{Afternoon light shining on the flowering plum tree out front.}

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Those of you who live in a climate like the Pacific Northwest, who experience the winter stretches of time that are overcast, can understand the incredible enthusiasm about sunshine. Sunshine! We had a sunny weekend here and it was just what our family needed. I had been feeling “off” and out of sync and getting outside moving around really helped me shake that funk and get back into the flow of life. It was the first time this season where we felt sun kissed skin. It was so warm outside and it felt incredible to be out in it. The warm sunshine simply felt healing. We all ditched the shoes a few times to feel the earth under our feet. Jeff fixed the clothesline and I hung loads of laundry out to dry in the sunshine (and got caught up, yay!) I weeded around some of the lavender plants (still more to do) and filled a gallon jar with herbs to make sun tea. I opened the window in our bedroom and let all that good fresh air in. We made good progress on the chicken  coop! We pretty much spent our days outside (except to bring Bracken in for a nap each day and to eat meals.) We still managed to get some things done for the business (bunch of new buttons posted in Wooly Moss Roots Shop), but mostly our time was dedicated to outdoor projects and most specifically- the chicken coop.

 Bracken gathered candy tuft flowers to make more flower soup. Honestly, having a construction zone (with tools and such everywhere) in our yard while we are building a chicken coop is challenging with mr. two year old. Some tools he is allowed to play with, but others are off limits of course. Bracken wants to help with everything, but it was a relief every time he wanted to go over to his “water area” (with stumps for tables and ladles etc.) to make more flower soup. I could watch him from the coop area, yet help Jeff with building and not have to keep Bracken out of all the tools.

 And building a coop wasn’t all we were up to! We built this grape arbor! Building a grape arbor is something that we have wanted to do for years, but every time we talked about it we didn’t find a spot that felt right (and the cedar wood we were going to use got wood-eating bugs in it.) But then, as the chicken coop was coming together, we realized the perfect spot for a grape arbor. It acts as an entrance, connecting the front garden with the back garden. Jeff tilted the main beams (some juniper wood that’s special to him) to give it a Japanese look. We love it! It’s not quite finished, we still have some more to do on it, but the main structure is up. It’s located close to the chicken coop, so we’ll plant the grapes in the ground after we’re done with all the building. And the grapes we’ll be planting? (You long time readers already know of course.) We’ll be planting these concord grape starts (3 starts made it into thriving plants ready to go in the ground) that I wrote about in this post (one of my cravings when I was pregnant with Bracken) and in this post.

 A view of the upper part of the arbor with the woodsmoke in the background coming out from the woodstove (we started a fire in the morning to warm the house up, but as the day warmed up didn’t need it after all) and the flowering plum tree out front.

 And here’s an updated view of the chicken coop. It now has a door!

 Lots of pallets have been used for our coop so far. 

Jeff made good progress on dismantling the old building down below for more parts. We’re hoping it will give us enough metal to use for the roof on the chicken coop. He has to be so careful when he is removing the metal pieces so it doesn’t tear them. I’m amazed he’s been able to salvage as much as he has.

Another project was needing some attention as well. Our nettles patch had been covered (and smushed) by trees. This is the time when the nettles are popping up and ready to harvest and it’s an incredible food source (one of our favorites.) We want to be harvesting fresh nettles every day, so Jeff brought his chainsaw down there and spent a good amount of time clearing the area. There’s still more to do, but most of the patch is cleared enough for harvesting. Our nettles patch has been thriving so much that we might not need to do our usual spring nettle-harvesting trip to our neighbor’s farm, I think there will be plenty here for our needs. We’ll see. We like to dry enough to last through the year. And speaking of nettles, Jeff collected a bunch of seeds from our nettles patch last year that we have available here in our shop if you’d like to plant your own, (along with some other seeds we saved and had extras of: parsley, chives, mullein and catnip.)

As I went outside last night to get the sun tea I had forgotten, it was sprinkling and this morning as I harvested the first of the nettles, they had been washed by the rain overnight. I’m so glad we had that weekend of sun!