Weekend warriors

Our weekend warrior project has proven to have staying power.

After a second weekend of work, it appears we have at least one full weekend of sawing and drilling ahead of us. My hope is that we can complete the chicken coop before winter descends upon us. I really would like to have it wrapped up so we can schedule an inspection by year’s end.

But, wow. Are we making progress!

Today, we built the frame for the nesting box and attached it to the coop. We also cut pieces of wood to connect the roof rafters. The last thing we did was start to build the walls to the roosting box, which is where the chickens will sleep.

Quick tip: Don’t pinch pennies when it comes to purchasing screws. We bought the majority of our screws at Menard’s, and paid extra for coated deck screws with a torx head. We tried three different kinds of screws (and two different kinds of heads) and the brand we found worked best is called Grip Fast. I believe this saved us valuable time and prevented a lot of frustration.

Still on our To Do list: build the roof, finish the roosting walls, install wire mesh screens, construct/install two windows and build two doors: one to go into the run area, and one to go directly into the coop. It’s hard to gauge how long it will take. We’ve been very optimistic about our plans so far, only to be sidelined by reality. But we are taking it all in stride. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

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