New Chicken Coop, Construction Covers Most School Subjects; an Exercise in Stealth Schooling

We purchased four Cochin pullets at a poultry swap meet at the beginning of the month, and over the weekend we built them a coop. I think we managed to cover pretty much all the usual school subjects in the process!
We've been scrounging lumber and building supplies for a while; the fetching and carrying is good exercise (P.E.) and the kids asking for leftovers from various projects around the neighborhood is good public speaking practice (oral grammar and composition).
We had to figure out where in the yard to put the coop. It had to be a location not exposed to much direct sun or harsh weather, but also had to allow for good ventilation and the door had to face in a direction that allowed us access for cleaning, collecting future eggs, and letting out/locking up the chickens as necessary. (Geography, weather science)
Building the coop itself entailed math (measuring length of boards, checking for square corners and plumb walls, and level floor), vocabulary (names of tools, building supplies and hardware and different kinds of lumber), spelling (shopping list for a very few un-scroungeable items), penmanship (writing the actual list), social studies (educating passersby about what we were doing and why we keep chickens), science (life cycle of hens, how to tell when they are close to laying age, what their needs are as to food, water and a nesting spot, the fact that roosters are unnecessary for egg production).

This seems like a good place to introduce you readers to chicken math. Regular math says that we have 8 chickens; four in the original coop and four in the new one. BUT one of the older hens no longer lays, so she doesn't count. That makes 7. The other older hen lays irregularly, so she only counts as half a chicken. Total is now 6 1/2. Then the four pullets aren't laying yet, so they don't count either. This means that by using chicken math, we only have 2 1/2 chickens!

In case you were wondering....

What an egg without a shell looks like.

Laid by Drumstick and immediately collected by Velvet (otherwise it probably would have been eaten).

Lightning McQueen opened it with a knife and said that aside from the lack of a hard shell it was just like any other egg.

New Project!

We have collected all the materials we need to build a DIY incubator, and will begin putting it together soon.

We're using an old crafting cabinet, but other people have used insulated coolers (styrofoam too, though these don't make good brooders after the chicks hatch), large drawers, plastic storage totes, etc.

Want to build one too? Here's a materials list:

Some kind of container you can drill holes into and cut a window in, for the incubation box
A 12v fan from an old desktop computer, leave wires attached
An old cell phone charger or other 12v transformer that plugs into the wall
A piece of plexiglas or glass, about 9" x 12" for a viewing window
Duct tape
A lamp socket with cord
A light bulb (40w suggested; may have to adjust wattage to get temp to the right point)
Hot water heater thermostat (lower)
Hardware cloth
Thermometer and hygrometer
Pan for water as a humidity source, also jars filled with sand, pebbles or hot water to use as heat sinks

We also picked up a package of styrofoam insulation panels to insulate the cabinet, since it is made from thin boards.

You'll also need a drill and bits, screwdriver, keyhole saw for cutting the viewing window, electrical tape and/or wire nuts, perhaps some aluminum foil, and a desire to watch eggs hatch into chicks.

I included a photo of the cabinet as it is now. Regular updates to follow!

Wearing the Dad Hat

This weekend we had shop class.  Remember shop? Girls had to take home ec, shop was purely a boy thing, and woe to you if you wanted to take the class for the other gender.

Here at the Collective, we're equal opportunity.

We have, as you already know, chickens. Their coop is converted from a wooden shipping crate. From our studies on how to care for them, I learned that coops need a lot of ventilation so the chickens stay healthy. To make the coop easier to get into and clean, and to provide more air circulation, we took the roof assembly off and added a 10" clerestory-ish window all the way around, screening with hardware cloth. Then we set the roof assembly back on the coop. We also moved the existing roost boards to hopefully eliminate poo in the nest boxes.

We'll have to make some kind of shutter system for really cold weather, but I have a few ideas for that little task. We also are going to add an outboard nest box and put vinyl siding on the coop to improve the appearance.

Birdman was a big help with this project. He helped disconnect the roof from the main part of the coop, and cut some of the boards for the window framing. He helped cut and staple the hardware cloth as well.

Velvet helped with carrying tools, measuring and holding boards as they were being cut. She also helped make sure we didn't squish any chickens when we set the roof assembly on the ground after its removal.

Lightning McQueen was a general fetch and carry person; holding screws and boards, handing me different tools, and asking all sorts of questions.

