The Coop Continues

Here it is as of yesterday evening. I managed to get the base situated in the yard (the chickens were very curious) and the rear and front walls framed in. I think they will be particularly appreciative of the glass block windows in winter, when it is too cold to venture out of their little house.

Cock-a-Doodle Don't

As mentioned in a previous post, Chimples is undoubtedly a rooster, not a hen. (Mr. Chicken is LOOKS like a rooster, but spends all "his" time hanging out with the lady hens, resting and chasing bugs, and never seems to have any interest at all in protecting them, herding them, or leading them--or in crowing in the early hours.) Along with being twice their size, Chimples has also developed the rather unpleasant habit of crowing at the crack of dawn--and throughout the day. So I went online and found that there are solutions--the No Crow Collar stood out from the rest. I ordered one and it arrived none too soon. Here are the directions, which make clear that the collar will not be appreciated by the rooster. It needs to be placed around the neck, under the feathers, loosely, until he no longer objects. After a few weeks or so, feathers don't grow in where the collar rests, and so the collar can be tightened--but not too tight as, since the rooster is growing, his neck will grow too. It's all very stressful. To makes things more bearable for Chimples, I selected the optional bow tie attachment.Doesn't he look dapper? That's Mr. McChimples to you.So far it has made a slight difference, but not enough. Simon says we need to tighten the collar a LOT. If only Chimples wasn't the most cheerful and good natured of the chickens, we'd just drop him off at a nearby farm. But he really is a pleasant chap to have follow you around while you work in the yard. And he does love to sit on one's lap and enjoy watching the sun set while enjoying a fine cup of tea.

Chicken Coop Stage 1

There is no shortage of chicken coop How To books out there, but a quick perusal makes it painfully clear that most are designed for far milder climates than we get here. So I have been harvesting ideas as well as supplies found at the ends of driveways and the ultimate bonanza of building materials, Emily's mother's barn--which is used ONLY for storing scraps and pieces she has collected from various construction projects over the past many decades. There I found: old windows, corrugated tin roofing, plywood, 2x4s in all lengths and wood types, doors--both wood with windows and screened, wire fencing along with a lot of furniture bits. It's more fun to build with bits and bobs, but more difficult, since they don't fall together easily. To begin, I am starting with the base. Here it is, upside down, with the insulation being packed into it. This brought back memories of Simon and I crawling around under our house in Arkansas, stuffing the cracks under the floor boards with insulation. I think I was pregnant with Thomas at the time, but I am not sure. I do know squeezing into the access port to get under the house was always a bit alarming. We worked like dogs and I tell myself it made a difference.Here it is, flipped upright, with the floor done. Next, I will be framing the walls. I'd like to just jump in, but this requires deciding where the windows will end up and how I will design a roof (most chicken coop designs have a flat roof--maybe that works in Nevada or New Mexico, but it would be stupid here) and other such vital decisions. Unlike ducks, who only go into their house at night and burst free in the morning, never to think twice about where they lay their feathered heads at night, chickens need a multi-purpose house: a space for nesting (which needs to be quiet, dark and snug with separate, but not isolated nesting boxes); they like roosting bars (they don't sleep on the floor like ducks, but suspended like trapeze artist and this area needs to be elevated with many levels, so that "top chicken" gets the best bar, and the lessers get lower ones; but they can't be stacked because they do their main crapping while hanging on these bars). Obviously, another thing to think about is the fact that the floor need to be water proof and easily accessed for regular cleaning.) Also, unlike with the ducks, the food and water needs to be suspended (otherwise they crap in it, sigh) so that will hang under their house which will keep it out of the weather, too.

A trot round the lake

It was the first real scorcher of the nascent Summer on Monday, so Frederick and I headed out on a walk. And for the second time ever (first ever going anti-clockwise) we walked all the way around Big Seven Lake near Fenton.

