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[Don Bowen <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

At 12/3/2006, you wrote:
> He and I and other semi-old
> geezers are more inclined to work within, say, eight feet of the
> ground. There are other limitations that need not be exposed.

I think in terms of hydraulic assist in the form of three point connections 
and front end loaders.



Don Bowen              Awl Knotted Up                       KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com
My travel journal
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html

I am omnivagant.  
> From don.bowen AT earthlink.net  Mon Dec  4 00:48:48 2006
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Subject: Re: [Homestead] Solo building methods
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At 12/3/2006, you wrote:
> I sheetrocked one house. It was my first and last.

There are a few jobs I know how to do and have done but will if at all 
possible hire someone else to do it.



Don Bowen              Awl Knotted Up                       KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com
My travel journal
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html

I am omnivagant.  
> From erthnsky AT bellsouth.net  Mon Dec  4 05:11:25 2006
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Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2006 00:51:12 -0500
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Subject: [Homestead] The chicken coop and today's ramble
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I am going to say that the new chicken coop is done, even though it
still needs another coat of paint.  I sent pictures to some of you that
were in my address book, but since I got the new computer, I haven't
gotten the address book up to snuff, so if you want to see the pics, let
me know and I can email them.
The aforementioned coop cost all of $87 to build.  The plywood, the
storm door, and all the wood for the frame was scavenged or acquired
from freecycle.  The roofing shingles and paint was leftover from other
projects.  We bought plexiglass for the window because we did not have a
large enough piece-that was $21, and we bought concrete for the
foundation, $66, IIRC.
We built it where the nestboxes can be accessed from the outside, but
there is a full sized door on the northside, full-view storm door, to
allow more light inside and to allow me to check on the birds.  I can
easily wash the floor-I did it today in fact.  I close out little
"chicken door" to keep the birds out, then I pushed out the leaf
litter/manure onto a tarp which later went into my raised beds.  We
built the coop with a flip up door on the bottom of the south side so
that I could push out the litter with the rake, then take the hose to
the floor and walls.  We sloped the floor towards the flip door so that
everything drains to the south.  Right now, I am using leaves for
'bedding'/litter because they are plentiful and cheap-like free, but
I'll use old hay or straw or whatever I can get my hands on when leaf
season is over.  The birds have been living in there almost two weeks
now, and so far, they seem happy.  Egg production is up now that they
have a decent shelter.

Today, after cleaning the coop, I decided to postpone picking up wood
(splitting wood is on the agenda for next week) and instead started
digging the old composted litter out of the old coop.  I used the deep
litter method in that coop, and the cake on the dirt floor is about a
foot deep in a 9x9 area.  I took a few large wheelbarrow loads (I have
one of those supersized wheelbarrows) to the asparagus bed and a few to
the raised beds, but I hardly made a dent in shoveling out the coop,
perhaps clearing only 10-15% of what's there.  I have a lot of beds to
fill, and will have even more by winter's end, so this is a good thing.
  When the old coop is cleaned, then I'll start on the bins under the
rabbit cages. That might be a month or so down the road.
Ron and I electrified the garden fence this morning, and Ron fixed the
wood splitter this afternoon.  Our splitter always gets water in the
fuel, even when covered with a tarp under the shed.  It's a pain to
clean it out several times a year, but it must be done.
Right now, I am a bit overwhelmed with all there is to do.  Winter is
supposed to be a slack time, but not if you live where the climate is
mild.  There's always one more tree to fell, one more garden bed to
build, and of course, rabbits breed quite well in the winter.  I have a
doe to dispatch in the next day or two as she had a slightly premature
litter born today and they all died.  She had pulled no hair or made any
preparations...They froze in the bare nestbox.  (She ate/tore up the hay
bedding instead of building a nest)  This is her third strike, after
having a false pregnancy(1), and being a very messy and wasteful
eater(2).  She's also very jumpy, not calm at all.
I continue to try to make time to sit out in the back pasture and hunt.
 I really really want to get a deer this year.  I've committed to
helping my mother and stepfather move, too, so I am losing two days this
week to do anything productive on the farm.  I have too many irons in
the fire.

