On the tenth day of the 100 days I found myself driving a lot. Well, more than on an average day.
First stop of the day was Pioneer feed - about five and a half miles from our house. Then to Harbor Freight for another tarp. Harbor Freight it approximately thirteen miles from Pioneer, if going the back roads. Then my last stop for the morning was WinCo. My first thought was to go to the Hazel Dell Grocery Outlet, but then I thought of a couple of things that made a trip to WinCo the better choice. Harbor Freight to Winco was about six miles. That's a lot more driving than I do on any average outing any other day of the week. An average day for me would be going to the bank or to Freddy's. Both three or less miles from our house. I guess becoming the Farm Manager requires a lot more driving!
After returning home and eating my lunch I got to work replacing the cover on the momma's shelter. Their poor shelter is so janky! Basically pallets (we love a pallet here!) with 1 x 2 pieces of lumber to attach them. The original roof was some old plastic from the big shed that we used as a curtain and some old landscape tarp from a few years ago. All the plastic was just ripped and shredded. We also used some old wavy plastic roofing for the front part of the shelter. It did not look good. This is when I should have taken a before photo, but did not. Here is the end result -
It's still a little janky, but not as bad.
This is the original look of the shelter (with our neighbor, Avery) The plastic really was just all over the place!
So, the pigs are all set up. In all honesty, the two girls don't have the best set up. They are basically out in the open with nothing behind their shelter to give it some stability like Big Momma and Big Daddy's shelter. It should work for the season. Just as long as Skinny Momma doesn't keep messing with the tarp in the back of the shelter. She is a stinker.
Saturdays are kind of my down day - kind of. I feed the pigs 'n poultry in the morning and then that's it. Today was a little different because we needed to replace the "roof" on the pig shelter so that the stall would be dry.
The tarps that I picked up at Harbor Freight were for pig shelters. Big Momma and Big Daddy's shelter was done. It was the easy one, the one I could do by myself. Plus it gave me a little bit of time with our breeding pair. They are SUPER sweet. A little love starved maybe, but sweet. They like to rub their heads on my leg and me being 5'3" they could easily just knock me over!
Anyway - after I went to my friend's holiday bazaar we worked on getting the 12' x 20' tarp on the old parking structure. Yeah, I don't remember the previous tarp we purchased being that big, but it must have been.
Once we got the tarp mostly on the roof, it was time to start coming up with a game plan. I'm getting better with being off the ground, but I did have some trepidation at the beginning - Tom wanted me to toss is drill up to him (I was on a ladder he was on the roof), but I didn't feel that I could actually do it. That drill is heavy! So I sucked it up and tossed it as far as I could and it got close. That's a win for me! Then the strips of wood that would hold the tarp down around the edges. Once we started getting things going Tom figured out that he had made a mistake and we had to re-group. Which is good, because if he went much further then it would have been a real problem.
In the end we were able to get the tarp in place and secured. In my past life, I would have wanted the tarp to be perfect. Like stretched out and smoothed and looking nice. Fortunately, I'm not like that so much anymore.
As you can see in the pic the tarp isn't as smoothed out as it could be, but let's be honest, who really cares?
If we can get the boys to go in there at night instead of sleeping on the wood chip pile that would make me happy. We are planning to get a bale of straw to spread out in there before the weekend is over. That should help make this space feel more "homey."
It only took a couple of years for us to realize that we didn't need a tall door to keep a momma and her piglets locked in the stall. Notice how we used plastic to cover the window. It's ugly, but effective.
The rear of the pig house isn't as visually pleasing, but I don't care and neither do the pigs. The reality is, I want to a least fix the portion where the planks came down. Another note, this structure is so old I'm surprised that it is still standing! One of the goals is to get it fixed up and use it for storage. How about that garbage bag that is stapled over the window?! It does the job and the pigs won't know the difference!
Not exactly a wall, but if you are a pig a three foot tall fence may as well be a wall.
Over time I think we have gotten pretty relaxed about how we are keeping the pigs 'n poultry within the confines of our property. The ducks usually free-range every day and they are good about going into their house at the end of the day. Most of the chickens stay within their area, but there are days when a lot of the flock decide to see what kind of goodies they can find outside of their run.
