February- The Chicken Coop!

 In 2020, Lee gave the ok for us to get chickens. He said, "They give us eggs. Why would I be opposed to that?" But Amy and I distinctly remember him begin against it at one point. But anyhow- one day we got the green light and away I went. Aside from "wanting" them, I felt a strong prompting that I needed to do it sooner rather than later. 

I had no idea what I was doing. I watched a million youtube videos, checked out a few books, read a few websites- but I had never build a structure before. Especially one that something had to live in. But one day I just went for it. I dug some footings and away I went. I call a lot of my stuff "Somewhat Planned" and this was no exception. 

I wanted to be very economical too. I wanted to spend as little money as possible. I was able to buy the 4x4 posts and a fwe 2x4's but all the plywood was pilfered from a nearby construction site. I became a pro at going in the middle of the night and swiping what I could. Lee told me to stop telling people that as it is a felony, but it's been long enough and no one has hunted me down, so I guess all is ok now.

 

Because I only had mild plans, every step became a "hmm... how should I do that...." Luckily for me though, it always seems to workout in the end.

I was grateful for the drywall skills I gained while doing our upstairs. Piecing pieces together to fit and whatnot because I did the same thing with the random pieces of stolen plywood.

A friend of ours is a roofer, so he gave us a leftover roll of the underlayment as well as some scrap roof edging that proved to be just the right thing. I wanted it to be as watertight and cozy as possible for our new little birds!

Then the question then became "What to do on the outside?" Every option seemed so expensive and I just couldn't put that much money into it. Then came the shake shingle brainstorm. A friend's husband works as a company that has tons of tons of pallets. She offered them to me several times. So this time I took them up on the offer. I hooked up the trailer and went to pickup as many pallets as I could. I then cut them down to form the shake shingles. I was very grateful for my air nailer! 

Then it was time for the professional. While the coop could be a little off (and it was!) I knew the enclosed run needed to be done right. So I called mom and dad and asked if they'd come for the weekend. They gladly obliged and Dad was able to help with the run and finish the roof. When we moved in, there was a few stacks of shingles in the shed we had held onto. They were the perfect amount for the roof of the coop!

Originally I thought I'd do a clear glaze on the shingles. I liked the variation of colors. But because of the differences in pallet color, some places looked really weird so I knew I had to paint it. The whole coop had started looking LIKE a chicken at this point, and Mom tried to convince me to paint the whole thing red with yellow at the "beak" (which was really the nesting boxes.) I wasn't going to cute-sy though, so I went with old fashioned white. I was very grateful for the spray gun though! Amy helped many days as well.

 

After adding all the hardware cloth (the metal fabric in all the nooks and crannies) finally she was done. It took many weeks but the hard work had finally paid off. We love our little coop. It makes me so happy. Especially since I look at it and say, "I BUILT that! I had no idea what I was doing but I kept going and I BUILT that." 

Now to add it's residents!