Mud

“There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud”

Carl Sandburg (American Historian, Poet and Novelist, 1878-1967)

Not me.  I'm tired of wallowing in the mud!

During the month of January, we got 14.85 inches of rain.  February, thankfully, has yielded a little less of the liquid sunshine, but as of February 23rd, we have still received 6 inches month to date.  So far in 2013, we have gotten over 20 inches of rain.  The ground is saturated.  It is a soggy, nasty mess everywhere you walk.  Walking out to the barn requires rubber boots.

The chickens and cows seem to say, "Enough, already!"

I've had on my To Do list to have a bonfire to burn the burn pile, but as you can see below, the burn pile is surrounded by a sea of mud.   You can also see the winter grass in the garden where the carrots were prior to us harvesting them. 

The second batch of meat chickens are growing well despite the rain.  We've lost a few of these birds to the weather, though, and although I haven't counted lately, I think we have around 94 birds left out of 100.



Cornish Cross Chickens drinking water

To effectively feed all these birds, I needed to think of something new.  The homemade wooden feeders simply were not big enough to allow all the birds access to the feed.  I could make more or I could buy some feeders, but I had an idea that I thought would save time and money.  I purchased two 10 foot PVC gutters from the local hardware store for $5 each and it works like a charm.  You can see all the wet birds lined up on either side of the gutters like me at an all you can eat buffet line.  I think once we butcher these birds, I'll install the gutters on the barn to sequester rainwater for the cows' drinking water.



Rain gutters used as feed troughs

After all the rain and mud, similar to the dove bringing to Noah the olive branch, I saw a beautiful azalea blooming this morning with bright green new-growth leaves, signifying that today was going to be a better day with NO RAIN! 

Azalea Bloom

First thing on my agenda today was a little maintenance on the chicken tractors.  The bars that the chickens roost on had broken and as a result, more and more hens have been coming into the barn to roost.  Here is a "bird's eye" view through chicken wire of what it looks like looking out on the pasture from inside the chicken tractor. 

Framed in chicken wire

I went into the woods and cut some new roosting bars from some straight Chinese Tallow Trees to use.  Of course when I was drilling and screwing the new roosting bars, Maggie Mae had to come check things out.


The field foreman supervising the work

Not to be left out, Stryker the bull came to inspect the work as well.   

Stryker the Bull

Here is the finished work.  New roosting bars.  Unfortunately, the birds, being creatures of habit, have gotten used to roosting in the barn.  I'll have to move them to the tractor and lock them in for a few days until they develop a new habit of roosting in the chicken tractor again.



New roosting bars in the tractor.