Winterizing the chicken coop

Really simple changes - nothing big ....

We just added a couple of brown tarps to blend in with the lattice and not stand out to the neighbors (silver shows on the inside of the coop).  This is mostly for wind and rain protection.

New laying boxes which I think might actually be a little bigger than they prefer ... if we find this to be true we'll fix the issue.  Also it is only this bright in there for an hour or so - from the moment the sun breeches the trees of the pond (directly in front of the coop) until it hits the edge of the roof of the coop.

New corrogated roofing - here soon there will be a gutter added along the edge to make a rain catchment system - we've already got the 55 gallon drums - they will have to be painted so as not to stand out as well.

The biddies attacked the feeder and bent it - it is now on the ground until one of us can get it fixed.

Raising the doves wasn't working out so well so we slaughtered them the other night and gifted our neighbor with them since he grew up eating them as a boy in his home country.  This left a second coop for the chickens.  They must feel like they have moved into a mansion!

Lovely Doves and Asparagus plants

Some of our sweet doves ...

My haul of eggs today - 9!

I also got the asparagus bedded down - mostly - for the winter.  It just got too dark for me to be able to see what I was doing.  I'm also allergic to the wheat straw so I have to be really careful not to get it on me.  That's hard to do when you can't see it very well.  So tomorrow I'll finish up the job but at least tonight they have a bit of a blanket on them.  I also pulled up the rest of the tomato plants and broke them up to put around the asparagus plants to help hold the straw around the plants.

Typical Class Day...

or not.

I was so tired today so I've hardly gotten anything done.  Thankfully, only one child, Bean5, has something today besides school.
I did *not* do my morning routine other than to awaken the children, say morning prayers with them, and get myself ready for school.

After I finished with classes, I was a *little* more awake and managed to eek out a little bit of usefulness today.  I'm keeping my expectations low for tonight!

I made it outside finally after figuring I was so cold inside the house that it couldn't be too much worse outside.  I love the view from my back deck!  If you know what you're looking at, you can see three of the garden plots in this photo, the coops, the new fire pit, and the deer target.  The pond is in the middle of all that brush and trees :)

 

 

 So I finally got to the coops to feed and water the chickens and doves and let the chickens out to the grass pen to chow down a little bit on a smorgasborg of different bugs.  Here are a few of the girls.

I gathered eggs and managed to drop one :-/  only 5 made it to the fridge ....

Then I harvested some stevia seeds ....

 

 

I still need to "de-fluff" them and let the seeds dry (or vise versa) before storing them in a small mason jar with a paper lid versus a metal lid (for breathability).  I personally have to store them this way in our second refridgerator otherwise, my darling family somehow finds a way to lose or spill the paper packets *sigh*

So now, I need to post this so I can get on supper.... baked potato soup *yum* - gluten-free/dairy-free!  Oh and I need to finish getting the peppers from the garden chopped and in the dehydrator!  Next thing I know it'll be time for baths, prayers, and bed for the kids.  I'm supposed to have book club tonight but that'll simply depend on how I feel - I might not be able to handle staying awake for it!