Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud...

...and NONE of it is in the pullets' feed pans!

A local business's signboard last month read "It wasn't raining when Noah built the Ark." Well, yesterday, when we built the "porch roof" for the Brooder House, was a perfect sunny spring day. Today, according to a coffee can sitting near the shed, we've had over an inch of rain (note to self: install rain gauge soon). With all the rain we got earlier this week, it's just sitting around in puddles...not usual for our sandy silt loam soil. The ducks and geese are happy; the hens are stoic. Chickens just don't look right wading around in puddles.

Our work was not only well-timed, but effective. The ground in the pen is mostly puddle, but the feed pans on the grating under the roof stayed perfectly clean and dry, and the ground under the grating is fairly dry as well. Since the "porch roof" also covers the new access ramp for the chicken door to the Brooder House, the inside is dryer, and the eggs are very clean for these weather conditions. It's gratifying to see that a half day's effort made such a big step forward.

The rain has been threatening to turn to snow all day, but so far it hasn't...quite. It was sort of splattering on the bus windshield as if it might. Tomorrow morning is the first day of Farmer's Market...just seems WRONG with the weather we've been having.

All I will have at Market is eggs and wool yarn, and promises for more to come. But it will be great to see the other vendors and the customers again! My main goal is to simply get there, sell some eggs, figure out what's been borrowed from the "Market Box" (my portable office) over the winter, that I'm not noticing, and determine how feasible it's going to be for me to do Farmer's Market, unload everything at home, and get to work on time.

Typically the night before the first Market is an all-nighter, like the night before Sunrise Service. Tonight I finally got all the materials and tools together to sew the new tablecloth for the new table, and will STILL get some sleep tonight, so that's progress.

But only if I stop writing and go to bed!