Our Peaceable Kingdom, now with a moat.

Well, the idea is that we will NOT have a moat, at least not one full of water. My dad decided this weekend was finally time to work on a project we had been talking about for years; we’ll call it “Operation Water-Out-of-the-Basement, Part 1″.

We now have a new wall! A wall to keep the water out. We are still getting used to the looks of it, because it is right outside our front door, but I think after the first rainstorm we’ll be blessing it with everything we can think of, thanking it for holding out the flood.  After this worst-rain-ever summer, and after having inches of water in our basement — we have stone foundation, well, half of one, the other half is wood and windows and lovely walk-out-basement niceness — we were about ready for drastic action. I thought about kayaking around in the basement, maybe selling tickets, but I think this is a better solution.

It was quite a weekend’s work, though. I can’t say I envied John and my dad and my brother Brian, who came in for my mom’s Birthday and was treated to some wall-building and stone-schlepping for the day. (Thanks, Bri! and Sarah — up there in the shadows!) The excavator made an appearance and all of our neighbors were stopping by to see what the heck we were doing.

My mom, the expert gardener herself, came over today to assess the situation and come up with a plan for ’softening’ the look of the wall, and to integrate the whole thing into some kind of landscape plan. I’m excited to see what she comes up with, as I’m truthfully feeling a little daunted by the whole project.

In other news, we only have two chickens now, down from three. sadness.

They have been escaping their pen lately (that they share with the goats), apparently not content to stand on goat backs for fun anymore. Sadly, this allows them to be in the yard without us knowing, and when we send Happy out for her walkabout within her electric-doggy-fence yard, she is also in perfect proximity to chase, and perhaps catch, a chicken. {You can’t blame a dog for acting on her instincts, right?}

We had an incident a week or so ago, where the chicken escaped with only some feathers missing, after we heard the commotion and managed to grab the dog and corral the chicken back into the pen. This last time, we were not so quick. The chicken lady was ok and walking after the incident, but must have sustained some kind of unseen injury, because we found her motionless the next morning. So sad. We are actively working on reinforcing the fence to keep the ladies in, and of course not letting the dog out unless we KNOW there are no chickens out. You’d think they’d learn their lesson and not want to get out again, but…. no.

So right now, though, our wall stands tall and strong against any rain coming its way, and our dog sleeps soundly on the couch while the chickens and goats graze safely in their pen. All is peaceful today. I hope it stays that way for a little while.

Tagged as: chickens, excavator, moat, wall