It's a good thing I'm retired.

Every project we start takes twice as long as it should to finish (and costs twice as much, but that’s a thread for another time).

Here’s how a typical chicken coop construction day runs.

Tom and I have different internal clocks, so by the time we both get up and are ready to tackle building, it’s almost 9:00. We’re almost out the door when I remember we’re out of bread and I was going to bake some today. So I throw together the dough, knead it, and set it to rise. This gives us one hour to work uninterrupted.

We grab work hats and gloves—and the kitchen timer—and set off for the garage to cut wood. Oops, where’s the tape measure? Back into the house, find the tape measure, stop to pet the cat, back to the garage. Can’t see the markings from this pencil, where’s the marker? Back into the house, find the blue marker, stop to pet the other cat, back to the garage.

Somehow, we finally manage to get all pieces for the east wall cut and only one of them is measured wrong. Lay them out and get some screws in. The timer rings. Back into the house to punch down the bread dough and shape it into loaves; we have 45 minutes this time.

A few more pieces attached. The phone rings. It’s a dear, and chatty, friend of Tom’s. Thirty minutes later, he’s back working.

Most of the wall is assembled except for figuring out where the window will go. We discover we’re running out of screws. And nails. The timer rings; inside to bake the bread which gives us another 35 minutes.

We work on the window. The bread is done and it’s lunchtime.

We decide a run into town is necessary. Town is 11 miles away so this will take an hour or two. And every trip must be for multiple errands to justify the time and gas. So we clean up and head towards Salem—bank, lumber yard, grocery store.

Back home and into work clothes again. We finish the wall! Well, kind of. I realize later that we’ve forgotten the support under the window but that can be added.  The forecast calls for rain so we cover our creation with tarps and rocks and wrap up another more or less productive day of building.

It’s a good thing I’m retired; I can't imagine how long this would take if we only had weekends.