Rub a dub dub 3 men in a tub .... wait...what?!?

Well, here it is ~ November 25 ~ you would think I could at least check in more often than MONTHLY ~ but the terrible truth is ~ homeschooling really IS time consuming. Ok, ok, I am going to dispense with the usual excuse session and just launch BOLDLY into the blog topic this post. SOAP! Yes, it's true ~ SOAP! Bet you couldn't guess that from the title. ;-D (hmmm....That harmless little child's nursery rhyme suddenly doesn't seem so very innocent.....)

All right, the way it started out was this ~ I was on BYC ~ (http://www.backyardchickens.com/) ~ and a certain post caught my eye. I spied it across a crowded room. The air was thick, the tension high.... and there IT was... the SOAP MAKERS HELP post. It's true, it was love at first sight! ( Or should that read ~ love at first site ~ ) With shaking hands, I opened the post thread, the anticipation was mounting....could it be ~ was it really true? Some of my fellow Chicken Buddies ALSO loved SOAP??? Lo & behold, it WAS true! So true, in fact, that they even went the extra lengths of MAKING it!

OOhhh,, here were my shnoz sisters, my olfactorial friends. Brave souls who, (though admittedly with great care), nonetheless skirted the wicked properties of lye & laughed in the face of fats, adventurously adding milks, juices, scented oils & miriad breakfast & spice items..... all in the name of bathing beauty pleasures!

Naturally, what was I left to do, but invest some reading time, some more reading time, some experimental time, some resources, some more time, & VOILA!! heheheheheh ~

I have concocted SOAP! It's true! I even have some pics to prove it. ( To my sweet sisters, parents, cousins, etc. who also read this blog ~ shhhh ~ don't tell anyone, this is what I am giving out for Christmas. ;-D)

Actually, in thinking this out even more thoroughly, in the very very begining, it started out as a memory ~

I remember going to my great-grandma's house, and seeing her huge uneven blocks of yellow lye soap ~ she used to tell us ~ "don't use that soap, it's just for scrubbing" ~ then she'd point us to smaller brown-ish creamy colored bars that smelled like cookies. I imagine those were the milk-based ones, based on what I've read.

She always had these wonderful homemade soaps around. Some, like the yellow, was for scrubbing, ( literally, she scrubbed toilets with it, I saw her do it, with the bar itself, and it WORKED!), & some was for bathing. These were beautiful creamy white bars, that smelled like fresh lavender. She would render & save her fats all year round. This is the same great- grandma that used to grow meat chickens & take them to my grandma's ( her daughter) house, and they would have a chicken-choppin' fest!

They both grew huge gardens as well, & not conventional ones ~ their gardens went all over the yard, mixed in with the flowers, the trees, the shrubbery, just everywhere! I remember being in those gardens thinking they were wonderlands. I especially remember the fresh raspberries & straight cream we always got as a treat when we visited. Fond memories....I have always been enchanted by the beautiful bars of handmade soaps, especially the large-ish rough looking ones, they usually smell the best! ;-D

And now, I have made a few of my own.....

Ok, Now for the pics ~

This was my first attempt at soap ~

You can see how uneven my cut was, how rough the soap is. (They are very hard, I used a lot of tallow in this recipe ~ tallow I rendered myself, I might add, from beef suet. Boy is THAT a smelly task!! The Fam won't appreciate this part of your soap-making adventures, I guarantee

it!)

Also, you can see the streaks... I believe this was caused from stirring too much after adding the fragrances. I added them too soon before trace, because I got anxious. DON'T get anxious. The bits & pieces you see are actually 2 different teas, one a lemon green tea, the other an orange & spice tea. Also, I added those teas dry, and I should have added them soaked, that way, they wouldn't have bled like they did. Although my daughter likes the bleed, she says it makes for pretty color specks in the soap, which is true, I suppose. I also added tangerine essential oil (often referred to as eo's, fragrance oils are called fo's) to this recipe ~ unfortunately, I didn't know that tangerine ( or any citrus , for that matter) tends to flash a lot faster than other scents. And, since I added it too early, ( at least a good 3 minutes prior to trace) much of the scent was affected by the lye.

Here in the next pic, is my second batch of soap ~ This was a lavender batch. I used lavender eo, & about 1/4 cup of freshly dried lavender from my mother's garden. ( I believe she said it was called Hidcote). Since lavender sometimes has a tendency to look like mouse doodies, I decided to crush it between my fingers ~ oohh, I smelled heavenly for a while! :-D Anyway, I did better with this batch, & actually let it gel, which means that it looks like a giant tub of wet glycerin Nutrogena soap when it's at gel stage, as you can see in the pic.



And in this pic, you can see that it is beginning to firm up. Once it has hit gel stage, you have to uncover it, so that it does not OVERheat, other wise you will have problems. So, once it has gelled clear out into the corners, I take the lid off ( I just use another similarly sized pan as a lid, no blankets or anything) & let it begin to cool. You can see the color change in the corners as it begins to cool.

One thing that I was sort of bummed about with this recipe is that I used unsweetened grape juice to color it. I was hoping for even a TRACE of lavender ~ but no such luck! Part of the problem, I later found out, was that I added it too soon to the lye/water solution.

In this pic, you can see what the slab looks like once it's been in the mold for over 5 hours. Some recipes will require at least 24 hrs to firm up enough for cutting, however, don't wait TOO long, or you will have to saw your soap apart. ( refer to first pic!)

And here are the cut lavender bars. Very full of glycerin ~ they will be extremely lovely to the skin!

Now this batch I tried to tint green. Only not the color of green that it is! I used powdered icing dye, & a green tea concoction. ( I love to use tea, because while it may not be healthy IN the body, tea is quite beneficial ON the body) I also used a honeydew fo, so it smells like a sweet summer day.




Here is a close-up of the honeydew bars. These bars are all measuring out between 4.5 & 5.7 ounces each. A very HEALTHY amount of soap.

And here in this pic, we have the crabby apples recipe. I used unsweetened crabapple juice to color it, and a very lovely hibiscus fo. Just to demonstrate the ever-changing nature of soap, check out the pic below. I was slightly dissapointed at 1st cut, since the color did not seem to go all the way through, instead it seemed to create only a pretty rind all aorund the soap. Then, once I had resigned myself to this interesting outlook, and even began to think it looked pretty neat, I checked the soap again, a few days later ~

And this is what greeted me ~ ALL pink bars! So ~ now I know that juice actually CAN color your soap, but only marginally. Which is ok, because I don't care for artificial colors. Also, you can always bathe infants in soap made with juice for colors, & these soaps are mild enough for even the most sensitive of skins.

And in this final ( for now :-D) pic, you can see what happens when you tend to be a bit OCD about your crafting. Yes, it's true, I have moved around food storage a bit, and am using one whole wall as my soap drying racks! And in the next day or two ~ I am scheduled to get 2 HUGE boxes FULL of more SOAP eo's & fo's!!! WOO HOO!!! Lovely scents ~ soft, skin nourishing soaps ~ maybe even a little side fundage....... (Actually, Wood Genius intimated something to that nature ~ I believe the words were "I think if you have this much soap, you should look into the sales end of it. Cuz what you have going right NOW is enough soap to last for YEARS! And if you want to make more, I think you need to sell some off.") :-D

Anybody want to buy some soap? :-D

Canning, Canning, ALL the day...

give oh giiivee away!! ( Sung in tune to the primary song of Give Said the Little Stream)

Doesn't it always seem like the more you can, the more you end up giving away? Like you have to share the bounty, you know?

Yup, that's what I've been doing the last little bit here ~ ok, the last MONTH or TWO ~ besides homeschooling, Cub Scouts, acting classes, ballroom dance classes, chickens, friends in need, husband's web-site needing re-designed & added to.......oh yeah, and somewhere in there... household management, dinner, & from time to time... sleep.

So, yah wanna see what I've been up to? The fruits of my labor & all that jazz?

This lovely red gem is crabapple syrup. It can be used as either waffle & ice-cream topping, or as sweet & sour sauce for Asian dishes, such as fried rice, egg rolls, won ton, & etc. It has just enough bite to make you smile, but not enough to make you grimace. ;-D

Here is a representative sample :-D of some of the other things I have been canning ~ the small jar with the white ring ( yes, I remove my rings, I just didn't yet with the pic) is plum jelly from my plum tree out back ( 6 gallons worth). I also did plum syrup & plum jam. (About 10 gallons worth.) The pink-ish quart jar is crabapple/apple butter. (We call it pink applebutter ~ sorta like pink lemonade... it has a tang, and it's a good one :-D, & we did 3 1/2 gallons worth.) The next quart jar is regular apple butter ( 4 1/2 gallons). The pint jar is grape juice, from grapes out of my mother's garden, & it is absolutely HEAVENLY!! (Thank you Mom!, we got over 10 gallons out of those grapes!) And the bag is full of plum fruit leather, of which we did 7 huge cookie sheets worth! (Can you tell we were swimming in plums this year??!!)

This is pumpkin soup, which I made from fresh baked pumpkin ~ I also baked up & froze another 5 gallons worth of pumpkin mash. This was great, because every year for Harvest Fest, they hire Wood Genius to do a ~power tool carving demonstration~ on pumpkins. This year we did 6 pumpkins, but the weather was so bad, we only got to give one away before they shut down the whole event. It was blizzarding, and later that day we ended up with 5 or 6 inches of snow!

And do you see the tomatoes sitting on the counter there? Well, I ended up canning the mostly red ones into stewed garlic tomatoes, & the green ones I made into this absolutely LOVELY green tomato salsa verde! Well over 15 gallons on the tomato homefront! WHEEWWW!

Here are the stewed garlic tomatoes, in my pantry storage room.

And here are the other jams & jellies that I have canned. Those few with labels are jams that I canned over at the church cannery. There is peach jam, blackberry jam, raspberry jam, & strawberry jam.

And although you can only see the edges, those huge cannisters are holding about 800 lbs of wheat. (Thank you Mom & Dad, they worked perfectly, rather than dumping the wheat into them, we put them in bag & all, that way we can get out 50 lbs. at a time without risking the entire cannister of wheat.) We still have a few hundred lbs more of wheat to get, & I have actually thought about getting enough cornmeal to fill one of those cannisters, as well as one of sugar, one of oats, & one of beans. I already have about 50 lbs + of each of those, but I should get some more.

And I have been thinking about getting at least one or two more bags of chicken feed, sort of waiting for it to go on at least SOME sort of sale at the feed store.

Our last act of winter preps? We also logged about 5 cords of wood, 2 on the front porch, already blocked & split, and 3 cord out back, in 8 ft lengths. (It's harder to grow legs & walk away in stacked 8 ft lengths ;-D).

Today the tree-house tree ( it's an old Dutch Elm!) shed almost every single leaf in one large leap of faith that winter would soon be upon us, so we raked all the leaves onto the gardens, as a mulch till spring.

So far the ladies (read...My hens...lol) haven't slowed down one bit in their laying, in fact, they seemed to have finally geared things up, we are now averaging about 7 eggs a day. I'm so proud of them!! Believe it or not, we really go through the eggs, too. I think there are only 4 in the fridge right now. No, not 4 dozen, just 4. But we know there will be 7 more tomorrow.

I love my ladies!!

(ARRGGHH ~ it looks like these last 3 pics won't show all the way unless you click on them ~ sorry ~ don't know how to fix it.)

Here they are, with a little bit of that 1st snow still left on the ground.

And this is our newly updated locking system, as it wasn't toddler-proof before. And now it is. :-D

And here you can see that one of the stacks of firewood in the background of the pic, as well as the final resting place of the chicken arc for the winter. It is close enough to be easy to tend to in the winter, it should gets lots of sun, and once Wood Genius & I raze the rest of the garden, & put the extension run on the backside of the arc, it should serve nicely for the ladies. Plus they will be busily scratching & chickening for the greater benefit of my garden come spring. :-D

It's PUMPKIN CARVING time again!

Well, Wood Genius has struck again! This time, he was commissioned to carve a pumpkin in the theme of The Phantom of the Opera.

I have to apologize for the pics, because apparently my camera goes a little fuzzy without proper lighting, but I could'n't get the full effects without turning out the lights... hence.. a slightly fuzzy pic. Hmm... I think that's grounds for a new camera... hehehehe.

Here is what it looks like with the light on:

Here is what it looks like with the lights out:

Left side

Middle

Right Side

Close up of the words

To All the Congressional Members who Voted NO on the Bailout ~

I want you to know how deeply grateful I am to our Congressmen & Women who voted down the Bailout. I do not feel that each & every man, woman & child in America owes around $2500 to these poor business decision-makers. We are already taxed enough. Must we become enslaved for the selfish designs of these people? America is already in such a disgusting debt slump ~ how could ANY truly serving congress member feel as though adding $700 BILLION to our already bent backs is a good idea? Our Founding Fathers are likely turning in their graves right now.

You know, my husband & I just started up a business 2 yrs ago. We have been through some VERY lean times as a result. We have eaten nothing but homemade bread & bean soup, because that is LITERALLY ALL that we had. And the vegetables that we used to flavor the soup was from 35 yr old food storage. Yes, food from the 70's! But do you know what? We did NOT go onto welfare, we did NOT choose to further cripple our neighbors or our nation because of a business choice that WE CHOSE. Our children did not get a single thing for Christmas from us, that we didn't already own. We just gave them some things from our own childhood that meant something to us. We didn't have money for heat through the winter, but we do have a woodstove, so we went to the dump & salvaged wood. We barely survived on just over $11,000 that first year. But do you know what? We HAVE survived it. Our family has grown closer, & we have learned to do without, to live within a budget, and beneath our means. Perhaps the government could do as well.

