Chicken Coop

One of my big farm projects to do at the new house was building the chicken coop. We really enjoy having chickens and were anxious to have the again. It finally surfaced to the top of the to do list so several weeks ago I got started on it. I finished it a couple weeks ago and we finally got chickens last week. It is nothing fancy but it will serve it's purpose. Since we are not planning on being at this house forever I am building this more functional than what my ultimate dream would be.

The actual coop is 8'x6' and the enclosed run is 8'x18'. We will eventually let them free range during the day and just coop them up at night and when we are gone. We plan on keeping around 10 chickens.

Anyway, my plan is to also build a small barn on the back side of the coop (they will share a wall) so I built it so that I could add that on later in the year.

Here it is after the main framing was done

Finished product

The goats love to rub on the chicken wire to scratch themselves which tears up the wire and stretches it out. I decided to try adding a couple barb wire strands around the run on top of the chicken wire to see if that what help. So far it is working great.

11 Months

She is getting older and growing up so fast. It is so crazy to look at pictures from when we first got her to now. She is babbling a lot more these days which is really cute and funny. She is also getting really close to walking we think. She pushes her little walker car around walking behind it, sometimes only holding on with one hand. She will stand for a few seconds without holding on to anything and take a step between things without holding on.

Here are a few recent pics of her.

This is before church on Sunday. She got her sandal off and was chewing on it. Everything goes in her mouth these days.

Here we are on Fathers Day

And this picture is a true depiction of Esther these days. There is a lot going on in this picture. Esther at the baby gate wanting to get to something on the other side that she can not have/ watching me work on the deck out the back window. Also using one of her toys to stand on to try to get a boost over the baby gate.

She is always on the move. She wants to be crawling/cruising around trying to get into whatever she can. Everything has to be baby proofed because she can open any door or drawer she wants. She would love it if we would let her play with power cords, the computer, or the trashcan. She definitely keeps us on our toes.

Winner

A couple of weekends ago we went down to Mena for a visit. While we were there the Lum 'N Abner Festival was going on. It was really hot, but we spent a few hours there walking through the car show, arts and crafts, and other festival activities. One event that we were excited about seeing was the All American Lumberjack Show. Two lumberjacks competed against each other in various lumberjack activities, like log rolling and speed sawing. They also did a chainsaw carving demonstration. The guy carved a little chair out of a log using a chainsaw. He said he would give it to the youngest person in the crowd. He started with two years old and then started working his way down. He got to 9 months old and there were no babies that young in the crowd. So he asked for 10 months old and there were two, Esther and another little girl. So it came down to the birthdate. He asked the other parents first, their little girl was born on July 21. Esther was born on July 22, so she won by a day! It was pretty exciting to win. The little chair fits Esther perfectly right now.

Josh and Esther collecting their prize.

Esther sitting on the chair (it was really hot and nap time, hence the face)