A Year's Worth of Photos (Data Heavy: Fiber Optic Connection Recommended)

Time Flies...

     It is difficult to believe that it has been over a year since my last post.  So much to condense into one post; where do I begin?

      Our flock of 5 New Hampshire hens has been expanded to 15 (14 hens, one suspected rooster).  We've now got an assortment of from around the globe including barred rocks, black australorps, and americanas.  Two of the Americanas, known by many names auracanas / easter eggers, are now laying blue eggs.  I'm hoping the other two might lay some green / jade colored ones.  The barred rocks and australorps will lay big brown eggs eventually, likely within the next couple weeks.

  The now expanded, upgraded and enlarged Chicken Coop Mahal 2.0 now

features two automatic doors, huge lower run and a chicken walk to the free range plaza.  Since the birds are all on the same food now, the addition has been opened completely and the birds can explore both sides as they please.  Once everyone gets in the laying mode, we'll have between 80-100 eggs a week.  When that happens, I'll start selling them locally for $3/dozen.  I figure in about 1500 dozen, we'll pay off the coop investment!  DOUGH!

Rod building has been been quite busy, here's a few that have left since the beginning of the year:

A four piece skagit spey that now fishes Ontario's steelhead waters.











Then there's a fly blank (black with silver glitter) converted over to a multi-piece pack rod headed to Indiana waters in search of Skamania steelhead.

 

The dust clouds at camp have settled as all of the major build projects have been completed.  The Shed Mahal is serving our families and visiting guests well and as it was intended.  And, as a consequence of convenience, we can now cruise into camp, spend 30 minutes setting up and then sit down, relax and enjoy.  Even, believe it or not, the last two visits have actually involved fishing!  We've got another trip planned later this month where the fishing crew, Floatman, Packmule and Dj will assemble and hit several local streams.  I'll take photos with the camera and not my phone this time so that I can upload them to the blog for your viewing pleasure.  That's all for now!  Post coming at the end of the month with plenty of pictures, I promise!

A Coop, Chicken & Raised Bed Update...

Our chicken coop is now complete!  Well, there are a few odds and ends to accomplish, but for the most part she's done as the bulk of the major construction has ended.

The metal roof looks fantastic and will supply us years of durability in spite of the elements.  The one rake cap, additional installation screws and some more tape needs to be reordered because of width and ridge spacing issue that I hadn't properly accounted for, but you wouldn't know it by looking at it now:

The chickens have been permanently relocated and are enjoying their new home outside our house!  Although, what was once an upgrade in square footage is slowly shrinking because these little guys are growing at an alarming rate.  As soon as the cockerels reveal themselves from the pullets...a culling we shall go. Reducing the flock down to the optimal 4-6 egg layers will free roosting space within the enclosed portion of the coop.  

They are currently navigating the steep ramp with ease and love sprinting around the sand run of the lower level.  We haven't had any fly up to perch on the branch roost I put in there, but they are capable of actually flying there now.  I'm amazed at how brazen they have become in such a short time.  

Onto other projects that are coming along well.  The raised bed sub irrigated planter beds are working out perfectly and we've actually got a low maintenance easy weed free garden for once!  There's some unfinished business in that area as I need to install a gate so that Jennifer can access the veggies.  I made them waist high for me, but vertically challenge individuals have a little trouble reaching over the 2' high chicken wire perimeter.  Hmmm...maybe that is a good thing?  More veggies for me!  LOL!

I plan on gating in the open end of the raised beds so that the chickens can frolic in the additional space within the next couple weeks.  They sure do like zipping around the backyard under our close supervision.  It'll be nice to have a spot to give them free range capability without having to fear they'll be eaten by a visiting predator.

My wife recently sent me a few links of a lady in Alaska's blog that had plans for 1X4 furniture that is heavily dependent on the use of the Kreg jig that I used to build the coop.  I really like the simplicity of the building method she detailed and  I knew that I would end up building most of the same items for our backyard and maybe even for camp as well.  So here is the first few things that I constructed using her blog as reference:

I believe Jennifer will be staining the table and benches in the same "new redwood" stain that we used on the coop.  I decided to use 2" X 4" 's instead of the 1X4" because of the cost and because of the sturdiness as they age.  Each bench used just (7) 2X4"X8' boards.  I believe the table used (24) of them.  So we've got a little over $100 in boards and say another $20 in Kreg exterior grade fasteners.  In my opinion, the investment / return was well worth it!

We've got plans for a raised platform lettuce planter, lounge seating setup, Adirondack chairs and we may even amp it up a little bit and build some custom front room furniture that fits our humble home better.  G_d knows our couches needed to have been thrown out a year ago!  We'll see how much time and $$$ will allow me to build.

I wish to extend my condolences to my Father for the loss of his garden in the recent storm that pummeled the Willoughby/Mentor area this past week.  The first few photos posted that I saw were of a spectacular garden and the "after the storm" photos were just heartbreaking.  Mother Nature always wins...Sorry about the loss Dad!

We did get up to TCamp a few times over the past month, but I was lazy and didn't take any photos or video.  I did deliver a great garbage picker find.  The neighbor up the street was throwing away a picnic table that must have been part of a kit.  The frame was metal, but the seats and table top were made from 5/4 deck boards.  They were old and rotten so they chose to pitch it.  THANK YOU VERY MUCH!  So, $26 in new treated deck boards and Trout Camp has an almost perfectly new and certainly perfectly good picnic table on its deck.  Pictures coming on my return of the next trip up.