Chickens, Books and Ponies

If you read my last post you know what a difficult couple of years I had with my chickens. I think I read too much. I have read so many horror stories about varmints getting into coops/runs and destroying every single bird inside. And my birds did so well roosting in the apple tree in my fenced yard in our mild clime with my Labbies on guard much of the evening that I didn't figure that cooped birds had it any better. And another thing, I only had a few bad runs with my chickens, I would go for months at a time with them running around free range without loosing any of them. I figured my losses were fairly low despite a couple bad spells. But the animals drawn to our place by the drought, devastating my flock in a short period of time, was the last straw that convinced us to try something new and fix them a proper coop and yard.
Our chicken run behind the garden shed is coming along well. The frame is all but done. Now all we need is the caging and to figure out how we will finish the bottom edge so that determined predators can't get in while we are sleeping, and to install a roofed roost, and doors and nesting boxes inside the shed. Then, we hope to get a new garden shed so I can use the old one for a chicken coop.

Our friend, Miguel, has been helping Steve build the frame and last weekend they poured a concrete step to rest the door on. It's very nice. I drew a little hen in the corner of the step in the wet concrete. (I can't see concrete mixed and formed without thinking of the Romans.)

My last, lonely little hen, Miss Sparrow, is still doing well and lays several large green eggs for us every week. If we don’t get any pullets this fall we will surely get some chicks this coming spring.

I bought some pansies and violas to take the place of the tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden this winter. I wonder if herbs will last all winter here in north Alabama. I would like to plant them too. I like to keep parsley, rosemary and chives. now we have added dill to the fresh plants we use in our cooking.

The farrier came out again for the second time. I don't think it's a fluke, I really like her work and her way with my ponies. Anjee was her typical spoiled self, testing her with every little trick she could think of. Humans, to Anjee, are nothing more than a source of entertainment. I tried to raise her properly, to respect us squishy, little humans, but somewhere along the way I missed the boat! But the farrier handled her most excellently and actually got her to stand quietly for a while.

I also got all the ponies properly groomed: beards and other shaggy places clippered, tails and manes combed out and neatened up, and bot eggs scraped or clippered off. They are so cute now! ~I must get photos~

I have been asked to draw a little design for name tags for a meeting for my ponies breed club. I have a few drawings finished that I like a lot. I hope they are happy with them when I send them in, and I hope the size of the drawings is usable.

I finished Bernard Coldwell's book "Sword Song". I love the series it belongs to, 'The Saxon Novels'. I also love his 'Grail Quest' series and 'Warlord Chronicles'. Coldwell could be my very favorite author. In between other novels I am slowly re-reading all of the Harry Potter series. I am enjoying them more this time than the first time I read them. And Steve and I are of an age that we figure the number of books we read the rest of our lifetime is so limited that we are usually loathe to reread anything ... but Harry is one exception I will make! (I sure hope he grows his shaggy hair back out for the last movie!) Waiting in the wings on my night stand is Ken Follett's "World Without End", the sequel to one of my all-time favorite books, "The Pillars of the Earth".

I am hoping to find someone to ride Bankhead with on a regular basis. I am not one to go out adventuring on my own on a horse. It looks to me like this fall is going to be long and lovely. It would be a crying shame to spend it cooped up in the house with fat, out of shape, pasture-potato ponies out my window!

That's about all that's happening around here lately. We are enjoying the change in the weather ... warmth and coolness at last, hopefully no more HotHotHot this year!