Chicken Coop

So back in March, we decided we wanted to have backyard chickens. Well I have thought about having them for a while but thought it might be down the road. I had read some articles about how relatively low maintenance they are and to be able to have organic free range eggs without paying $8/dozen would be awesome. I also know several people who have backyard chickens and since I have some friends willing to help when and if I need it (especially when we are out of town), we started planning. So I began looking at coop plans to see what kind of coop Ken could easily build for the backyard. Of course, it had to look nice since I have to look at it every day and it needed to give the chickens lots of space and be secure from predators. I wanted it to be roomy enough for 6 chickens, even though we can technically only have 5. Extra space makes the chickens happy, and happy chickens lay lots of eggs! It also reduces the risks for diseases and bugs, and who wants those?

In my search for coop plans, I found this amazing coop on Williams Sonoma's website and instantly knew I wanted our coop to look like it. I pulled out some graphing paper and set to work reverse engineering the coop from the photos and making adjustments based on measurement guidelines for coops I had read about in several books.

Here are my initial plans:

Exterior

Frame

Interior, Poop Drawer

Pen

Whatever you do, if you are wanting to recreate this coop, DO NOT follow these plans exactly as they are written above. Ken measured as he went and adjusted as needed due to discrepancies with wood pieces, like for instance I didn't realize that 1x8s are not actually 8 inches wide (boo!). We also had to shorten the legs of the coop because it isn't supposed to be seen from the road, so this also affected the ramp from the coop to the pen. I also decided after drawing up the plans to put a solid roof on the pen to provide shade for the chickens when I can't let them free range in the yard. I will try to point out most of the changes we made (or at least as much as I can remember since this was built in May and it's now November as I am finally getting around to writing this post).

Here are the pictures taken throughout the building process:

Underside of coop floor

Underside of coop floor

Coop floor on legs

Here's one of the changes we made, or rather added. The roof boards were bowing down a little so Ken added extra support beams across the top, which ended up working out really well as we used the one closest to the door to hang the feeder (notice the eye screw).

Pop Door

We actually changed out this twine for some strong fishing line because the twine was shredding as we tried opening the pop door and it rubbed against the wood. 

Nest Boxes: lined with shelf lining to make any egg break messes easier to clean

We cut plexiglass pieces that can slide over the windows for inclement weather (tropical storms and the like) and to reduce drafts in winter.

We added hooks on the door to hang a couple of cleaning tools and used some extra 1x8s to cover the gaps inside above the nest boxes.

Here we added a 1x8 up against the 2x2 on the floor separating the poop drawer from the rest of the floor to help keep the bedding from piling up in the drawer.

Our first batch of chicks! They were straight run from a friend and we ended up with only one hen! So we traded back two of the cockerels for laying hens and all four cockerels became dinner.

These babies were ordered online so they are for sure females. They are super sweet (the black one is my favorite).

We used untreated pine for the majority of the structure and the frame is cedar. I still want to paint a chicken on the door of the coop but am waiting for it to have a year of weathering before I paint it. If we had more time, it would be a good idea to paint the outside so that it has some weather protection. We had some issues with warping and expansion/retraction in the beginning but it seems to have calmed down a bit. The nest box access flap has given me the most trouble and has bowed out so much that we had to move the latch from the side to the top and it doesn't close all the way, though it's enough to keep critters out. It would have been fine if we had planned for the lack of width of the 1x8s that caused the panels not to meet up at the corner. We plan to repanel the nest box area to fix this problem. I think that's about it. Chickens are really pretty easy to keep, a little more work than having a cat and you get eggs in return!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! 

It was just Connor and me this year and it seemed pretty fitting that he should go as Bam Bam Rubble, so I went as Betty Rubble. We got a lot of great compliments on our costumes and Connor made the perfect Bam Bam!

