It was pouring...but the girls are 4 weeks now, and not fitting very well into their tub anymore so we have to keep going. We headed down to the barn and looked at what we had left to do. The top row of siding was still looming ahead of us, but we still had no idea how we were going to get up there or make the complicated cuts to form the gable roof of the barn.
I started hooking up extension cords and hooked up the brand new tri-pod work light I got us. "LET THERE BE LIGHT!" The spotlight showed on our work table and lit up the inside of the barn. I already felt like something was accomplished....
Patty was determined to get the measurements for the first upper row piece...
We went out into the rain and I held her ladder while she went up to get the measurements. She kept her body as close as possible to the barn, and I lowered my face to keep the rain from hitting it. After about 5 minutes of measurements she came down.
We went back into the barn and grabbed a fresh piece of T1-11. Measuring and cutting was a piece of cake under our new work light! We took the piece back out into the rain and almost killed eachother trying to get it up the ladder and in place. IT FIT!!! We brought it back into the barn, deciding that we would wait until better weather to do the top row.
About 20 minutes later the rain eased up a bit, and we ran out to put the flashing on top of the bottom row of boards. (Something the Great Oracle told me we needed.) We argued the whole time about if we really needed it, if it fit right, and if it would mess up the top row of T1-11. I told P the Great Oracle doesn't lie and that he knows better than we do so she finished nailing it up...growling under her breath.
I knew we were both irritated at this point....With the rain, how cold we were, how much we had to go, that the house still had to be cleaned, grocery shopping and laundry had to be done, etc etc etc.
But we had to keep going...had to make some kind of progress besides flashing and cutting one board.
So we decided to build the perch inside the coop. We bickered about that too. I was trying to calculate in my head. I had brought our "Barnyard in your Backyard" book down with me so I wouldn't have to memorize measurements and so I could show P the picture. 8" of perch per bird x 26 birds, 12" between each perch vertically and 18" between them horizontally. I drew a rough sketch and P started cutting 2x6s. We bought 2" diameter railing for perches and cut them each 64" long. We had 3 of them, which made enough for 24 birds. Oh well, they would have to take turns. Besides, chances are we have at least one rooster, so it would probably be perfect. I was still trying to calculate in my head when P grabbed the nail gun... Ok...we'll put them up now. I bit my lip and pointed where I wanted the perches. POW POW POW and the first one was on. It actually looked pretty good. POW POW POW POW POW POW POW and the other 2 were on. It actually looked pretty good. I wanted to grab the tape measure, (and did when she walked out). I wanted to verify they were 12" and 18" blah blah blah. It didn't matter anymore....they weren't going anywhere. It looked pretty good anyway.
Before we called it a day we added a perch and a front rail to the nest box we made. We then hung it to the wall. It looked so cute!!!
We didn't bother cleaning up since we were planning on coming down the following day. We headed up to the house arm in arm. It had been a long, but good day.
Around 6 o'clock that night I felt a sharp pain in my throat and felt it starting to swell... By the time I went to bed I could barely swallow. I was on my second week of antibiotics! I couldn't be getting sick!
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