How to Build a $10 Chicken House

Follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

Don't forget to check out ALL of my Last Man On Earth Studies posts!

Best5Chickens Update 4/13/15: How to Build a Chicken Feeder

Best5Chickens 3/31/15

Best5Chickens 4/6/15

Best5Chickens 4/9/15

Not too long ago, we decided to slightly expand our flock. See, it's a real funny story, so buckle up.

We stared with two chickens. Almost immediately, we noticed that one wasn't quite like the other. About the time the tail feathers appeared, we figured out we didn't have two chickens. We had a chicken and a rooster. 

Well, my dad wanted a rooster, so we swapped the mild-mannered rooster for a chicken.

And that one turned out to be a rooster. Oh no, it doesn't stop there. See, THIS rooster, whom we named Bruce, is the rooster from hell. He is a magnificent bird, no doubt. He is bigger than any other rooster we have seen, and that includes the quasi-illegal "rooster farm" down the street. He is aggressive. He is mean. And he doesn't learn.

But, regardless, we added another two chickens a few months later. For awhile, we were happy with our egg production. I was letting them out every morning and they would roam, which is great. We don't like snakes and other insects. And, free ranging makes for better tasting eggs and (I think) healthier birds.

But, as the days grew short, we quit getting eggs from two of the birds. Only one would lay. We just figured the changing of the seasons had cut short the laying. So, we got another chicken, whom we called Captain Phasma. That brought our flock to four chickens and one really mean rooster. 

But, that went on for a little longer than we thought it should, so I started poking around, thinking that maybe they were laying elsewhere. But, I couldn't find them.

Until one day I was on the far side of my detached garage and Bruce was uncomfortably and illogically (I thought) hostile towards me. But, as he was getting knocked around by a shovel and my foot, I heard the clucking of a chicken. I couldn't see her. It was the clucking they made as they laid. Sure enough, I found her in a dilapidated playhouse on the neighbor's property sitting on a stack of no less than 12 eggs.

So, I started keeping them penned up. But, when I would go out at night, at least one of the birds would be roosting on top of the house.  To make matters worse, one of the chickens was flying out at some point late at night or early in the morning. The results? See for yourself.

I figured I was being told that there was no room in the inn. Indeed, the chickens only will lay in one of the lay boxes and they will only do it one at at time. I guess that gave new meaning to "**** or get off the pot." They needed another house. 

I have already invested too much money in these chickens, of which I will never recoup in the form of free eggs. So, I was little apprehensious about spending more coin. Instead, I looked around at what I had laying around. And, I came up with a plan.

Last year, I wanted to build a rain barrel. But, people were charging so much money for the barrels that it was cheaper by the dozen, literally. So, I bought a dozen. I gave a lot of them away and I was left with three. They ended up costing me $10 a piece.

I also had the remnants of some old cabinets from building The Barn. I knew that simply setting the barrel on the ground was a recipe for disaster. Not only would it roll around, but it would kill the grass under it. So, after removing a door, sawzawing some sections, I had a stand.

Additionally, I had some left over pallet wood. One of the slats would make a great chicken run as well as a roosting board.

First things first. I took the sawjaw and made an (ugly) opening. Then, I screwed the run onto the barrel.

Next, I used a 2: hole saw and my drill to knock a hole in each side of the barrel. Into this I slid the board, which the chickens could roost upon. The finishishing touch was to use foam insulation and seal up the remainder of the holes.

The only issue you may have comes from access to the egg. This setup is so light, you can easily tilt it forward. A little bedding and viola! A cheap and easy fix to not having enough room. Is it pretty? No. I could make it better, but I am engineer. Function over form. I spent less than $10 on this whole project.

Staining an AK-47 Stock

Follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

Read all our Trials Trails and Taylor Tales !

Check out my Fish of 2014
Follow my Fish of 2015

In the last two years, I have started collecting firearms. That's awfully hard to do on a budget, which caused me to get rather creative on how I could manage to start a collection. Being willing to learn and fairly handy, building AR-based guns was a real option. Instead of paying ridiculous prices for off-the-shelf guns, I could build one of similar (and sometimes better) quality for a not-so-ridiculous amount of money. That worked real well....

Until I got tired of ARs. Well, it wasn't that I was really tired of them, but just how many ARs do you really need?

You can ready about my AR builds below.

AR-15 Build V2.0

All of my gun buddies laughed at me and told me  I was really missing out on REAL guns, specifically the AK. 

So, I started looking around. The private seller market (on Facebook groups, in particular) is absolutely ridiculous. These guys want more money for their guns than they cost new at the store. But, I detest buying from stores. Like...REALLY REALLY detest it. It takes hours out of your life (feels like years, sometimes).

But, after months crept buy, I went into the local gun shop. I already knew that I wanted a Romanian WASR-10. It isn't the nicest of models, but it is reliable and the price was right ($470). Additionally, it has a chrome-lined barrel. That may hurt the accuracy, but it really helps durability. You can read more about these rifles here.

