A new project at home

A new project at home

We have been dreaming about having chicken for eggs as long as we have lived here. We thought we would build a chicken coop for a while now too. As I have been on paternity-leave it was always the plan to build it during this time. We didn’t start yet though.

Now I have kind of started though. The planning started some time during the autumn. I like making models so I made one in SketchUp. It’s probably not final. I think I might widen the door a little; just 50 cm wide might be a bit narrow.

Here are two pictures of the coop.

Model of chicken coop

First from the outside; I’m having it raised so that the chickens have a place in the dry when being outside.

Cross section of the chicken coop model.

Here a cross section; the inside is not entirely ready in the model, there is no feeding tray and water-place yet.

The first real work has started too. Because there was some old garden-waste pile there I have started to flatten the ground. I don’t know how many wheelbarrows of soil I have moved.

The place where the chicken coop with be built. Flattening the ground.

I’m almost done with this first part. Here the chicken coop will be placed in line with the wood-shed and all other buildings on our plot. We will fence in an area around it so that the chicken can stay outside in safety form other animals.

I’ll try to update the progress on a regular basis, but who knows how fast things will go, I just hope I’ll be done before I start to work again, I have kids to take care of too (and they want to help).

And it has begun…

You who know us know that one of the reasons we moved out on the countryside was the fact that we want animals. In the long run we dream about having both chicken and sheep. I don’t know how long it will take until we are there. For the sheep we will need some extra land so the chicken are probably closer in time.

So before Christmas we finally got up the birdfeeder. It’s a start. So now the birds are able to get some seeds when the stock is short in nature. Not that it is this year, but we didn’t move to Skåne for the winter.

The birds really like the place. Most of the time the small ones are there, but in between crows come and raid the place too. Then we have to fill the feeder with new seeds. The pheasants are also finding the seed fallen down on the ground and once we saw a woodpecker too.

Pictures of the birds: How many kinds can you see?Collage of Birds And today things became even more serious; we have two new family members of the feline kind, Milo and Siam. A friend of ours couldn’t keep them anymore and asked if someone would like to take them over. We really wanted cats too. It is a start when you want to have animals and they are nice having around too. And it’s good to have them around when you have kids so they will learn how to interact with animals. Our daughter ran herself tired the first day excited about the fellas that came to our place and tried to figure us out. When she was asleep they were less reserved and Siam sat in Susanna’s lap for a while.

Here are some pictures of them today: (Milo is the black one, he is a bit more reserved than Siam).

A collage of Siam and Milo