Straw and Paint

In the last post we were quite disappointed to have to purchase straw bales but thanks to my uncle, he's one of those guys who starts his morning at the local cafe talking to everyone, we got to bale our own straw too! Some days I don't mind my family connections. Below you can see the square baler we used and a nice shot of our pickup that my Father kindly sold to us way under value. Thanks Dad. We baled about a 100 small square straw bales. Then the last few days after work we load up the pickup truck stacking high as we dare (missed the picture sorry) about 35 bales and brought them home to stack next to the barn.  I'll try to get a picture of the straw all stacked by the barn. The chickens love climbing all over and pecking the little bits of grain mixed in with the straw.

 

The 'paint fairy' was smiling on me last weekend when I went to Menards. I've wanted to paint the chicken coop since we built it, however like most things it has gotten pushed back. On a whim I went and checked the 'MissTinted Paint' section in Menards. Side note: most paint places have a section like this you might have to ask, it is where paint that gets mixed isn't quite right color and is often sold at a fraction of the regular cost. I got very lucky finding two gallon jugs of premium exterior paint in two different bold colors. The best I usually hope for is a couple different shades of brown. The first can was a great terracotta orange/red and the other can was dark green. The next day I got to painting.

Here is the coop completely unpainted

I really love this orange color

Here is with mostly complete. It was getting cold and very windy. Another nice day and I'll get the last details finished.