Wild Weather

Wow, sorry for stepping away from the blog for a few days, but it has been crazy busy around here this week.  To begin with, it was Vacation Bible School week so mornings were tied up and everyone got worn out as the week went on.  Additionally, the weather was intense.  All of this while the Web-Mistress decided the deck needed to go so we can put in a patio.  Did I mention half the ladies are laying now?

Wind damaged crops.

Some serious storms blew through on Monday and this is what I rolled up on around noon.  My corn was flattened and our trellised winter squash had been toppled.  Fortunately, I was able to right the squash and after a couple of days in the sun the corn had stood back up. 

Starting to stand back up.

It is actually pretty cool how the plants self recover, but let’s just say I was initially panicking about the potential of lost crops.

Once the corn came back up I noticed it was beginning to tassel and we started to see silks.  So if the weather doesn’t keep knocking it around, I am hopeful that we should see some ears soon.

Hopefully the weather has treated you better this week.  And if you are lucky your task list hasn’t been growing by the hour.

Andy

Soft Opening

The chicken run is done!  On Friday, I was able to get the final boards up and complete the fencing on the run.  After a run of poor weather and honey-do’s (see Bait and Switch), a beautiful day netted results.  The run nets out to about 20x30 behind our garage with a separate area for the coop.  We used cedar 4x4s topped with some solar lights for posts as part of the 5 foot high run.  The lights have a nice effect at dusk.

We celebrated by grilling burgers and corn.  I would like to say the corn was well received by the family but the kids were more interested in chucking their ears into the newly completed run than actually eating any of it.   This led to loads of entertainment as the chickens didn’t seem to realize the kids wanted to make it rain like Pacman Jones in Vegas.  The bird-on-bird fighting over the first few ears was a sight to behold.  Eventually, they settled in to clearing cobs in a shockingly effective manner.

In the end, I was thrilled to check a pretty major project off my list.  It feels great not to have a brooder full of growing birds and not have a place ready for them.  The birds seemed to dig their new surroundings and the kids love seeing chickens in action up close.  There might even be a grand opening if I can just finish the coop.

Andy