Nails

Here's the nails I've been usiing- someone found them in a box of Roseburg Dave's tools. They suck! Anytime I try to pound one of the long ones into particulary hard wood, it bends. Just too old and pathetic, I guess.






For your viewing pleasure. Good and bad nails. Aren't I learning important stuff??? I am :-). The right tools for the job. Soon my "book smart" brain will be able to handle real-life stuff :-D.









Brand new nails that really work well. Yay!
I learned something!

Chicken pen music

This has nothing to do with music, but...I have to cut holes in the hardware cloth so the plum tree will grow up straight and tall. We want to have plums this year; we got almost nothing last year.

What would you listen to if you were building a chicken coop????

Front View

Okay, it doesn't look so bad after all.













Another design flaw. We couldn't staple into the shed, cuz the shed is made of wierd un-staple-ab le material (not wood), so we put up this red board. Now we have to wrap the hardware cloth around it. Good thinking, Jen!












Live and Learn. When we put the posts up, I knew in the back of my head that the hardware cloth was only 4 feet across. However, we hammered up the posts without measuring. So I was stuck with posts too far apart. No worries! I just put up a crossbeam (is that the right name for it???)

The front was easier to put up, but due to a design flaw that I just now noticed, I had to cut off a post that was sticking out. I used Chunshik's circular saw and then sawed off the rest with an old, rust saw-thingy we have.

More building

I can fit, but not move once I'm in there.

This part was hard- no elbow room.

Decided to get new staple gun. I've had it!

Bailey is always inside the run.

I worked on the chicken run last weekend. It was a little less fun this time, due to a tight space and a crappy nail gun. Well....the nail gun is fine, but my hand is too small and weak to pull the tricker AND hold the gun steady, so when I do try to staple, the staples go in 1/2 way or crooked. Then I pound them in with a hammer....anyhow, as you can see from the pix, the side next to the fence is real hard to nail up. I have to squish myself between the chicken run and the fence, then try to sqeeze the nail gun at an odd angle. Basically, I finally just quit, since none of my staples would go in straight. Then I went to FM's to get a new staple gun. But my staples wouldn't fit into the gun.....

sick of chicks

Well, I have to tell the truth. I'm tired of the chicks inside. Mostly because they are unhappily stuck in their too-small brooder for too many hours a day. They make a lot of noise wanting to get out. Poor things. Also, they regularly knock over their food and water and fill up their water with poop and pine shavings. Very smart animals. Plus, they are basically another thing to feel responsible for (like the dogs, my sister, nephew, mom, students, job, bills, world peace, etcetera). If they were happy to see me, at least I'd get some ego-strokes! But noooooo! Anyhow, I try to get them out every day, usually by putting them on the living room floor. However, since there have been some sunny days, we've been putting in the side yard (blocked off from rest of yard). A fine idea! We can see them from the kitchen area and since it's blocked I don't have to worry about them jumping the fence or getting snatched out of the sky by a carnivorous bird. They can't really jump the fence yet, but in another month, they will be able to, I think, then what will I do?). Anyhow, I feel quilty when they are trapped in their cell, I mean box, all day....

New foods

Well, the chicks are old enuf to try new foods. Since I had a big flat of strawberries, I gave them the tops. Sounds yummy, right? No takers. Then I tried some sunflower seeds. They ate just a few of them. I know this is naive, but I want my chickens to like me. I thought food might make them more interested in me, but noooooooo. They still don't give a sh*t about me. On the backyard pdx chicken listserve, some people's chickens come running to them for treats. Guess I'll have to try different treats!

Chix outside

April is stretching her wings, a regular occurance now-a-days














They stay under the chair a lot- must be safer




























Out in the open