Chicken tractors and cars stuck in gardens...

My wonderful husband, John, built me a wonderful chicken tractor.  It has a nesting/nighttime area and a fenced in run area but he couldn't figure out a way to put wheels on it and still have it be flush with the ground and it is heavy!  So we move it with either our regular tractor or (like last night- when our tractor was at the repair shop) we pull it with either of our SUV's.

Last night after my husband got home from work and the chickens were shut up for the night he decided to move them to a new area.  He wanted to put them in our newly tilled vege garden beds to scratch up the tilled sod and to eat grubs/weed seeds and to poo. It is our very reason for purchasing them.

I mentioned the rain and flooding of last week here and we have had more wet weather since then, just not as bad.  The ground in the area of the garden beds is soft and wet.  Do you see where this is headed.

Last night around 8:30 there is a knock on the living room window.  It's John and could I please get my shoes on and come outside.

I'm met with his car and the chicken tractor in the newly tilled garden area and my car and a rope a little further up in another garden area.

"Did you get stuck?"

"Yep."

So I get into my car and start to pull him out except my car is in a wet garden bed too.  A few seconds later we have two stuck cars.

Plan B: Get all the kids out and have a family push/pull/dig session- in the dark.

We did get the cars out, chickens situated and everyone back inside although everything was a bit muddy.  But ohhh... my poor garden.  First the flooding and then tires digging in my planting rows. Sigh.  I'm so glad that I still have options when it comes to purchasing food.  The way my growing season has started we'd be starving in October with out other farmers.  Growing your food can be difficult!

At least the chickens got something good out of it.  We fenced in our newly tilled area and let them out onto it this morning.  They love it.  Even Sawyer was out for a minute before Jack chased him back into the coop. (I'm sensing a "how to butcher a rooster" post coming soon.)

 The Hen House

Tractor bottom and nesting box side

Back of the nesting boxes

Tractor in finished state.

Tire tracks in my garden.

 Where the tire got stuck the worst.

Happy Chickens!