I made both costumes for under $10 and they were pretty easy. I didn't take pictures as I went and pretty much just winged it, so there's no tutorial for how I made them but I can tell you that I used a strapless summer dress from Target that I had as a guide for my dress and then attached felt for the neck part (connected by velcro in the back). Connor's was made from two rectangles, one for the "skirt" (seam in the back and gathered at the waist with elastic) and the long rectangle for the shoulder strap sewn onto the back and attached with velcro on the front (though I will say this made it harder for me to keep on him so it may be better to sew it in place). I then hand sewed the white bone where the strap met the "skirt" and the black spots sporadically around the bottom. The fabric I used for both is the cheap cotton quilting fabric from JoAnn's. For Bam Bam's club, I cut a pool noodle down to size and covered it with brown craft paper that came as cushion in a box for something I ordered online.

Here are the links I found on Pinterest and used as inspiration for our costumes:
Betty
Bam Bam

Quick Update/Blog Future

Ok, so I've been a terrible blogger this year. Life is super crazy and I just can't seem to find the time to sit down and write up blog posts. So here is a quick update...

Connor is almost 18 months and is the sweetest, most lovable child. He loves to run, read books, and play with water. He is so smart and I love watching him learn and grow. Speaking of learning... I have decided to start Montessori-style homeschooling with him (much of it right now are activities we normally do anyways). I learned about Marie Montessori's method in college and looked into it again and decided it really fit with Connor's learning style right now. I found a great online program (inexpensive to buy but given to us free because of Ken being in the military) that I'm using to get started: http://www.montessorifortheearth.com. Then, of course, there is Pinterest to fill in with other stuff! I'm being really flexible about it right now and only doing a little at a time, but hoping to have a decent routine going starting in the fall to make sure we take time each week to focus on learning. I like that I can customize everything to meet Connor's needs and he can learn at his own pace. Plus, I figured, why pay for preschool when I am a former teacher and can do it myself?! Another benefit of homeschooling for us is that it gives us more flexibility for traveling to see Ken when he's not out to sea. When Connor is 5, we'll revisit homeschooling to see if I will continue to homeschool through the elementary years. There are so many benefits to homeschooling, so unless Connor asks to go to public school, we may continue at home through at least the early elementary years. I could go on and on about this but then it won't be a quick update! I may post separately about this in the future though :).

Another reason I've been a terrible blogger this year is that I officially launched my photography business shortly after Connor's birthday. It's been slow going, but with Connor keeping me super busy and Ken not here much, I expected it to be slow for a while. Though I have already upgraded my camera to a full-frame Nikon D600 (thanks to my wonderful husband who believes in me and surprised me with the new camera at Easter), and have acquired some new clients! It's so nice to get paid to do what I love! And in case you were wondering... my website is: www.KimberlyTank.com and you can find me on Facebook: Kimberly Tank Art & Photography. If you need family portraits done, let me know!

Ok, for this next part... you might want to sit down... we are now raising chickens! Yes, that's right, as if I didn't have enough to do already, lol. But seriously, once we built the coop, the chickens are pretty easy. I just check on their food and water a couple times a week and scoop the coop once a month. Plus letting them roam the yard for a little bit most days and they love kitchen scraps! They really have been pretty easy to take care of so far and we're looking forward to fresh, organic eggs and possibly a couple dinner chickens (whichever turn out to be roosters since we can't keep roosters here!). Connor loves them and the dogs are starting to get used to them (and not eating them). I had hoped the dogs would be able to help me round them up when I needed to put them back in their run, but it's only worked about half of the time, lol. We'll see.

We've also been really lucky to have gotten to see Ken a lot this year. He's been able to come home a bunch and we went up to see him for a little over a week at Easter. So we've been busy soaking up our time with him too! Connor loves his Daddy and I love to watch the bond between them, it just melts my heart! When Ken came home for my birthday we went to Disney for my 30th and it was so much fun. He recently transferred to a new ship so he's started back with the in and out to sea stuff again, but he doesn't have a long deployment again until next year.

