What We Did This Weekend

The new coop is underway!  We have walls, and windows, and trusses!

This is the first of three segments that will eventually make a larger chicken coop, a shop, and a larger alpaca shed. 

The coop will house all 37 chickens and 5 ducks, and will have a rain barrel for fresh water, storage for feed, and a multitude of nesting boxes.  My prediction is that no matter how many nesting boxes we make, all 36 hens will try to use 3. 

The shop will be powered by a solar panel, and will have overhead storage for hay and alpaca feed.  This will become Jerry's home away from home, and will house all of his tools.  It will be off-limits to everyone, so that he can go completely OCD and fastidiously organize all of his wrenches, sockets, hammers, nails, hinges, and all of the other things a farm needs to keep going.  I suspect he will install pegboard on the walls, and will draw outlines of the tools hanging on the pegboard.  This way, he will be able to see in an instant if one is missing.  The outline will act like a chalk outline at a homicide scene, and will alert Jerry to pilfered items immediately.  I wouldn't be surprised if he installed an alarm system, too.  You don't want to get between a man and his tools.  It doesn't end well for anyone.

The alpaca shed will be double the size we have right now, and will attach at a right angle to the shop area, so that the entire "complex" will open to a half-courtyard area, which will be covered in gravel, and have a large duck pond in the middle.

The boys are enthusiastic about this new arrangement, because it gets them closer to the fresh pasture.

Mmmm, yummy pasture.

I am enthusiastic about all aspects of this project, but am especially excited about any idea that DOESN'T end with "....and then we'll come in every night and borrow your bathtub...."

I don't recall this being part of Jeff Foxworthy's routine, but he's welcome to borrow it: "You might be a redneck if you have ducklings swimming in your bathtub...."