 The gun shop had 6 and I inspected each one multiple times before I found the one that I wanted. The only thing I didn't like about the purchase was that all of the stocks were unfinished. That is, they had no sort of treatment on them, which gave them a very dull finish on top of a very light wood coloring. More importantly, I didn't want it soaking up oils from gun cleanings or even those from my hands, which would give it an unsightly finish.

After months of sitting in the safe, I finally brought it out after I had remembered to buy some stain from Lowe's. I decided on the WATCO brand and went with the Danish Oil in the Walnut finish.

After removing the stock, I gave the pieces a pretty thorough work over with some 400-grit paper. Just enough to lightly scuff it. And, make sure that you get ALL the edges, not just the main surfaces. Make sure you get get those areas where the fasteners for the metal butt stock plate and the sling mount reside as well as the edges that butt up to the metal. If you don't, they won't soak up the stain the same as the main surfaces and will give you some unsightly areas. I made sure that the finish, post scuff, was uniform. I noticed that the grains on the butt stock were very linear and uniform, but those on the fore stock were not. In fact, the fore stock grains ran every which way, as it had been cut from a tree with knots, specifically the top portion on the fore stock.

The butt stock soaked up the stain, but didn't exhibit much color change, though it brought out several divots that it had accrued over its life. Also, where the metal end cap bolts on, it was obvious that the manufactures had to do some extra fitment work. Two places in particular had significantly more work done to them, which exposed more surface area. This surface area soaked up more stain, making it appear darker. But, the metal endcap would cover most of it. 

The foregrip was another animal. Because of its varying grain structure, it pulled much more stain in, giving it a much darker appearance than the butt stock. I gave it a second coat 24 hours after the first, but didn't want it to be any darker than it already appeared. I did like the look the stain exposed, as it really brought out the twists and turns of the grains.

But, that led to another problem. I now had a butt stock several shades lighter than the fore stock. I gave the butt stock a once over with the 400 grit sand paper and stained it again. It made a little difference, bringing the color slightly darker.

Ever 24 hours, I repeated the process, eventually getting the coloration the same as the fore stock, with the exception that the intergranular regions on the fore stock are darker. Because the cuts of wood are so different, that is just going to be reality.

I am very pleased with the coloration, especially how pronounced the grains now are. I plan on giving it a urethane treatment soon. 

How to Build a raised Herb Garden from Repurposed Box Springs

Follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

Read all our Trials Trails and Taylor Tales !

Check out my Fish of 2014
Follow my Fish of 2015

Our new furniture FINALLY arrived the other day.  The old furniture was already out in the rec room, but our old bed was still in our room. Cause, you know, we needed somewhere to sleep for the past month.

I had just finished getting the chicken feeder project wrapped up, which you can read about below, so, ALyse was ready to put me to work.

Best5Chickens Update 4/13/15: How to Build a Chicken Feeder

So, after breaking down the old bed, Alyse informed me that I needed to drag the old box spring and mattress out to the curb. The box spring is actually two twin boxsprings that were sat together.  No problem. I have this lawnmower with a small trailer that will make quick work of that.

After reloading the mattress 5 times between the front door and the road and ultimately giving up on the lawnmower idea all together, I went back for the two box springs. 

In that moment of fatigue, the perfect storm of ideas hit me.

First, after building this chicken pen, I had a new appreciation for the cost of constructions. Laying before me were two perfectly good box springs made of wood. While I had no used for them in their current configuration, I was too cheap to throw out perfectly good wood. 

Ok, so let me just stop there and come clean. 

What really happened was that I complained to Alyse that I didn't want to go through that again. And, we could use the wood (totally an excuse not to work, but bear with me.) She took one look at the two box springs and said....

"You should build a raised herb garden to put inside the pool fence."

And Cousin Eddy said:

Sure, that got me out of a lot of work, but it also accomplished a lot of other things.

First off, if you don't cook with fresh herbs, you are missing out COMPLETELY. A fresh minced sprig of dill is worth a whole bottle of the dried equivalent. And, there is NOTHING better than fresh sweet basil on a caprese salad. Right now, I had no herbs. They were left at the old house. 

I use both in my favorite salad recipe:

Best5Zach's Vinaigrette Cucumber Salad

Secondly, it would allow me to have my herbs right out the back door. The fenced in pool area is right out the back door and there is no available land to plant due to concrete and lava rock. A raised bed would allow me to have my herbs within reach. 

And lastly, it allowed me to repurpose something while saving me work. Ok, that isn't quite right. I would be working MORE doing this, but at least it was for a good cause.

First thing I did was remove all of the padding and cloth. Easy enough.I even managed NOT to stick myself with 30 year old staples. 

Then came removing the staples. Not so bad. But, during all the prying and jerking to remove the old staples which held the cloth and padding on......

