As Summer Fades

Where has this month, and Dear Summer gone? We have been busy, but somehow it seems there is a new priority every day… and we keep spinning around in circles. Does anyone else feel like that? Here’s some randomness that’s been happening in our neck of the woods.
We said goodbye to an old wagon heirloom last week (Peter Shetler).

I’ve been working on a new pen as time allows. It will be  “Fort Knox” for geese (Greta and her future new gander friend), plus a hangout for roosters occasionally. This will consist of 3x6 foot panels with hardware cloth (14 of them). I chose the panel method so I can change my mind in the future and possibly move the pen or expand. You just never know :) There will be something over the top to deter raccoons and other predators. I never ever want a repeat of what happened to Grady Gander :(

Yesterday was planing day for the walnut lumber we milled last Spring. It was dry and ready to go. Hmmm, we will have to choose special projects for this dear old tree from our backyard that turned out to be our first sawmill project!

Our Hive #2 of Bees (we thought they were Carniolans) had a problem. They were without a Queen. While we were debating what to do, it seems the bees took matters into their own hands. Hive #1 (the Italians) started taking over Hive #2. Also, a frame of brood was moved over to Hive #2 from Hive #1. The objective is of course to somehow end up with a Queen in Hive #2.  We will check in a few days to see if there is any sign of a new Queen. So exciting! In the meantime, Hive #2 is guzzling *two gallons of sugar water per day*. Amazing.



Finally, I’ll close with a mosaic of our Sunday evening drive from yesterday. Just a few random views from our neighborhood. We shared the camera, depending on who had the best view at the time!

Also, Mr. W has had a  recurrence of his back woes. We are not 100% sure, but think there may be yet another back surgery in his future. We would appreciate any good thoughts and prayers on his behalf.
Hope all is well in  your neck of the woods!

Okay… so THIS is Chick Week!

I was disappointed to learn last week that my chicks were not shipped from the Hatchery on the day scheduled. That’s okay though, because sometimes you can’t count your chicks before they hatch. Right? It still didn’t keep me from pouting, just a little bit.

This morning at 7:10 our postmaster called and gave me the following information:

“This is the postmaster and we have some critters here for you. They are telling us that they are hungry and thirsty, and want their mama.” I just love our small town post office!

Needless to say I zoomed into town as fast as I could to pick up the 16 peeping balls of Ameraucana fluff.  Stay tuned for Peep Pics near the end of this post.

I must first show the (almost) finished coop. Still to complete: latches for the two big back doors. We won’t be using those for awhile so they are screwed shut for now. Also, vintage iron wheels from an old hay loader will be attached by the Blacksmith to make the coop portable. More on that on a later date.

So now I present the (mostly) finished Coop de FlatCreek, sitting on the Barn/Cottage front porch while the babies are still tiny.

View of the back, while still in the garage.

Interior Views. Also, I temporarily attached some leftover bead board pieces to keep the chicks from falling out the big door when opened, as well as to keep them out of the nest box areas.

Roost area is storage area for now…

Now,

who wants to see some

really

cute

chicks??

Checking our look in the mirror…

The one and only Li’l Rooster, marked in blue to differentiate from the pullets.

Naptime…

 

That’s all for now, but yes, I will be back with more chick pics. How did you guess? I vow to allow the little sweeties to rest for awhile. Then, look out… there will be a major cute chick photo shoot coming your way soon :)

Coop Update – Rush, Rush.. It’s Chick Week!

I had one good productive afternoon last week in which I built two doors. With mitered trim, thank ya very much :) I painted the interior a lemony yellow yesterday. And today.. I had help! Which I gladly accepted since this is Chick Week after all, and the babies are scheduled to be shipped to me one day this week. I was getting so close, but still a lot of details to do.  So I swallowed my Farmgirl Pride and said… yes, it’s okay to have a helper today :) And a most excellent helper he was.

Here is a view of the interior.

