Don't Kiss Your Chickens, Do Kill Your Darlings

It's been hard to write an original post lately. I put up my weekly columns mostly to keep some traffic happening on the site. But I've realized what keeps me from posting is that I had begun a post about the ridiculous advice I heard on the radio the other day "Don't kiss your chickens". The advice is good--the need for it is ridiculous. I wanted to draw the correlation between a society that puts Donald Trump in a race to be leader of the free world and a society that now sews diapers so that chickens can come right in the house, and where people actually need told not to kiss their birds. Because that will make you sick, you see.

And the post wasn't working out very well; it wasn't witty and I don't understand the American system well enough to preach about it here and, frankly, who cares what I think about Donald Trump and chicken kissers.

But it did get me thinking abut the writing process. I've committed to writing more. Writing daily. I want to take myself on a writer's retreat next year for my 40th birthday and I want to have a few pieces that are worth working on with focus. I finally realize that when I am hung up on a concept I just have to let it go and keep on writing. I've been writing in the evenings even though I know that, so far, none of it is very good. But I have to keep trying so that (hopefully) soon something decent crosses the page that I can delve into and turn into something real.

Rather than treating every idea like it must be "the one" and then panic when it turns out to be nothing, I'm trying to exercise my skills and use some prompts and practice making stories come to life. And I'm trying to stay calm that, so far, inspiration is nil. But like trying to sort out a blog post that wasn't working, sometimes it's best to just get on with it and let those darlings die so you can move forward. So that's what I'm doing :)

How is everything with you?

Our Mobile Chicken Coop

Our coop, this morning.

My apologies for the shadow to the upper right corner of all my rubbish photos lately--I simply can't haul a camera around with me during the day so I snap the occasional picture with my phone and call it good enough. Now that I have a new phone I bought an actual case for it and of course it covers half the camera lens. And I have neither the time nor the inclination to haul the case off every time I manage to have a) the phone with me and b) hands clean enough to take a picture. I feel like the difficulty with pictures on the blog is part of why I considered letting the whole thing go...so I'm trying to come up with a system where I can do better at this without adding more steps and work to my already overwhelming days.

But I digress! We got our chickens a couple weeks ago. 35 are meat birds that my mom kept in a brooder at the farm for us until they had feathers. Another 10-15 are a variety of breeds that hatched in my mom's incubator and are meant to be kept as layers (we will see how many roosters we end up with). Most likely the layers will return to the farm once fully grown and be added to my moms existing flock.

I only took the time to snap one photo this morning and it is hard to see but my dad built me this coop with the intention that it could be dragged onto fresh grass every few days. To the right of the main run you can see how the grass was eaten down to bare earth. The chickens were delighted and rushed around clucking and pecking when we moved the coop, and I felt good to allow them the most natural setting I can for their fairly short time on earth.

The coop is insulated with insulation that was leftover from when our garage was built, and also used up some vapor barrier that was laying around from various projects at the farm. The window was one that did not get used in my brother's shop, and the tin roof was also scrap. My dad would weld all day if he had the time, so it was his satisfaction to build the coop with attached, wired in run, on pipe so that it would slide along when pulled and also be quite predator proof. There are an additional 5 panels (not roofed in) that can be added as an extra grazing/foraging area for the birds.

The coop is wired for power--all I need to do is run an extension cord to it and it would have a working light and outlet. I won't have my own layers this winter so I won't need to worry about that, but the prospect is there should I ever need it.

If I could change one thing, okay three things, it is that the doorways into the mobile panels, the attached runway and the coop itself are all too narrow for a wheel barrow. This means if I keep the coop stationary for a winter with hens I would have to carry my forkfuls of bedding both in and out rather than just throwing it straight out the door into a wheel barrow. Really, not that big of a deal considering the coop was built mostly from materials on hand at the farm (although I think they bought the wire and chip board used).

As of now I am unsure whether we will process the meat birds ourselves right here or take them to the Hutterite colony as my mom has done in the past. It's not a job I look forward to but it is one that I want to learn and feel that my kids should also learn (when they are a bit older). Right now it feels like there hasn't been a minute's rest around here so I am leaning towards hiring this one job out. But we will see if that has changed by fall when they are fat and ready for butchering :)

The kids and I painted the coop red last year :)

Any interesting projects taking place in your neck o' the woods?

Lambs and Layers

Today my boys and I set out to help my mom clean out her old chicken house. It has been years since she raised meat birds but we have been discussing it for awhile now. She has some eggs in a homemade incubator but we aren't entirely sure how that will work out, so she also ordered some pullets the other day. My boys are excited because they love all things fuzzy and cute, and I am excited because I want to relearn how to care for chickens and take part in the processing (something I was only barely a part of as a kid on the farm).

Besides getting ready for the baby chicks that are coming, my mom also tracked down two lambs and we patched some fence and had lunch before setting out to get them. As a  special bonus, we were given two bantam hens and a rooster when we picked up the lambs.

We aren't yet ready for the lambs to live in our yard...I'd like a rustic-looking rail fence and a small barnyard area with a chicken house/sheep shelter and greenhouse someday. For the summer I think we will work on some portable panels and a small shelter while we get ready for a more permanent (winter) structure.

Having some animals to care for has been on my bucket list since I had my first child. It is very important to me that my sons learn how to grow their own food and have the knowledge and skills to provide for their future families no matter what the world becomes. I worry about what life will be like for their children: will mainstream society have lost the skills needed to be self-sufficient? I want my sons to know how to compost, garden, hunt, forage, weld, repair an engine and a pump, sew, cook and butcher an animal. These might not just be hobbies but life-saving skills for my kids to pass on to their offspring. My parents and grandparents used to do all of these things but somehow in the last 20 years farming got more cattle-intensive and we moved away from the traditional small farm ideal. I am excited to return to the lifestyle we had when I was a child, and I am especially touched that my parents want to help and be a part of it. These are special days for us all, and I am ready to get started.