That's when I realized that the entire box spring was held together with staples, even the wood sections, which provided no structural rigidity. That would have to be addressed immediately before the entire thing fell apart..literally. So, I picked up a box of screws from my shelves(because I think fasteners are one of the most important items you should stock up on, read the following blog) and went to town.

Stocking Up: Fasteners...Things Commonly Overlooked

On the first box spring, I went ahead and left the slats on the bed (the slats run across the mattress between the rails to keep you from falling through) and added a screw to each end, plus on to the middle beam. Then, I flipped it over so that the slats were on the ground and the box spring was open end up.

On the second box spring, I knocked all of the slats off completely and added them to the first set, because the slats were spaced around 6" apart and that was too wide to hold the earth we would be filling these with. Now, instead of 6" centers, we were down to around 1" between each slat. Perfect for holding the earth. 

On both of the box springs, I left the center runner in so that I could divide the bed into two sections. Filling up the whole thing in one siting, even with earth, would be a chore. I figured I would fill one side up and plant it, leaving the other open for some other planting session.

I then stacked the second box spring on top of the first and screwed the running boards together, which secured the two into one solid structure. 

I then covered both sides with landscaping paper.

Then, we moved it inside the pool fence where we filled it with a mixture of potting soil and earth before we planted the 2 sweet basil, 1 Rosemary and 2 dill plants. It took 1.5 rolls of landscaping paper, 4 bags of potting soil, 2 bags of earth to fill half the frame. 

Now, I have half a mind to put a set of 6" caster wheels on this thing so I can move it. 

It will also need to be water proofed, either with stain, paint, or siding. Your choice. 

List of Materials

• Two twin size box springs
• 1 box of multi-purpose screws
• 2 rolls of landscaping paper
• 8 bags of potting soil
• 4 bags of earth
• Your choice of herbs or flowers
• Your choice of water-proofing agents (pain, sealant, stain, or siding)

List of Tools

• Hammer
• Pliers
• Cordless Driver
• Box Knife

Best5Chickens Update 4/13/15: How to Build a Chicken Feeder

Follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

Read all our Trials Trails and Taylor Tales !

Check out my Fish of 2014
Follow my Fish of 2015

It's kinda ironic to me that the most frustrating part of setting up my chicken Mecca was the perceived easiest aspect of the whole process. Digging post holes, making a rain water collection system, assembling the chicken house? Easy. Putting together a feeder? Turned out to be a head scratcher...but for reason totally avoidable. 

Real quick: if you haven't kept up with all the other updates....here they are. Go read. 

Best5Chickens 3/31/15

Best5Chickens 4/6/15

Best5Chickens 4/9/15

Alyse had found some pretty cool feeders on Pintrest that used PVC pipe. The idea is to create a system that allows you to feed your chickens for several days without having to actually be there. A chicken feeder for the family on the go....which is totes us. She showed it to me one night before bed while I was watching Breaking Bad. A few PVC fittings and pipes. A little flashing. Some angles. Done. 

That next day, I headed to the local hardware store. 3" PVC pipe? Check. Several assorted 3" elbows and beds? Check. 

Got home. Realized that the OD on 3" is 3.5" and the ID of the bends is 3". After looking like a caveman for 10 minutes, banging pieces together that would never fit, I went on to the next project.

On my next trip to the hardware store, I took a tape measure. Overkill? Yes. I could just read the labels that say "3.5" ID Fitting." But that's too easy. And, I don't trust them. I sourced a few MORE elbows and bends and headed home to finish this seemingly easy project.

And so I did. Well, sorta.

Initially, I was going to let the 36" tall section of 3" PVC gravity feed into a long-sweeping 90 degree elbow, where the feed would trickles onto the ground. I recognized that I would have to cover the opening with flashing at some point, to keep rain from molding all of the food. But, I wanted to test it before we got that far.

So, we sat it up and poured feed down the shoot. It worked....too well. Every single piece of feed came flying out the other end of the tube at rocket speed. Cause, you know, gravity and a low friction environment. 

I tried several iterations of adding back-bends, steep angles, and other tricks...while Alyse continually reminded me that I should just look at the examples that she showed me. 

Follow some one else's directions? Never. 

But see, my wife isn't like most wives. She has no problem reminding me who utterly stupid I am. After moping in the shop for a few minutes, I asked her to pull up the Pinterest designs, of which there were two or three. 

I decided to make a hybrid of the ones I saw...because I am no conformist but I AM lazy. Also, I can't leave anything alone. I have to improve every design....even those that are perfectly fine. 

The solution? 

Here we go. 

The long section is 36" inches into a a long sweeping 90 degree elbow. Another 3" PVC section 18 inches long into a cap. 

In the 18 inch section, I used a 1"hole saw to make 3 holes equally spaced between the 90 degree bend and the cap. 

Now, it needs flashing to keep rain run off from getting into the feed. So, I took a piece of extra vinyl siding I had, measured the length of the lower section, and cut it to fit. With two small length multi-purpose screws, I secured it to the top of the pipe. Around the screw heads I ran a bead of silicone. I trimmed the vinyl siding so that I could fit the backside )away from the holes) flush against a surface. In the gap between the siding and the pipe, I ran some sealing expanding foam. 

