And a Tiny Bit More Progress...

Got the flooring down!  And started fastening it in place.  Once it's all screwed down (and maybe once I've mopped), I can start moving stuff in - yay!  :D

A Quick Update

Due to my work schedule, I haven't gotten anything done the past couple of days other than visiting the chickens each morning and evening to feed them and pick the shavings out of their water, lol.  But Thursday through Saturday, my shift is 2-10:30pm, so that gives me some time in the mornings.  Today all I did was some site cleanup, but I'm very happy with the results!!

Here's the before:

And after:

Now I've got room to put an enclosure in front of the coop, so the chicks can get some outside time.  :)

Slow but Steady...

I got a bit of work done today...not as much as I'd hoped, but let me tell you - that dome gets toasty inside!!  I would work for a bit, then go sit outside in the shade for a bit.  I'm looking into getting a shade net for the dome, or a solar-powered fan, or possibly both, lol!  I got some flooring down, though.  It's a bit of a puzzle...I labeled the pieces when we took them up, but I may have messed up at some point, because things stopped fitting together at about row 21, lol.

I also took a quick walk to see how wet the ground was in various places.  It's dried up in the four acres, but there's still standing water in at least one place in the outer 13.95 acres.  Someday I'd like to try to figure out if there's a spring anywhere out there.

I found some blueberry bushes, and looks like the berries will be ripe soon...I'll have to try to remember to snag some before the animals get them all.

These are low-bush blueberries, common in this area...usually less than a foot tall.

One bummer - I spotted many clusters of a flower that I'm pretty sure I remember as being toxic to goats...so once I get goats, I'll need to walk around before I set up their electric fencing and pull the plants out.  I'll have to find my wildflower book so I can remember what the name of the flower is:

The clearing...you can see the dome over on the left!!  :D  Eventually, I'll be taking down most of the trees you see straight ahead and on the left.  I'll leave a few to shade various pastures.  And the ones on the right are staying because a) they're HUGE, and b) they're between me and my neighbors.

Spotted a turkey feather.  It was probably about a foot long!

I also cleaned the shavings out of the chicken coop, which resulted in lots of squawking and fluttering, lol.  The chicks and I will be very happy when I get their outdoor enclosure built!  Here are a few shots of my new favorite photographic subjects:

Look who's trying out the roost - Miss Floofle!!

I've started calling this one Buffy:

Big Blue:

And my new favorite photo...this one's name is Speedy:

Happy Monday!!!

The Dome Raising!! :D

It's up!!  :D :D :D

A million thanks to Dad, Timothy, and our friend Paul who assembled the dome yesterday in hot, hot weather with ridiculously high humidity!  (I helped, but the men definitely did the brunt of the work.)

Here's the progression throughout the day:

Hooray!!!

Next up: see if the dome needs any patches, install a pre-hung door, install flooring, install the woodstove, pick up and install the propane fridge and cook stove, attach a sink to the gray water drain pipe, and start moving my stuff in!  At some point, I'll want to put decking on the platform and build steps.

I also need to set up my composting toilet, start clearing a spot for firewood storage, build a chicken enclosure, put up dog fencing...and the list goes on and on.  But it was awesome to see such a huge leap of progress yesterday!  God graciously held off the rain until the guys got the top on and the windows installed, lol.

Happy Sunday!!!

More Chick Photos and General Updates

I'm delighted to say that I've managed to keep all 14 chicks alive for their first 2 days in my care...that's a good sign, right?  :P 

This is despite a mishap this morning where one of the little blackish/grayish ones got out, and it took me a good 15-20 minutes to catch her.  I finally got her after crawling up onto my huge brush pile, lol.  Dad had to help me get back down off the brush pile, since I was holding the chicken.

Here are a few photos from yesterday and today.  This little chickie wins the prize for most stylish hair:

Pretty colors:

The black one on the right might be the one that got out this morning:

Big Blue may not have the coolest hair, but he makes up for it with his stature!! 

And here's Little Miss Floofle...she's still a bit fluffy here and there, and still very independent.  There's actually a chance that she's a special needs chicken!!  And lest anyone speak ill of the breeder, he has offered to replace her if she is a hen, and if she continues to be slow as an adult.  (If she's actually a rooster, she will likely eventually go the way of all spare roosters...which is a little sad, but of course is what happens on working homesteads.)