More backyard projects

This isn't directly relevant to chickens, so those sick of chicken business can breath a sigh of relief. We get torrential flooding rains here every few weeks, but most commonly in April and August. (We have had flooding rains in December and February, which is tedious, but that doesn't happen very often. There, now everyone is clear.) There is a phrase that people use here, "Michigan Basement," which is used to discuss in a rather veiled way the fact that these rains cause basements to flood. A lot. Every time I wet vac 6 inches of ice water off our basement floor I vow again to beat this problem. Last summer was supposed to be the summer of fighting floods but my appendix decided to give up the ghost instead and I lost 6 weeks of my life to morphine and Nexium. (I regret NOTHING.) So this summer truly will be the summer Jami BEATS the flooded basement. Here is Stage 1: Now when rain floods down off our roof in a force that one has to see to truly believe, it won't just wash away all my so-called "erosion prevention" plants and 2 inches of top soil, but will hit granite hewn from the very bowels of the Earth. I speckled some dirt and seeds into the rock cracks just for fun, and the straw on top is to prevent chickens (there, I did manage to bring chickens into the conversation) from eating the seeds before they sprout. So far, so good. There is another dramatic flood spot between our house and driveway, which I am going to turn to as part of Stage 2. Stage 3 involves a flood spot about 10 feet from this one, at the corner of our house (this one is tricky as there is a really nice hydrangea growing there, but the ground has sunken about 12 inches lower than all around--solving this problem is going to require some serious scheming) and Stage 4 is the entire back of our house. THAT is going to be a poser, too. More reports and events warrant. Here are the chickens--wrecking stuff as per usual. Once this section of the gate was in place I needed to build up the ground a bit (a common theme in this yard--we obviously pound down the ground a lot around here). So I tossed down some top soil and threw some grass seed on top. Knowing that this would be very tempting to chickens (and likely wash away with the next flooding rain we get, which is expected in three days) I scattered about some straw. Minutes later, I see this:

It can't be pool time already?!?!

Has Frederick had his birthday? Yes, he has. Then it's pool time. It's that simple. About two days after his birthday Frederick stood looking out of the dining room window onto the backyard and started chuckling in a way that made me worried. "What's so funny?" I asked. He said, "Jump in the pool," and pointed to the backyard. "We don't have a pool yet." He then went to find his flip flops and started for the car. I was able to stall him (it was nearly time for bed) but it was clear that I had to buy a pool and soon. So the next day I went to Target (not our favorite on Center but the lesser model on Miller Road--pfft!) and found this little (emphasis on "LITTLE") number. It's the same style as ones we had in the past, just smaller but it was all they had! I then found out that our super duper sand filter and saline sanitizer set up wouldn't work as the company has shrunk down their input and output hose sizes--probably just to make life difficult for me. So I spend a lot of yesterday fuming and today running around trying to find a way past this problem. Eventually I found exactly what I need--hose adaptors--available on the internet, of course. So, once those show up we will be in business because it won't take long for that beautiful blue water to turn into a teeming pot of primitive life.

Simon and Frederick went for a very long walk this morning and, since temperatures skyrocketed up into the mid-80s today, they came home very hot and bothered, and both jumped into the pool--only to jump right out again. It is brisk. But tomorrow is going to reach nearly 90 degrees (F), so it won't take long to warm up.

Chicken Coops, Chicken Runs--a lot of work for non-existent eggs

As Simon mentioned in a previous post, I am busy working out how to reorganize our yard to keep my flowers safe from chickens. They don't even eat the damn things, just pluck off the petals and toss them to the ground. I saw one walking about with a whole tulip leaf in its mouth obviously with no intention of eating it--it just did it to show me it could. So, here is the start:

I did not buy these fencing bits new but acquired them from our neighboring Grandma who wanted to get rid of an old fence running along her driveway. I went over Sunday expecting to carry home my fence pieces tucked under my arm. I did manage to pull down the fence panels, but after digging a foot deep around each post and still not being able to pull up the posts, I gave up. Simon went over a few hours later to give it a go and then came back a few minutes later to collect a pick axe. Some time later (a long time later) he came home carrying two 8 foot long posts, which had been sunk 4 feet into the ground. I am amazed he was able to remove them.  I decided to be good to myself and lopped 2 feet off each post and am only sinking them about a foot into the ground.  The wood is old enough that I feel we all need to be honest about how much we can reasonably expect this fence to do and for how long.  If it lasts 5 years, I will be very happy.