Happy with my result, I took it into the pen to the fence post I would mount it to. After resting the bottome on 2 4x4 blocks (to get it off the ground), I secured it to the post with fencing wire. 

It was at the point that I realized that I had made the whole contraption the same over-all height of the fencing post. It looked good...like I took some measurements. But, it would make it AWFULLY hard to get the cap off, as the cap was secured tight to the post. 

With a sigh of exasperation, I cut the wire and headed back to the shop. 

I changed the 36" overall height to 48", reinstalled everything, and secured it. Boom. It works. 

I made sure the chickens knew where their food was and watched them enjoy it. 

I also added a batting cage netting top to the fence, which should keep out the birds of prey.

So, if you were wondering about a parts list, here ya go:

• 1 48" section of 3" PVC
• 1 18" section of 3" PVC
• 1 long sweep 3.5" ID 90 degree elbow
• 1 3.5" ID cap
• 1 1" hole saw
• 1 18" section of vinyl siding
• 1 small tube of silicone
• 1 can of expanding/sealing foam
• 1 roll of fending wire
• 2 short multi-purpose screws
• 1 metal fence post

Best5Garden Update for 4/9/2015

Follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

Read all our Trials Trails and Taylor Tales !

Check out my Fish of 2014
Follow my Fish of 2015

Well, there isn't much to report. The weather has alternated between PERFECT and LOUSY. With the soil remaining wet, these perfect days have been put to waste as I can't till up the garden. All I've been able to do is transport my seedlings into and out of the garage for the daily sun. 

That's really an aggravation, believe me. I'd love to use my indoor grower, but it hasn't made it to the new house yet. Instead of leaving all of the cups in one place and letting them sit under a light, I have to pick each one up by hand and walk it outside. I tried using a plastic tote, but you STILL have to pick them up out of the tote and place them on the ground. Or, you can leave them in the tote and they will get around 1 hour of sun total. 

So, one at a time it is. Which means spills. I was beginning to think I had knocked every single seed out of the cups until this morning. We had several sprouts this morning from our tomatoes. No action from our herbs or flowers. 

As soon as the ground dries out (won't be this week) I will get the garden tilled and primed. 

I am very excited because we have a plethora of earthworms. Every time it rains, they come out of the woodwork...err...soil. Everywhere you step has worms. According to my sources, that indicated good soil....which we DIDN'T have at the old house. 

In the meantime, we have kept busy getting our chickens housed! If you haven't read up on that, check out our posts! 

Best5Chickens 3/31/2015

Best5Chickens 4/6/15

Best5Chickens 4/9/15

Best5Chickens 4/9/15

Follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

Read all our Trials Trails and Taylor Tales !

Check out my Fish of 2014
Follow my Fish of 2015

After several hard day's worth of work and about $1,000 dollars in raw materials, we were ready for chickens! 

If you didn't read my previous two posts, take a second to catch up.

Best5Chickens 3/31/2015

Best5Chickens 4/6/15

I spent much of yesterday trying to make an automatic feeder out of PVC, as we had seen on Pintrest. However, I am never the one to steal other people's ideas.  I wanted to do it my own way. That is...sorta steal other people's ideas, but make them better. 

I'll save some time. I haven't gotten it to work. Turns out, PVC is really smooth and the feed just dumps right out. That defeats the purpose. So. I can add in more bends, increase the angle, etc....

But, we aren't there.

Despite not having the feeder done, we still welcomed our chickens home, last night.

 I need to get some netting for the top of the pen. We can't be having owls and hawks snatching up our babies. 

Obviously I want to get the feeder done. 

I need to bury some fencing to prevent predators  from sneaking under the fence. We know animals CAN because Alyse found a rabbit who had done just that on Sunday.

I want to add on to the chicken house. As you can see from the pictures above, it is nice. It is cheap and good looking. it ISN'T big enough for 4 or more chickens. 

So we aren't QUITE done. But, we do have chickens! Only two of them right now...but that will change soon! 

Best5Chickens 4/6/15

Follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

Read all our Trials Trails and Taylor Tales !

Check out my Fish of 2014
Follow my Fish of 2015

I had my plate full over this long weekend. That's not even considering that we didn't have any kids games OR softball games. As usual, I accomplished a little less than half of what I wanted to do over the course of the weekend. That doesn't mean I was lazy and sat on my duff. I just ran out of time. As a bit of comic relief, let me just say that I am coming to grips with my age. By dark each night, I was ready for a soak in a hot bath with epsom salt and 8 to 10 solid hours of sleep. 

Ok. So, if you recall from last week, we bought a chicken coup and assembled it. The kids are slightly confused and think it's actually a miniature club house. If you didn't read about it, check it out. 

