The Coop and The G-Unit


Loading the Guineas and Chickens into the salvaged-barn coop. Sophie's curious about her new feathered friends.

Big (and busy) weekend for us. Late last week we finished up the salvaged-barn chicken coop, literally screwing down the roof moments before a thunderstorm rolled through. It was good to have a hard rain before the chickens moved in because we got a chance to see where some cracks along the edges of the nesting boxes and a couple cracks along the edges of the coop were letting in rain. We got it all sealed tight by the weekend and on Saturday morning we rolled out to get us some birds. 

One thing we'd heard about and not fully internalized was the existence of ticks. I remember three short weeks ago sitting in our NY apartment and laughing at the "Sh*t Weekend Farmers Say" video where the protagonists constantly ask each other "Is this a tick?". (See video here, it's pretty good: Sh*t Weekend Farmers Say). Little did I know how true that would be. Since we've been setting record heat days around here all month the ticks are out in full force. Full force is an exaggeration actually, they'll get much worse as the year goes on. But this weekend was the first weekend where they were noticeable. And by noticeable I mean picking one off my leg every hour or two (if not more regularly). The mild winter didn't break the cycle, so they're comin' out swinging before the bell.

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Spring Storm

We had our first real thunder storm here on the farm yesterday. At around 5pm thunder started rumbling in the distance and a big low black cloud emerged on the skyline. It moved closer and closer until it was right above us, seemingly touching the tops of the trees.Thunder sounded more like a light saber swing and crash than the usual bowling - a spine tingling loud reverberating buzz that sounded like it could split mountains. Wind whipped and for a few minutes it "snowed" petals from the trees. Lightning darted in long, sometimes intertwining veins, looking like cracks across the sky and rain came at us sideways, seemingly from all directions. We were curious to see if Sophie would hide out in the barn or her shelter, but she was out and about, unconcerned with the flashing and booming, patrolling and chasing away the LGD from a neighboring farm that came over once it really got ugly to look for a cozy place to hunker down for the storm.And then and hour later, with the same suddeness it arrived, it stopped. When we peeked our heads outside to check on the coop, there was a beautiful double rainbow (the 2nd one is on the left - very faint in the photo). And moments later, on the other side of the farm, an amazing sunset. Man, I love this place.

Planning vs. Doing on the Farm

Beginnings of the Chicken Coop, salvaged from our old red barn, which you can see behindNow that we're starting to actually do some things around here it's hit me that planning vs. doing is very different. Not in terms of doing being more difficult and planning being easier, but in terms of time management. I'm working remotely from home and it's a 7am to 6pm job. I'll usually take a 20-30 minute lunch with Sweetbreads somewhere in there, but that's it. That leaves very little time for me to actually do anything useful on the farm. Back in the city I could come home at dark and hit the books, make some phone calls, write emails, research different ideas, etc. I could get in a good 3-4 hours worth of 'work', no problem. Didn't matter if it was light or dark outside. Now I need the daylight to really get meaningful work done. That gives me about 30 min or an hour and I better make it count. I'm looking forward to the longer days of summer.
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