Finally, out of a complete necessity to get away from my desk, I started on the coop today.  I was given raw lumber by our landlord. The wood is pine, cut into true 2 X 6 pieces, ranging from 6 to 10 feet long.  Here, I am ripping the lumber into 2 X 3 boards to use them as framing material.  once the frame is set, I will construct a single roomed structure with a plastic and metal roof which will house our 6 hens, Barred Rocks and Australorps.  The roof will slope back to serve as a rain collection surface to fill our rain barrels. 

The big challenge for me has been getting my Richweb project to the point that I could actually step away from it and do something... anything... else for a few hours.  Literally, I have been working on that for an average of 10 - 14 hours a day for about the last month.  I think that this is finally beginning to resolve to a product that will be able to launch on Monday.  Finally...

At any rate, our chickens will be here in 6 weeks, or so, but the coop will be completed way in advance. 

In other news, today, we had a arborist on the property to clean up some of the debris from the winter.  Also, one tree was taken down, which offeres firewood, as well as lengthy timbers for the square foot gardens that we will start next weekend.  Photos of that process will be up as soon as the work gets accomplished... but we are excited about doing these things, and even more excited about using the raw and natural materials from around the property to construct the things that we need to sustain ourselves.

The kids are loving this adventure... Spring has hit with full force, Jesse is just a great kid... Life is good :)