Farm Affairs

With so many things going on around here, it's hard to know where to begin.  How about being grateful for still being here?  An F-2 tornado cut a path through the county on April 11th, passing five miles from the farm.  Two homes gone, dozens damaged, hundreds of trees down.


Once the shock wears off, where do you begin to clean this up? One of the Notasulga homes.

 With tornado warnings all day, my gear was at the door, should I need to flee the house in a hurry.  Thinking the worst was over, I'd gone to bed when a friend called to say:  "Look at the radar, there's a tornado headed straight for you". My sleepy eyes popped wide open when I refreshed my weather map on the computer.  I put on my bicycle helmet and my parka, Cole got strapped into his life preserver and I opened the door. It's not the 80 mph winds that kill you, it's the 80 mph flying debris that will do you in.  The driving rain slammed the screen door back on my face and made me realize that I couldn't make the run over to the neighbor's house.  My house is flanked by two huge pecan trees, gracing us with shade in the Summer, but threatening to cleave my place in two during storms.  So, I ran for the derelict old farmhouse.  Sandwiched between two mattresses, I could hear the change in the wind.
 
I do remember the roaring train sound that a tornado makes from the time a year or so ago when I was on a client's porch awaiting for the rain to abate so I could run to my car.  That day, half a mile away a tornado touched down at the high school and skipped through a neighborhood, not stopping until it was well into Georgia.  

The problem is that the railroad line does pass by the farm, so was it a tornado or a train?  Stupidity forced me out of my hidey-hole and I looked out the window, in time to see the bicycle wagon, ordinarily hung on the outside porch wall of the farmhouse, go flying past my eyes.  Two seconds is all it took me to dive back into my mattress fort!

Thankfully, we were spared any damages. The unfinished chicken coop had been safely tucked away in Dr. P's equipment shed. I was relieved to catch the livestock's glowing eyes with my flashlight.  Finally, I fell asleep around 3.

On the subject of the infamous coop, I finished building it last week.  I had the ribbon cutting ceremony and moved the chicks in.  Finally!  What totally astounded me was that my retractable bottom pan actually works.  It was 1 AM on Wednesday night when I tested my crank and pulley system.  A five minute happy dance ensued.



Initial construction phase.





Many hours spent at the drill press.





Portable chicken coop...finished!

    The concept is to park the coop in different places in the pasture, letting the chickens graze the grass through the bottom mesh floor and allowing their droppings to fall through.  I overbuilt the thing in order to make it harder for a gale force wind to knock it over and also to resist attacks from the oxen, horses, goats, raccoons, coyotes, ect.



Bottom's up! The SS Poultry Princess' inaugural launching.


Yes, that is Cole at the helm.  He was instrumental in the Research and Development phase.  I left the fully occupied coop parked in the backyard for two days and challenged him to devise a way to break in.  Valiant efforts on his part, but no flaws detected.

Two packs of head lantern batteries, multiple titanium drill bits, custom shade cloth, custom sun tarp, quart of Rustoleum black, cattle panels, two rolls of chicken wire, chain link 1/2" mesh fence (leftover material from a prison building job in Montgomery, essential component for the raising bottom), too many pots of coffee, too many cuts on my hands to count  =   portable coop!

Oh yeah, I rerouted the wiring so the trailer lights still operate and I did get a license plate for it.  Technically, it's road legal!

On a somber note, the whole Boston bombing business hasn't settled in my mind yet.  I'll never understand what prompts people to believe that violence and anger can solve problems or further their causes...so, I'd best not even try.  The only thing I know to do is to keep living life the the max, grateful that I have been given yet another day to enjoy.  

Other farm blessings:  Morel has moved back to the barn.  She still gets bottle fed 4X a day, but she's feisty enough now to hold her own in the herd.  I miss having that little stinker around 24/7!



Morel's former digs

Cole is happy to return to Numero Uno status. 



His Highness


Irises are top on my list of favorite flowers and they're bursting with blooms in the flower beds.  What a treat for my eyes and nose!


Bearded Iris 'World Premiere', a jewel!

 
The vegetable garden is growing like mad.  The Winter vegetables are being harvested to make way for the incoming Summer crops.  Yesterday, the leeks and potatoes ended up creating 4 gallons of cock-a-leekie soup.  I'm not making the name up, it's a Scottish version of chicken, leek and potato soup. 

Sun's up, I'd better get started on my chores!