The chicken coop in our backyard is almost ready for my chickens at the Ag. Center to move into. My grandpa has worked really hard on it. Sometimes I help him and sometimes I just have time to say `Hi Grandpa’ and `Good job; it looks great.’ And sometimes I just watch. My mom says that my work will start when they move in.

Anyway, one day I worked on insulation. I wore ear plugs because Grandpa was sawing lots of boards and it was too loud. I stacked up the insulation inside the walls. It was fun! Then when Grandpa started pounding on the roof, all the insulation fell out onto the floor! I couldn’t help him put it back the next day because I had to go to the Writing Center to work.

Another day I tried to help with the fluffy kind of insulation. My mom showed me how to use the big staple gun. Then she helped me pull the trigger for the staple to hold it in place. But the staple gun was too hard to pull the trigger all by myself.

Finally we figured that the best way for me to be part of the work was to bring my work outside! And that was perfect! My mom gave me an old rug to sit on and I made pot holders while my mom and grandpa worked on the chicken coop. I was present. One time my mom suggested I stand up so that I could see a hot air balloon up in the sky. No thank you. I just wanted to sit and do my potholders. But in the morning when my mom opened up the newspaper,

`Look, Mathalia, here is a picture of the balloon that you did not want to stand up to see.’

The picture was in the paper and it was really cool. I was rather ashamed of myself that I did not take a break from pot holders so that I could watch the balloon float across the sky.

So the next time she suggested that I get up to take a picture of Grandpa cutting out the little door for the chickens, I decided to follow her suggestion. And I am glad that I did. I got some good photos of Grandpa using the sawzall.

On Saturday we listened to the Grizzly football game while we worked:  mom and grandpa on the electric and me on my pot holders. It was fun! Grandpa did some `showy’ work like making the really cool door for the chickens. It will be my job to open the door for them in the morning so that they can go outside to get some fresh air and exercise. And I will close it in the evening so that a raccoon or other animal can’t get inside to eat them.

He also put in their nesting boxes. We are going to take a little break from the work: he is going to California and I am going to Billings but when we get back, sometime before Thanksgiving, we should be able to move my chickens into their coop. Grandpa made the coop big enough for me to go inside, out of the wind and snow. It will be fun. I will feed and water them, check for eggs and clean them out. I am excited!