Update about Chicken Tractor/Port-a-Coop

 So, I am long overdue for a post. I have done some things on the blog though! On the right side of the screen you will see a button under "Grab my button". (This was hard to make!)If you have a blog, I would be pleased as peaches, if you put my button on your blog.
Also, at the bottom of this post you will see a Facebook "like" button. (This was very easy.) If you have a Facebook account please like my post and or share my blog with others. I was feeling very much like a techie having accomplished this!

More important is the fact that John has finished the plans and they are ready to sell! Woo Hoo. I made two new pages today and they are on the top right. "Why have Chickens" and "Buy Your own Port-a-coop plans here!" Click on these for more info.

Anna, about 8 weeks old now.

How are your gardens growing? Our strawberries stopped as soon as the heat hit. Our lettuce is doing pretty good but some are starting to bolt already. I am spending a good amount (okay, almost all my time) in the garden weeding, and weeding some more. We ran out of funds this year before we could get mulch. We will make it though till I can find a free or almost free source of mulch. I guess the rest of the garden is okay. I hope to do a fall planting and make some cold frames. I will be keeping an eye out for old windows.
The kids 4-H gardens are doing well. & I will have to post a picture of the mystery squash plant that is growing in the mulch bin. It is a monster!

Alpha, is part Banty and so sweet and calm.

The chickens are happy and getting bigger by the day. They love Arugula, which is a good thing!    Because it has done wonderful in our garden... we all hate it. So I am happy that they like it. Waste not want not!

The Port-a-Coop!!!!!!

Drum roll please........ It's done! It took quite a bit longer than we thought it would, and we ran into some back-to-the-drawing-board moments, but it's DONE. Can you tell I'm excited?
The chicks took right to it and seem happy and at home. Or as Joel Salatin would say, the chickens were expressing their chickeness. They go crazy over wild strawberries! They are so much fun watch.
We may have to do some chicken training tonight to get them to go up the ramp into the house for the night. Not sure how that is going to go.
Plans for it will be available soon. Now I must go put in some tomato plants tonight as time is passing way too fast. It is already to late for the spinach and I will have to plant that in Aug.

The Last Screw!

Victory!

Do I want to go down there?

Coming down the board walk. ;-)

Happy Chicks!

More braving the way down.

They like all the bugs and grass seeds.

Pretty Isn't it!

I will paint that last board soon.

Proud of a job well done!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Chicks, Grubs and 4-H

Our Port-a-coop is coming along.

Chicks enjoying some sunshine and fresh air.

I love the look of concentration on her face!

Plants and seeds for the younger kids 4-H gardens.

I worked some in the garden today making rows and finding grubs which I sent with Nate, who happily ran them up to the chicks who ate them up. We have had to make a few changes in the port-a-coop plans, but it is coming along slowly but surely.

The chicks are getting their feathers.

Rachel needs to find a home for four of the chicks soon because they are getting too big to share that small of a space for much longer and the port-a-coop is only for about 4 hens but we are going to try to get away with 5.
Abby and I went to the extension office today for the Master Gardener's plant exchange and also picked up the plants for the younger three's gardens they are doing for a 4-H project this summer.

I also picked up this wonderful little booklet Keeping Garden Chickens in North Carolina. This is the opening paragraph:
Chickens can be a colorful, beautiful, entertaining 
addition to your garden, and a few hens in your 
backyard can supply all the eggs your family needs, 
along with litter (manure mixed with bedding) that 
can be used as a source of organic fertilizer. Your hens 
will supplement their diet with bugs and grubs, and 
they can turn your garden and kitchen waste into tasty 
eggs. No wonder you are interested in raising chickens!
Be sure to check out your local Cooperative Extension office for lots of help and information for gardening, livestock and landscaping for your area. Not to mention, wonderful programs like 4-H and Master Gardening classes!
The school year is almost done and I am as ready as the kids for a break! I am ready for the real life hands on stuff that is so much easier to do in the warm weather. Book work is fine when it is cold out.
I am off to bed now. Tomorrow is the last big day of homeschool programs including the homeschool chorus singing at the courthouse for The National Day of Prayer. Then Friday its back to work on coop and garden!

The Chicken Tractor / Port-A-Coop in the Making

Measure twice cut once!

 Thomas and Josiah looking at the plans.

 Abby learning to put screws in.

 All hands on deck.

 Rachel and Josiah having a Kodak moment.

Rachel and John. (John happens to be the one who designed the coop!)

 Rachel working hard.

 Its starting to look like something.

A model of what it will look like when its all done!

A sample of the plans that will be available.

This is our soon to be chicken home! It is taking longer than we thought to build, (Doesn't everything though?) due to scheduling, weather, finding little changes that need to be made... you get the idea.
It has been fun though and we can't wait to get it finished and painted!