He Built Me A She-Shed!

When my husband and I were picking out our house out in the country three years ago, we were picturing one that came with a barn. Most homes built on more than an acre come with a shed, barn, or some sort of out building. In our dreams, we pictured an old fashioned, wooden, red barn that had a great historical story that came with it. The house we chose....well, it came with an old rotten shed that doesn't keep anything dry from the leaky roof or free from rodents and snakes that have made a home inside. It's one of those shady shacks that no one likes to go inside because it's kind of creepy and stinky.

Since we don't have a barn, our garage, basement, and shady shack has become our go-to places to store tools and supplies we've accumulated to run our small farm. All my chicken things (and I have a BUNCH!) have been stored next to my minivan in the garage for the past three years...and the chickens know it! Whenever I open the garage door, they run as fast as their little legs can carry them to get to my bins full of feed, snacks, straw, etc. I don't know what they expect, all their food is stored in containers with lids they cannot peck open, but they always stare longingly at the large tin buckets in expectation of food. One time, I even had a chicken lay an egg near their stash of stuff in the garage. Thank goodness my kids and I found it before someone stepped on it and made an eggy mess!

Having chickens constantly in our garage has caused several problems:

Problem Number One...the POOP! I can't find a way to train my sweet little chickies to do their business outside the garage.

Problem Number Two....whenever I open my van, a chicken or two flies inside to see if I have groceries in the trunk. This was extremely cute and funny the first couple times it happened, but now they think they own my car!

Problem Number Three...feathers, feathers everywhere. They don't need to be attached to a bird to fly. As soon as there is any type of air movement, feathers that the girls leave behind float from the garage to go inside my house as the kids go in and out...and in and out...and in and out of the doorway every day, all day. Because of this, I've found chicken feathers in nearly every room of my house.

Problem Number Four...every time I close the big garage door to prevent the chickens from coming inside the garage, one or two chickens wander inside the garage before the door completely shuts. I have to constantly reopen the garage door to chase chickens outside, then quickly close it to prevent the entire thing from happening again. I'm getting out of breath just writing this!

My husband, being the keeper he is, decided to help me with my "Chicken Drama" in the garage. He built me my very OWN She-Shed! If you could hear me typing right now, you would hear the enthusiasm behind every click of my fingers hitting the keyboard. This is HUGE! Ever since I became a mommy, nothing belongs to me...not even my own body. It's like my identity was stripped away, but now I'm claiming it back in the form of my She-Shed. Some of my readers might be asking, what in the world is a She-Shed? It's a place, a sanctuary, a home away from home, a space where there will not be ANY kids toys, it will be organized, everything I put in it will have a purpose, and it is a shed solely owned by yours truly.

If you look up She-Sheds online, you will find all kinds of beauties like the one in this picture. Some might have colorful shutters. Some may have a table and a comfortable chair for crafting, writing, or gardening. Some may even have a couch or a bed inside for a longer getaway. My She-Shed is not fancy, it's not my favorite color, it's definitely not huge, but it was built with love from my favorite husband and he placed it right next to my chicken coop. Instead of hauling heavy feed and bales of straw across my yard, I now have everything I need to take care of the girls just steps away from the coop. This is going to make my life SO much easier, especially when I'm walking through 10 inches of snow this winter in the blustering cold wind. I'm so thankful and blessed!

Kelly's She-Shed..I definitely need to make a cute little sign for it!

My next important task...train my feathered friends to flock to Kelly's She-Shed instead of Kelly's Garage. How can I make that happen? Simple, I'm going to throw them a party with mealworms....lots and lots of mealworms that are stored inside the shed. They won't ever want to go in my garage again (wink, wink, nod, nod).

Thanks for reading my Country Squawk,

Kelly