News from the Coop

We moved the chickens into their new home over the weekend, and although I’m still landscaping for them (yes, it turns out, I live to serve them), they seem pretty pleased with their palatial new surroundings. They’re pretty swank, and certainly an upgrade from our modest, but much-loved, first coop.

First off, there’s this fabulous low gravity water bar, fed with fresh water from a rain barrel. So far, this has worked well. We had nothing but rain for virtually the entire time we were building, to the point where it’s felt a little bit like a mud bowl, so we have a barrel full of rain to start off with. And smart chickens, they caught onto the new system right away.

Pickles is usually our lap chicken, but she was a little bit hesitant in the new coop at first. She started out perching on my foot and asking lots of questions about the new place.

She perked up when I set up a chair and table in her new covered run so we could knit together. Pickles is a big fan of knitting and likes to watch me intently—she oversees my work to make sure I don’t make any mistakes.

The coop itself turned out really nicely and I’m glad we decided to do something permanent, as much for me as for the chickens. That little table you can barely see at the far end is where I’ll be writing to you from in the future! The sound of rain on the roof is wonderful. And the copper weathervane still feels like a little piece of magic to me every time I walk down our back steps and see it. However, my new office space does have its drawbacks—I had to sacrifice an especially tasty-looking scone to some greedy chickens this afternoon.

I’m a big proponent of making space and time in a busy life to remind myself of how fortunate I am to live in this great country. It can be easy to lose track of that if we aren’t deliberate about enjoying the rights and privileges, even the silly ones, that we have as Americans. I get that urban chicken-keeping may seem a little crazy to some folks, but indulging our eccentricities may be just what we need, in this moment of high political drama, to hang onto our collective sanity. I hope you’ll all feel free to share yours in the comments, to keep me from feeling like I’ve over-shared, talking about chickens and knitting at the same time!

We’re in this together,

Joyce