Busy, busy, busy

I had my first day off in a long, long time yesterday. It was much needed, and I had tons of fun!

I was all rejuvenated, so I got to work today. Over the last few days, since we had that little bit of rain, I was able to crack the surface of the soil, and have been working on digging post holes for the turkey run. It has been a long, slow process. One foot down is a clay hard pan. I was trying to dig holes 2' deep. I would have to pour some rainwater down each hole, and wait for hours and hours for it to perk down and moisten the clay. Then, I would scrape off a bit of it, millimetre by millemetre. Felt like it took forever. Then, a surprise. About 16" down, I hit something. At first, I thought I misjudged, and hit my electical cable. I can't imagine how awful that would have been! But no, it was TIRES. I'm not sure if they are down there for some purpose, or if my property was built on a landfill... scary thought! Anyway, needless to say, my holes didn't get any deeper! I got the fence posts in (these are 10' tall- I wanted to build this coop 8' high). Then, a trip to Rona. I swear, I keep the local store in business all by myself, I have spent so much money there! I got a roll of stucco wire, and hinges and a latch, and a few other sundries. Came home, and got the bottom 4' of wire up. The amazing thing is that when I came home, the fence posts were still standing! I thought for sure they would've toppled over;-)
I built the door, and hope to hang it tomorrow, and get up the top 4' of wire. I will probably have to buy a second roll to get this totally finished. Then, I just have to put netting up over the top (which I think will be tricky), and I'm done! The turkeys should be able to start coming outside in the next day or two.
These heritage breed turkeys FLY. When I was at the breeder's, there were turkeys 60' up in the trees, roosting. It's amazing, really. You always think of turkeys as too fat to fly!

The chicken poults came outside for the first time today! They only came out a few feet- they are still to 'chicken' to explore much yet. A few more days or a week, and they will be all over that run, foraging like crazy. Hopefully, I won't have to feed them as much, as they will have alot of bugs and weeds to eat.

My hens stopped laying for me a couple of weeks ago. I miss my eggs like crazy. Funny, before the farm, I almost never bought eggs. Now, I feel like I can't live without them! One of the hens is broody again, and I'm just leaving her there. Maybe she'll give me babies. The eggs I put in the incubator didn't do anything... AGAIN. I though there was a couple that might hatch. I have to admit, I am quite disappointed by this. I don't want to have to buy more poults every year! It would be nice to get some of my own going.