Clean Out

It was damn near 60 degrees on Sunday (March 8).

And sunny.

Like, super sunny.

We took the opportunity to do some chicken coop chores.

The chickens have been cooped up for a couple of months now. About halfway through winter we decided to block off their entrance to our pasture. We did this for two reasons:

1. Trying to keep our numbers up. We've just lost a lot over the last year or so.
2. Keep them warm. We added a few newbies to our flock, and it took them a while to understand how to get inside the coop to stay warm. So blocking off 3 sides of the bottom helped keep the wind from getting to them.

They are so pretty!

We also realized that we have THREE roosters. 

Fuck.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. 

I mean. They aren't fighting. 

Yet. 

Steve wants to keep our New Jersey Giant (in the above photo). He's a good looking bird. 

But, the Barred Rock's crow is super good and he's definitely not an aggressive bird. 

The third rooster is another breed and I'm not sure which. But, he's still just a teenager, so he hasn't been an asshole yet.

It's still not a good idea to have 3 freaking roosters though. They WILL fight and it WILL be ugly.

I'll need to find a home for at least one of them.

We also cleaned out their bedding and replaced it with a nice new layer of pine shavings.

This is the gross part. But, it's super good fertilizer for my garden!

So fresh!

Lavender Orpington. She loves it! 

Ava and I enjoyed watching them forage after a few months of being cooped up.

This is literally my dream. It's like that scene from Cinderella. So cute. 

She kept talking to them "here's your food chickies". Take note of the princess dress jammies, rubber boots and winter coat. 

Not sure what's going on with my face here. The sun was bright. 

"mommy, what are these?" I had to tell her to STOP FONDLING IT.

The dogs also enjoyed the weather (and ugh the glass door is so dirty - I took care of that shortly after taking this photo). 

It felt SO good to get out and clean things up out there.

Since we got an early start, Steve ended up taking the girls four-wheeling at his buddy's house (the one with the mini donkeys!) for the afternoon. 

I got to clean the entire house and catch up on Orange is the New Black. 

It was ALSO "Spring Forward" so we lost an hour of sleep. But we gain daylight! 

However, allllllll of this being said. 

It's only March 9.

So that means we have at least one more snow/ice storm before we can officially call it Spring.