This week, Jan left me alone on the farm! She went to California, to visit another farm that we trade goats with. I was very confident when she left. I took her to the airport with no qualms. The only thing we’d even worried about was that she was flying to a place where there was coronavirus. We didn’t talk about any worries about the farm at all.
So, I got home from the airport, had breakfast, and then headed back to town to go to the bank. I took my niece, Kat, with me. I’m so glad she’s staying here! Anyway, when we got back from town, there was a chicken running around in the middle of the road. One of ours. Good GRIEF! This NEVER happens when Jan is home!
We got out of the car, trying to herd the chicken back in through the front gate. The chicken was too freaked out to go to the front gate. She ran all the way to the back end of the chicken pen - by the shed we’re converting into a second chicken coop - and the entire flock ran to “bawk” at her from their side of the fence. Every time we approached this chicken, she squawked and ran away from us!
We walked the fence line, trying to figure out how she had even gotten out. Remember Fluffy? The skunk who lives under the chicken coop? Well, Fluffy has dug a hole underneath the fence right behind the coop. THAT’s how she got out. We walked the entire fence perimeter. There’s no other way she could’ve gotten out. We put a cinder block at Fluffy's escape hole. I hope Fluffy doesn't dig any more!
Then, we herded the rest of the chickens into the back pen so that they couldn’t escape while we tried leaving gates open for our chicken-on-the-lam. After several failed attempts, and a couple of episodes where I had to follow the chicken into 4 foot high dead weeds, we were able to herd our escape artist back inside her pen. MAN! She actually seemed happy to get back in! Or, perhaps she was just relieved that we'd finally stopped harassing her. She ran to join the rest of the flock.
Our chicken rescued, Kat and I got ready to paint. That’s the big thing we’re doing while Jan is gone - painting the old chicken coop. It’s going to be a surprise! I hope Jan likes it. The last time I tried a surprise like this was when I was a kid. My family had a red brick house with a front porch. I had the idea that if we painted each brick on the front of the house a different - vivid - color, my parents would be delighted.
So, I organized my brother and sister, and the minute my parents left for church we got to work. We were so excited, imagining how grateful my parents were going to be. We ended up using chalk, and we colored the bricks on the front porch, where the rain wouldn’t wash away our work.
When Mom and Dad got back home hours later they were horrified. We were stunned at their response. In any case, I hope this doesn’t happen with Jan!
Kat and I decided to do the coop in a really traditional style - red paint with white trim. I looked up on the internet why so many barns are red. It was because, originally, the paint those farmers used was colored with rust. It was the cheapest way to go. And, after that, we’ve just thought of farm buildings as red. (Much like Tibetan monks, who wear those red robes because originally the pigment came from rust - the cheapest hue was the most humble).
My brother used to paint houses - during college - and he said to be sure to knock down the wasps’ nests before we started painting. There were FIVE! Ugh!
We painted the trim first - and we used every last drop of paint in the can. We used a quart for our tiny, tiny coop!
Next we painted the bulk of the coop. Once again, we used every drop of paint.
Then it was time for the stencils. I thought it would be cool to stencil some chickens on the side of the coop. So, I’d ordered some chicken stencils on-line. The lady at the paint store said we should use spray paint for the stencils. I was amazed that you could just BUY spray paint here! You certainly can’t just walk into a store and buy spray paint in Chicago!
Anyway, we got set up and tried our first spray-paint stencil. Epic fail!
Thank goodness we had decided to start on the back side of the coop where no one will ever look! Because we're out of red paint - we can't paint over that drippy chicken! We tried a second stencil, and it may have been even worse. Finally, because we’d bought a second quart of white paint to cover up all the drips we’d had with the red, we tried doing one stencil with actual brush-on paint. It was BRILLIANT! So pretty!
We’ll finish the stencils tomorrow. Meanwhile, one more chicken story before I sign off for this week.
We have a chicken who’s getting broody. She’s sitting in the nesting box and not moving. I tried to reach under her to collect eggs, but she was having none of that. We have a sort of ladle with a very long handle that we sometimes use to scoop eggs out from underneath broody hens. I tried that, but couldn’t get the eggs out.
I ended up texting Jan. She said I would have to put on the bee-keeping gloves! That way the chicken could peck me, and it wouldn’t matter. So, that’s what I did. Success!
