My wife grew up in the city and I in a bedroom community to the city, so when we bought a rural property and built a house, family and friends were surprised.

Country life seems idyllic in magazines.  Yards are perfectly quaffed with fresh flowers growing everywhere surrounded by white wash fences.  Grazing in the yard are beautiful exotic chickens with chicks in tow.

So, after the house and landscaping, you can imagine my first order of business with our new home was the building of a chicken coop.  My coop took on grand scale, and became known as “Coop-De-Ville”. We were given some full grown hens and a rooster and bought some mail order chicks (Yes, they deliver them by mail) and learned the ropes of raising chickens for farm fresh eggs.

One thing I have learned from hobby farming is that anything we like to eat, so does almost anything else.  Those fresh Berries we love are also enjoyed by birds.  Grapes are candy to deer, bugs and turkeys. Chickens, those lovely birds you name and work so hard to raise – become a small, sad pile of feather remnants thanks to chicken hawks, weasels and the neighbor’s dogs.   While I hate store bought eggs, I hate finding evidence of a lost hen even more. After many years of hens, we were down to one and then none.

The coop sat empty for a year and while I considered selling it I wasn’t eager to fight it onto a trailer.  My wife kept showing me photos of “Cute” potting sheds that were the corollary to Man caves called “She Sheds” (Back to those darn magazines).

The old coop seemed like a great conversion project and I was going to do the work and then do an unveiling to my spouse, but decided that surprises were better received when we were younger.  When I brought up the idea, she had informed me that I was a bit dense as the photo sharing was intended to get me to do it.  The new “She Shed Coop” project of 2017 underway will incorporate the old roosting area into a chic potting shed.  The old secure chick area will have a new deck and bug screens added to become a wine and book area for my wife and her friends and perhaps me if I am good.  Although small, the 8×8 deck will be a great place to put a few chairs, a small table and put feet up as we contemplate moving back to a small yard and less work.

Life is meant to be enjoyed, not endured.