Well, I think that's about it for major things going on with us. As for this blog, I may not be putting up regular posts like before when I did a Connor update once a month and a few other things here and there, but I do hope to put up posts more often (especially with Connor taking a nice long afternoon nap now). There will probably be less family updates and more posts about projects we've done, homeschool ideas I've tried, recipes I've made, chicken stuff, and other such things I want to share with others. Because let's face it, I don't have a huge following and mostly family and friends are reading this, most of whom are on Facebook and can get my brief updates on there anyways! So this will be a pretty mode-podge blog... stick around if you enjoy reading a little bit of everything!

Jungle Birthday Party

Connor's 1st Birthday party turned out great and was a lot of fun! Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

The party was jungle themed, with an emphasis on monkeys, since we call Connor our little monkey :).  I found a couple of pins on Pinterest to help expand on the ideas I had for the decorations and menu. 

Of course, I took pictures of everything to share here with everyone in case anyone out there needs some inspiration for a kid's jungle party!

Favors Table:  "Thank You" sign, kid favors, adult favors, monkey banner

For the monkey banner (which I also used in several other areas of the house) was made from the scraps from the "Happy Birthday" flag banner, brown yarn I had from a previous project, and monkey cutouts I found at a local education supply store when looking for green construction paper.

"Thank You" sign

 The "Thank You" sign was made from scrapbook paper I've had for years and leftovers from the "Happy Birthday" flag banner.

Party Favors

Big Kid/Adult Favors

For the Adult/Big Kid Favors, I used a monkey pop mold from Michael's (they're about $2) and put melted chocolate in them. Yum!

Kid Favors

For the Kid Favors, I had a hard time trying to figure out what to get/make. I had bought a cute monkey straw cup from Target* for Connor and he seemed to really like it and after not being able to think of something better, I decided to get one for each of the kids coming. The teal ones were for the boys and red/pink ones for the girls. I washed them ahead of time and wrote their names on them in case they wanted to use them at the party. Then, while at the Dollar Tree, I found cute little jungle animal puppets that I thought would be fun and rounded off the favor with a little bag of animal cookies, decorated with jungle animal stickers I also found at the local educational supply store. 

(*The monkey cups are currently in Target stores for Valentine's Day, so if it's past that time and you are thinking of favor ideas, start with the Dollar Tree and see what you come up with!)

Spotlight on the Birthday Boy: Highchair monkey banner, party hat, "Happy Birthday" flag banner, cupcake liner balls, balloons, jungle animals & baby book

Since we were using the table for the food spread, there was no room in the kitchen for the highchair so I chose to put it by the fireplace where I was hanging the birthday banner (a disposable table cloth was used to catch the smash cake). 

Birthday Boy's Highchair

I used a monkey banner to decorate the highchair and made the party hat out of felt. 

Mantle Decorations

For the "Happy Birthday" flag banner, I used scrapbook paper and yarn. The number 1 was made from leftover scrapbook paper. I made cupcake liner balls because I had bought jungle animal print cupcake liners a while back thinking I would use them for the party but decided not to make cupcakes so I made them into decorations instead. Then to top it off, I put two of Connor's stuffed jungle animals and his completed baby book on top of the mantle. 

Jungle Vines: green crepe paper, green paper leaves, monkey

Jungle Vines

I saw this idea on Pinterest and had to do it. We used the ceiling fan as the focal point and my husband and sister hung green crepe paper vines coming out in all directions and then the leaves I cut from green poster board (because I couldn't find construction paper) hung down from the vines. Then a monkey I found at the Dollar Tree hung from the fan. We also used green balloons to decorate various areas of the house.

Food Table (decorations): green balloons, monkey banner, grass skirt, green material

Food Table

I saw on Pinterest someone who had used grass skirts to decorate the food table. She had apparently gotten them cheap around Easter time... but it's not Easter time right now and they were $8 a piece and we were going to need several so we went with a roll of craft paper instead and cut it to look like a grass skirt instead. Then I used an extra green curtain I had lying around for the top of the table. 

