WHAT'S UP?

Stage One. 

I swear if I had neighbors they would be calling the men in white suites. "What is that crazy chicken lady doing now?!"

Some friends gifted me a lot of 3" PVC drain pipe. I didn't need it for drains and it's been laying around with the intention of cutting it half long ways to make feed troughs out of. Then I got an idea.

Stage one, cut the pipes in half. Now this is a good lesson in never assuming anything. I assumed these pipes were 20 feet long and never measured them. Since I assumed that length I just measured 10 feet and cut them. Then I realized that they weren't all 10 feet long. Apparently they were really only 19 feet, not 20.

Now wire them up to the pens every few feet.

Stage 2

Stage two; drill holes in them and run wires out to the fence line.

Stage 3

Stage 3. Clip some shade cloth to the wires. I was lucky enough to have most of a roll left from last year.It covered the whole stretch.

I wasn't so lucky in the process that my ladder twisted out from under me. It happened in kind of slow motion and all I could think of was "Don't hit your head!"  I'm OK, just stiff, sore and bruised up. And I didn't hit my head.

Now all the chickens and Giotto have some afternoon shade to help them stay cooler.

So maybe I'm not so crazy after all!