The Flock

The EggBox

I've been wanting chickens off and on (mostly on) since I was about 7. I believe it went "can I have a horse? Ok, well, then can I have a dog? Ok, how about doves? Chickens?" (I had a cat already).

Makendra: I really want chickens.
Chad: Let's get some!
Makendra: Does that really make sense?
Chad: Yes.
Makendra: but...
Chad: Whatever you think but I'd like chickens again.
Makendra for a few weeks: yes/no/yes/no...
Makendra: YES!
Chad: Let's build a coop.

And so this is how we started:

Free wood and wooden gym boxes obtained from a Denver gymnastics place (they were thrilled to get rid of it) plus a rented Home Depot truck and a nice early morning to get the wood down to the Shoebox House.
Day 1

Can you rent the truck along with Fiddle and Chad hourly?

Riding down to the Springs with our country music radio

 Now what?

The wood is unloaded and covered up until Chad and I can get back to start building...

Day 2

Chad and I start building the coop on the first weekend of March

  The gymnastic boxes form the coop itself- pretty cool!

 Chad makes room for the laying boxes that will be an external addition for easy access

Feeling cooped up?

Day 3 & 4

In mid-March, the the "balls to the wall team" is back at it- this time with a ditch witch!

The ditch witch helps us dig down to bury the wire one foot deep and one foot across, an "L" shape to prevent foxes from eating chicken.

The footprint for the coop

The best treat after a long days work- milkshakes at The Drive In just a few minutes walk away

Surveying the progress on Sunday

Meg adds in supports to the bottom of the coop

Everyone does their part

Their will be a good view of the coop from the deck.

And a timelapse video of the weekend! Our neighbor came over to help us flip the coop onto it's cinder block foundation on Sunday. 

Thanks Chad!

Fiddle in my car full of soil amendments for Chad's and my gardens

Day 5 & 6

Buying wood for the run at "Use Again" used building supply place. 

TIME LAPSE #2 coming soon....

And voila! The EggBox with the run, nearly complete

A New Face for the Shoebox

Three years of dreaming and then six weeks of action gave the Shoebox house a wonderful new front yard. It never would have happened if Chad hadn't suggested we skip a planned backpacking trip and said "let's do it this weekend".
So we did!  My roommate, Megan, rounded out our team of three known as "Balls to the Wall Landscaping". Our well-earned motto: "We move dirt back and forth."

Thanks to friends who have pitched in and especially our neighbor, Mark Thomas, who has given me great advice along the way and not only taught Megan and Chad and I how to lay a perfect flagstone path but helped us for half the day.
Thanks to my dear late Grandma Selma for the plants, I know she would love this garden.

I've felt like if I can't take care of my little .2 acres then I am not prepared to take care of the wider world, so gone is the depressing weed patch that one might have called a lawn.

All my thanks to Chad and Megan. The neighbors, Scott and Amy, who brought us fresh made mojitos and Lizzie and Andrew and Landon for being our junior unit and planting 50 tulips. The UPS man who tells me daily that we "must be professionals" and all our neighbors who come by to visit. And to Christina and Jason for their awesome rototiller which really made this all possible, and Chris for the use of his truck! 

When I bought the Shoebox house in August 2008 there was a decent lawn (it didn't take me long to stop watering it and mowing is a pollution nightmare with my old mower).

Then it became a lot of weeds that I mowed or neglected until it was just rather brown. 

Poor sweet little Shoebox house....

So on July 23, 2011 we started to clear out the weeds....

Meg, Chad working - Fiddle monitoring 

 The Cherry tree ('Ming the Bing') in a sea of soil

 The boss (my Fiddle)

 Shasta the superintendent (Megan's dog)

 The machine that made the day! Thank you Christina and Jason

 Laying out plans with a hose

 Taking shape...

The craig's list treated wood - formerly guard rails. 

My Subaru is playing truck again, about 700lbs of wood plus a dog ( I drove slowly)

Mountains of dirt... we felt like moles. 

movin' dirt

 making beds...

 and moving more dirt

 Monsoon rains sent us inside. So we made 5 batches of Buckhorn Springs Granola- yum.

 Best granola ever

 and Chad painted the door roasted chili pepper red

The sun shines again...

 Meg filling the trench with (free!) rock we got off craig's list in 5 happy trips 

 Rake width, not planned, but hooray!

Craig's list perennials! Nearly 60 plants for $80, they'll grow

 Beds are shaped and weedcloth laid down, fixed in with staples and metal edging

Beds!

