I feel at times, I may have made it much bigger than I can handle by myself, well, me and my trusty old Troy Built rototiller. Up and down the field we go, the machine wanting to go one way, me the other, tiller jumping and bucking with each unseen rock and hard spot. We have been in such a time crunch because of all the spring rain, the soil still hasn’t properly dried, so it hasn’t worked up as well as I would have liked. I spent all day yesterday tilling, and have the blisters to prove it. Today’s goal is to finish making the raised beds, no small task in itself, then add the plastic mulch, then the plants.
Sherry has been taking the baby chickens out to the yard while she works outside in the landscaping so they can get out of their brooder for awhile; they are getting a bit cramped in there. She dashes back to check on them every so often to do a head count. The chick round up after the days follys is the fun part. There’s nothing quite so frustrating as chasing tiny two-legged birds around a yard. But I have to say, it goes much smoother than one might expect. Sherry, as has been demonstrated, has a calming effect on beasts.
Lastly, let me tell you how my quail project is going. Remember, I have over a hundred quail eggs incubating at the moment. While they’re doing that, I’ve been building cages for them. I had finished the fourth cage this week and promptly ran over it with the Mini Truck. I wanted to cry! There is a lot of work and time that go into each one of those cages, I was proud and very glad to have them all finished, then catastrophe struck. I was moving the cages from under the carport, up the hill in the truck to their final destination. Just as I was finishing the journey, one of the cages snuck off of the stack before it had permission, and ended up under the front tire. There it lay, a crumpled ball of ½ by ½ “ galvanized wire, hardware cloth, and 26 gauge sheet metal. Oh the horror! My loving wife offered, “You can probably hammer it out,” even after having been witness to my sobbing and the mangled mess that lay beneath me and the tire. Bless her heart, it’s the only ointment she had for the pain, all she could come up with in light of the carnage that lay before her. But alas, there is no hope for this cage except perhaps as a donor for a new cage. Other than that slight setback, the quail scheme seems to be on track, eggs nestled in the humming incubators waiting for the day of transformation, which, by the way, should be the 30th of May.
I’m through talking, ---Matt
Sherry has been taking the baby chickens out to the yard while she works outside in the landscaping so they can get out of their brooder for awhile; they are getting a bit cramped in there. She dashes back to check on them every so often to do a head count. The chick round up after the days follys is the fun part. There’s nothing quite so frustrating as chasing tiny two-legged birds around a yard. But I have to say, it goes much smoother than one might expect. Sherry, as has been demonstrated, has a calming effect on beasts.
Lastly, let me tell you how my quail project is going. Remember, I have over a hundred quail eggs incubating at the moment. While they’re doing that, I’ve been building cages for them. I had finished the fourth cage this week and promptly ran over it with the Mini Truck. I wanted to cry! There is a lot of work and time that go into each one of those cages, I was proud and very glad to have them all finished, then catastrophe struck. I was moving the cages from under the carport, up the hill in the truck to their final destination. Just as I was finishing the journey, one of the cages snuck off of the stack before it had permission, and ended up under the front tire. There it lay, a crumpled ball of ½ by ½ “ galvanized wire, hardware cloth, and 26 gauge sheet metal. Oh the horror! My loving wife offered, “You can probably hammer it out,” even after having been witness to my sobbing and the mangled mess that lay beneath me and the tire. Bless her heart, it’s the only ointment she had for the pain, all she could come up with in light of the carnage that lay before her. But alas, there is no hope for this cage except perhaps as a donor for a new cage. Other than that slight setback, the quail scheme seems to be on track, eggs nestled in the humming incubators waiting for the day of transformation, which, by the way, should be the 30th of May.
I’m through talking, ---Matt
Poor Matt, Sounds like you're having quite a time of it. So sorry about the Quail cage.
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