So Sourdough Bread Try #2 was a success! My husband has eaten most of the loaf, but even Emma my oldest has eaten it with peanut butter and Ellie the youngest has picked at it! So I call that a win!

I also tried sourdough discard blueberry muffins. The batter was delicious! The girls just didn’t exactly like the tartness of the berries–some of the muffins had a lot of berries, so we may use a little less. They asked me to make the same batter but use chocolate chips…so that’ll be this week’s experiment. I also decided to just feed my starter 1x per week and keep it in the fridge. We’ll see how that goes! I fed it really well prior to putting it in the fridge-so fingers crossed!

In addition to sourdough, we have been starting to design our chicken coop rebuild. Our 11 chickens need more space in their run and we need just a better all-around setup. We’ve done a lot of research this winter and have ideas of what we want. We thought we found the perfect plan for less than $15 that included a materials list and blueprints, etc. on Etsy…I bought it. The materials list was not a true materials list…it was after things were cut and put together. So my husband is back to his own list, and I’m without the picture again.

We’re in this for the long haul when it comes to chicken coops. We’re already planning for an upgrade to our current coop and we want it to be the real deal, not just some slapdash thing we put together for short term use. We’re planning on at least 40 birds, and likely more over time. For that kind of capacity, we’re planning to build a lean-to shed type coop with nesting boxes on the outside that can be completely folded down for easy cleaning. We’ll have removable roosting bars with poop shelves and storage/integration areas underneath. In our area, we also get high winds, so we will have the posts cemented into the ground. We also plan to have insulation to help regulate the temperature and proper ventilation in all the right spots. There’s nothing worse than predators, so we will use hardware cloth to keep them out. We also want an automatic coop door so we don’t have to go out when it’s still dark to let the chickens out in the summer. Lots of wants, I know, but we’re doing our best! The only thing I have yet to decide on is color!