For the first time since moving to our small patch of wanna be farm acreage, we are without livestock.  Over the last year we a given the goats away to happy homes.  After Holly my heart just wasn’t in it anymore.  And we never had the time to properly become goat farmers.

But even more recently we’ve had a very determined predator picking off our chickens.  One by one they went missing and during the day no less.  We were down to our oldest girl.  She was a Plymouth barred rock I called Old Sister.  She wasn’t fond of being petted but she would jump up and snatch a cracker out of your hand.  She was smart.  Lasting the longest because she could hide and evade the persistent predator.  After five years of providing yummy farm fresh eggs I was relieved her end was from natural causes.

So now we have empty pens and an empty hen house.  My plan this fall and winter is to take down the pens and incorporate them into the yard.  I’m sure the ground is wonderfully fertilized and would make a great spot for a large garden plot or greenhouse.  If I can get past all of the rocks that lay inches below the dirt.

I also plan to take down and reinforce the twenty year old chicken coup.  I will have chickens again.  We have been spoiled to having a steady supply of farm fresh eggs.  And having to actually remember to buy eggs has been very inconvenient.