WOW I'm 68 Pages behind! Well guess what... last Friday we finally got some more chickens! Somewhere around 3 dozen probably RSL's.... a coworkers dads cousins someone or others "retired" layer flock. I don't know the history of these birds but they are probably 1.5-2 years old at most, not in terrible condition but have been cooped up the entire time. My coworker was soooooo happy to see them released into our massive run. These birds have never experienced freedom like this and they are so happy. so are we! I treated the birds with ivermectin and set them free. I have not looked very closely at these birds but they seem all right and in a couple months they will look just fine.
So we're back to where we started a few years ago with birds for egg production to feed our family. Nothing fancy but they don't have to be. They are even laying around a dozen eggs a day that we are scrambling and feeding back to them for 5 more days or so during the withdrawal period. These eggs look fantastic!
You will never know how much you will miss the sound of chickens until you haven't had any for over year! Everyone has said the same thing as well.
So we spent all weekend digging out the pond, again, landscaping the entire run, leveling the ground and building a waterfall that will be a part of the biological filter.

we did this because we have been in a drought and the pond has been completely dry for 6 weeks or so and there was a storm coming. Finally. So the kids and I worked our butts off to dig it out and spread the dirt out before the storm sunday night. We got it down to about 3.5 feet, we almost met our goal but it's tough work with a shovel. The storm came and almost filled it to the top. 8 more inches and it hits the overflow. Theres another storm on the way right now! I'm so glad I didn't have to use city water to fill it like I have in the passed.
Anyways life is great! Our gardens are the best they have ever been even though it was quite delayed in the spring? Kids are great! Lizzie is great!
It's been a long time but hey. I'm back!