Delays.

Before I get to the meat of this post, you might have noticed the absence of a post last week. This is because nothing much changed and I have no intention of boring anybody by saying the same thing over and over again. I might bore people, but that’s only ever an accident.

The Chickens.

We finally got them outside last night, penned in by an electric fence, once the sun had gone down. They weren’t as fussy about the process as I’d thought.

Everything I’d read online said to keep them until they were fully feathered and the temperature overnight had climbed above 65°F. Well, I can’t say for sure that they’re ‘fully feathered.’ What I can say is that the overnight lows are consistently 65°F or better, and that not only had their brooder become incredibly stinky, it was also becoming restrictive. A chick who was being picked on had nowhere safe to go, and while the Chickshaw itself isn’t particularly spacious, they’re going to be let out on a daily basis and the square-foot per bird it offers is significantly better than the brooder.

I’ve put up a few pictures of the Chickshaw under construction under my What Else Have I Been Up To section on The Chickshaw page. I would have sworn there were more, so if I find them, I’ll add them.

Happy Chickens.

Well, I’m assuming they are.

They seem to have spent their first day of freedom milling around underneath the Chickshaw, enjoying the shade.

So. What’s Up Next?

The Old Man.

Well, frustratingly enough, it’s been seven weeks since The Old Man went into Alpha, and I’m still waiting patiently.

I’ll be looking for Beta readers soon. In fact, I may start a Beta process before Alpha is complete since my goal is to try to be ready for publication this year.

Black Box Factory.

It’s taking longer than I’d expected to gather my notes from The Jews of Warsaw together for this. I have a page up and ready so that when I’ve gotten to the end of the process, I can share that. Right now I’m at best one-quarter of the way through collating my notes, and with school being out for Summer, the kids are going to want – and deserve – my attention, so I’m not sure how much time I’m going to be able to allocate.

NRCS.

I have to admit that I’ve been unable to spare any time at all for this lately. I want to mark out on the property exactly where the fences are mapped to go, and then move them to where they need to be. I have gotten as far as getting an indication of prices for almost all of the material and some of the rental, but there’s still a lot of work to do.

Anything else?

Nope. Those are the major projects I have on at the moment. Moving like glaciers uphill, it seems. I’d like to say I’ll have something more positive to report next week – this is a personal accountability blog, after all – but that would be counting my chickens.

Speaking of which… I think I’ll actually go do just that.

I hope everyone has a great week. Stay safe.

Categories: Alpha Reader, Chickens, The Warsaw Ghetto