"I Can't Believe I Am Risking My Life For A Chicken!"

Note To Self: Do not surf on Kijiji when you are high on cold meds and depressed that you are missing out on all of your days off!

That is how this adventure started - a well timed ad on Kijiji, when I may have been feeling a little sorry for myself, led to a hair raising trip, with a healthy side dish of black ice. When I saw the ad for 16 week old laying hens for $8.50 per bird, brown or white egg layers, take your pick, I could not resist. Having just purchased a Seacan that had been double insulated and converted to a chicken house (complete with wired in timer, hanging feeders, waterers etc.) I realized that I could fill the building with ready-to-lay hens, at a reasonable cost. Trouble was, it was COLD outside and the hens were about three to three and half hours away and between here and there, a lot of icy roads!

It may have been wiser to wait for another batch (when it was not so bitter outside), but where would have been the adventure in that? Mike spend a day building a large plywood pen, divided in half, for the inside of our stock trailer. We filled it with pine shavings and set off for Acme, Alberta. Along the way, we got slightly  lost, saw numerous cars fly off the highway, observed semi trailer trucks jackknifed in the ditch and slipped and slid our way to our destination.

At one point, when I gasped and bit my fingernails in the arm rest of the truck, Mike looked,  possibly glared at me and exclaimed, "I can't believe that I am risking my life for a chicken!"

We picked up the 50 birds that I had ordered (and a few more than I ordered - chicken math, you know) and headed back on those treacherous roads, which were slightly better than the first trip, but still not peachy! Due to the getting lost and the slow travel, we reached home MUCH later than anticipated and darkness had fallen and it was cold! The thought of catching all those chickens in the dark and putting them into their cozy new home was not too appealing. We opted for a different solution. By backing the stock trailer into the heated machinery shed, we were able to drop the trailer and keep the hens safe and warm for the night. We put water and feed into both sides of the compartment that Mike had built and closed the overhead door. The last time we looked, my hens were nestled down in the shavings and looking sleepy.

In the morning, we peeked into the trailer and there were eggs everywhere!

In broad daylight,  were able to catch all of the layers and put them in their new home! All 60 of them!! (Which now brings my chicken total to about 95, not counting ducks and quail). That is quite a few eggs a day! Luckily, I have a steady stream of friends that come every week and there have been no issues finding homes for all of the beautiful eggs.

One of my goals, this year,  for Project Life 365 is to have a picture of myself every week of the year, doing something that I normally do on the farm - so Mike is having to help out by taking my photo.

Now I just have to turn him into a photographer with a good eye for shadows! I love this picture of Rosie and I, but the shadow from her cattle shelter is bothering me. I can not wait to get into my own albums at least 52 times this year! Not a bad goal for 2017!

Wishing you Peace, Love and Chickens!

    I don't know how to relate just how cold it has been lately - maybe, in reality, I have just been spoiled by the last two winters. This winter has had a different feel about it. A lot of the days are overcast and the sun just does not seem to be able to reach down far enough to shine on us. The mornings are grey, the afternoons are dreary and the darkness presses on us far before our list of chores is done for the day.
   Today, the striking comparison of this winter versus last winter really hit home. Today was the day that I tidied up all the loose ends in my Project Life album, before smugly putting it on the shelf. Project Life or Project 365 is a commitment to take a photo a day for an entire year and place the photos in an album, along with all the stories. (My album every year looks like a cross between a seed catalogue and a poultry show!) It is the perfect place to showcase all those beautiful farm photos, my garden and pets and to document the farming year. I use it to settle arguments when our memory fails... "When did we seed last year? How many ton of hay did we take off that quarter?" Everything is documented in my "photo diary", aka Project Life. As I was finishing up my  2016 version, it became very clear that this winter was setting up to be a real old fashioned, Canadian winter!

   Last winter, I had the peas planted before the end of March! I noticed photos of myself, cleaning out flowerbeds in February! We only dropped the blade on the snowplow one time in the entire winter! But, not this winter! We have been digging ourselves out for weeks!

    I have been trapped in the house much more than I care to be. There is something exhilarating about working out in the fresh air, but it has been CRAZY WINDY here in Pincher Creek this holiday season. Like, knock you over, kinda windy. I am pretty sure that I saw a chicken blow away the other day! It has been making things really exciting around here, not in a good way. The girls have been hanging out in the barn, to get out of the wind, but they are cozy and warm and laying eggs like crazy!

    I am pretty sure that the builder of this barn would be impressed if he knew that his beautiful log barn was still being used to this day! It was one of the original buildings on this farm when we bought it and we had to do a lot of work to save the old girl! The bottom logs were rotted out, you could not even get into the barn, for the depth of manure that had built up. Five to six feet down, we found the original wooden floor. A lot of jacking, tons of cement (for a new, solid foundation) and weeks of setting the building straight, a new roof and exterior to protect the hand hewn logs - voila! A barn that is stunningly beautiful and oh, so appreciated by our animals! On a cold winter day, there is nothing like spending some time in the barn with the gang.

    Little Sunflower is still hanging out in the greenhouse - where she is known to nibble on the fodder that I am growing in there. After every strong wind storm, I travel the country roads around our farm and collect all the "lick tubs" that have blown away from other farms. The heavy duty plastic tubs come with a mineral block inside and obviously are popular with our fellow ranchers, but they don't ever go looking for them after they blow away - score!!! I just drive around and roll them to the truck, add a little dirt and some seed oats or wheat, a sprinkle of water and line them up in rows in the greenhouse. By rotating the harvest, I have a steady supply of greens for the quail, ducks and chickens. I may also have stole  scored the grain from some spillage around a certain grain auger, back during the harvest. (I admit nothing). Totally free food for the gang and they are paying me back with loads of eggs, for a little work and no cost! When I am ready to use a tub for feed, I pull out the grain (roots and all) and feed it to the animals- in less than five minutes, I can have the tub planted again and I sprinkle some fresh soil on top to make up for what was lost. The only downside of the whole operation is the look that I get when my husband has to pull over so that I can "pick the ditch". My way of thinking of it is that I am saving the environment - one lick tub at a time! LOL

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year of peace, love and chickens!

P.S. Do you know what I just noticed? My plaid flannel pajamas poking out from the bottom of my ski pants! There is nothing better than flannel pyjamas and chickens! ROTFL