I had this idea about replacing our large, immovable, metal run. The large, immovable, metal run which we'd had to buy tons of 16g 1x1 weldmesh, costing more than the run, to make foxproof.
The idea grew in my mind when I saw a fairly large Omlet run for sale for a reasonable price.
That run wasn't big enough, and then it was sold anyway, but the idea stayed with me.
And then a bigger run went up for sale, for a good price, only about an hour and a half from my parents. 2 birds, one stone, and I'd bought it before anyone else could.
DH was, mostly, OK about it. Resigned, probably. Usually if I mention buying more run, it goes down like a lead balloon and I (usually) don't buy.
My brother agreed to come (well, actually, he agreed to drive me in his people carrier), and I booked an Air bnb near my parents for the night.
En route, I was explaining why this would be better than current run, when I realised I had an opportunity to build something a bit more elaborate to facilitate integrating the newbies.
Except I wouldn't have quite enough run. Well, I probably wouldn't have, even if I used the stuff we had set aside for the Catio.
And then the first run came back up for sale, it was vaguely on the way home, DB was happy to do the long detour on the way home (he is amazingly kind like that), so I bought that too.
I wasn't sure how to break the news to my DH.
If I waited until I got home with it all....... not a good idea.
If I told him in advance, he's probably have got used to the idea by the time I got home. I messaged DH to say that we were coming home via detour City and he didn't ask why.
We collected the first run from a lovely lady, stayed for a cup of tea and a chat, went and visited a nearby lighthouse, and then went on to see my parents.
The next morning we visited my parents for a couple of hours, and then set off homewards.
DH hadn't asked why we were going to detour City, just wished us safe journey. I messaged him to say that I was picking up a second run.
He didn't respond, and I wondered if I should have just surprised him with it after all.
We arrived at the second run, and only just managed to get it in the people carrier. It really was quite a lot of stuff altogether.
We got home after a long day's travelling, and unloaded everything. I explained, as best as I could, why I'd felt the need to buy the second run, and we had a bit of a lively discussion about it.
The next day, all was well. DH did some sorting of the runs and some preparatory work on it. We then agreed an approximate outline of what the new Chickenopolis would look like, and agreed a plan of action.
He took the miles of clear tarp off the current mega run, so I could photograph it ready to sell. He cut the grass so we could start moving the coops around, so the Oldies would have a safe area to live in, temporarily, while he took the old run down.
The actual coop move is tomorrow
We think it'll be a week or so before we've got the old one down, the area cleared and filled, and the new one up and ready.
I'm hoping the old one will sell quickly.
