Garden box 3 built and more new chicks

OK, I overdid it yesterday.  That makes the second time, after Wednesday's little adventure with the chainsaw which resulted in my first tree being felled (with hubby's coaching).  Hubby didn't have the camera, as not only was it my first tree, but it was my first time feeling the power of the force of chainsaw.

Yesterday morning I took hubby into town to meet his dad so they could ride to Daytona to have a guys' day  during the annual Daytona Bike "Week" (which is apparently ten days).  It didn't take long after that for a strange feeling of boredom to hit ... the dog really is a poor conversationalist.  Since we had one of the little reddish-gold pullets die overnight, I called up Tractor Supply to ask what their policy on chicks and survival is.  Usually, there is no refund of replacement, but since the other five were (and still are this morning) fine and it was less than 24 hours, the manager on duty said if I brought in my receipt she'd replace the one chick.  Off to the little city I drove.

Considering it's about 25 miles each way, which uses about a gallon of gas each way, and I was going to replace a $3 chick ... it made perfect sense to me to buy a few more things while I was there.  Along with a window box style planter, I brought home five little Cornish-Rock chicks (aka "broilers").  Here is a pic of the littles staying warm in the shed:

eleven little chicks in the rabbit hutch

So the current census of chickens is:

• Four unknown-breed pullets bought last weekend, nicknamed "the golden girls" since they are that cute pale yellow
• Four Golden-Laced Wyandotes, genders unknown, bought Thursday and quite distinct with their dark brown "chipmunk" striping
• One unknown-breed pullet, with reddish-gold striping bought Thursday
• One unknown-breed pullet, pale yellow, to replace the dead one
• Five Cornish Rock broiler chicks, gender unknown

So we are now up to fifteen little cheepers total.  That only kept me busy until about lunch time, so I decided to do up another project that has been percolating in my mind the past couple days.

garden box #3 in pieces

garden box #3 finally put together

It took me a lot longer than it should have to get the wood screws in this!  I must really out of practice ... it's actually a bit embarrassing.  By the time I finally got the last corner bracketed, I was sick of looking at it and went inside to vent my frustration on a couple more boxes to unpack.

The unpacking is probably the point where I hit the "overdone" mark, since the ones I chose contained cast iron, canned goods, and baking dishes.  It is a bit depressing to only move my glass bakeware from one box to another.  I do miss being able to use an oven!

Well, when I picked hubby back up in town, I decided to have little fun and not tell him everything I had done.  I did mention I had overdone it, so he asked where I'd like to be taken for dinner.  When I mentioned unpacking a couple more boxes, he said that sounded like a cheesecake dessert was in order (he strongly believes in positive reinforcement).  The real fun for me was when we pulled in to the driveway, and he immediately noticed the new garden box.  Then I mentioned we should check the baby chicks in the shed before we went into the house ... "Hey wait a minute!  There's more here than this morning!"

There is one more thing I accomplished yesterday, but it is a surprise for hubby and won't be revealed until he has built "Rampart Fowl" this week.  Fortress Fowl will need to wait for next month, plus we will need to do Rampart Fowl first to get an idea of how we want to scale up the basic design and what improvements we can make.  Goals and rewards ... it works both ways.