Rebuilding

My Mom would tell us as kids, “If you can’t say anything nice then keep your mouth shut”. I think I took this to heart with regard to my chicken life as a Chicken Mom. I just have not bothered typing about anything. I have been very frustrated and down about it all.

Hurricane Irma sort of ransacked my hen house and chickens yard. (I’ll insert photos when I can. Right now, my phone is being difficult).  The roof, the wire on the sides and top, were ripped down, and a small outbuilding structure was toast. We have spent some time rebuilding, but it’s not easy. I still need to rake and burn branches and storm debris. There are still huge branches precariously perched above the coop which must be cut down. Frequently, I’m just too tired to mess with it. I don’t like it though. No; not one bit.  In my minds-eye, I have a fancy whitewashed coop with a nice floor covered with new shavings, and freshly painted nesting boxes. Ah… Hen heaven.  Yeah, well that’s not exactly where we are.

We had to evacuate the area for two days. The day we were packing to leave, I put what the girls would eat and drink in places where they could get to it should the water come up. Let me tell you. The water came up, big time. We had two feet of standing water (the house was fine). The girls were unable to go anywhere except a small patch of dry ground in the middle of the hen house. It was raised just enough so they could gather and stand on it. Thankfully, I had presence of mine  to put down a couple wooden pallets. I knew they’d float if the girls needed to find refuge. It saved them.

When I got home, I let out a yelp of help to the family. Getting the hens outside of that area one by one. They were mostly dry but they looked frazzled. Heck, I looked frazzled. This was a horrible storm. I can’t even imagine what it was like here while I was safely tucked away in another area.

The girls stayed out in the yard foraging and having a blast while we began to remove broken tin roofing and ripped wire. We did what we could for them at the time, but we had a lot to do and still have a lot left to do.

Victoria and Cleo. Victoria, is a Lavender Ameraucana. Cleo, is a Cuckoo Maran.

It makes me difficult to live with. My husband, the poor guy… (laughing).

Sometimes I do wonder if he secretly wants to duck and run when he sees me wanting to work on the chicken coop…

I just wanted to drop in and give you notice, I’m still around, and the girls are fine!

Hey, a friend mine is writing about my girls. If you’d like to go read her blog, she’s amazing! Here’s her page link.     Peace With My Life 

Sending you folks lots of Love and Best Wishes…

The Chicken Mom