Couldn't Stand It...

The inside workings of the hot water tap on our tub went - we couldn't turn it off. But we just used the stops because I didn't feel like calling our landlord and arranging to have someone come and fix it. And then the stop broke and I had to turn the hot water off at the tank and we had no hot water at all. So I called the landlord. They are always great about fixing things right away - better than any other landlord I've ever had. She called back within 5 minutes to tell me that the guy would be there in a hour to an hour and a half.

Okay. Great, right? Except for the guy is a good friend of my landlord and sure to report on the condition of my house.... So not great because 50 chicks were in residence in my basement who should have been outside a week earlier and my whole house reeked of a chicken coop. Dean was gone to work. So I woke up Layne (it was his day off) and Drew and we began the panic evacuation of 50 stinky chicks and the transformation of my basement from chick brooder to ordinary basement.

In 90 minutes we arranged the chicken tractor, put down shavings to absorb the moisture, moved 50 chicks who are getting quite heavy into it, and covered it with a tarp. Then we peeled the sodden cardboard and newspaper and chicken poop off of the floor - several loads in boxes and a laundry basket. Then we swept and swept and swept. And vacuumed up cobwebs now extremely obvious because they were coated in chick dust.

The last load was cleared out, the last remnants swept up, basement 'stuff' moved back into place, the vacuum cleaners carried back upstairs and I was just adjusting the tarp over the chicken tractor when the guy drove up....

It was a good excuse to get them out of there. And they have survived the cool, damp temperatures just fine.