Door’n Again

Well, we had a door which I took from my mothers place after Loki chewed a hole in it last month..and we had a pecking issue with the chickens getting at the board insulation between the siding and the ground.

So we made some modifications to the doors ( in the form of cutting them ) and augmented our dwelling ( in the shape of attaching the cut door panels over top of the insulation )…Wondertwins ACTIVATE!

..sorry for the ‘Super Friends’ references..but even Gleek would approve of this job..hehe..groan, I am a geek.

It is no Mona Lisa but it does prevent the chickens ( when they are out on occasion ) from pecking at thier favorite spot..which happened to be the highly visable front of out house…should last us until next year…too bad Loki did not chew through all the doors in my Moms house..that way we would have had enough destroyed doors to do all of the insulation coverup for our whole house! hehe..

 

Rise of the Mutant Chicks

Muhahahaha..rise my mutants!

Looks like we got one of each of our various breeds of hens..all mixed with a dash of Rhode Island Red..due to ‘Red’ the rooster being the papa.

Amazing how chicks are hard wired..they are out of the shell and within hours are pecking and walking about and chirping. We started with 9 eggs, 2 were left unhatched, 1 disappeared and 2 chicks died as they were emerging..accidentally crushed by Ma I think. But a 50% survival rate is much better than last years results where we only got 1 chick in 9 eggs.

…and after last years ‘chicken rejection’ where we ended up keeping 9 chicks indoors in our emergency patched ‘brooder’ it is REALLY nice to have Ma the hen taking care of all 4..talk about easy! hehe..A* and I are on the fence as to whether or not we should do away with ‘Red’ the rooster since we have decided this will be the only batch for the year..with 4 more (potential) fully grown chickens we have more than we need..or want..so we also might end up selling a ‘chicken starter kit’ with 2-3 hens and a rooster. We will see.

 

Shipping Container Church and a Garden Update

Someone nearby is working on something that I want to do..a shipping container building. It is being built at a cemetary that is being refurbished and it looks like it is going to be a storage area which looks like a mini-church. A simple roof for storage and to keep rain off the roof and outside walls..

Looks like a pretty simple scheme to attach the wood pieces..holes must have been driven then bolts hold on the structure…with a brace to stand on to do the roofing..I am assuming this structure will be taken off the sides when it is done.

Pretty sweet looking setup..I will revisit it in a week or 2..Personally I would have put a window in but that might have required a plasma torch and more complexity/security.

..and a general garden update. Kale ( not basil), lettuce, tomato, onions, peas and beans all doing well..the weather has been hot followed by a day of rain so everything went green over the course of a week..the place looks totally different than it did just a week ago..and much prettier with all the dull browns covered by lush green!..and also note that many of our veggie tags now have the writing worn off. Next year we need a different solution.

 

Hotdog

With warm weather comes a panting dog. A* decided it was time for Jango to get a fur trimming. Jango is pretty good to shave except for his fur pants..can’t say I blame him.

Looks like we shaved 4 shunks all over our front lawn.

 

Our Place Just Became more Dutch

Our old double wind turbine had some wind issues last year. As a result of high winds ( or being cheap ) one of the 2 little windmills was lost. Cleaning up the shed I uncovered it and remounted it..and actually was playing around with it.

…yes, I need alligator clips.

Depending upon the speed the power responds as it should..by wildly varying. In the past I simply put it up to get it out of the way but I may hook it up to a charge controller and the ‘security system’ for power..we do get wind here but being 10 feet off the ground is not helping catch much wind..not to metion it is a very small wind turbine

 

Long Term Security

We were having some issues with batteries with the scoutguard trail camera ever since I dropped it and snapped off the battery lid..so onto ebay I went and for $6 I got a 6v cord attachment. With our 6v golf cart batteries which run our place we lost 1 battery..totally fried..

Which means we needed to take 2 batteries out of the bank to keep everything wired @ 12v..so we have this battery to run a trail camera now. Using some spare wiring I hooked it all up.

We still need to hook it up to a charger but it is all working fine now. The trail camera uses 8 AAA batteries a month so the cord should pay for itself pretty quickly..now I just need a place to covertly place all the gear and hopefully i never have to think ‘I wonder if the trail camera batteries are still good?’

 

Annual Perennial Purchases and a Road Save

Well, it’s spring so it appears to be time to crowd the flowerbeds with more..and switcheroo some others..

Along the side of the wild back roads ‘wild pear’ trees are in bloom..nice to see flowers when all the other trees don’t even have leaves. Today on a drive home we harvested one to go along with our purchases..we also got a bounty of lupines.

Loki poses with the bounty..looks nice but it cost the same of a 12 pack of beer..the sacrifices we make for the sake of the flowerbeds are astounding. A* is wearing a mosquito net suit. Fashionable and functional (although there were no flies tonight due to a cold(ish) snap).

 

3D House of Potholes

Off with winter and onto summer..at least for tires. We might need bigger tires for the car though..ever since a pothole opened up on our driveway..

…it happened at the spot above the culvert where 2 smaller pieces make the pipe..well, part of one of the pipes gave way and we are left with a 2×2 hole which drops 3 feet. Yikes..we don’t want to hit it or we might never get out!

..I may take a stab at temporarily fixing it up this weekend..I know it is something I will have to do, and soon. Going to try digging down around the area and reinforcing the culvert with some ‘things’..might be a combo of steel and metal..not sure yet..For now we straddle the pothole when driving in and out.

Sure…a proper culvert would fix this right up…if anyone has one they want to donate feel free to send it over. ;)

 

Ma Round 2 and the Annual Running of the Tadpoles

Out hiking the other day and we saw some frogs eggs in a puddle on the old driveway. Went back for some of the egg bunches and put them on the deck and they sat for a week..walking by today and saw something moving…off to the stillwater.

And Ma decided to be broody again with the weather warming up. Lets see if she makes it more than a week this round. More strange chicken creations..? Lets not count those chickens until they have hatched..groan.

..and Ma is the broody hen, for the record.

 

Prepping for Winter

We are getting ready for winter by chunking up some trees from a recent area cutdown..

..and also a blackfly invasion..it is hard to see in the shot but jango is surrounded by blackflies. I cannot abide the 3 weeks which is blackfly season so A* and I wear nets..hotter to wear but I would rather sweat than be constantly swatting.

..and now 1/2 chunked and stacked..we set up another stack area in the ‘money in the bank’ area of the homestead.

..with the heat and the flies I sort of wished I had finished off this job last month. Ah well..great to be outside sweating..beats freezing!