New Coop Finished/Weird Weather, My Free Skywarn Storm Spotter Class I Took With The National Weather Service

 

New Coop Finished/Weird Weather!

We finally finished the coop! We had a lot of really weird weather in April thru July. We had hot weather, cold weather, Monsoon rain, thunder, lightning and wind. It really held up the coop construction, we just had to wait it out. In April Dave decided to bite the bullet and get started. We set up a temporary coop for a few days for the chickens, which worked out great! They even used the cardboard box I put in there as a nesting box and laid. Dave and I talked a lot ahead of time about what we wanted to do and basically we used the same footprint of the previous coop. Our main thing that we did different was the roof line, and we have the nesting box with inside access only because we like the way it looked. Dave did most of the construction, I had to protect my back. I helped with a few two person holds! Old coop below showing the damage, ready for a tear down. Here are the photos!

 

 

 

 

 

Dave started the tear down, we recycled what we could

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My last picture of Debbie, she lasted 2 years after the Vet said she would, passed peacefully in the house with me, RIP  

 

 

 

 Temporary coop with rain cover

Dave wanted to build the foundation with concrete blocks on the ground but I suggested that it would be really hard to level. So he used recycled bricks that we had with pressure treated lumber on top of that, then leveled. Then he did concrete blocks on top of that. Should last a long time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Girls using the nesting cardboard box!

 

 

 

We bought a used window and used storm door for the coop. Dave cut up the old storm door to create a window vent which is great to get cool air in from the north side in the summer. We also have the glass for in the winter when we can close it up to keep it warmer. The storm door also has a panel that goes up and down depending on the weather so it's nice cross ventilation along with the little window, also has a metal vent on the southside-

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to paint the coop the same color as the house, and leave the cedar trim natural for contrast. I basically did all the painting except for the part that I couldn't reach, love the color! 

 

Plastic roof over the plywood, Dave added soffitts

  

I repainted the "Eggs 5 cents" sign that we got from a yard sale years ago

 

We put the wind vane back up, and added some Japanese wind socks as they go with the ones in the garden!

Garden windsocks, love them! 

Bye bye old coop, she lasted 13 years or so mostly from recycled materials-

Interior pictures coming soon...

 

My Free Skywarn Storm Spotter Class I Took With The NWS-

A few months ago I took a free live online class with The National Weather Service. It was fun and very informative! Lots of good info. For more information go here NWS SKYWARN Storm Spotter Program for classes near you. They gave us all a nice packet afterwards with other resources we could use. It's great to be able to know who to contact if you see something important. 

Almost Spring/Another Bug, Saving Money/Bread Machine, New Coop Coming!

Almost Spring/Another Bug-

*** FYI, I made the font BIG to fit on cellphones screens and read. If too big please leave a comment. I work off a laptop to blog, but also read on my phone. Thanks! ***

Spring is almost here, maybe! Temps have been up and down, snow then thaws. Today very cold gusting winds! Brrrr.....  Just when I was feeling better (after my cough and cold in January)  Dave got sick again (same bug) and then I got sick again. Oh brother. The only good thing was I didn't get a cough this time. I had a cold, minor scratchy throat then I woke up on a Wednesday with my right ear really, really hurting. Luckily my regular PCP was squeezed me in that day so I didn't have to sit in Urgent Care. I had a good ear infection, with the left ear percolating. Onto the antibiotics! I'm feeling much better now almost normal. Will start some probiotics as soon as the antibiotics are done doing their job. I'm going to work on trying to de-stress a bit more, if that is possible given the current state of affairs in the US. Will work on boosting my immune system and staying healthy. Being prepared for this kind of thing is also really good.  We had all kinds of OTC and homeopathic remedies at home, so when I did start coming down with something I didn't have to go anywhere to buy anything. 

Something fun, a mug!

Saving Money/Bread Machine-

As usual I'm always working on saving money, but I really upped it the last couple months. I did buy the cute tea cup with a bamboo lid and spoon (the blue fish on top) just for fun, makes me smile! I knew the tariffs were coming and so I wanted to do some strategic buying in January. I have to mention- I'm very grateful that Dave and I bought our new (to us) slightly used Subaru Crosstrek in October. Got a great deal, runs perfect, lots of warranty left, super safe. Very thankful, especially now. I did load up on some things on Amazon, especially ones that were also on sale. Costco too. I stocked up on some raw chicken breasts with ribs and Italian sausage. I repackaged in vacuum sealed bags and froze. I've been getting some great deals on eBay. I was looking for a lighter down coat for spring. I found a great deal a few years back for my super warm LL Bean down coat. Luckily I stumbled upon another great deal! An LL Bean down jacket, was $130.00 on the website. The seller had it listed for $35, like new. I got it down to $22.00! Lighter weight, really comfortable, nice and toasty-

Bonnie photo bombed!

