Zephyr Knew! (Friday, July 30)

We've been talking for a while about raising a batch of chickens for meat.  After helping process some in June and then tasting one, we are even more eager to do it.  We inherited this shed with the property, and we've been using it to store shavings for the horses' stalls.  We've been talking about turning the shavings shed into a hen house, but since being at Nature's Harmony Farm, we decided to turn half of it into a brooder. 

There's some urgent work to be done on the shed.  The roof overhang was an add-on, and the unsupported center sagged, causing the roof to detach and be bent by strong winds.  Now the rafters have started to rot, and Herb has to reinforce them before he can reattach the roof and, of course, add the needed support brace.  That will be another day's project, though.

Today's project was to remove the shelves on the future brooder half of the shed.  A nice perk of this hot, sweaty work was ending up with a lot of VERY heavy-duty shelving we can use somewhere else.

The shelving also had some heavy-duty oily grime on it, so my job was to wash it down.  Zephyr can't resist water, so she came to help.  Eventually she was wet enough, and she went back to "help" Herb.  How he could have removed all those shelves without her constant barking is beyond me!

Every job needs a supervisor, and Rascal was ours.  Can you spot her?  Maybe not, but isn't that the definition of a good supervisor?  You never know when they're lurking just around the corner--or under the floor (hint! hint!)--so you always do your best!

Zephyr would never make a good supervisor.  Oh, yes, she's bossy enough, but you'd always know when she was around!  Ever since we've lived here, she has had a "thing" about the shavings shed.  She can literally spend hours in the doorway, barking and growling at something (imaginary?) behind the shelves.  Sometimes she would race over to the shed, barking madly, and we wondered if she had chased a squirrel in there or perhaps heard the wasps and hornets that we had to kill before starting our remodeling project.  She has actually gnawed away part of the doorway (to her left) in her frustration at the unseen enemy!  This photo shows Zephyr sitting proudly by her handiwork, because (as Uncle Louis says), you should always listen to the dog!

Zephyr knew!  When Herb removed the peg-board, we found three snakeskins behind it.  We aren't sure what kind of snake it is, but it's obviously been using the shed to shed (sorry, I couldn't resist!) for quite some time.  (I don't even want to consider the other option--that we have THREE snakes slithering around here!)  We obviously need some pretty tight construction on the shed before it's safe for chicks!  Before we move them in, I think we'll let Zephyr inspect it!