I had to disconnect the light switch wiring from the box when we took the roof off. It's been a long time since I did any electrical work, so to help make sure I got the switch wired up correctly when we were finished, I took a picture with my phone before I disconnected anything. (Sort of made that part of the job into an Ikea project, ha ha). Then I simply made the wires look like the photo, stuffed them back into the box, put the cover back on, said a brief prayer that I'd done it correctly, had Birdman plug in the cord, flipped the switch on, and booyah, it worked!

I meant, again, to take a picture of what it looks like now that it's finished, but once again the light got away from me and it's too late. I'll get it up eventually, I promise. Meanwhile, here's one from right before we set the roof back in place. And one of the light switch box, in case you ever need to wire a light switch.

Daily Bread

Dough almost ready for the first rising

 I baked bread the other day, and happened to take a couple of photos.  I really enjoy baking (but I wish my kitchen table wasn't so wobbly so I could really put my back into the kneading), even though I am not presently allowing myself to have any bread, since I am pursuing a state of non-lumpiness and carbs are TEH ENEMY!

I rarely purchase bread at the store, and when I do it's usually something off the day-old display, some artisan bread that is usually $5 a loaf but didn't sell so I can get it for way cheaper - sometimes as low as a dollar!

My overused foil bread pans

Here are my bread pans.  Yes, they are the disposable foil kind.  I know they are only supposed to be used once.  But I like THIS PARTICULAR SIZE and I cannot find it in a 'real' bread pan.  So I buy the foil ones and use them until they are just so utterly misshapen that I cannot stand to use them any more, throw them out (or use them for holding table scraps for the chickens and THEN throw them away) and buy new ones.

I wish I could say I bake every day, or that I bake ALL my family's bread, but sadly I haven't achieved that level of pioneer-ness yet.  I could do it if necessary, but right now it isn't.

Oh! If you look back up there at the first picture you will see that my dough is resting on a wooden board.  My mom got me the most wonderfully fantastic Paula Deen pie board at Wal-Mart a month or so ago, and it is the greatest thing to knead bread on!  One side has different size circles etched into the wood so you can roll your crust out to the right size with no guesswork, and the plain side is the side I use for kneading bread. It's acacia wood, kind of slick like bamboo but darker and a lot heavier.  This is really like an easily-moved-around butcher block, but I don't ever plan to put a knife to this board.  Bread and pie crust only, thanks.

Anyway, wobbly kitchen table, ugly dented bread pans and everything, I still make pretty good bread.

Kind of like what God can do with us when we choose to let Him lead.

I'm So Vain.....

I nominated myself for one of The Crescat's Blog Awards.  Once voting opens, I would appreciate your vote.

(Photo has nothing whatsoever to do with blog awards, voting or anything else referenced in this post.  I just posted it because I think this is a pretty nice looking dozen eggs; six from our new girls and six from Crockpot  - Drumstick having not laid a good egg in quite a while).

In Which I Ramble Disconnectedly

There's a good point here in this article; I'm one of those Christians who knows about the existence of a LOT of things that make some of my friends cock their heads and go "wha--?"
Things I shouldn’t know exist. | Stuff Christians Like – Jon Acuff
Some of the things I know exist that I probably 'shouldn't' (although I risk being tyrannized by the shoulds) know about?  Pink, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, Harry Potter, Lady Gaga, where to buy a good but relatively inexpensive strapless bra, the purpose of body tape (and where to purchase it), boutique denim.....

And as if that wasn't enough to think about in one blog post, here is a really sad story about what happened to a woman who tried (successfully, but REALLY, what she had to go through) to retrieve her miscarried child's remains from the hospital in order to give the baby a proper burial. That touched me because, way back in a previous life, I was pregnant and the baby died at 20 weeks in utero. The doctors tried all sorts of things to induce labor but nothing worked, so I ended up having a D&C.  I was young and confused at the time, and it never occurred to me to ask either the baby's sex or to have the body released to me so the baby could be buried. I did try not very long ago to see whether the hospital bothered to record whether the baby was a boy or a girl (because in God's Providence I happen to be friends with the wife of a person pretty much a grand poobah at the hospital in question), but records were searched and alas I will never know whether it was a Samuel or a Zoe. I'm not really even sure why that matters, but it does, a little.

I saw a guy running along the side of the road earlier today in Day-Glo green running shoes.

I met a gal for lunch today, with whom I went to high school. We hadn't seen each other in THIRTY YEARS (my heavens, there have been wars that were shorter.....). The server had to come back twice before we quit talking long enough to decide what we wanted to eat, and I'm surprised we ever got anything into our mouths. It was really great to reconnect with her, and I hope to be seeing more of her in the future. She said I haven't changed at all - she's a very good liar, ha ha!