Best5Chickens 3/31/2015

So, we are $200 in the whole and we don't have a fence built yet. Fun stuff. 

Saturday morning, we ate a hearty breakfast and I was out the door. While living in Madison, I became accustomed to having every store I needed within 5 miles. It ain't so, anymore. The nearest Lowe's/Home Depot is 20 minutes away. So, I made the list and visited the local Ace, which is only a few miles away. Not only did I need the raw materials for the fence, but I also wanted to build a home made feeder and water system. 

How was I going to do that? Well, the feeder would be PVC. And, we aren't done...so we will save that one for later. 

The water system, however, is completed and came out exactly how I planned. 

So, I bought all the fencing supplies, minus the fence...which might present a problem. But, that wasn't unexpected. I didn't think Ace would have everything I need. I needed right at 50 linear feet of fence. But, they did have the lumber, quickcrete, and misc hardware I needed. I left 3 bags of quickcrete, qty8 4x4s, qty6 2x4s and several bags of....stuff for the water and feeder. All of this shoved in the back of the Yukon. But, hey, it's paid off now. It's time to destroy it, right?

First thing we did was dig the holes for the posts. I planned on having one at each of the 4 corners, a door support, and maybe one on the midspan. We would be fabricating 3 of the sides with the 4th side being the back of my shop. Final dimensions were something like 190 inches by 280. 

So, with shovels and a post hole digger, Gavin and I got to work. 

Although I really wanted to dig the holes to 24 inches, time didn't exactly permit...nor did my energy. So, at 18 inches, I sat the tools aside and mixed up the quickcrete. I laid a fairly thick layer on the bottom, pounded the posts into place, and filled up around them. I used a spade to make sure that I worked the quickcrete in. It didn't take too long to get the posts set.

Though I didn't have the fence, and I could remedy that easily enough, I wanted the posts to set up for 24 hours. So, we began on our next project: the water collection system.

Alyse had found food-grade 55-gallon drums on a Facebook site for $14 apiece. But, we can't fit them in the Yukon (and I was too lazy to drive to Priceville for 1). So, we convinced the sellers to sell us and deliver 10 of them. Considering the cost of just 1 food-grade drum, 10 for $150 isn't a bad deal. I knew we could get rid of them, and surely enough, my dad wanted a few. I still have 5 or 6, which I plan to sell. I have to clean them up, since they came from a dairy farm who apparently flavors their own milk to the tune of cappuccino, mocha, and other flavors. So, now my shop smells awesome, even though I have significant work ahead of me. 

So, the idea was to build a rain barrel collection setup, similar to what you can buy on Amazon or wherever. However, those systems are designed to sit on the ground, which doesn't give you any head pressure. They also cost several hundred dollars. 

I wanted to set this one up as high as I could and achieve the maximum head pressure. That way I could water the garden or whatever. After a few measurements, we built a 36" tall stand, which puts the top of the barrel around 70 inches up. Even nearly empty, that will give me 3 feet of head pressure, or enough to water anything in my yard. 

With some help from my friend, Neil, we punched a 3" hole in the top of the barrel and ran a spare flexible gutter hose into the barrel. We caulked it up as tightly as we could, then attached the other end of the hose to the gutter run off. On the bottom end, we threaded in a metal spigot into a hole we punched. Another round of caulk and we had it done. I went ahead and threaded on some hangers on the side of the stand so that we could have a dedicated hose.

I also plan to add a piece of plywood on the stand reinforcements so that we can add a simple shelf. Had I been smart, I would have screwed those on the INSIDE of the legs to make that easier. 

That wrapped up work for Saturday. Sunday, we headed to Lowe's and bought a 50-foot role of welded wire. Turns out, that was ALMOST exactly right, but we weren't able to stretch it tight enough, which resulted in a shortage. Always something, eh? Speaking of...turns out I am not so good with a hammer. I mean, I knew that. I never have been. So, Alyse put me to shame while swinging the hammer. 

That's ok. I took the time to go ahead and build the door, which came out a lot easier than expected. 

So, here is where we are. Never mind the kid. 

Hopefully I can get the rest of the fence hung today and the feeder built. I will probably bury a good bit of wire on the ground to prevent predators. Check back for updates. 

Best5Chickens 3/31/2015

Follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

Read all our Trials Trails and Taylor Tales !

Check out my Fish of 2014
Follow my Fish of 2015

After watching my dad raise chickens the last few years (translation: learn all the tricks and tribulations), we are now on the road to raising chickens(and promptly stealing all their eggs). We wanted to start raising them last year, but we knew we would be moving out of the 'burbs and into the country. Well, that's not true....we were open to moving anywhere that had enough room, but we preferred a place that we could....stretch out. That meant, having a garden and chickens without being the ban of our neighbors existence.  Now, considering that we haven't actually met ANY of our new neighbors, it remains to be seen if that will actually happen, regardless. 

