New home for our chickens: a great garden compound

Howard and I are holidays for a week. Applause please!

We are spending a week at home working in the garden. 

Despite rain we are going well on our to do list.

One of our top priorities was to move the chicken coop from the back garden into a spot 

along the side of the house.

The near side fence and gate has been here all along. Today Howard added a second gate higher up the path.  This little corner has just been wasted space up until now.  We put up mesh under the house and voila the chickens have a new compound.  Benny is checking it out.

We gave the coop a huge spring clean, emptied, scrubbed, sprayed with eucalyptus oil and moved it to its new home.  They have clean shredded paper in the egg box, sawdust in the straw yard, a sparkling clean water bottle.  And so many green weeds to eat and scratch out. 

We could take bets on how quickly they get rid of it all!  First job done.

Another job that has waited years was pruning this monster waratah. It has gotten taller and taller over the years until, as you can see it towers over the house.  We had two but the other collapsed one wet, windy weekend. This one was at risk of the same fate. It has finished flowering and is yet to produce buds so now was the time. Howard sawed this down by hand!  The biggest job is still to come as we chop up and mulch the smaller bits tomorrow. The bigger bits will become firewood one day.

Here's the new view from our verandah: Kate and Scully enjoying their new home and the shorter waratah that will quickly thicken up and give us beautiful blooms to enjoy.

Good day's work!