I'm still around too
I didn't like the patter of rain on the skylights, so I quick ran out and scooped the dead leaves and branches out of another of the ore troughs, and DH helped me turn it on its side to dump out the icky muddy water that was still in there ...
but neither of us feels like using the energy to scoot them across the yard yet
one more trough to empty -- it's further under the side property line fir bushes -- neighbor continues to top them at about ten feet, so they grow sideways as a dense hedge
so to get to this one, to empty it out, I have to crawl six feet or so under branches
however, it doesn't seem to have as much water or old dead rotted stuff in it --- I bailed it out a couple days ago, but there's still quite a bit of junk to rake and scoop out, before we can turn it on its side to dump the last bit out, then haul it out from under the hedge/trees
seems to have stopped misting/sprinkling, so I will at least put my outdoor clothes on and go let the chicks out of the coop again --- the donated chicken tractor is no where near predator proof, it isn't even chicken proof -- LOL -- so I need to be out there when the chickens are in it
we have a surplus sideways-sliding aluminum framed window, probably 6 x 4 feet -- I am thinking about using that as the access/gateway to the run, with the five ore troughs completing the three sides of the run, with the crate/coop and the small coop as the fourth side -- I will see if that will work once we get the troughs all over by the coops
will have to figure out how to make a hinged roof to the run, next to the crate/coop, since the end door of that is seven feet high, plus the foot more of landscape-timber foundation and its own pallet foundation above those
not sure yet if I am going to cut a chicken door into one of the full height double opening doors of that coop, or if I will just open the whole door up and let the chickens dash out into the run
I may wait and see what broodytood does with HERS -- since she has two of the crate/coops ... I liked the idea she had, of spacing them apart and building a shed/quarantine/nesting/storage area between them
gotta figure out how to design it all, too, so that DS can fill up water and feed for the chicks, without having to do too much work --- yet have it secure enough that rodents and predators and feral whatevers, can't get at the food --- I'm thinking maybe put a dryer-vent device, with a tube down to the feeder, inside the coop rather than feeding them out in the run as I have been doing
DH wants to fly over to go to granddaughter's law school graduation in mid May --- depends on the airfare, how long we stay ... and whether we can find accommodations to fit our budget
(at least we will no longer be having to support her and pay tuition and lodging and whatevahs -- she already has found a placement she loves, back on Kauai, so she can live at home, so that drain on our finances will finally !!!! be over with)
so DS will need to care for the chicks while we're gone --- no, I won't make him scoop poo off the sand ! --- if I do this right, he won't have to go into the coop at all