Then we brought home the pigs. In the beginning nearly three years ago we had kept Rex & Fiona within their paddock and they were happy to just hang out in their area. Every now and then they would get to free range which was a treat for them.
Then last year - the year of the pandemic - Fiona had her first successful litter of piglets and she was confined to a different area and Rex was still in their original area. After a few weeks we would let her have a break from the piglets and let her out into the field where she happily grazed away at the fresh grass. Then after a while we let her babies join her. Soon that became the norm. Letting her graze on her own and then letting the piglets out. Eventually we let Rex rejoin the fam in the new area.
THEN
It became an all day thing. Grazing and wandering our small farm all they wanted. At first when the junior swine were still fairly young, we weren't terribly concerned about where they would graze. They usually stuck close to momma because they weren't 100% weaned yet.
Fast forward to January 2021. Mr. Victor, from Fiona's 2020 litter, has turned into a repeat offender by knocking down the temporary fence to graze just on the other side of the fence. Normally, this wouldn't be that big of a deal, but now their are some new junior swine who are keen to follow their daddy out and about. This is unacceptable.
After a week of what feels like constantly chasing him back to the safe side of the fence we had enough. With a trip to Home Depot we were ready to start making the fence more of a permanent thing instead of the premier1 fence that we had been using since last summer. It was fine until now. I'm not sure what was going through his brain to help him get into trouble in no time flat. The funny thing is that the last time we had to chase him AND the turkey girls back he saw Tom marching out their and ran back. He knows what side his butter is toasted on.
For the time being we have Big Momma, Big Daddy, the junior swine and all of the babies confined to an area right outside of their little house. The fortunate thing is that they adapt pretty quickly and they are happy to be in their space toward the back of the property. It is temporary, but they don't know that.
Looks good from the road
Eighty feet of fence installed
The beginning of the long stretch toward the church next door
Just about a week ago we started the fence project and have finished the first stage of it. The first part is along the road on the garden side of our property - it went fairly quick. The post went in pretty easy because the ground is fairly soft from all of the rain that we have had in the past couple of weeks. For once we are thankful for our Pacific NW winters. The next section might require a little more effort. The fence will be next to the path that goes in front of our house. That path is asphalt and I'm not sure how much of the yard has grown over the path if it has at all. All I know is that the first post that I attempted to start was extremely hard. The post is five feet tall and I can't work up enough force to get the post to even pierce the ground. So, I'll be leaving the next stage of post install for Tom to do. Not gonna lie, it was hard. I'm usually okay with hard work, but this wasn't going to happen for me.
OH WELL.
Once the fence is set in front of the house we'll just use the step in posts to go toward the back of the property as far as 18 posts will go at least. A couple of hot wires should keep the swine from crossing over to the rest of the field. The ducks will still be able to go underneath the wire, but they aren't the problem right now.
So much to do and all sorts of time! Farm life is the best life!!
As we look forward to our next Meatie Harvest in a few weeks I was looking back at the post of our first REAL meat chicken harvest. The actual first harvest was a terrible event. Trying to reduce the number of cockerels from our first flock of chickens. Yet, we still decided to move forward and do a real batch of meaties. Go HERE to see that post.
In a few weeks we'll be getting ready to set up our equipment and process 26 meaties. I'm hoping that we'll have decent weather, but it will be late October and anything can happen. Heck it's 2020 and a hurricane might decide to blow through...hehe...
I'm excited for this next batch of chickens though because we are trying something new. The Fry Pan Special from Jenks Hatchery in Tangent, OR. My favorite place to get brand fresh newly hatched chicks! So easy to place an order and choose the hatch date and have them shipped. Unless you live within driving distance and make the trek to pick them up in person. Which is what we have done with each batch.
There are two reasons why I suggested to my hubs that we try them. The first is that they are different, not Freedom Rangers (which I love) and NOT Cornish Cross. Second, they are all cockerels and very inexpensive. I think they are even less than CC at Wilco - they ended up being $1.40 each and the minimum order is 25, but we got lucky and got 26 :)
The breeds escape me right now, but I think one of the breeds is Blue Sapphire Plymouth Rock. I think the one pictured above would be that breed. Maybe. Our batch is a mix of three breeds and we have probably a dozen of the Blue Sapphire's and a dozen of the lighter colored chickens and ONE all dark roo.
