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Behind the Scenes: Coop Building Stories...

I've been so busy with getting everything together for the Mile-Hi Farmers' Market that I've neglected my blog writing duties.  But since I got some really nice feedback today from our newest renter, I got some motivation to get back on it!

What better to write about than a "behind the scenes" on what goes into our daily-life coop building.  In December while planning for the new year, Cameron & I committed to building up as much of a stock as we can this winter to be ready for the market season.  We didn't anticipate renting out/selling out every time we got a small stock going, it seemed as soon as we finished one there was demand for another.  I'm not complaining by any means, this is what we want, this is how our business works - but we did think (at one point) that we would be able to get ahead of the curve...we laugh about that now.

Artisan Valley Smokehouse Custom Chicken Coops:

Ben of AVS called us in February to order two custom coops for his new venture: starting a farm in the South Valley.  He was really excited to start raising chickens, and he had a lot of requirements for how he wanted the coops painted. I never had to work with the client on design before so this was quite the artistic challenge for me.  Ben gave Cameron the instruction as to how he wanted the coops, so it was Cameron who was dictating to me...that didn't always fly.  I can't remember how many times I yelled "you're stifling my creativityyyyyy!"  This is the only time in my adult-life that my success in art had parameters and requirements, so my only memory of ever feeling that way was when I had art projects in school.  And I truly believe those 2 coops pushed me to do better than I would've done on my own, and it gave me confidence that I would please the client by taking his wants into consideration.   Cameron kept saying, "it's like one of those home make-over shows" I was being so dramatic you'd think there was a camera crew following us.

Coop 1 - Zia Garden Coop

One of Ben's requirements: must say "EAT LOCAL"

Ben's farm is designed in the form of a Zia (the symbol on the New Mexico State flag which is loved by all New Mexicans, everyone here has a Zia tattooed on them somewhere :) )  So we took this design right off of his Instagram, Cameron even built me a makeshift compass to get the circles right! 

Coop 2 - Smokehouse Coop

a fried egg on the egg box door


you gotta have a sense of humor for this one
The Artisan Valley Smokehouse Food Truck sells gourmet smoked-meat dishes, and Cameron is a butcher so he was so excited about this coop he didn't stifle me at all!  Cameron was so jealous that this coop was for Ben and not for our backyard, this was one that I'm sure we would've kept otherwise.  We had a blast coming up with ideas to put on each side of this one and I'm really happy with how it turned out.


 Cherry Blossom Chicken Coop:

Valentine's Day is a non-holiday in my book, mainly because I find it sad and stupid but also because it's the day after my birthday (which is obviously a more important holiday!) :)  So instead of going out to dinner or something romantic like that we spent the night painting and building until we couldn't stand it any longer...
It all started when Cameron was giving me hell about base-coating a coop in cotton-candy pink, so I had to come up with something creative enough that anyone would love it. 
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
 
 So we made some time-lapse videos to show how we do it!

 *now that's love, that's commitment!

Western Wildflower Chicken Coop:

My best friend Molly Maybeth came to visit AND meet Cameron for the first time.  So hoping for her approval, Cameron bought us 5 chicks only 2 hours after she arrived...
 
...not that he needed to, they got along famously and she got to work on her very own chicken coop that night, the Western Wildflower




We've been learning from each other our whole lives, from Beatles lyrics to Pagan rituals to how to scare off bears in the Great Northern woods...painting is something Molly got really into before I came to visit/live with her last year.  Naturally we painted together and she taught me a lot of different techniques, little did we both know, I would end up here with painting being one of my daily chores!  Mostly I enjoy painting all of our coops, but I need to accelerate my speed...my perfectionist eye kicks in and I spend the better part of an hour working on one 5'x5' surface area...

We finished up building her coop after she was long gone, a week full of mojitos and burritos leaves little time left for work :)

Molly also "base-coated" our newest coop to reveal (Cameron still has to build it, but it's painted!) she named it before I had a chance to paint the cacti

"Desert Ombre"
sneak peek!





Chicken coops callous Cameron's hands and keep my creative mind alive, and ultimately satisfy our need to create...

forever grateful*
-jennifer






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