Here is one section that did not weather the dismantling experience.  No matter, I will put it together and secure the sides tomorrow (using my favorite tool: the nail gun!!).  The idea is that this set of lattice fencing will be a small winter retreat that keeps the chickens contained in serious weather. Their house--which I haven't even starting building yet--will be inside this space, too, backed up against the wall.  Since there is likely to be two feet of snow on the ground there is no reason for chickens to be wondering loose about the yard.

However on nice days, such as today, they will be allowed out of the lattice fenced area but required to stay inside the picket fence area (no, that does not yet exist), which will run all along the big green wall, from the lattice fencing over to the compost pile (their favorite place).  That way they get exercise, treats to eat off the compost pile and they can't get to my flowers or ruin grass (since none grows there anyway).  It's a win/win.

It's all very complicated and Simon doesn't even pretend to understand my plans.  He will just have to wait and see like everyone else.

Frederick at the cutting edge of trends

Apparently these things are the latest craze. They are called "fidget spinners" and for reasons not entirely clear to me, they are sweeping the nation. Children and teens are craing them, snapping them up by the dozens. If you try to order them through Amazon, you have to wait 6 weeks at least. The only place one can by them is local gas stations, strangely enough. Frederick's grandma got him one (and a few more were added for good measure by parents and Emily) for his birthday and he's been spinning ever since:

More poultry updates

Jami's a little annoyed that the chickens are systematically destroying all flowers in the garden like fat flightless locusts, so she's going to build them a fenced-in section to roam around in.  In this picture you can see a section of fence that she has already put up (that used to belong to Grandma and was carried over by me and a complaining Thomas).  The bad news?  The chicken on the roof of the hen house, who just *jumped* there.  As you can see, she is at the height of the fence.  However, that one is Zippy, the most active and agile of the chickens, and none of the others is capable of such feats, and they're all scheduled to get heavier and more gravity-bound, so we'll see.

Cock up

 So after wondering about it for weeks, trying to convince ourselves that hens have head and chin gear like this too, we are forced to concede that Chimples is a he.  The kicker was that he has started to crow in the morning.  The first time it happened I thought it was one of the cats because it is still a bit weedy and more like a bleat than a crow, but he does it every morning now, and we've actually seen him do it.  Jami is stubbornly insisting that our neighbors won't object.  That remains to be seen.

 However, he is certainly an endearing character.  He follows us around and likes to be picked up.

 He's a lap chicken.

Collecting Thomas

I woke up to loud tweeting and bucolic Indiana countryside.  Thence it was on the road.  All the usual NPR channels seemed to be religious channels instead, but I found a Blues channel and drove on remarkably empty roads (love Saturday morning) into Chicago:

Amazingly, the cheapest parking lot right next to Thomas's building (that's it in the background) was pretty much empty, despite everyone having to move out by Monday.

Here's my car in its first parking spot, near an exit...

...but I moved it right next to the building (across a little side road) so that I could trundle a big cardboard box on wheels full of Thomas's stuff up to the car easily.  I may or may not have dinged another car while moving it, I'm not saying.

Here are all the boxes.  Clearly we either beat the rush or were after it (Thomas's roommate had already moved out, leaving Thomas with a tray of little pastries baked by the roommate's mother, presumably for putting up with her deadbeat son (Thomas could tell her tales that would curl her hair)).

Then, after two box fulls were wedged into the Prius, Thomas insisted on taking the wheel and we were off.  I took this picture because of the helicopter.  See if you can spot it.

Thomas wants to own stock in this stock exchange.  Or so he claims.

On the way to pick up Thomas

As before, I'm stopping off in Michigan City, Indiana (last stop before Gary, Indiana - too scary even for a Flint resident). Unlike before I looked up the cheapest motel and it was this place, which actually turned out to be a couple of miles into the countryside:

It says "no vacancy"... but I have my doubts:

Here's the view from the car parked in the spot as above:

The room comes complete with standard motel artwork:

...and of course a TV and fridge:

Having checked in, I headed back into town, passing this on the way:

I was told to go to Panera Bread, but I spied a sign for this, and decided to treat myself:

Good call!