Here she is scratching for feed:

And here she is showing her independent side...while all her compatriots huddle in the corner because I made a sudden move, she calmly grabs a snack.  I find this rather endearing...but these birds need to be flighty if they're to be successful free-rangers and not get eaten by predators.  So we shall see how things go with Little Miss Floofle.

In other news, I primed my pump yesterday, and filled a 5-gallon bucket.  It took me probably 3-4 minutes.  Lol, I'm going to build up some good muscles from pumping water!  :P  The water is still coming out quite dirty...I probably ought to spend a long time pumping it sometime and see if it clears up.  Otherwise, I might need to get a filter.

Dad has still been steadily picking away at projects on the days I've been at work, though the heat has been brutal - it's been in the upper 80s/lower 90s lately, and there's not nearly as much shade on the dome deck as I had hoped.  Yesterday he made excellent progress on the platform, even bolting down the dome frame.  There's a chance that tomorrow might be the day we try to put the dome back up, though I won't be able to be there the whole day, as I work in the afternoon/evening.  But if anyone local wants to participate in a good, old-fashioned dome raising (LOL!!), feel free to check with me for directions to my land!  :P  

Happy Friday!!

Butterscotch FARM!!

Hooray!!  Butterscotch Farm finally has its first livestock!!  

Last night, I drove a couple hours south to pick up a dozen six-week-old Icelandic chicks (and ended up with 14 because the breeder kindly snagged me a couple less-related roosters from a friend so that I can have more genetic diversity in my flock).  They are SO cute...I think I'm in love with chickens.  ❤

Here's a whole bunch of photos...the first batch of many, no doubt, lol.

This one below is one of the two slightly older roosters...I'm calling him Big Blue for now because he's twice the size of most of the other chicks, and because his feathers have a kind of blue-ish tint, lol.  :P

The tan one at the bottom of the picture below is the second older rooster:

I have no idea whether the one in the below photo is a hen or a rooster, but for now, I'm assuming she's a hen, and I'm calling her Little Miss Floofle, because she often keeps her feathers fluffed out slightly.  I'm keeping an eye on her, because I think that can sometimes mean the bird isn't doing well, but I've seen her eat, drink, and chase down a mosquito...so I'm thinking she's probably okay.

So far she's got the most personality of the bunch - when I move around, 13 of the chicks jam themselves into the corner and peep frantically, but Little Miss Floofle just kind of chills and hangs out separate from the rest of them.

Lol, maybe her name should be Little Miss Independent.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great holiday tomorrow!

P.S. - A million, zillion thanks to Dad, who installed windows in the coop yesterday so that the chicks could have ventilation!!!!  ❤❤❤

Some Coop Progress

Lol, when I arranged to buy chickens a couple months ago, I really didn't think that they'd get their home before mine was ready to live in!  But that's the way things are looking...we've been hustling to finish the coop, because the deadline to pick them up is rapidly approaching!!

So today, I worked on the coop all day!

I arrived bright and early because my truck was in the shop, and Dad had to be somewhere later that morning, so he dropped me off on my land around 7.  The lighting is beautiful at that time of the morning.  :)  

First I had to empty the coop, because we've been using it to store the tools that we leave on site, as well as a number of other random things we've accumulated.  

Lol, my pictures today are pretty boring - here's a shot of the empty coop!  :P

Next I spent quite a long time attempting to seal all the little holes in the building.  This involved work on both the exterior and interior.  I added a couple pieces of wood on the outside, and used caulk and spray foam insulation on the inside.  Then I started adding insulation and covering it with random boards.  

I mounted the little cupboard thing on the wall; I'm going to modify it a bit to turn it into a nesting box.  

I also started adding a bit of chicken wire here and there as part of an enclosure.  You're supposed to bury the wire so predators can't dig under.  I'm hoping to eventually encircle the coop and pen with the dog fence so that the dogs can protect against predators to some extent, but since I'm not sure when the dogs and I will be moving in, I figured I'd better do some digging, lol.  

I still need to:

-Install at least one window (and put mesh on the outside so critters can't get in)

-finish insulating

-install perches

-install weather stripping around the door

-buy and put down shavings

-buy/make something to store the chicken feed

-find out if the chicks can drink my well water

-finish the enclosure

And then after all that, I can work on MY house, lol!!!

Happy Monday!  :P