Anyway, kinda cool to see where we are two years later. That first batch was only 15 and our current batch is 26. Who knew that we would be all in with this food growing attitude?! I really do love it!
With my vacation time comes lots of projects and things that I want to get done around our little farm.
Over the weekend we started one very important project - building new nesting boxes for the hens. The pet carriers are functional and all, but they are a bit haphazard and kind of janky too.
How the egg cart looked at the beginning.
The first set of nesting boxes were as you can see above. A couple of pet carriers and an old hooded cat litter box that we found at Goodwill for cheap. Over time we add three more pet carriers and it worked for a while. The whole system is not a bad concept...just looked...well, janky. Especially since the litter box is now on top of a pet carrier and, since it is so large, will have at least two hens sitting in it. That's not a bad thing if they both lay an egg. Anyway - with the addition of several more hens we decided an upgraded system would be good. I might still hang on to three of the pet carriers and the so that there are options. It would look nicer for sure.
Today is Monday and I have an outing planned with a friend so there won't be nearly as much happening as we'll be going for coffee and Pokemon catching opportunities. Lunch may be part of the outing, but I'm not sure yet.
Tomorrow is our meat chickie pick-up day - so we'll be heading south to Tanget to do that. I love that there is a hatchery so close to where we live. So today we'll need to get the brooder all cleaned up and ready for new tenants - 30 of them!
I will be posting here each day and sharing what we have accomplished each day. Right now, I need to employ good time management skills. My list of things to do is a mile long and I only have a week off.
Okay, when I go through a seed catalog or look at websites that peddle seeds I am very specific about what I am looking for. So while I was looking at beans that I wanted to try out I found one called Tiger's Eye HERE. It is a bean that can be eaten while it is still tender or shelled later and stored. I liked the color and I liked that it was a bush variety. Not that I have something against pole type beans, but I have had a lot of luck with the bush variety of beans in the past couple of years.
Anyway...I popped these seeds into the ground while getting the big garden planted and was excited to see that most of the seeds germinated! A good thing since I don't know how much we'll yield from one plant. Anymore my motto is "more is better!"
This past weekend I was doing some weeding in the garden, because it was overdue and I looked at the beans and I saw LONG stems growing upwards. WHAT?! It was suprising to me because I thought for sure they were bush beans.
OH SNAP!
July 15, 2019
I didn't have the seed packet, but I knew that I had a few more leftover so the packet wasn't in the garbage. When I finally did find the packet I looked at the planting instructions which stated it would need a trellis/support.
SWELL...
Yesterday Tom went out to Lowe's via Wilco and came away with some T-Posts and some EMT to create the top bar of the trellis. Those were installed and once I arrived home I attached the remainder of the Roller Hooks that I ordered a couple of years ago, but only just recently started really using in the garden.
A better photo...
When you visit the Seed Savers website (as well as a couple of others) it states that this variety of bean is bush habit.
Okay, so we are four days past the ultimate harvest of the year. I have had a chance to think about the importance of growing and processing our own birds and to do a little research of the method that we have seen over and over again on YouTube from other homesteaders (which I still do not claim to be).
When first mentioning that we are growing meat chickens the first thing that people ask after we say that this is a DIY project is, " Are you going to cut their heads off?"
Now I understand that's how many people see home chicken processing. I know that my mom did that, but I think...I'm not positive, but I am almost sure that she cut the head and then placed the chicken in a big metal drum while it was slowly dying it's awful and inhumane death.