FOOD:

Main Dish

Since the party started at noon, we served lunch. The main dish was bbq pulled pork, we I dubbed "BBQ Boar", served atop a bun with "Crocodile Coleslaw". (And as you can see, I used a monkey banner to decorate here too.)

Jungle Juice

 The "Jungle Juice" was something I came across on Pinterest; pineapple juice and ginger ale. It was delicious! Just watch out when you pour it as it fizzes up a ton! (More monkey banner and balloons hung from the counter.)

Hyena Humus

I love humus and typically like to make my own since it's so easy, but to minimize all that I had to do/make, I just bought some at the store and served it with carrots. 

Cheetah Chips

 Nothing special about the chips... I just love to dip them in hummus and they needed a fun name too!

Zebra Cakes

 A play on Little Debbie's Zebra Cakes (something served at a jungle party I found on Pinterest), I made brownies and used zebra brownie tattoos to make them "Zebra Cakes" sine I can't eat the Little Debbie version (due to gluten-intolerance).

Deviled Darter Eggs

 And because everyone loves deviled eggs and they are so easy to make... we had "Deviled Darter Eggs". If you're wondering... a darter is a bird found in Africa.

Hungry Hippo Salad

 My "Hungry Hippo Salad" was a mixture of baby greens, bell peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Served with homemade salad dressing. 

Caracal Carrot Salad

 My mom loves carrot salad and wanted to make it for the party, so we found it a fun name for it. 

Gorilla Grapes

The "Gorilla Grapes" were totally something I found on Pinterest and had to use. Aren't they cute?

Last, but not least.... CAKE!

Jungle Cake

I found a cute idea for a jungle cake on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to give fondant a try since I've never used it to decorate a cake before and you can do so much more with it than regular frosting. The fact that it's gluten and dairy-free made it even more appealing. Well, I love how it turned out, but it took ALL DAY before the party to do. But it looks great and I would do it again! Just be prepared that it takes a long time. My sister made the monkey on top and my mom made the leaves on top, which saved me a ton of time. I will also say that to save myself some time, I just used box cake mix and fancied it up a little by adding strawberries to the chocolate one and chocolate chips to the vanilla one. They were both pretty yummy! (Tip: to get the grassy look around the layer edges: put green fondant in a cookie press with the multi-hole disk.)

Smash Cake

Connor's smash cake was made from an allergy-free mix (Cherrybrooke Kitchen) and coconut milk frosting (with brown food coloring since he hasn't had chocolate yet). I used the Wilton monkey pan I had gotten at Michael's a while back when I saw it on sale. It was a good size and Connor loved it!

Happy 1st Birthday Connor!

First Birthday Party = Success!

**Pinspiration links: Jungle Vines, Food Ideas, Jungle Cake (pin link not working: cakecentral.com)

Happy 1st Birthday Connor!

I seriously cannot believe how fast this year has gone! Happy 1st Birthday to my little man... you light up my life and I cannot imagine a world without you! Mommy and Daddy love you soo much!

Ahh, Ahhh, Ahhhh, Ah Choo!

Well we finally went to see an allergist to figure out what Connor is going on with Connor and all of his food reactions. When I scheduled the appointment over the phone, and had to explain to them why we were coming, she said they would likely do the testing that day so we were ready for it.

After going over his history of reactions to foods, the allergist decided to test him for 10 different foods: egg, cow's milk, soy, wheat, peanut, almond, pecan, walnut, banana, and squash (though it was yellow squash since that was the only one they had). The allergist explained that you have to be first exposed to something to be allergic to it, but that since Connor is breastfed, he has been exposed to the proteins through my milk and therefore we could do the testing on foods that he hadn't actually eaten yet. They did the skin test on his back and it actually wasn't too bad for him.

