A Different Arrangement

So… here is another arrangement of the chicken tractor/coop in action.  It gets moved every two days and then I mow the grass underneath it down.  (The wheels on the coop aren’t big enough to roll through the taller grass.  I’d like to “refine” the design by replacing them with the big pneumatic tires you see on special garden wagons).

It has been a coolish summer and so things haven’t been growing awfully fast.  Here is my garden as of a week ago.  The tomatoes are coming.  In the front are carrots and calendula (for some herbal creams, etc.)  Under the screen are beets and swiss chard (the screen has since been removed and everything is up nicely).

I haven’t planted too much due to not knowing whether/when we will be moving (I assume once I get another job).   The pumpkins are coming nicely.  The rhubarb that you see to the side is in one of those big tote tubs with the rope handles (has been since summer 2006).  Amazing that it has survived this long.  I was planning to plant it in the ground this spring (until I found out that I had lost my job).

However…. I have worked on a new flowerbed in front of the porch.  Here is the pic.   The grey pot (on top) has rosemary (will need to be inside for the winter) and the one on the left has parsley.  The one at the back (in front of my goldfish pond) has a creeping thyme in it.  There is also chives in the flowerbed.  The bed that you see to the right of the porch (see all those HUGE weeds) has since been completely cleaned out (I made a temporary bed to keep anything of value… peonies, hostas, etc) and I am in the process of boosting it up with peat moss (right now it has rocky, gravelly, barely soil) before putting back some of the plants I took from there and other points around the property.

Finished Coop

I finally got the roof painted yesterday….. here it is, in use!!

And here’s Mick (not very clear except his head)……  he’s a Barnevelder cock…. I’m hoping he’ll develop a little more colour as he matures.

My Chicken Tractor/Coop

I thought I’d give you the “play-by-play” on the construction of my chicken tractor.

First it was the chicken tractor itself… constructed from cedar that I bought as slabwood from the mill.  (A huge flatbed load for $15 happened to include a number of rough 2×2’s… so they were well utilized.)

Here it is…. easy to pick up and move around the yard.

Then it was time to build a chicken coop (on wheels also ~ I used the steering mechanism from an old wagon that the floor rotted off).  My first thought was that the screen floor would mean no clean-up, but I have since covered it with black paper and put wood chips into it.  It is still loose and fluffy (after 3 – 4 weeks of use) and not smelly at all.   It’s warmer and more comfortable for the chickens and they seem to like being in there (they go in and out through the day).

So… framed, with wheels and window inserted.

With roof on and painted…..

All walls and doors on and pushed up into place with the chicken tractor …. I moved the chickens from their temporary home in the shed into this new home today!

While the chickens were out one sunny day I closed the door, took off the short side wall and cut out the nest box holes. Then I tacked chicken wire over them for the night (until I could get the nest boxes completed).

Then I finished up the nest boxes (put the lid on and took the chicken wire off the holes.)  Also, I attempted to seal the seam with rubber (and silicone sealant).  So far it seems to be working.

It’s been raining a lot lately, so I haven’t been able to finish painting the roof of the nest boxes.  That is all that is left to complete it.

The chickens happily go in in the evening and I go out and close the door (just in case there’s a weasel or coon or fisher around.)  I think with the dogs around (they are in at night, but their scent is definitely everywhere) there won’t be too much trouble with critters, but I don’t want to take any chances.  When I go out in the morning, they literally run to get out as fast as they can!!  I keep them in one location for a couple of days and then move them when they are in at night.  I’ve still had to mow after they were done, but they definitely eat alot of grass and seem to relish bugs whenever they can catch them.  They are on pullet grower now also…. no eggs yet, but we are really looking forward to the first ones!!

I find it very relaxing to sit and watch them and talk to them as they scratch around in the grass.  They also seem to like it when I come next to the cage and they come over to see if I have anything for them.

And here they are…. the four Americaunas (Esmerelda, Miranda, DayGlo, Vesper) with Blossom in the background.

They will lay blue and green shelled eggs….. don’t know which ones, which yet!

And then there’s Rusty and Edelweiss, two of the four barnevelder hens.  They will lay coppery brown eggs.

And there’s Blossom in the background again.   I don’t have a good picture of Mick (he’s the cock) yet.  I’ll try to post one soon….. no cockadoodle doo’s yet either!!

Got Chicks

Well… in spite of the fact that I have no job (pay for a couple more months so not totally at a loss… yet, I decided that I was going to try to have “life somewhat normal” and I went ahead and bought chicks.  They are now in the small insulated room in the shed.  I bought 5 barnvelders (lay coppery brown eggs), 4 hens and a cock and 4 ‘Easter Eggers’, hens of mixed colour.  Here are some pics.

How do they get all those wood chips into their water?  (I have now set the water up higher in an attempt to keep it cleaner ~ I’ve had to empty and freshen twice a day so far for the little ones especially!!)

The barnvelders are almost two weeks older than the americaunas (the photos were taken 8 days apart) and are already starting to get feathers.

They look much more like chickens than chicks these days.  Yesterday was a sunny, warm day.  I got a large box (cut the bottom out) and put it out on the lawn.  I took the barnvelders out and gave them some “grass time” yesterday afternoon.  They seemed to like it.  I kept one side of the box flap closed so they had plenty of shade and put water in with them.   They seemed to like running in and out of the sun and the grass was a nice change.  I did watch them closely to make sure they weren’t chilled or anything.   But I think if they were with a hen, she would take them out during the warmth of the day also.

I am in the process of making a chicken tractor.  Actually, my plan is to make a chicken tractor fenced area separate from the coop (which will also be on wheels… I’m using the mechanism from a kids wagon on the front for steering and just good wheels on the back).  That way I can move the two separately.  Here is the frame-up for the pen.