The method that we went with is called Halal or can also be considered Kosher. Which in the simplest terms means that the kill is done quickly with a slit of the jugular and left to bleed out. From my research this is the Muslim tradition. If done correctly, there shouldn't be need for a second cut, but sometimes that happens. Like when I decide it's time for me to get one kill in and there are only three chickens left. All afternoon I was thinking how I should probably do at least one kill...and I kept meaning to, but was distracted with other tasks to hopefully make clean-up a little easier. In the end, clean up was the hardest...but I digress...I tried and Tom had to make another cut. While I did do one last year - sort of. This was easier, but still not enough for the bleed out to happen very quickly. I should have known better as they chicken was looking at me as if to ask what he or she had done to me to deserve a not so swift bleed out. Oh well, I'll have other opportunities at future processing times.
Three of the Rangers in Restraining Cones
After lots of google searches we decided that the birds would benefit from resting in the fridge overnight. This was to allow the rigor to leave the body. We let the birds sit overnight in the refrigerator and then placed them in a tub to brine the following day. Several people online had said that the brine would help make the chicken tender. Tom thought we should try half brined and half not, but in the end it was just easier to brine all of them.
On Monday it was time to drain and rinse and let the chicken dry...
Before bagging the birds we had to take the Poultry kit back to the Clark Conservation District and get our deposit money back :) The gentleman who helped us pointed out the "ring" around the top of the scalder and surmised that maybe we were not informed to be on the look out for that and to make sure that it was totally cleaned. Notes for next time - clean, clean and then clean some more. To be honest, the plucker was the most difficult to clean as the feathers got stuck underneath the rubber fingers. They did NOT want to come out very easily. There really is no way to avoid that unless we want to hand pluck. I will gladly spend the time getting the feathers out of the bazillion plucker fingers.
Once we returned we went ahead and started the process to bag the chickens. Oh My Goodness...I think that the shrink wrap bags is like the best thing EVER! Slide a chicken in the bag, place the tube in the cavity and get a zip tie on. Then a very short dip in boiling water and there is your perfectly bagged chicken!
This is just an overview of the weekend process. Would we do anything different? Sure...there is always room for improvement.
First, knives...a variety of sharp knives would have been better. Processing day came up pretty fast and we knew that the knife selection would be limited. In the end it worked out, but I suggested a trip to Good Will yesterday to see if we could find anything that would work. Luckily we found a set of kitchen knives (forged knives) that included a small clever and some shears for $6.99 (plus tax). That was an excellent find! Those will be easy to hone using the steel or a bench grinder (if needed).
The other thing that we would do is place the scalder in the garage to protect it from the wind. At some point the pilot light went out because of the wind and the water temp dropped about 15 degrees cooler than it should have been. Tom figured out that the pilot light is not easy to see. Nothing a blow torch can't fix.
We will need to rethink the chill chest for after the birds have been eviscerated and ready to go into the refrigerator. Maybe an old refrigerator or a giant cooler. There is time, BUT now I'll be checking out craigslist for all sorts of stuff in the months to come.
The whole operation could be moved onto the lawn or maybe even directly in front of the garage. That way, when we are spraying stuff down or even emptying water out of things it will go into the lawn. That is something that we will explore next year.
Also, we might let the birds go one more week before processing them. That means more food for them, but that would also mean that the 3 pound birds that we had might weigh a little more.
While we are on the subject of weight - we ended up with 56 pounds of chicken from 15 birds - that averages out to 3.7 pounds per bird. I think that's a pretty awesome harvest at 11 weeks old.
Yep, I'm pretty excited about this chicken processing experience. I am ready to do this again...
Wow! This flip your Chicken RV lid got serious this time. Last weekend the Pacific NW experienced a lot of wind along with the standard rain that we are used to. Of all of the things that I was concerned about (the new chicken tractor, the panels on the shed...my hoop house, etc) I wasn't really focused on the Chicken RV. In fact, neither of us noticed it. As I was heading out to run an errand and drove past...there it was. No pic this time.
Check out what happend...
What made this particular flip more impressive is the fact that the original piece of the frame that was replaced with a 2 x 6 was torn apart with all the strength wind could muster up. Not only that, the ONE sand bag that was supposedly keeping the roof weighted down was flung a distance away from the chicken mobile.
WHAAAAT?!
The last time this happened was during the time that Tom was in the hospital - recap that HERE. When it first happened it seemed worse than it really was - well compared to this time. That time was totally my fault - I didn't replace the sandbag to weight the roof down.
