Conquering the Lawn

To my surprise and delight, I awoke this Sunday feeling absolutely fine. After the bike-ride-that-nearly-killed-me and the pitiable attempt to hunt clams during a major rainstorm, I thought for sure my body would retaliate in its normal manner. But I was managing to sleep this weekend and so seemed to recoup my energy pretty handily.

Good thing too. Sunday was another mostly-sunny day and we had an overgrown lawn to tackle! The property’s mower broke down– AGAIN!– and we hadn’t been able to get the owner’s rep to spring for money to repair or replace, so Gerick finally just shelled out the money to buy a used mower. For hours we were mowing grass up to waist high on me in places and raking it into piles to pour over either the garden or to give the chickens for greens. It was tough, and I had to keep taking breaks, but I finished the job by the time sunset came.

We celebrated our day-long labors with a fire and some beer & wine, sitting and chatting for a time. Everyone was gone for the day to Easter gatherings and celebrations of one kind or another, but we don’t ‘do’ Easter, and so we had the place to ourselves all day long. Besides, weather reports said that all next week will be pretty much unrelenting rain for DAYS, so our only chance to get some vital outdoor chores done was today. It was worth it, though, and as we sat watching the sun set, we admired the transformed yard. Gerick declared his newest mower to be his best friend, as it tackled waist high growth with scarcely a pause.

Meanwhile, the baby chicks (half of whom look like small versions of grown chickens now) were allowed outside to play and scratch in the secondary pen Gerick set up. They flapped, pecked, explored, pretended to fight, cuddled, rolled in the dirt, and found flies, tiny slugs, and beetles to eat. They even tried out and liked some of the lawn clippings (as much dandelion and clover as grass.) It was quiet warm out so this was okay for even the smallest chicks, and we cleaned their cage while we were at it. After hours outside, by the time they were back in their now clean cage they pretty much just zonked out, splayed every which way and quiet until the next day.

I am seriously ready for the bigger ones to go out to a coop already– I hate waiting those last few weeks. They’ll be out by the end of May when I finally get my kitchen back. Then I’m telling Gerick no more chickens in my house! When and if we get a shed or barn or something, we can work something out, but I can’t keep doing things like this! Its totally nuts. The chicks are adorable but I really don’t like having them in the house for pete’s sake!