 

Sadly my second thrift store bread machine did not work well. It was older than the last one I had. I decided to invest in a new one that makes the larger size loaves. I did some research on Amazon and looked around and bought this, on sale on Amazon for $115.00- 

Has two paddles for mixing

It works fine, nice size, took me several tries to get the loaf right. One didn't really rise, second one collapsed when it cooled too fast, my fault. Finally on about the 4th or 5th loaf  I got a good one! I simply doubled my honey oat/whole grain recipe I had used before. It made a big loaf, had a little bit of cracking on the top but I let it cool really slowly which seemed to have fixed the other problems- 

Well it did have a shallow crack along the top, but at least it rose really well and is a standard size sandwich loaf. Really nice and moist (photo makes the bread look weird, it's not)-

 I stocked up on some things at Costco. I like their new Kirkland rolled Oats, hadn't seen those before-

 

I went to Ross a few days ago and got some pretty decent gardening tools for $4 each. I really like the trowel since it was much deeper and you can pick up more dirt/compost with it, also bought some rope for tying materials down on the Outback-

 

When we were going through Home Depot looking at a few things they had some really nice house plants which I've been wanting. $5.00 each. One dracena in the pot actually had two plants! I always put a primrose in the spring on my windowsill and then the others went into pots around the house-

We did a little reorganization in our office spare bedroom/ pantry closet area. We had a small stainless steel rack that we had bought several years ago for extra storage. It was just getting to be a catch all though. It dawned on me that we could probably sit it under our counter buffet area in the dining room and just get it out. Dave and I move some things on to our pantry rack, donated a few things and then Dave was able to move it under the buffet where I can get things a lot easier. Now the office doesn't look quite so crammed and gave us room for our second desk chair. We donated our other desk a while back since we really didn't need two desks at home anymore-

 

Poor Dave had to move a few things first under the buffet, which was a desk originally-

Someday I want to pull the counter out, replace with butcher block, Dave can build some nice shelves

 

 

 

 Silver rack on left moved and filled 

I used the same fabric in the kitchen for the buffet skirt, still love the print!

New Coop Coming!

I've been keeping an eye on the coop this winter and was really seeing a lot of damage from all the years. Considering the fact that we built the coop with MOSTLY recycled materials it has held up for 12 years! Not bad. Dave and I talked about investing some money that we came into and decided to building a new coop. We will recycle a few components but most of the other materials are pretty shot. I'm not unhappy with how long it lasted but it does need to be replaced. We really like the siting of it, gives the chickens shade in the summer and a break from the storms in the winter. We're going to do a little bit different design with a shed roof, move the door to the front facing the house, and have a nesting box that doesn't protrude. Will keep basically the same footprint. We're also going to incorporate a little bit of storage for the feed. We've just kept the feed in a steel tote in our garage. Here's a few shots of the current state- 

Frame on bottom of window rotting/warped, Sunny and Luna photo bombed!

OSB de-laminated

 

We're getting lumber this weekend and will start building soon, photos coming!  I also told Dave I'd really like to build a cold frame in front of the coop in the existing garden space. It would enable us to grow some cooler weather crops earlier in the year. So we will buy some extra lumber for that as needed or use the scrap left over from the coop. Given the current state of affairs I am leaning toward not taking down our apple tree in the front yard but having it professionally pruned instead. I think it would be better to have more home grow fruit this year than not. It would also be cheaper to have it pruned than removed. I'm getting an estimate next week. Chicks coming in a few months, but at least we're getting 1-2 eggs most days now. Good girls!

 

Bulbs from early December finally bloomed!!!

Bonnie enjoying the winter sun-

Big Snow Coming!

 

Big Snow Coming!

It's been a while since we've had a "winter storm warning". Should be hitting this morning. Will be interested to see if we get actual white out conditions? We are "high desert" here so snow is really critical for our water tables, reservoirs, etc. All set and prepared here, chickens all ready. They love using their sun room in the winter for extra space. A year ago looked like this, great for dust baths and hanging out-