Madness!

Things have been absolutely crazy-busy around here.  The weather was fabulous all weekend and we worked like mad.  Slow but sure progress was made on the chicken coop.
I did what every homesteady Mom wants to do for Mother's Day-

I got to stain siding for the new coop.  Isn't it a pretty color- it's what all the well-dressed coops are wearing this spring... and it coordinates with the shop.  I did NOT want to get it the same color brown as the house and barn.  blah.
And Ticket was helping with framing the North wall.

 It turns out that he is, in fact, 16 inches on center when lying down, LOL!  He served to hold the studs in place.
Here is the first wall going up:

We're attaching it directly to the wall of the shop so it took some creativity.  But, this wall was finished (including the electrics wired) and the North wall has been framed.
But, the most mad thing we did was this evening:

We bought a car!
This really wasn't on the agenda but timing and availability came together. We  have run into issues- especially on weekends where all three drivers (V, J16 and I) have different things to do in different places and drop offs aren't convenient.  Now that J16 is working at the farmer's market on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings it will be more of an ongoing problem since V has kum do class on Saturday mornings as well.
But, we found a great deal on a used Smart car- a 2009 Passion- to be precise.   It is what J16 has been drooling over for at least a year.  They are, as you can see, quite tiny.  It is essentially a roll cage with a 3 cylinder engine.  The body panels are all plastic so it is light weight and incredibly fuel efficient.  It averages 40 mpg- not too bad with gas prices the way they are at the moment.  Technically, this is my car (I'm on the title) but in reality, it will be the one that J16 drives.  One of our local dealers imported two used Smart cars to sell here since the closest Smart dealer is in Chicago.  They have had this car for less than a week.  This particular car had been owned by a Mercedes dealer as their loaner car for customers having work done.  So, it has low mileage and has been exquisitely cared for.  I haven't gotten to drive it yet but I hear from J16 and V that it's zippy and fun to drive.  This was definitely NOT on my list for the week but it will make the summer easier and this will be J16's college car in the fall of 2012. (eeek, that makes it seem SO close).
I feel quite unsustainable and not at all practical or frugal at the moment, becoming a three car household, but, I guess things fell in together for a reason and this seemed like the right car at the right time.  Of course.... now she OWES me...... Mwahaha