I do NOT understand WHY people like myself & my family ~ regular joe-schmoe's~ can go through THAT without getting bailed out, & yet there are those in high-standing government positions (even our own President!) who would gladly heap on further taxes to bail out these previously EXCESSIVELY wealthy (but apparently poor money managing) companies. What should happen now? I reccomend looking in the LDS churches Welfare System. It includes people working for what they get, getting help in a DIGNIFIED, ETHICAL way, that actually improves the recipient, rather than just ~bailing them out.~ All work for the good of the many, no-one goes without, but neither does anyone leech off of others, adding further to the burden of all, while some few take it easy, either living off the top or sucking off the bottom.

Again, I am DEEPLY grateful to those congressional members who truly had the people that they serve in their hearts today as they voted AGAINST the Bailout. Tonight we are thanking God for you, & will continue to include you in our prayers that you might continue to serve this nation conscionably!
~Red

The best excuse YET! (REALLY! ~ I mean it ~ )

Anybody wanna p-nut? :-D

All right fellow bloggers-o-mine, THIS TIME, I really DO have the grandaddy of all excuses as to why I haven't written in a while......

wait for it....

it's a doozy.....

We were in ALASKA!

Yeah!!! (Come on, come on, KNOW the reason, FEEEEELLL the reason, BEEEEEEEE the reason...)

AND I even have pictures to prove it. You know this isn't near as bad as inviting everyone over to see my reel-to-reels, though it possibly DOES rank right up there with whooshing out the beautiful baby brag book.

Too bad, hahahaha ~ you are all a CAPTIVE AUDIENCE. ( yes, I had to yell that...) BWHAHahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaa

oops.

I forgot the all-important point of truth dictating the ease of which you can immediately click off...... hmm.. dang.... that definitely changes things.
I guess I better post some pics, and call it good.

:-D

Here we all are on Cook Inlet Beach. Yes, it's the middle of August, but it's a tad brisk, especially near the water. Strange thing is, though, if you took off your shoes & socks, and touched your feet in the water, it was quite warm......for about one inch... then WHOAAA ~ c c coh oh oh ohhlllllldd d d d.

The beaches are rocky, but there is actually sand, it's just ~large-grit~. :-D

As you can see, Alaskan beaches are a bit of a different affair, no skimpy bikini's & speedo's ~ instead you see jackets & shotguns. Why the shotgun? Because there was a mama bear & 2 cubs using the beach as well, in fact, we even SAW the cubs. I didn't get a decent shot of them, but my niece got an AWESOME pic, & hopefully I can share it once she posts it.

But you can find some really awesome rocks! And on Agate Beach, you can find some pretty agates when the tide is low.

And the rocks are very nice for sitting on ~ no need for hauling around redundant beach chairs! You might find yourself lugging a few bags of rocks home though.

Check out the gorgeous cousins! We have quite a few of them, & they are the most patient, kind kids you ever met.

This is the view from the backyard of my inlaw's ~ it is absolutely beautiful. Very gray, but very green. They own a Bed & Breakfast right on the Kenai River!! (Tanglewood B&B) In fact, the world record salmon was caught right there! And at any given time of the day, you can go out onto the deck & see seals, eagles, seagulls, moose, caribou, bears....it was really awesome.

In fact, you can see moose most anywhere you are at. Seems they do not have a problem with being right in town. This is a cow with her twins, right off the road, between Soldotna & Kenai. We also saw another cow with twins in Kenai, right in the church parking lot!

When you get together with family, the similarities are sometimes rather striking. Here we see that Izzy is the spittin' image of his Poppy ~ right down to the cowboy hat & the walnut chin smirk.

This is Agate Beach, on Salamatoff. Oceanliners park here quite regularly. We found quite a few agates too, but Poppy denied all the ~sugar agates~. Only the prettiest ones passed muster.

And here we have some typical Alaskan hockey rules ~

~Remember, if you shouldn't do it in front of your Grandma, DON'T DO IT HERE! ~

I've been thinking about getting me one of those signs. For the front door. Of my house. :-D

~Red

Another oops ~ forgot to add that while there, Wood Genius carved a bit, & I painted a bit. This one has been christened "The Dude", but he's really a caricature of Poppy. Looks just like him, too! Although Poppy will tell you he looked a lot more like him before Wood Genius carved off the chest and left nuthin' but the belly.

