Cooped Up!

The chickens have arrived — and they’re settling in wonderfully!

All of our hard work is already beginning to pay off!

We spent hours working together on Saturday to get the run finished (enough) for the chickens' arrival that afternoon. Within the first day, we even got our first egg!

When our little ladies arrived, it was an exciting moment, not only for us but for our children… Oh, the children. Between the four of us, we have one shy of a dozen! Lots of hands to help get things done…

From the moment the hens arrived, the kids were obsessed! And honestly, I don’t blame them!

“Can I name them?”

“I want to name that one Henry!”

“Can I hold one? How do you hold them?”

“Are any of the chicken's boys?”

As for names, so far we have Henri(etta), Sandy, Twiggy, and Stella.

We still have a lot to do, though. Next on the list is getting the garden finished and planted. If all goes well, we’ll have everything in the ground this week, up there!

Did I mention before that we have made all of our raised beds (mostly) from found or recycled/reclaimed materials? Used pallets, 2x4s from a neighbor’s home-reno, fallen trees/limbs… With the current lumber shortage causing prices of building materials to skyrocket, we had to get creative. We even got free soil from some family who owns a farm.

The money saved has been a huge plus, but the harvest will make it all worthwhile!

I used the fallen trees for my small bed, and let me tell you… the way I did it isn’t pretty or entirely functional. I’ve had to troubleshoot many aspects of this one. This photo is when I first started it. Since then, I’ve loosened up the soil, and tomorrow, I will be adding more soil and some amendments. If that goes quickly, I will be planting, also.

Next year I’m going to make changes, for sure!

I’ll talk about this more later though. I guess this is all for now… There will be more to come as the week goes on!