House Update

This spring and summer has been so full with visitors, school, callings, and lots and lots of yard work.  A few updates:

In March we got 7 baby chicks (2 Plymouth Rock, 2 Rhode Island Red, 1 black sex link, 1 gold sex link, 1 Easter Egg), they started off in our laundry room and when they got bigger they we built them a little corral in the garage. It was a lot of fun having baby chicks, but they turn from being really cute into awkward teenager really fast

  Mark built a new chicken run and did a few updates on the chicken coop. Our chicken coop  was there before and is inside our shed. We had plans for just building a new one but after cost analysis just decided to make some changes to the existing one.  He added a new door ( it had just a little window before, added new nesting boxes, and built a self-feeding chicken feeder.  I wish I had a before picture but Mark did a wonderful job and it looks incredible

And he built a brand new chicken run. It is about 5x the size of the old one. It also ha a roof so that they can go outside in the winter still. He also added a door so we can go in a clean it, give them treats, etc. Emerson loves to hangout in the chicken run with them.

He also built a few roost for them and a chicken feeder. We only have to fill the chicken feeder once a week, it's awesome

 

I made this sign for the chicken coop

It is very important they have fresh greens in their diet but we didn't feel comfortable letting them be free range all over the yard. Mark also built them a portable run so the can be "free range" without eating our garden and fresh fruit. Plus they aren't eaten by foxes, roaming dogs, and cats.

Strawberry Boxes and Asparagus- we transplanted all the strawberries from the flower beds into contained boxes that Mark built. We also put in an asparagus box.

Asparagus box after

The other plants are tomato and pepper plants

Flower Beds - The flower beds were filled with grass, weeds,strawberry plants, trees and shrubs still in buckets and just needed some major tlc. We cut in the flower bed edges, cleaned out the weeds, and planted new flowers and bushes, laid weed guard, etc. Again I wish I had before pictures for everything!
Backyard Before:

 This is after about 2 weeks of cleaning out grass and weeds and strawberry plants. I fulled 3 trash cans full

In Progress:

After:

 My herb garden in the back flower bed ( in the pots)

 Front Yard Before:

Progress.

 After:

Side Yard Before:

This doesn't fully show the full amount of weeds and grass there were because they had just started growing but this took weeks. Thank You Claire and Robert for all your clean up help!

 A few days in

Emerson is picking some cherries in this picture

We also took out some of our pasture to make a bigger garden spot and start the orchard. 

We still have some major plans, move the apple trees in the yard to the "Orchard", Move the "fire pit" and build an actual one, build a play area, etc. But I think those will be all next summer.