So, in case you missed it (likely, since I JUST posted it), we started our preparations for our garden yesterday. You can read about it here:

Best5Garden 2015

Since I managed to misplace half the seeds and I didn't really want to delve into tilling quite yet, I decided to get a jump on our chicken coup. We had a few options when it came to a coupe. We could build a custom one or buy one. A custom one is great because you can build it sturdy, add cool options, and most importantly, build it for as many chickens as you would like. The only downside is, well, you have to build it. And, construction material and tools are prohibitively high. I admit that woodworking tools aren't something I have really invested in. And, I knew my dad had sunk around $1,000 into his coup. I don't have that kind of money.  This isn't a hobby. It's a learning experience that might end up saving us some dough. 

Dad found these chicken coupe kits at Tractor Supply for right at $200. Great deal, right? Just line up the tabs, screw in some hardware, and you are all done, right? Well, sorta. The issue here is that the coup only will house 2-3 birds. In fact, there are only 2 laying boxes. This coup is really meant to raise the chickens to adulthood and then put them in a much bigger coup. But, we are starting small and I can make this work. Also, it was cheap. 

So, I busted out the box and found the instructions, which were very limited...which is great for a man who doesn't really like to read them, anyway. 

In 30 short minutes, I had the whole thing assembled, despite having a 3 year old who was CONVINCED this was meant for him. 

Couple of pointers: don't try to move it without it being nearly fully assembled. Why? It's fairly flimsy. The roof adds most of it's rigidity. So, either build it in the right place (which I actually planned to do...and executed perfectly..whoot) or wait until the roof is on, then use two people to move it. 

Make sure the land you build on is level. It's awfully hard to get the sides lined up on uneven soil. Sounds stupid...until you find out the hard way. 

That's really all I have on pointers. It was easy enough. 

Being an engineer, I couldn't leave it alone without modifying it. The lay box (seen in the bottom right picture, on the left of the structure) has gaps around it's edges. We plan on heating the main house (center-left of the structure) but with the gaps, the heat would bleed out quickly. So, I caulked the gaps. 

The screw holes in the roof were predrilled. I was hoping to not have to put holes in the roof to attach it, but that is part of the design. I don't want the thing rotting, so I caulked the screw holes (after fastening, of course). This will prevent the fasteners from rusting and from the wood rotting where the bare wood around the shingles would be exposed. 

Again, these weren't big modifications. Those might come later.

So, what else do we need? Well, chickens, obviously. But dad has that taken care of.

The next few tasks are:

1. Fence in the coup
2. Design an automatic door for the fence. Looking at a solar arrangement, which would be preferred. 
3. Add a heater. Alyse has looked up solar heaters, which I think I can make happen real easy. That would involve aluminum cans, some grill paint, a vacuum cleaner hose, lexan, and a few pieces of wood. 
4. Build a water collection and distributor for the chickens. Planning on using a rain barrel setup
5. Build a food distribution center. Will use PVC and attach to the back of the shop, most likely. 
6. Find a way to expand the coup to house up to 6 chickens. 
7. MAYBE build a run around the garden to allow them to eat all the bugs

The kids have loved playing with my dad's chickens, and they offer a ton of benefits, not limited to just the eggs they lay.

Consider the amount of bugs these guys eat. They eat ALL the bugs. Which means, limited affects of bugs on your garden. Additionally, for those in wetter areas, less mosquitoes. 

The chickens produce great poop for composting, both in the amount and the quality. 

And, there are the eggs. Which, they should lay 1 a day, but be safe and consider that you will get a 75% lay rate among your chickens. So, currently, we plan on 5 chickens who lay around 4 eggs a day. Eggs are currently $1 a dozen. So, we need 200 dozen to break even with current investment. So, we are currently at a 600-day to break even investment...not counting by products.

Just keeping it real. 

Anyways....until next time!

Best5Garden 2015

Follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

Read all our Trials Trails and Taylor Tales !

Check out my Fish of 2014
Follow my Fish of 2015

Well, 2014 was the last garden at our old house. I will kinda miss it. Not really. It was getting really tired of having to kick the dog out of the way so that I could open the fence to get to it. Every year seems to be a learning experience. To read about our 2014 garden, click the link below.

Best5Garden 2014

To say that we have been busy the last month would be a drastic understatement. We have moved. We have to shuttle our kids across the county for school every day. Two of the kids are playing ball, currently. AND our softball seasons are about to start up. Yes, I said SEASONS. We are going to play on only TWO teams this year. 

But gardening is part of who I am, and though I could go without it, the thought of not passing on the experience to my children isn't acceptable. 

In today's society, the first reason anyone think of gardening is for saving money. Though you can certainly save money compared to the asinine prices of fresh produce, if you factor in the cost of all the tools and setup, you aren't really saving money. 

