Fingers crossed, my chickens will have a coop to live in soon. Hopefully this will happen some time before they start laying eggs.
I started building it this week. The coop, I mean. The process started off with my fella helping me but I fired him. Or he quit. Either way, he's off the job. He wasn't having fun anyway, so it's for the best. How do I know he wasn't having fun? Mainly I have an intuition for this sort of thing. Plus his language was colourful. How colourful? If his language was a candy it would be Skittles.
Overheard while my boyfriend was helping me:
"*&&%# stupid ##$%!"
"Crappy #*&$$!&!!"
"What do you mean it's $%##! wrong??! $#@!&&"
"It's *%#$in' straight enough!"
"TAKE IT APART AGAIN??!! $%@#! SERIOUSLY??!!!"
"No. No, no, no &%^^$##$$@! NOOOOOOOOO. I'M NOT STARTING OVER! I WON'T &%$$ DO IT. You can &%^^$ it"
"I'm due a scheduled break now. Union rules. &^%%$#."
Enter ... my sister who has framing experience and thinks building a chicken coop is loads of fun.
Overheard while my sister was helping me:
"Do you like my tool belt? It's pink. I like it too."
"Oops. (32 times the first day)"
"No, I don't need safety glasses. I have these - they're Chanel."
"Ow. (17 times the first hour)"
"LOL."
"This is my favourite tape measure. I love it."
"Uh Oh! LOL, looks like we have to do it again."
"LOL"
"Maybe we should have some chips and dip."
"Uh Oh! LOL, I measured wrong again."
"Huh. How'd that happen?"
"Oh no. Well, it's not that bad. It just means we're going to have to rebuild it all. Again. LOL"
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking my sister is "simple". She's not. She's one of those happy-go-lucky people you hear all about in fairy tales. You know, the ones who usually get eaten by the monster but magically get vomited up by way of the monster's nose, causing the monster to suffocate and die. Happy-go-lucky girl always saves the day. Plus, she really loves projects. She was the contractor on her own custom built house and she builds her own furniture in her spare time. Just for fun. Something as "cute" as building a chicken coop with absolutely no plans, a pile of wood and a mitre saw is her idea of Narnia.
And it was Narnia. The first day. By the second day the LOL's were fewer and farther between. By the time my mitre saw crapped out, complete with billowing smoke coming from the motor, we were both happy to see it happen.
So like I said, fingers crossed, my chickens will soon have a place to live. Fingers crossed, before they lay an egg, they lay a sliding compound mitre saw.
Took a break from measuring moulding for the just painted guest bedroom....with my guy. Lots of the same kind of colorful language.
Congrats on your chicken keep and a terrific blog.
Cynthia
http://coffeeonthepatio.com
http://www.cynthiasblog.com
Thanks Cynthia. Good luck with the crown moulding. If it *is* crown moulding I wish you more than luck. I wish a carpenter to miraculously appear at your door. ~ karen
Storms here in the eastern United States knocked out the power half an hour ago. (Read that aloud. Rhymes.. .kinda) But thank heavens it was restore, along with my wireless internet service. Whew! Because otherwise, I might have missed being among the first 20 people to comment on that chicken leg picture.
Oh and gracious Lord, the glory of your blog in general. Have a great weekend. Thanks for making me laugh.
Marti - Thank you. :) ~ karen
Amazing photo.
Does your sister actually say "LOL," because I have a friend who has started saying it rather than actually laughing at jokes.
Michele - Um. No. My sister wouldn't even know what LOL is I don't think. She still doesn't really know how to use text messaging and thinks cash machines are new fangled. She's not one for technology so much. ~ karen
I kinda want to paint the chickens nails...
I think I just threw up a little in my mouth.
Hi karen. You just described my sister Stacy to a tee. happy-go-lucky and always up for an adventure. I have never met anyone that can flit about in Nordstrom with her skirt tucked into her panties and then laugh about it when brought to her attention. I just know that if I were ever to have chickens, Stacy would be the one building a lop-sided coop with me ... structurally unsound, predator ready, but oh the adventure it would be. Thanks for the laughs
I was going to comment on how great that chicken picture is. Guess it's been done. :)
Just talked to a carpenter friend about building my coop. [My chicks arrive in a week, yay! ] I knew that for US to build it, we would be looking at all summer/fall, lots of bloodshed, and, very likely, chickens dead from stress.
Chicken toes are sooooo cute! You have to polish them. tee hee
I love everything about this post! Can't wait to see the finished project!
Thanks Carol-Anne!
Thank you for making laugh on this impossibly grey and rainy morning :-)
i would love to be a fly on the wall listening to the two of you build a chicken coop! thay would be fodder for a whole other blog!
That photo is awesome - seriously, love it!
Gosh, you are so funny and such a wonderful writer. And, as Renee pointed out, so very, very twisted. "I love you chickens, you are so sweet, cute and delicious." Let's hope they don't read your blog too.
This cracks me up especially since my son and daughter in law also just got chickens and built a coop. I share your posts with them. Their chickens are named nugget and dippit - they had more but they got eaten . . . they are trying to introduce new chickens - not easy - that will be a whole 'nuther story. Thanks for the laugh.
LOVE the picture!
Karen this post is HILARIOUS! And that chicken leg picture is AWESOME! You should put it on Etsy!
It's pretty funny that your "you might also like" section includes 3 links to baby chicken & chicken coop posts, and one to a plate of grilled chicken :)
LOL. Oh dear. ~ k
I had to read this one aloud to my hubby. He is still laughing.
That picture is awesome. And, I'm pretty sure our boyfriends speak the same language.
Mary - Swearinese is pretty common among men. They pick it up in childhood I think. ~ karen
Funny, I think swearinese is what my husband was speaking when I asked for help building raised beds for our garden. I'll just be making those myself from now on.
Hi Karen. I love your blog, and your sense of humor! Today, I love, love, love your chicken leg picture. Bravo!
Thanks Carrie! I'm pretty proud of my chicken leg picture. :) ~ karen