Seven

(remember that scene from Parenthood?)(Indi taking a nap on her big brother)

favorite color: Green

favorite food: pizza

hobbies: ice skating, beyblades

favorite place in the world: Disneyland, Disneyworld & Montana

favorite subject: recess & math

favorite restaurant: the Athenian Greek restaurant

My favorite things about Finn are too numerous to list, but include the fact that he the BEST big brother in the world.  He is caring and considerate.  This year, there is a boy named Jacob in his class that is super sweet but a little in-your-face and faces some developmental challenges.  He would always get right in Finn’s face every morning saying hi.  At first Finn told me he didn’t like Jacob, but he was still going to be nice to him.  So I told him I was proud of him for being nice to this boy, and reminded him we should be kind to everybody, even to people who aren’t our favorites.  Well now at the end of the school year, Finn is friends with Jacob and invited him to his birthday party (and everyday Jacob reminds me how much fun he had at Finn’s party).  This story is just a little sample of who Finn is.  He just has a big heart.  He gets along with everyone and people gravitate toward him because of it.

He is my favorite little boy in the world.   When I was 10 years younger and dreaming of having a baby, the angels took all my hopes and dreams and turned them into this little boy.

Happy birthday, Finn.  I love you more than you’ll ever know.

Chickens and a coop–#2, and other egg-type things

The chickens are almost 8 weeks old!  Let’s start with some pictures, shall we?

This is about 5 weeks old:

(love his furry feet.  Heidi says he’s wearing slippers)

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here we are at 6 weeks old.  This is their last day in their box (which they are obviously too big for now, and incidentally is not a small box.  I bought it to hold our huge 18’ vinyl swimming pool)

first night in the coop

And today at 7 1/2 weeks old.

do you know what these are?  That’s right, they’re chicken nipples.  Who would’ve thought it’d be a big day when I got my chicken nipples in the mail?

smart girls, they got the hang of it right away

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Still trucking along on the coop.Here is how it looks today.  Painted, with chickens inside, though not completely done yet.  Still needs its trim and a run.  Oh and a chicken door so they can get out.  And a nest box for eggs, but there’s a little time before we have to worry about that.

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Speaking of eggs, here’s some egg-type stuff

Chickens and a Coop–#1

So, here are a few updated chicken pics:

just over 2 weeks old

 

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And today at almost 4 weeks old, look at all the feathers!  We had to move them into the laundry room because they are making so much dust it is crazy.  Today when I took the wire grate off the top, Clarice jumped right out.  We better get that coop done, and fast!  (Yes I have named one of my chickens “Clarice” so every day I can say creepily, “Hello, Clarice.”)

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And thus begins the story of the coop. We have decided to build a coop.  We got an awesome hand-me-down from Toni & Todd, but decided we wanted something a little bigger in case we want some more chickens (which I’m pretty sure we will.  I’m honestly amazed I haven’t brought more home yet.  My new favorite place to go is the feed store.  When they say chickens are addictive, it’s actually true (and by “they” I mean those chicken-crazies on chicken messaging boards.  Not that I know what those are, or anything… www.backyardchickens.com, eh hem.))  Anyway!

So here is where we are after last weekend and this.  Never ones to half-ass anything, it is turning out pretty awesome.  (let me change that, it should say my husband is UNABLE to half-ass anything.  If left to me, most, if not all things would be completely half-assed.)

We started with completely uneven ground so 3 holes of varying depths were dug.

The entire first day was spent making 2 walls and trying to keep them in square.  This is not an easy thing to do.  Just ask my husband.

Look at this beauty queen

So far I have made a few fun contributions (other than my blood, sweat, tears and money that is).  I wanted vinyl flooring for ease of cleaning.  I went to a carpet store to see if they had remnants for sale and walked out with a 12x5 roll for FREE since it was on a brand new roll and the first 2 feet of the edge of the roll were a bit chewed up in delivery.  Cut it to size and, viola!  Free vinyl flooring.

Next, and definitely my most awesome, contribution.  The $20 window.  Went to a window store to ask for old floor models, anything I could maybe buy on the cheap.  Was taken to a back room with a lot of dusty old windows.  The girl was trying to sell me on 2 sliders of different colors.  They were a good size, but really, what is this?  The Beverly Hillbillies coop?  Different colored windows?  A girl has standards. 

So I saw the one pictured below and said what about that one?  She showed me a few more.  Uh huh, what about that one?  She goes to get a guy who worked there.  He shows me a few, oh I can give you the 2 different colored ones for $40 each or $80 total (thanks for doing that math for me, guy).  Yeah, what about that one?  Well, blah blah blah, you don’t want that one.  How much?  mmm, I can give it to you for $40.  How about $20?  Ok.  Done and done. (he tells me it’s about an 80 or 90 dollar window.  What a good deal I got.)

So next day I took it back in to ask something about it and talked to a different guy.  The different guy (who I think was one of the owners) asks me if I still want it.  You bet your sweet patootie, it’s an awesome window and PERFECT for our coop.  Then he tells me it’s about a $500 window.  Now THAT’s a good deal.  (Then I promptly left before he tried to take it away).

Yesterday we were working on getting the roof on.  It’s tricky when you and your husband/building partner are picturing something completely different, yet talking about it as though you are talking about the same thing because you assume that since you’ve been looking at pictures of what you want online (at those chicken forums I know nothing about) you assume you’re both on the same page.  Such was the case with the roof. 

Cody was picturing a regular roof, and I really wanted the exposed rafters.  After much discussion and picture looking (and for the first time ever in our marriage this line working: “well that’s what I want so that’s what we’re doing.” –said with crossed arms and pouty face), we built the roof with exposed rafters – which I’m pretty sure we both love how it turned out. 

It was super windy yesterday, don’t know if you can tell from the below picture, it’s hard to take a picture of wind.

As I snapped this shot, Cody said, “I took this picture right before he blew off the roof.”

The funny, little caterpillar seeds from the willow tree all collected by the wind in a corner.

Now just look at how good those exposed rafters look.  And look at what you can achieve when you don’t half-ass it.  Now if we can get it done before the chickens go off to college, we’ll be golden.