The first plant in the ground is one I brought from Grandma Selma's garden in Oregon (May 2011 via United air)

Covering weedcloth with a little soil so that the mulch won't blow away

 Meg's circle idea becomes a reality

Laying out the plants

and more plants...

Ok, grow!

Plant carnival

Sample mulch looks nice!

 Cherry gets some company

8/20/11 - We take a break to climb a couple 14,000' mountains (Mt Shavano and Mt Tabeguache)

Happy Birthday Dad!

Driver and co-pilot

Came home that night with a happy Fiddle and some rocks for landscaping. I also hiked a pretty rock down from 12,500' - heavy but worth it.

Chad working on sprinklers. THANK YOU!

Kati came over to can peaches...

 

Peaches, peach jam and zucchini relish

It takes that much team work

Meg's circle

Big plants coming in! 

 Taking shape...

The Dog Team (Meg photo)

Lettuce in the back 

Blooming!

back garden

 Back garden harvest

 the carrots are especially good this year

Red front door with orange crocus at entrance- orange for Grandma Selma

 Landscaper Mark explains flagstone path (and he sold me beautiful flagstone at a unbeatable price, easily brought over from his back yard.) Arizona Buff is the name of the stone.

 "I'll just help you with one more step... "

 Testing

 A perfect puzzle

 Drink of the day: Water, lemon juice, fresh mint, cranberry juice and rosemary.... it was at least 95 deg

 Consulting

Early September

Getting top soil for the lawn-to-be. Fiddle in Chris' truck (when parked).

 

Path and Shasta in the background at her tree

 Mark's Wheelbarrow (whel-burro)- a lifesaver!

The path (please tilt head)

 Why not have a patio too?

 Perfection in my book

 More wonderful rain turns yard into a "trout fishing pond"

 

Prepping lawn for top soil

squash never stops growing

almost ready for seeding

 Path and patio (sorry, tilt head again)

 Meg's circle has a happy sunflower in it

Meg's circle has 40 tulips in it... looking forward to Spring

For my birthday, Chad and I visited petroglyphs (up to 2000 years old) in western Colorado (inspiration!) ... also picked 97 lbs of peaches for nutritional inspiration. 

Hiking out an already cut Aspen log with Michelle and Matt in Edwards (photo by Chad)

 Perfect patio table set from the neighbor's garage sale on 9/5/11- $30!

Great find Megan! The chairs even fold up.

Blanket flowers blooming in early September

Shasta Daisy

 Squash and flowers

 Wood from the wild horse range in Montana, seashell from California, rock from Arizona

 Everyone is blooming!

Tansy

 New Shoebox housemate, Beth the geologist, adds some more cool rocks to the landscaping 

(madrone log from Lithia Park in Ashland, 2007)

 Neighbor Lizzie, half of the tulip planting team with her brother, Andrew

 Sand in between flagstones after a lot of rain. Rock in foreground from Mt. Shavano hike

 Another angle on Sept 3rd, 2011

Nearly done!

 

Sept. 16th- the day I left the Shoebox (heading to Oregon)- the grass is coming in! A little spotty but nice and the holes are filling in just more slowely

The squash plant in Meg's circle is happy!

 GROW!!

 Horseshoe that I found at a racetrack in Iowa for good luck

 The morning glories are happy

 Cosmos

 Improvement made it's way to the back door as well...

Apple and Plum in the back yard

 Snow on Pike's Peak the morning I left

And then off to the museum with Chad, kids and Fiddle in Denver

Oh my...

Thank you Chad, Meg, Mark and Everyone!  What a wonderful front yard adventure and more to come.
 Now we wait for the lawn to grow in, (a low water, no mow mix).
Eventually there will be an arbor as you walk up front path with a grape and a rambling rose growing up it and a bird bath in Meg's circle.

UPDATE:

The front yard is looking great and all the plants lived through the winter. Here's what a snowy winter day looks like.

With the strangely warm and dry spring we are having so far, everything is blooming and growing as if it were May.  All the tulips that Andrew and Lizzie planted are up and blooming.

Some used wood from the used building supply place becomes two planter boxes around the maples in front. Fill dirt, plants and bark to come.

 I'm thinking Russian Sage, wild flowers and maybe a few evergreens along with spring blooming bulbs and irises.

Happy Spring!

4/6/12- I planted snow peas, about a 100 yellow onion sets, and green lettuce in the back today... more to come (radishes, carrots, beets and a 2nd variety of snow peas)