I had a couple hours of finishing touches left to complete on the chicken run, but I could not live with the chicks in my house for one more day, so I headed outside earlier than usual. First, I took a trip to Winnie’s barn to bring her breakfast; she’s been spending the nights grazing in the cool moonlit pasture, trekking in to nap in the barn once the sun comes up. To my surprise, the back of the barn was somewhat flooded. This happens occasionally when it rains particularly hard and the water runs in from the street. I didn’t think too much of it; I already planned to clean the paddock after finishing the run, so I added a stall strip to my to-do list.
I headed back to the main barn to get the Gator, which was stocked with tools and supplies for the chicken run project. I turned the key – no response. Dead battery. I needed to keep moving, so I dragged the tools out by hand and spent three hours stretching wire, cutting boards, laying hardware cloth, and lugging cinder blocks. I clipped a fingernail once with the hammer and vowed to be more careful; four boards later, I struck my left pointer point blank.
I pushed through and finished the chicken run, then watched a YouTube video to figure out how to extract the battery from the Gator. Naturally, it’s in the most inconvenient location possible, and I don’t have hex bits for the drill so I had to turn them by hand. Once visualized, the battery was by far the most corroded auto battery I’ve ever seen. The video said it would take a 10mm socket to loosen the connections; for some reason, it was actually a 13mm socket.
I hauled the battery in my car and drove to the convenient auto parts store in the center of town. They first tried to give me a battery for a lawn mower, and ultimately did not have the correct battery in stock. I drove to the next town over where the guy gave me a hard time for letting the battery get so corroded. I was dripping sweat, covered in dirt and battery acid, and my finger was throbbing. Two hundred dollars later, I was back home and finagling the battery into its convoluted spot.
When the Gator roared to life, I threw a bale of shavings and a rake in the back and cleaned Winnie’s paddock and barn in record time. The manure dumped in the compost area, it was finally time to sit with the chickens as they acclimated to their new home.
Aesthetic Utility
The chicken run is complete and the birds have been evicted. Eight went to my family’s farm next door and the other eight stayed here – including Sage, the winner of the personality award since her second day on Earth. I wound up going with Omlet (not a referral link) for the chicken feeder and insulated waterer, both of which I hung using straps (referral link) that are actually made for hanging a swing from a tree. I really like this arrangement so far, and I haven’t seen a speck of food wasted from the feeder.
The chicks seem to be settling in nicely. They were very happy about the grass and increased space. It only took three days for them to figure out that dusk is time to go into the coop. While the run is not a professional-grade construction job, I am very proud of what I was able to put together.
There are some finishing touches left to complete. I lined the run with hardware cloth and cinder blocks to reduce the chances of a predator digging in; I need to cover the hardware cloth with wood chips, and plan to fill the cinder blocks with soil so I can grow herbs and flowers. I also ordered motion-sensing solar lights to dissuade predators at night, although the chicks will be locked in the coop each evening for an added layer of security.
I am so happy and excited to finally have my very own flock of chickens. There is now no doubt that I am a real homesteader. 🙂
Food Production
I brought in my first official garden harvest – mostly herbs with a few radishes. I’ve been drying herbs to ensure that I have enough to last the winter. Several plants are now flowering; I suspect that next week I’ll be able to report that I’ve picked a cucumber.
I started seed blocks for lettuce, kale, and spinach. I’ve planted kale and spinach in the garden multiple times now, but I tend to be a bit overzealous with the stirrup hoe. Transplanting from soil blocks should increase my success rate. This is of particular importance because a decent fall kale harvest could provide greens for soups throughout the winter – one more relatively easy step towards self sufficiency, if I could just get the damn seeds to germinate!
I also planted beans in the corn patch. I am not holding my breath for success; the corn stalks are now several inches tall, but a few are having trouble standing up. I must not have planted the seeds deep enough. Whatever happens will be a learning experience; I’m already eager to try other methods for next year.
Resource Acquisition & Preparedness
The garlic was done curing in the hay loft, as evidenced by the dry and papery stalks, so I prepared the harvest for winter storage. My preferred method is to cut off the stalks about two inches above the bulb and store in a mesh bag in the basement. I sorted the smaller bulbs into one bag for immediate consumption and the larger, better-wrapped bulbs into a second bag for gifting, replanting, and eventual eating if the first bag runs out.
I brought in another load of firewood. It was a lighter load than usual because I got distracted by the wild blueberries and blackberries, which were ripening. It’s rare that I get any substantial quantity of wild blueberries from these forests; there’s endless bushes, but the birds usually beat me to them! They are small and sweet. I collected as many as I could into my mosquito net, and then purchased two old aluminum colanders at a yard sale to store in the Gator’s cargo compartment for future occasions such as this one.
Speaking of yard sales, I also found a few old window screens in a free pile at a yard sale. I scrubbed them with dish soap and left them to bake in the sun in the hopes of sanitizing them, and then used two to experiment with sun-drying basil leaves. It worked incredibly well and was almost entirely done in just six hours. I will be gathering more screens and doing this again soon, expanding the experiment to include other fruits and vegetables as well.
Moving Forward
The chicken run project was all-consuming for so many weeks. Now that it’s done and summer is officially halfway over, the rest of my to-do list is looming. Next week, I’m hoping to make a serious dent in spreading wood chips in the garden. There’s rain in the forecast, so I’ll have time to split some of the firewood that I’ve brought in. I should probably paint the kitchen, so I can stop looking at the nail holes that I spackled when I moved in last year.
We’ll see what I get done!
KC