I cannot believe I am posting this graphic image.
Again! But if you don't know how far we've come, you can scarcely imagine the gratitude and joy I am feeling as I see our chicken run and coop come to life.
It was three years ago when my makeshift farm was at its height of pathetic. We were new to our Bird House, unpacking, making fixes, settling in. Geoff was in crunch mode,
robotics was in full swing, life! The daily stuff takes time. The big projects take time, and the big dreams? The big dreams take time, too. And sometimes dreams really do come true, but maybe it happens gradually...
My picnic table converted to a coop, and under a sun tattered shelter had to go! The wind took most of it, and about a year later we put up what we affectionately call
the shark cage. Sturdy. Practical. Ugly.
Sturdy, but not safe. We've had some hard hits from the wild kingdom.
Now, there are goats in the shark cage, and
the chickens are living in a raised vegetable bed capped with our old picnic table-turned-chicken-coop... I tell ya, I take the prize for make-do ingenuity!
The set up we have now
works. It's not ideal, because the chicas have little space, except when we let them free-range. But we lost Puff to a hawk, and thee ladies make a poop deck of our porch... so, yeah, it's not great. I'll tell you what's great... a secure enclosure, with room for goats, chickens and rabbits, with water on hand, and walk-in accessibility. An interior fence to keep goats out of chicken land... gradually, before my very eyes, my dream is coming true!
Actually, things don't seem so
gradual any more. We're really picking up steam! The one inch by half inch hardware cloth is going on. Geoff + Compressor + Pneumatic Stapler =
IronMan Awesome!
I white washed the inside of what will be
le coop. Our cedar playhouse mania (one for chickens, one for goats, and finally, one for our children) has been like a mad Monopoly shopping spree, but trust me: economically, these are a, mild climate, farmer's blessing. They are affordable, sturdy, ample, and loaded with charm. Look again at the first photo and agree, we are long over due for something
loaded with charm!
I'll be thankful for the glossy paint when it comes time to scrub and hose the chicken
blogs off everything. Next come roosts, and some curtains, CAT 5 wiring, and maybe a mini-fridge? Too much?
This is where fancy photo software would come in handy... so I could write in things like "fence here," "roof here," "satellite dish there." It will be goats on the left, and chickens on the right, with a picket fence between.
Chickens can pass through goat land, but goats have to show a passport at the border. The two PVC pipes in the foreground are waiting for the automatic refilling waterers. This means I get to sweat copper! Very exciting. (Does that sound facetious? I really am excited.) Geoff is buying metal so he can make custom roof ties...
this guy. (Excuse me while I close my eyes and smile blissfully, in love.)
Hmmmm... this one is harder to explain. At a local nursery, I saw an awesome aviary, with this massive tree inside. The tree had died, but they secured it, and use the dried tree for the birds... it's basically just really cool, and I wanted to give our run something of that aesthetic. So. I stalked the tree trimmers, until I found a tree that was being removed, and I asked the trimmers
could I please have a ginourmous limb for my goats and chickens? And I even drew a stick figure
me standing with a tree limb, a chicken, and a goat. Guess what? It worked, and the next day they dropped off four hunks of a pine tree in our driveway! Now two of those "trees" are planted in concrete and giving the chicken run a little visual interest. (Not going to show you what inspired me, because the comparison might be embarrassing. Not for the nursery, for me... but hey! I like our piney forest.)
Is this post too long? I'm rambling, maybe. I might have taken two ibuprofen
to ease my inexplicable pain, and it might be that it relaxes my muscles, and my brains. Hence the rambling.
This view! The dream coming true! I am very excited, and thankful, and excited. And thankful.
Soon the chicas and the goats, the bunnies, too, will be living in harmony, in safety, and
out of our house. And we'll have some sweet conveniences, and peace of mind. And then... then we can get back to other serious matters, like finishing
the Sugar-crab, our giant, walking, robotic crustacean!