Projects...

When you have a bunch of animals there are always projects to be done.  One task I've been wanting to tackle for a while is to do something about the front of the chicken coop.  Between human foot traffic and the activities of the hens, the area in front of the coop is hard packed dirt where nothing grows except a few straggly weeds. Not only is it unattractive, but when it rains it becomes amazingly slippery.  I've fallen on my butt more than once in this area. I developed a plan.  And today Chris and Rachel, (with a tiny bit of help from me) put the plan in place.

Here is what the area looked like before...

My plan was to haul some rocks that were lying hither and yon to the hen yard and arrange them where the dirt meets the herbage.  I dug a little bit of a trench at that junction, and Chris collected rocks.  The second part of my plan was to lay some mulch down over the dirt. My thought was that it would give me better footing when things get slippery. And if there is just a bit of snow or ice (not deep stuff) the dark mulch will help it melt faster. Bonus points, it would all look so much nicer. We found a super hot deal on some mulch ($2 a bag!) and hauled a truck load home.

It looks so fine that I now I need to sand and paint the steps. See what I mean about projects? The hens checked out the updates and looked approving.  I'm waiting for them to suggest paint colors for those stairs.

We accomplished some other projects as well.  Fixed a bit of fence, mowed the back yard.  I managed to aggravate some wasps or hornets or something while we were doing chores and they made their displeasure very clear to me, in a painful way.

Chris and Rachel took down some old fence and laid it on the ground, staking it flat. Then they moved the calf hutches on top of it. These will house rabbits and not allow them to dig out. We moved two rabbits into one hutch and they seem quite pleased with the set up.  I cleaned the pony shed, (by myself! Something I really missed doing when I was working with only one arm.)

And THEN Rachel and I trimmed all the goats hooves and wormed them.  We got very warm and quite dirty doing all this, and decided to take a dip when we were done.  By the time we got to the pond a cool breeze had started up.  And that water?  It was a whole lot more chilly than it was a week ago.  We chickened out and came home.

But later, sipping a glass of wine at the picnic table, it was a delight to look around and see the good work we had done.  I do love a day when projects are completed.