Coop de Ville

In the Spring of 2011, we decided to have our own chickens.  We pull out the bylaws for our area to ensure we build a coop and run to meet and beat expectations.


Our goal was to build the cheapest coop.  Bud was able to get a bunch of free pallets from work and we had an old cedar fence panel. We pick the area with shade in mind and hidden from our grumpy neighbour.

Leveled the ground.

We used a pallet as a floor and took apart another pallet to fill in the slots.

We built their nests up high. (BTW all 4 birds use the same nest and the others don't get used)

A door was made so we can take the eggs without having to get into the coop to get them. Clear roofing allow a lot of light in as chickens needs light and heat to lay.

The glass door to the coop is actually window we found in a used store build in the 20's.

Coop de Ville gets a blue coat of paint and we head to the Poutlry Swap to buy chicks.

The inside of coop is lined with wood chips for easier clean up.

We bring home our babies.

We had a few kinks to work out.  We are not allow to have roosters and three of the five chicken turned out to be roosters.  We were able to trade at the swap for a two roosters for two hens.  It wasn't another month before we knew of another rooster....the cock-doodle do at 5am was the kicker.  We found him a new home.

On a good day we get 4 eggs and a bad day 1 egg.  It's been great as we very rarely need to buy eggs.  The yolks are a beautiful dark orange.  Nothing beats fresh eggs!

The other great things is that many of our kitchen scraps can be fed to the chicken.


Coop de Ville and the "Girls" have been a great experience and help to reach our goals being more self suffiencient.

The Hair Story

Why is hair such a big issue in our house this past year?  Is kids hair always this hard? And why does hair issues always present themselves at the dinner table when I get home from work?

I think it all started when Brin a hair twirler managed to twirl her finger so tight into her head, Bud had to cut her finger free.  That’s when it all went downhill.  I had to cut out the curls due to a glue incident more than once.

But she isn’t the only one.

Aidan came home from school with green hair.  He coloured his hair with a marker on his way home from school.  Good thing it washed out.  He has also cut his hair.  Apparently he needed a haircut but instead of asking he did it himself.  Nothing a buzz cut couldn't fix. Boy's hair is easier and this part of the hair story much shorter.

We return to Brin's hair story which doesn't seem to end.  She decided to grow her hair long and it got pretty long.

 And the then I came home from work:

To a large bald spot!  Apparently her hair was knotty and her brother, Aidan helped to pull the knots out.  We do not know the real story as he denies his involvement.  Didn’t hurt?

Out came the scissors and back to a short bob which helped a bit.

But the story doesn't end here.  The bob last for about 2 months....maybe. I came home again from work and sat down for dinner to find a very straight cut through her hair...obviously scissors. Off to the hairdressers again but this time for a pixie.

Hopefully this is the end of the story....but I am not counting on it.