Well yesterday was a fun day. Luckliy I do not have a black eye today, but it feels like I do. I decided to clean out the hens houses and I am now a little wiser in what you can and can’t use to scatter on the floor. As many of you know I spend a lot of time researching things on the internet, especially if it is something I haven’t done before (“Never!!!” – I can just hear that incredulous, if sarcastic, thought from my nearest and dearest). I had come across a site that suggested that shredded paper was a great thing to use on the floor of a chicken coop, so I thought I would give it a try. My brother had provided me with many bags of shredded paper, and a cat cave, that now doubles as a duck nest box, that had been sitting around waiting to be used. I duly spread it everywhere after my last clean out. I soon regretted it as many of the chicken took to wandering around with a little light reading material attached to their feet. It trailed everywhere. Luckily it also broke down and disappeared very quickly, either that or it all blew away and the neighbouring farmers are now getting snippets of my brothers paperwork to read. Anyway, back to the task in hand, cleaning it out. As any child will tell you if you add liquid to shredded paper and mix it turns into papier mache. When papier mache dries it sets like concrete and is firmly attached to whatever it is dried on. You can see where this is going can’t you? Hey presto – one chicken coop with a new floor of papier mashe welded to it!!! A quick clean out turned into a major operation. I soon wished that there was a jack hammer in the tool shed. It might have made the task of getting it off the floor a little easier. What has this got to do with black eyes, I hear you ask. Well at one point I resorted to bending over and cutting and scraping it off the floor with a sharp knife. To do this I leaned the shovel I had been previously trying to scrape it up with, against the wall. As I bent forward I also stepped forward and, unfortunately, caught the edge of the shovel with my wellie. The Shovel handle came crashing down so fast I couldn’t dodge it and it whacked me squarely on the side of my face near my eye socket. The air was blue, and I don’t mean from the pigeons flying off to discuss the new words of the English language they had just learned. My face did develop a lovely lump for a few hours but so far has not gone blue/black/yellow or any other bruise type colour. Well lesson learnt. I will never again use shredded paper in the hen/duck house.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:18:16 +0000