Chicken Coop Update - and a beginning on a root cellar

     I posted way back when about that dang coop.  What happened?  Life happened.  We actually broke ground on the coop within days of doing the string line.  In less than a week, Pa, with a little help from me and Little, got the foundation walls laid.

We had to put the little one to work, or he was a perfect nuisance.  Give the kid a shovel, tell him to dig a hole, and he’s thrilled. 

We didn’t get much done on the first day, visually anyway, but we were all pretty dang tired. 

After that, things seemed to progress a bit more rapidly.  That first wall, though you can’t tell it, is actually two blocks deep.  We dug down to both create a more stable foundation and to deter creatures from digging in. 

By day 4, we had four walls.  We’d taken away Little’s shovel in exchange for a trowel and set him to filling the cinder blocks with sand and dirt. 

By the end of the 4th day, everyone went to bed with a sense of accomplishment!

And then the rains came.  Ha!  Of course they did.  For a solid week, it rained, and it flooded the pasture, and the fence that Pa had been trying to mend got knocked down again.  The runoff undercut the walls, and since we hadn’t had a chance to actually fill them and tamp them, and it was a hollow box just asking for filling, there was quite a bit of undercutting on the taller walls.  So the blocks had to be pulled out, it had to be releveled, relaid, and actually filled. 

So we did some math, and made an executive decision. 

Progress will be made!

And progress was made!  In just a single afternoon, Pa was able to scoop out a decent start on our root cellar and fill most of the chicken coop foundation.  In about 5 minutes he was able to triple the slow and tedious work we’d been laboring at by hand for a few weeks.  At the rate we were going, we wouldn’t even have started the walls of the coop till next spring, but in one afternoon, he has the foundation nearly filled. 

We’re still trying to convince this one to work for his supper and set him to stamping on the loose dirt to pack it down.  Fun and purposeful.  No, he doesn’t usually run around without pants, but this was just easier for playing in a mountain of dirt.  Besides, at 3, who needs pants?

     Tomorrow will see the coop foundation filled, and hopefully the cellar mostly dug.  We’ve got the thing for a whole week, and we’re going to use it to the fullest.  There are doings being done on the farm this month, and I’ll be sharing once the work is done. 

Until next time!  

VROOM! VROOM!