suggestions on breeds of hens that are good with kids and, of course, pump out the eggs!

Garden, Part 1

Well, let me start by sharing the plan and purpose of out garden.  Melissa has always had an interest in gardening, so starting a vegetable garden has been one of our priorities since moving.  We had a potted garden last year that was rather unsuccessful, so this year we want to make sure we do it right.

Another thing that's very important to us is reaching out to our neighborhood, and building relationships with the people around us.  We are hoping that the garden will help in that process.  The plan is to make our front yard a community garden of sorts, where the ripe veggies will be in a basket for the neighbors to enjoy.

We're modeling the raised beds after my parent's, which are made of cinder blocks.  This will provide us with a nice raised bed that will last a long time.  The addition of a capstone on top really makes the beds look nice and complete.

I am also in the process of running the irrigation for the garden.  After hand watering gardens over the years, we really think that a watering system with a timer will help with the health of our garden, thereby increasing the yield.  This requires me to run lines under the sidewalk, though, which is turning out to be a bit of a chore.  It's definitely doable, it just requires some time and a little elbow grease.

Hopefully this summer we will be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor, and so will our neighbors!

We're Finally In!

Well, I know we haven't posted any updates all weekend, but the move has us both pretty exhausted. Plus, dealing with getting our internet up and running proved to be more complicated than we expected.

First things first, we decided that removing the carpet, getting the place professionally sprayed, and replacing the carpet was the best idea to remove the fleas. I really think it was worth the expense, and now the place looks really nice. Honestly, though, dealing with the carpet made the move really stressful for us, and we were literally moving in around the carpet installer on Friday night.

Overall, the move actually went pretty smoothly. We had tons of help, and also got to use a friends flatbed truck, which helped tremendously. We are so grateful to have so many great friends, and such a great family. Without them, things would have been much more difficult. The moving process is great for getting rid of junk, though, we are finding ourselves scrutinizing just about everything we own before we put it away at the new place.

So, now we are pretty much all set up. Our stuff is moved in, and the place is really starting to feel like home. Honestly, the more time I spend there, the more I like it. Everyone in that little community has been great so far, and we are really looking forward to doing projects, especially in the yard.

Here are some photos of the living area, before we moved our stuff in.

Living room

Kitchen/Dining Area

Kitchen