happy fathers day :)

It was a day for dads and I honored the ones I had around me which turned out to be mine and the one who my little one calls by that name. Funny that when we finally went to pick little one up, we heard that she had flocked to her Bampy all day ... seeking out where he was quietly sitting to just BE for a minute or ten ... happy fathers day ... all we were missing was our Florida father, but two out of three ain't bad.

Our dad had plans to build all day, so I made him a good breakfast -- local toast, and an omlette of our eggs, spinach, thyme, chives and some Feta Cheese from Neighborly Farms, an organic dairy in Randolph, VT about an hour north. It's amazing to be able to be eating so local again ... happy fathers day.

So then Greg went out to work on what we're calling the chicken shed. It's going to be a chicken coop/greenhouse/garden storage shed. He's been learning to build on this project - teaching himself and doing lots of planning and math ... there was much time when it was colder where much of his spare time was spent reading his copy of Building Small Barns, Sheds and Shelters by Monte Burch, and then when the April/May issue of Mother Earth News came with an article on easy DIY shed plans that included a how-to on leveling using cement blocks (see previous post), he was ready to go.



I can't remember when I stumbled onto the image of the Chicken Coop/Greenhouse in Bill Mollison's Permaculture book, but it was sometime in the still too cold to work outside /whole planning stage. The basic principle is one long room with big windows on the south side & a chicken wire wall separating the chickens from the greenhouse side. In this way, the chickens help heat the green house and chickens and plants enjoy a symbiotic relationship, with each breathing what the other breathes out. Permaculture is all about using symbiotic relationships in your farming practices.

Greg was even trying to figure out how to tilt the windows until he realized it would be too complicated. We will work out the water collection on the back sometime this summer with a rain barrel and a gutter. That will make it so we don't have to haul their water up the hill and we'll be using less water, and the symbiotic love abounds...

this is the side view of the Permaculture chicken shed...

Ok and now for our pictures...

First came the leveling ... then came the floor.
Then came the front and back wall, with room for a sweetly scored door thanks to our neighborly neighbor.

Then came the rafters, one by one
and of course, the metal rafter supports...

This is where I will work in my green house when work is done...I guess it's a happy mothers day too ;) happy life more like.



Then came the purlins -- roofing support that attach to the rafters.

Since it's Father's day I will not get too into the fact that at one point this day, he put the drill down on the cord and thought he was gonna score a new drill from the scene. I reminded him that he was studied electrical engineering for 3 years so, didn't he know how to fix wires? Boo, no new drill, but a fun start to next days work day. Dice and splice baby.

I can see the building forming into what it will be. All this framing and soon he'll be ready to put in a window or two. It's a day by day process ... we try to in-joy it all and that means taking it as it comes. The morning couldn't get started too quickly. There were ideas to consider -- to roll around in heads -- and there was a little girl who needed to get herself and her partner-in-crime daddy down to the river to pray, or at least to look at the wild iris blooming and try to catch a frog. I've said it before and I will say it again I hope. It's a sweet sweet life here and we intend to enjoy it.