Moving into summer - the garden's bounty

The busy of the growing season continues here on the farm.

The headline event for this week was our wonderful neighbor, Kyle Rohr, bringing his tractor and brushhog out to mow the farm.  Normally we would bale the hay, but his baler wasn't working and we didn't want to mess with finding someone else, so he agreed to just mow it instead.  The farm looks so much nicer with all the growth knocked back AND we can confirm to the county that we are continuing to follow our plan to prevent the lespedeza from multiplying. 


The garden has started to really produce now.  We dug all our potatoes this week - yukon gold, red pontiac and white nordland (I think) - and came away with about 100# of spuds.  It isn't our best harvest, but it also isn't our worst.  We only planted 3 beds this year (we've been planting 6) so not a bad showing all in all.  We're also harvesting blackberries, currants, goji berries and our first ripe peaches!  The peach tree we planted way back in 2012 is completely loaded with fruit this year.  It is also infested with moth larvae.  Its so disappointing to see such beautiful peaches and know that almost all of them have worms in them.  Then, tonight, I also saw June Bugs munching away in big clusters on the ripe fruit.  Sigh.  I did some research on the moths and I think next year I'll put up some sticky pheromone traps to see if I can limit their damage.  I'm also picking up all the dropped and caterpillar infested fruit to feed to the chickens.  If I can't enjoy the peaches, at least I can enjoy the eggs!  I've read about a molasses trap for june bugs but haven't tried it yet.  Maybe I'll give that a whirl this week.  Learning how to manage not just an organic orchard, but a no spray orchard is a priority for the next couple of years.

First squash, blackberries and a peach!

bed #1 potato harvest air curing

The same neighbor who mowed for us has a couple of piles of cow manure that we're steadily moving into the lower garden.  We picked up 2 trucks full yesterday and got one of those unloaded.  There were SOOOOOO MANY GRUBS!  I swear that every shovel had 2 or 3 grubs in it.  We collected all the ones we found as we unloaded and dumped them in with the chickens.  They were in heaven!  And, yes, between fruit, scraps and grubs our chickens are totally spoiled. 

scoop of manure being dumped into the truck

Chickens going to town on a pile of grubs

A host of other farm stuff got done this week too.  Beds were weeded and mulched, we got 2 loads of cardboard to continue doing sheet mulch in the garden aisles and we harvested SO MUCH SQUASH!  I picked a 5 gallon bucket full on Friday evening and we still had squash left from the last time I picked.  Everything we eat must have squash in it so that we can keep up.  Normally, we would be coming into ripe tomato season too and most of this squash bounty would find its way into vegetable soup that we enjoy all year long.  Our tomatoes are way behind though, so we just have the squash. 

 It was also time for our regular battery maintenance on Saturday morning.  We have to monitor the water levels in all the battery cells to keep them running at their best.  In the summer time we're finding that we need to monitor them every 2 or 3 weeks.  In the winter, it is less often.  We pull each of the white caps off and top off the 3 battery cells underneath with distilled water, then replace the cap and go on to the next cell.  The whole thing takes about 10 minutes.  This time, while we were working, a tiny toad hopped into the ratchet set!  He was too cute not to take a picture.

 Jacob topping off batteries

 A froggy friend visiting our work 

The most amazing thing for this week was that I got to spend all day Saturday on the farm.  There were no errands or functions or anything else to take me away.  It was a solid day of working in the garden, spending time with Jeremy and focusing on doing the work I love to do.  I need more of these days.  It is good for my soul and body to do real work that I can see, to connect with this piece of the earth and to connect with my family. 

Back in the garden! And a little more house...

What an amazing year we have had so far.  We finished the last of the tile in the storage hallway and we got some more outlets operational in the dining room and kitchen.  Then it was time for a break from the house, so we shifted gears to the garden!

Beginning in the spring, we started prepping garden beds.  First, we had to dig all the weeds out of them.  That was a job!  We also moved our asparagus patch from the bed along the hoop house into 3 garden beds in the main garden.  In the process of dividing up the original 12 or so asparagus plants, we ended up with 80 separate crowns!  That filled up our 3 beds and we gave some away.  I love self-reproducing perennials.

 second load of asparagus crowns

We decided to build sides for the beds this year out of some of the live cut boards we weren't using for the house.  We also dug hugel trenches along each bed.  The trenches got filled with old logs and wood chips up to the level of the aisles.  The idea is that the wood will soak up water when it rains and then release it to the garden bed during the dry periods.  I have to say that the strategy worked.  Even though we had drought weather for an extended period this summer, we only watered the garden 3 times and it was still one of the most productive years we've had for the limited crops we planted.

