Happiness comes from chickens

You know the old saying, 'If you aren't happy single, you won't be happy taken. Happiness comes from chickens, not relationships.' Yes, this could have very well have been made up by a chicken lady somewhere, but I'm pretty sure it's valid, says all chicken ladies of the world. 

So many new things on the farm recently have made me happy - and is also hopefully helping make a farm animal happy as well. Spring always brings the desire to spring clean and that's what has happened over the last couple of weeks. As we move from winter to spring on the farm, it's time to put up the heated water buckets, change all the straw out of the barns/shelters and re-think how things are working and what's best for the animals. Changes, cleaning, sorting, moving things (esp fencing, Lauren) and an all-around desire to get all the animals set up for springtime and create a front door view upgrade is in full swing. 

Dirt Work

What I've learned is when I try to improve something on the property, that often times, damage happens to another part of the property in that process. This theory rarely fails. Improvement in one area causes damage to another area in that process.

For example, when we were having the back pasture barn floor concreted (is that a word?) the huge dump truck and cement truck caused much damage to the ground in this process. That in turn causes erosion of the dirt and ground, and then that area needs fixing. Hence, we attempted to try and fix that.

Hard to tell by a photo how much work it takes to spread dirt

And in this process, the dump truck that came to deliver this particular dirt, actually backed into and hit the electricity pole which then caused problems with our electricity flow to the house. The dump truck hit the pole so hard it knocked it loose from the ground and all the wires were swinging and swaying high in the air much like a tsunami does in the ocean. It was a wild trickle effect.

You probably remember David and I attempting to fix this area already by bringing in dirt and rock and renting the skid steer. Well, that was great, but then an unusually big rain came (almost 7 inches) and washed away much of our hard work. That particular storm's timing was bad (or should I say our timing was bad). That particular amount of rain also did something we've never seen before and greatly damaged our gravel driveway as well. 

Stay focused, Cyndi. So, we found a guy here in Gunter (Jimmy) who delivered more dirt and had it spread in such a way that it would irrigate and drain more efficiently. Wonderful, yes please. And he did just that, and in the process, the huge dump truck put a big wammy on the electricity pole and I watched this $hit$how as I thought he had knocked the electricity pole out of the ground and I expected it to fall over on the barn. I watched in horror.

This gash in the pole is a hard thing to explain to Oncor.

The first order of business was for Jimmy to complete this work, as more rain was coming. And sure enough, we had an unusual amount of rain again (close to 5 inches at once) and boom, different irrigation and draining situations going on, yet nothing as bad as it was before. 

All this moaning and groaning is to say that we have these good intentions to fix things, and then inadvertently unfix something else. Let's just say that the dirt work was greatly appreciated, but that we have a little more work to do.....again. Thank you, rain, we love you and need you, yet so much at a time is hard to handle sometimes. 

And I did call Oncor about the incessant light flickering in the house due to the pole hit. 

The cherry picker thingie took him up high to
the top and fix something up there that got
all shook up by the pole hit.

Oncor kindly came out and fixed the issue with their BIG A$$ truck making huge indentions in the ground so I'll be needing to get that fixed soon. It never stops. The fixing never stops. Except the light flickering stopped. That did stop, thank goodness.

New door, new view

It's funny how life is. When I had a front door that I could not see out of, the view of all the things in front of the front door mattered not. All the portable fencing and crap out front of the house never bothered me. I actually placed it there myself, and it conveniently housed many of my animals. And since I could not see out the front door, it never bothered me one bit.

Lots of natural light is wonderful 🌞

The new door actually 1) shuts properly and
2) is insulated. 

And while we feel a little more human by having a normal front door, I can now take a good look out front at a view that I've obstructed with all my own things. Funny, it's never bothered me before, but then again, I couldn't really see it from the view inside the house. Now I really can. Therefore, I feel the need to move all the unsightly things to a different place. No big deal, right? It's just portable fencing and animals. We can do this.

Leave it to me to create an eyesore of 
portable fencing in plain view.

So here we go. Get your gloves, boots, and muscles ready because it's moving time.

