LJR Enterprises

The chickens have gotten to be out of the coop now for two days. Nights of course are always spent under lock and key. They are excellent foragers but any commotion at all sends them running for cover. Of course, if you are a little sparrow, watch out. These girls don’t take kindly to uninvited guests!

Here is Jack checking out the chicken coop while a chicken is checking out Jack.

Robinson had me working hard on Wednesday and Sunday. An old office worker like me shouldn’t be raking and moving heavy concrete and cut logs. Oh, the logs.

The power company outsources tree trimming. These guys are yahoos. While walking Meg, I heard them cheering and grunting like half-naked-painted-football-fans in December. Our property fronts Kellogg School Road and Hickory Corners Road. The portion that juts out, fronting Hickory Corners Road, has an abandon barn (partially on our property) and what’s left from a burned-out house.

The tree trimmer yahoos decided to work the tree-line separating my property from the abandoned lot. They chewed-up a dozen trees for a day and a half. Most of it unnecessary: why would a power line going to an abandon house be hot?

Fine except for the large amount of tree detritus and the logs. Some of these logs are not movable by Michigan’s offensive and defensive lines. I loaded my little cart and made several hauls to the other side of the property. This, will take a few weeks.

Most of the day Laura and I cleared several years worth of leaves from our front yard. It looks much better. She also mowed about an acre today (note to self: change oil in garden tractor), and trimmed and cut down small bushes and trees.

We are taking back the land one small chunk at a time.

I’ve been trying for sometime now to understand the USDA’s NAIS (National Animal Identification System) program. There seem to be a lot of holes in their logic to me and I don’t think that its really been thought through.

Here’s a puzzling piece of logic in the form of a question posed and answered on the NAIS website:

Q. If a Person Raises Animals for His or Her Own Use and the Animals Never Leave the Owner’s Property, Do They Need to be Identified?
A. Under the current plan, animals that never leave a premises do not need to be identified. However, animal owners are encouraged to identify their animals and their premises, regardless of the number of animals present, since many animal diseases may be spread whether an animal leaves its home premises or not. Examples of such diseases include West Nile virus, foot-and-mouth disease, vesicular stomatitus, and equine infectious anemia.

Hmmm. If the point is to track diseases that are being spread by the “commingling” of animals that happens during the transportation of said to feedlots and slaughter houses, why do they need to know that I have livestock at all if I’m not moving it anywhere and no animals are being moved to my property? What good will it do me or the program to register my premises and animals with the NAIS when my animals would only be exposed to disease by means other than commingling? Aren’t I already required to report these diseases if they occur on my property?

I was wrong. I’m not the first animal on our 9.5 acres to sleep outside. The chicks are out of the concrete room and in the coop (Fort Chicken).

It amazes me that my skills with a hammer, nails, level and a saw have not progressed since I built my first fort. The door hangs crooked, there are not enough studs installed and the ones installed are lacking a proper fit, and at night you can see quite a few light leaks.

But, the chickens are in the coop and just in time. Chickens stink when they are no longer chicks.

Photos of our teenager chickens in Fort Chicken to come.