Mr. W was kind enough to build a sliding window cover bracket for me. This is the “gridded” window. I still have hardware cloth to attach inside. I had visualized the cover for this window as being a slider, and voila, the hubs came through for me again. It is perfect… just as I had imagined.

Here is a view from the front – you can see the window with sliding cover here as well. Also the tin edge trim he installed today. It is actually silver/galvanized but looks green in this picture for some reason…

For those interested in how the sliding bracket was made, here’s a close-up of first the top bracket and then the bottom. Laminated wood and nuts & washers were used to shim the back.

I painted the hinges, latches, handles, etc. today also.

Also, the remaining doors were built. Here is a view of the back. These doors are not attached yet  (awaiting exterior paint). The top door is the roost access door. The bottom door is the egg access door. Of course, for our brooder purposes the egg door won’t be utilized. However sometime in the future it most likely will be used as a portable coop, and the nest boxes & access door should come in handy.

Next up will be to paint the exterior with red oil-based (Valspar Porch & Floor) paint; apply the tin roof; trim corners; attach the doors and installing all necessary hardware, and a couple other miscellaneous items.

Now, how do I get oil-based paint to dry fast in this 100% humidity, daily rain, and chill we’re experiencing now? That is the question.

This little coop is just about finished. Stay tuned for more Coop Building Adventures, and also the long-awaited arrival of….

the return of Chickens to Flat Creek Farm!

Coop Update ~ Slowly but Surely…

This beginning carpenter is getting her coop built :) I really think the framing part has been the most fun so far. The rest of it has moved much slower. It didn’t seem like I accomplished much during my building sessions this week, but now I realize: two hours here – two hours there.. I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Chipboard was installed on the roof (this stuff will *not* show in the end. I’m putting nice shiny tin on my roof).  This is the view from the back - nest box & roost area (where I’ll be installing a door).

Most of the bead board siding is installed. I had planned to perfectly match everything (i.e., the “beads” on the bead board), but let’s just say… measuring, and cutting accordingly has not been my strong suit so far. But then again, I’m a beginner! Trim will hide most of my errors (I hope).  I am getting better and less nervous with the jig and circular saws.

This view shows the opening for the little chicken door, and the side window.

And here’s a quick view of a step that proved to be very tedious – I installed hardware cloth in the ventilation around the rafters. At that point I wished for verrrry tiny hands.

A few of the next steps –
*one more piece of siding installed because of another slight modification I made :)
*paint the interior – I have a quart of nice lemony yellow eggshell that was FREE from Glidden a few months ago.
*install hardware cloth on the inside of the window.
*cut out doors & brace them, as well as cut the window cover.
*trim window, doors, corners, roof lines.
*install doors, window, hinges, latches, etc.
*drill hole in back for heat lamp cord.
*caulk, caulk, caulk.
*paint exterior.
*install galvanized tin roof.

More updates soon – chicks arrive week after next! Thanks so much for the encouragement, Blogger Friends. I hope I can inspire others to build something they’ve been dreaming about. If you want to see more inspiration, check out my friend Linda at Prairie Flower Farm and what she’s been up to this week!

I’ll leave you with a few photos from this week. We’ve had lettuce from the “greens bed” for a couple of weeks now.

Check out one of our yard birds. So pretty, and so watchful over the nest….

Giant Allium was fully bloomed earlier this week.

Spiderwort from Patti. Such dainty little flowers!

Lastly…. and sadly, our Miss Monkey kitty disappeared a week ago today (in the middle of the day, no less). No clues… nothing. The neighborhood has been alerted and we’ve covered a lot of ground over the past week looking and calling for her. Hoping she’s okay and will come back soon. I miss those blue eyes…

Last but not least, Happy Mothers’ Day. Blessings and hugs for all the moms out there!

Coop de Flat Creek – Week 2 Progress

If only all the other tasks would go away for a little while, I could get soooo much more done on this project. I’ve invested two more partial afternoons this week so far. It’s such a little drop in the big bucket of time, but all I can usually muster in a week.

