Day 89

The creation of the coops was a learning experience that tested my physical and mental strength. It allowed me to use sections of my brain I don't often use and caused parts of my body I didn't even know I had to be sore. As much as I would have liked to do it completely on my own, I had to think about working smarter, not harder. While preparing the coops, a major step was digging out the dirt in each stall to a depth that would allow for an installation of hardware cloth, a base layer of old linoleum or a tarp, and multiple inches of animal bedding. Doing this for the original coop was exhausting enough. My patience was tested when thinking of having to repeat this process three more times. Luckily, a solution was found.

Two doors down, new neighbors just moved in. Wanting to be inviting, my wife walked over to say hello. She became friends with the new homeowners. In their initial conversations, she told them our story and updated them on our current projects and future intentions. Learning about them, she realized we shared similar interests. Besides common interests, they had equipment. They also had a very generous spirit and offered to use that equipment to help with our work around the farm.

It wasn't long before our new neighbor trekked his tractor over to our barn and offered to help dig out the stalls in a much easier and quicker fashion. I was more than willing to skip these workouts and allow more modern technology a chance. It took what would've probably  taken me a week or two a little over an hour. But when it was all said and done, we had three stalls ready for hardware cloth installation and a brand new dirt pile in the backyard.

Sometimes, it's not what you know, but who you know. It’s also not what you have, but you have access to. While we do aim to get our own equipment to do the dirty work associated with land restoration and farm management, it's nice to know we have friendly and capable neighbors we can rely on in a pinch.