Have you ever had something you just didn’t need anymore but it was still in great shape?  Did you try calling your sister to see if she would like it?  How about a friend or neighbor?  Well, after everyone you know doesn’t have a need for your something you resort to… the garbage.  Well, most communities now have an online resource to help prevent the guilt of seeing your perfectly functioning unneeded thing in the trash:  It is called Freecycle.  It is a yahoo group.  You can find one for your local area by typing freecycle and your city or county at http://groups.yahoo.com/,  Anyway, I have been both he happy giver and the thrilled receiver of many great things over the last few years.  My most recent acquisition has been a 6ft bookshelf and a huge box full of the parts for those metal build-it yourself cubbies.  The bookshelf is always a welcome addition to our home.  Pat says I am competing with our local Library for the most books in one building.  The very happy extra, the cubbies have been a huge gift for both me, my chicken, my sister and her rabbits.  Chickens?!? Rabbits?!?  Here I think the pics will help make sense of all of this.

       Although it is only half complete my young chickens are already enjoying their new home.  This is commonly know as a chicken tractor.  Basically it is a portable chicken coop.  Our chickens had been free-ranged for all of their lives until this most recent batch of chicks.  When “weened” they took up residence on our front porch.  Chickens are very sweet in the yard.  Their little noises and funny antics are irresistible until chicken poop.  Yes, chicken poop all over MY front porch! Augh!  So between the poop and their egg hiding habits (yup under the house) they had to be confined.  With the chicken tractor I can move them around the yard to where their poop can be appreciated and their bug eating talent can be best utilized.  A few weeks ago Pat made me a chicken tractor to hold the adult hens and the rooster.  Yesterday with my freecycle stuff I made one for our younger hens.  As you can see in the pics it is still only 3 squares long, I will be adding 3 more to that this weekend, for now it is plenty for the 3 little hens.  It has a spacious loft.  I am currently putting their water on in the loft area to keep it clean until I figure out how to reinforce the roof so it can hang like the one in the coop Pat built.  The chicks were so happy to have really dirt under their feet again the spent the first 15-20 minutes just digging and laying in it. Ah, it looked very comfy.

       Here is a few pics of Jessica’s new rabbit hutch.  She will be posting about it and how her mama rabbit likes it on her blog, http://faustinafarm.com/blog/.

I have 2 more critter pics I just can’t leave out.

First here is a picture of Marcus and his new little younger brother Badger.  Finally a “sibling” worthy of my Marcus.

Finally here is Kitty, our cat, snoozing in the stroller.  It’s a tough life but she manages