I haven’t checked the temperature yet today, though the last time I saw it was going to be in the fifties. I’m looking forward to doing some yard work and getting outside with my horses during my days off this holiday season, and as my thoughts often do, they turn to projects I want to complete on the homestead.
My projects usually revolve around my chickens or other animals and 2020 will be no different. For one, I’d like to finally put up the cheap gallon of paint I bought probably two or three years ago now on the side of the hay shelter. I also want to repurpose metal from the old trailer onto the goose house and maybe the other side of the chicken coop.
My number one project is to build a banty run for my bantam easter egger hen as well as the itty bitty chickens I’ve talked about. While Sir Gallahad and the frizzle of unknown gender will reside here in the house, the other three will go outside with the banty hen. I’m hoping to breed bantam turken serama easter eggers, but it may just be a fun mutt pen of mini chickens. We’ll have to see.
The other project will be to build a coop on the end of the run where I’d kept the guineas. After trying to have guineas twice and dealing with their not going into their coop at night and then getting picked off one by one by raccoons (since I only had three to five at any given time), I’m going to get cheap “surprise” chicks from my favorite hatchery (aka any breeds they have left over) and have some free range chickens to eat ticks and insects. Chickens eat ticks just as good as guineas. They’re also cheaper and tend to become really coop trained. Or at least better than guineas.
I’ve got some other projects. I have an area of the yard I want to clear to make myself a nice outdoor meditation, maybe filming videos, area. If I can buy posts one at a time, I would have enough to build a round pen for working with my horses, and so on.
My husband has his projects as well, and I’m lucky in that he enjoys carpentry and beautifying the homestead, as well as indulges his wife’s obsession with chickens. With weather this beautiful, I’m just thrilled things can continue through the winter, though I do have plenty of projects for a “snowy” day.
