This Sunday I worked on the small gate to the poultry palace by the shop. I’m building it so the gate can be opened and closed without having to “disconnect or turn-off” the electric fence. Kinda a slick trick but does take some extra tinkering.
Above are photos I took of the cover cropped area of the orchard – the lower part of the fenced orchard. I can grow cover crops now that we can keep the deer out!! I also kept the chickens off it for the first 6 weeks to give the seeds and sprouts some relief. I will now pull up the chicken barrier and see how the chickens like it. When most of the cover crop plants begin to flower, I will mow and then shallow till, add some supplements, and then plant with sunflowers in the spring. Bees and chickens LOVE those sunflowers!!!
I also spent a bit of time pulling up broom!!. This is like the pulling of milkweed of our youth. ( Only much more pleasurable for some reason. ) Pulling out broom can only be done when the soil is really wet. So this year is a good one for continuing the interminable battle of the broom.