The results... he is definitely allergic to walnuts and we were given a Rx for an epi pen in case he ever accidentally comes in contact with walnuts. We will retest the walnuts again in a year to see if he maybe outgrows it, but since Ken suspects he is allergic and Ken's sister is also allergic to walnuts, looks like we will be avoiding walnuts in our house and checking labels for tree nuts. We'll also be following up in 6 months as Connor will have eaten more variety of foods and we'll test for more if needed. So as far as immune-response allergy, so far it's just walnuts.

That said, he could still be sensitive to certain foods and need to avoid them (like my non-celiac gluten sensitivity), but it's not something that will show up on an allergy test. So I am to continue like we have been with introducing one food at a time over 3-5 days and taking notes on any reactions that may pop up. This doesn't tell us why he broke out in hives from eating that apple back in November, but hopefully it doesn't happen again. The doctor said she doesn't think it was the actual apple since he eats cooked apples all the time and is fine. Though I have to say, I am still nervous to give him a raw apple again.

I'm glad to at least know that he's not at risk of anaphylaxis with a few of the foods we've been avoiding and maybe just a sensitivity or something he's grown out of. Once we get a few more foods into his rotation of what he can eat, I will be trying nuts he isn't allergic to and a little bit of dairy back in my diet to see if he has any reactions through my milk like he had before. I have to say, I am most looking forward to the possibility of eating peanut butter again! And hopefully Connor won't have any more reactions and it won't be long before he can eat just about anything... except walnuts of course :).

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! From my family to yours!

Image Copyright 2012 kimberlyunwritten.blogspot.com.  It is unlawful to download, copy, edit, crop, or alter these images in any way.

11 Months

11 months

My baby is only a baby for one more month! Yikes! Where has the time gone?

We've been busy with the holiday season, which is so much more fun with Connor to share it with :).


Connor still weighs about the same and since we were so busy on the 15th with getting Ken a "new" car and packing for Chicago, I forgot to measure his height. (He was in an accident with the truck involving airbags... everyone was ok but the insurance company decided to total it. He found a great little car that is newer than the truck ('08 vs. '02), lower in mileage, and better on gas. )

Connor has recently started actually clapping and will clap for himself, it's too cute! No official new words being used but he definitely seems to have "mama" and "dada" down now and lots of babbling. Several teeth seem to be on the verge of breaking the gums any day.


Connor and I spent Thanksgiving with our good friends, since Ken had to work. We had a great time and were so blessed to have such amazing people in our lives.

Then I worked like crazy to try and get everything done for Christmas (Christmas pj's, stockings, gifts, etc) while Connor enjoyed making lots of messes around the house.

Here are a few photo highlights from this past month...


Connor loves pushing things around so he was happy to push Grady around on Thanksgiving!

Connor pushing Grady

I had two photo sessions I took pictures for Thanksgiving weekend and Connor was the perfect little assistant, hanging out in the Ergo on my back. I love that I can take him with me if I need to :).

Cutest Photo Assistant

Our little town has a Christmas lights parade with Santa lighting up the downtown area and the big tree... of course we had to go! Connor seemed to wonder why we were out after dark since that rarely happens, lol.

Why are we out past dark, Mom?

We had a playdate with Aedan at our house. The boys had fun in Connor's ball pit and playing with his Laugh & Learn Table.

Aedan & Connor

Connor LOVES our animals and they are really great with him, even the cat! Here they are batting at each other.

Connor & Tallulah

More Christmas festivities! We went to the annual Christmas in the Park down at the waterfront (which is free!) and met the Grinch and Buddy the Elf. It was super crowded and the line for Santa was super long, so we didn't see Santa. I think it will be more fun for Connor when he's a bit older... he wasn't having it that day, but he did enjoy getting to see Grady and Charlotte.

Connor and me with the Grinch

Did I mention how much Connor loves his puppies? And how much they love him? He actually growls back at them when they play growl, it's so funny. He has taken to wrestling with Zoe and constantly wants to tackle her and climb over her from one side to the other and back again. She of course just lays there and lets him... such a good girl!

