The Easter Chicks are more than happy where they are –
but the Turkey House has happy meat chicks in it. Federico has finished The Turkey Brooder House with a circle of windows around the top, so the chicks are draft free down on the floor but well ventilated with pull up sections to let in sun and breeze when they are older. The other good thing about the windows all the way around the top is that tucked into the garage porch out of the weather like that – the building still feels light. Not blocky and dark.
One of the girls first jobs will be to paint this. (The image was taken with the wide angle so it is looking a bit wonky, but it isn’t). 
A photo for his mother.
In my efforts to create more room on this tiny farm I have ordered a dumpster, in New Zealand we call it a Skip. A dumpster involves a significant investment of hard earned cash but the Junk must GO. And I have hands to help me clear out these buildings. The rat house especially needs cleaning out in preparation for the farrowing wing and even the garage has piles in the corners that are breeding a lot faster than my pigs. I think of the pile-up of rubbish as a bit like juggling, it takes so much energy to keep this stuff in order, to keep it in the air, to dodge and work around it, to keep my eye on all the balls – I have recycled and reused everything I can – but there is only so much I can absorb, much of this stuff was abandoned here years before even John came. Broken windows, and rotting timbers, old concrete, rusty everything, fencing wire, barbed wire, old baling wire, all rusted – useless. Old tins, car parts, cracked windscreens, ruined doors, bent roofing, you know the stuff. All going. 
With any luck the dumpster will arrive on Friday. Our John has been given notice that I will be in his stuff too. Everything will be given a place to live and then it will have a place to be returned to. I spend huge amounts of time every day looking for things. So he is agreeing to help and stay on his toes. Though I imagine there will be words! There already have been. This is where a butterfly like me (who finds it hard to settle or own stuff) and a pack rat like John (who settles into his corner with all his stuff falling apart around him and is set for the course) have to be accepting of our differences and learn to meet half way. I am very sure that he will spend a considerable time after work every day dumpster diving!
I see it as decluttering the flow of the farm. Clearing the pathways and giving my brain a rest from having to follow the path of things like shovels and hammers and hinges and wire cutters. When there is too much stuff around things get lost and everyone gets frustrated. This is why I like a simple life. I do not like to own too much. It gets too heavy. I cannot keep track of it all. 
Good morning. The little goats still come into the barn every evening. I am not ready to leave them out in the field without a mother. They are growing though… beautifully. Such lovely animals and like the pigs they are wonderfully biddable.
I hope you have a lovely day.
Your friend on the farm
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
77 responses to “Everything in its place”
I am an ‘everything should have a home, and be returned there when finished with’, kinda gal. Before I married Jack, my mother warned him not to stand in any one place for longer than five minutes or I would put him in the refuse bin. Mother love how are you! 😆 Fortunately for me, Jack was super tidy too. Pity the gene missed Elly! I like the look of the turkey hotel…. are you taking bookings. That is one fine young man you have there in Federico, pity I am not forty years younger! 😉
I am envious of your major clean up. Nothing better than tossing unused and unusable stuff. Just make sure that none of the animals sneaks in for a look and inadvertently becomes part of the trash 😉
I’d be afraid that the goats would escape and eat your vegetables or worse, if left out at night 😉
I used to walk them around the fields to their fields but they stripped a baby willow in about 5 seconds flat – it was a frenzy! now we move through the fields.. much safer.. c
Don’t leave your washing out!
H aha ha .. that would be a photo, these little girls hanging off my washing! speaking of which I had better GET it out, it won’t dry in the machine.. c
I have been a “reader” but not a commenter, but I felt I needed to chime in with one of my favorite quotes from William Morris: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”. Of course that does leave quite a bit open to personal interpretation!
Hullo Julea thank you for chiming in.. This is one of my favourites too but I never get the quote exactly right.. I will copy it out and attach it to the side of the dumpster! c
Ahh, but you see…. a true pack rat sees EVERYTHING as useful, they KNOW it to be useful, if not today then maybe tomorrow! 🙂
Oh yes! Right on description of my dear husband…he not only keeps everything, retrieves what I send out to the dumpster but also brings home things that he finds by our street dumpster and thinks “might be useful someday”.Problem being that day never comes , most things he just forgets about and actually he is not very gifted with handy work to take advantage of the stuff. So what I see as mostly garbage for him is “useful”. Still not worth picking fights about as long as his “stuff” does not spill over into my “turf”, I guess! (for now…)
I’m a pack rat like your John, a quality I dislike about myself. After starting over 8 years ago with next to nothing, I again have a house full of clothes, books, and only the mice know what else. It makes my thoughts bumpy.
