So 2 weekends ago start a lot of outside projects; We moved our chicken coop where it had been built due to wanting to increase the size of the vegetable garden and due to an aggressive neighbor dog that tried to come through our 7 foot privacy fence, DH has been working on the green house hydroponics and fish pond (not for pretty fish but some variety of fish to eat), we moved our seedlings that were started in the house out to the green house, and last night got the gardens tilled for the first time.
First let’s talk more about moving the chicken coop. We are not talking a little thing, no this thing is about 7 feet long and about 6 feet wide and stands over 6 feet tall. It has walls that can be removed in the warmer months to allow air into the coop. It has to weigh over 300 pounds easily. It took 3 of us to move it. Luckily we did it when my oldest was there. She is only 10 but pretty strong and was willing to help. We used a 2 wheel dolly to lift up one end and then myself and DH lifted up the front and we moved it about 60 yards across the back yard to a new permanent location that does not get a lot of light to grow any vegetation. IF you are planning on building a chicken coop some tips that we learned the hard way: if you will want to move it plan that into your design (add wheels and keep weight down), research the size you need for the number of birds you plan on having, and make sure you plan for the weather changes.
Last Sunday we had a bunch of people over that work with DH and are like minded on trying to become self sufficient. They had decided that we were farther ahead and wanted to see what we were doing. The cool thing is one of the couples has a farm and horses and brought us some wonder compost for our garden. They also let us borrow their tiller for a few days and had old tires they wanted to get rid of along with black tubs that had had horse feed in them. So with all this “stuff” that most people would turn their noses up at we are turning into ways to help us feed the family. The compost went into the garden to help in the new area we are going to use this year, the tires are going into the potato area (yes we are growing or trying to grow potatoes in tires, we will see) and 2 of the black tubs are on the back deck to be set up as small water gardens with some little “pretty” fish but most likely feeder goldfish and if the fish die they go to the chickens.
Last night the projects continued. DH got not only the vegetable garden tilled but then got my new medicinal herb garden tilled for me. I have started to learn and trying to use herbs as a first line for common ailments instead of using something bought from the store. Not that I am against buying meds but trying to ensure that if need be I can treat these aliments if and when there are no meds to buy.
Tonight I plan on working in the gardens to smooth out the soil and determine if need to do any more tilling and or add more compost. We will see how much work the little kids let me get done.
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