My suggestion for a temporary roof - using some of the metal roof panels from the big shed and the shed we used to park under. They are perfect, but a little long, but they work. There were three straight pieces and we dragged them over. Perfect! They work so well that Tom has decided to use them for the permanent roof. The chick mobile requires three panels, which will make it much more hefty and would take a tornado to make the whole thing break apart.
Not bad huh...
It ironic that we would use the metal panels from the big shed. Many of the panels have been warped, bent and ripped off of the big shed...
The little ladies were graduated from the stinky brooder to the chicken tractor yesterday evening. It was a pleasant evening and the transition was an exciting one. Just watching them jump and run around was worth all the effort that went into building this chicken tractor.
Today's weather has been interesting, the morning wasn't so bad, just some showers. However this afternoon we have high winds for our area. The winds are supposedly going to last until late tonight.
SWELL!
So far the tarp is holding up. It was attached to the frame with zip ties so today's wind will put it the test for sure!
The Javas will live in the tractor in the yard for a little while. I hope to give them their own space out on pasture along with access to outside of the tractor. That will have to wait until next weekend when the flock is moved back out to the field. Then we can use the original poultry netting that was part of the original kit that we purchased.
By then we'll be able to pull it instead of carrying it. Yep, you read that right, we had to carry it. Not a nice and easy, short and direct route, mind you. This thing is much wider than the openings in the fence, so around the garage and through the grass we went. That grass is a lot taller when you are carrying a heavy object and watching your step! Good times...never ending fun around our place.
Also, I am sure that we are an unending source of entertainment to those who live nearby or are driving past our house. So if anyone saw us marching around the garage I'm sure they got a good show. However, I was determined to not put it down! Mostly because if that happened while were in the field, I'm pretty sure that I would not have been able to hoist the tractor up again. Plus, I'm pretty sure that it would have broken and that would have been terrible and I would feel REALLY bad - for a long time!
Once the wheels are usable it will be easier to pull it from place to place. We can start by practicing in the yard!
For more information on this chicken tractor visit Farm Marketing Solutions HERE.
One chicken tractor done...number two will wait 'til next year!
Check this baby out! Tom worked on this quite a bit on Saturday when we weren't running errands (two times to Parkrose) or taking a union break.
The best part...was finding the Chicken Wire at Pioneer Feed Saturday at only $27.99 for the 48"x50' roll. That is the best price that we have seen yet without having to order it and wait for the delivery.
The annoying part was having to talk to one of the Parkrose guys and his experience with chickens and how much feed they waste and how we need to use the system that he uses. Uhh...dude, we just want the carriage bolts, washers and nuts...plus our chickens don't waste a lot of food, just the grit and oyster shell - because they forage quite a bit, not because they want to, because they only get feed and supplements in the morning. If they are lucky, a neighbor will come over with treats for them so they don't have to totally forage all day long. Although, they do anyway - with or without snacks.
Anyway - The tractor is coming along nicely and Tom was able to do a little more work on it yesterday before we went to a friend's house for Easter lunch. The little girls could possibly be relocated sooner than the weekend! We'll see how things go!
The little Java Girls are just over 6 weeks old
They are getting so big...and fast! It was such a nice day on Saturday that I thought that they might like to sit in the sun during the afternoon. So we were able to drag the brooder over and put them in the sunshine by the open garage door. They were a little confused by the brightness and heat of the sun. Yes...littles, this is what your future will consist of. Bright sunshine and lots of grass to play on (even though you are still in the box)! Also, if you look closely, the one in up against the back of the brooder had her "hairs" on her neck standing up. I'm not sure what that meant, but they seemed happy enough. After a little while, I think the brooder was warming up and they started panting...drink some water girls! They figured out that if they went to the opposite end of the box they wouldn't be nearly as warm. The temperature for the past couple of weeks has been on the cool side, so they have been in the dark, literally, since we brought them home.
This relocation is just the first step to them going outside. Soon they will be playing and foraging on the lawn. they will be able to scratch for little bugs and whatever catches their eye. The only thing that they need is a roosting bar - I have seen them perching on the rim of their feed pan. It's time to graduate them for sure!
