This is their great new home. We looked all over the internet for an small-ish, affordable coop and stumbled upon a local(ish) guy who builds them.

There is plenty of room for five hens. We started with six but the smallest one didn’t make it. The chicken house has wheels so you can easily move it from place to place in the yard. The ladder can be lifted by pulling the rope from the outside.

The coop has a lamp inside to keep chicks warm while they are small.  It also has a nesting box with a removable panel to collect the eggs.

You can also see the board running down the middle of the coop that they can use to roost on at night. The red in the picture is the light from the lamp.

Pac Man, Princess, Darth Vader, Cheap, and Pigeon love their new home.

Check out the segment the Today Show aired this morning on keeping chicken as pets.

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As many of you know yesterday was Earth Day. It got me thinking about the size of our family and the impact we have on the Earth. I am a believer in “every little bit counts”.  I thought up the top things we could do as a family to help preserve the Earth as a heritage to our children and our children’s children. Here is what I came up with:

1. The 3 R’s: reduce, re-use and recycle. I am sure I can think of tons of things we have that I could reduce. Clothing for example. We do reuse most of our clothing though, as hand me downs, much to my children’s chagrin. We still probably have 10 times the amount we need. It sure seems like I was 10 times the amount they should be wearing. I have cloth diapers that have been through 4 of my children. We do recycle but I think we could be more diligent about it. I starting thinking about batteries and about those plastic bags that I get from the grocery store when I forget to take my reusable ones in. I am pretty sure that I use my printer way more than I need to. I will be making a huge listing on freecycle the fist chance I get.

2. Compost our kitchen scraps. I started throwing them all in a garbage can on the back porch. We have an unbelievable 30 pounds in just a few days. And a family of squirrels now camped on our back porch. I would love to do a worm composting homeschool project.

3. Plant a garden. I have this grand idea of creating some of those box beds. I will blog about those as we get them going. I just need to get hubby on board with that. We live on a slab of limestone. When we moved in the builder came to level the back yard but really couldn’t do much since it was a solid slab of rock.  There goes that pool I was dreaming of…And they put in about a 1/2 inch of topsoil. Not much will grow here..Thanks Beazer.

4. Reduce our carbon footprint. Unplug appliances that we are not using. I started wondering about how much electricity things that we leave plugged in use each month. We leave a lot plugged in, our computers, cell phones, t.v’s, cd players, clocks, bread machines. So I did some research. Did you know that your PS3, if left on all year long would produce 10 times its weight in CO2 emessions? Want to know how much the appliances you use will cost you each year? Take a look at the U.S. Department of Energy’s website.

5. Ride our bicycles to our little downtown area instead of driving our car. In our town that really only means cycling to the library and the Dollar General. There is not much else around here. We would like to go further, like to the grocery store but it is about 6 miles on a very dangerous road. Not one I would want my children on. Maybe I can start a petition for Nolensville to put in some bike lanes. Have any of you had any experience with that?

6. Find some great body care products. The only thing I have found that I like is from Little Sprouts, actually I love it. Little Sprouts has none of those dangerous chemicals that Johnson and Johnson’s  products have in them.

7. While potty training Amelia, I vow to use, cloth training pants instead of pull ups. This is going to start next week!! Oh boy!

8. I will finish making the last of the switch to natural cleaners. Honestly, I have not been able to let some things go. I really like Tide. It just works, and smells so good.  I am going to replace it with Charlie’s soap. I have used Charlie’s soap for my cloth diapers and love it. Its cheap, works great, and you shouldn’t need a fabric softener with it. I found an herbal disinfectant that I think is pretty great too.

9. I am slowly getting rid of the plastics in my kitchen. Unless you have been living in a hole you have heard of BPA . Scary stuff, right? And melamine. You know, the polymer all those cute kids plates are made of. The Superman plate is so gone, sorry Payton. Did you know that melamine is made with fermaldahyde? I was absolutely shocked when I found that little nugget of information. I can’t believe I have been feeding my kids off of that. Why don’t we know these things!? I have found a few wooden bowls. I am looking for some aluminum sectioned plates. We have already made the switch to Sigg aluminum water bottles instead of sippy cups. Although I have to say I wish they would come up with a better drinking apparatus on it. And I am looking for a good alternative to sandwich bags. I even found some really cool glass straws.

So there you have it. These are some of things things our family is working toward doing to do our little bit to be green.

Isaiah 45:18 (New International Version)

¹⁸ For this is what the LORD says—
he who created the heavens,
he is God;
he who fashioned and made the earth,
he founded it;
he did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited—
he says:
“I am the LORD,
and there is no other.