Fitting the roof panels

It has rained all night or at least every time I woke up (which I do frequently) I could hear it raining. It was raining hard when I went out to the girls first thing this morning and the run was a quagmire. I decided not to separate the girls today as there is so little dry area on the little girls side and also we will be working in the run getting the roof panels on.

We had bought all the materials yesterday so that we could make a start this morning. When we started it was still raining but by the time we had the first panels in the sun was out.

The first panels are in place

The beauty of these panels is that they can be closed during wet weather and opened up during dry or sunny weather. We intend to do four strips of panels to cover the width of the run. Each strip is made up of two panels which will overlap. The panels will cover half the length of the run extension which is where a beam crosses for them to be fixed to. We will leave the furthest half open and see how that goes. If it is still a problem with too much wet area we may install panels in this final bit too at a later date. For now our priority is extending the dry area.

All the panels are now in place

It’s a shame we didn’t have time to get this done before the rain came as it will take a long time for the run to dry out but at least once it does it should stay dry. The forecast is for rain every day over the next week.

My husband  also wanted to take out the plastic cover that we have attached underneath the triangular bit of the run as he feels the constant water and wet leaves may rot the wood.  He wanted to put a new plastic sheet over the top of the run and had to get on top of the run to do this. He stapled the new plastic sheet over the top and also overlapped it over the new panels so that the bit that used to edge the veg plot will now stay dry. This is the area that we put a board over in winter because it was so muddy. This will solve that problem but the little girls area will still get wet where water runs down the panels but at least the next section in the new part will be dry.

I then set about cleaning the mud off the patio area from the morning’s work and cleaned all the water and feed bowls. Everything was looking clean again and my last job was to fork over the run under the new panels to help it dry out quicker.

Then I had a horrible disaster. When going in and out of the run gate the girls are always sticking their heads through the gate to see if there is anything tasty on the other side. I am so careful but this time I didn’t see Honey stick her head under the back end of the gate. I closed the gate against her head and she didn’t even make a sound. I was horrified and tried to get a look at her to see if there was any damage.

She wouldn’t let me get near her so I tried to tempt her with some corn. She was eating the corn and looked as bouncy as ever but I could see one eye was partly shut. I really wanted to pick her up and take a closer look but she kept evading me which wasn’t surprising.

At that moment my husband appeared to see how I was getting on. I tearfully told him what had happened and he said she didn’t seem to be bothered by it. I said I wanted to check the damage but couldn’t catch her. I made another attempt and managed to pick her up. I held her for us both to look at her eye. It was partly closed but my husband pointed out she was still blinking.

I wear contact lenses and just recently had a scratch on my eye. I had bought some optrex eye drops to treat it. We decided to drop some in Honey’s eye. My husband then gently felt her head and she made no sound or movement so it seems there is no other damage. Her eye is the most prominent part so I think it was just her eye that the gate pressed against. I felt so awful, guilty, heart sick and tearful but my husband said accidents happen and it’s probably the equivalent of us getting a black eye. He says it will be swollen and probably take a few days to get back to normal.

I put Honey down and then realised that she had pooped down me. Not surprising and I felt that I deserved that.

I forked over the run and the big girls and Honey were with me looking for worms and she seemed as bright as ever.

I managed to get a few photos of her.

Honey’s good eye

Honey’s bad eye

While I was writing this my husband went to check on her and said she was having a dust bath with the big girls so although her eye is closed she is behaving as normal.

I feel so awful. We have made such progress today and finished the run improvements and then something awful like this happens. I keep tearing up over it. I really hope she is going to be okay.