I Am the Crazy Chicken Lady!

I should mention that--in case you are following along on the coop construction and are considering building one yourself--neither of us has constructed a structure out of wood this size before. In college I took architectural construction courses--which is to say I have a lot of book sense without much practical application and Farmer Rick was a City Boy in a previous life and has admirably worked his way up from building our chicken tractor a couple years ago.


(If you are unfamiliar with chicken tractors you should google the term). This one has since had a floor installed to become the Chickens With Disabilities Unit, namely Teddy Bird's house. The book we have found most helpful in our building process is Building a Shed: Siting and Planning a Shed, Building Shed Foundations, Adding Custom Details (Build Like a Pro Series) from Taunton Press. It's very well illustrated and written for the layperson. We bought several books on coop design first but they were not detailed enough for actual construction.

OK, so we've underestimated how long it will take to build the coop. We were certainly not expecting a week of rain after being in a drought. Or that these chicks would grow faster than our previous ones. So, I've had to do a little ahem redecorating...(if you are terribly fastidious and tidy, you'd best close this post ASAP!)...





Truthfully, I have disliked this bathroom since the day we met. For one, the tile job (very unprofessional) goes right over the window and blocks the handle! I removed a sliding glass tub door because I could never keep the lime off it and it made the room--which is twice as long as what you see--even narrower. Because the room was carved out of an old post office, the pipes are on top of the floor! The electrical outlets are really extension cords from other rooms. I even had to remove a phone jack for goodness sake! This room is going to be entirely remodeled even if I have to take the Sawzall to it!

The Crazy Sheep Lady once told me something had to be really wrong before she'd have chickens in her house. However, the Crazy Sheep Lady has sheep in her house. That must make me the Crazy Chicken Lady. (Fortunately, we do have our own bathroom).

So now the race is on! Will Farmer Rick finish the new coop before the chickens spill into my studio? Stay tuned!