Jan. 31st, 2012

Edwin arrived right on time.  Daisy welcomed him warmly.

He seems nice. I wonder if he has grapes.

The two of us wrangled the girls into their old brooder cage for the trip.  Most factory farm layers have about this much space their whole lives.

It turns out, Edwin’s truck bed was too small, so I called two heroes to help this damsel in distress.  G.T. and Gary are master builders in our neighborhood and they both dropped what they were doing to transport the coop to Hampstead.

I love these guys!!!

We convoyed down Hwy 85 with three vehicles, 4 humans, a chicken coop and 3 chickens.  We arrived safely and I snapped a photo of the girls’ new neighborhood as we drove in.

Beautiful!

After two hugs and heartfelt “thanks” to my two new boyfriends, Edwin and I settled the coop and put everything back together.

They are building a fence all along the field which will be a huge chicken run when completed.  There are garden beds filled with vegetation and clover between the coop and the barn.

Notice the similarity between the coop and barn. Sweet!

We got the girls settled inside and gave them some water and food.  I showed Edwin how I remove the roof and clean the coop.  Also how the little doors fit in the windows and where to place the water, food and dustbath.  He indulged me kindly even though the man has raised chickens for years and I was acting like he was a newbie.  I think he sensed how sad and nervous I was about their first night in a new place.

Proud Papa!

It was about an hour before sundown, and Mr. Marty left me alone with my babies to blubber like an idiot.  If anyone had driven by they would have seen a near 50-year-old woman sitting on the ground next to a funny red house talking to three chickens.

We like it here so far!

As the sun was going down I figured no one would arrest me for pulling up a few handfuls of lettuce and clover to give to the girls before bed.  There’s probably an HOA regulation against it, but I was feeling brave.

Thanks Mom! Can we have this every night?

The ladies went through their nightly routine of taking a short dust bath & getting a drink before bed.

Then…one by one…they climbed up to bed…

Good night Violet.

Good night Rosie.

Good...

...night, my sweet Daisy.

Thank you for going on this adventure with me.  Please join me tomorrow for the final post.

Not anymore.