The never ending rain always ruining our Saturday workday, so we switched gears and got our projects done after church today! We got the planter boxes designed and David set about cutting up the leftover logs from his parents home they built about 9 years ago.
We changed the design up a little bit from this picture, but it got to dark to take decent pics, so I'll post the finished products next week.
We also had some leftover cattle fetching we had under the porch, which we are going to use to make some trellis's for the new garden. The first planters which will flank the entrance are gonna be two 4 foot planter boxes and then have this as a walk under archway into the area. I am planning on planting Nasturtium and green beans to climb it.
We realized how much fencing we had, so got a little distracted from the planters and put up this fence on the back of our property. We previously just had a portable chicken fence and one of our three dogs kept biting it and making hole s. to get through and escape. So I did a quick Lowes run for extra posts and a little gate, and David set about erecting it.
This was a project we did need doing, as we had a play set there too, that needed to come down, as our kids have outgrown it and a large tree had fallen on it last year. That had gotten dismantled yesterday before the rain set in, and with the fence going up today, we felt quite accomplished and realized how much space we had freed up in the yard, even though we had brought the fence line slightly forward. We will remove the wood next week, and then this will be where our future chicken run will go, it clearing out some of the brush and the dead tree, plus another tree we were able to easily take it, we feel we can go ahead and start planning for chickens.
I have plans to build a Chickasaw, which can hold up to 16 chickens, it is a great design by Justin Rhodes I had come across when I studied Small Farm Management last year, and had included it in my business plan. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx5pz3PA-3kicWg0S0V0WmRUMTA/view
He also has plans for a larger one that can hold up to 39 chickens, but we are going to go with the smaller one because of the size of our yard. I costed it out to about $400 for all the supplies, so we will slowly start purchasing a little each week, as its a larger expense we don't have money set aside for right now, but would like to build by the summer. I have really been inspired by being able to work with Laura and help her raise chicks into chickens for meat and eggs, and it has really cemented my love of chickens and wanting to raise them.
This is our escapee, Yoda, he is one of our three dogs, and wasn't thrilled we had plugged his escape route, so he kept scouring the fence line all around the yard, and decided to climb the wood pile, which is about 4 feet high to see if he could jump over to escape into the woods. He is a poser and such a handsome boy, but definitely a little too free spirited at times.
My last little find this week, was a bench for my new garden or back yard - haven't quite decided yet. I have been looking for a good condition second hand one, as I have a great spot in my backyard for it, and the one there is worn out and falling apart. I am also wanting to incorporate a small seating area in the new garden, not sure if I will use this there or something different, but it was a great find and the price was right, so it came home with me.