It has been staying light longer into the evening - which means we can do more stuff outside everyday! It's not enough that I work full-time, I need to maximize my time away from work and do stuff on our farm too!
If I could stay home and work on our property forever I would. Until that can happen, I have to divide my time and plan when I can take time off to accomplish my goals for this season.
Here's a little something from from a year ago on the Great American Farm Tour...
Wow! March is almost over - so crazy to think that it will be April soon. Is it just me or is time going really fast? Maybe it's because there is always something to be done when I'm not at work...that must be it.
Well, let's take a look at the happenings for the month. Weekday stuff is hit and miss depending on what after work activities I have on the calendar. Let's get started!
As usual the chickens were moved the second Saturday of the month. I remember that day being pretty cold, but it was clear and then was sunny later in the day. So that was a plus.
Thor and his girls quickly got to work on the chip pile
I have also noticed that since then our feathered creatures have been "admired" from the road - whether people are walking by or driving. Sometimes people will slow down to take a look or even stop their car in the road and gawk - Oh, I see you people out there...keep it moving...chickens we have chickens people! However, I do like it when there are walkers and they stop to take a look. If we are lucky and see them we will go out and meet some of them - like...A mom and her two young daughters who live across the street and down the road a little. Lenny was making a fuss of some sort, so I had to look and there they were in the driveway just looking at the chickens. So we walked out and talked to them for a few minutes. She is another kindred spirit as far as eating "clean" food goes. She is very passionate about feeding her family food that is grown without the yuck-o stuff and opting for pasture raised meats. Tom even took the girls to gather the eggs for the day. That was a fun connection that day - they kids have since been by to visit the chickens with their nanny.
Vacation time! I took a week off from work and we worked on a couple of things, but mainly the Chicken Tractor. It's still under construction, but I am hopeful that we can get a lot of the metal work done and hopefully installed soon. Then we'll be able to attach the hardware cloth and the chicken wire. It has been a long project for sure, but it the Justin Rhodes took longer than my vacation week for sure.
The weekend before vacation week we visited Tsugawa's Nursery in Woodland and got some bare root apple trees (3) to start out mini orchard. We are going with the Mother Earth News small tree method. Check that out HERE. That was a couple of weeks ago and this is what they looked like when we put them in:
I took a look at them this week and they are starting to bud out a little bit. At least we didn't kill them by cutting off more than half of their "body." These trees should stay at around knee height. We'll see.
On the first day that I didn't have to wake up and go to work I worked on getting some of the spring veggie seeds into one of the garden boxes. Right now that consists of Spinach, Arugula and Bunching Onions - Red and White. Over the next few days more seeds were sown into soil blocks, veggies and flowers. Some of those are actually sprouting now. I need to get some peas and carrots planted and maybe some lettuce too.
Hoping for all of these to sprout so they can all go into the garden
One of the garden boxes that was cleaned out during vacation week
We had to run some errands to pick up supplies for the chicken tractor build so that took us to Harbor Freight, Parkrose and Shurway. Those places were more of a necessary evil rather than a fun trip for me, but not terrible when you factor in that Parkrose has free popcorn!
The Java girls are growing like crazy and they REALLY need to get outside soon. I'm thinking of how we can get some sort of small kennel-like/cage thing put together for them so they can at least spend some time on the lawn.
This was last Saturday - they are a little bigger than this now!
I've been looking on Craigslist for an outdoor kennel or some sort of cage thing that we could set up. I'm starting to feel really bad for these little ones they could totally use some fresh air and finally get out of that box. Even the Jerseys had some time outside before they went outside full time. Maybe this weekend I'll figure out an outdoor pen for them.
Overall, this month has been good and I really need a break from the craziness at work. I'm looking forward to attending the Good Friday service at our church tonight and then worship time on Sunday.
The days have gone quickly, but the week seems slow. That's probably because I'm doing regular work and not the kind of work that I enjoy - working on our farm.
Progress on the Chicken Tractor has slowed down to almost a halt, but not really. Tom has been working on cutting the pipe that we have already bent and using them to make proper angles and not curved angles. Somehow that makes sense to me - and definitely to Tom's engineering brain.
