Archive for the ‘Chronicle’ Category
Taking Shape
We are getting close. This weekend we got wallboard nailed on the frame of the chicken coop. That closed it up except for the people-door (because we ran out of pieces long enough to use for that opening).
Elysa and Ande stopped by, surprising us with a visit yesterday. They provided some key assistance toward getting all the gaps filled. It was a bit of a Tetris game to match the boards and the spaces over the studs.
Just having additional hands to hold something in place or hand me another nail helped immensely to keep things humming along. My process involves a lot of pauses to plot several steps ahead and then measure, mark, and cut the pieces.
I had a limited number of large boards that I was trying to match with the best possible spaces. When we didn’t have a long enough piece available, the alternative was to use multiples of the shorter boards. There were a lot more of them from which we could choose.
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In one of our design-on-the-fly decisions, Cyndie and I decided to have two horizontal hinged openings on the wall of the nest boxes. The lower one will open downward and create a little shelf to place cartons while collecting eggs. I decided to use the space above the nests, where there will be a slanted board to keep the chickens from perching, as a small, angled storage area.
The upper opening will be hinged at the top and swing upwards to provide full access to the cubby space.
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When we excitedly got one of the boards mounted on the backside, I realized I’d forgotten about cutting the slot opening for the access door to the poop-board. Now I’ll be doing that after the fact.
That’s the kind of thing that happens when you are making things up as you go along.
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Octember Feeling
Our weather this weekend is feeling more like September than October, with temperatures warming near 70° (F) for the highs. The morning-scape today was beautiful, as the sun just started igniting the colors in the distance.
Delilah and I trekked the full circumference of our property before stopping to serve up morning feed for the horses. The air was alive with the traffic of bird sounds and the occasional distant dog.
Our sweet puppy was in a more subdued mood and refrained from answering any of the calls, which I greatly appreciated.
It was a precious autumn morning of the kind that soothes whatever ails you.
The kind you wish would never end…
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I am pretty sure chances for more of these kinds of mornings are waning, regardless the ongoing warming-ization of our planet. As early as tonight, the forecast includes the words “showers” and “thunderstorms,” and then by the end of the week, the predicted high temperatures drop significantly.
Of course, the impending transition to cold weather is what makes mornings like today’s so incredibly precious.
And it is why we soak them up with such thorough all-encompassing exuberance.
We know Octember is not going to linger much longer.
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Internal Detailing
When choosing to make it up as you go along, assembly projects can gobble up a lot of time. I had visions of putting up the walls on the new chicken coop yesterday, but never quite got that far. We did make good progress on visualizing the steps we would take to get the internal details finished, despite not actually making the final cuts and screwing the last few things into place.
We started the day by completing the all-important “poop board” assembly that is located underneath the roost branches. We have designed it for a plan of daily sliding the board out for a quick cleaning, scraping off the droppings so they can be composted for fertilizer.
While I was sawing and nailing the bits and pieces associated with that feature, Cyndie worked on making an entrance ramp for the chickens, using branches for the outer frame and then weaving grape vines around them.
Slowly but surely, I devised a plan for how we will secure the edges of hardware cloth with trim boards that I have scrounged from a store of lumber in the garage that has probably been around since the day the house was built.
That means it has been here through two owners before us.
We cut pieces of hardware cloth to cover the window openings on three walls and got those stapled in place. Then I did some work on enclosing the ceiling below the roof structure.
Cyndie cut openings in the plastic bins we are using for the nest boxes and I measured and marked the dividers for those.
It was about that point in the day where things stalled a bit, because I had forgotten twice earlier to take my spare battery to the shop to get it charging.
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Note to self: When working on the last internal details, don’t neglect the other important details of taking care of the equipment that allows you to finish the task at hand.
Eventually, the second battery ran out of power and I was forced to take them both up to be charged. That left me unable to cut anything on which I had marked dimensions.
With luck, that will allow me to make some good progress this morning, quickly cutting the prepared pieces to finish the nesting boxes and securing the last of the hardware cloth beneath the roof.
Then it’ll be time to close the walls, baby.
Oh oh. That means I’ll next need to figure out how I’m going to do the doors. One more thing I’ve never done before in my life.
I’m pretty sure we’re gonna need some hinges…
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Night Off
I got home from work yesterday and all I wanted to do was not work on the chicken coop. So that’s what I did, with Cyndie’s blessing. When I walked in the door, I found a fire burning in the fireplace and it was enough to squelch any lingering motivation to rush out into the chilly grayness of the fading day to pick up where I’d left off on the design-on-the-fly construction project.
I delved into some acoustic guitar music in my iTunes library and created a playlist to serve as soundtrack for luxuriating on the couch in front of the warm glow of burning logs with friends, while Cyndie made magic in the kitchen. It was divine.
Life is good.
If you don’t stop and take that in every once in a while, you might miss it.
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Horses Down
One really great thing about the proximity of our chicken coop to the pastures is that we are able to observe the herd while we work. The middle of the day has been a time when it is not surprising to look out and find them settled in for a group nap.
That is always such a captivating sight, having them all lay down for a rest at the same time.
I would assume that they feel much more comfortable conking out to that level of unconscious when they have enough light to safely survey the surroundings.
The funny thing for me is, the way they look here mirrors the way I tend to feel around those same hours while at the day-job lately. Trying to simultaneously design and build a chicken coop has me burning my candle at both ends. A long night’s sleep has been one of the things I’ve sacrificed.
Oh how I’d love to join the horses for a mid-morning power nap.
