Ripping it up September 26, 2005
To the uninitiated it wouldn’t look like it, but our backyard is greatly improved after the weekend. It actually looks a bit like someone lives in our house. There’s still a little to do to make it tidy looking (a bit of pruning, a few more weeds to remove) and a lot to do to make it bewdifool, but that all seems much more doable now that worst of the weeds and crap are gone.
One of the exciting things about cleaning up the yard is that it’s now feasible that we could get some chooks. I’m not a fan of birds, but I’d really like a couple of fat & happy chooks strolling around the yard, eating weeds and bugs and popping out a few eggs to earn their keep. We’ve found a pretty good deal on a taj mahal of a chook house which can be delivered and assembled for not much more that it would cost us to build our own and way less hassle. The only thing we need to do is put some concrete down for it to sit on.
I’m very excited about chooks!
Terrific idea! I’m thinking of chooks myself so I would be very interested in your affordable palacial digs for them. Also, for my two bobs worth, I think chooks are terrific for kids, keeping the scraps, feeding the chooks, collecting the eggs, the whole recycling and circle of life bizzo. How exciting.
I like any creature that eats weeds and vegetable peelings. And I am sure a concrete floor of some description is not beyond me (although six years ago it would have been).
What sort of chooks are you going to get? I don’t know the breed, but there are some that are rather fluffy, right down to socks on their feet. Apparently they can be quite affectionate and don’t mind being patted and cuddled too. Which is probably a good thing when you look like they do. I’ve seen them at those kids animal farms and always wanted to pick one up.
I need to do some research, but whatever type of chooks we get they need to be able to deal with a toddler who thinks that the way to play with small animals is to run at them, screeching, dogs who won’t be able to decide whether to eat them or herd them and cats that will definitely want to eat them. Something large and calm with a bit of a ‘don’t fuck with me’ attitude would probably be the go.