I have to say that it felt absolutely amazing to be back in the garden again.  The smell and feel of dirt, little seeds tucked in and then growing into plants taller than I am, the joy of the first ripe tomato...these are the things that brought us to the farm to begin with.  It is wonderful to be back at it again.

In addition to the usual annuals, we also bought and heeled in 50 root stocks for pears, plums and cherries.  We hope to graft off of our existing fruit trees to these root stocks to increase the orchard.

We set up the chicken coop this spring also and stocked it with 10 laying hens.  We lost some in the summer heat and had to replace them, but overall the girls are keeping us in plenty of eggs.  It is wonderful to have farm fresh eggs again!

The garden harvest was very rewarding.  We didn't plant as much variety as we normally would, but we still canned over a hundred quarts of tomatoes, green beans and soup.  It was another return to normal to get the canners out.  It was also an awesome opportunity to really test out our 6 burner propane stove!  It was an investment, but so worth it to be able to put 2 canners and a large pot of tomatoes on the stove at the same time!

Corn and melons thriving in the garden

harvest waiting for canning

New stove ready to go!

Along the way, we did finish the beetle kill pine wall boards in the living room and dining room.  We still have to wrap up the upstairs landing with them, but we got to check 2 more walls off the list as finished.  I think it turned out really well!

Living room pine wall

We also hired out the building of the kitchen cabinets.  They were delivered and installed last week and they turned out perfectly!  The doors and drawers are made out of the douglas fir we had milled from Colorado and we finished them to match the staircase.  Now we just have to do the counter tops and then we'll have an actual kitchen again.  Woo hoo!

Long time away...

So sorry for the radio silence.  Those of you who connect with us on facebook have gotten regular updates on some of the happenings on the farm, but for those who don't we'll do a quick wrap up!

We're now living with our farm neighbors which is working out great!  Hopefully our next move will be into the house. 

The garden is exploding.  We've harvested close to 350 lbs so far and its still going strong.  It feels wonderful to be canning and dehydrating and fermenting again.  We've put up sauerkraut, naturally fermented pickles, regular pickles, salsa, spaghetti sauce, canned tomatoes, tomato juice, green beans and tons of jelly (blackberry, peach, mulberry and gooseberry). 

Blackberry and peach jelly and peaches

 

Mid summer garden

 

The preliminary results of the biochar trial show a significant increase in yield and plant health in the biochar beds vs. the normal beds.  We'll tally up final results once everything is harvested in the fall.

We hayed our top field and are working steadily to clean out the sumac patches.  The field is also infested with lespedeza which is a noxious week in Kansas.  It is also pretty good goat food!  Which brings us to...

 

Hay in windrows before baling in the top field  

We brought the 3 doelings and the buck (Jack) to the farm at the end of May and all are doing well.  The does are growing well and helping us clear out sumac with relish.  They are truly adorable and Catherine in particular has fallen in love with them.

Our girls (from L to R) - Beldandy, Erd and Skuld

The chickens are also doing well and laying 3-4 eggs a day most days.  They are clearing our north field for us bit by bit in their chicken tractor.  Jeremy built an addition to the tractor that can link up through the gate or not, so they can have double the forage room.  They seem to enjoy it a lot. 

Chicken tractor before wire and paint.  The gentleman in the flannel shirt did most of the building (can't thank him enough!).

 

We are making some progress on the house, although we've found that the busy of the growing season has not left us as much time as we'd like to work on that project (not to mention the two kids, work, sleep thing). 

Jeremy working on joinery

We've been making compost piles with food scraps from Jeremy's job and some of the hay and weeds from the farm.  Its looking promising for having enough finished compost by next spring to put a healthy layer on all the growing beds.  You can never have enough compost!

In the coming weeks we'll be putting in full crops of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage; second plantings of lettuce and radishes; annual planting of garlic and potato onions and a host of other things.  If I have time, I'll update here.  If not, look for an update when it gets cold in the fall!

Quick update

Its been busy lately, but I have been horrible about remembering to take pictures!  Here are some highlights though:

• planted 62 tomato plants earlier this week. 
• Spread a truck load and a half of compost on other garden beds
• Making compost like mad with scraps from Jeremy's work
• Everything is growing at the farm!

