Home is feeling like a little farm these days...

These are our newest additions.  A huge thank you to our friends for lending us the incubator and giving us the eggs!  I spent a few hours mid week this week reading up on chickens to make sure that we weren't totally clueless when we picked up the eggs to start this venture.  Chickens are darn interesting and I'm sure my party talk is a bit boring these days being all things 'chicken'.

Yes, we are taking on new "pets". The boys are so curious about the eggs.  We visited baby chicks at the library the other day and M spent a lot of time with them.  I think that he thought they were our chicks -the ones we had been talking about for the last while.  He didn't want to leave them.  

The entire brood went to Buckerfields this weekend to purchase our coop making supplies.  Luckily, there were fluffy baby chicks there.  The boys were so gentle with them and squealing at the prospect of being papa's to their own chicks.  We then visited a friends coop for inspiration -and inspiration we got!  No joke... a mosaic tiled hen house interior with the most beautiful hens I think I have ever seen.  T loved feeding them grass.

The lot of us got a little addicted to building the coop after that.  M and T having been talking about "working" outside quite a bit these days (see the pictures below).  Our weekend was so lovely -lots of talk about wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops; picnics in the backyard; building; raking; getting muddy; bucket baths outside; reading books and snuggling with blankets in the sun.  We made a lot of headway on the chicken coop and are excited to share some pictures with you.  In fact, as I'm writing to you Loic is finishing up a little more on the coop.  Since these pictures, the little window opens and closes; the bottom trap door for cleaning is on hinges; the roof panels are done; the floor framing is complete and ready for the floor to go in.

I put a tarp on top of the coop and the boys pretended it was their house all afternoon.  There was a really big (pretend) storm when the "Queen of the Night" came (look up Mozart's Magic Flute).  After that, M made me a delicious cup of sawdust hot chocolate.  Things got out of control when the boys started "kneading bread" which meant squeezing dirt and water in bowls in their outdoor kitchen.

 T is teaching M here.  I also took a video which is pretty funny.

I think this coop (and this man) are just so wonderful.  I can't take much credit for the building.  My part was around moving a lot of wood; gravel; giving opinion on design; and taking care of 2 nutty boys.  Don't let this post let you think everything was perfect this weekend.  Seriously... they are CRAZY sometimes... demanding... a mad cycle of suck you dry and then energize you up at the next moment with their cuteness.  

This crazy, wonderful life.  Lovely to be living outside more again and learning about something new.