Somewhere in this brood, are our 6 chickens.  They will be responsible for producing the eggs for our family, and that will become a major source of protein for our household.  Given that we are already using raw whole milk from the cows next door as a nutirtious suppliment for our diet, the next logical step is to get eggs from our own back yard.  This has been a long sought after goal for us, and it is now just weeks away.

I have begun erecting the chicken coop.  The back wall (easy, no doors or windows is now standing in our yard.  I have so far used 8 2 X 4 boards that I have purchased as plating for the structure frame, but all of the studs used are the ripped pine boards that were harvested from my land loard's property.  He donated them to the structure (after all, when we move, we will not be taking this coop with us.)

As you can see to the right, the deck was pretty lop sided.  the front had been set up on a 4 x 4 board, and is pretty sturdy, but the back side is set on the dirt.  There is a 4 x 4 there, but it seems to have sunk into the ground, so I opted to place extra wood pieces to get the floor level.  From here, I have been able to set the plating and and raise the first wall.

Here you can see my darling daughter Ruby modeling in front of the first wall.  Isn't she cute :)

Anyway, today and this week, I will be constructing the sides and finally, the thought and labor intensive front wall, complete with door and window frames.  Its tricky, because it has been 20 years since I have framed anything, but it is all coming back to me.So far, the biggest challenge has been remembering how to determine the roof pitch with the speed square.  Should be ingeresting to see if I can get that right.  I never really did that, I mostly toe nailed studs and hung siding when I was a framer (a job I held for all of 6 months in my early 20's)

Also underway is our new family garden.  Stacy has been reading "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew.  We have opted to use logs cut from a hemlock tree that was just taken down.  Here, to the right, you can see menotching out the ends, so that they will fit together in a log cabin style, to serve as the borders of our garden boxes.  We have one complete (very crude as my first attempt at making these) and spinich planted as our first spring crop.  Ultimately, we will have this year, 2 - 4 x 4 beds and 1 - 6 x 6 bed.  As our book states, the soil mixture will be the most important factor.  I will write about that more in my next post, but for now, outside of the labor hours in term of cost, the soil mixing is proving to be the most expensive part, in terms of peat moss and vermiculite.

At this rate, we should be canning our own vegetables by mid summer and harvesting our first eggs by fall.  We are finally taking the steps to self sufficiency and are excited to be setting the example for our kids on how to go about ensuring that you have a sustainable and nutritious food source... cause that GMO stuff in the supermarket just aint cutting it.  Till next time, stay healthy and safe!