First up, the turkey and rooster pen. After all, Paul and John do need some overhead protection from the sun and rain, so we decided to house them under the awning on the west side of the barn. 

Paul and John have become good friends.

They love it there, and we were actually able to increase their square footage. John, the rooster was pleased as Paul is kind of a big guy and loves to showboat around all day for the girlz. Yes, we did move their mirrors over to their new enclosure as well. 

Plenty of mirrors to go around. 

John and Paul each have their own mirror for which to admire their handsome selves in. That has not changed, and they each enjoy strutting and staring at themselves daily. Whatever makes you happy, guys. 

The ultimate goal was to move all the 6 ft fencing out of the front door view. So that means the Little Girl Area (my silkies and frizzles) would need to have their area revamped with only the 4 ft portable fencing because it's harder to see from the house. So yes, we re-made their area with the shorter 4 ft fencing that is not such an eyesore when glancing out the front door. 

I just love this little coop for my little girls. And the shorter fence too.

But as things started to change and evolve, an issue became apparent as the piggies area was part tall fencing and part shorter fencing. Therefore, the piggies area would be best moved to a different location using the taller portable fencing. And so that's what we did. The piggies are not inside their pen much during the day because we allow them to free range, and then go back into their pen for beddie-bye. And then back out in the morning. Plus, something new, is that Prissy is over at Amy and Cody's for a stay there, likely long term. Prissy lost her free ranging privileges because she's too busy chasing the sheep and biting their back legs. She already had been given 1 warning (she had a red card sent home in her school folder) because awhile back she was doing that to the guard pups. Prissy is a biter at heart. Maggie is the opposite. Maggie is a sweet and laid back pig while Prissy would try to bite at your boots when you weren't looking. It's not safe, quite frankly, as her teeth are razor sharp. Thankfully, Amy and Cody have pigs as well, and had just the place for her. 

Prissy is the black piggie underneath 
her new friend.

Yes, this blog is R-rated sometimes, and Prissy is being breed. Which means Maggie is on her own here on the farm. Luckily, Maggie enjoys hanging out with the sheep, and spends much of her daytime hours annoying them, 'can I be your friend, huh? huh? can I?'

But who else annoys Maggie, you ask?

Maggie is very patient with Buddy. Very. Buddy is full-on holy terror on 4 paws around here. He thinks the chickens, sheep and pig are there for his own personal entertainment. 

The fun never stops, until you get head butted by a sheep. Most of the farm animals put Buddy in his place, and everyone is finding their way with this rambunctious puppy. 

So, back to the pigs area, Cyndi. After moving Paul and John's pen, then revamping the Little Girls Area, we moved Maggie's pen to a different location (neighboring Paul and John) and made sure she has her piggie house and piggie pool.

Evening view when she's inside.

Daytime view when everyone wants to 
see what a room with a pool is like.

Maggie has less square footage and that's okay considering the amount of time she spends in her pen. The chickens are clean up duty and make sure there's no bugs crawling around the area. 

We The Sheeple

Belle, Lulu, Willow, Grace and Brooklyn are all doing wonderfully. Currently, we do not plan on breeding them, and Belle may be a little old for that anyway. Their little 5-some herd is very comfortable. Grace is the herd leader, Brooklyn is next in line for the throne, Belle is aging, Lulu is still the shyest, and Willow is the tiny-est and sweetest of them all. 

What is new about the ewe is that our yearly sheep sheering won't happen this year. The folks that have come out each year to sheer them will not be doing that any longer. So I had a talk with the ewes and reminded them that they are actually self-shedding sheep (they really are) and that they'll be responsible for themselves this year. I think they understand their job, and will expect them to shed appropriately. In the past, we have made it easy on them, but this year they will need to step up their game. Let the shedding begin, please ma'ams. 

I love that the sheep have this improved
barn flooring. They may not even care.
I care though.

Coopin' It Real

I forgot to mention that the chicken's feeding station would need to be repositioned, as a side of it was adjoining to Paul and John's pen. The solution was to take a piece of the corral panels, and create the side that would be missing.