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Fighting Wind
Of all the days to try to put on the roof panels, the strong gusting winds we experienced yesterday made it much more challenging than desired. I didn’t help myself any by having previously installed the middle row of plastic panel supports just a little out of line.
Regardless, I am claiming victory and celebrating the completion of the roof. Hurrah!
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George stopped by to inspect our progress and Cyndie snapped a photo while I gave him a tour of the place.
With rain predicted, we decided to try wrapping a tarp around 3 of the walls for the night. Even though I am getting weary of the daily intensity of this project, we’ve reached a point where I pretty much need to forge ahead and get the coop buttoned up and weather-tight.
The bungie-tied partial tarp is not going to cut it for long.
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Decisions Aplenty
By the end of the weekend last night I was mentally exhausted. The chicken coop project was an exercise in repeating waves of cascading decisions. It was giving me a headache. Or maybe that was coming from the muscle fatigue in my neck and shoulders from all the power tool use overhead and at odd angles.
Over and over again I found myself trying to determine precise dimensions, proper positions, ultimate functionality, potential environmental stresses, and likely physical pressures the structure will face.
How high should this be? What support should this have? Will this withstand stormy weather? How will I attach the next board? How will we enclose all the odd openings of our panel roof design?
If all that weren’t complicated enough, by the end of the day yesterday, when I couldn’t get the roof framework equally centered on all the walls, it occurred to me why all my calculations had me constantly confused. Building with scraps of salvaged lumber means working with a lot of warped, bowed, and twisted boards.
It was a great exercise for tempering perfectionistic tendencies.
“Close enough” became a common refrain that grew increasingly easy to accept.
There were so many little steps involved in finalizing the framing of openings in each wall and securely fastening the 4 walls to each other that I ran out of time for the ultimate reward of screwing the panels onto the roof. We got close, but finished just short of that milestone.
Guess what I can’t wait to work on when I get home from work today.
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Coop Framing
We worked on framing the walls of our chicken coop yesterday under October conditions that changed from cold to warm and alternated between sunny and gray. Twice we received sprinkles of very light rain, yet at a time when there weren’t any clouds in sight that looked like they could possibly be the source.
The weather didn’t slow us down from the task at hand, though, as we designed on the fly to figure out a way to use on-hand 2x4s from a variety of salvaged day-job pallets to frame up the four walls.
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With the addition of a couple long boards I found stored in the rafters over the shop, we were able to come up with everything we needed.
We are hoping to get away with using some plexiglass that has been lying around since we moved here, for windows to provide plenty of light. That will be augmented by translucent polycarbonate panels we purchased for the slanted roof.
The roof is today’s project. Then we need to figure out the ventilation openings that will be covered with hardware cloth to keep out unwanted critters. Siding will follow that. Somewhere in there will be the creation of 4 different hinged openings for access: to collect eggs, to pull out a poop board from under the roost for cleaning, and for chickens and humans to get in and out.
No problem. It only took me a few years to get this far. I’m sure I can have it ready for occupation by…
Never mind that. I’m living in this moment.
The future doesn’t need me trying to tell it what will be.
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Paving Paradise
We are experimenting with a new way to improve a particularly wet and muddy portion of one trail through our woods. Originally, I was hoping we could simply cover it with wood chips. It worked for a while, but we haven’t been chipping branches frequently enough to produce the supply needed to cover all of our trails.
The piles of wood blocks that I have been pulling off pallets salvaged from the day-job are suddenly proving valuable. Instantly, we have gone from having too many of these lying around, to not having enough to cover the muddy lengths of trail that need the most help.
It is interesting to consider the path (no pun intended) these pieces of former trees have traveled. Somewhere, trees are cut down and milled into boards. Then the wood gets cut into these shapes and nailed to pallets. The company that manufactures the products we receive at the day-job mount their units onto the pallets for shipment and charge the end customer for the wood.
We have asked if they wanted the pallets returned for reuse, but like so many other things in today’s world, since already paid for, they apparently weren’t worth the trouble. We end up with perfectly good, single-use pallets out of brand-new wood, albeit with four odd blocks nailed to the tops.
I’ve been pulling the nails to remove the blocks and using the pallets as a floor in my wood shed and beneath stored hay in the hay shed. I also claimed boards off some pallets to build hay feeding boxes for the 4 stalls in the barn. All the while, the odd blocks that were removed have been piling up.
When Cyndie started looking into a boardwalk as a way to get up out of the mud on our trails, we landed on the idea of using the blocks. She wanted to add some words of inspiration and enlisted Anneliese to join her in creating the enhancements.
Yesterday we laid down the first test run. So far, so good. Only a couple more miles to go. I hope there will soon be a lot of new orders for that equipment at the day-job.
It is poetic justice that we’ve found a way to ultimately bring this pallet wood full-circle, placing it on a forest floor once again.
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Different Look
Even though it happens every year, I still find it amazing to witness the change that evolves in a forest at this time of year. I look at it every day, but it seems to happen mysteriously. Space just opens up and all of a sudden you realize it is possible to see through to the other side of a grove of trees.
A couple of months ago, it looked like this:
Yesterday afternoon, it looked like this:
The forecast for temperatures tonight and tomorrow morning includes the possibility of frost. That means it is time to drain and coil our garden hoses, and blow out the buried line that runs down to the labyrinth spigot. I even heard use of the word “snow” in predictions for areas of northern Minnesota.
Regardless the overall general warming of temperatures around the globe, we still get cold enough here in the winter to have snow.
I love that our weather changes dramatically with each season, but it would be nice if just once, the seasons weren’t in such a hurry to come and go.
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