Our list of things for the next 2 weeks includes:

• mulch tomatoes
• install rabbit wire around the garden (we have visitors)
• plant green beans, corn, squash, cucumbers...
• paint chicken tractor
• build goat shelter
• fence goat area

We are also getting ready to move again, so there's no end of busy in sight!  Hope you are all enjoying the spring weather!

Chicken tractor!

Its been a busy couple of weeks, so here's the first of a couple of posts to get caught up. 

Our friend, Jeff, has helped us make major progress on the chicken tractor.  Last weekend, we went from the frame in the last post to an enclosed top coop space as seen below:

You may notice that the coop part has a skylight.  We thought it would help the chickens be more in tune with natural light cycles since their laying is determined by how long the days are.  We also built nest boxes for the inside.  Both end walls are doors - one that we will use to get to the next boxes and one that we will use to clean out the coop.

Our guest chickens in the coop! 

 

This is where we left last week.

 

This weekend we added the top cap to shed water from the peak and vent air through the coop.  Then we put a perch on the inside and added a handle to help move it around.  Lastly, we installed a door frame on the bottom so that we can get into the lower run segment. 

Now we need to paint the frame, install the back wheels and put the chicken wire around the bottom.  Then we'll have a chicken house for our soon to be chickens!

The coop now.  :D

 

 

How do you know if you're on the right track?

“How do you know if you’re on the right track?  When resources start to gather around you.”

We came across this quote by Toby Hemenway this week and it perfectly sums up how this weekend went for us. 

First, I have to revisit something from my last post.  The picture of the beetle (large timber framing hammer) Jeremy made last week just didn't do it justice.  This one gives a much more accurate representation of his handiwork!

Jeremy and the Beetle

It was a three day weekend for us (I took Friday off) so the work started as soon as we dropped the kids off at school on Friday morning.  As mentioned before, the greenhouse plastic was in desperate need of replacing, so that was the big job for this weekend.  Friday and Saturday were predicted to be very calm with major wind kicking up Sunday and Monday.  We started by removing all 3 layers of the old plastic and dragging it far enough away from the hoop house to not be in the way.  Then we had to remove all the old hold down channel for the plastic and add some more tape/padding to a couple of edges that had rubbed on the old plastic.  Then we unrolled the new plastic next to the greenhouse.  All of this took until 3:30 or so.  This is where the first resource gathered around us. 

Pulling off the first 2 layers of plastic.

So here we are looking at 128 lbs of plastic (a 40'x105' piece) and a 12' tall hoop house, getting ready to do battle.  Having already done this before by ourselves, we have some idea of the ordeal this is going to be and we have some doubts about whether we will be able to do this by ourselves.  Last time we were able to pull it over an existing layer of plastic which helped immensely.  We had no such bonus this time.

One thing we've learned from all of the things we've done is that sometimes you just have to make yourself do it even when you don't think you can.  So we were mustering our courage, taking a deep breath, getting our last drinks of water and generally preparing for a major ordeal.  Then my brother drove up unannounced!  Hallelujah, the cavalry had arrived!  It is impossible to express how much help it was to have an extra set of hands in this process.  It took about an hour and half, but we got the plastic pulled over the hoop house and locked into the ends on Friday.
 
Saturday morning we were at the farm at 7:30 (yes, AM) to lock down the sides of the plastic before the wind started blowing.  It was a bit chilly with frost on the ground and running the cordless drills made all our fingers get a bit numb, but we got it done.  The plastic looked wonderful - perfect tension and everything.  There were a couple of holes to patch from where it snagged on some loose staples, but they were quickly taken care of.  Excellent!  We got to cross this project off our list!

Then more resources showed up!  Scott came by again around 9:00 and brought presents.  He had some shelves and pegboard he had torn out of a house he's remodeling that he was going to throw on our brush pile.  Instead, we will be repurposing most of it into our soon to be work shop space!  Can't beat that!

At 10:00, our friend Jeff showed up again (we knew this one was coming, but his help is still such a gift).  Saturday he helped us fold up the old plastic to be used on some future project and then he helped start building our new chicken tractor.  The plastic was quite a chore to fold - 3 pieces at 128 lbs each makes for a lot of muscle moving! 

Folding old greenhouse plastic

The chicken tractor, on the other hand, was a bit more technical.  We first had to disassemble some large pallets to get the framing lumber.  We tried the first one with hammers before quickly moving to the sawzall.  The people assembling these things must have been paid by the nail!  It was absurd how many nails were in every piece.  Once we had enough framing pieces, we started cutting and assembling.  Jeff is a carpenter by trade and he made short work of getting the pieces ready and making sure that everything went together correctly.  It was a privilege to work with him and learn some of the tricks to really getting it right.  We managed to get the whole frame together on Saturday before he had to leave. 

Jeff and I and a chicken tractor in process

By the time we got everything picked up and wrapped up, it was 5:30 and we were pooped.  A 10 hour day at the farm is not for the faint of heart.  This was also when we realized we had made a tactical error when pulling the greenhouse plastic.  We did it when it was too cold.  In the 70 degree air on Saturday, the plastic expanded to the point that it was very definitely too loose.  We were too tired to pull off all the side boards and re-tension it on Saturday though.   It was definitely time for showers and some rest!

Sunday was a light day.  We intended to go tension the plastic, but the wind was too strong.  While it has been moving a lot on the frame, it doesn't appear to be any worse for the wear at this point.  We will have to wait for a day that is both warm (60-70 degrees) and still(er) before we will be able to take care of the problem.  Instead we kinda putzed around a little bit and then went to go see our friends Doug and Bayliss for a bit.  ;-)

Later Sunday afternoon, we got to go visit the baby goats!  They are truly adorable little doelings - full of spunk and very lovable.  They are going to be a great addition to our farm in another couple of months.

Kids and kids...

Lastly, on Monday morning we put the finishing touches on the re-organization of the shed!  Jacob put in the lion's share of the work on Saturday while the adults worked on other things, so we just had a few things to finish up.  Check out the before and after!

Before...

After!  :D

Some projects coming up for this week include: 

• continuing to move dirt in the garden and finally finish getting all the beds ready (that project has only been on the list for a year now...). 
• Pull out the cedar limbs from the garden fence behind the blackberries and thread the blackberry canes through the wires.  This should keep them from taking over the aisle again.
• Mulch the raspberries
• Get the next set of beams laid out for the house so that joinery can commence
• finish the chicken tractor

There are some other planting/transplanting things to do too, but they may wait a bit.  This is enough for now! 

Critters are coming!

Well, we had another opportunity fall in our laps with all the future challenges that will surely entail.  Some friends of ours are wanting to move to town from the country and needed to find a new home for their animals.  They asked if we would want them, so we went to see them a couple of weeks ago.  Here is what we saw:

A very pregnant la mancha (goat) doe

A tiny Shetland sheep

A full blood la mancha (goat) buck

10 chickens

 

The doe will have her babies any day now and we've agreed to take them also.  Our friends are going to keep them until May when we move back to the farm.  At that point, we will have somewhere between 2 and 4 goats, one of which should produce a gallon-ish of milk a day, a sheep and 10 chickens.  The farm is going to get a lot more farm like it appears.

The upside of this arrangement is clear - these are all very healthy animals that will provide us with meat, milk, pasture mowing and eggs for many years to come.  The downside is equally clear.  They require daily care (which I'm looking forward to) and we now have to build a place for them to stay.  We have some ideas for the future goat and chicken house(s), so stay tuned to see how that works out.

Another chapter in our crazy lives. 

Of bales, grass and fences

Sunday was another productive, although shorter, day at the farm.  Jacob and I managed to stack bales along the lowest of the swales behind the greenhouse.  They should form a good wall to catch any topsoil that tries to wash down the hill before the grass we planted comes in.  I have to say that after all the work we did on Saturday, we were moving pretty slow!  Catherine joined in by starting to spread hay on the area behind the greenhouse.  Have I mentioned how much I love my kids?

The bales and mulch behind the greenhouse.

When Jeremy arrived, he and I put in the 8' T-posts that complete the post part of the garden fence.  It's really starting to look fence-like now! 

Its starting to look like a fence...and Daisy got a photo op.  :D

 

While we did that, the kids continued spreading straw where we had planted grass.  The plan was for them to continue that while Jeremy and I strung wire for the fence.  Unfortunately, we realized that the fence staples were still at home.  So much for that idea!  So instead, we all spread straw out on the slopes around the garden spot.  We really don't want to leave this ground bare any longer than we have to because of the risk of erosion.  We're hoping that with the straw shading the soil and the moist week we're looking to have, the grass will go ahead and come up.  There are some small spots where we can already see some blades poking through and the clover in the garden is coming up in several places.  With a little luck (and rain), the area will look lush and green before the heat of summer kicks in.

The west slope around the garden covered in straw.

 

The rest of Sunday was spent resting and taking care of things at home (laundry still doesn't do itself, I'm sad to report).  A wonderful end to a wonderful weekend!

