Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in His hand Who saith "A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!" - From "Rabbi Ben Ezra" by Robert Browning

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Moving the Chickens, Finding a Garden Bed

Primary Pen: Mostly hens
 John is always working hard around the farm. He's got more ideas than he has time to implement them.

Late yesterday afternoon I stepped outside to see what John was up to. He'd been telling me for days that he was going to move the main chicken pen to a nearby area under the trees.

Well, he moved it! All by himself! His idea is to have the chickens in a well-shaded area as the summer gets hotter, and to let the chickens clean out the area under the trees. That works for me!

If you haven't noticed already, the chicken pen is constructed of two 20'x20' dog pens. We were considering several types of chicken pens when a number of baby chicks were more than ready to be moved out of the brooder pen two years ago. We put them in a 10'x10' dog pen temporarily, and quickly realized that it was the perfect pen for adult chickens. And the dog house? That works too! The chickens love it! They lay their eggs in there during the day, and roost in there at night. The A-frame thing is a cover over the food dish, and another favorite perch for the chickens.
Where the primary pen was, now the new garden bed

The area where the pen was standing will be another new garden bed. The area is 20'x20', the size of the pen that was there, and having already been cleared and fertilized by the chickens, it makes for a great garden bed! There are some brushy stumps that need to be removed, but John says he can do that rather easily.  

Before sundown yesterday, John had tilled up the area to about 18 inches deep.
Of course John's entourage was nearby to observe and lend a hand as needed.
Maggie took point.
And the hard working genius behind almost everything that happens here at 5~Acre Farm, completed yet another task just before the sun settled low on the horizon, then quietly moved on to another task, anxious to do as much as he could before darkness settled in
and his day would officially be over.

The End.

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