Prepare for chickens!

Amanda and I went on the Dallas Chicken Coop Tour a few months ago and were completely convinced and inspired to have our own backyard chickens.

We decided the coop and pen need to be in Amanda's backyard because mine is too small and we live so close to each other that we can easily share the chicken duties. Now that she's settled into her house, we're ready to get going on it. We first walked around the yard and discussed the overall vision for her yard, then we figured out how the coop would fit in and how it would look.



The view from Amanda's back porch.

Then I came one evening with my trusty reciprocating saw and cleared out the back left corner of the yard, removing low lying limbs and small bushes and vines.



The dogs always get to romp together while we work. Here's Lady and Turkey playing next to my big pile of cut down limbs. The thicker branches will be saved to use an the chicken's perch in the coop.

Chickens need sun and shade as well as protection from the elements. This location is perfect for that.





While excruciatingly bored at work one day I drew up the plans. The next afternoon we made a detailed list of the supplies we needed and it started to hit me how big this project is. We need a LOT of wood.





Thankfully there were a lot of 60"ish 2x4s in the sale section at Home Depot. These are pieces that are left over from other cuts or have a chunk missing or sone defect...and are sold at $0.51 each! A steal! Perfect for us.






Here's Amanda with our very full lumber cart.







The guy that cut our wood didn't believe it was all going home in a mini cooper, so he came out and helped us load it up. Two different guys offered to take the stuff for us in their truck, which was nice I guess but at the time seemed creepy. Anyway, it all loaded in easily and the employees that had stood around watching and laughing got schooled.
























Fido kept trying to hop into the car while we were unloading everything into Amanda's garage. "please can I go home now?!!" He eventually hid in front of the driver's seat by the pedals. He doesn't really like hanging out in the backyard in the heat while the other dogs do stuff like...






...create their own mud puddles where the hose is leaking.

So the prep work is all done!
Check in soon to see us build a chicken coop.

This is going to be GREAT.

Thank- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone