I got a couple months head start on the "spring time" yard work. Things like raking up the final leaves that fell after the snow settled in, picking up tree branches that have fallen from big storms, cleaning up trash and moving wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full of rocks.
I've been told by neighbors that the older gentleman who lived in our home before us had kept an amazing back yard with gravel pathways, planting beds, entertainment areas.... After he died nature knew it had about a year and a half before we would come along and it didn't waste any time reclaiming the land. I spent a lot of time last spring and summer trying to make sense of it all. Mr. Ol' Timer had a strange fascination with rocks and bricks. They are everywhere! They line all the pathways and there are big caches in the most random places.
We've decided we wanted OUR yard to be a bit different from how HIS yard was. So rather than try to clean up and salvage what he had done I decided this year I would try to limit the beating my mower recievs and collect as many of the ankle breakers as I could before the long grass started growing again. It's no small task!
Last year I converted one of the sheds in our back yard into a coop for our hens. By converted I mean put a door in the side and added a hen ladder. I have been meaning to add in a floor so they are not running around on the bare ground and kicking up a nasty storm cloud of dirt and pulverized chicken turds. I used 1/2" wire mesh so when it gets messy I can easily sweep everything through the mesh and collect it to throw on the compost pile.
I still have a few things to do like building real nesting boxes and adding a slanted panel below the mesh so the droppings can be collected easier. But the ladies are up off the ground and the coop is a whole lot less dusty.
It has been a noticeable adjustment for the chickens though. The first couple days they didn't want to walk on the mesh or adapt to using the side door again. We had been collecting 7-9 eggs a day consistantly for months. With the change egg production (or at least the eggs we could find) dropped to 3-4 each day. I brought in 7 eggs last night so it appears they are adjusting well.
When you are working in the dirt or creating something with your hands your mind is active and you are able to learn from whatever it is you are engaged in.
Lessons Learned From Rocks and Chickens
Sometimes in life we come accross things we don't expect or particularly want to find. They may have been there for a very long time or placed there recently by ourselves or others. These things have often been buried and dormant deep below layers of other commitments, preocupatoins, time wasters..... clutter! It can be very uncomfortable and even painful when these things surface.
Traits in our personallity that we were previously unaware of.
A relationship with a lifelong friend that has become toxic.
Secrets that have been kept (even with good intentions) by a family member or friend.
Other times we are cruising along in life and out of nowhere something changes and our life is turned upside down. We are caught off guard and don't know what to do with ourselves. We don't know where to lay our eggs.
Job responsabilities evolve to something we didn't sign on for.
Our personal information is compromised.
Someone we love leaves our life in any way.
In any situation we must make choices. How will we respond? Will we try to repair what we find or is it better remove it and move forward? Will we act as though nothing has happened or will be be proactive and assert ourselves to make things right? Will we move on with grace, taking with us the positive or will be plant our feet, becoming stubborn and stagnant in the present by only thinking of the past?
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