Chicken run

I've been helping my friends, Erik and Mary Kate, with their garden for the past couple of weeks. I offered to supply my labor in their garden this year in exchange for some new knowledge about gardening and maybe a few veggies after they come up. The have been gracious enough to ask for my input and ideas about a host of garden-related things. And Mary Kate keeps feeding me the most delicious meals while I'm there. No hyperbole here - she really is an amazing cook and can make even the most pedestrian food taste fantastic.

We spent one afternoon planning what was going to go in the garden and where it would be.  I spent another day helping clean up, tear down, move the rabbits, and do general labor-type things that needed to be done. We came up with a plan for a fenced run for their eight chickens and kept modifying it even while we were building it. I spent Friday helping dig holes, put in posts, shoveling dirt and rocks,  putting up chicken wire, and generally getting muddy. Neither Erik or myself had any real experience with chicken wire and we learned a few things. It turned out fine, and the chickens seem to like it, but we would probably do several things differently if we had another chance.

Their garden is an interesting place. It keeps changing every year (this is year three) and seems to get substantially better every year. It certainly doesn't have a rigid plan and may not look all that organized, but I think that is part of the beauty of it. It has kind of an organic and natural feel to much of it, and most of the wood used for outbuilding and fencing has been recycled. And they plan to use no chemical fertilizers or pesticides - just all natural amendments, including manure from the rabbits.  The garden is quite a bit larger than it seems from these pictures.

Getting started on the fence

Almost done!