The Fence Fabric is Put Up

Wow, now it looks like a real henyard!  I think this chainlink investment is a good one.

The three man crew had it up in about 45 minutes, they knew what they were doing.

And here is the finished product, up in less than an hour. 

It will be smaller than the two yards we already have, but the birds will be able to get under the house, too. 

We still intend to cover this yard with some kind of fabric... possibly shade fabric, because we decided to use netting, and were warned that the wildings will get caught in it constantly.  Say bye bye to the dead grass, as the birds will have it out of there in no time.  I intend to put straw mulch in there.

Lilly Ann approves!

Representative group of hens who will be moving over to the new yard.

Henspa Update

Here are a couple of pictures of the henhouse, which Keith has been working on very hard despite the heat.

Remember, we are moving the laying hens into this house... and away from all the roosters except for Butch and Fancy, the adult porcelain D'Uccle.  I hope to be able to find all the eggs from then on out, and find clean eggs to boot.

The big henyard hens will lose their access to the pasture, but someday, when Lilly and Ranger have crossed the Bridge, we'll let the hens out in the yard. 

The trim will be white, against the chocolate brown.  I like this so much, that I am thinking of painting our interior this color.  My son has it on the walls of his house, and I have admired it very much.

But this is the really exciting thing... the electric, which was stubbed out underneath the front of the building, was brought in today and four of the outlets hung.  Tomorrow the electricians will be back to complete the job.  We'll have an outlet to hang a chick light (or run a fan in the summer)... and three others for whatever we need.  We'll have an overhead light, and Keith has started the steps up into the building.  We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

Tomorrow after work, Keith will do some research about netting... we were warned today that even one inch net over the yard will trap wild birds in it.  We don't want to go out daily and find 20 birds trapped and in trouble, so we are looking at other options.  Does anyone have advice?  We would be glad to listen.

Tuesday Already!

It seems like the weekends come and go, and we try to push our lives into them.  Then back to the weekly routine, early rising, rush through chores, off to work, use your brain all day (and sometimes your brawn), home to an hour of chores before fixing dinner.  Now that the days are growing shorter, morning chores are done in the dark, and soon, they will be in the dark on the other side, evening.  It makes us want to get in, get fed, get warm and cozy. 

It's already Tuesday evening, and Keith has accomplished a lot on the new henhouse since Sunday, despite two long trips Monday and Tuesday.  He is out there now putting his tools away, as we finally have a 50% chance of rain this evening late. 

Here is what the henhouse looks like today:

I am so proud of Keith.  He knew in theory how to build things, but over the last seven years, he has honed his skills.  This henhouse is built to stand up to an E5 tornado, and despite some initial setbacks with the roof, as you see, it is going along swimmingly.  This weekend Chris will be here to help with the remainder of the sheathing, which had to wait until the roof rafters were up. 

Here is another shot:

We will eventually have a small patio in front of it.  The yard will extend to the south... you are looking at the north side.  (north and east).  The yard will be fenced against the dogs, and covered on top so we don't lose any birds flying out, and so the wildings can't get in.  As you can see, it's up high enough that the birds can shelter under the house when it is hot out.  We'll give them some other kind of shade in their yard, as well.

We're fighting time, now, as it's starting to get cold.  There are three big roosters, Rambo, Brutus and Rocky.  We can't put them all together, so we would like to leave Rambo and his group in the big henhouse, and bring all the boys and girls over to the new henhouse from the little henhouse for the winter.  Then I can close up the little henhouse for the winter.  In the spring, the girls will stay in the new henhouse, and all the boys will go back to batchelor's quarters in the little henhouse.

We want to welcome all of our new readers tonight... we hope you like our blog, and have a laugh or two with us, and maybe a tear or two from time to time.  We love reading your blogs, and are glad to have you enjoying ours!

Simply Saturday

We worked mostly around the house today, with a few short errands.  Eggs were cleaned again and taken to our food kitchen.  I spoke with a volunteer there (it is a thrift store that runs a food pantry) and she told me that there are new families coming in all the time for help.  Keith and I feel the tightening, too... our dollars are not going as far at even Wal Mart, and when we run out, we try to do without until we are paid again.  I have been paying Christopher to do the heavy work here, and that money was former spending money, but it is going for a good cause... he is using it for some things he needs and I'm glad to be able to help.  Daughter in law Amy, laid off three months ago, found a job a week later... yesterday afternoon was told the office was laying everyone off due to the economy, and called again last night late to be told the company had been sold and she still had a job.  Her stomach has hurt all week with the roller coaster ride.    It's hard times for a lot of people. 

I took some pictures today of the new henhouse, which, of course, is costing about double what we planned.  We are plugging away at it little by little.  No, KEITH is plugging away... Chris has helped him.... and will again, next weekend.  He has made great progress in the last few weeks.

I need to explain here about the roof.  Keith has never "built" a roof alone.  He is actually having fun figuring it out (though there was some frustration this afternoon).   Here is a picture taken a little later, from the side.

Yes, he worked until dark, and he's mighty tired.

I was busy in the house, but tuckered out, I think from running all week.

I did make it out to take some pictures of the flowers still blooming.

The red and white flowers are SNAPDRAGONS.  I have never, ever been able to grow snaps.  In late July or early August, in the middle of the heat, I stopped by Howard Pine Garden Center in Lawrence.  They had deeply discounted all flowers left.  (too many!).  The ladies who worked at the counter mentioned these snaps to me, and told me if I could get them started and living, they would come back year after year.  I don't know if you can see, but they have lovely long "tubes" of white under the red.  Lo and behold, when only the veronica and mums lived through the two frosts this week... these snaps are standing up and going STRONG.

The balsam is done. Got LOTS of seeds on it, though.

The pink thing in the middle is one of our four solar lights.  I loved seeing them glowing at night all summer.

The hyacinth bean vines, so lush and full a week ago, are wilted now.  LOTS of seed pods on them, though.  I'll grow them at the end of the garden on a new trellis next year, where they won't strangle everything.

Next to the hyacinth jungle on the upright trellis was the cypress vine, that, though started late, parasitized the buddleia next to it, and grew down the fence and out into the yard.  Whoa.  It's growing somewhere else, too, next year.  This was the strangest growing year ever.

The view down the "good" end today.

And last, but not least....

The last tomatos picked for the year... there "ain't" gonna be anymore...

made this lovely salsa which is about ready to pop into the freezer (full container) and refrigerator.

YUM!

I've never picked an October tomato, either!