I know it’s low, but I figure chickens aren’t very tall…. why do they need all that head space?  Also, once they get used to coming to me, I can let them out into the yard WITH SUPERVISION.  (OK, I have a garden that I don’t want destroyed and I have two cats and two dogs…. so it will take some training to make sure everyone behaves themselves).   Inside the coop (4 ft. at the highest point) there will be perches 2 ft off the ground…. I know they like to perch up at night.   Once I have the coop framed in I’ll post some pictures of that also.   Anyways… we are looking forward to the time when we can have our own eggs ~ copper, blue and green!  That will be exciting!!

Mayday ~ Thoughts and Reflections

So…. with the loss of my job one week ago today, homesteading has come to a crashing halt.   I think we will need to move in order for me to get a new job.   So… do I build up the pond?  Or do I tear it down?   Do I spread my plants around and make up gardens or do I put everything back into pots and take apart the gardens?   Yikes!!!

It happened just before I got chickens!!! Just before.    So… I guess I take down the fences (no llamas yet) and just wait.  It is hard to wait when spring is here and the sun is shining and the weather warm.

There is still lots to do outside to clean up… gardens to be emptied and weeded and then replanted.  (Yes they are to the stage where they need to be emptied in order to get all the weeds out).   So… I guess I will just take it one day at a time.  Perhaps one day my dream of homesteading will be realized.

Spring-like Weather

This weekend was warm and sunny ~ the perfect weekend to be out puttering around.  Alas, I was down with a bad cold and fever and didn’t feel like moving away from my bed.   So, I have spent the weekend snuffling and sleeping my way through the hours.    Oh well….. I’m sure it will continue to warm up and soon I’ll be out there getting things going.

Spring is Coming????

OK: The sun is getting warmer, but the air sure isn’t.   It’s been hovering around minus 15 C (that’s getting close to 0 F for you Americans out there).  I’m wanting to get into the spring/gardening spirit, but until things start to melt a little, it’s really hard.

And keeping the fire going is a real chore!!  I almost can’t seem to keep up with the firewood!  Yikes.   These day’s we’re down to a trip every two days to camp just to pick up a bit to keep us going.    Hopefully I’ll be able to find someone soon who has a cord or two left to sell to me.

The seeds came from Dominion Seed House the other day.   So I’m getting ready to plant.   I need to stop by the “ReStore” (Habitat for Humanity gently used materials) and pick up a new door for the garden room.  The other one blew off and smashed to bits in a wind storm earlier this winter.  Then the garden room would heat up nicely so I can getr started with my indoor seeding.  (Of course…. I will need to wait until the temperature hovers around 0C outside to put things out there… otherwise they would freeze solid.  Hopefully this will happen soon…. it is March after all!)

Just time for a brief update today.  More later.

Keeping the Wolf from the Door

I finally found someone local who has some firewood to sell.  So this afternoon I am taking delivery of 1 1/2 cords of seasoned firedwood.  That will help to get us ahead a bit.  Then on Friday I am spending the morning splitting wood at Mom & Dad’s….. so I will come home with even more chunks of burnable Ash.

It seems a constant chore to try and keep ahead of the firewood…. especially when the outside temperature dips to -20 and the wind whips up.  We are going to have to spend all of our spare time next summer and fall getting ahead so that we don’t have to think about it constantly all winter long.  This has been a real learning curve/experience for us.  Each time we are splitting (Dad & I) I think of how much more work this would have been without a chain saw and a tractor driven splitter.   It must consume a great deal of time and energy for those who truly homestead (without electricity).  I do not envy them at all.

It is amazing to me how well a fire in the airtight insert at the far end of the living room can keep the whole house heated and warm.  We do have a fan sitting on the mantle which blows heat out into the room (and into the kitchen), and we have a ceiling fan in the living room itself which draws the heat further down into the room (rather than collecting it near the ceiling).     In spite of the mess it makes (having to constantly sweep up wood bits and chips) I am very happy with heating with wood.   And truthfully, there is something relaxing about moving/chopping/stacking wood.   It is a rest from the stress of  the brain and people work that is my “job”.

A Week Has Passed

So.. on Christmas eve I picked up that load of wood from Mom & Dad’s.  And yes…. it has lasted a week.   Tonight I brought in the rest of the stack (all but the bottom eight chunks that were frozen into the ground after last week’s thaw and yesterday’s freeze).   Tomorrow is New Years’ Eve and I will again be travelling down there (have to put a deposit for work into the CU there) and pick up another truck load.    So…. one load lasts for one week.  (OK if I add that all up, that’s alotta truck loads to come up here before next winter.   Could be my wood shelter isn’t even big enough.)

And Now It Rains!!

Unbelievable….. for some strange reason we are getting a bit of flooding in our basement!!  And it is windy, stuff that wasn’t fastened down well is blowing all over the place.  I had to go out this morning and rescue a few things.

So this morning I went out and moved all that wood out of the swamp.  I didn’t realize when I dropped it there this fall that it would be laying in 8 inches of water come spring ~ or mid-winter as the case may be.  The wood is cedar slabwood that I got from the lumber mill for $15 a load.  (A big load).  It will be used for my rough building projects…. covering the outside of the ponds… making raised garden beds…. building a lean-to for llamas… building a chicken tractor… and others.   It’s a good way to get a significant supply of cheap wood.  It’s not particularly uniform, but I’m not that fussy.   And because it’s cedar it will last for quite a while.  (I purchased 2 loads).

I still cannot believe how much snow we’ve lost in the last 24 hours!

Still a fair bit in the pile and we’re already at Sunday…. mind you it’s been +11 for the last 24 hours (don’t know how accurate of a “test” that makes it?)