Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
― Maya Angelou – poet, author, historian, playwright, producer, director, civil right’s activist
I know….possibly an unusual person to choose to quote for a ‘farmy’ blog, but when you read on you’ll see it fits perfectly.
We’ve known for a while that our mobile chook pens needed upgrading; it just took a while to find a design that we would suit us here in steamy South East Queensland. Thank goodness for YouTube and for the farming families who posted all manner of pen styles!
Once we had sorted through all those videos, then came the constructing. And is the way in life, this took longer than we expected.
MR CGL sweated through some very hot days in the big shed, welding, grinding and measuring our new pen into existence.
The good thing about doing these kinds of projects is that everyone learns something. The junior farmers both had small jobs – painting the welds, holding things steady or helping dad to measure.
But over several weeks the ‘penthouse henhouse’ started to come together.
‘Til finally the day came that hubs couldn’t stand the pen being in his shed any longer! Finished or not, it had to get out!
Then the really scary part…
Would the expensive-ordered-to-size cover fit?
Believe me – we didn’t even want to contemplate that being a reality! “I’ll cut the bloody pen to fit……!” came the growled response when this question was floated.
But it did…more or less. We weren’t sure how much tension to put on the cover, so went with that trusty Aussie fix all in a couple of spots – number 8 plain wire. The cover is likely to give after it’s been in use for a while, so we can fix it permanently then.
So….all this moving and covering took place Sunday. A very hot Sunday.
First thing Monday morning the junior farmers and I moved the chooks out of the old pens and into the new penthouse.
By about 4pm on Monday ‘arvo’ we had a bit of a ‘poo pants’ moment as a severe storm warning was announced and our new pen had to go through it’s first rain and storm! Oh No! A bit of frantic tying down and finger crossing ensued.
But… fortunately it and the chooks survived AOK. We were even gifted with a brief rainbow directly over the pen! I like to think the universe was smiling at our efforts to do better.
There are a few small things to tweak – what new house doesn’t come with a few teething problems? But I reckon the Mr of the family has pulled together a very snazzy, comfortable new chook pen. Now…what to call it? Drop us a comment if you have any great ideas.
