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What a beautiful weekend! The sun and warmth fueled a fabulous weekend on the farm.
What new signs of spring did you see this weekend? Geese have been flying for weeks now, but they are still a beautiful sight. We spotted a Great Blue Heron in a little space of open water, surrounded by ice. The pair of killdeer have returned to the yard, making sure everyone around knows they are back.
Saturday morning the ground was frozen enough and all the snow in the way had melted, so we were able to get the chicken coop moved to its permanent location. Hooray! Then the coop was given a thorough spring cleaning--all the litter was removed, coop cleaned out with orange peel-vinegar and roosts inspected for potential slivers, etc. Lastly, the fence for the permanent chicken run was flagged out for planning. The chickens got to explore a whole new area of the yard and we added an outside water source as well.
The litter from the coop went straight into the new 3-stall compost bin John built. The stalls are 4' wide x 3' deep with a removable front. Litter will be composted all season and added to the field as organic material when beds are finished produce food for the season.
The compost bin has been on our to-do list for a while, so it feels great to get it done. Don't get me wrong, we've always been composting, but now we will be doing so with greater intention. The first thing we did when we moved to the farm (very literally) was build a quick, 1-stall, pallet compost bin. This serves as our "sacrifice" compost bin, where we put everything we will not apply to the field; it serves a great purpose in reducing garbage, etc., but we needed a better system to utilize our vegetable scraps, organic plant matter from the field, as well as manure and bedding from the animals. Now we have it! Stupendous!
Have a great week!
Brooke and John
Some Handy Dandy Links:
•Natural Chicken Coop Cleaning
•Homemade Orange-peel Cleaner (for the coop and home)
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