I know I promised amusing stories of building the hen house. I thought it would be a disaster - one that would only look ridiculously funny from the other side. I imagined several failed attempts, a few disputes between Ryan and I, public ranting from both sides on how easy it could have been had the other person had just 
On a more sad note, we only have four parrots to live in it now. Two weeks ago we constructed the outdoor pen. The pen is and was being used as a daytime grazing area for the Ladies. Every day someone was home we would take them out and so they could romp and play. This seemed like a great arrangement, but we had failed to bury part of the chicken wire fence to prevent diggers from breaking in. The neighbor's dog (much to everyone's horror) broke in and slaughtered half of our flock before we caught her. The dog was only doing what dogs do, even Kismet is starting to eye the Gals and drool a bit, and our neighbors are horrified and really sorry. Ryan and I spent all day last Saturday digging a foot deep trench and burying the fence. We now need to get some taller stakes and do a second pass to bring the height up a good foot or two, since we're a bit gun shy and worried about the neighborhood cats. There are also plans to add a gate, since the thing is a real bugger to climb in and out of for people. We are sad about losing the four chickens, but this is the lesson that needed to be learned the hard way. The two we had named were smart enough to avoid getting caught, so Aughra and Beth are still doing just fine.In fact, three of them now have names. First there is Beth. She is the littlest of all the Ladies. She is also the most assertive. She's the first to come over and say hi to people, and tends to ride herd on her bigger sisters. Then there is Aughra, named after the witch from Dark Crystal. She is the darkest red, and the second smallest. She really embodies her namesake's attributes, and except for the removable eyeball, she is enigmatic and likes to stare at you knowingly. The most recently named Lady is Mama Cass, formerly called the Big One. She is the largest, most developed, and most vocal of our Gals. She likes to play "hawk" by perching on your arm, and is learning how to be a proper parrot. She enjoys being held and is very patient. The last Lady who has not yet been named is the Medium One. She is the second largest next to Mama Cass, and tends to do what ever Mama is doing or what Beth tells her to do. I am sure she will have a name soon.
Ryan, again appearing in his role as Prince Charming, fixed the screened in porch. We opened it up and all the kids sit and look out over the chicken pen and the back yard. It's more fun then you think since we have several visitors to the homestead. There is Marley, our visiting squirrel, and Bunny, our visiting bunny. We also get a few of the neighborhood cats who visit. We don't know their real names, but we have nicknames for them. There is Bitey Cat, who is real friendly until you get all uppity and try to touch his belly fat. There's Spot who lives two doors down (I belive that she's officially called Kat) and takes down large game animals. She even had an altercation with a LARGE black snake. There's Fake Porter, he looks a lot like our Porter but is not nearly as handsome or cordial. There's Casey, aka Vlad the Impaler, the next door neighbor's dog.
Round the homestead, we've been desperately trying to remember to water all of our plots. The great thing about making grand plans on paper is that you forget all about the simple details, like watering. What a enormous pain in the ass that is. We did let things get a little dried out, so once again our "crops" are behind where we'd like them to be. We must have bad gardening karma, 'cause last year we had too much water. Now its too little. Damn it, when are we going to find the third bowl of gardening porridge? The one that's "just right"? Well, there have been fresh peas for us and the kids around the 'hood, so I should complain too much or the gardening Gods will strike me down.- Gretchen