Taking Root....

Progress toward chickens the last two days. How many times have I moved and set up my tried and true critter-proof chicken pen.....all around Udan, then to Gainesville FL, Asheville NC....(and back to Udan both times) and finally here. It's a huge dumpstered fishing net...heavy black nylon. You put up poles (or whack off saplings if they grow conveniently enough, as in GA), put jars or cans over the ends, and throw the net over the top. Weight and stake down all around the edges, tarp over one end for the rain, a trashcan on its side for a nest box, a couple of sticks stuck through the net for roosts, and electric fence all the way around on at night. The only thing that often got in was a snake, after the eggs.

Now in this small, largely clear site.....still, I find resources to put to use for this set-up. The poles are parts of an old TV antenna that I took down. Smaller pieces made ground stakes to guy them to....with electric cord from the many strings of Christmas lights left festooned all over trees and fences around here. (I'm thinking of saving a number of these intact, if they run....they are a handy way to add heat to semi-tender trees like citrus on the coldest nights!)

The net is weighted down around the edges with two of the heavy old well pipes left lying by the well when the pump was changed by the last people, and a few old fence posts from the back corner, slowly composting in the grass. Interestingly, I think they may be made of redwood (which grows not far away....over the other side of the hills I can see in the west....maybe fifty miles as the crow flies...but it would take three or four hours to drive there).

So some of it came with me, and some was scrounged on site. Like an introduced exotic, my permaculture system strikes roots into a new place.....

Meanwhile, acacia, mimosa, and tagasaste seeds are sprouting!