Categories
Animals Chickens

The Chicken Coop of the Ages

When I first got back from camp, I took some scrap wood, 2 by 2’s and a Sunday, and built a chicken coop. It really was more like a box on stilts surrounded by chicken wire. I’ve spent a little bit of time every weekend adding on, and updating it in the hopes that it will become the coolest chicken coop ever!

Here is the first picture I took of my completed chicken coop:

(We stacked the pallets around it for some protection from the dogs, because we didn’t know how ferocious they would be…)

After a couple weekends of upgrading, we got the chicken coop into place along the side wall of our hay shed, and added some planking, walls, etc.

You will notice (above) that the front of the chicken coop is one large door, so we can easily clean it out.

In the image to the right, you can see the side of the chicken coop with a little gangplank I built for the chickens to get into the coop with and a string that attaches from the gangplank to the top of the chicken coop. If you pull on the string it pulls up the gangplank to close in the chickens if we would like to.

My next innovation was even cooler. Here are my custom built nesting cubicles: (Here is a good picture of the big door in front being open.)

And on the back side, I’ve got a secret door so I can easily remove the eggs without disturbing the chickens, or having to open up the huge door in front.

Here is another picture of the secret door on the back of the chicken coop:

The weekend after the above picture, I made the front wall and door of the chicken coop solid (instead of chicken wire). Sorry, no pictures of the process…

But all of those additions so far, are nothing when compared to Anna’s great idea to paint the chicken coop! (Which was scoffed at by some friends lol)

Here is our newly painted chicken coop!

Anna picked out the Red color, and I helped with thinking up the design. You can also see a smaller door I created on the front door. (It’s got the “X” on it.) When I added the wood to the huge front door, it became very heavy, so I created that smaller door for easy access.

Today, our chicken coop has 4 doors, 3 solid walls, and a beautiful paint job.

(Today, we received our 36th egg! That’s three dozen in almost a month! And worth $7.50…. so they have almost paid for themselves…)

More to Come,
-Ashton

Categories
Animals Chickens

The Price of Free Eggs

Today we received our 11th free egg! That’s right we have 2 egg-laying chickens giving us free eggs!

Introducing:

Silly Sally
(Silly) Sally is the most skiddish chicken I’ve ever seen. We call her Silly Sally because if you get within 5 feet of her she starts darting around and clucking frantically as if you are the grim reaper here to collect her soul.

SilverSilver understands that we aren’t trying to kill them, and hangs out a little closer to humans.

We calculated out that 1 dozen “Naturally Nested” eggs costs $2.50 (or a little under $.21 cents) each. We calculated how much money we’ve spent on the chickens so far, and how many “free” eggs they’ll have to produce to break even…

They owe us 577 more eggs. Hahaha. We’ll keep you posted on how they are doing in repaying their debt.

lol
-Ashton

Categories
Animals Mocha

Mocha vs. Snake

Mocha’s first experience with a snake! (That we know about).

Mocha was playing around in the grass, and then comes out with a baby garter snake in her mouth.

She played around with it for a while, and she got bored of it.


We haven’t seen the snake since.

-Ashton

Categories
Montana Trips & Activities

Time to Hit the Lake

These last to weeks were HOT, and it was time to hit the lake. The lake is still in the 60’s (which is better than the Pacific Ocean right now). We loaded up the boat with 6 people and a baby, and went out. To say the least, it was kind of windy (at least 1 foot swells). But we were going with the wind and I wanted to go water skiing.

Ashton Water Skiing

And no one else wanted to get in the water, so I went for a quick run in the tube (emphasis on quick). I think I was on the tube for a minute before I finally got dropped out of the wake, and instantly flipped. =)

Ashton Tubing

It’s been very hot up here, so I’m sure it’ll be nice and warm very soon.

-“I hate cold water”
-Ashton

Categories
Trips & Activities

Bridal Shower

First off I would like to thank all my family for throwing me 2 Bridal Showers!!!

My first shower was thrown by all the mom’s and my sisters at a cute little tea house in Sierra Madre which was for all my close family and girlfriends. I am still waiting on pictures from that one, so as I get them I will post them up here.

My second shower was thrown by my future Mother-In-Law Marcy. This was a cute garden party which was hosted at the beautiful home of Liz Baybak in La Canada. I was able to meet all of Marcy’s close friends and family friends that I haven’t been able to meet yet and I had a blast!

Marcy had several activities planned including, scrapbooking, Anna Q&A, a fun guessing game, plus a surprise showing of my championship riding video. We also had a wonderful spread of food and very cute decorations!

Here are some fun shots from the shower:

Entrance to the Party

Scrapbooking Table

Tables

Dr. Pepi

Liz Baybak

Madeline, Lee & Junda

Tonya Brooks, the lady that delivered both of us into this world!

My Bridal Party!

Marcy, Julianne Sherman, Me, Diana Henderson (Sister,) Camilla Danison (Sister)

Camilla, Carol (My Mom), Jace (Diana’s Baby), Lisa (My Step-Mom)