So much time and effort could be soothed around here if stuff just got put back where it belonged once the chore is done. It is so stressful to have to clean up and put stuff back before you can start what you need to do. Is it genetic or habit formed very young or never at all? Sigh
Old rusted car parts and farm things. Is there a junk dealer nearby to have a look at what you are discarding? I know you’ve recycled/repurposed all you can, but worry – can you post a note on local college/contact high school art dept saying free dumpster diving for ancient rural artifacts/ebay possibilities/found art objects? (I scavengered so much as an grad student)
I know old barns and homesteads and stuff is yucky, but one man’s trash is another’s treasure?
In any case, cheers for tossing out the burdensome mess dragging you down!
Oh no, not the old stuff.. those are treasures.. the stuff I am dumping from the 2000’s, the old farm implements are over in the big barn at the old farm.. safely stored.. even I would not part with those.. i may need them!! c
Whew. Just had to be sure. Those old farm things – simple designs, easy to keep working, and more sensible than many modern conveniences.
You know, the most amazing ones are Puzzles, we look at them and look at them and cannot work out what they do.. however they are all saved, one day i will take Camera house into the loft of the BIG barn out at the old farm.. now that is the place to be..
I have a couple of oddities my dad had found clearing land or in old barns. Just have to hang on to them and try to explain to the younger generation what they are and how they were used…first you have to image using real horse power for work… People used to really understand how their daily “machinery” worked – and could repair it. Maybe those of us who relish the puzzles are the rich and lucky ones.
(Here you’d have to have a big lock on that barn’s treasure. Sad)
My home needs a good clean out and I am making some headway, but it is slow work. Sometimes, I can look critically at things and let them go, sometimes, my brain leans more toward the “must keep it” side. The physical pain I know well, like Mame above. My friend came to help me and with her help, we got things organized to have a garage sale and what is left goes to the Goodwill. Still haven’t had the garage sale tho…..it’s a process. That structure is gorgeously functional. So glad Federico is there to help. Perhaps he can help draw up the farrowing parlour plans that can be followed for others to come down the line this summer. I am bad about laying things down. During my visit at the farmy last year, I took to carrying around a bucket with all of my tools so I wouldn’t lay them down and forget! Happy tossing, C
as you know-less is more!
I’m wondering if biddable means they come when they are called.
yes, that is exactly it.. I think the american equivalent would be To Mind.
Oh! That will be the best investment in the world Celi. I just did that myself, we, not ordered a skip, (here it’s also a dumpster, in E it’s a skip), but called a company called Got Junk?, and two young men with a big truck came round and removed old carpets, old tvs, broken small appliances… etc, for a measly $120. Now my life, and my garage feel cleaner and in a strange way fuller. 😀 Well done for biting the bullet and ordering the skip. 😀 PS. C says Frederico is handsome as well as helpful. ;D
My husband is an absolute clean freak, if it was’t for me we would have an empty house. He doesn’t dust or clean the toilets, he just doesn’t like clutter. A while ago when I was in Germany he had a huge garage sale and sold some of my favorite garden pots. He still hears about it. Good luck with your spring cleaning. I am not especially tidy or clean .
You didn’t make him go and buy them back?… 🙂
No, but I was pissed and he never did t again.
When we were first married, Jock cleaned out the hall cupboard while I was out. He got rid of all my coats (good anorak, gardening anorak, raincoat, warm winter coat, smart winter coat…………) There was nearly a divorce on the spot. I had to go to town wearing three cardigans, to buy a new mac. And Jock is the biggest hoarder I know!
Hello Viv! I think what happens is that it is so much easier to sort and part with other people’s things than with our own, I had a similar problem with my husband many many years ago …(he has not let me forget about my “mishap” yet!)…
“misshap”?
Good luck with the clean-up and convincing Our John that some of his stuff needs to go. My husband is always misplacing items. He needs organization in his garage. But, given everything from our basement is stored therein while we attempt to finish a drawn-out dratted basement project, he gets a temporary reprieve.
If you have a wood chipper all the old wood can be chipped up for your yard.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
I know, but they are FULL of nails.. we do chip everything we can – but once again all those jobs are dependent on having John doing them.. – won’t happen.. no time.. c
Oh, I so understand. The nails ARE a huge issue.
I so love reading about your life. I rarely comment, but I am here every day, reading and enjoying your story. (I live in South Dakota, by the way.)
Well we are all thrilled to welcome you to the Lounge of Comments.. Have a wonderful day out there in S Dakota! c
My ex-husband has a strong personal attachment to every piece of junk he’s ever owned. That’s why he’s gone, trying to live around his crap collections was more than I could deal with. Now he’s in his own happy place, surrounded by everything he loves, and we’re much better friends. I love dumpsters. It’s amazing how quick it is to fill them. Living on a farm, you always need things that you only use occasionally. It’s great to have a place to store them, though, where they aren’t rusting away and you aren’t tripping over them or having to move them to get to something else. Have a great time tidying up.