Oh boy, you had to ask, smiling that big smile. Yes, we are in massive snow melt, the temperature has not gone below zero for three nights now and there is a whole lotta snow melting. Water, water, everywhere. I have been pumping out our driveway from the lakes and around the property all day yesterday and it will continue for a couple of more days, time consuming, but boy, pumping a whole lotta water sure makes for nicer living conditions, smiling.
That stench, oh yes, know well that stench, back on the Lower Mainland, that stench was around for a good couple of months in the deep throws of winter, and as HigginsRAT mentions, muck. Anyone living back on the coastal areas where it rains for long times, incessantly, knows well of the muck of winter, and the stench. In our new life, that stench is actually not so bad, and I am going to tell you a story. Grab coffee, call it what you will, but I have pictures of my endeavours as of late (well, early January) that have allowed that stench to not be as bad as it could be, smiling again. Stench, yes, chickens and there stuff, if it is wet, really can stink a whole lot. Oh so thankin’ my lucky stars that we live in an area where that mud goes within about a week, once that good ol’ sun shines. I have never witnessed how quickly moisture can be sucked from the ground, from the air, and gone to who knows where, but it can go from 2 inches of clay mud here, to dust in about a weeks time. Only really been here one FULL season, but have seen that happen and to me it is shocking. Back in the old life on the coast, it took months for the moisture to be gone, and then when it was, beautiful....coastals will know EXACTLY what I speak of. Smiling now again that big smile. Summer is coming, with green growth.
Oh by the way, I have a pot of chives on my porch outside as an experiment. They grow in the gardens, everywhere, but I wanted to do an experiment with chives in pots, to actually see when they begin to rear their beautiful little green heads. One of the stumps has showed green growth, yesterday. Imagine that. Back on the coast, the chives would rear their beautiful heads the first week of January, here we are at March 5, blah....but when things grow, they surely do grow.
Right....so we didn’t have the deep, deep freeze until after the first week of January here. Prior to that, some freezing of the ground, but not deep, like 2 feet deep. It was a nice warm day, the earth was soft, as it had not become frozen deeply. Today is my day for getting down and dirty with dirt. Not hands dirty, but working that dirt. Guess we won’t call this dirt, cause it is actually crap, mixed with dirt and who knows what else the birds extrude out the rear end, probably lots of gritty stuff too, sand, who knows. I knew from last year (I performed this task last fall too), that there is a build up of some kind of stuff from the birds. It was about 2 inches thick (it was last year, probably the same this year). I knew that it comes off in sheets, one just has to work it, smiling. So, that day came. I knew that I would be busy and that I was. What a lovely day, communing with the birds and a thick layer of crap! What else could it be called so rightly, other than this word which I actually do not like. I prefer SHI*T, but that is OK too, both rather slangish to me, but that is OK, it is what it is. Feces, right, a good one, but sounds a little mucky muck to me. Oh I have been typing so much this morning, almost feel like it is time for a nap, smiling, onwards and forwards.
As said, it was a temperate day, the mud crappy stuff was thawed and I went to the four runs, shovel in hand with a trusty little wheelbarrow, the best one for this kind of stuff, cause it is freaki’ heavy!! How this can be so heavy, I don’t know. I didn’t count the wheelbarrow loads I trudged out of there to my chicky compost pile, but I venture nigh onto about 20 of them. An entire day of work, but well worth it. This was done one year prior, so this is how much builds up in one year, one big, fat layer of crappy chicken crap!! Boy did I have happy chickens and me, happy girl, not too bad of a stench now that the melt has surely begun. Enjoy the pictures of me and the chicken crap!! Have a beautiful day, CynthiaM.
First, this is the beginning the first coop in line, the others followed.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Second picture, just another view of a layer of chicken crap
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]This one particular little buckeye gal is the most curious that I have ever seen. Her and her cockerel boyfriend lived with the 5 blue cochin babies I got from Shipperkesue for a long time. It looked actually very cool, blue cochins with brown buckeyes, lovely. She was intrigued with what I was doing with the shovel and would always be checking it out, she is a special girl.....
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]Here she is again, with one of the blues. All of the other chickens had had enough of me messing with the nice soft ground of their stinky layer of chicken poopy stuff and went to bed. Good, allowed me to move layer of poop much more easily. She was allowed to go into forbidden territory, while the cats away the mice will play, well, actually the pullet will play, with no meanies to push her around...smiling.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]The finished product. Four nice runs, all new earth, mixed with a whole lotta little teeny tiny pebbles and scratchy stuff that they can gobble right up. I had lots of grit for them, but they really like the ones that stink and smell like chicken crap, go figure. I still can’t believe the size of the pebbles that they grab up and swallow down the gullet, shocking...Oh for the love of not having mucky, smelly, chicken pens, still thankin’ my lucky stars I got this done before the big deep freeze happened, smiling again.
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and ??? to help. Any ideas that are safe for the chickens to be around.
