The farmers’ want-to-be

It was about 70 degrees today. So very nice! We still have a pile of snow/ice next to our garage, but that is normal. It is where there is the most shade and it is also where the snow is dumped from off the garage’s roof. You’d never guess what we did last weekend. Go on, try to guess… Can’t come up with anything? Okay I’ll tell you.

We bought chickens. 25 chickens, to be exact. They are between 6 and 7 weeks old. They are a mix of Buff Orphingtons, Bared Rocks and Black Australorps. We were hoping to house them here, with the understanding that all we needed was the permission of our neighbors. But we were wrong. One our neighbors either asked, or complained, and someone came from the county to our house to tell us in person that chickens were not allowed in the city. Period. So, change of plans. We will be housing the up at my in-laws house. We still get the benefit of laying chickens (hopefully we will get about 2 dozen eggs a day with 25 chickens), but not have the convience of them in our backyard. We will have to go up there, about a mile away, each day to collect the eggs and to water/feed them. Oh well. It’s a small price to be paid and there are no hard feelings. For this is their neighborhood too.

It will be good for the children, too. It will help with some of their fear of animals (even a Chiwawa scares them!) and will help teach them to be responsible for something other then themselves. They will still be here at our house for one more week or so. Then they will be transffered to their “new home”.

We have built a chicken tractor for them to live in and it looks real nice. It has been warm enough during these past 2 days that we have put them outside for a part of the afternoon in the chicken tractor and they really like it! They fly around, strutting and chirping! “Freedom!” they seem to squwak.

Adam has also built a 2-bin compost system that is quite large and is stands right by the back door. I like this spot because we can easily open the door, take a few steps and “dump”. No fuss. No mess. Things that simplfy my life are goods things. (I suppose some would say that having many children is not in the catagorie of “simple”. But we won’t go there…)

Today we built a 6′ x 8′ sandbox for the children. I’ve asked Adam for this for awhile, so I’m real happy it’s done. The sand will be delivered on Monday, so then it will be finished. I’m also asking Adam to build the a swing set, but he hasn’t agreed to this, yet. I’d like it about 8′ high so an adult could swing on it if they wanted too. I’d like it about 10′ long so we can have 3 swings in the middle and baby swing coming off one side. On the other side, I’d like to put a slide there. Nothing fancy, mind you, just better and sturdier than the metal bent one that is rusting in the backyard. The issue for Adam is it will need to be made with 8′ x 8′ and they will have to be cemented into the ground. I don’t see what the big deal is, but since I’m not going to be doing the brunt of the work, I don’t want to push my luck. It has taken 2 years tp get that sandbox built. We’ll see about this swing set. Although I do have the perfect place for it where I can see and hear the children very well….