CHICKEN RUN INITIATIVE.

Underneath yesterday afternoons skies, the combines were busily whirring across vast acres of golden, ripe corn fields. The drive from the village was a stream of gigantic tractors & trailers, heavily laden with massive rectangular bales  so slowing the traffic.

The late afternoon air was perfumed with that lovely scent of fresh golden harvest, it was a lovely sight to see especially after the desperately waterlogged fields that I witnessed earlier on in the year when tractors could not even get on to plough for sowing.
Meanwhile, closer to home, my neighbour who rescued one hen "Beartrice" and 15 very young chicks,has had a bit of a space problem due to the chicks growing so fast ...

her hurriedly bought, flat pack run is no longer adequate enough to cope with them all.

So ... ole Dafad here (who managed to rescue some brand new trellis work from being dumped at the recycling centre) has been kind of busy building a larger run for them all.

It has been a sunny afternoon but the skies kept turning dark and seemed to promise rain ... then blue skies and white clouds appeared again but bit by bit the trellis got changed into wired panels and slowly but surely each panel became chick proof.
Dafad also had several visitors which delayed progress  a bit but towards the end of the daylight day, progress was made.

All it needs now is just a netted "roof" a wee bitty shelter if it rains in the day and a door.
The plan then, after the Beatrice brood have got used to it, is to make the 15 youngsters earn their keep by putting them in the vegetable garden (currently overgrown with weed and full of late summer seeds) where they can all be under gardeners and clear the patch.
A friend the other day suggested I borrow two sheep ... now that ... does appeal to me!
The mad mutt could cope with them but the other suggestion of goats and I drew the line, I can't see him getting on with the more obstreperous  "Capra aeagagrus hircus" yes ... that really is the latin name for the domestic goat! Closely related to sheep they have very different temperaments and I can just visualise the daft dog getting severely goat butted .
Pigs were another "land clearance" option mooted to me but much as they make great weed eaters and soil Rotavators and even though I have just recently learned how to cure  bacon within seven days (indeed the old farmers who lived here kept pigs and smoked their own sausages and hams) I think even I draw the line at borrowing a few pigs!
By the time I had finished constructing the main walls of the chooks new, more expansive run, the sky was turning into its "ready for bed" sun setting tones of cloud punctuated  skies ... the evening remained comfortably warm but I was worn out, ready to eat, long muscle relaxing soak in bath and then heading early for bed ...

then the skies changed

 and I drove out with the mad mutt in the car and went chasing photographic chances ...

Even as I took these photographs, the local combines were harvesting whilst the crops are dry and as darkness dimmed the western sky line, I could still here harvesting machines 

busily working well after the sun had set tonight.

We took a slow walk along the verge, just watching the blazing sky slowly end the day.
The mutt finds it easier to walk on the grass with his arthritic legs whilst I was picking the first blackberries of the year ( eaten with cream when we got home). 

What a pair we make? Very arthritic owner and dog!

Yet with strong determination, we both get somewhere, so be it all very slowly at times.

Goodnight all, sweet dreams.