Old Eggs

Early in May, when the snow had melted enough to move about outside and take a look around, John began using construction materials that had been leaning on the barn since last fall. And there he found some old eggs that the chickens had laid outside of their nesting boxes that were in the barn. They enjoyed laying a lot of eggs in the woods last summer — we would often hear them screeching their egg laying song out there. The chickens were moved to a warmer barn at another farm for the winter. I think of them often. They were lots of fun to watch and photograph. I hope they are doing well. I miss them.

_/\_/\_

Hiding Chickens

This hen thought I couldn't see her behind the day lily.

On this snowy day (an understatement — we are getting hammered here. I have never seen snow this deep at the house), it’s nice to look back on a warm October day. The chickens were enjoying the bugs in the garden. The chickens don't live here anymore. They moved to a farm where they could be warm with other animals this winter. There just were not enough chickens to survive the winter together in the barn. I miss them, but have my photographs. I hope they are doing well. They deserve a good winter after the way too exciting summer they had.

_/\_/\_

And Speaking of Tractor Chicken . . .

After the kids had their tractor ride (see the previous post below this one), I looked out over the newly graded leach field and saw , , , what was that?? A dead chicken??

Whew! It was just one of the girls taking a dust bath and ungrading the newly graded leach field!

Here are some of the best photos of her bath , , ,

Chickens don't roll completely over during their dust baths but they appear to do so.

The other hen appears to be kicking dirt at the first hen, but she is only beginning her bath by getting her "dust tub" prepared.

The hens were at the peak of their weight in July. Fat, happy and wild.

But that soon changed to simply fat and wild once John saw what they were doing to his day's work!

_/\_/\_

Septic System Installation

On July 20, the trucks, excavators and gravel arrived for the new septic system. All the permits and permissions had been gotten and filed with the town and now the mess began! Above you can see the truck delivering the new septic tank. Our excavator, Arawn, is on the truck. He was the boss that we hired for the project.

Above and below: The tank is lifted from the truck and lowered into the hole.

Above: you can see the mess that this equipment did to the yard. It was something to watch.

Above & below: John and Arawn attach all the pipes.

And finally, Arawn and John quit for the day. As soon as they left, the chickens ran in for dust baths! They were quite a contrast to the huge shovel on the excavator.

The story of the new septic system is hardly over. There were a few problems later in the month. But that story will come later . . .

Click on any of the photos to be taken to the Flickr photo page and the New Septic System Set.

_/\_/\_

Scout's Obsession

Scout watches the chickens.

Scout spent the summer on the couch on the sun porch watching the chickens. She became obsessed with watching them, and would even run to the living room windows to follow them as they walked around the house. Daughter Amelia was concerned about her dog's behavior, but it hasn't done any harm to Scout. We tried prohibiting her from the couch and that didn't work. No dogs are on the sun porch now because of the rennovations. The sun porch is here, but it is partially demolished and is being rebuilt. New French doors have been installed to go into the new living room. But with a wall gone on the porch, there is free access to the outdoors and these dogs can't be let loose (or they will disappear up the mountain). Scout is once again calm and behaving normally. The chickens are spending their days in the woods now so they seldom come around the house. Catgirl took this photograph with the Olympus Tough 8000. She also took the photo of her brother, Ironman, below. Got to love little boys!

Funny face!

_/\_/\_

Thirsty Chickens

Chickens need a lot of water and have their own water dish outside.

They sip the water and then tip their head back
so the water flows down their throat.
I hear they would drown unless they tipped by their head.

I crack up watching them drink. But it looks very laborious for them.

This hen's mouth is full of water.

Thirsty Chickens Set

_/\_/\_

Camera Critters #127: The Great Waffle War

My daughter, Amelia, made waffles one Sunday but had one left over (can you imagine having leftover homemade waffles?). So she tossed it outside for the chickens. Later that morning, in front of my computer in front of the window, I heard a huge, and I mean huge, commotion. I saw three hens chasing a fourth hen around the yard. The first hen had something large and golden in her mouth. The others were squawking as loud as they could. The chickens ran around the house yard, into the woods, out of the woods, around the wood pile, through the gardens, and around the driveway ! They eventually all got a piece of it, but not before I got some great shots! I decided to use Flickr's slideshow feature for this post. It's funnier if you run the slideshow fast but I couldn't find the code to do that. I hope you enjoy this romp as much as I did! Thank you for visiting today.

Click to view more fantastic animal photos.

_/\_/\_

Tractor Chicken and the Culvert

The road crew begins the installation of the new culvert.

Barton has an ordinance that says that your driveway can only be twenty feet wide. Our driveway was created before that ordinance and it is forty feet wide. The town road crew says it is the widest in the town. The problem with the driveway was that it had no culvert down by the road. Therefore, a lot of the driveway has washed away and it has created the land around the apple orchard to flood, creating a new bog. In the winter, ice from this bog would seep under the road and break the asphalt, so that the road here was always bad. People in church have even commented on the bad condition of the road here.

John quickly figured all this out and explained it to me, telling me that we need a culvert. So we called the town and Clem, Barton's Road Commissioner, dropped by and heartily agreed with John's conclusions.  Clem doesn't even know why the driveway was allowed to be built so wide without a culvert. Now, property owners buy the driveway culverts and the town will install and maintain them. So John and I took off for Newport and bought a culvert and had it delivered. The Barton road crew dropped in on July 1, after Route 16 was paved and improved, to install the culvert. These photos illustrate the process. 

Tractor chicken heard the town tractor and came down for grubs.

The ditch for the new culvert is dug.
Clem uses a transit to make sure the ditch is level.

The ditch immediately fills with water from the apple orchard.

Tractor Chicken & her sisters move in closer.

Tractor Chicken is determined to get to the new ditch.

Clem chases the chickens away.

The connector is added to connect 2 20-ft sections.

Clem gives one final push on the culvert to send it into the ditch.

While Clem worked, I chased Tractor Chicken & her sisters away.
The hens took to sneaking around through the woods to get to
the tractor. Very sly little chickens!

Clem makes sure the culvert is flowing freely.

The culvert is buried with dirt.

The west end of the culvert.

The culvert is installed!

Tractor Chicken runs in

East end of culvert

Clem & crew drive off when they are done.

The completed driveway.

View more photos for the complete story in my
Installing the Driveway Culvert Set on Flickr.

_/\_/\_

Tractor Chicken Again!

More excavation . . . more excited chickens.
(Click on any photo to view it full size.)

They run as fast as they can to avoid the dirt!

They skid and lose their footing!

But they manage to get away safely.

But do you notice that they don't go too far away?

_/\_/\_