Raining in August?!

August in Texas is generally the driest month of the year.  It had been dry for a few weeks in my little corner of the world, and even though it made the heat more bareable because the humidity was low, we needed rain very badly.  I have been having to water my fruit trees every few days to keep them alive, they are fairly new and if I don't water leaves start browning and falling off.

Well, we did get rain...after a few days of clouds and not a drop...we had a few downpours in two days time we received 3-1/4 inches.  The thing is, it is extremely humid now and every time I walk out the door, a few minutes later I am soaking wet.  I am working when that happens, and it is from sweat.  It also made the poultry area rather nasty and stinky.  I am ready for Fall, cooler temperatures and changing leaves, it is much easier to work outside in the Fall in Texas.  Yes, it is usually still pretty warm out during the day, but 80's is better than 100's.  I still have not finished my Goose house...and I need to get it done.  I have to make another house for what is currently my chicken tractor area, I have been using what I call my Lowboy for roosters...when we got all the rain it collapsed the top of it from the weight of the water.  It actually tore the metal hardware cloth and broke the wood too.  So I will have to make a new structure for that area.  I started putting younger roosters into pens now, some have figured out how to escape though, so I will have to fix that area.

I still have far too many roosters running around with my hens, it is getting better...I think I have about 35 in separated into the pens now, but the two in the Lowboy are out now until that gets replaced.  I have some young roosters coming of age that are not being very nice to young hens that I need to catch and separate.  I really need to construct more roosts for my big coop too, if I do that, I will be able to move more into it.  I have to start thinking about winterizing too.

I need to try and set up an area to process chickens too.  Lots to think about, only about seven of the roosters I have separated will be kept for breeding purposes.  So I have at least 25 chicken dinners coming.