The solution:
Tom was able to use some old copper pipe that he had stored away from a past project and did some magic to make the copper pipe fit into the other pipe. Then some soldering and BOOM we are good to go! One down three to go! Actually, I think there are is one more thing that needs to happen to attach this to the frame. I am hoping that we can get this done before the girl Magpie ducklings arrive so we can get the Javas out of the brooder!
Another thing that I have been on the hunt for is a shelter of some sort for when the Javas go out into the chicken tractor - in a couple of weeks they may be big enough to not need a shelter. We'll see. Anyway, there was a dog house for FREE on Craigslist and I thought that it would be perfect for our needs. I tried several times to send a text as the person wanted and I never got a response. So I decided to forget about it. I didn't think about it much more until yesterday and I decided to look again and see if there was anything else available.
THERE WAS!
I saw that it was located much closer to our home and contacted the person that listed it. After some emails back and forth I got the address and found out that they only live not even a 1/4 mile from our house! The other thing that made this a much better deal is that this one has a roof!
$25 later and we have ourselves a nice (and light) shelter for our feathered creatures.
The best part of the evening would be our duck! What a little clown! He definitely has bonded with Tom and whenever he "appears" outside Sheldon immediately jumps into action. He ALWAYS wants to be let out of the hen pen and play with Tom - if you can imagine that. He likes me and all, but he is ga-ga over Tom for sure. Always under foot and always "talking" while trying to steer Tom in the right direction - which would be to race in the driveway.
We are heading to the weekend and looking forward making the most of the time we have to work on projects and play with the duck and the Goose!
This is it...last free day before heading back to work. I wish I could say that I'm ready to go back to my job. What I miss is a routine. However, I could totally make my home routine my thing, but just knowing it has to end makes me want to maximize the time I have off and accomplish as much as I can. I imagine that life away from work outside of the home wouldn't be so full of things to do during most of any given day. It just would be nice to not have to make everyday a busy day.
Today after worship, we ran a couple of errands to look for some fittings for the pipe that we are not going to use as bent frames, but as cut pieces to make perfect angles. If I'm honest, I'm glad Tom came up with an alternative. I would have spent the few hours we had left just fretting about getting the bends right and not enjoying the day. The bender was due back at Parkrose by 2pm.
The solution to the problem we ended yesterday with was to cut the stock we had and use the fittings to do the frame of what will be the roof.
The Chicken Tractor as of earlier this afternoon
This is a lot like how we ended vacation week last year...with an unfinished project. It's all good though, we'll work on it in the evenings as long as we don't have anything else going on.
So, really in the last week we worked on the chicken tractor, I got a bunch of soil blocks made and seeds sowed...sowed some spring greens and bunching onions into one of the garden boxes and hosted some friends for dinner. Also got out to try to get I to a running routine as well.
The week has been full and I am satisfied in that.
What happened to the day? It was cold, Cold, COLD today!
Yesterday was my day to cook Indo food for a chosen few. It's my way to end my vacation week, hanging out with friends.
Progress on the chicken tractor project slowed down a little bit. There is a door frame in place along with the panels that we put together a couple of days ago.
The thing that we are stuck on currently would be bending the EMT conduit. In the Stress Free Chicken Tractor book it says that bending the conduit can be "tricky." Yeah we got tricky down...
This wasn't accidental - just trying to figure out how the bender works
Oh - we rented a bender at Parkrose -
This did not come with instructions
Tom took some time this afternoon to try to get the tubing bent in the right places and the right angles. He got frustrated and declared that all 5 tubes would not work and went back to Parkrose to get more EMT. After he returned - I decided to take a turn with this seemingly harmless device.
I studied the section on how to prep the tubes for bending...then tried to make a bend. Well, I found out very quickly that my short stature would make this task a little difficult. The tubing is ten feet long...TEN FEET! However, I had to do it in my own to figure out what needed to happen to get things set up. After some moments of being annoyed and stretching and twisting AND stepping on one end of bender to make it work...I DID get it to work! Since I was just goofing around I made a sculpture instead. Oh well....I got a better understanding of how to accomplish the task. The instructions in the book helped, especially the illustrations.
