Finished Business

Dear Jen,

So in all the excitement of the past days (alright and all the things keeping me busy during the day and awake during the night) I haven't gotten to a very looked-forward-to thing, which is to show you the finished product of my painted chicken coop! Finally after months of waiting May long weekend proved perfect! The forecast was for sun sun and more sun starting Friday and continuing for four days, with daytime temperatures in the 20's and overnight close to 10. The entire week beforehand I had planned to paint the coop on Friday, but Brad's accident having happened that Wednesday it also turned out to be a welcome distraction for us as we waited daily to find out just when daddy would return to us.

Just to remind you of the "before" look, here is a cute picture of the children enjoying some snacks on the coop a couple months ago:



And now here is the finished product!

Just as I'd dreamed: an outrageously bright red and orange base to contrast the vibrant blue of the house, with some fantastic drawings by Evelyn. She's got to paint lots of real-use projects this season: a bird house; bird feeder; bee house; and now this, which in my opinion is the coup de grace. What you see on the front face is, left to right, the farmers, a stripey elephant, a cow (note the udder), a tall dinosaur, and a short dinosaur under a starry full-moon sky. On the side are some chickens, I think, and possibly more dinosaurs.

Anyway, I love it. Makes me much happier than that hideous bare press-board. SO glad we finally got that done! Now to just find time to plant all the rest of my garden! It's getting just a wee bit late methinks...