I was surprised to hear earlier this week that nobody has written on our latest big project. What? Really?

But that’s fine. Now I get to write about it.   

So Mom and Dad have been talking about building a hoop house for years and years. And … guess what they’re building now?

A hoop house. Good guess.

As this project was just getting started, I was thinking that this hoop house thingy might be some squat, tarped shelter that I’d have to lean way over to walk into. But nope. As I watched Dad and Caleb set up the frame, I thought, Wait, I thought this was going to be a little hoop. This is huge!

Well, of course it has to be a big building. We plan to put the chickens in there throughout the winter; and since they will be in there all winter, there will be a lot of deep bedding (straw wood, chips, or hay) with the waste. Thus, we need to fit the tractor in it to be able to clean some of it out in the spring or the roof will seemingly get lower and lower as years pass…

Our hope is that if the hens are in an area protected from bitter winds while still being substantial in space, fresh air, and plenty of sunlight; their egg production will continue throughout the winter (usually in the winter, our daily egg count dwindles pretty low, especially for the amount of chickens we have).

Also, we plan to start our garden earlier in the spring before we naturally can in our zone. Already I can picture picking a tomato in, like, May.

The wood we are using for the framing of the hoop house is – you guessed it – home milled. Grandpa Herman, Dad, and they boys collected the trees and we milled the boards ourselves. Mom and Dad have been wanting to use the new sawmill for a while now, and finally Dad has found time! Watch the video below to see one of our first times using it!

Hopefully soon we’ll be able to put on the finishing touches and move our chickens in before bitter January weather hits. They’ll probably be spoiled with all that warmth and sunlight and won’t want to leave when it’s time to head out the pasture this spring! Of course, they’ll have to leave eventually, or I won’t get my May tomato.

Hmm. Or April tomato. A girl’s got to dream.