Chicken Delight

Some days when I've been going full steam ahead and need a breather, I fantasize about being one of our chickens.

They have such a lovely, large pasture in which to spend their days.

Even a pond to dip their thirsty little beaks in if they wish.

And how many chickens have a rose bush in their yard?

Enclosed in their pasture is an area of heavy vegetation where they can always seek cool shade (not that it's been needed much this year) and safe hidey-holes from those occasional nasty hawks flying over.  This is the view of the east end of the chickens' woods we see from the end of our house.  I just love the way it looks this time of year when the trees and bushes are leafed out.  Through the arched opening is their chicken house to the left.

Here's another view of the same area.

This is the north side of their pasture line running along the end of the driveway coming into our place.  The bunch of trees you see across the end of the pond is the opposite end of the tree shelter that has the archway into it.

The chicken house itself is in desperate need of some serious rehab.  We keep telling the chickens it's on the list for this summer, but even if it doesn't get done they have a large "solarium" attached to their house where they spend winter days basking in the warmth and sunshine.

They eat sumptuously on whole grain scratch, fermented milk, laying mash and all those good kitchen scraps.  Plus this time of year they have all the grasshoppers they can catch.  And they never have to cook or wash a dish.

Yup, being one of our chickens doesn't sound like it would be too tough some days.