And this light house was for Gramma. She said she always wanted a lighthouse. Eventually, Poppy will put lights in it. Afterall, what good is it being married to an electrician if you can't get a few side perks? :-D (And you know, I have that same philisophy regarding my furniture, Mr. Wood Genius... just in case you are reading this....hint hint... double HUGO-MONGO hint...) :-D

Here we have some "cracks" in the lighthouse, They were actually flaws in the log, and I thought they would make cool looking cracks. Gramma loves them, Poppy doesn't. Since it's Gramma's they stay! :-P (neener neener poppy!)

So let's take an official poll ~ who likes the cracks & who doesn't?

Be brave, say your piece ~ come onnn ~ don't be fence-sitter ~ just SAY IT!

I painted them there, but that's ok, if you disagree, you can say so......

:-D

~Red

ps ~ for the record, Wood Genius doesn't like them either, but I DO, & since it's Gramma's lighthouse, & my painting, hahaHAH! They STAY! :-BBB (that's a wagging raspberry)

Holy Cow! ~uh~ I mean HOLY CHICKEN COOP! ~

Well, whoaa ~ lol ~ sorry for the severe lack of communication ~ as it happens, my dorky computer had a little run-in with static electricity, and as a result, I am now on an older one, without all of the modern conveniences of my other one ~ eerrgghhh ~ all of my pictures, my word docs, EVERY THING~ AAAaarrgghhh ~ ok ~ frustration overflow there ~ at least they say that the hard drive can be saved, which is good, because all of our business docs are on there, not to mention the bazillion & one pics ( yes, I know I mentioned this already, I just had to re-hash it for ol' times sake ~ ).....I will not obsess ~ I will NOT obsess, I WILL not obsess, I will not OBSESS.....All right... deep breath.. now ~ to answer some of the awesome commentary left on here.... naah, you know what? I will just put this in a new post ~ ~Red

This was supposed to be my answer to the comments, but then I had the brilliant flash of intuition ~ why not make it a whole new POST? waahaa ~

so, here are the comments pertaining to the chicken coop project ~ And the answers will be listed after each comment. (Hain't I cleever?? :-D)



Lawanda said...
Well isn't that a dandy chicken coop! I never heard of a chicken tractor before! Did you do it like that because you'll need to move it?I loved the butt shot! LOLAnd definitely the barn red. Very cool!!
5:28 PM
Mrs. Organic said...
I'll have to send this link to my uncle, he's getting his chickens soon and wants a tractor too.
6:59 PM
redhead83402 said...
hi lawanda!! :-D Yes, we will need to move it, just so that the chickens can get all the grubs in the grass for us, also so that they can poo fertilize patches of lawn, & eat the weeds. Also, I am intending to leave them in about 2 spots during the winter, so that they can tillup the ground for my garden for next year. I only wish they had already been going at it for this years garden.ROFLLL about the butt shot! He won't be happy, lol,lol,lol. But I will laugh.... hehehehehe. :-D~Red
7:02 PM
redhead83402 said...
corrie ~ awesome! I hope this helps ~ if he needs dimensions or material sizes or anything, just ask, Wood Genius can send him an email with any of the particulars.~Red
7:05 PM

Well, as you can see, I already sorta answered back to lawanda & corrie, in fact, they probably think I completely quit blogging and totally left the whole blog-universe forever & ever amen, since I haven't blogged, since... oh about april..... ( I seem to have a nasty little habit of blogging for every day for a month, and then skipping 5 months.... I don't know ~ my strange urges to write, document, and photograph ~ dumb & dumber....)


Pale Ophelia Floats said...
Hey the coop/tractor/thingy looks great! I'm sensing a backyard color theme which is really frightening since I'm the colorblind one, but meh. Looking forward to the meme. heheh
10:40 AM

Lol ~ ok Madame M. ( pale ophelia, floating about, is she in an underground cistern? why is she so pale? you would think floating about, she would at least catch a feww rays.... perhaps it is on a cloud, but here too, she WOULD be catching some serious ozone.....) ~ I know I promised to meme, but, as you can see, ahem... ~ 'twas futile ~
( toying with the idea of answering the meme right here & now... nahh, I think I will at the bottom, since the other commenters likely don't want to have to scroll through my o-so-dull answers ~ lol ~ may as well save as many as possible, right? :-D)


Tammy said...
Carol - that is one fine chicken coop. Wood Genius is correct.You will need to charge the chickens rent, or maybe sell timeshares.You need high rent chickens, for such an awesome coop.love ya sis, Tammy
8:44 PM

