Chicken House Construction, phase 2

Isn't it huge!! We are growing so excited watching this amazing crew do their work. It's almost changing from day to day...I feel like a new mom again, noticing all of the subtle changes in my children from day to day. LOL! We are projected to have chickens in this house by the end of December/early January if we are able to stay on our construction schedule. Once the outside is upcompletely, the weather shouldn't really impact any further, which will be just wonderful. The crew is great, hard-working and very attentive to detail. We have been very blessed...and soon, my darling husband will be busy at work again....YIPPEE.

For those who don't know, Wes was downsized out of a job, more or less, in March of this year. He has worked consistently in the past 20 years in middle management at beef/poultry plants....and when this happened, we were in the decision making process for becoming growers for one of the local poultry producers. The rest is history, as they say......

I have a new job that I just LOVE it...the new company is awesome, and I don't remember saying that in the recent past. I have liked jobs OR liked people I worked with....but rarely have positive things to say all the way around...job, people AND employer....that has all changed! The company I am working with not only offers me the VERY best job in the world IMHO, at least for me..... (Worker's Comp nurse case management).....but in a pretty nice location, for a nice salary with great benefits...I am finally happy with employment. When I went to the home office last week for training (near St. Paul/Minneapolis, MN), I also discovered that this company also promotes telecommuting! MY DREAM!!! I am so thrilled to be working at a job I love, for a company that is amazing.....AND potentially having the opportunity to work out of a home office again.... I am feeling very blessed with employment for the first time in a very long time!! :)

So....all is going well in southern Missouri.....we have new puppies that are posted on our website at:

http://www.flyingwaussies.com/

So...we're busy and happy all at the same time....hope everything is wonderful for each of you as the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons approach.

'Till we chat again,

quiltingcheri

Beginning our chicken houses!!

It has been a long time since I've posted any blogs or pics! I decided to get these pics up of our beginning chicken house(s). We're actually only putting up 1 house, although it is equivalent to house what 2 houses previously held. This is my husband, the farmer's, full-time job now...and he couldn't be more thrilled.

Did I mention we're famous? Maybe that should be infamous! :) One of the local papers, The Joplin Globe, decided to cover the "story" of our neighbor's distaste with our choice of what to do with our land...hmm....I won't get into it all, I promise...but if you want to read all about it, just go to The Joplin Globe and search "Church farm" and you'll undoubtedly find out far more than you EVER wanted to know! :(

It's sad that our neighbors are trying so hard to stop our farming enterprise....this is a small farm NOT A CAFO (commerical operation), so there's really no reason....and there are chicken houses literally everywhere here....but to each their own. I believe in freedom of speech, so I guess I'll just have to ignore those comments that make no sense or are ridiculous. By the way, everything the Globe says I said...I did! :) I did find some errors in the article, but they were very few and nothing major as far as I could see....other than the last comment by our neighbor who states that our chicken house will smell worse than his HOUSES...did I mention he has SIX houses and we have 1?????? Well, the information he provided isn't accurate, go figure! When one raises broilers, the goal is to fatten up the birds and ship them out...therefore (logically), if one is trying to put weight on the birds, there will be a hotter litter under those birds than a breeder (egg layer) house....again 1!!!.....since the goal with egg layers is to maintain weight. Yes, they are here longer, but did I mention that broiler houses don't clean their houses out but once a year!!! They change birds a lot, but don't change litter! Can you just say ICK!

Okay, I'm done whining for now....more pics this weekend, I hope.....

Until we chat again,

Quiltingcheri