Luckily this setup allows the chickens easy
access to their chicken food and no one else.

The purpose of this area is to allow the chickens to get inside and eat, without any other animal (sheep, piggie or horse) getting to the chicken feed. So once we replaced the missing side, we were able to secure the chicken feed once again. Seems every animal we have loves them some chicken feed.

The ducks had started visiting the chicken feed 
area up by the barn (notice this is just before I
took down the tall fences)

Even the ducks have started coming up from the pond and dining on the chicken feed even though we feed them down at the pond. Dutch and Penny found them very tempting though, so it was a little precarious. Dutch and Penny, the now 8 month old guard pups, do best with everyone IN their place. And when the ducks are out of their usual place (i.e. the pond area), Penny and Dutch feel the need to get them back to their place.

Pond King

Have you heard of Pond King? It's in Gainesville and they have everything you need for a pond, or lake or any body of water. We found this business when we were trying to stock our pond with fish. They are also the place where we bought our turtle trap (which we love). Thanks to Pond King, we have an abundance of fish in the pond now. This was our first winter with a stocked pond, and spring is showing us that the fish survived. We are feeding the fish as we were instructed to do, and have found that the pond is so full of fish, that you can simply throw a fishing line in and in a matter of minutes (sometimes seconds) you have a fish on the line. 

And so it begins. We are catch and release, 
unless you want popcorn fish.

My favorite way to fish is on the bank, using a cane (bamboo) fishing pole that you buy at Walmart for $3.68 that already has the line, bobber and hook on it for you. There's no easier fishing than that. Then, you get crappie bait and stick it on the hook, sling your line in the water, and wal-lah, you get a fish. That's my kind of fishing. Don't forget the 5 gallon bucket to take with you to turn upside down and sit on. David has many fancy fishing poles and tackle boxes, as does my dad, but this is my preferred way to fish. It's what makes me happy. It's also kid-friendly, less cumbersome, and if you lose your line, it's no big deal. Just tie on some new line to the end of your pole and start again.

Yep, that took less than a minute to catch.

The best way to fish is with non-matching clothing, no makeup and your cane pole. Trust me on this one.

When new is hard

While we have many new changes happening around the farm, spring has also brought some new things to little Brooks. Since he turned 18 months old, he has now moved up to the next class at his school. He was the big fish in a little pond in his old classroom (and big man on campus), and now in his new class, he's the little fish in the big pond. And the youngest in the class. Kind of like being the 6th grader in middle school mixed in with all the 7th and 8th graders who seem decades older. Brooks is finding his way.

That smock 💙

There's now a little more structure, and seemingly new activities that come with age. So there's the good with the scary newness, and as we all know, it takes time to adjust.

That face 💟

Good news is, seems the older kiddos get bomb pops for a treat and the look on Brooks face says it all. He's never had one before, and I'm not sure whose deprived him of this in his life, but I'm thinking he needs one everyday. I mean, look at that face. 

The adventure continues

As Sugar has healed, and Buddy has arrived, portable fencing is seemingly always being moved, animals are settling in, dirt is washing away, the view from the front door is improving, and spring is upon us, we are swept up in the current of this life. Lots of fun and new things around here, and even Washington moved outside to enjoy the nice spring weather.

Washington loves all the happenings outside, 
and is entertained by all the activity around him.

Also, David set a date of June 30 (this year) to retire. I'm loving my job at Cook Children's. Brooks is adjusting to his new class and you are likely having 1,001 things happening in your world as well. We are all doing this together. And even though I never knew I'd have a dog hitting buttons with his paw to "talk" to me, it seems to be happening.

I also never thought I'd have a livestock guard dog laying in the fire pit with chickens dust bathing all around him while a pig watches. 

The chickens look all crazy when they are
dust bathing and get dirt in every pore of 
their being.

You'd think there'd be very little that surprises me around here. But no. I'm still amazed at what can happen in a single day. And as I walk each day to the barn with countless chickens following me like a pied piper, I look at them all and wonder if they know just how happy they make me. 

Happy SpringTime,

Cyndi