Chicken Coop Construction - Continues!

Well construction of the chicken coop has been coming along nicely. We're getting more and more excited as we reflect on our progress. This project has been especially nice for Ken as he's getting a opportunity to use the majority of all the nifty toys... oops! I mean tools! Yes, tools he's received as gifts - most over the years by his loving wife! :-)



For a few days we had some much appreciated help from Johnathan Hetrick, which was fun for us and for him. Jewel also enjoyed taking a break from construction during one of the days and spending time and having fun with the other Hetrick children Samantha, Christina & Nick when we did a "kid swap." On one day, when Johnathan came to help, I did have to give him a hard time though... here's why: So I come out to check on the progess and see if anyone needs another hot chocolate (motivation for cool autumn mornings), when I see three eggs on the deck table. Odd I thought, hmmm... thinking nah - our girls are supposed to lay brown eggs, but without holding, but rather after touching the eggs softly and feeling them just barely warm, the fleeting moment of excitement came - Oh my! Has the day come? But they're white eggs! Only to find out Johnathan had brough 3 hard boiled eggs to snack on during the day. We all got a good chuckle out of that one!


On a perfect day - Johnathan helping Ken put the roof on while learning some basic carpentry skills. What a trooper and such a big help!


Coop construction is really looking good & the roof is on!


The wonderful overhang to keep us dry at the end of the coop. It rained a couple of days after we put this up and it was SO nice! We're also putting up a bug zapper attached to the corner of the overhang to keep some of those pesky bugs at bay. Hope the chickens like their bugs well done!


Jewel helping with Linoleum & trim installation on a cool autumn morning.


Ken finishing up nailing the flooring trim. I thought it looked nicer than what we have in the house now, perhaps trim updates will be another up and coming project since Ken did such a lovely job!


Ken and Jewel working hard while I document their progress inbetween helping.


Ken getting some much deserved appreciation from one of the chickens for building their lovely coop!


Jewel with her favorite hen "Tender," a Black Australorp. Tender is the most calm and sweet bird so far of the older bunch. This breed is quickly becoming one of my favorites.


Tender is our biggest hen, though our older girls are all quite large. They'll be 18 weeks old as of Monday!

Jewel's Birthday Campout!

Jewel had her 13th Birthday on September 7th! Can you believe it? Our Jewel is 13! Well, this years birthday wish was a fun one. Jewel wanted to go camping with some close friends overnight. It was a lot of fun and thankfully there were no microburst storms this time! What made it even better is that we had the entire area all to ourselves! Just one of the perks of homeschooling and having a birthday the night of the first day of the traditional school year!


Jewel Receiving those special calls from long distance relatives that she misses so much!!


Mmmmm.... Pork ribs marinating in a homemade sauce!


Our new tent courtesty of the storm from our last campout!


Our campsite! It's huge! And check out the waterfront view too!






Ken cooking (his favorite part of the campout I think) dinner and breakfast!






Setting the table for breakfast!


Campfire Stories


Canoeing






We brought our (Jewel's) little dog Patch with us. He was loved and loved every minute of being adored, and fed those tasty rib bones after we had consumed all that we could consume! After Patch could no longer eat anymore ribs, he buried the remaining bones, of course being the little hoarder he is. Unfortunately upon waking in the morning and searching for his bones, Patch found that his bones were all gone. The local wildlife had dug them all up in the evening and taken them away. It was a pitiful sight to see.








Patchy - All tired out after a vigilant night of protecting his people from those noisy woodland critters & being the wonderful poseable puppy.

Day of Fishing... Not Catching

This post is a bit delayed as this actually occured August 13th of 2010.

Our day of fishing was a great one. It started out all warm and cozy...


We headed out to the Newport News Park and picked up our shoreline fishing pass and started to fish...


and fish...


and fish...


Though we didn't catch anything, the day couldn't have been nicer. What a relaxing and enjoyable family retreat.

Wagon Riding - Yahoo!

Sorry! This post is a bit delayed as this actually occured August 9th of 2010.

Jewel looked at her little toy wagon in the backyard and the "gentle" slope, as ideas started to swirl around in her noggin', she decided it sounded like great fun for a homemade wagon ride.

I must admit it looked like tons of fun. Of course there were a few times she met disaster - once when she went right into the fence and hit the 4x4 pole after loosing control of her wagon and the other time (when I wasn't looking) when she decided that she might try and ramp up the excitement by riding her dirt bike on the same tracks... hmmm... that resulted in being tossed over the fence we found out. Thankfully she was okay - but her response "It hurt, but it was so fun! It felt like I was flying!" Well, silly girl that's because you were! Flying off your bike!

Oh to be young and not ache as long after injuries. Chuckling.