A Special Honey-Do List

My sweet husband works incredibly hard.  Long hours, stressful situations, on call 24-7, all part of the territory when one is in management.  Yet, he continues to support my scheming and dreaming for our family farm: Melville Farms.
Hubby Dearest is a reluctant farmer to say the least, but luckily he volunteers for a “honey-do” list of sorts. 
As summer turns to fall, days become  shorter, rain falls harder and my toddler is less willing to cooperate, I have quite the list for him:
1)Drainage: we want use of our small field in the winter, even if it’s only for poultry.  I discussed renting equipment to ease the task, but of course Mr. Do-it-himself went out there and dug a drainage ditch BY HAND.  It is well done, but a failed culvert has turned his hardwork and our access road into a lake complete with miniature waterfall.

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(Faithful dog Ted testing out his new swimming hole)

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(Our new water feauture: Waterfall de Melville)

2)Help winterize the coop: for some reason I feel like it’s a bad parenting decision to work on electrical with your toddler helping.. so the Hubs will be hooking up a light timer to keep those ladies laying!
3) New chicken housing- our multiple chicken tractors have served us well, but the ladies need some new digs and we are trying to improve production here on the farm by raising meat birds through the monsoon months as well as the happy-go-lucky summer months

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(The Hubbity-hubs helping move one of the tractors around)

4) Contain the madness- I do not want chicken juices on my front porch as I have been there, done that, over that.  So imagine my suprise when I brought home 14 new chickens and over half of the newbies REFUSE to be contained.  The cozy coop, spacious winter run, treats and fun roosting options were not good enough for them apparently and dag nab it they flew the coop to then roam the world, coming in and out of the fenced area with ease and roosting 20 feet into the trees around the chicken house only mocking my attempts to lure them back to the rest of the flock. 
My Little Miss Q is only so helpful while I do daily chores or chase animals as she often tries to sample miscellaneous livestock poop like they are rare delicacies, attempts to jump in the impromptu lake, or break into the chicken coop and dig in their food. She is being an adventurous  kiddo, but as it can cut into my productivity I’m glad Sir Hubby Dearest is willing to help out on the farm!!!

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(Q helping with her wheel barrow)

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