One thing I can say about living in the country and having almost twenty acres, and a bunch of poultry...you really don’t get days off! I may not do as much some days, or maybe not as hard of physical labor, but it seems I always have plenty to get done even on my “rest day”. Today I started with laundry, let the dogs out, then gave the three food and water, made some pumpkin bread, cleaned up the kitchen then made breakfast. While my husband went out and fed the poultry and let them out.
Put laundry in the dryer and started another load. I did sit and drink a cup of coffee. I am not complaining mind you, it was a slower day than most. I also made Chicken Cordon Bleu from scratch...I wanted it ready to stick into the oven after the evening feeding and watering of the critters, we actually ate at 7:30 tonight! Here lately it has been more like 8:30 or 9:00.
A few days ago I was out putting up roof rafters in what I call my breeding pens, I just did half so far, but I needed a place off of my porch to move juvenile chickens and there are so many, I needed more of a roofed area for them. It took me several days, and I had to use a variety of roofing screws...lol, I usually have plenty of one size...not this time, I even had to drill pilot holes through some of the metal because I couldn’t get the screws to start and the drill would slip, the screw would go flying and I would say a curse word or two. Apparently my turkey hen “Bronze Hen” was worried about me, she flew up and landed on the rafters while I was working. I got lucky though, normally she tries to be very helpful and get screws out of the box for me (usually dumping the box). She didn’t stay long, just checked on me and then flew back down, thank goodness! I think more might have joined her if she had have stayed much longer. Anyway, I got metal put up on the rafters, but the metal is recycled and 2 feet shorter than was advertised! So ten feet instead of the twelve I really needed. I made an offer on it that I was surprised was accepted, I got it for half the asking price and then they delivered it. I have been lucky like that when buying used materials. I don’t have a trailer and I don’t normally keep the truck but one day a week to run errands. I have gotten cinderblocks and wood the same way. I will admit, I had some issues with the rafters, the frame has shifted on the run and I had to add some blocks of wood to make the 8 foot lengths work, hey...it is just for chickens, it doesn’t have to be perfect! At least that is what I keep telling myself. Anyway, it is crooked. Then my husband said it was too flat for water to run off, so I had to take the metal off and add a furring strip on the rafters closest to the coop part...otherwise water might have run into the coop when it rained. It won’t now, but because of the extra wood, I had to slide the metal back about three inches when I reattached it, so...it is going to leak until I put some silicone caulk in all the holes! The metal is not perfect by any means, it had screw holes in it already, and a bit of rust...and it isn’t exactly straight either. Because it isn’t straight it didn’t exactly meet up with the wood the end of the rafters are attached to. When I have more time, I might try and fix it.
I had put a big shade tarp over the pens and I needed to restring it across the run that still didn’t have a roof. I had to switch the traps direction because I no longer had the wood frame to attach it to on one side. I am doing this with roosters running around and a big Tom turkey in the pen, trying not to freak them out too much. The tarp is way to big now so I had to drape it down the front of the pen about four feet...the corner Post is 10 feet tall on this side as the ground the pen sits on is flat we’re the coop sits but the run is angled so any time it rains the water runs down hill. Here I am on this tall ladder, trying to get the bungee ball tie downs put back through the grommets and standing on a ladder that is unstable, sitting on a hill...chickens and turkeys trying to check everything out, sweat pouring down my face and my clothes soaking wet from sweating, stringing a shade tarp, tired...I get done, start going down the ladder take a step and end up missing the bottom rung or possibly two of the ladder. I am not a spring chicken anymore, I didn’t want to fall and I was able to maintain my balance, but hurt my right knee, felt something pop, I still had one foot on the rung of the ladder too...I pulled every muscle I had in both legs practically doing the splits. I never was good at the splits...and it isn’t something us 59 year olds normally do when we get older either. Needless to say, I have been a bit sore ever since it happened. Didn’t sleep well the first few days, although that could have been from the chafing I experienced on my legs from my jeans being wet from the sweat too.
After I moved something like 40 chickens off the porch, I had to clean up all the brooders. I did my errands, grocery shopping, going and getting the proper screws, getting a feeder, picking up feed for the week...then got home and unloaded and put everything away. For a normal person, that might not sound like much...but, I get a week or twos worth of groceries and this time 850 pounds of feed. It takes me awhile, then I cleaned up the brooders the chickens were in. They were nasty, I had skipped a cleaning day and when the flies are bad that is a very bad thing. I took time to finish creating the artwork for a book cover, for a book my husband wrote...instead. Yep, around here...sometimes one chore is sacrificed to get something else done. He published the book on Amazon, we are hoping it sells well, the money will come in handy. Anyway, after scrubbing everything down and spraying a ton of bug spray the fly situation is almost under control. I still have cleaning to do on the porch, need to power wash the cages, poop trays and wash waterers and feed dishes. Now that the critters are off the porch maybe I can get the house power washed too...time will tell. I need to work in the garden, mow, trim some trees, do coop cleaning and power washing soon. I want to get back to work on my bathroom remodel soon too. Oh well, it is about 10:30 now..I need to go put up leftovers and throw laundry in the dryer before I get ready for bed. It may be awhile before I write again. Goodnight!
