The Building of a Chicken Coop

We always have a least one project going on.  Last year at about this time Jeff and the boys gutted and rebuilt the boys' bathroom.  You can see that project here.  The current project is building a chicken coop for our laying hens who should start laying eggs in the next month or two.  A few weeks ago the guys built the base of the new coop. It was a little tricky as the ground is not level.  There is lots of practical learning going on and the boys are gaining many great skills as they work.

Saturday they began constructing the walls after a trip to Lowe's.

Here Aaron and Jordan work together on the frame.  One wall is already up.

It takes all of them to get the job done.  Jackson loves to be out working with his daddy!!

Chamblee and Sons Handy Man Service

Jeff and Jackson stand behind the wall.  I think it's looking good!

Now there are two walls completed.  The door will face the house and a couple of windows will be added for ventilation.  You can see the gambrel roof frame on the floor.

And, yes, we have a huge unfinished barn/workshop/storage building behind the new chicken coop.  Hopefully, it will be completed one day.

Jackson is proud of the work that has been done.

You can find the plans that Jeff is using right here:  http://mystorageshed.blogspot.com/  He will make adaptions to include nesting boxes, ventilation and a chicken exit.  ; )

homesteadrevival.blogspot.com

http://healthyhomesteading.com/2011/08/raising-homesteaders-blog-hop-1/

He Sees

I shared in a post earlier this summer about Amy Carmichael's view of education.  I recently re-read that post and thought I would highlight a little portion of that once again.  Always on the search for motivation not only for myself, but for my children, I printed this little poem out in a nice font to display in a prominent area.  I think I will even make it our copy work assignment for today and have some of the children memorize it.  I hope it speaks to you.

Jesus, Savior, dost Thou see

When I'm doing work for Thee?

Common things, not great and grand,

Carrying stones and earth and sand?

I did common work, you know,

Many, many years ago;

And I don't forget.  I see

Everything you do for Me.

And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance;  for you serve the Lord Christ.  

Colossians 3:  23-24

It Takes a Family to Build a Homestead

We are trying to take our homesteading efforts to the next level and incorporate farm animals.  We've had some animals before...a couple of horses, some sheep and a handful of chickens, but now we are trying to get serious about it.  Amy @homesteadrevival.blogspot.com recently wrote about gardening as if her life depended upon it and that really struck a chord with me!  There is no way we could live off of our garden at this point, but we are making plans for enlarging it with 2-3 times as many beds this winter and building a greenhouse for some year-round fresh vegetables.  

And, as we are not vegetarians, we also need to get meat animals.  We are planning on adding in a dairy cow, a couple of beef cows, a pig or two and meat and laying chickens.  In preparation for adding in our meat chickens we decided to build a chicken tractor.  I had hoped to convert a trampoline into a chicken tractor/run, but after finding a free one this week and having Jeff and the boys bring it home I quickly realized that my trampoline/chicken tractor transformation was just a dream.  The trampoline will remain a trampoline!

Jeff works with several homeschooling/homesteading dads and one of them had recently built a chicken tractor and shared the plans with him.  So, on Saturday morning Jeff and I had a little one-on-one time at Lowe's for all the materials and then a quick Sam's run.   Lowe's and Sam's are our favorite date spots lately!!  After we arrived back home, Jeff and the children quickly got to work on building our first chicken tractor.  It is not completed yet, but here are some pictures of the work in progress.  I will post a link in the next day or so as I cannot find it on the instructions.

Jordan is drilling holes into the metal pipes after cutting them to the right length.

Instructions, galvanized hardware screen, drill bits and screws used to build the chicken tractor.

Drilling the holes was a little tricky.

My porch rooster is checking out the future home of his more animated friends.

Devin even helps out to hold the pipes as Jordan drills the holes.

Kaelan watches for now.

Jeff, formulating the next step.  I often find him in this pose!!  He thinks a lot!

Now Kaelan gets to hold pipes  as it starts taking shape.

Tying the pipes together with a heavy wire

It took several helpers to get the job done!

Three pipes held together with wire

corner pieces

Chicken wire is on half of the top.  The job will be finished up this week.  I'll share later!

Aaron was mowing and weedeating during the time the Jeff and the others were building.  The little guys were on the trampoline.  ; (  Jackson did wake up complaining of his neck hurting the next morning.  Sigh!!

I've shared before about buying our clothes on the clearance racks.  This outfit for Caedmon was only $7 for all three pieces.  He will probably be able to wear it next year as well.

