Because we’re into winter cold spells now, Sue has been taking extra time to work on the coop. Today she spent some time adding more wood to the walls around the biggies side, making the straw insulation a bit more permanent than just with the tarps. The silly things were starting to pull it off the walls. Sue had gone around and filled up the straw before she added the 2×4’s to keep them from getting in there and laying their eggs. Now they won’t be able to pull the tarps off the walls at all. Here are some “after” shots of the interior. Continue reading
Winter Fortifications
11 Monday Dec 2017
Posted in Projects
Ta da! Here is the the trailer at it’s barest. It is ready for its new purpose in life. Sue went to Home Depot yesterday and ordered the materials to create the Have Chickens, Will Travel Trailer. That’s not what we’re really calling it, it’s just what typed out on the page. She said the guy at Home Depot asked “Why do you want to put your chickens in a trailer anyway?” After she explained about Pasturing chickens, his response was, “Oh.” Well… you know, it’s all an adventure! The frame is really quite sturdy and has very little rust on in considering all the leaking that it had weathered. Sue’s looking at the best way to treat the frame to remove the rust and then repaint it. Told you this would be an ongoing, long term project. 
…some updated information. Middle of the week usually brings us to the update on what we’ve been talking about over the last few days. I do this for a couple of reasons: 1) because it’s the middle of the week so many of the on-going projects are just that, on-going and 2) We go to choir rehearsal on Wednesday evenings, so I have to do something quickly. So here we go. 
Well, started off normally enough. We did the morning chores and then put in some doors on the top brooder, so that we can more easily get in and out. Sue made them right quick out of scrap wood and put some chicken wire over them. They work great! It is so much easier to get in and out of there to do food and water and stuff. Then we took about 1/2 of the littles and put them in the brooder below. There were 30 in the top brooder and they are getting just too big! They are much more comfortable now and have room to grow and scratch around without getting in each others’ way. Next, we took care of the feed and straw in the back of Sue’s truck. Those chickens are going through some food lately! Alfalfa and straw go over to the Goat Boys for later. Filled up the dog water and watered the flower garden and the herb garden right quick. Then we enjoyed a breakfast of eggs and toast. 
It’s been an interesting couple of days. Things don’t always go as you plan – right, that’s just a life thing. Sometimes we make plans to do x and y and then it takes so long to get the stuff together before you can even start x that y never comes into the picture. Or – if you’re me – as you’re going along you get distracted by this other thing that needs to get done and will only take a you a couple of minutes, and – do enough of those – there goes your day. It’s not that the day is wasted at all, you still get things done, just not the things that you had initially anticipated getting done. My whole MONTH has been like that: I know it’s just now November, but haven’t you ever spent a whole month doing something one day. I’m over dramatizing this… but sometimes it’s just difficult to get to Wednesday and think, “The week’s almost over, what am I doing?” 
A quick Monday update for ya’ll. Weekend seemed to go rather quickly. We sold all the eggs at the Farmers Market on Saturday. That was good. Also, this Saturday we pushed the camper trailer into working position. It’s under the car port by the back door, so that it’s protected from Sun and rain and mostly sheltered from the prevailing winds. Sue has started demolition and took all the old rotted canvas out today. What she found is that there was a leak in the roof so most of the interior wood in the roof has rotted as well. I’ll try to take some better photos as we try to remove the heavy plywood that made up the sleeping side of the tent, tomorrow. Sue said there is a lot that can probably be salvaged. We’ll see as we go along. You can check out the initial idea from the post on March 8 called “
Okay, in reality, this is the weekend update, but I had a talk with my folks a bit ago and I thought their story needed to go into the blog. So, let’s have a chat about habaneros. Those are hot peppers that are really quite hot! If you follow the 
“I love it when a plan comes together!” Immortal words from the leader of the A-Team, Hannibal Smith, but they are so very true; right up there with one of Sue’s favorites, “I love completing a project!” And she can say that this week, because the most tricky part of the cold frame is done! There was some difficulty figuring out the covering for it, but yesterday it all came together. 
Wing and a Prayer 