Emergency Phone Blip of Lasya

I have been so busy today, I never got round to getting the camera out, let alone use it.

Teaching this morning, then the colleague 'stole' a couple of ours keeping me late, unpaid, grrrr... so I spent all afternoon and early evening putting my new chicken housing together. It arrived yesterday and needed painting first, so that was done yesterday afternoon/evening.

It would have been quite a quick job putting the coop and run together, if it weren't for the fact that they had omitted washers for the wheels and they had sent the wrong bolts for the lugs that fix the wheels to the coop. They are too short.

I also managed to loose a nut and bolt in the long grass, off the door opening and closing handle... All in all it took much longer than expected. After a call to the company to check that I really wasn't doing anything wrong I set to 'bodging' the things that were incomplete. Searched for longer bolts, nope, didn't have any, then drilled out the lugs until the holes were deep enough for the bolt heads to go in and come out the other end, so the nuts could be screwed on. I hope this hasn't weakened the structure too much but I think I shall ask them to send me a couple of new lugs and the right length bolts, just in case...

Some metal wire fixed the opening/closing mechanism and I used plumbing washers for the wheels. Not ideal, but I can take the wheels off and fit proper washers without having to take the whole coop apart again now that the lugs are fixed to it.

When I was clearing away all the tools, I turned around and found Lasya the cat exploring the coop so I quickly snapped a couple of photo's with my phone. When I opened the lid of the nest box, she was sat there looking quite comfy and cosy.

I hope the chickens are going to like it too. It seems a bit small, but they will mostly be roaming free and apparently, they like being 'cooped up'.