I have received dozens, nay, hundreds of inquiries into our next plans for the backyard. So, here they are:
First, note the new climbing gymnasium for the chickens. I read somewhere (Chicken Digest*, perhaps) that chickens get easily bored when they don't have enough to do. So chicken owners were encouraged to set up climbing frames, swings and slides for them to amuse themselves with. Here is what I got ours. So far, they have tried climbing it only tentatively, I think afraid of the high levels of excitement. I am sure once one gets used to it, the others will join in.
This area is the subject of the next long term project. It is the forgotten area of our yard, and that is a compost bin hiding behind a big rotting oak tree. Since the compost bin was built (5 years ago? I'm not even sure anymore--Grandpa made it using recycled bits of lumber from Frederick's sand box that he outgrew quite a few years ago) it has been buried in heaps of autumn leaves, spring yard clean up and food scraps, to the point that it wasn't even visible. I have been working it over every day for the past two weeks, tossing it like a giant salad and removing two wheelbarrow loads every single day (one very finished load goes onto the flower beds and the other, less processed, goes into the chicken pen for finishing off). Today I got the the point that I can see to about 6" from the bottom all around the sides and back, and it only has about 4" of material inside it. The work has been made dramatically easier by the weather we have been having the past month or so, monsoon-like rains every evening. The rains keep the ground soft and the worms and other wigglers thriving so they eat down the compost like nobody's business.
Here is the front, still in serious need of working down. (Click on the picture to get a better view.) The main problem is that several trees and a bush make use of the compost pile so it is thick with roots, and also (since squirrels are jerks and chew off tree bits) we have a lot of twigs and branches mixed into our leaves in fall--a LOT of sticks and twigs, which do not rot down nearly as quickly as leaves do. So the compost heap not only requires tossing, but sifting. It's tiresome.
And there is the rotting oak tree that is dropping large chunks every few weeks. The tree was, when we moved here, about 12' tall (it had been lopped long before we arrived), and at least 12' around diameter. It also had all the bark on it, and was very solid--and the home to billions of critters, large and small. Over the years, the bark started dropping off and then it wasn't long before the innards rotted out. Then, this year, the side walls started dropping. I've decided that it has to go and so have been pulling chunks off. I had planned on burning the bits but will have to be discreet since, technically, open fires within city limits are illegal--as most fun things are.
And here, behind the pond and to the right, on the outside of the chicken pen, will be the new home of the compost bin. I think if it is more out in the open I will tend to it more regularly (as opposed to never, which was the schedule) and it won't grow into such a heap.
And so what will go into the corner, once the compost heap and the tree stump are finally cleared away and the ground leveled? Another tiny building, of course. Now that I know how to build them, I want to try again only this time to make something large enough for me to work in.
*Since buying the chickens I have noticed two things I never noticed before. The first is lost chickens on the loose at the side of the roads. Just yesterday I saw two hens munching happily on grass right by the side of the road. I am sure they had sprung loose from their pen and their owners had no idea. A few weeks ago I saw five or six loose chickens happily eating as they strutted around a nearby cemetery. I hope they all made it home safely. The other thing I have noticed is a real market for books for chicken owners: how to make chicken coops, how to feed your chickens, how to raise chickens, how to hatch chickens...I saw one that intrigued me, called "The Chicken Owner's Garden." This excited me as I immediately thought of my chicken ravaged flower beds and hoped that it would offer useful tips on which plants to grow to discourage chickens, in the way one can buy "deer resistant bulbs". But it wasn't that at all! Rather, it was a whole book dedicated to plants that one should grow entirely for the benefit of one's chickens: herbs to feed them so their feathers are fluffier, flowers to make their egg yolks pretty, others to make teas that soothe anxious mother hens. "What a racket!" was my reaction.