No, the real reasons I want a garden is to remind myself and teach my children some valuable lessons. First and foremost are the lessons learned in successfully growing a garden. Their are tricks and tips. There are pitfalls. There is a lot of problem solving. But, the other intangibles include things such as:

1. learning to respect for farmers and the hard work they put in, which really is never profitable. 
2. appreciate the value of manual labor in a society that dodges it at all costs
3. learning long term planning, the meaning of an investment and appreciating the pay off in a society that values immediate gratification
4. valuing the taste of fresh food that was paid for by your own sweat, and how much better it is than "fresh produce" bought elsewhere. 

That's only a small smattering of things I want them to learn. 

Ok. So, let's get to it. 

By this time in previous years, I would already have a ton of sprouts growing with my indoor gardening system. That is, a tray and a hanging grow light. But, it is still packed away...somewhere....so I had to wait a little later so that I could use real sunlight. 

Unlike previous years, I plan to limit the number of tomatoes planted. Truth be told, I have nearly a 100% success rate with the seeds and growing system I use. Not only do I normally plant 3 seeds per cups, but I usually had 12 or so cups per type of tomato. Which means that each year, I have to separate out 2 small plants and either replant them or toss them. Additionally, I end up with more plants than I can take care of. 

The past few years, I have used biodegradable cups to plant in. But, the cups I have been using come in a 12 pack that are all attached. When I get ready to plant the individual cups, I have to break them apart. More often than not, it makes a huge mess. Additionally, the roots tend to get wrapped into one another. 

This year I am going with larger individual cups. It will prevent the mess and allow more growing room. 

Yesterday, the kids and I filled up 3 cups for both roma and cherry. Turns out, I had left the seeds for beefsteak and big boy in Alyse's car. I filled each cup 3/4 full of potting mix, then 2 seeds, then topped it off. We then label the cup with the name of the tomato type. After a slight shake to settle it and a light watering, we again topped off the cup with soil. I then place them all into a Rubbermade tote so that I can easily transport them. A side benefit of the tote is that the cups will remain wet, as the water that leaks through will collect in the tote and will be reabsorbed as the plant dries. 

Though I said I will only plant limited amounts of each type, I will plant a few more of the beefsteak and big boys. The cherry and romas are high production rate plants. Additionally, they are nearly impervious to insects and disease, so you need far less of them than the rest. If I had 2 of each, that STILL might be too much. Romas and cherr tomato plants produce in the gallons. I plan on 6 of each of the beefsteak and big boys and will hope for the best. 

We also planted a few herbs such as cilantro and parsley. I admit that I don't have much luck growing herbs, but I have had success in buying half grown plants and raising them.

Additionally, we planted some flowers for mommy. 

What's next on the docket? Plenty. We have to till the land, rake it up, sew in lime and fertilizer...just to get ready to plant.

What else do we plan on planting? Well, on top of the tomato, I plan on a few pepper plants, plenty of okra, squash, cucumbers, and MAYBE beans. 

Afterwards, we got started on our chicken coup! That's right! We are raising chickens!  You can read about it here:

Best5Chickens 3/31/2015

2014 Year In Review

Follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter!

Read about all of my Fishing Adventures!

Follow my Fish of 2014

So, it isn't EXACTLY new years. On New Years, I was in Tampa watching Auburn lose to Wisconsin while stuffing my face with ball game food to the tune of $54, lying on the beach in 80 degrees, and going on a seafood bender. Resolutions weren't going to happen. But they will. Shortly. 

I didn't do resolutions in 2014. That explains why nothing seemed to get done, haha. Let's take a look at the 2014 Year in Review. 

Health

To be fair, I had surgery to repair a torn labrum and rotator cuff in December of 2013 and was out of commission for 2 months or so. Then, I had therapy for 6 weeks. Without the ability to lift weights and the pain on my shoulder do to running, I gave up working out. Though I did go back to working out, I never got in a rhythm. As a result, I packed on the 25 pounds I lost in 2013....and 10 more. So, here we are in 2015 and I look like crap, but I feel worse. Additionally, the loss in strength has been terrible for my repaired shoulder, which now pains me each and every day. I also suffered some injuries during the sports season, some freak, some my own fault, that are still nagging. 

Softball

Fielding

It was an...interesting....year in terms of softball. Defensively I played every position on the field except 1st base, and that's for obvious height reasons. I didn't play my cleanest season in the field. I had 2 bad games where I didn't make plays I normally would make. I can think of several flys in the outfield that I either dropped or didn't get to (after gaining weight, my speed was dropped dramatically). I did think my throwing improved. With the energetically repaired shoulder, I didn't wind up and throw it as hard as I could, which frequently let balls sail over heads. Instead, I threw a lot flatter and more accurate. Sure, balls had to hop a few times, but they went exactly where I wanted them to go. 

Hitting/Baseruning

I am torn on what to say here. After doing some research and some practice, my range went way up. I hit my first over-the-fence homeruns in 2014 and smoked many more balls over the outfielders heads. But, that comes at a price. My on base percentage dropped dramatically due to pop-flys. I did a better job getting basehits when I needed to. That is, with 2 outs, I put the ball on the ground instead of trying to hit it out. But, my baserunning suffered and I was thrown out more in this year than the rest of my life combined. That had a lot to do with my weight, but also with some nagging injuries that simply wouldn't go away. Namely, a hamstring injury so bad that it bruised. 