Last Monday night was the university's Fall Fest thingy - they have bands come in and do concerts on the plaza of the student union, yada yada. Normally we can't get to bed until it's all over with, because we are about a quarter mile as the crow flies from the stage.  So our tradition the past three years is that we have Movie Night!  This year's movie was Soul Surfer, suggested to me by one of my Facebook (and real life) friends.  It's the true story of Brittany Hamilton, a young surfer whose arm was bitten off in a shark attack.  A really good movie!  My big thing about movies I let my kids watch is 'is it a movie that shows that perseverance, honesty and hard work are VIRTUES, and that doing the right thing is always THE RIGHT THING even though it's difficult?' This movie has that and more. Great scenery, good acting

'scuse me, there is a chicken in my dining room

now she is in the living room

and a wonderful story (even if the part where she gets attacked by the shark shows a LOT of blood, but it's all highly relevant to the story).

(Oregano has been escorted back out to the yard where she belongs.  I have no idea who let her in.)

Speaking of chickens, we've gotten three eggs every day for three days straight, and Drumstick has developed a limp.  We don't know what's the matter with her, so we have her in the puny ward (dog crate next to the coop with a tarp covering it) to keep her from running around and perhaps injuring it further.  We're giving her yogurt as a treat for the extra protein. She hasn't laid a good egg in a couple of months, one of the limitations of this breed of chickens - they lay extremely well but their 'career' is rather shorter than that of heritage or non-production breeds. We'll always have a couple of Red Stars, but I'd eventually like to have six hens and the other four will be heritage dual-purpose breeds - Dominiques and either Leghorns or Orpingtons (most likely Leghorns because they lay white eggs and we've had some requests for those).

I have more randomness but I think I've blathered enough! One last thing: Birdman turned 14 on Wednesday (yikes).

Now You Have to Subscribe to My Channel

Because I successfully uploaded my first YouTube video this evening!

Granted it's just a short clip of Drumstick with a limp, but who knows what I'll come up with next!

Back to more regular blogging tomorrow evening if I don't have to stay at job #2 too late. Sorry for the hiatus, but things have just been not conducive to writing for the past few days.

Singin' the Egg Song

Oregano's freshly laid FIRST EGG!

 Wednesday was a big day for Oregano; she laid her very first egg!  As you can see from the photo, it's quite a bit smaller than Drumstick's egg.  Eggs generally start out small and get larger as the hen gets older.  Our breed of chickens, Red Star, typically lay very large eggs once they get some "experience".  Crockpot's and Drumstick's eggs, as a matter of fact, are so large that a carton meant for jumbo eggs will not close on them!

Comparison to one of Drumstick's eggs :)

I was surprised to find that Oregano's egg, while small, was very heavy for its size (it felt like its weight was very close to Drumstick's egg!).  I plan to invest in a scale of some kind so I can weigh them.....I found a listing that tells how heavy the different sizes of eggs are, and I'd like to be able to tell the folks who buy our eggs what the comparable size of store eggs is.

We're still waiting for Barbecue to start laying, but I imagine it won't be long now. They are 19 weeks and a day old today; Red Star pullet generally begin laying somewhere between 18 and 22 weeks of age.

It was truly amazing to hear Oregano "announcing" her egg, and then going out to the coop to find her still in the back of the coop (not in the nest box, but at least next to it where the pine bedding is nice and clean), arranging bits of bedding around herself as if to make a better nest, and looking very proud of her accomplishment.  The flap-door I cut in the back wall of the coop was handy for photos, as well as enabling me to collect the egg without either having to contort myself into a pretzel or send one of the kids in after it. We can just reach in and get the eggs now!

Plus, these eggs are made even more special by virtue of the fact that they come from hens that we raised from week-old chicks!

Stay tuned; I hope to be posting about Barbecue's first egg soon........

Home From the Fair

The fair closed last night with a really good Demolition Derby and a nice car show. Here are some photo highlights from Thursday (poultry show), Friday (Marty Stuart concert) and Saturday (car show and Demolition Derby):

Lightning McQueen with Oregano and Barbecue, at the livestock show barn

Lightning McQueen waiting to enter the show arena. Oregano won 1st Place and Barbecue won 2nd place in their class.

The smaller of the TWO Ferris Wheels at the fair, neither one of which I rode :(

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives!

