Number 26

The farm has a new visitor for awhile. I guess he stays until his tough duties with "Meghan" and "Meghan's calf" (she is a consenting adult, don't worry) are done...

His name is "26".

He doesn't seem to be taking his duties too seriously. He spent a lot of time tackling the compost pile...

It was a beautiful day on the farm today so we got to work on the main chicken coop. The entire thing is going to cost us $20 (for the craigslist hardware cloth) plus a bit for netting over the top. Everything else is recycled.

First I cut the fronts off of these crates - they'll hang low on the wall and will be the nest boxes .

Nathan cut lengths of plywood to line the inside of the drywall playhouse (so the chickens won't peck at the drywall).

 One piece of plywood screwed to the wall. We're ignoring the creepy "god loves liam" writing all over the walls. 

The natural roosts that we found.

Ryan helps to recycle everything...

He and Abby are becoming real farm dogs. Abby's even got the grass chewing down.

Ryan got invited by Jim to help bring the horses in this afternoon. He was so excited that he was pretty much useless. Here are the horses coming in the right direction, with Ryan nowhere to be seen.

Here are the horses going in the wrong direction. Ryan is behind that post on the right about to come running back to us, terrified.

(the horses don't care about dogs at all and I don't let the dogs chase them, ever. Too dangerous!).

Back to the coop...Here it is with the two posts in and a trench dug to bury the hardware cloth (our landlord used his tractor to make holes for the posts). The trench took forever because the ground is so rocky.

Putting in the braces for the hardware cloth and posts.

Attaching the hardware cloth to the wood - we had to use nails and bend them over the cloth because the wood was too hard for our staple gun. Tomorrow we just have to put up the upper level of hardware cloth and get some netting for the top.

 Hopefully all the chicks will be healthy for their new coop. The snuffling chick has been separated from the others and seems to be the same as this morning. Zebra head in the top left corner is huge!

The plants are definitely healthy in the greenhouse. 

Peppers and cucumbers.

Tomatoes and melons.

Bathtub Hoarders

The seedlings spent their first night in the greenhouse (in pots on the ground) and all are good this morning! I think we'll leave them in pots until the danger of frost has passed, and then transplant them. It's actually warmer in the greenhouse though, even overnight, than it is in the front room where the seedlings were.

Starting some more seeds to use in the aquaponics system.

Yesterday we went to do some errands in the morning and stopped by a hatchery to take a look. Nathan asked if they had any extra tanks that they wanted to sell/give away and luckily they had a huge tank sitting in the back that they'll give us! It's about 6' x 6', so bigger than necessary, but it has a drain and it will be good to have. Later on we pulled over to look at a truck for sale and happened to find a free bathtub right there. We are either hoarders or the lucky new owners of an aquaponics set up...

Mop top. 

Her name is Meghan...and she's apparently getting a bull 'friend' in the next few days.

No trespassing or you'll get whacked. 

We spent an hour yesterday mulching the orchard. There are apples, plums, pears and blueberries.

We also continued to tackle the side yard. This is the mess that we started with. Maybe there were goats kept in here at one time? 

We tore down the entire lean-to and then carried the hutch/coop (from next to the house) into the yard. Carrying it was difficult but manageable until we got to the gate (you can see one of the posts in the photo above). Nathan instructed me to simply do a deep squat, grab the edge of the hutch/coop, then lift with a shoulder press and "we'll get it over the gate, no problem". 

Ha.ha....we had to get Jim (the horse and cow owner) to help us.

 The original location of the hutch/coop. We took this little yard apart. Apparently it used to house a neglected chicken.

A tiny (1") egg that Nathan found while weed whacking. Wonder what kind of bird it belongs to?

One of the chicks sounds congested today. Maybe it's just starting to make 'adult' sounds instead of peeping? I hope that's it, but I think it's too early for that. Some online advice is apple cider vinegar in the water, or a course of antibiotics. I'd like to avoid jumping straight to antibiotics, so I'll clean the brooder first to make sure it's nice and dry in there.