Goats and Scythes

Yesterday the chickens found their way to our new neighbors’ house.  Hopefully they will enjoy their new home and will provide their new owners with delicious eggs.  The chicken tractor will hopefully provide them shelter for now and a good brooder space for their future chicken endeavors. 

Chicken tractor loaded and ready

Here is the goat pen now set up in the top field.

You may notice something missing from the pen – the goats!  We didn’t quite have everything we needed to have a safe and healthy place for the boys.  We have to find/build a mobile shelter for them and because these are bucks with horns, we need something for them to rub their horns on.  We’ll work on that this week with the goal of bringing the boys over later in the week.  Fortunately, our neighbors are very kind to let us work on this as we’re out there.  With a little luck and a little work, we’ll have the goats home by the end of the week.

The scythe’s also arrived yesterday.  We fitted them to ourselves and set the grips and snath’s (the long handle).  We each have a snath fitted to us – the slightly bent one is cut and fit for me and the straight one is cut and fit for Jeremy.  The snath has to be sized so that when you hold it at rest, the blade hovers a couple of inches over the ground.  This makes it so that as you twist to mow, the blade should glide over the ground without digging in or flying up too high.  While I can hold Jeremy’s snath with a blade on it, it’s really a couple of inches too long – the blade touches the ground when my arms are at rest.  Likewise when Jeremy holds my snath, the blade hovers much too high off the ground.  Fortunately, it is an easy thing to switch blades between snaths, so we should each be able to use both blades with no problems.

Proper fit with blade held comfortably just above the ground

Fully assembled scythe

We have 2 different styles of scythe blade also – a ditch blade and a brush blade.  The ditch blade is the all-purpose blade that can cut grass and small weeds easily.  It is very lightweight (weighs about a pound) and is longer to be able to cut more material per stroke.  It will likely be the one we use the most to keep the place tidy.  The brush blade is shorter and stronger so that it can cut through small saplings (up to about ½ inch) and is what we’ll use for clearing out some of the more overgrown parts of the property.  There is a third kind of scythe blade – the grass blade.  It is longer and thinner than the ditch blade (comes in up to a 36” length vs. the 16-22” ditch blade) and is really only good for cutting grass/hay and grains.  Since we have very little pasture that is just grass at this point, we figured we would wait on getting a real haying/harvesting scythe.  The ditch blade should serve for any grass we need to cut right now.  These will get tested out this afternoon hopefully and we’ll let you know how they go!  If you want to learn more about scythes, please check out www.scythesupply.com.  These guys really know their stuff!

Brush blade on the left, ditch blade on the right.  The red is the blade cover - these guys are SHARP!

Of Goats and chickens

Yes, you read that right, goats.  Last week while observing that our 3 fields are getting more than a bit overgrown, we had the idea to see if our neighbors would like to graze their goats on it.  We figured this is a win-win for everybody – they get free food for their animals, we don’t have to mow/brush hog the fields.  Unfortunately there isn’t a fence which means that the goats would happily eat the little baby trees we’ve been nurturing along for the last several weeks.  Bummer.  In conversation though, we discovered that our neighbors have 2 goats for sale – one buck and one wether (castrated male).  They are a Nigerian dwarf/ La Mancha cross which means they are about knee high and very personable.  Does of this mix tend to produce a lot of milk for their size and be very healthy.  The gents clearly won’t be producing milk, but they’re hardy and friendly.  Someday, we can get does so that we can have milk (and baby goats!). 

After some discussion and negotiation, we agreed to trade them our chicken tractor with 2 chickens for their 2 goats and a little cash.  On the days when we aren’t able to go to the farm to take care of the goats, they’ll go over and make sure everything is OK.  We’ll be using the cattle panels from our fence here and our former tomato tunnels to make a few 16’x16’ pens for the goats that we can move around the property.  Hopefully that will contain them and direct their chomping efforts to the parts of the farm that need knocked down the most. 

Unlike cows or sheep, goats prefer to eat brushy stuff.  They are browsers rather than grazers, although they will eat grass if they have to.  Since our fields are currently more weed than grass, this works out perfectly.  We’re hoping that after the goats spend a while eating down the pasture, it will convert back to mostly grass (grass is one of the very few plants that is made to be eaten off and regrow).  Over time, these little guys will help us improve the quality of our pasture as well as keep it cut down.

The great swap is to take place this morning so hopefully I’ll have pictures later this week of the new additions to the farmstead and their new digs.  The kids are a little bummed to give up the last 2 chickens at our house, but I think they’ll like the goats too.  We’ll also be able to get our other chickens back when we move to the farm.

