Meet the Nuggets

You know who is surprised by this?

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Absolutely no one on the face of this planet.

There are so many reasons I should not have a large tupperware of chicks living in my tool room right now, but try telling that to these guys…

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Well, girls, hopefully.

I mean, you know how this went down… I just happened to be at Tractor Supply on Saturday, and there just happened to be chicks in the breeds I was considering making adorable little chirping noises that sounded remarkably like they were calling my name, and then I may have blacked out for a minute and the next thing I know I’m sitting in the car with this little box of nuggets next to me.

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Ha. Ha ha. Totally understandable, right? This shit happens to everyone, I’m sure.

So… added to the list of farm chores every morning: changing the bedding in the nugget box, filling up their food and water, and giving them kisses. Which, by the way, is not something that one should joke about without the proper context. Case in point: My father doesn’t often comment on this website, but when he does, it’s clear that I get both my power tools and smartass from him (as evidenced by this post):

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So when he sends me a smartass text over the weekend, I do my best to reply in kind…

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Except my iPhone failed to send the punchline of my joke, so… ah…. that was a different message than I intended to send.

Also, just FYI, don’t actually kiss chickens ever, unless you want to get salmonella and die.

So, long story short, I now have a flock of nuggets, and a 6-week countdown to needing a finished chicken coop. Which means I spent a lot of time this weekend doing this…

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I already talked a little bit about my coop inspiration here, but in order to take something from Pinterest board to reality, there’s a lot more sketching, planning, and mocking things up with painters tape that goes on…

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This, by the way, is one of the things that would drive my engineer-ex-boyfriend to the brink of his sanity when we built Memorial House. I would seriously mock something up with painters tape and then three minutes later walk outside and start digging holes for the foundation, but look! I’m so much more planful now! I did a couple of sketches to-scale too:

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Then I thought about going out to dig some holes for the foundation, but it was already past my bedtime. So I settled for feeding the donkeys, singing a lullaby to my nuggets, and calling it a night.

Another good weekend on the farm, and sweetbabyjesus a lot of work in the upcoming weeks. The adventure continues…

33 Responses

  1. Love the chicks and the chick house drawings! Can’t wait to see how it comes out …

  2. We also picked up chicks at Tractor Supply this weekend… after we picked up pullets from a guy on craigslist and promptly had them eaten that night by something busting into the run. I think the chicken coop redo might need to happen sooner than I thought as well. Though I have to wait for ground to thaw up here.

    Do you know what breed you got?

  3. I saw chicks at the tractor supply store and was so tempted! But then I remembered that I have a cat, and my cat would love to torment and eat baby chicks. Then it just seemed mean. How is your cat handling all of the new arrivals?

  4. You do know that you can tap the exclamation point on the phone and resend the failed message? I figured that out this weekend.

    The chicks are precious!

  5. Last weekend we were at Rural King and I was really wanting baby ducks. Like really badly. The boyfriend was quick to squash those ideas. I guess he’s right, I mean, baby ducks grow up and are not always baby ducks. Plus, I already feed a German Shepherd and two barn cats, and struggle to make it to work on time.

  6. I can’t wait to see how your coop turns out! I’m dragging my fiance to a seminar on raising chickens next week in my attempt to convince him to let me get chickens next summer…. or maybe this summer, if I so happen to come across some chickens… you know, browsing around the farm animal rescue site…

  7. Kit, I found you through the Stair-Off with Sarah. You know what I did this weekend? I read your archives from May 2010 (as far as my RSS reader would take me) to today.

    This post had me cracking up laughing, because as I finished last night, I was lulled into a, “hey, Kit’s kinda mellowed and is on The Path (you know, since the short donkey diversion,)” sorta vibe…then BAM.

    Love it. Love you. Keep up the crazy. 🙂

    (You also reminded me that dowel-joinery exists, and I’m kicking myself for doing what I did for my bathroom vanity)

  8. Wait, what?! You’re not supposed to kiss chickens? If we weren’t meant to kiss the nuggets, then why did God make them so dang cute? (And tasty.)

  9. Yeeeessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

    Now I can keep my city mouse life while vicariously living my fantasy country mouse life through you. Thank you.

  10. I love that you have the same, um, enthusiasm for projects that I do that also drives my engineer boyfriend a little nuts. Have you noticed very creative/ artistic/DIY woman in the blog world are or have been with engineers? Engineers and artists seem to use two different expressions for the mutual love of being creative that attracts one another. The combo does have its advantages to help balance the frustrations:) And, super nice planning, I am working on doing better too.

