Chicken Mania

Well, folks, it is almost time.  Hard to believe that September 18th is looming large on my horizon--and yet here we are, just about ready to put the 14th to bed.  (Ack!)

Time for what, you ask?  Why the Tour de Coops, of course!  Over 200 hundred people, largely on bicycles, coming to meet my chickens and see how we've set up our flock accommodations.  For those of you who already get it, that last sentence won't sound strange...for the rest of you--well, you really need to hug a chicken.  Then it should all become clear.  [Ramona says that you can hug her, if you'd like; just make sure to bring treats.]

This is going to be a short post, I'm afraid.  If I had everything cleaned, weeded, organized, painted, washed (quit digging in the compost, ladies), sorted, pruned, and arranged, then I would post pictures all over here to show off. 

As it is, I have only one bit of business in a show-off state--the picnic table that Jason & I built this week.  We are very pleased with this massive structure, and are currently having fun imagining all of the meals we will share with friends, outside under our beautiful hackberry, in the years to come.

All told, this probably cost us around $40 to build--and most of that was spent on the shellac we used to seal the wood.  The lumber was free, the plans were free, and we had the necessary tools already.  If only I could build for myself all of the items that I covet at the garden and hardware stores!

So, at least when the hordes of chicken fans come clamoring through the gate this weekend...we will have a snazzy table for them to sit at.  :)

There is one interesting bit of business--aside from the table (and the messy garage)--in the following picture:

Those white panels in the back, on the left, are the future (i.e., before the 18th) roof of the girls' outdoor pen.  I had primed the plywood panels and left them to dry in this picture.  Now, however, they are being decoratively painted by my dear little preschoolers at Meridian Street Preschool Cooperative.  I love the way that all of these different aspects of my life are coming together.  Modern art by four-year-old gardeners, famous chickens...tomato, tomahto.  The urban homesteader takes it all in her stride!

Once the roof art is complete, then all I have left to do is:

-seal and assemble said roof
-clean and organize the garage (again)
-clean and paint the coop
-weed the mulch around the yard, so that the mulch is visibly brown, rather than green
-do *something* about the flower bed that I supposedly protected from the chickens with my quaint little stick fence (where the hussies continue to dust bathe and crush all of the flowers.)
-do something with the woodpile/truck camper-top/stacks of windows-waiting-to-become-a-greenhouse arranged around the garage with a distinctly "hillybilly" feel
-did I mention weeding?

Oh good grief.  Time for a medicinal glass of wine on the couch.  Wish me luck.