Friday, March 1, 2013

Friday Fantasy..........Fowl

I want chickens.  

The kind that lay blue and green eggs.  Plus some of the kind that look like Foghorn Leghorn.  I want a unique chicken house I can decorate with whimsy.  I want an excuse to buy things at the Round Top Antique Fair that I would have no other purpose for.  I want to fence it like an English garden.  I want to collect eggs with toddlers. I want birds that are raised as pets so the boys can handle them.  I realize that we'll then have retirees and that's OK   If they give us eggs for a while they can retire here loved and petted.  

I realize there's a lot of work and science that goes with keeping chickens, but this is a Friday Fantasy post, all fantasy no technical.

This fantasy has been coming along nicely but I won't have birds until next year.  My dear husband has been working on the coop though and it's going to be magic.  If we can figure it out, it'll even have a living roof.  Won't the girls be pleased?


Here's some pictures of the progress so far.





We're using logs instead of stones.
It will be 12'x12' and 1/2 will be coop and 1/2 will be screened in run.

The 2 doors from the coop to the outside will have arches (the wooden frame at the top of the door now is there until the mortar sets and then will come out) 

The doors themselves will be arched and center split.  The hollowed out log at the top will be set with slats in the inside to provide ventilation.



The pictures below are of the east wall and the space between the top rail and the logs will be chinked with large mason jars instead of logs to provide natural light and a whimsical look.


 Below is a picture of the wall between the coop and the screened in run.  It's only halfway completed and will have 2 large shuttered windows flanking the hollowed out log piece.  The hollowed out log will have a ramp attached to both sides and will serve as the door for the birds to come and go between the sides.  Cool right?!  I love that part.


Once it's finished I'll fence a yard around it for the birds to get out and eat some grasshoppers!  It's set in my horse pasture which is perfect because one of the horses, George, HATES dogs and will serve as predator control.  I'll also hot wire the outside of the fence in case George is sleeping.

I have such a talented husband!  
When we first moved to this property I asked for a 3 sided shed for my riding horse to get out of the weather.  Something temporary until we had a barn built.  So he cut logs and built me a one stall log barn complete with loafing porch and shuttered windows.  I think he thought that if he built only one stall I'd keep it to only one horse.  Yeah right.


The barn in the background
Picture directly above and below taken by Anna Spencer of The Grace Photography 

George, the predator control hanging out in the barn.


More later.

Thanks for visiting!


Arlene

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