Planting Herbs, Improving Chicken Coop

Its been so busy just trying to get the household functional that we haven’t had a great deal of time to work on outside projects (not to mention we only get a couple of sunny warm days a week at this point.) But after some morning clouds and errands were run, we had a whole day to work on things.

Gerick and I finally got around to planting most of my herbs, but for all my mints, which grow crazy in this part of the country and need to be in raised container beds or they’ll take over a whole yard! The border around the lawn was double-barriered (2 layers of weed barrier plus a layer of lava rock and another layer of big wood chips) so I mostly planted my big, woody shrub herbs, like lavender and rosemary, along those areas. I just barely began my first “island” of herbs, flowers, and shrubs in the lawn as well with the smaller stuff. Eventually, I will have only paths of lawn in between these islands of wonderful plantings, so that one can stroll along and enjoy all that is growing there in bare feet. (I do love to walk about in bare feet, so I think of these things.)

That took some time, but at least most of my herbs, which were starting to look peaked in their transporting pots, have new homes and should be perking up soon. Its good to see plants I’ve grown from seed that lived at White Gables all tucked in here at Windy Firs. Makes it feel more like my home.

Meanwhile, Tad was busy leveling out and jacking up their Tiny Home so that they can move into it by the end of next week. It takes a little time to get it just right. Eventually they want to move it back into the back yard area they’re renting, but right now they have it on the graveled area next to the pole barn. Soon the formerly crooked little house was upright and sturdy. Finally, he put in the converter that enables a simple extension cord from the coop to run to their Tiny House for their electric. They have their lights, switches, and fans all installed and working– and Tad checked everything to make sure it was all on line and ready to go. It was!

Darcy, for his part, was upgrading the chicken coop yet again. He took out the old florescent light fixture (that didn’t work anyway) and installed a new cage-style, old-fashioned hanging lamp inside the big coop. Outside, he hung a burlap sack up on the walll on the chicken side of the coop and a decorative hanging sculpture of a face on the storage side of it. Then, when Gerick and I mentioned that the old light fixture looked like a feeding trough upside down (with the bulbs out), he went ahead and attached chains to that and hung it from the over-hanging eves by the chicken’s dust bath box (that Tad made) so that bugs and mice can’t get into it (not that this is a problem yet, but it often becomes an issue after a while). Its perfect to feed them when its just wet, muddy, and gross out. Less waste as feed gets ground into the mud otherwise. Also, less loss through pests.

The only down side was that Darcy washed his IPhone accidentally and they forgot to get the insurance before the 30 day deadline (it was day 31!) So tomorrow they have to go and get it replaced for way too much money and Darcy is not happy about his massive mistake.