Connor & Zoe

Liby doesn't lay around long enough to get climbed on as often but they do like to play tug of war on occasion!

Connor & Liby

10 Months

Ten Months

Only 2 more months to plan Connor's first birthday! And I still have so much to do for the holidays, ahh!!

We went for his 2nd flu shot and recheck of his iron levels, which are still low. The nurse said to keep taking my prenatals and try to get him to eat iron-rich foods...easier said than done. Connor isn't much for spoon-feeding so eating iron-fortified baby cereal doesn't happen with any regularity and when he does it's only a few spoonfuls so it's not going to help his iron levels. He does like finger foods and is pretty good about feeding himself, but he still doesn't eat that much (and prefers nursing) and since we have to go slow with the introduction of new foods due to allergies, it's quite challenging. I'm going to be calling his doctor (since we didn't see her, just a nurse) to see if we need to get a blood test to confirm his levels and maybe go on a supplement to bring his levels up.

While we were there, Connor got weighed (with clothes) and is now 20 lbs 9 oz! I'm sure there's an ounce or two to knock off that for clothing, but that's a pound more than last month so he definitely had a growth spurt, which is also why I have had to pack up the rest of the 12 months clothes and he's in 18 months now.

Connor is walking everywhere now and finds news things to get into and make a mess of daily! He's walking more than crawling now and is probably just as fast at walking so he prefers it over crawling at this point. His second bottom front tooth popped through a couple weeks ago.

About a week before Ken came home, he started saying "dadadada" and was mostly indiscriminately saying "dada". While Ken was home on leave, he seemed to start saying "mama" and "dada" a little more discriminately, but isn't quite consistent yet. He has started doing a little bit of a wave and will give me a high-five sometimes too.

He loves his daddy and had so much fun playing with him. We were so busy for the two weeks Ken was home and it went by too fast. Luckily he'll get to be home for Christmas!

Here are some other things that happened this month....


Connor and I met up with friends for the annual Scarecrow Stroll downtown.

Scarecrow Stroll

Ken made it home just in time to be the Man in the Yellow hat for Halloween! (See full family picture on my Halloween/Homecoming post.)

Happy Halloween!

Connor had lots of fun hanging with Daddy and they finally were able to wear their matching Bears jerseys together :).

My favorite Bears fans!

We had Connor's baptism right after Ken got home and my mom was able to come. We are very thankful for everyone who was able to make it and to Emily who took pictures for us!

Connor's Baptism

 Connor's best friend, Grady, turned one and had a mustache bash! Here's a picture of me with them both... can you believe this was almost what would have been if we hadn't lost Connor's twin??? Yikes!

Happy Birthday Grady!

Then we had our own little early Thanksgiving meal since Ken has to work on Thanksgiving. Connor had his first taste of turkey and mashed potatoes and he loved them! He also finally figured out how to drink from a sippy cup thanks to the Tupperware sippy cups I recently bought, though I still have to help him tip it up to get water out of it since I only put a little in the cup.

Yum!

 And then before Ken went back we went to the park. Connor and I had been to the park a few times but I wanted to save his first ride in a swing and first time down a slide for when Ken was home, since he missed out on so many other firsts. He was not too thrilled with the park that day.. we went after his afternoon nap and I think he was a little tired. He was hanging on for dear life int he swing and looked at me like "please help and get me out of this thing!"

Add caption

I think that's about it for now... more pictures are up on my Shutterfly site!

Halloween/Homecoming

Connor's first Halloween was filled with extra excitement as we picked up Ken from the ship! It was a busy, crazy day and we were so happy to finally have him home again. We took Connor around to just the neighbors this year since he won't be eating any treats. I had already made Connor's monkey costume and my banana tree costume ahead of time and when we found out Ken would be home for Halloween (kinda last minute), I whipped together a Man in the Yellow Hat (from Curious George) costume in a hurry and made Ken wear it. Not my best work, but it did the trick!

Happy Halloween!