We’re getting chickens!

Grandma’s next-door neighbors are relocating to Rhode Island and they must find a new home for their five hens. Since we’ve been talking about getting chickens for about two years, we decided that now is the time. The hens are two years old, tame,  and laying. Perfect! The coop they are presently in cannot be moved as it’s more of an outbuilding than a coop, so we have to build our own chicken house. In our area, there are plenty of raccoons, opossums, and skunks who would love to feast on our girls, so we have to provide them with a safe home.

We visited the hens on Saturday just to make sure our children wouldn’t be terrified of them. I wanted to discover any phobias before we invested the time and effort into moving the chickens to our home. Then we set out for the local feed store, a place I haven’t been in many, many years. We met the chicken expert and pecked his brain a bit, then Ian started designing and figuring and calculating and masterminding.

On Sunday, we hit our home improvement store to buy building supplies. Then we came home and started work on our coop.

Lucas hammering

Asher hammering

Measuring and marking with his new carpenter’s pencil

My husband is so clever! And handy! And handsome!

Endless fascination

Asher did his natural work of mimicking and playing with the hardware. (He also did an amazing interpretive dance wearing mardi gras beads and a sword—LOVE.) Lucas was a big help to his dad and kept on task through most of the day, keeping a good attitude. Both boys are over the moon about getting chickens and promise to do their chores.

The coop is coming along well! After the first day of construction it already has a raised floor, back, and sides. Next is putting on the roof, building some nesting boxes, and putting on the front doors. The boys were so cute while helping Daddy yesterday. We made good progress over the weekend, but there’s still a long way to go, including sinking some fence poles and building the run. We are thinking about using a few vinyl flooring tiles on the floor of the coop so it scrubs clean really easily, like a kitchen floor. The whole front of the coop with be two big doors, so it will open completely when we want to clean it.

Me? So far, I’ve been in charge of photography, holding heavy lumber, beer buying, iced-tea and popsicle distribution, editing to keep up our bottom line, and dreaming of what colors to paint the coop.   😉

This is a peek at our summer nature table, which is really our piano top. Sorry about the flash. It took me a while to get around to changing from spring to summer stuff, but that’s just because we were really busy LIVING summer.

• framed paintings by Lucas (first grade wet-on-wet watercolors)
• ceramic bee hive made by Lucas last summer in our pottery class
• summer Rio Samba roses in crystal vase
• knitted sheep, one by Lucas (made in his first and second grade handwork classes) and one knitted by grandma and sewn up by by me
• picture book called In the Space of the Sky, by Richard Lewis and illustrated by Debra Frasier. The page says, “There—in the space of the sky is a field for the sun”
• ceramic frog made by me at pottery class
• fuse-bead rainbow sailboat made by Daddy
• print of little boys playing on the beach near the ocean, a gift from my parents several years ago
• orchid plant that looks in the scene a little like palm trees
• wooden rainbow arches
• seashells and sea star
• postcard of children frolicking from Ring-A-Rosies preschool, where Asher goes
• tree branches in Clouds vase
• needle-felted blue bird on a nest with eggs, made by me
• play silks for meadows, water, and sand

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” —Sir John Lubbock

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Yep. I made another one—my second knitted cat. This one is going to live elsewhere as soon as she’s old enough.

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

We went to the cabin to do some cleaning in preparation for guests. I really feel we organized ourselves perfectly to have maximum fun and minimal work time. We enjoyed Pope Beach and the Rainbow Trail on Saturday and then got to explore around the cabin on Sunday. We went back to the Rainbow Trail to see the stream profile because it was closed the first time.

Don’t they look determined? My boys are marching toward their lunch in this photo. I distinctly remember the day in the woods when my father told me that I didn’t have to step on or over every single obstacle in my path while hiking, and that if I sometimes went around obstacles, I’d have more energy to walk farther. I was probably 9 or so. My kids still choose to go up and over.

These yellow wildflowers, called mules’ ears, were everywhere, but especially in the empty field near the cabin. So spectacular!

I think these purple flowers are poisonous larkspur, but I’m not positive. Sometimes I can find pictures on the Internet that help me ID plants. (I’ve got my eye on a wildflower guide book.)

Lucas enjoyed exploring the creek by the cabin; this tiny creek joins a bigger one that was running too fast and too high for us to play in. I remember many long afternoons spent rambling up and down that creek with my cousins when I was a girl.

Asher got pretty brave after a while on the beach!

The neighbors were growing some perky mushrooms amid their new landscaping.

Here’s a scrub jay in a Jeffrey pine. Ian told me that Jeffrey pines smell like vanilla, and sure enough, they do! Marvelous! He delights me with tidbits like this pretty frequently. I’ve been going to Tahoe my whole life and I didn’t know that.

This little trip was a feast for my nose. Sage, Jeffrey pines, mugwort, and something that smelled a lot like spearmint. I never figured out where the mint scent was coming from, but the air smelled fantastic.

Shadow family portrait on the green pond algae

Asher among the wild mules’ ears. To me it looks rather like he sprouted there.

It was time for some mountain love: some sunshine and pine cones, crystal-clear waters and rainbow trout, some wildflowers and ladybugs and lakeside splashing. What better way to spend a summer weekend?

Samuel Taylor Creek

Snowplant

Quaking Aspen trunks and meadow

Canada Goose on the Tahoe lakeshore at Pope Beach

Summer snack

Sandcastle beginnings

Lucas rescued a dozen or more ladybugs from Lake Tahoe. Were they blown into the water?

Asher really got into the beach play this year; it’s so much closer to come here than to drive to the seashore!

The Rainbow Trail provided peeks at marsh life and fingerling fish and nice, big rainbow trout at the Stream Profile.

I don’t know what this plant is, but I thought it had lots of drama.

This is one happy 3-year-old!

Sunlight through the Aspens near the family cabin

We hope your weekend was just as magical!

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Summer’s here and a rainbow of flowers is growing in my yard. I guess I’m still a girl at heart because this kind of thing thrills me. My garden is only missing a unicorn.