And thus, I have earned my slump
Oct. 8th, 2011 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trystinnThe guys were awesome! They managed to take a load to the dump, then came home and hung the wooden gate to the Bunhalla/Duckgard enclosure. They rigged a system so the gate swings shut nicely by itself, you just need to check to make sure its latched afterward. Very easily done one-handed!
We'd had a very thick piece of plywood left over from the porch dog tunnel, so the guys cut it up into sections to hang on the wired front and sides of the Love Shack and Rowdy Roost hutches for Winter. They still need to be painted, but they will work great to keep the worst of the wind and rain out. The bottoms are still open, so there's plenty of air movement not to mention the boards don't fit tightly, instead they hang from nails hammered in on either side of the tops. This did necessitate moving the water bottles to the bottom of the hutches, but that's not a big problem unless the Bassets decide to start munching on them. Again.
Wearing an industrial respirator (to ward off future sinus infections), I cleaned out all the coops this afternoon: The Blue Shed Coop, Bantie Barn, Rowdy Roost, Love Shack and Rustic Roost). I also scrubbed all of the chicken waterers and refilled them - the Bantie Barn's pen now has two large waterers and the smaller one is in the Blue Shed Coop pen. I re-organized the supplies in the Blue Shed Coop, which was embarrassingly messy and returned Josh's tools to his workshop now that its organized and I can find things in it!
Once the chickens started coming in to the Blue Shed coop for the night, I managed to get the chicks and adolescents banded (males on the right leg, females on the left leg). The two Ameraucana females have been giving the boring names of Goldie and Blondie, the cockerel I'm calling Quicksilver. I'm still brainstorming about the Ameraucanas. Transforming one of the Bunhalla West Wing pens into a breeding pen isn't too crazy of an idea, I've got enough chicken coop wire and netting to do it, I think. They can be popped into the Blue Shed Pen once its vacant or the Rowdy Roost. So many options now! Salt's chicks need a few more weeks to a month of growth, I think. Hard to say with Bantams really. They seem to take a lot longer to become a lot smaller than standards. :D
We'd watched the hens beat the ever-living crap out of the two Mischief Makers (the Bantam Mottled Cochin cockerels) much of the afternoon, so I popped them in the Love Shack for awhile. With any luck they won't kill each other in there. I've got one up on Craigslist, the other will be given a few Frizzled Silkies and Bantam Frizzled Cochin pullets to breed with.
The back porch has been re-arranged for Winter, tomorrow I'll go outside and clean the Adirondack chairs and the table. Our cute little metal chiminea is residing on the back porch, come payday I'll get firebricks to set it on before we use it. The neighbor has a pile of stuff out by the street that he brings home from job sites, I nabbed a really great metal derrick-type display frame, which I'll use for wood storage for the chiminea and plants. The extra terracotta chiminea has been dropped off at Lori's for her use, the big over-sized metal sink is heading over tomorrow.
Hubby had a marvelous time with the food processor, what were supposed to be diced peppers turned into more of relish-sized and the chicken shredded to mere wisps. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to let hubby play with that after a day with power tools. The pasta salad tastes great, though.
And now, its time for me to take some pain meds since I can barely feel my hands. There will be pictures tomorrow, should the weather prove amiable.
We'd had a very thick piece of plywood left over from the porch dog tunnel, so the guys cut it up into sections to hang on the wired front and sides of the Love Shack and Rowdy Roost hutches for Winter. They still need to be painted, but they will work great to keep the worst of the wind and rain out. The bottoms are still open, so there's plenty of air movement not to mention the boards don't fit tightly, instead they hang from nails hammered in on either side of the tops. This did necessitate moving the water bottles to the bottom of the hutches, but that's not a big problem unless the Bassets decide to start munching on them. Again.
Wearing an industrial respirator (to ward off future sinus infections), I cleaned out all the coops this afternoon: The Blue Shed Coop, Bantie Barn, Rowdy Roost, Love Shack and Rustic Roost). I also scrubbed all of the chicken waterers and refilled them - the Bantie Barn's pen now has two large waterers and the smaller one is in the Blue Shed Coop pen. I re-organized the supplies in the Blue Shed Coop, which was embarrassingly messy and returned Josh's tools to his workshop now that its organized and I can find things in it!
Once the chickens started coming in to the Blue Shed coop for the night, I managed to get the chicks and adolescents banded (males on the right leg, females on the left leg). The two Ameraucana females have been giving the boring names of Goldie and Blondie, the cockerel I'm calling Quicksilver. I'm still brainstorming about the Ameraucanas. Transforming one of the Bunhalla West Wing pens into a breeding pen isn't too crazy of an idea, I've got enough chicken coop wire and netting to do it, I think. They can be popped into the Blue Shed Pen once its vacant or the Rowdy Roost. So many options now! Salt's chicks need a few more weeks to a month of growth, I think. Hard to say with Bantams really. They seem to take a lot longer to become a lot smaller than standards. :D
We'd watched the hens beat the ever-living crap out of the two Mischief Makers (the Bantam Mottled Cochin cockerels) much of the afternoon, so I popped them in the Love Shack for awhile. With any luck they won't kill each other in there. I've got one up on Craigslist, the other will be given a few Frizzled Silkies and Bantam Frizzled Cochin pullets to breed with.
The back porch has been re-arranged for Winter, tomorrow I'll go outside and clean the Adirondack chairs and the table. Our cute little metal chiminea is residing on the back porch, come payday I'll get firebricks to set it on before we use it. The neighbor has a pile of stuff out by the street that he brings home from job sites, I nabbed a really great metal derrick-type display frame, which I'll use for wood storage for the chiminea and plants. The extra terracotta chiminea has been dropped off at Lori's for her use, the big over-sized metal sink is heading over tomorrow.
Hubby had a marvelous time with the food processor, what were supposed to be diced peppers turned into more of relish-sized and the chicken shredded to mere wisps. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to let hubby play with that after a day with power tools. The pasta salad tastes great, though.
And now, its time for me to take some pain meds since I can barely feel my hands. There will be pictures tomorrow, should the weather prove amiable.
