Sorry for the lags in posting. My aol browser which held my quick links, favorites and even my huge list of away messages crashed and vanished nearly three weeks ago. Add to that a much heavier than normal work schedule and that Avivah has been here for almost three weeks and... I've been burning the candle from every end possible!
Yes, Joshua graduated High School. He was even selected to sing at graduation (in front of 3,000 people) with a few of his friends, all Seniors, who formed a group just to audition for this occasion. They sang: A Song of Purple Summer, from the musical Spring Awakenings. They did a seriously incredible job at it too! You guessed it: me, mom and Julie all teared up. Uncle Steve video-taped it, so when I get that I'll certainly do my best to post it here.
The chicken coop is nearly done! M (who brought over every tool known to mankind) spent a day helping me, along with Avivah, Justin and Joshua, and the basic framing was done and painted in a day. Since then Avivah and I have worked on nearly it every evening, completeing doors, the nesting box, an interior roosting bar, and staining.
M's biggest accomplishment was like a dream come true to me. He
mathematically traced and then cut a perfect STAR into the front door! I was and am totally delighted.
Avivah and I held a brainstorming session with T and J and we came up with a pop-door opening/closing system - which the plans did not include. This girl should have been an engineer. Together with M's help to design the track, we created a pulley door that is easily operated from outside the coop... and voila! It's so sweet.
Which leads me to today, the most bittersweet of the past three weeks.
This morning the kids and I will carefully set the coop on its side and add the chicken wire floor (to help keep critters out). We'll set it upright and attach the ladder, hardware wire the outside and set the top cap so the coop will be complete, enough (I'm still working on the cedar shingles, they're expensive). Together we'll go pick up the girls: "Roxie", "Buffy" and "Coco" (
Shokolat)!
I say bittersweet because today is also the day that Avivah returns to Minot. :( It seems that no matter how long she's here it's perpetually too short.
Such is my day and the update for now.
Blessings, moi
