Chicken barn clean-out 2020

     In May we headed to Texas to help my parents clean out their chicken barn and get ready for their new flock. We chose not to take our camper this time and stayed in the house. It was fun for a change. We drove the 20 hours in 2 days and arrived on a Friday afternoon. Eldon set right to work moving slats and scooping poop. By Saturday night they had it all cleaned out but there is always a lot of maintenance work to do while there is no birds there.    

Ethan and Grandpa enjoying the living room sing-along.

     The big project this time was putting in roost pipes. I can't even begin to explain it but it's a huge job and Eldon was dreading it. Happily, my sister and family from Colorado drove down and helped for 2 days. It was just plain wonderful! They surprised everyone except Eldon and I so that was fun too.

Emily and Nakita were delighted to play together again. They also delivered drinks to the barn frequently.

     Brian's had installed roost pipes in their barn previously so it was great to have their experience. The children all pitched in and helped lay parts out.

Dragging pieces down the whole length of the barn.

Michael was absolutely filthy! He tried so hard to keep up with the men and his cousin Logan, who is 15.

      It went so well that by Monday night, we were mostly done with the roost pipes. Tuesday they finished up and moved slats back. We women cleaned out mom's cabinets then attacked the egg room. Of course, there was always food to make and loads of stinky, sweaty laundry to keep up with too.Thankfully we have a lot of girls between us all and many hands can accomplish amazing things!

Scrubbing the cooler floor.

Michelle spraying down the egg room.

Tuesday afternoon we took the children swimming at Brian's motel. They kicked us out after an hour because we weren't all staying there but it was worth it!

Always time and energy to play too.

Katelyn and Melody mowing the yard and field.

More games!

All ready for new chickens!

Playing Red 7.

Ethan loves to build with dominoes.

     We had a really good time but it flew by and we were extremely busy. Besides helping my parents with lots of things, we were getting our stuff ready as well. We've signed a contract to stay in Baker, Montana until the end of April AND rented a house to stay in for the winter. Our silver truck needed a service appointment, the trailer needed new tires, and we packed and loaded a bunch of stuff we'll need. Inside the trailer, Eldon was able to fit his tractor, the bucket, forks, and tiller. We decided to take both of our trucks so in the red one I packed all kinds of household stuff that's been in our shed for 4.5 years.

Our little convoy.

     But Sunday afternoon we were able to pull out! I told Eldon it's bad when you look forward to traveling because you get to sit down more than 5 minutes 😂. The amount of work we managed to cram in was astounding and VERY satisfying though. We were heading to Colorado for a week so my nephew Logan stayed and we had a third driver for that 14 hour trip. It was lovely to have him around to help finish stuff up at dad's and I sure didn't mind having a break from driving either. I've never driven with a student driver before so I may have bitten my tongue a number of time but he did wonderful. Logan and Michael traveled with me in the red truck so he kept Michael entertained too.