After a couple of false starts, I think it's safe to say that Spring is finally here. I think...
We've had an extremely wet spring, with several late snow storms, as well as lots of rain, so there is water everywhere!
This is our front yard, where we've never had water, and The Girls couldn't even walk through this in their rubber boots, the water was higher than their boots were. Half of that little bridge in the distance was covered with water.
We've had fun making horses go through the puddles, and it's given them a chance to get the pounds of mud off their feet. I'm sure it feels good for them!
This is also the first year we've had this secondary seasonal creek running through our land. It's sure pretty!
This may be my favorite picture of all time. This is a sloughy area that normally fills up in the spring, but not usually close to this amount! The little spring fed dugout is probably 6 ft. deep, and it extends well in the low lands. The ducks love it!
It's been really great to get out riding again, and start getting the ponies in shape for the spring. I always say that riding is like therapy for me.... but I haven't quite decided if it's cheaper or more expensive.
This spring, we finally bit the bullet and built a new chicken house. The house is significantly larger than our last house, and so we thought we'd fill it with 50 layers this spring. As you can tell, 50 layers doesn't even come close to filling it.... so maybe next spring we'll do closer to 75? We'll see how that all plays out. I love the new house, with several windows to let natural light in, and lots of room for the chickens to roam. There's 2 chicken doors for them to get outside into runs, as well, the large door at the end will make cleaning out this house a dream. We'll be able to pull the skidsteer right up to the house and shovel right into the bucket.
There's also storage for feed and water, as well as some great nesting boxes which open to the other side of the wire mesh, so we don't even have to go into where the chickens are to collect eggs. The house is finished off with a man door at the end. We still have some work to do - we'll side the outside with old barn wood, as well as run electrical in there so we can have heat and light in the winter.... but all in all, it's been great to have some new space for these silly birds. And having new chickens always makes it feel like spring is finally here!