Tammy ~ lol ~ those chickens really SHOULD be paying rent ~ & it adds up to an egg a day ~ the little turds ~ but I suppose I should be patient, afterall, it is the 31st of July, which puts those hens at 17 wks EXACTLY ~ and really only 2 of them are really ~bred~ to give up eggs at 17 wks, the rest will come in some time after that. At least they better ~ lol ~
By the way, we went to a ladies house a week or so ago, and picked a ton of cherries, thought of you, and how kind you were to share your cherries when we came & visited that once ~ I miss you & love you ~
~carer


LillyZoo said...
How manh chickens have put in it and how many eggs do you get per day? Great Coop!
4:09 AM

Lillyzoo ~ well, now, I suppose what we did may have been a bit unconventional ~ we actually got away with sticking 15 chickens in there to begin with, since they were young & small when we did it. We knew there would likely be at least one roo in the lot, turns out there were 2, so we ended up eating them ( we live in town, can't have roo's, otherwise, I never would have eaten fluffernutter & max, they were gorgeous birds... but anyway, I digress...) & then our little toddler neighbor kids went & let them out of the coop one day, and only three were left in there ~ I managed to round up all but the last one ~ so... long story short, we now have 12 birds in there.
It's a nice fit, and they don't mind eachother at all. We also don't move the thing around near so much as we used to, in fact, it's practically grown permanent legs where it's at right now, and the chickens don't seem to mind at all. They are not stressed, they don't peck at eachother, they waddle around & catch bugs & eat any weeds or garden clippings, bread, & general kitchen leftovers (except potato & meat products), & they are totally loveable, and happy, healthy birds. So for us, the space given works for the number of birds we have. They aren't crowded into a cage, but they don't have the Taj Mahal either.
As to the number of eggs we get ~ this is the hard part ~ so far, none ~ but it's because theya re still too young to be producing them. Only the white leghorns are supposed to give up eggs as soon as 17 wks, the rest are somewhere between 18 & 20 wks. Since literally today will be the very 1st day of 17 wks, I'm not concerned.


Christy said...
We found your blog while doing a search for chicken coop "ark" plans. Would you be willing to share the dimensions with us. 4greenfrogs@gmail.com. Thank you!
3:22 PM

Christy ~ hi, we would absolutely be willing to post the dimensions, and If I had my other computer up, I could even post a pic with the dimensions on it & everything, but for now, the best I can do is to give them to you longhand ~ so here you go ~

If you look at the coop from one end ( & therefore see a large triangle, with the nest box doors) & measure that from the very center of the triangle, from the very top to the very bottom ( it's all so VERY :-D) you come up with 68".
Then, if you look at the footprint of the coop, it measures 60" x 96". ( or 5 ft x 8 ft)
They have 21" of headroom when they are down on the ground, underneath.
*One word of caution on this ark ~ it can get very heavy, very fast. As it stands, only Tony can actually move it by himself ~ all the rest of us are wimps, and it takes 2 or 3 of us to move it around. *
While Tony used 2 x 2's, he says he could have gotten away with 1 x 2's. Also, we kind of beefed it up, because of our heavy winters, and don't intend to move it around in the winter. For those who have mild winters, you could use thinner materials & get away with it easily.
We also get summers in the high 90's , & sometimes into the 100's ( but we do always have a nice breeze, as well), & the insulation has been EXCELLENT for keeping the internal coop temps nice & mild. That is with the vents open night & day. During the winter, of course, we will only have the one vent open, or maybe not either, if the ramp being down provides enough ventilation during the day.



Comment deleted
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
7:57 PM

This comment was deleted by me, since it was just some dude advertizing ~ :-D


twinshiner said...
Hello, we were in the process of building our own chix arks when i found your blog. thanks for all the photos. the visuals sure helped me *see* and refine our arks. So, what about an update on the chix now that they're several months old. Is the ark still accomdating them? And design tenets you'd like to do differently? I've been watching your blog hoping for an update from you. Sure hope you've not stopped blogging as I enjoyed reading another homeschooling red-heads thoughts and humour. I added your site to my links on my blog. Hope you don't mind. ~the twinshinerhttp://twinshiner.blogspot.com/
1:07 PM

Twinshiner ~ hello! yes, it IS still accomodating them ( see my reply to lillyzoo above), however, as noted, there are now only 12 chickens in there, instead of the original 15.

