Finally some PICTURES!

Calvin cutting wood, John hammering wood. :)

See the big crate in the background? That provided a lot of wood.

Coop.

Here's a picture of the coop almost done. It took almost all summer to finish this coop. Calvin and John did all the framing in one day and Calvin left the rest of the work to John. I pretty much had to light a fire under his butt before he finished it. Thank you babe!! You make a good chicken coop builder!

Thanks to my Uncle David for putting up the insulation, that was one of the hardest things to do, since you get so itchy and everything....


Again, THANK YOU JOHN! I greatly appreciate the work you've done to make my dream chicken coop. :)


ps, the wood by the coop wasn't mine, our new neighbors built a house. :)

Be Patient Grasshopper!

Half the problem of living in the arctic is having to wait a long time for things... Things like more wood, insulation, an answer from a grant opp, some feed, some pine shavings, mason jar feeders.... stuff like that! I'm waiting very patiently and I think I should be awarded for it! Snail mail sucks.

On the other hand, I went to check out some prices in Anchorage for a few things I needed and boy do the prices get slashed in Anchorage. WOW I mean to the point of wanting to move... well not really, but really.

By the way I should also receive an award for "Best Duck Auntie" since my little sister wasn't competent in in duck babysitting. I saved them from their own crap, literally. I should also say that a petition has been started (not really but it should be) for my sister Maija to GET RID of her yellow lab, Shockie. I know she's cute but she's become good-for-nothing and a liability, so in the words of my most wisdom father: "if it is good-for-nothing, get rid of it goddamnit!!!"

Are you going to throw that ply-wood away?

So it seems like everyone is working on something outside this spring. I keep driving to and from work and keeping my eyes peeled for some good ply-wood or anything I can use for my chicken coop. I've done a lot of research for this and seem to have full confidence in myself that this is going to work. We'll be eating a lot of chicken if it doesn't work out. :)


My friend Charity told me that chickens are like pigs, they'll eat anything and they are messy. She also told me that as long as they have water, so they don't get dehydrated they'll live thru the winter. I think that's two of the best pieces of advice I've gotten so far. She herself has a few chickens that she regularly gets eggs from and they live in her back yard coop. I haven't seen it but if they live in it all winter I imagine its a good one.


I've been procrastinating on asking a few community members about their wood piles for the past couple of weeks. So on Tuesday among doing other things on my only day off I plan to call around town to various house holds to ask what they are going to do with their wood. I think its silly to be asking around but if it is going to go to waste or in a fire and its worth taking to my parents house (where the coop is going to be located) then it is worth the embarrassment to ask around. I've seen some nice wood piles and if I had a crew of about 10 people and a nice big truck I could have gotten a bunch of wood, of course in the darkness of the night... only a couple hours a night now and disappearing fast.

I also applied for a grant at our local borough for small business'. I hope I get it. I should hear back from them this week. Cross your fingers for me as I could use that money for a feed I plan to stock up on and the chickens themselves. Back to reality. :)