Today we took a road trip to the Tractor Supply (closest one is about 45 minutes from where we live now), with Good Neighbors in tow. We wanted to pick up a few things to prepare for the arrival of our chicks in early April, and price out some items that we'll need for the homestead. We came home with new muck boots, lopers, pruning shears, a saw, two large metal cans for feed, chick starter and grit, grit for the grown-up girls, pine bedding, and a wire egg basket (I'd been lusting after one for a while now... too often I end up carrying eggs in my hands and pockets and drop one or two trying to open the door!). We priced out chainsaws, fencing and t-posts, and garden carts.
I get so much more excited about going to the Tractor Supply than I do going to the mall. In fact, I hate going to the mall. Being surrounded by useless overpriced plastic crap and ugly clothes made by underpaid children in the third-world just depresses me. But Tractor Supply is full of useful things, many of which bear a "Made in USA" sticker. That makes me glad. Not to mention the tub full of baby ducklings, all yellow fuzz and tiny orange webbed feet sleeping in a pile under a heat lamp. I came very close to stuffing my sweater full of them and running out the door. The cuteness was unbearable.
The Tractor Supply also happens be only 15 minutes from the new house, so we obviously couldn't resist taking a little drive in the rain to see the place without snow for the first time. We walked the grounds a bit, feeling where the soil is boggy and where it is well drained, watched a mated pair of mallards float lazily in the pond, listened to the stream rush over the rocks, saw a trio of deer run through the woods and over the crest of the western hill. We found the remains of a wild turkey strewn about, its bones picked clean by whatever creature made it a meal, it's lovely feathers scattered in the grass and brush.
All were beautiful reminders of the kind of life we're going to live "out in the country". I felt a deep sense of peace walking those grounds. It also affirmed the fact that $400 in fencing we're going to need to keep our chickens and garden safe from the wildlife is a good investment. Here in the (urban)suburbs, hawks are only critters that really pose a threat to the girls, and our decoy owl has done a fine job of keeping them at bay. The biggest threat to our garden has been the digging of dogs in the raised beds (and slugs!). But at the new house the girls will brave a whole host of predators prowling the woods and fields. Rabbits and groundhogs will happily raid my carefully planned garden if given the chance. I am delighted with the bountiful wildlife we'll live with, but I'll be more delighted if they remain on the right side of a fence!
Five days until we go home.
1 comment:
I'm feeling your excitement!! :-) Hey, don't forget to check out the second-hand shops for things. I bought the cutest wire egg basket at the Goodwill store for less than a buck. I love it! Last summer I bought a bunch of sheer curtains there which I use as floating row covers, and those were cheap, cheap, cheap too. I need to go find a shallow pan that I can use to boil down my maple, hickory and walnut sap now that the trees are puttin' out. :-)
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