Striving Acres proudly announces…

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9.24.2015 birth announcement

Striving Acres proudly announces Bindi

born September 22, 2015 at 4:56 p.m., @ 45 lbs

After much back and forth discussion, Ted and I finally settled on the name Bindi as a tribute to the late and great Steve Irwin (1962 – 2006).  He was an animal lover, a wildlife expert, a conservationist, and he was fully passionate about all forms of life.  He named his own daughter Bindi, a word from the southern Australian Aboriginal Pitjandtjara language meaning “awakening”.

We cannot think of a better name for our little Bindi because that is indeed what she is for us: an awakening.  Seeing her birth and seeing how Bessie, and now Beef, react to her, care for her, and love her goes beyond anything we ever imagined.  Our little Bindi’s birth has renewed our commitment to run an ethical and humane farm for all of the animals here.

We will never be wealthy by society’s standards because of the affirmation to live by this commitment, but in the ways that matter, we are rich beyond belief to simply be part of the circle of life and to perhaps inspire others to realize that you, too, can live this wonderful life-altering dream.

Better chick door

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Our chicken coop is separated into two sections. This is because we can quarantine new hens when we buy them until we are sure they aren’t sick (when I remember and don’t cost us $128 for a $15 rooster – more on that tomorrow!), and when we raise our little chicks, we can move them onto the small side of the coop with the enclosed run to allow the bigger hens to get used to them but still keep the little ones safe from all the pecking the older ones do to establish pecking order (it’s a real thing!).

For a long while, the door separating the two sides was actually just a piece of picket fence with a desk top screwed across the top of it.  It served a purpose for a good long while, but a few months ago the big hens figured out how to go over the top of it from their roost. I added a garbage bag to act as a curtain to somewhat deter them from doing it, but it wasn’t working by the end of this summer.

Ted decided to build a screen door himself. He’s getting quite handy around the farm!

He used old picket fence that had been given to us. The pickets are fairly weather worn and soft, but the 2x4s are still very sturdy.  He pulled the pickets off of two sections of the old fence pieces, and he used those 2x4s as the frame for the door itself. When we cleaned the garage last week we found all of our various rolls and scraps of wire and placed all of those in one spot so it was easy to find this week. He used a section of woven wire that we had leftover, and that was the “screen”

Hanging the door was harder than making it because I don’t think there is one level thing anywhere on this farm. LOL That chicken coop was no exception. The bottom of the door frame was 3 feet wide and the top of the door frame was 3 feet 2 inches wide and scaled up hill to the right. LOL He made it work.

After he got the door hung and put a kickboard in place to keep the wood chips from jamming it from opening, I came inside to the little kitchen junk drawer and found a hook closure to keep the whole thing shut tight.

It’s perfect! The only thing left to do is add a little chicken wire or some hardware cloth across the bottom half of the door next spring when we hatch chicks again!