Fried Chicken in the Arctic

The girls/one potential boy have been outside now for about twelve days. So far so good.  It's amazing how much anxiety those chickens gave me in the first few days they were outside.  On the third night they were out it started pouring rain at about 400 am. It woke me up and I stumbled out of bed and checked to make sure their heat lamp was still on. Surprisingly it was. You see, I am running electricity out there via 3 extension cords. I know I know, I probably shouldn't hook 3 cords together as the directions on the cord say, but its the only way right now to provide electricity to the coop. Anyway, 15 minutes later my anxiety got the best of me and I stumbled out of the bed again and peeked through the blinds and the light was off. Great. I grabbed the iphone and checked the weather. Crap. 33 degrees. I peeked through the blind again and I  swear I saw a flash. Great.  I electrocuted them.


I am not scared of many things. In fact only two things will send me over the edge running for safety.  Snakes I can't do and the thought of electricity + water scare the hell out of me. Ever since I was a kid and saw the warning label  on a blowdryer I have been afraid of the thought of anything plugged in coming into contact with water. I know you are all thinking, its a common worry. A good one actually. Hell, no one should be plugging in things when its raining right. But i won't even let a blow dryer be used in the vicinity of me brushing my teeth. Seriously, I worry that much.


So there it was 400 am and 33 degrees and I couldn't fall back asleep. Not only had I electrocuted the girls/one potential boy, but I had no Idea how I was going to unplug the extension cords from the plug without frying myself as well.  Hmmm.  I wondered if wearing my rubber boots would ground it. No, I would be standing in water. Crap. Ok what if I hang on the gate and then in less than a second, in lightening speed  I unplug it. Yep, that might work. I am going to have to be fast though. I replayed this over and over in my mind.  These and other thoughts kept me awake until 600 am when the sun finally came out and I could finally go and check on them. That night I was seriously contemplating why I had gotten these chickens and was embarrassed that I may have to tell the good ole therapist that these girls/one potential boy were some serious anxiety producers.


I checked on them first. I figured I better make sure they are ok before I electrocute myself. I guess the whole put the O2 mask on first really comes into play in the real world. I walked to the coop preparing myself for what lie ahead. Fried chicken I thought. Or, even worse frozen chicken since the lamp had shut off and it was cold and rainy. I just knew they were all dead. I opened the door to the coop and carefully opened the door to the henhouse and they were.................all alive with not a care in the world,  as comfortable as can be. Ok,  I thought smiling. Not going to tell the therapist about this one. They are more than ready to be outside and in the elements. I then confidently unplugged the heat lamp and am alive today as I type this. Whew.


Anyway, the past few days here have been kinda rainy. I put up a fence along the back and side so that the girls can free range in the yard without getting out or something coming in and attacking them. The problem is we have a creek in the yard and I had to build the fence across the creek. I thought about it for a long time and came up with a solution. Hopefully it will stand up to the rains. We shall see in a couple of days when the forecast predicts more rain.

I was hoping to till and level the past two days but all the rains have made it really really wet. I will have to wait for it to dry out a bit. In the mean time, I finished a little side project today. We poured a patio slab a couple weeks ago.  To extend the patio and add a fire pit we went and bought some concrete AC pads and put them at the edge of the patio. Today I dug and leveled the remaining two. I think in the spring when we plant some grass in between them they will look pretty cool.

Note the coop in the back. 

The girls/one potential boy free ranged for the past two days and they love it. We still haven't introduced the boys to them yet and so they remain inside or in the front yard while I'm working in the back. In the next week or so we will introduce them as we are still researching the proper way to do this.  I snapped this pic of Viejo today as he watched all morning through the back door. The girls/one potential boy would walk right up to him and stare. He was pretty good. No barking, but I swear I saw him lick his lips.