Love those old Mopars

Full-size class at the Demolition Derby. Studip lights!

Velvet's feline anatomy exhibit

Lightning McQueen's canine anatomy exhibit

Velvet's horse breeds exhibit

My Bayerische socks

Going to the Fair!

Oregano being tested for typhoid

Lightning McQueen is showing his pullets (who are really hens now, as at least one of them has laid an egg, but I digress) at the county fair next week.

The birds have to be tested for typhoid and have a leg band put on before they can go to the fair, and the County Ag came and did the testing a few days ago.

First we had to catch them.  Ha ha! They quickly figured out that something was up, and they were literally all over the place trying to get away from us.  Birdman finally cornered Barbecue over in the corner of the yard, and Velvet managed to get Oregano before she got completely under the chicken coop. Oregano had her turn first, and behaved rather well.  There was some trouble with the leg band, and the first one broke, so they had to do that twice. But she was finally pronounced healthy, banded and then it was Barbecue's turn.

Barbecue waiting her turn

She has no clue!

 Chickens are not very bright.  In fact, they are rather stupid.  Actually, they are very stupid (in some ways).

Bok-BOK! What are you doing?

Barbecue was a bit uncooperative

 Afterwards they both strutted about the yard as if they'd won some super prize. Silly chickens.

Thank goodness THAT'S over with!

I'll let you know how they do at the fair after the show next Thursday!

My name's not Mary, but I can be contrary......

and look at my garden grow!

Beefsteak tomatoes

Big Boy tomatoes

Butternut squash, a volunteer plant!

The whole thing.

Grape tomatoes

A bell pepper blossom

Russian White tomatoes; I guess they aren't Communists since they are 'White' not 'Red'

Two volunteer potato plants.  I have no clue whether there are taters under there or not.  I'll find out at the end of the summer!

I'll have to water it tonight, I think.  I wish I'd planted more, then there would be less to weed!  I still have some Swiss Chard seed and lettuce that I might try for a fall crop.  And why did I not plant any beans?

The end down there where the potato plants are needs some serious amendments, like some chicken bedding and composted manure tilled in.  It's very clay-ey soil with lots of rocks.  I've only had that tilled up for two seasons now; there was a small tree there that I had removed in order to expand the garden (because I can't afford to shop at our local farmer's market, oh my I could REALLY get on my soapbox about that!). But from the butternut squash to the tomatoes, it's ridiculously rich and fertile (also grows weeds very well too, unfortunately).

I can't wait to have something to harvest besides herbs!  Soon, soon!

A Farmer's Work is Never Done, You Just Get To Take a Break to Earn a Living.

We did a LOT of yard work today.  I mowed and trimmed the grass, Velvet helped organize the trash cans and clean up the concrete pad where they are supposed to be stored when it's not trash day, Lightning McQueen raked up the chicken poop in the yard and fertilized the rosebush, and Birdman helped me get some grass seed sown in one of the many bare spots.

I have several small tomatoes, and some butternut squash on the volunteer plants!

Go here to see a pic of one of them!

I got the mint trimmed off by the back walk too - it was taking over (but that's what mint is supposed to do, so it's all good).

Birdman came home from CAP Encampment this afternoon.  I think I'll have him write a post about his experience, although I will mention that he was one of the Distinguished Cadets this year.  :D

I'm really pooped; I think I'll have a tall glass of tea and relax for a bit, after I get the laundry off the line.

Don't You Wish This Was Scratch -n- Sniff?

I have three varieties of lavender in my garden, and will be harvesting the flowers soon to dry them and make drawer sachets.  A couple of shops in town have said they would give me counter space for a percentage of sales!

School's NOT Out For the Summer

But here's an update!

Around here we 'do school' just about all year long, because we have really weird vacations (that also include learning of some sort, most of the time).

Lightning McQueen has done his oral presentation for 4-H; he chose to present his pullets and did an OK job.  I'm proud of him for actually doing it, but I think he could have been better prepared and done more research and practice beforehand.

 

Velvet helped, as you can see from the photos.  Only fair, I guess, since he helped her with her presentation a couple of months ago.

He's working his way through Saxon 7/6 math and not doing too badly doing a VERY good job of it.  He amazes me.
I just would rather he was less stubborn and bullheaded about his chores, with which we continue the ongoing battle of "it must be done when MOM says, not when KID gets good and ready."

Velvet is in Saxon 6/5 math and doing well.  I think the little break we took, while waiting for Lightning to finish with the book, was what she needed as far as reinforcement goes.  She's very good at mental estimating, which means I really like grocery shopping with her.  She can figure out the better buy more quickly than I can almost all the time.

