What was I Thinking? Part II

Every corner, every building...full.  We spent all our first summer playing catch up - call the honey wagon (septic hadn't been serviced in 5 years😬), service the generator, see about selling antique tractors and equipment, pulling weeds. It was overwhelming and sometimes exhausting. 

After the first cleaning!

When my parents moved here, they stored a lot of their boxed belongings in the milking suite of the barn. Seems smart - concrete floor, undercover. But, those boxes sat there since 1992, and the bottoms were gone! So much waste, and at the same time, little treasures found, like my dad's high school memorabilia and the white glass "steins" we fought over, the original phone for the house, and the newspapers that declared the resignation of Nixon and the assassinations of JFK and MLKj.  

I wanted this suite for our chicken house; I'd been dreaming about that possibility for months. It was the smart thing to do - concrete floor, water source, nighttime protection, and built in nesting bunk.  Can I just tell you - or maybe you can guess - we didn't have a clue! Do you know what chicken poo does on concrete. Correct! Slippery as snot! Water source - outside hydrant that meant we had to carry water. And nesting bunk? Let's just say that chickens are picky little ...

So began our sojourn to where we are now. I'm particularly proud of the fact that we have built and added everything from the supplies readily available all over the farm. We use sand and straw on the floor and it makes for great insulation and it is easy to clean. We insulate with straw bales in the winter, the chickens tear them up, and that is what we smell - fresh straw! We found an old pigeon roost Dad had built (his measurements are in pencil all over it), and repurposed it to nest boxes just in time for the hens to really get to laying. Recycled tin went on the ceiling. 
The most expensive thing we did was rewire a 100 year old barn so we wouldn't accidentally burn it down when we turned on box fans in the summer.

The dairy corral was completely overgrown with brome, which was easy fodder for30 chickens. Dad had planted dewberry bushes and those were eaten first. While we knew we had predators, we ASS-U-MEd that we had that covered with nighttime lock down. Never guessed a fox would hunt in the daylight. DUH! Even though we had run chicken wire to the ground, we decided we should fortify the bottom - another recycle of tons of limestone and sandstone in our pastures.  Unfortunately, we continue to learn fencing lessons, but I suppose that is all part of the process. 

So why chickens? I like chickens, predominantly because they require nothing but food and water and they give back. They keep the bugs down and their poo is the best fertilizer I've used.  I had a wish to serve our family and friends with free or affordable eggs, even before the 2025 Egg Disaster.  Above all, my grandma had chickens. One of my best memories is hunting banty eggs all over the place. (They are game hen sized chickens who lay small eggs in grass tufts and roost in trees.) It took a lot of time to hunt those eggs down. I'm sure that was Grandma's hope! The next morning, I watched Grandma fry bacon, then fill that cast-iron skillet with as many tiny eggs as would fit. She didn't turn them, and the edges and bottom would be crispy brown. She slid it out on a plate, and Grandpa's breakfast was ready! 

When I worry today about the nutrition and health of the girls and if we are doing everything right, Frank quietly says, "What did your grandma do?"  It helps me remember that less is more and food and water sustain us all.