Why our garden should have a fence

The chickens have won the battle for who gets to eat the most tomatoes. The blasted things took forever to start bearing, because, of course, the bok-boks ate all the blooms off the bottom half of the plants! Then when they finally started getting some fruit on them, they picked off all the ones they could jump up and reach. Yum! Tasty treat. Oh, yeah, not to mention all the lovely cucumbers, peppers and pumpkins they devoured. Number one on the To-Do List for Fall: build the damn fence!

It seems we can now trust Lucy around the chickens. Of course we can! They're like a walking, squawking smorgasbord. She just follows them around waiting for snacks to pop out their butts! Why would she ever want to limit the amount of chicken poop she can eat in a day!

David left for Germany today and will be gone all week. No cooking for me! I'm planning to reduce the amount of leftovers that threaten to take over my fridge. This evening I've already dined on the remains of Thursday's dinner. Scallops with linguine in tomato-cream sauce. Yum! Awaiting me in the days ahead are spaghetti with portobello marinara, some pork loin that I smoked yesterday with added BBQ sauce and pork fried rice. I love using leftovers creatively.

Goldie is getting vewwwy interested in the nesting boxes. I found her sitting in there this morning after all the others were outside. She was the first one to investigate them. I checked her vent this afternoon and it's nice and moist and seems to be a little swollen, so that's a good sign that it won't be long! Maybe I will win The First Egg contest between Amy, Don, Ron and me.

So, Henry, the champion crowing machine (45 times in a row, dare to compare), is going to live with my mother-in-law, Phyllis. She has been wanting him for a while and I just can't take the incessant crowing anymore. I'm afraid the neighbors will lynch him some day when I'm out. And what's worse, he tried to flog one of the grandkids a couple of days ago. Nathan was chasing Kaitlyn in the yard and she was screaming like a two-year-old is wont to do and Henry flew up at Nathan with his feet going for his face. Thank goodness he doesn't have his spurs yet and he didn't quite have the hang of it, so he was unsuccessful, but it was a little scary when you realize the damage he could do in the future. One more reason to ship him off. If we didn't have that option, he would be Sunday dinner.

And, last but not least, just wanted to add a few cute pics I've taken in the past few days.

The Perfect Yard for Chickens

I think we have the most perfect yard for our free-ranging chickens. We have about a 3/4 acre backyard that is completely fenced and the perimeter is trees, trees, trees and lots of underbrush for the chickens to hide under and dead leaves for them to scratch in. They're ten weeks old and have been free-ranging for about 2 1/2 weeks now. They love it so much! When I go into the henhouse in the morning around 9:00, they're all waiting patiently in front of the pop-out door. I'm very selfish, though, and make them all pass through my petting hands before being allowed access to the outdoors. Kind of a Great Outdoors admission fee! However, there are still a few who won't give in to my coaxing and will wait even more patiently for me to get the heck out of the way! The elusive Louise, an Easter Egger, will not let me under any circumstances get hold of her. I'm not sure what I will do if I ever have to administer any kind of medication or dust for parasites.


Henry, my silver-laced Wyandotte rooster, has established that he is the big boss of his ladies. He's especially bossy to his chickmate, Henrietta. She is very submissive to him. It will be interesting to see his temperament when he reaches full maturity. If he gets too demanding, I may have to rehome him. I hope not, because he is such a handsome dude!




Here he is with Henrietta, being nice for a change.




Here's where the chickens all hang out when they aren't out in the yard.




A full view of the 20x30 foot barn. It was built by the previous owner from a barn he dismantled on another property. It has two floors. His original intent was to make the second story into a basketball court for his sons with salvaged hardwood flooring. He only made it as far as an oriented strand board floor, but we store lots of junk and furniture up there.