It has been a fabulous week out here.  Taking some time to be out away from everyone and everything has been the most relaxed I’ve been in literally years.  We were able to enjoy some navel gazing time as well as getting most of the astro-fence treated with deck sealant and getting ready for our first “star party” the weekend of the 13th (the long term forecast predicts thunderstorms…. figures).  The wheat harvest out here is in full force.  It is amazing to watch those machines. They have it down to quite a science with some of the combines actually being guided via GPS.

The most tedious and heavy work involved with the chicken coop is reinforcing it so that animals like coyotes can’t dig under the fence or barn and feast on my future eggs and stew.  Over the past week I dug an 8 inch deep trench around the outside of the fence and the building and poured over 4500 lbs of concrete into it.  The building itself had a corner that didn’t meet the ground squarely and could have easily been burrowed under.  On that corner I also put in 4x8x16 cinderblocks.  They are all re-barred into the cement in the ground.  I am pretty sure that this thing is now a right impenetrable chicken prison!

I also spent one day building and rigging the roosts. Zina painted them.  For the Chicken impaired, chickens like to sleep up off the ground.  They will seek the highest place in the coop with the dominant hens taking the prime positions.  The pecking order determines who gets to sleep where.  For heavier breeds it is recommended to provide 10 inches of roost space per bird.  This set up will more than suffice.

We are ordering our first baby chicks in about a week.  They should all be arriving sometime the week of the 15th.  Then life is certainly going to change!