New chickens and a new barn!

Yes, I've finally managed to weasel some new birds!! These ladies came to me from a local who didn't want to deal with her chickens anymore and offered them to me. Of course I jumped for joy. Yes, they've all been named-- 2 Wyandottes-- Amelia and Wilhelmina, 2 Rhode Island Reds-- Charlotte and Emily, 2 Buff Orpingtons-- Fancy and Henrietta, and one Americauna-- Venetia. They are still very timid and don't approach me or the other hens too closely, so we firmed up the goose house (added a roost or two, a few nesting boxes and cleaned out the goosy-ness and that is where they are currently hanging out.
The geese have moved over to the large pasture with the puppies (now at 6 and 1/2 months). Tonight at 6 pm they were all resting peacefully around the shores of Largo Gallina (yes, the name for our new pond, located at the shore of Mount Gallina. Cool, huh??) Anyhow, Brantly and I went to pick up the new hens yesterday after sunset, thinking we would be able to hijack sleeping chickens. We did not know about the chicken coop they occupied.... Their set up was like a jungle-coop, and we had to unscrew portions of the coop and crawl through pallets to get these girls. These ladies may have been asleep when we got there, but they were awake and yelling by the time we put them into the pet carrier.
The barn is now in phase 3 (out of 4) and the second floor is finally going up. With a light snow this morning we were wondering if the second floor might have to wait until next week.... However, the weather warmed up a bit and the workers were able to frame up the rest of the job. Now we just wait for the roofing and hope we can beat the snows.
We started some very late winter grass on and around the new pasture. We're hoping to force out the thistles, rather than chemically kill them. We've spoken to several local (and Oregon-based) organic farmers, and have decided this is the best, if maybe slower, method of weed control. Not only that, but the geese have been going after the roots of anything that grows over there, so they will probably take care of some of the weed problem.