The New House

Here are two photos of our new house. I cannot wait to get back to Louisiana and the farm. We are due back to The Lazy Deaux around December 2008.

Saga Palm I grew from a baby & periennials to be planted around chicken pen. 

Onions, potatoes, carrots, & lettuce. 

Medicinal herbs ready to go in the herb garden IF it will stop raining long enough for us to build the bed.

Lemon tree growing in the greenhouse. 

Thornless blackberry that I got from a local nursery. The owner gave it to me because it was not sprouting from the shoot but it did sprout so I'm going to hold it in the greenhouse until next spring. 

New Pyrenees pup.
Boer twins. The little paint is a female we will keep. 

Ducks! I have no clue what breed the yellow ducks are. I think they are some type of runner. The brown ducks are Campbells. They look a little ragged but are beginning to grow their adult feathers. 

Chicks a week older. 

The chicks arrived Tuesday morning safe and sound. All 30 of them. The hatchery was generous enough to include 3 extras. 

Nesting boxes.
Roost with slide out compost catcher underneath.
Slide out for water and feed that we will eventually use. Right now the chicks have full range of the coop.
Outside view of the slide out that is under the roost. 

Chicken yard that is 50x10
Main door to coop that opens into storage area and nesting boxes. There is a chicken wire window above the nesting boxes for viewing.
Door inside storage area that opens into the coop.
Storage area & nesting box lid to the right. 

The coop and yard is finished. Currently the ducks have it all to themselves, well the yard that is. 

CHICKENS ARE COMING! Our day old chicks are due to arrive April 20th. HL almost completed the chicken coop but he cannot do anything simple. The missing area under the window will be a pull out drawer located below the roost for easy clean up and collecting of excellent materials for the compost bins. Behind the nesting boxes will be a small room to hold feed and room for a setting hen. You will also be able to access the nesting boxes from this room instead of directly insdie the coop. I plan to use the old type white wash on the inside and out to help with external parasites and the growth of bacteria. There will be a large chicken yard off the front of the house that leads to the garden's edge. They will have free range during the day once they are grown. We will butcher 10 of the 25 we have coming and keep the rest for eggs & repopulating our flock. We will have several different types of white and brown layers. Leghorns being the primary breed since they are a dual purpose bird. 

Meet the newest member of our family, Zone. He is a Great Pyrnees & Akbash cross. He is a great Livestock Guard Dog and we are very glad to have him. In these photos he is a little under the weather. The female he was housed with bit him protecting their puppies and he got an infection. He is now on the mend and looking better every day.