Also ( sorry, I seemed to have answered a number of your questions already, if I weren't so lazy, I'd just re-type them, or even copy & paste them, but, there you have it, laziness at it's finest, asking you to please scroll up several times, filter through on your own... I know, I know, laaazzzyyy blogging, lol .... sorry... sorta.. :-D) yes, indeedy, there are some things we'd do differently, just check out the answer I gave Christy up above.

One good thing about the size of our ark, however, it IS large enough for all of those 12 chickens, even though it IS also quite heavy. And it has proven quite predator proof ( except for the toddlers, didn't see that one coming) Still, it CAN be moved, just not so easily as I'd like. ( For instance, it would be nice to be able to move it on my own ~ yes, I am a 5 ft nuthin wimpo-deluxe, however, I'm not totally incapable of lifting & etc... but this IS pretty heavy.) Also, with regards to the nest boxes, I think we are going to have to make the entrance hole for the chickens a little larger ( though we have seen them in there, so they can fit just fine), and we really need to add a little stick of wood or something right where the nest box door opens, as the wood shavings can just fall out. ( yah, yah, this was my whole wood working contribution to the ark, & I haven't done it yet ~ on the other hand, those ladies haven't started laying yet, either... )

Another thing I'd change ~ those blasted knobs ~ we have these two little wandering toddlers in our neighborhood that just waltzed right in, & let the chickens all out ( "we were wookin at da chickies..). So NOW, we had to put some new closures on them, with little padlocks, which is more of a pain in the tooshy, but at least ~da chickies~ are safe.
Also, you linked to me? SHHWEEET ~ I will stop by your blog & link to you as well ~ thanks for the link!


Pebel said...
Hi,This is a geat Coop! I too found it when looking for plans for our own coop. I am starting homeschooling this year and we have acquired 4 chicks that are soon to be in desparate need of a coop. Would you all be willing to share the dimensions? The pics were great, but I can't quite figure out how everythng fits at the apex. I would love any pointers you or "wood genius" have. I am definately not a wood genius but am trying. My email is pebel@hotmail.com. Thanks! Patrick
1:55 PM

Hi Pebel! Thanks! Believe me, for 4 chickens, this coop is a PALACE. Personally, I wouldn't make one this big for just 4, since you could definitely get away with half the size, and therefore make it WAY more transportable. However, if you are planning on more later or something, check out my answer to Christy up above for the dimensions. ( I know, I know, more LAAAZZZYYY blogging.....it's a habit, I admit it....)

Congrats on the starting homeschooling!! It's a big leap, but it's SOOO worth it! My son is able to excel at Scouts, my daughters get to excel at their hobbies, and they all get to expand on their talents, & have so much FUN, because they don't have the snasty strict schedule of meaningless line-ups, ridiculous homeworks, & asinine no-child-left-behind- ISAT- test teaching. I do not even CARE about the ISATS, ( or the state standards, for that matter, shhh.. madame M, you didn't see anything....), nor do I teach to ISATS or standards, yet somehow, my kids seem to do just fine on them. If you haven't read it before, I HIGHLY reccomend the book "A Thomas Jefferson Education", by Oliver Demille. It is the one book about homeschooling that I have found absolutely INVALUABLE! I could go on & on about the whole homeschooling thing, but I guess I should save that for another post, eh?

~Red

Guess What? Chicken BUTT! Coop is DONE! It's a Chicken Tractor!

UPDATE ~ If you scroll all the way to end, I added the finished product ~ so the tractor is done ~ now for the real coop........... ( better not mention this to Wood Genius just yet... best to let it lie for a day or three..... hehehehe... BWAAAHAHAHAHA... ;-D )

WOO HOO!! SO ~ we got the chicken coop done!! Well, ok, ALLLLLmost done ~ the kids & I still have to paint it. And I am thinking that good ol' Barn Red with white accents is just gonna be IT ~ what do you all think? Afterall, that WOULD tie in with the shed & the treehouse.

So ~ I know what you all are waiting for ~ PICTURES!
And we DO have pictures!

This is meant to be the portable chicken tractor, or also known as the chicken arc. It is based loosely ( ever so loosely) on the boughton forsham models that can be found online. Since we have 16 chickens right now, and will have 10 after the fair, we needed to make our tractor a little larger.

We decided to go with the A-frame style, as it made up for less mass in the long run to transport. And with Wood Genius making it, we knew it could get complicated fast. Here is a pic of the basic frame with supports in the corners, so that nothing wracks when it is being transported.

oops ~ lazy blogging, sorry ~ sideways pic. Just a close-up of the joinery ~ easy sqeazy so far.

