Mike's New Project

When I first started talking about getting a dog, Mike wasn't really in favor of it.  He didn't want to risk my heart being broken if something happened to the dog.  (Plus, I don't really think he likes to share my attention!)  He swore he wouldn't let another dog into his heart after he lost a friend several years ago.  However, he soon decided we should get the dog and has since admitted at how glad he is that Toby is a part of our household.

Doesn't he look like a sweety?

Of course, that doesn't mean he hasn't used this to his favor.  Mike has been wanting to get some livestock ever since I moved here to his eighteen-acre patch of 'heaven on earth.'  We have considered getting some calves and we still want to do so when the weather is a bit cooler and we have the barn ready.  We talked about getting some miniature donkeys at one time and decided we don't know much about them and maybe that wasn't such a good idea.  Mike has threatened to get some milking goats at one time and I absolutely said no to that!  He has also stated several times that he would like to get some chickens and I didn't want any part of them either. 

So, this weekend, he took a giant leap and took on his first farm livestock project of our married life.  Meet the girls...

He now has ten pullets in a pen out in the barn.  He has already started to give each a name.  He is almost as excited as a kid in a candy shop.  Yesterday afternoon when he got home from work, he puttered around out there in the barn from about noon till almost dark.  Then, when he came to the house to join me for some quiet time on the deck, he was just giddy with excitement about his new project.  Even when we went to bed last night, he said, "Maybe I should have gone back out there to check on my chickens to make sure some 'possum or coyote didn't get in there after them."

He has ten of these girls...

He has grand plans for them and has even started talking up the sale of their eggs.  I think there are a couple of folks at his work who will become customers.  My sister seemed interested. 

I must admit that I think that one with the red head is kind of cute.  Of course, my idea of how they will eventually be is sort of like Martha's chicken coop...

Martha's Coop at Turkey Hill

or much like this...

Heather Bullard's Coop

or maybe like this one...

Made in Heaven

or even like this one...

Kriquet's Chicken Coop

I guess it really doesn't matter at this point.  So long as my involvement is no more than it has been so far...  I went with him to Bonnie's Barnyard and we picked out a waterer and a feeder.  Then, I rode with Bonnie to go pick up the chickens at the fair.  My niece, Julie, and Bonnie loaded the chickens into the crate.  Stephen and Bonnie unloaded the crate when we got home.  I handed Mike some wire when he was stabilizing the pen.  That is about as close as I want to get, too!
I do look forward to a big old fluffy omelet in a few months, though!