Teamwise, we still can't win a championship. We were 13-2 in NASA leagues and dropped 2 straight games in the playoffs to be the first out after EASILY being the most dominate team in the league. We oustscored other teams something like 285-85. We still can't win at the Sportsplex. And in NARF, we were undefeated in the regular season, which meant we suffered a 7 run handicap AND we limited to 5 runs an inning for the entire playoffs. 

Flag Football

Though the record didn't show it, this was probably the best team and execution we have had. We had a rough go of it early in the season. We made some QB changes and some changes in philosophy in mideason . By the season's end, we were playing better than anyone. Unfortunately, we didn't have anything to show for it other than some spectacular finishes to critical games.

Soccer

Soccer happened last in the year. That was a bad thing. Though I played more games this year than last year, I had a handful of injuries from softball and football that hampered me. In particular, a heel injury that wouldn't go away. It kept me from being able to plan and kick or backpedal, things a defender needs to be able to do. Additionally, the weight gain slowed me so that I couldn't run anyone down, a new experience for me. I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed playing more soccer, but I know the team was probably tired of me being a liability. The good news is, I got to play midfield for 2 games which led to 3 assist. I felt like the last 2 games gave me a lot of momentum for the spring season. 

Gardening

Alyse and I planted our most ambitious garden to date. We grow a ton of tomato plants indoors and then transferred many of them. We had so many that we had to give away a significant number. It was all for naught, however, as this year most everyone's tomatoes contradicted disease of some sort. It hit us hard and though we had planted 40 odd tomato plants, the output was more like 5. 

Cucumbers, on the other hand, produced so well that I had to quit picking them. We ate a ton of fresh ones. We made a TON of pickles. And we gave away bushels. Still, we had more than we could deal with. I have an entire closet of pickles, even after giving away a lot for Christmas. 

Squash, much like last year, was hit or miss. We would get production for awhile, then the plant would die...even with baby squash on the vine. Though I didn't see the direct evidence, I suspect that the same parasites that killed them last year did the same this year. I have a plan for next year.

Okra was another booming crop. We froze gallon upon gallon of it. Then, I made around 10 jars of pickled okra. It was so good that much of my family demanded it be used for all the holiday parties as well as for Christmas gifts. 

Hunting

In 2014, I spent more time squirrel hunting than ever, at the request of my grandmother who detests the tree rats. As a result, I had a banner trips. On one trip, I killed 8. Thanks to a bountiful harvest, I served squirrel d'oeuvres at several parties. I thought they were awesome. I attribute the success to my new Ruger 10/22 I put together, which has been amazing. 

Deer hunting has been decent. I bagged a small doe early in the season, then went after a large buck which I believe ended up being poached. After a long streak without seeing a decent buck , I finally got one right before Christmas. 

I didn't get a chance to make many turkey hunts. In fact, I think I only went on 1....but, dad and I doubled up on a set of jakes which ate supremely well. 

Fishing

In many way, I am really disappointed in this year's fishing. I didn't catch any monsters nor did the numbers really pile up. In fact, I caught less fish in 2014 than I have since 2008. The biggest fish caught hovered right at 6 pounds. A lot of the reason for low numbers is I didn't fish as much. We had 2 kids in sports and obviously we play a lot of sports ourselves. In addition, my boat (now sold) was out of commission for the 2 best months of the year. 

But, before I am too hard on myself, I remember some GREAT things happened. Josh and I found a magical place on Guntersville that I hope produces each year. I am inclined to believe so. In a 2 week period (2 tournaments) we caught 6 fish over 6 pounds. We stroked them on Logan-Martin. We caught out first 20 pound sack during a tournament on Guntersville. I won Angler of the Year in my club and the Club Classic on Wilson. So, it wasn't all so bad.

Prepping

Not much going on here. I did start a slow process of integrating a plan to prep on a budget. I wrote about it earlier in the year. Essentially, I want to buy a little something each and every paycheck. I did manage to stock up on 5.56/.223 and 7.62x39 a good bit. You know how I feel about it, if you think you need more than 1,000 rounds....think again. I have slowly added foodstuff and other less-prepped items like fasteners. I learned a lot of lessons in 2014 about gardening and food preservation. To me, that's more important. Additionally, I did a TON of reading this year on some of the classics that I believe will really help me....if the time comes. 

Blogging

It was probably the best and consistent year of the blog. Sure, STATISTICALLY I have had more hits in a single year, but that was mostly because of a 10,000 hit month. I went over 100,000 hits this past month. I think the coolest part was that the audience is so diverse between my Auburn fans, fishermen, and preppers. I am still not getting paid for it and I don't get much in terms of interaction with fans. But, there is always next year!