In other homestead news, we set up the beds for the established grapes and for the blackberries on Friday.  We also did some more clearing along the fence line.  We forgot the camera so we don’t have any pictures of the new spaces to post today (I know, I know - yell at me in the comments…).  We’ve started fleshing out what the rest of the garden beds in that corner will look like so they will start going in over the next few weeks.  We may even get to have a small late summer/fall garden yet this year.

We’re getting geared up for the first greenhouse now.  There should be some significant developments on that front in the very near future, so stay tuned!

Quick Update...

We now have all the poles from the chicken run down, the holes filled and we've started leveling that area and the rest of the side yard.  We dug out about 1/3 of the clay riased path under the silver maple too.  We have high hopes that there will be grass seed down on that side of the yard sometime this weekend. 

The seed we planted a week ago is now sprouting.  Soon the north half the lot will have a short green fuzz that will hopefully turn into actual grass!

All for now!  Thanks for checking in!

Chicken Moving Time!

Yesterday was chicken moving day.  We started after church by moving the chickens into the backyard so that we could demo their run and load up the chicken coop.  The chickens mostly thought this was a great deal – the backyard has lots of tasty bugs and grass to eat and plenty of space to explore.  The brush pile in the corner was a particular favorite!

Barred Rocks exploring the fallen leaves

 

While they were entertained, we emptied out the bedding in the coop, took out the feeder and waterers, and took down the run.  It took about 3 hours to get it to the point we could actually move the chicken coop.  One of the steps in this process was removing 2 of the cedar fence poles around the run.  These are 10 foot cedar poles that are about 3 feet in the ground, so it took a lot of digging and then a LOT of pulling to get them out of the ground.  I’m incredibly glad that Jeremy is part ox and can lift things that I can’t even contemplate! 

Once the coop was free, we tipped it over to add some supports underneath.  This being our first adventure in coop building, we had neglected to install enough floor supports and the floor had started to sag a little bit.  Once those were in, we were ready to load up.  Luckily, my brother arrived right as we were getting ready to lift the coop onto the trailer.

After some maneuvering, thinking and serious heavy lifting, the coop was on the trailer.  The kids and I caught the chickens and put them in their temporary carriers (2 large dog kennels).  2 of the chickens are staying with us because they have been hen pecked pretty badly.  They need to heal up before rejoining their friends.  We may even send them to a different home – more about that a different time.  Good thing we have a chicken tractor for them!

Coop resting on trailer ramp

 First try - the dolly under the left end slid out making this effort a failure

 Next we put 2x6 ramps (boards) under the coop to help it over the edge of the trailer ramp.

Success!  Jacob has found his calling as a supervisor.  ;-)

We loaded up all the various chicken stuff – food, scratch, grit, chicken wire for the new run and other miscellany – and headed for Baldwin.  We also brought the ice cream freezer and homemade ice cream mix and the remaining birthday cake from Catherine’s party this weekend.  The idea was to mix it up and have a celebration dessert after we finished getting the chickens settled in their new home.

The chicken’s new run at my brother’s house is constructed of arched cattle panels – it closely resembles one of our tomato tunnels for those of you who are familiar with our garden.  The coop sits at one end with only one door opening onto the run.  The end of the run is hinged to make a gate and the back of the coop is easily accessible.  When we had it all finished, Scott tossed some old hay (read: free bugs) into the run and we set the chickens loose to acquaint themselves with their new home.  All the kids in the house were fascinated.  I don’t know what it is about chickens, but kids just love them.

 Kids surrounding the chickens

While building the run, we decided to have an impromptu BBQ to go with the dessert so I made a run to the grocery store for brats, dogs, beans and chips.  A little bit of grilling and some hand cranking of ice cream later, we had dinner!  The kids even did most of the ice cream cranking – a welcome first for us.  Daisy enjoyed getting to see something new too, although she didn’t seem to understand that barking at the 150 lb dogs behind the fence was perhaps not the smartest plan.  Fortunately, it’s a strong fence.

The kids and Daisy cranking ice cream

So, now that corner of our yard is much closer to being grass.  We still have to dig out the dirt in the old run down to the level of the rest of the yard and remove the remaining cedar posts.  Hopefully that will happen this week.  A little bit of leveling later, and we’ll be ready to seed most of the side yard leaving just the area under the maple tree and the garlic and shallot beds to finish up.  The end is in sight!

No more chickens...  :-(