In our quest to make the chicken yard better we started up the project for the Chicken Truck and soon will be starting another vehicular coop when I manage to strip down another donor vehicle for the vital components (More to come on that one). With this we need to get the ground itself situated due to the fact that mud is everywhere. Being at the lower end of the lot, any water runoff will collect here enough to make the area sloppy. This is where the gravel comes into play. I had already spread some gravel around the Mustang Chicken Coupe but even that area needed touching up due to the gravel having sunk into the mud and getting covered with chicken mulch from past cleanings. With the Chicken Truck in place gravel is definitely needed as there will be that much more traffic as we work around these vehicles in our everyday workings with the chickens. With that, I went to grab another load of gravel from the cement place. With the wheelbarrow in play I got to work spreading gravel out. The first places I started was in an area behind the storage shed and next to the passenger side of the Mustang Chicken Coupe. Wanting to touch up the areas around the car I wanted to continue on behind the storage shed and around the soft areas that were surrounding the chicken tractors we had set up in the back of the chicken yard. The area directly behind the storage shed wasn't soft so it needed only a thin layer of gravel. Continuing on from the Mustang and the storage shed I spread more gravel over and around the chicken tractors. Some of this area was muddy due to water that leaked from the drinker cups as the chickens drank water or knocked a cup loose enough to make water drip out excessively. Since we do have to work around these little structures, it only made sense to get some gravel on the ground and around these things and the surrounding area. There was one really bad area that was more or less in the middle of the yard but close to the rear of the yard near the fence. Its about halfway between the chicken tractors and the rear of the Mustang. This area really needed a lot of attention as the ground was sloppy and muddy. I did not want to have to deal with feet sinking into this mess so I really concentrated on getting gravel mashed down into the mud here to ensure that the area would be nice and covered so our feet and our shoes can stay relatively dry and clean. As previously stated the area that I graveled up around the Mustang needed to be touched up due to the gravel having been settled over time. I moved more gravel in over this area, especially at the back of the Mustang since this area was really settled in to the point where the gravel was more muddy than anything. This area was right next to the muddy area that I previously covered so it only made sense to get this area covered in gravel as well. At least now this high traffic area can be navigated without slopping through mud. Coming near the end of the gravel load in the truck I wanted to try and get a small area in front of the chicken yard "gate" since this area was starting to get a little sloppy too. I wanted to catch this area while it was still early before this area turned into a mud pit as well. It didn't take much gravel to cover this span of ground between the posts of the opening in the chicken yard fence. At least when I bring in more gravel I will be able to work on getting this graveled area linked up to the other areas that will receive gravel along the inside of the fence all the way over to the car coops. My goal is to eventually put some landscape timbers in the chicken yard, running them parallel to the house and starting from the opening post of the fence opposite the house. I'll run the boards from the post all the way to the opposite side of the yard in a straight line. With that I'll spread gravel over the section of the yard that is within the landscape timber line and the perimeter fence line that makes up the "back" of the chicken yard. The rest of the ground will be left grass. The intent is when I get the gates up and perhaps get some other form of protection over the chicken yard (such as some form of overhead netting), I can let the chickens free range in the yard. They can then have access to a patch of grass so they can dine in a more natural state than they would've if the entire area was covered in rock. From the way its looking I will probably have the chicken yard complete before I have the garden area complete. These two food production areas are an important asset to the homestead and need to be set up and taken care of if we are to expect them to serve us in the future.
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