Operation Chicken Fort: Freedom!!!!

Fencing was wrapped up over the weekend with a big push. Saturday, all the guys got out and wrapped the existing fence with wire fencing. We sent Josh out to get some more on Saturday afternoon as we were looking to run out. He ended up buying just enough

Our improved roadside fencing.

We got everything in place, leaving just a gate required to finish. Cliff finished up his gate the other day and yesterday we finally let them loose.

They are watching and waiting...mostly watching...

Operation Chicken Fort: Don't sweat the small stuff

Don't sweat the small stuff, we say. Well all the small stuff remaining on the chicken coop certainly left me sweaty this past weekend.

We wrapped up the metal roofing this week...almost. We still need the cap but all the panels are on and secure. It looks good.

Our new roof.

Maaaaan Cooooooldddd

Sorry for the lack of updates this week. I have been beaten down by a vicious man cold.

Short update: We finished the bare minimum for the chicken coop on Sunday. Roofing needs to go on the plywood. We have our birds inside with roosting bars, food, and water. I will have pictures and a more detailed updated later this week.

Also an update on the Happy Cow Happy Pond project... I got my fascia up but now I will be doing the gutters myself. The company that was going to do them cited a minimum charge which would almost quadruple the price for the gutters. No thanks. I picked up my downspout filters and should have more updates after the long weekend for that one.

Operation Chicken Fort: Getting closer

Another weekend. Another big push to complete the chicken coop. Cliff, Marc, and Josh made some excellent progress on both Saturday and Sunday. Hannah was out at 4-H and Charlotte was napping on Saturday afternoon so I managed to pop down to assist with the efforts.

The walls are up already.

At this point, the entire main room had walls with plywood already attached. They had even cut out a doorway. Josh and Cliff were inside building the roof trusses, so Marc and I set about building the walls for the side room, which was roughly 4' x 8'.

Operation Chicken Fort: Building Walls

I can't say that I have had much influence on this project this week as I work all week. I did stop by to check on the progress though. The flooring went down on Monday. It revealed the un-squareness of the base. It was not too bad though considering we were on such uneven ground.

I popped down again yesterday while Marc and Cliff were continuing work on it. The first framed wall section went up the other day. The second half of that wall and the two ends went up yesterday. A few more wall sections to go and we can start sheeting and looking at the roof.

I will post pictures with my next update.

Operation: Chicken Fort - Fundamental Foundations of our Fortification

We are always looking for ways to maximize the use of our farm. At the end of the day, it is the use of the farm that provides the money which allows us to live here. Some ideas are crazy. Some ideas are good. A few are excellent and need to be pursued.

We are in the business of wholesaling laying hens (layers). We have a supplier which raises them up island. We pick-up our batches four times a year and they are often sold out well before the pick-up date. Cliff and Susan own a number of layers at their place and make a decent profit selling their eggs to local restaurants. Locally grown food is the bread and butter of what we do as a farm, and Victoria is big on it's locally grown food.

So Cliff put forth the idea to have laying hens. We decided on a number which was both manageable and profitable and set to work. We needed somewhere to put them though and we needed it fast as the next batch is arriving in May.