I told my parents I wanted to be a carpenter...

I figured if it was good enough for Jesus, it was good enough for me!

I used to work for the State, working with kids in foster care, their families, and with foster parents. I remember telling my parents at one point that I just wanted to quit, because the hours were awful, and I had a daughter that they were watching while I worked. I figured as a carpenter, I could put in my hours, do my job, and go home. No sweat worrying about kids being re-abused, no kids using anatomical dolls to show me--without me asking--what had been done to them, no Friday night calls to go down to South Texas to pick up a kid who had run away 3 months earlier, no judges cancelling my vacation plans, no worrying about whether or not [this] client would put me through a wall, like he did his wife...y'all, the stories I could tell you...... So I thought carpentry would be fun. I decided not to pursue it. Because honestly, I didn't want to work outside when it was cold. But guess what?

I still hate the cold, but I was right! I love building stuff. I'm not very good. But I love it! And I'm getting better!

So what is currently in the works?

* The Eggspedition/mobile chicken coop for our pastured posse

* A wood shed

* Raised garden beds with trellises and rows of root crops and a couple Hugelkulture mounds in the middle, just for funsies.

* Pig shelter

* More chicken tractors

So, starting with the Eggspedition. It is lovingly named after our trusty Ford Expedition that we bought in 2009, and drove until the repairs cost more than the vehicle was worth. 10 years of memories and stickers were on that SUV. When it wouldn't go any further, we took the money we had in savings--because we hadn't had a car payment in 6 years--and bought a 12-passenger van. I love the van. Just saying. But the Expedition sat on our property until this past July because I'd intended to donate it somewhere. Instead, we came across this nasty "toy hauler" camping trailer with motocross racing stickers on it, at the local junkyard. Looked like it would make the perfect mobile chicken coop. We traded my well-loved Expedition for this gross trailer. Joel Salatin calls his an "Egg-mobile". So ours is the "Eggspedition.