Day 171

With a backyard designated as a wetland, you wouldn't think accessible water would be an issue. 

Wrong.

To be honest, technically, our land is considered a sedge meadow, or dry marsh. It is wet for parts of the year, some areas more than others, and dry for the rest. Basically when it is wet, it is really wet. 

But when it comes to water we need for farm uses, the wetland doesn’t do us much good. 

And we need lots of water. The chickens require fresh water every day, multiple times on warmer than usual days. Our expanded garden needs water to survive and thrive. Newly planted trees need plenty of water to establish and maintain strong root systems. Besides being a basic need for the living things around the farm, water recreation is a staple in our family. We may not have a pool, but we have an inflatable splash pad and we are not afraid of using a sprinkler for some watery fun.

So what’s the problem? Turn on your outdoor spigot and get your water.

For the trees, no problem. Our collection of hoses can easily reach our planted trees and give them the water to grow. 

For the garden, there was a simple solution. While we used to spray them everyday, we decided to upgrade and get a sprinkler that allows us to do other chores while the garden gets what it needs. Yes, it is primitive and not nearly as fancy as some of the underground built in sprinkler systems I’ve seen around, but it gets the job done.

The main water problem deals with the chickens. Actually, it deals with the lack of water access to where the chickens live. Long story short, we have no water in the barn. If you have read earlier posts you might think differently as we did a major grading project to keep water out of the barn. So, to clarify, we don't have running water in the barn.

At least, not anymore. Evidence suggests water was available to the barn at some point, but after some investigation, we realized those days were long gone.

We needed to change that.

For the chickens.