Mel the chicken-sitter

Mel, the world's best dog, is also a fantastic chicken-sitter. We have no worries leaving the chickens out in the yard when Mel is patrolling the fence line. He keeps the cats and crows away from the chickens and their food. His mere canine presence does the trick. He's got his summertime outdoor routine that he sticks to religiously. Ten to 20 minutes in the sun followed by 10 - 20 minutes in the shade, repeat as necessary.

It's a dogs life. Mel had his yearly checkup at the vet this weekend. In addition to several vaccines, he had his senior blood panel done. The blood panel shows that everything looks good, so this 12-year old dog will, hopefully, have many more years with us. :)

My very second blog post ever.

Saturday morning started bright and early with DH resuming work on the coop. You've never seen a motivated man until he's trying to get chickens out of his garage. The majority of the coop framing had been built last weekend, but there was a good deal left to do. DH did an awesome job with internet-purchased plans that were a little lacking in detail. It was definitely a learning experience for him.

DH and his tools

The old home - what started as a roomy home for the chicks rapidly became cramped quarters

The new home - this should provide them with plenty of room, it's designed to hold 5 chickens, so 3 should have quite a bit of wing room

The ladies running around the yard - they have been getting a bit more comfortable roaming around, nibbling weeds and catching bugs

The new coop in it's permanent location, behind St. Francis

DH finishing the roofing - the "sleeping area" is on the right side, you can see the egg door (in the not-too-distant future our little ladies will be providing us with very yummy eggs), on the left is the main access door to the coop

Melvin, world's best dog...though he's been going through some selective hearing lately

Here's our St. Francis statue and just to the right is where Charcoal is buried. Charcoal was my little kitty buddy for 20 years, we lost her about a month ago after a tragic run-in with the neighbor's dog.

This is our Mary statue in the front yard, when we get the rest of the yard under control, I'll plant some nice flowers around her