This afternoon, as I was shoveling out the old coop, I heard a commotion
over in the garden among the chickens.  I looked up to see what at first
 thought was a couple of chickens fighting(a 'barred rock' and a buff),
but then I quickly realized that a hen was under attack from a 'hawk'.
The bird missed and the hens all ran into the coop, luckily, but those
2-3 seconds of watching that bird really amazed me.  I later determined
from my bird book that the predator was EITHER a peregrin falcon, an
American Kestrel, a Merlin, or a Coopers Hawk.  It all happened so
fast....Two hours ago I was convinced it was a falcon, but after doing
some reading, I am now leaning towards a Merlin.  This was NOT a large
bird, not much, if any larger than the hen it was attacking.
Ron is now convinced that our predator is the falcon I saw today, but
I'm not so sure.  Early on, I found birds half through the fence..that
indicates a raccoon.  The electric wire we turned on today should take
care of it if it's a coon, and the interior moat fence should thwart
future avian predation when we get that up.  The posts are in and the
fencing is ready to go, but I suppose it will be next weekend before we
get that done as I am not able to run fencing by myself.  We'll net over
the top or string wire zigzag across the top of the moat.  I'm not sure
how much netting we have left.
I had the opportunity to talk to one of my hunting neighbors today.  She
hunts on her property, which is adjacent to mine.  We talked mostly
about predators.  They lost some banty chicks to a coon (probably) a few
weeks back...it pulled them right through the cage.  She's killed 3
coyotes this year while deer hunting, and has seen a very large male
coyote with his female on 3 separate occasions.  She says he is reddish
and graying, and looks more like a wolf than a coyote, much larger than
a German Shepherd.  She's lived here over 50 years, and said she's never
seen as many coyotes as she has this year.  The scary thing, though, is
that 3 weeks ago, she saw two sets of bear tracks, one very large and
one small, like a mother and a cub.  She told me that two other people
on the loop have also seen a bear within the last 2 weeks.  I've known
that bears sometimes wander through-I don't think they are permanent
here, but a mother and a cub on the move can't be a good thing.  To me,
that says she is hungry, and if she is hungry, she is willing to take a
chance and act more boldly that she might otherwise.  Nancy also told me
about a very bold 3 legged coyote bitch that came within 20 feet of her
last week at 3 pm in the afternoon as she was washing her windows on the
house.  That same day, she said, that large alpha male coyote killed a
fawn in my back pasture.  IMO, the reason for the predator explosion is
simply there is more food.  Fewer people hunt these days, so there is a
lot of deer in the woods.  The recent warm winters have caused more bugs
and mice/rodents to survive as well.  The forest service planted some
green fields with native plants to attract wildlife, and it has worked
to entice bears.  Now that I think about it, the last year we had any
sign of a bear in these parts was several years ago when we had a really
bad winter...I hope this bear thing is not an omen of a cold winter to
come, but all signs seem to point that way.  At any rate, it's a good
thing I've been practicing with the rifle, I might need it.
Today seemed to be a day where people just drop by to visit.  Two
neighbors came over, just to talk.  Both were here during the attack on
the chickens, and one guy offered his .410 full choke shotgun on loan.
I've been thinking about getting one, so I will probably take him up on
his offer.  I don't think I can handle anything more powerful than a 20
gage-my shoulder just won't take it, so I'm open for suggestions,
comments, and opinions on getting a 410.  I'm thinking it would be good
for killing snakes, raptors, and turkeys, both the two legged kind and
the trespassing kind. ;)

Tomorrow, the shovel and the splitter await me, so I'm heading off for
some shuteye...for 3 weeks now, my sciatic nerve has been twitching, and
with woodsplitting, moving, and shoveling chicken crap, it doesn't look
like I'll find any relief for a while.

Bev

--
BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm   NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W    Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky