Every winter we have a horrible mud pit out to the coop and always say we HAVE to do something about it. Once summer comes and the grass begins to grow, we forget all about that mud that was sucking to our boots each cold morning. Then, winter comes back and we again have muddy chicken and dog footprints everywhere, and were leap frogging between all the semi-dry spots to get to the coop. The chickens had clumps of mud clinging to their feet (not the best thing for them) and little Danny even lost a boot once, so this isn't just a little mud were talking about. This year we had enough and finally decided it was time to do something about it. I always wanted a cute stepping stone path out there, but it was never in the budget. The few stones I did have were actually now sinking so deep into the mud that they'd soon be disappearring if we weren't careful. Danny wanted to put some gravel out there and I finally agreed. We needed gravel this year for the veggie garden, driveway, and garage so he said this was the year to do it. For his spring break project, Danny scheduled a gravel delivery and we had 15 tons dumped on the driveway one afternoon. Little Danny was thrilled, and so was Elmer. Using left over fence posts we had, Danny created a frame to hold the gravel in place, securing them by driving some 10 in long hex bolts into the ground along their edges. Then the Dannys then filled the inside of the frame with gravel, creating a nice dry path all along the front of the coop and goat shed. Little Danny loved helping shovel the gravel and help take loads over to the coop. He got out his own little garden hoe and followed his dad like a little shadow repeating, "I help my dad," over and over again. The coop looks so much better and we now have clean chicken feet and clean boots. Harvey really seems to enjoy the gravel too and has been laying down in it as his new spot to relax. If we like it, we may extend the gravel path to the house so we have a nice mud-free patch to walk on the entire way out there, but we wanted to try living with it for a bit at first to see if we wanted to do more. Even if we don't extend the path, it looks so much better and now we don't have to wait for the grass to grow back to get some relief from the mud. We still have the little stones left to make a path with and the gravel now blocks the holes under the coop where the cats (and weasels) liked to hide.
Sometimes husbands just know best.
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