Free Farm Help! (aka Family Visits)

My parents made a surprise visit this week, up from Oregon.  They brought a goat stanchion my Dad had made for us as a holiday present.  My Mother always insists on being put to work so I took a day off of work and we made quick work of some outstanding chores:

• Trim goat hooves: This has to be done regularly and has historically been a two man job because we didn’t have a goat stand.  It’s MUCH easier to do with the stand and some grain to distract the girls.
• Clean chicken coop:  We do a full litter change of the cedar shed chicken coop by the house about twice a year.  We also scrubbed and sanitized their feed and water, scraped down the roosts, and refilled everything including their oyster shells and the bedding in the nesting boxes.
• Fence and reseed backyard: This isn’t really farm related but needed to be done.  Last year’s leaves suffocated the grass and the chickens have been keeping it well turned and any hint of reemerging grass eaten.  The moss was starting to take over as well.  So we fenced it off from the chickens so we could add some garden lime and reseed.  Once everything is established the chickens won’t be able to keep on top of it.
• Planted more seeds: It was time to start my tomatoes and peppers inside.  So far the only real failure I’ve had for seed starting was some chives and onions, but I already have chives so that’s not a big deal.  I may try starting onions from sets since starting from seed is so problematic.
• Scrubbed the back patio: Chickens traverse the back patio alot and even like to hang out right outside the back door.  This leads to lots of “presents” on the patio.  I still need to scrub off the front patio.

It wasn’t really on the chore list, but Mom tends to bring out the gardener in me.  We broadcast a bunch of “wildflower” mix and seeds I’d saved in to the front flower garden now that it’s been fenced off from the chickens.  Maybe I’ll have a cut flower garden after all!

About the only spring chores that are left right now are to do the spring cleaning of the goat shed (waiting on the tractor for that), finish the hoop coop, and to prep the garden.  We are off work next week so I’m sure there will be lots of activity.