It's fence day!

I am way more excited than I should be! After hours of clearing out our neighbors over grown trees (which look way better now if you're asking me) it's finally fence day!  We cut, chopped and dug up literally truck loads of branches. I started last fall (as you can see from the photo above) but had to quit during the winter, I had a big pile to haul but the truck wasn't running. Then the floods and wind storms put it under water or branches all over the yard.

The only before photo I could find was from our first winter here. So there it is, not terrible, until you realize the property line in 6 feet deep. The kids loved climbing branch mountain, pretending it was a castle, mountain, bean stock or whatever Other thing popped into their heads. They climbed the lower newly-cut branches and sat on some pretending it was a back hoe. Those two! I tell ya!

Getting cattle panels home is kind of a pain! Good thing it isn't far. Why cattle panels? We have A LOT of fence to put up. We aren't doing it all this weekend but we are planing on putting up about 180 feet of fence on one side of the yard. That's a lot of fence! One day we'll upgrade but for now this will do, and by now I mean several years.

 We did about 140ft today, the rest we have to mark out and trim the crazy grass heading into the field. We'll work on it this week and hopefully be ready for a bit more work by next weekend. We'll see how it goes though.

It isn't the most beautiful fence in the world, but it does it's job. I'm really happy with it. Good job, Scribs!

Cost per dozen eggs for March

March was a doozy, let me tell you. That wind storm threw our regular cost per dozen out the window. I had to buy fencing to make a temporary pen for the chickens in the barn, bedding, waterer, and a snack to keep the girls busy. Other then that and replacing the damaged bits, getting some shavings and feed, thats a high cost.

It was a good laying month, but also a lot of unexpected expenses, 3 times that of a normal month.We had a few wonky eggs, everything seems to have corrected itself. I'm not concerned about it.


The girls laid 237 eggs, 19.75 dozen.
My cost was $101.01 and sold $27, making my cost per dozen $3.75 not terrible but not great either.

In other chicken news, we have a new Rooster. Mr. Lovebug has named him Truckee. Our Faux-Roo wasn't doing too well and we decided that it would be best for him to put him out of his misery. There will be a whole lot more on that another day.

So back to Truckee. I met a woman buying chicks (she was, not me) and we got to chit-chatting, she had mentioned that she had a few too many roos. I offered to buy one after telling her about our flock, the space they have, blah blah blah. She wanted to make sure he wasn't going to the soup pot. I was supposed to go and get him the day or the wind storm, well obviously that wasn't going to happen. After calling and calling I couldn't get a hold of her (her power had been knocked out). I felt terrible for not going to get him when I said I would and couldn't get a hold of a her. Luckily enough I saw her again and made arrangements to go pick him up.

Going to get him, oh boy that was an adventure. First, the GPS took me all over as always. You'd think I would have learned by now not to trust it. Nope! Then we took some back roads that were filled with farm construction. Nope, back to the highway. Finally we get halfway up the mountain and I can't find the place. Adventure indeed. We go there, the kids mostly had a good time. If you've never driven with a crowing rooster in the back of your car....

So that's the story of Truckee. He has earned his keep so far. We had an eagle attack, everyone survived no worse for wear. Feathers everywhere but no missing or hurt chickens. The girls come when he calls (mostly growls). No attacking or even following the kids. He's a good boy. We're very grateful that he's joined our flock.

Thats a bit more than just a cost per dozen update, but that's what has been going on with the chickens.

Oh yeah, our Buff Orpington, Crazy-Legs is broody. She's trying to sit on eggs but keeps cracking them. Great maternal skills. Broody is when a hen wants to sit on eggs and hatch 'em. They'll sit there all day and night, pull out their feathers so the egg is against their skin and they get crazy. I've heard to described as PMS and Menopause all in one. They will sit even with nothing under them, yell and growl when disturbed or even peck and bite. They neglect their own nutritional needs for phantom eggs. I'm working on breaking her of this.

Goings on around here.

This past week spring has hit us! It's warm and I have a long to-do list. There's nothing like the first few days of 60 degrees to get the motivation going. This week I planted a tree, put up a string fence between us and the neighbors, mowed the lawn and went through the kids toys and prepared a box for donations. I've also drained and cleaned the hot tub it was so gross after the last windstorm ripped the cover off.

Scribs did some (or a lot) of chain-sawing and we've been hauling away the branches. It would appear as though the neighbors trees hadn't been trim in about 40 years, and as things go, their trees took over a part of our yard, that part being about 10 feet long by (in some spots) 6 feet deep or more.

Last year we had a survey done, we should have had to done before we bought the house, oh well lesson learned. We have marker stakes all over but this year we're going to put up a fence. I don't want our animals and the kids going all over. Good fences make good neighbors, no?

I planted an apple tree, a 5 variety apple tree to be exact. Why, I don't know. We want to plant lots of fruit trees (trees in general) and have to space for a lot. I'm not sure why I didn't just get 2 (or more) of 1 variety. I think they're cool. I want a fruit salad tree too. The tree is mulched, and double fenced. The large, green fence is for keeping the chickens out and the second is buried to help keep rodents out.

We have a lot of rhododendrons that we'd like to dig up. I mean about a dozen, Some we'd like to replace with a boxwood hedge but maybe not till next year. We've have started to clear the garden and need to get it tilled.

I do need to do a deep clean of the coop too, I haven't had a chance to scrub it since the wind storm. That'll take an afternoon or more.

What's going on around your place? I'm always curious!