Things that were accomplished: my modifications to the plans – framed a “grid” in the window to help support the hardware cloth, framed in the little chicken door (original plan didn’t require this). I also installed a vinyl flooring scrap on the main floor, as well as the roost shelf. And my biggest “ta-dah” …. rafters. Although it was also my biggest blunder so far. I completely assembled one rafter “bass-ackwards” as they say. I fixed the problem and all seems okay. This coop is definitely not perfect, but it’ll do I think! And did I mention how much fun this is?? Really, it is!

My favorite tools so far: miter saw, air nailer, cordless screwdriver/drill. My least favorite thing so far: Liquid Nails – ugh! I somehow manage to glue my fingers together each and every time. I also don’t care much for the circular saw or the jig saw, but they beat the heck out of using a hand saw :) All in all though – fun, interesting, addictive (what to build *next*?!).

Next step will be installing the hardware cloth on the interior of the window, and figuring out a way to install the hardware cloth in the ventilation area by the rafters. Hmmmm, more modifications may be in order?? I think I need another board situated in there somewheres….

Well, friends… all I have for now –
hope you’re having a great week!

You’ll never guess what…

…but hang with me to the end and I’ll tell you. In the meantime, here are 1,001 random things that are going on around here. It has been a very busy week!

First, I spent an hour on a post this morning and Windows Live Writer went nuts and lost it. I really have a love/hate relationship with that program. And with computers in general.

Mr. W has been in and out of Osage Bluff Blacksmith & Quilter’s neck of the woods lately. Patti and I have been exchanging plants. This week I see I have received from her: Spiderwort, Bluebells, a cute little Osage Bluff fern, and some Live Forever. Awesome… can’t wait to plant them! Also, the Osage Bluff Blacksmith sent me this really cool, wicked-looking hoe. Won’t that be heck on weeds? I think so! Thanks, you two!

I took a quick walk around the very wet yard this morning and got a few pictures.

Purple Martin – please, oh please stay this time! I’ve been trying to lure you for three long years. I’ve resorted to everything during those years, including playing very loudly a CD of purple martin songs into a speaker directed into the front yard. Every morning. Hubby still hasn’t forgiven me for that one.

Giant Allium… ready to bloom.

Irises, between showers.

Here is one of my projects, awaiting my attention. 150+ heirloom tomato plants bursting at the seams in the jiffy pot container.

Our first hummingbirds of the season arrived at the feeders this morning.  Thank goodness I had them ready! Moments after that, I heard the first oriole. Now I need to get that grape jelly out. No rest, I tell ya! :)

Ok, for my big news. I am building a small chicken coop. Yes, I am amazed too, especially that I still have all 10 blogging fingers so far :) I have absolutely no building experience, except as a lowly assistant on projects in the past. Who knew this would be so much fun? This building stuff could be addictive. I really hope to inspire someone else to try something they never thought they could do all by themselves. Best confidence-builder ever!

So far, I’ve devoted two afternoons. The first afternoon was spent cutting my pieces and parts, labeling them accordingly, and stacking in little organized piles.  Well, that and hanging several loads of laundry on the line, and many other unrelated things. The second afternoon I completed the base (on four 2- foot legs), the floor, the nest box frame, the upper frame, and windows & doors framed in.

It isn’t perfect, but I am so proud of myself! I’ll keep posting updates, then one big post on the entire project in the end. My deadline is mid-May when 15 Ameraucana (Easter Egger) pullets plus one little rooster will arrive from Cackle Hatchery. I can’t wait! It’s been years since I had chickens and I’ve missed them ever since.

Oh, and lest you think this small coop is a permanent home for 16 chickens… nope! So, yes, a larger coop for when the chicks are bigger is already in the planning stage.  Then this “starter” coop will turn into a portable coop with wheels and the addition of a portable run.

That’s all the news from Flat Creek Farm for now. Hope everyone is doing well!