Taj Macoop

June 2008

From Field Notes, the book: 

I said to this man who happened to live on seventy-two acres, 

"You have lots of room here for chickens."

"I would love to have chickens," he replied.

Actually, that could be the moment I truly fell in love with him. 

You see? Birds of a feather want to have eggs together.

I was destined to marry the man who could make my dream

of a chicken coop in the backyard a reality.

August 2017

 Unfortunately, my pretty little yellow chicken coop was clad in chipboard which began to rot around the edges sinking into the ground and the large flower boxes in front. So my Nova Scotia country boy decided it was time for a face lift.
I was reluctant to lose my yellow chicken coop so he suggested coloured steel. The closest colour to sunny yellow was bile gold and since we see this building from every window on that side of the house, and whenever we come and go from the house, there was no way I was spending the rest of my life looking at that hideous colour (it made chartreuse look good).
"Leave it with me," the country boy said, and while that's not always a good thing -- my sense of aesthetics being further advanced than his -- I trusted him.

October 2017

It may not be yellow but it's board & batten and what's more country, more VINTAGE country than that? Our chicken coop is now a future old farmhouse. It's still pretty, it's just different, and that's okay. If there's one thing I've learned about life, and about life in rural Nova Scotia, change is constant and resistance is a fruitless occupation. Just consider our flock of chickens: It's not the same group of chickens now that we started with nine years ago, yet they are as delightful as the original flock.
The only glitch is that it doesn't look like a coop anymore; I think it's morphed into the chicken cabin. 
My country boy designed the stone step himself with rock from the quarry in Wallace and surprised me by painting the door and windows to match our house. And he made sure to restring the Christmas lights. Collective "Aaaaahhhh...!"


And although I can't reveal details yet, this has inspired his next, most ambitious building project -- but that's top secret classified until next summer...