Here is a pic of the feeders, on extending drawer guide arms. Wood Genius used a 3/8 drill to drill through 3 times in a line so that the arms could extend out, thus saving your back. That way, the feeder & waterer can just be hooked on and slid back, or slid forward to remove & re-fill.

These are heavy-duty drawer guides, and will easily hold the weight of the galvanized metal 2 gallon double walled waterer & the five gallon feeder.

(Had to move it back into the shop to work on it, as it was getting quite dark out.) Here you can see the flooring going in. It should be mentioned that the wood being used is 2x2's, & I believe 3/8 material.

Here you can see the chicken ramp on hinges, plus the framework for the ramp.

This shows the nest boxes & the flooring installed. There are 3 nest boxes, and we made them a little larger inside, but still a nice snug hole to crawl through & feel safe with.

Now you can see the roosts installed, as well as the back and top of the tractor. You can also see the vents at the apex. We used a very strong wire for this. Also visible is the 1 1/2" gap between the inner melamine wall and the outer 3/8" sheeting wall. This, & the back side, is where Wood Genius installed 1 1/2" styrofoam core insulation. The door is also insulated.

Vents are a bit more visible here. Also visible is the pulley system to raise & lower the chicken ramp. There is the rope & the nail to hold it when the ramp is closed.

Follow the rope over, and down it goes through a hole drilled in the flooring.

This is the pulley in the roof. These pulleys make sure that the rope doesn't get run ragged by snagging on the wood. The pulley is just hanging by a screw screwed through.

oops, another sideways pic. The rope is shown here heading through the vent above the nest boxes, to another pulley.

Voila! A close-up of the outside pulley above the nest boxes.

Ok, this is just showing the foamcore.

And what have we here? A BUTT shot! Can't say "Guess what? Chicken BUTT!" without a butt shot at least SOMEwhere. heheheh. Wouldn't he be so annoyed if he saw this? :-D

However, I actually have a better reason for the pic. It is showing the door fitting on.

I forgot to add that this is actually one of those ~green~ coops, because almost every single bit of wood on here was harvested from left-overs, the dump ( see that pile of 2x4's?), old fence parts, and various other places.


And here is the door on. The handles are close enough together for one person to lift if they are bigger, & far enough apart for two smaller kids to lift off together. (It's good for them, makes them work as a team.....) :-D

Hmmmmm... trying to remember why I uploaded this pic... Maybe just to show the ramp in closed position. Also, see the rungs are spaced so that even with a fair amount of snow or chicken goo, the ramp can still be closed completely. Also showing the roosts, which are positioned higher than the nest boxes to discourage pooey eggs. ( The chickens will choose to roost in the nest boxes if they are higher... I don't know why, it's a chicken thing..)

Here's the whole contraption, alMOST all the way finished. From the side/back.

From the side/front. Note the wooden latches to make sure the nest boxes are all the way shut. The little doors will make egg gathering easy.

Latches secure the door as well, just for predators' sake. (Little kids in the neighborhood can't reach that high... that's pretty much the main concern.) Also, the vents open and latch shut... We get winters down to -20F, so the chickens will need to be warm. While not shown, the heat lamp will be able to be dropped down through a hole drilled in the roof, and we will just use an extension cord ( heavy duty, shop type) to either light the heat lamp or, when they are older, to extend their perception of daylight so that egg-laying continues through the winter.

Last night & today, Wood Genius installed the hardware fabric around the base. ( which, by the way, isn't really fabric at all ~ what a cruel joke to play on a fabriholic...it's really just metal wire with a whole bunch of little bitty square holes in it. ) And now he is off buying the wheel set-up, which will consist of large lawn mower wheels, connected & used in the same manner as the boughton forsham chicken arc/tractor. These will be installed on the nest box side, as it is the heaviest. He will also install a large bar on the end opposite the nest boxes, so that we can reposition the tractor once a week. (During the winter, this will obviously not be easily moved, so we will add additional run space, connected to the bottom of the tractor, via the removable screen end.)

And the last thing to do will be to paint it up, and add chickens! {:>)=

Well, I am going to keep adding pics here as he finishes it up ~ I keep running out there to take pics for each phase.

Ok, so here you can kind of see the removable screen door there on the end, with a latch to close it up tightly. You might also notice the dolly and the suspiciously wet ground.

Yup, it's true! Here in Idaho, it could be shining one minute and literally SNOWING the next!! Where is the justice in that?!? See that? Green grass with a snowy blanket ~ AAARRGGHHHHH !!!!

UPDATE!!! ~ YEAH! It stopped snowing and actually got sunny enough that Bek painted the tractor ~ Next post ~ the Garden project!!