Birdman will be testing tomorrow for his Cadet Senior Master Sergeant in Civil Air Patrol, and is getting A's and high B's in Saxon Geometry.  He's also doing the Apologia Biology (for which I need to order microscope slides YESTERDAY).

As for other subjects, they have each read over 20 books since Labor Day 2010, correct each other's grammar (not very often, since they all seem to have inherited the 'grammar gene' and don't make common but fingernails-on-a-blackboard grammatical errors like "mom will pick Birdman and I up at 3 to go to the dentist"), and are SLOWLY getting better at using the computer.

We have our garden again this year, and they are all big enough now to wield yard tools with some degree of competence.

One game they 'invented' on the way to Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago:  several of the exits we passed had names of towns that are in other states and even other countries. They tried to think of all the places those names turn up, and by the time we got to our destination we'd pretty much been all over the world! To see where we could have been, Google the route between Morgantown, WV and Indianapolis, IN.  I think you'll be amazed - I know I was pretty impressed with my kids' knowledge of geography!

What did I miss?  I think I got everything!

I Took the Weekend Off

and did my yard, and the laundry, and attempted to do some housework!  I only have one more batch of bread to bake for our trip - Raisin Oat Cinnamon Bread (only instead of raisins I am using craisins and dried blueberries), and a bunch more work to finish up.

Aren't my flowers pretty?  Everything in this strip beside my driveway was given to me by other gardeners who were thinning out their flower gardens.  It has taken a couple of years but is starting to look nice!

Dutch iris

Dutch iris and a Chinese honeysuckle on the left

Wild columbine; I have a blue one too!

Back to the grind tomorrow!  What are your plans for the week?

A Day in My Springtime Life

 I just had a slice of the most delicious pineapple upside-down cake, made by Birdman with some help from his brother and sister.  Nomnomnom!

Last night I had to clear out my downstairs bathroom and fitting room, so the contractor could start work this morning on a tub-to-shower conversion. My dining room and living room are a disaster area (not they are not a disaster at other times, it's just way worse now, because the contents of those two rooms is now in there with all the stuff that actually belongs in there). The old tub and surround are gone, the new water lines and spigots are installed, and the drywall over the water lines has been replaced with greenboard (which is how it should have been to begin with, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the addition on my 150+/- year old house, which is about 35 years old, was built without plan or purpose by a few guys with a case of beer and some power tools and a Lowe's card.  Floors not level, corners out of square, walls not plumb, a complete jakeleg job).  He says he'll finish up tomorrow, so tomorrow night I get to put everything back!

I'm not any less busy than I was, and I'm running out of time before we leave for Indy on the 26th. Only one prom dress is still here, so that's a plus.  Trouble is, I have TWELVE wedding gowns, all of which have rather poofy skirts!  And that's not counting the career- and resortwear stuff, wedding party attire, and pageant dresses.

Oregano and Barbecue are growing, and by the time we get back from Indy they will be too big to get under the fence and will be able to be out all day like Crockpot and Drumstick.  I'll be very glad when they start laying; sometimes I think if we had a dozen hens we could sell all the eggs and then some!

I have another post in the works I had planned on posting tonight, but this will have to do.  The other one requires two particular photos that I haven't had time to slurp off my camera yet.  Meanwhile, I'm tired and need to get some sleep.  Much to do tomorrow!

Evicted.

We were having a quiet family evening a couple of days ago when I heard something fall.  Velvet got up to see what it was, and this is what we found - chickens in the icon corner!

So they moved outside night before last.  No more house chickens.

They're doing well, and can even be loose in the yard if someone is out there to watch them; we have a picket fence and they are still small enough to go under the fence or through the pickets.  Crockpot and Drumstick ignore them for the most part, only chasing after them when they thing Oregano and Barbecue are about to get into their territory.

It might rain tonight, so we fixed the makeshift plastic sheeting roof over the dog crate, and I added an old blanket I got out of someone's trash ('tis the season for curbside shopping, I got a $40 bath mat, a cooler and the blanket) over one side to break any chilly wind.

Eli the dog.

Glad I'm growing kids and chickens, and not grass.

The kids called me outside last night to see the sunset:

Work continues on The Socks, and on the astonishing amount of prom and wedding gowns in the studio.  I've sent lots of stuff out, but you can't tell any difference (except maybe that there are more wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses, and less prom gowns)!