  11. Bahahaha to the “and I may have blacked out for a minute”…I did the same thing two weeks ago, but with a puppy (I already had one dog, and had ALWAYS said I would NEVER have two dogs at once). I’m still not 100% sure what happened, but all of the sudden, there I was, picking up a fluffy and adorable puppy at 10pm in rural Iowa. She’s now all chaos, and I’m thinking of changing her name to Devil Rat, but I think I’ll keep her around.

    Apparently I’m weak in the face of a puppy. 🙂

    1. I know it doesn’t seem like it now since you have a puppy (which is much like having a newborn) but I’ve found that two dogs are so much easier than one – they aren’t nearly as needy since they have each other 🙂 And they’re really stinking cute so it’s a win/win!

  12. I’m all for your branching out and kissing chicks too. Why should the assess get all the kisses? :-O

    I saw chicks in the Shoppers store recently, and almost went home with them on a whim. I would have, except that they hadn’t “sexed” the chicks yet. That is funny figuratively, but literally, I don’t want roosters so I passed up the opportunity. My dad said the roosters could just end up in the stew pot, and I said hell no. These are going to be pets and egg layers, not dinner. Then I also realized that I would need to create a predator-proof chicken coop and run, which means another new project. Yay!

    Love your planful stuff, by the way. That’s exactly how I plan (just scratch something on back of a napkin), then adjust accordingly during the building process. My stuff ends up just fine, thank you, and the time I saved not planning like an engineer gives me time to do other projects – or read your blog. 🙂

  13. I liked chickens until my neighbors attack rooster came after me one day as I casually strolled by the chicken coop/pen. Now, not so much. Here’s hoping none of your cute little chicks turn into evil attack roosters.

  14. Hi, Kit,

    Congratulations on your new babies. The chick stage is great–a close second is finding your first egg from your own birds. That’s pure joy!

    I have a lot of posts on my site about building my own chicken coop. Here’s a representative post

    http://bonafidefarm.com/2010/07/10/inching-toward-the-finish/but if you search for coop you’ll find more.

    It took me a couple of years to get it properly roofed, trimmed and painted, but the structure itself is framed like a house and tight as can be. I’ve never had any pest problems or break-ins.

    Your coop design looks really cute. One thing to consider is easy of maintenance, because as cute as those chicks are they will grow up into often-gross birds. I made my coop with a “poop door” that hinged up so I could pull my tractor right up and shovel the bedding out into the bucket. I also made sure to have enough head clearance to make it easy to move around inside, and I am really happy that I split my coop in to two sides–a larger one for the birds and then the “annex,” which is where I store their food. Anyway, those are just a few things but I put a ton of thought into the design of my coop and am thankful every day when I go in it that I built it the way I did. Also I am happy to offer more details if you’re curious or just search my site for “coop.” Good luck, have fun!

  15. You’re not alone in your impulsive chick purchase. I did the same thing under the guise of “just looking.” Next thing you know, we have two Rhode Island reds living in the bathroom until we could get the coop finished. I received several quizzical looks from friends when told they couldn’t use the guest bath because there were chickens residing in it. Oh well. Country living.

    A word of advice on building the coop is to give careful consideration to the convenience of cleaning it and refilling their food/water. You’re talented, so I’m sure it’s going to be amazeballs.

  16. That shit happened to me! I walked out of tractor supply with five baby chickens while in college of all places. And they also lived in a plastic tub in my living room until they got bigger and it got warm enough outside for them to live in the little pen I made for them.

    They are now happily residing at my college room mates aunts house since she raises chickens for real and I couldn’t bring them home to suburbia with me after I graduated. Miss those little buggers. She still sends the occasional picture.

  17. Yay! Kissable chicks!

    I don’t blame you – my self-control is always this close to failing when I go to the seed and feedstore here … *twitch* This close to imploding, I’m tellin’ you. Pass that damn chicken legislation bit, damn city, you!

  18. Went to the Shoppers yesterday looking specifically for chicks. Of course now they don’t have any. Give us an update on the chicks, Kit. Are they growing fast?

  19. This is exactly how I got a rabbit…Blacked out and magically had this babeh bun sitting on my lap in the car waiting for my ride to get back from a different store.

  20. Barred Plymouth Rocks and Dominiques aka Dominickers are two separate breeds. The easiest way to tell the difference is in the comb. The barred plymouth rocks have a single comb, and the Dominique’s have a rose comb. I have one of each- they’re great!!

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