Lions Could Live Here

The icy wind is howling as it has all week and we are enjoying keeping the fire going all day, lovely.  We've had hail the last couple of days too, as evidenced by the build-up from the inlet pipes into the water tank.

We had one fine day amid the storms so on that day we put lots of effort into progress on The House Of Chic and surrounding yard.

Steve has done a magnificent job of making a double door from scratch.  He came home from Bunnings with a dozen timbers and proceeded to make this natty door, stained a lovely mid brown to blend harmoniously with the existing colour palette.... :-)
He also built the fence section to the left of the house, and is making a big gate to go into the gap to the left of that bit of fence. 

I love the double door.  We can have just the bottom chook door open as demonstrated above, or we open them both up, as seen below.  I am thinking the weather will predict what we choose to do each day. 

In saying this, as we are about to become virgin chook owners, we have yet to experience the 'down to earth' aspects of chook raising, things like the smell and the poo, so both those doors may end up open nearly all the time!

 

I dug trenches so we could start dropping colorbond into the ground.  I think its in the ground 350 mm and above the ground 450 mm.  I can't see anything digging its way in after this, and the above ground part will give the girls some wind protection.

Pop riveting the fence.  We are thinking that we could quite adequately house lions in this yard, with no chance of escape!

We want our ladies to be comfortable, and enjoy the decor of their house.  Thus they have freshly painted walls and Steve installed the (just to look at, not to use) chandelier that my buddies from Perth gave us as a present for the chook house.  Anne, Angie, Leanne and Wilma - look, it's up! I just hope we don't have some smartarse chook that decides to try and roost way up there, about 1.5 metres up - we shall see.

I can't wait to finally show photos of the actual chooks, instead of just the getting ready for them.  It's getting exciting, not too much more to do now before we are ready to take the plunge.  I am using my time inside whilst the rain pours down to read up on looking after one's chickens.  The current debate is what to put on the floor of The House Of Chic.  Sand, straw, wood shavings, a combo of all these, not sure.  I suspect we shall observe and modify as time goes on.

 

Progress continues on the pinkiest pink pink pink quilts.  Riley's quilt is almost finished, the quilting is all done, I just have to trim the edges and attach the binding, then do a label with a little poem to be sewn on the back.  I just hope Riley, who is the pinkiest pink pink pink little girl I know, doesn't decide that she no longer likes pink! 

 

The wood ducks continue to hang around, funny, I just can't quite get used to the idea that some ducks like to be up in the trees.  See this one above, he/she spent ages up there, quacking incessantly with its mate.

Look how high up that duck actually is, at least 10 metres off the ground.  Don't you think that is just plain wrong for a duck?

 

I took this shot of the entrance into our place a few weeks ago.  It struck me that it is actually beginning to look like a settled in little property, not just a few acres of virgin land.  We get frustrated sometimes that we are not doing things fast enough, but we need to remind ourselves that the photo below is what it looked like when we bought the land, so yep, we've done stuff.  Once we get the chooks sorted and then get the orchard fenced and planted, I think we will be satisfied.

And a final shot for today, I happened to see this beautiful spider's web just after some misty rain, then with the sun shining on it, I thought it was very pretty.