Covers and Coops

There has been a lot of building around our house lately. It started off with a new patio cover. Our backyard faces west and gets really hot in the summer. We don't even begin to get shade until 4pm. By then, the patio has gotten very hot and we've all experienced severe burns on the bottoms of our feet. Not a lot of fun. So Will and a friend of his brother's built a cover so, not only will we have shade in the summer, but it will be dry in the winter and spring months.

This is the patio before...

and after.

It's already been wonderful having it up. It helps to keep the dogs dry when they are out so they are not tracking in all that muck every time they come in. We will be putting up some lights and a fan and hopefully I can get some hanging baskets up too.

This past weekend, Moira and Will built a little outdoor coop for the chicks. They can't be put in with our other chickens until they are fully grown. Right now they are in the garage in a make shift chick "condo" that Will rigged together using a dog crate and a plastic storage bin.

We've been letting them into their outdoor coop in the afternoons when the weather is decent. They are still unsure and rarely venture out from under their heat lamp.

Every day the chicks get bigger and they pretty much have their feathers in now. In another month we will stop bringing them in at night and just let them live outdoors. By the end of the summer they should be living in the chicken coop with the other girls.