Mods planned, 4th = 5 off

So this weekend I have some more modifications planned for the chicken housing arrangements.  Having the chickens out of their coop last weekend made it clear how much they like being able to freely scratch the ground.  Both their main coop and extended run area have 2×4 welded wire on the bottom of them for protection from potential predators that have the ability to dig.  Unfortunately the wire also makes it impossible for the chickens to do any real scratching.

Originally I suggested to Cindy that I totally remove the wire floor from the extended run and instead we could put pieces of fencing around the outside of run to accomplish the same goal.  Cindy pointed out that could be a bit of a pain in the ass, moving the pieces of fencing every time I moved the coop, although doable.  She suggested that instead I could cut out just a section of the floor inside the run, giving the chickens a 12-18 inch strip of bare ground to scratch away on.  The perimeter barrier of fencing should be enough to still discourage any excavating animals.   Plus since the entire back yard is already surrounded by 4 feet high small opening fencing, the odds of anything even getting close to the coop is further lessened.  I think the chickens will be quite happy with the change.

Tomorrow my 4th of July weekend starts somewhere around 3:30 AM so I can get to the race site bright and early.  The early 7AM start time, large number of race day sign ups, large distance between the start/finish lines and a participant field of close to 1000 runners makes this race challenging on several levels.  This is the first year we are using timing devices integrated with the race bib for this event which should help expedite logistics both before and after the race.

Once the race is out of the way I have a glorious four and a half days of time off ahead of me.  Other than normal chores, a Tarpons game Saturday night and a trip to the movie theater the rest of the weekend will be about doing whatever I damn feel like doing.

I had an odd dream last night that I only remember bits and pieces of.  I know at one point Cindy was calling lazy for some reason and at another point a 60 foot maple tree was delivered to my door.  I had forgotten I ordered it at Christmas.