Farm work is dirty work! There’s just no way around it, so we wear our work clothes and just get busy. Can’t worry about the dirt; it’ll wash out/off, after all, right? (We do LOTS of laundry and take many showers every single day!)

In a previous blog post, I took you with me to do chores (read about that here), but I left out the dirty work. There’s plenty!

First up are the hen houses. Our 40 little biddies have grown up into young pullets. They are still in their little house, so you can imagine how often we need to clean that out. Here they are, almost grown up, healthy and happy and beautiful.

I do wear a painters mask when I clean out the hen house because it generates so much dust. That picture above is after I’ve already cleaned it and put down fresh pine shavings. Here’s a picture of my golf cart full of the dirty chicken litter to haul to the compost pile. I love my golf cart and its hydrolic dump bed, by the way.

I couldn’t clean out the floor of the little laying house because these two broody hens were just determined to hatch out eggs, and they made a nest and shared it. Different hens had laid eggs in it before they settled down to sit on the eggs, and here, in this picture, you can see how hard it is on hens to sit on a nest. See how pale their combs have gotten? Since the hens just visit this house and don’t roost in it, this one can wait to be cleaned.

You know that I’ve told you the dogs all “help” us do chores, right? Here’s Carly going nose to nose with one of the young pullets. I have no doubt there would be murder and mayhem if she could get inside their house!

You know that when dogs get wet, you’re gonna get wet, too, because they always come up to you to shake the water off. Every day Chloe takes her “old lady” swim across the pond. She’s our elderly girl with stiff hips and joints, and we can tell how good she feels to swim

When I first got Carly as a pup, I intended for her to be my inside/outside dog. Boy, I didn’t know much about Border Collies! ha! I’m sure that there are some that don’t like to get wet and muddy, but our two sure do. They do this and then jump into the golf cart and give me hugs. Oy.

One thing we do that is important for food safety is wash our eggs.  We do this according to state guidelines for commercial egg production. Now that you’ve seen some of the soiled chicken litter, aren’t you glad to know that when you buy eggs from Fox Trot Farm you can use them without worrying about germs on the shells?

Come see us on Sundays from 1:00-5:00 for our farm market, or call or text me during the week if you need some eggs. Since we sell from our farm and not farmers markets, the price can’t be beat! They are just $3.50/dozen or $12/four dozen. 🙂 Of course, we have other farm goodies…honey and lamb and baked goods, quilted and crafty things, too! Hope to see you this Sunday afternoon!

EIEIO!
Debbie