Jackson started asking for shirts and ties last year and I have found a couple for him.  This shirt and tie combo made by Izod was less than $3!  I found polo-style shirts for the big boys at less than $3 as well.  They weren't too interested in posing before church yesterday, though!!   Love, love, love great clearance rack finds.  Saving money on clothes and necessary items is one of my contributions to the homestead.

 Every day we are picking a handful of strawberries and a pint or two of blueberries.  These ever-bearing strawberry plants were clearance rack buys as well.  I got 12 plants for $1.25 each last year.  They made lots of baby plants and we divided them into about 80 plants this year.  I gave most of them away.  Next year we will add more strawberry beds and use a different kind of strawberry that can be harvested in just a couple of weeks.

I think we will wind up with about three gallons from two bushes.  A first for us!!

Another first...hard squashes growing on a trellis!

Cucumbers are a first as well!

I can't wait for these and their little friends to ripen!!

Our basil is doing great!  We are making pesto each week and freezing it for use this winter!

We've started harvesting and drying sage to use in cooking and for medicinal use.  I post more about it later!

Cucumbers are waiting to be turned into pickles today!


Time for me to get up and get some more work done.  As you can see, we've got lots to do around our little homestead!

http://healthyhomesteading.com/2011/08/raising-homesteaders-blog-hop-2-kids-cats-and-gardens/

The Family Who Works Together

We still have lots of projects going on around here.  I thought I would  post a few pictures of the actual work being done.  Devin is finishing up a couple of rogue shutters this morning and is sanding and painting the swing.

Yesterday, however, we left our home projects and went down to Lauren's and helped her move in to a FEMA trailer. You can read about the tornado that hit her house here.   I wish I had taken the camera with us so you could see what is left of the house.  Anyway, we were pleasantly surprised with the size of this trailer.  It has three small bedrooms provided with full sized beds and metal floor-to-ceiling closets.  It also has a large bathroom that is handicap accessible which means there is no tub only a huge shower.  The hallways are very wide, so she may be able to have bookcases along one of the hallways (if she thinks she can keep some monkeys from climbing on them!)  The living area consists of the dining room, living room and kitchen.  It is small and comes furnished with metal table, chairs and end tables, a hide-a-bed sofa and club chair.  The kitchen has metal cabinets but also has a full sized fridge, stove and microwave.  It is fresh and clean, so that is a great blessing!  It will be a change from their large home, but they needed to down size anyway!  Please continue to remember them in prayer.  There is still a HUGE amount of clean  up to be done and some big decisions to be made regarding her health issues and deciding where to go from here as far as buying/building a new  home.  They are both extremely thankful and grateful for the Lord's mercies and for many who have offered physical and monetary help.  It would be so very easy to sink into despair when you see the difficulties that must be overcome, but positive attitudes prevail!

Kaelan is priming the porch railing.

Jackson worked hard on the primer as well!

The next day the real painting began.  Kaelan is smiling here, but she still has paint all over her arms, legs and feet!

Jeff took over for Jackson.

Aaron was a hard worker.

The three beds in the middle to upper part of this photo have lots of compost in them are are doing really well.  Now we have cucumbers blooming in the first bed here along with onions.  Above is our lettuce bed that has been wonderful and beyond that are garden peas that we will be harvesting in the next week or so.  Just waiting for the pods to plump up some more.

While the others were painting, Jordan was adding more compost to some of the beds.  This morning when I checked a few of these tomato plants had tomatoes on them!

Blossoms from the garden pea bed.

Squash blossoms!  We have about 6 kinds of squash in the garden this year.  I hope we have a great crop!

Our two mature blueberry plants are so heavy with berries that Jeff had to stake and tie them up!  

We have a huge bed with mint.  I love mint tea!!  

On the deck we have lots of herbs and some more tomato starts.   Here we have two pots with lettuce, a can with 3-4 heirloom tomato plants and a pot with chocolate mint.  We have many more cans and pots with a huge variety of herbs that we hope will do well and can be moved to permanent beds later.

Jeff and I spent a few moments dreaming together about what we would like to do on our little homestead in the future.  So many plans that will require sacrifice and hard work.  We realize how beneficial this is to our own character and to the character of our children.  Putting up fences, cutting down trees, clearing land to garden, planting, weeding, hoeing, mowing, painting, canning, and just the day-to-day work required in living the "simple" life builds confidence, patience, diligence, obedience, orderliness, attentiveness and so very much more.  We are so grateful for the training ground that the Lord has blessed us with and for all these precious children he has given us to learn and work with.  We are all learning and working together!

  

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