Friday and Saturday we cleared the area where we were going to build the chicken coop. We had also been gathering materials and hauling them over to that area. On Saturday we officially started building the chicken coop! It felt so good to get the actual building part started. My mom was here to help us, which was such a blessing. She happily played with Bracken while Jeff and were able to work on the coop together. Above you can see the first wall we were getting ready to put up. 

It was slow going since we had to go “scrounge around” to get supplies when the need arose. We would go to the old chicken coop and dismantle it a little more for parts and then down to the last remains of the old goat house for parts down there too (yippee for lag bolts!) 

Sometimes we found it frustrating to work that way since it made the building progress so much slower than we’d like, but we both agreed that it was a blessing to be getting the other areas dismantled (that had needed doing, but hadn’t made it to the top of the priority list.)

 Taking apart the old coop one piece- one nail- at a time.

 One of you had suggested pallets when I wrote about needing to build a coop without spending a lot of money. Using pallets, that’s just what we’re doing! It seems pallets make their way into all of our building projects. They’re free and we’ve been gathering them over the years, which is a really good thing we did since we don’t have a truck for hauling them right now. (Don’t even get Jeff started about “living in the country without a truck.” He told me the other day that he “felt neutered without a truck”, which made me laugh so hard. Hilarious redneck quote? I think so. But I do agreed that a truck is pretty important around here. We’ll get one again. And we both love not having a truck for our main vehicle since we get such better gas mileage now!)

 Setting the concrete blocks. These came from the deck that used to be off the back of the house. The deck is long gone, but these cement blocks have been waiting for a good use.

 And for insulation? This is the part that Jeff and I are really excited about: we’re using wool! We traded for it with our neighbors down the road. I know it doesn’t look too dirty in these pictures, but the shape that it was in would have made it a lot of work to get ready for use. I wasn’t up for all that, but for insulation? It’s perfect! We let the rain wash it for quite a while (months) and then we spread it out thin and layed in on a tarp to dry on sunny days (covered it on rainy days.)

 We stuffed the wool in between the pallets. This wool insulation is going to make one cozy warm coop!

 On Sunday we were working on the coop and it was time for Bracken’s nap. I took him inside to rest and my mom stayed outside and helped Jeff with the coop. Once he fell asleep on the couch, I got up and took this picture out the living room window (where my mom showed her muscles off for the camera, which is kind of hard to see in this picture.) I was able to make lunch in the kitchen to feed the hard workers, while keeping an eye on sleeping Bracken.

 First wall up!

 When Bracken woke up he was ready to start playing outside with grandma again. What did they do? Make some flower soup!

 With a little lemon in there too. 

 Then some moss.

We thanked my mom for her help. She didn’t think she had helped much, but she truly did. Some days most days Jeff and I feel pretty overwhelmed by all that needs to be done, wondering how we are going to do it all? Sometimes I feel I need two of me and at times when my mom is here I feel like I have just that. I can give Bracken (and myself) a bath while she does the dishes. I can make a meal while she plays with Bracken. So many little ways that make such a huge difference. It was really wonderful to have some help. And the building of the chicken coop has begun!