Friday, April 2, 2010

Brooklyn's New Chickens Delayed

After our coop build was washed out Monday and Tuesday of this week, we struggled to get the structure built for the arrival of the chickens today. As you can see, we are close, but we still have some work to do. We just have a couple pesky details to take care of, like doors, and a roof! So we postponed the chicken arrival for Monday, April 5th.

Our volunteers and the NYRP crew did amazing work today putting in insulation, installing interior sheathing, building roosting boxes, roofing the interior, moving 5 cubic yards of mulch, installing chicken wire, and building a rock wall to keep the mulch from washing away in future rain storms.

Neighbors stop to chat and they smile when we tell them that the structure is for 50 chickens. People are anticipating the arrival: they periodically pop into the garden and ask, 'Today?' Two kids from the neighborhood came to visit this afternoon and to help out. They looked like they were having the time of their life digging into a mulch pile and seeing who could throw the biggest shovel-full into the wheelbarrow. Once there was no more mulch to move, they promptly announced they were bored, so we had to find them some more work to do. These are the days that I REALLY love my work. I am so happy that it is spring again, and I get to spend my time outside with kids in the neighborhood. I have an incredible picture of them with the mulch, but I don't know who their mothers are to get permission to post it.