We will have to get busy on the project as soon as we get home from church tomorrow morning since the bender needs to go back in the afternoon.
NOPRESSURE.
One of the EMT tubes that Tom formed
After I played around with my first bended tube I took a look at Tom's "rejects" and did a minor adjustment and it seems to work out okay. It won't be like the book says, but it will work. All we need to do is get three more to match it as close as possible - perfect is too much to ask for. This is a chicken tractor after all and the chickens aren't going to complain.
It's a hobbity sized door!
These little chickies are just over 5 weeks old!
Once the Java Girls are old enough and the weather stays at a reasonable temperature they will be the first to take up residence in the chicken tractor. They will need to go out in about three weeks if not sooner. The Magpie girls should be arriving by then! Then when the ducklings outgrow the broader they will move into the tractor next. I'm hoping that we'll be able to integrate the Javas in with the Jerseys and Aussies when that happens. It shouldn't be too difficult as they will all be in the same area, but separate. So, until further notice their is no vacancy at the Chicken Tractor Inn.
My morning project - making a loaf of Egg Bread...SO GOOD!
Last year at this time we were finishing up the Justin Rhodes Chick-Shaw. At this point in the project I think we still needed the wheels and few other odds and ends to finish up. Check that post out HERE.
I also had some pretty good looking Romaine lettuce growing in the garden. These were transplanted in mid fall of 2016 and survived all sorts of crazy weather! There were a variety of other items as well, but the lettuce really well.
The John Suscovich chicken tractor has been a fairly straightforward build so far. Yesterday's progress was mainly us getting the pieces put together. We were able to get quite a bit done before the rain started. Tom had an appointment at noon so I went to do some grocery shopping during that time. When I walked out of the store I saw the rain...boooo...oh well. We live in the Pacific NW - sun breaks are a treat during the spring and if they last for a couple of days we take advantage of it! The rain keeps us humble...maybe.
The top photo is from the morning and the one below was taken after we returned from errands.
The first side panel assembled and ready for glue - then screws
The different parts of the frame all glued and screwed together
Our favorite glue
There wasn't a lot more to do after we returned, just one more panel to finish up before calling it a day.
Today - it was rainy most of the time, windy at times and there was hail later in the afternoon. I think that today was supposed to be the most rainy of the week. Tomorrow should be less rain, but who really knows for sure?
Welcome back rain!
Before applying glue and then drilling in the screws
Since there was rain the project needed to be moved into the garage. Not because it was dry...but because it was less wet. I'll tell you what this thing is HUGE! The Chick-shaw wasn't nearly as big, it was more of a square. This dude is longer and wider.
It's a different type of coop - this is pretty squatty
It's hard to see just how big this is, trust me - this will be spacious
Today we took the bones of the tractor and put them all together. Since Tom was using lumber that was from an existing shed at the back of our property; all of the pieces were cut to the dimensions that were listed in the book. While the book assumed that the person building this chicken tractor would be buying the materials at a local home improvement type store. So, the pieces were slightly "off," but we'll make it work. The main thing is that the changes aren't terrible and it will still work as it should. That would be - a house for the little chickies that we have. They are tiny by comparison, but when this gets finished and they are big enough to move outside, they will be just fine.
Today's trip was to Parkrose Hardware where we got the 10' half inch EMT and some brackets. Parkrose is great - the conduit was $3.49-ish which was probably a 1/3 of the price of Grovers. Forget you Grovers! When I decide to do my low tunnels we'll have to go and pick up a few more.
I believe that we'll be renting the conduit bender tomorrow from Parkrose - $10 per day. We really should have asked if we could bend the tubes there, this job shouldn't take very long at all.
The thing about tomorrow is that I will not be working on anything that is farm related. We will have some friends over for dinner - so I'll be spending a good portion of the day cooking!
As my vacation comes to an end, I'm happy with all that we accomplished in the few hours each day that we spent on the Chicken Tractor. I also have several trays of soil blocks and seeds started, so that's a bonus!
One more day and then back to prepping for going back to work - but until then, I still have three days of staycation time!
