Not Another One Like It!
During the early spring, the boys and I (Mom) undertook cleaning up our wood lot area where daddy had thinned and harvested the trees for our hand-hewn dairy barn. The thinning project was done in the winter by knocking down the excess brush and little trees that were too close together. All this material was still on the ground, needing cleaned up. The older boys were wanting to invest some of their capital in chickens. They don't have a lot of capital for building a coop at this point so the suggestion was made that maybe we could use the pole material left over from the thinning and barn project to build a log cabin style chicken coop. The boys quickly adopted this idea as it would let them keep their money.
So we started cleaning up the hillside, working our way across piling brush and branches for burning later, and then dragging suitable size poles down to the flat creek bottom and stacking them. Daddy counted up the number of logs needed and they worked pretty well, with some encouragement and help, toward this goal.
When baby brother awoke, they took turns watching him.
Being out in the woods that early in the season allowed us to know when morel mushroom season began. When the first one was found, all work suddenly came to a screeching halt until the hillside was thoroughly combed in search of the delicacies.
But all too soon it was back to hauling poles and brush.
MJW proves that age and size are no excuse for not helping out. Many hands make quick and light work.
Once daddy made the final selection of logs that would work for the cabin/coop building project, the next step was peeling the bark from the logs so they do not rot. It was all hands on deck - because of course when there are knives and hatches involved every little boy wants to experience the thrill of handling such equipment. The three oldest did the majority of the peeling with "help" from their two little brothers.
Baby TW practiced sucking water from the boys' supply of water.
The boys have the logs all peeled now and the "chicken coop" is beginning to take shape! Will post a photo with update shortly.
AND - stay tuned for stories on our new dairy barn! Concrete is being poured and we should be ready to start placing the log beam sides sometime next week - SO EXCITING!!!