house warming party

tabitha and i have been persistently struggling to get the new coop livable for the girls. compromises have been made. the short-list of the absolutely necessary before they would be safe and dry was finally accomplished.

i made the nest boxes out of old cupboard doors and wood scraps.

i had to attach the protective skirting yesterday morning before the girls could settle-into their run.

directly after their run was secure tabitha and i caught the birds from their upper coop. i filled a feed sack with a handful of diatomaceous earth and we slipped each bird in and gently shook it. after they looked like powdered sugar doughnuts we released them into their new digs.

the girls didn't recognize each other and needed to re-establish their hierarchy. a few dusty fights ensued. mostly they were freaked out with shock of their dusting trauma and release into a relative paradise compared to their previous prison of squalor.

while the girls waited outside tabitha and i finished chicken containment inside the coop. we figured the roosts and ladder perches to the nest boxes. we attached the minimum of them and opened the door.

chickens are such great creatures. they were curious and several of them promptly came into the coop. eventually all the girls found the nest boxes and laid their expected amount.

i opened the old coop to let it dry out. i felt like a slumlord of the farmstead. that coop has been a great secure home but it has outlived it's purpose.


in the garden, tabitha and i planted our final tomato plants. the weather is showing a huge hail storm headed our way as i write this... i hope the hail misses us this year. we could really use a break.

the tiller of dreams has still kept starting on the first pull and mashing through the ozarks soil nearly undaunted. here it is facing off it's foe, the giant ozark rock..

this rock actually won their first battle but i unearthed it with the pry-bar and shovel. i showed that tiller not to be scared of these rock. just call in the big guns when needed.

i also set up the sprinkler and a huge piece of tarp for the kids. i made that sprinkler a few years ago. the concept was based on a sprinkler i had as a kid. the entire thing is safe for little feet to step on without injury.
they made a hillbilly slip-n-slide.

tristan would careen the entire length of it.

kassi and toly really got into the act.

i set rome on the tarp and he immediately decided that this was fun.

rome immediately understood the slippery concept and promptly started careening on his very own.

the kids were cautiously avoiding crashing into rome.