Redneck Engineering Saturday

They say that necessity is the mother if invention. That is often how our redneck engineering has come to pass. We live in Southern Arizona, so there is a lot of sandy soil, and very little grass. Therefore we bring in hay and feed, and grow fresh in container gardens in the pens. The problem is that when we clean pens, a lot of dirt gets shoveled out with the poop, and the ground level in the pens has slowly but steadily lead to lower ground in the goat pens. The chicken areas have easily had their holes filled over time, but the goats aren't so easy. We have tried several "scoop" solutions over the years, with this being our last incarnation...

Yep- hardware cloth over a horse pooper scooper, because the pellets would go right through otherwise. The problem with the scoop was you had to largely shake the scoop to get the dirt out, and that was another cloud of dust and allergy issues to deal with. So with Bailey getting ready to leave for summer, and kidding season almost upon us, Bailey and I sat at morning milking with a topic on our minds looking for something better. What else to do but raid the scrap pile?

There was a piece of hardware cloth (that stuff is awesome) used as a temporary fix on a fence panel that Wyatt and I are due to fix before that temp pen gets used again. So we didn't need it anymore, and procured it. Then to the woodpile. These boards seemed like a nice start. There were too more that size, but they would not work due to the size of the hardware cloth.  So Bailey headed off to the power tools.

She was a little concerned at one point about the edges and wood, but this isn't staying in the pen, only being used for muck. We are good with this. Here is how the "tool" came out.

Here it is in use. My milking doe, Mama Lulu wanted to help. Or be quality control. Or just be cuddled along the way, you never quite know with her!

This area of the pen- the doe barn has long been the worst. Which is awful, since their food is here! As we began shoveling large amounts of loose dirt out to get the poop, we confirmed just how low the dirt would go, and decided to add a concrete brick under each end of the hay feeder to bring a little stability and give us an idea where the level was when we finished.

Mama Lulu loves to ham it up for the camera, and started playing peekaboo from behind the hay feeder.

When we run the dirt throuh, the dirt falls down and leaves us with poop on top of the mesh. Then we dump the mesh into the muck wagon. If I had it to do over, one end would have a larger spot than this for the muck to run down to make it less messy dumping. Live and learn. But we did much better at leaving the dirt in the pen.

Here we are, part way done, with Versie checking things out.

They also liked to walk wherever we just cleaned and leave us more work to do!

Silver and Glory wanted to get in on the action. They wanted to help spread out the piles of dirt. Too bad they didn't want to carry them back to the doe barn!

Lulu saw the camera, had to scratch her chin as the sun was goig down behind her.

Goofy girl!

Here we were almost done. We will never get every single piece of poop and leave the dirt behind, but this worked much better! Score one for the Patriot's Dream girls and a little Saturday ingenuity!

The does ended up wanting two yellow "ribbons" to decorate for memorial day. I offered them their red white and blue ones from the shed, but they liked these from their hay bales and the yellow that even though we pay our respects this weekend to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, we don't forget those presently with boots on the ground while we are here at home.

Wyatt has decided he is going to show pygmy goats as well next year. He always said that he would as soon as they let him show bucks, which they won't, but he rather likes little McAllie. So Bailey taught him to trim hooves last night.

Well, that made for a productive day for us, even if we did want to get more done. What redneck engineering have you tried? Care to share with us?

Late Summer Garden Refresh, Part Two

This is Brown Seeded Simpson lettuce. I have AMAZING luck with it. It grows more like a stalk, which can be a bit odd, but if you let the last of it go to seed, the seeds gather easily and any you miss will automatically reseed and sprout when the temperatures are favorable. This variety has kept us in lettuce far more than any other, and that makes it a winner in my book!

Part of the end of Summer refresh meant weeding the tree sprouts volunteers out, as well as adding in a couple other varieties and a little broccoli.

This was a volunteer melon plant in the other planter, but I am a little worried it might be too late int he seaosn to get anything out of it. Still, I am going to let it go and see what comes of it since we stay warm so long here.

Shadow like to supervise me. I cannot miss her when she sits on the dirt pile.  She knows it, and she wants to make sure to be in the middle of the action.

Unfortunately, what you see here is me finishing off the last of the rainwater. The storm didn't come, again, and we are careful to use the water wisely, but this was draining hte last of this barrel into a watering can. Bummer.

These are purple heirloom tomatoes. Just about ready to pick... YUM! Ever tried them?

A pepper plant and some peas, winding up the trellis.

Another bell pepper plant. We love those...

And the strawberries are coming back into production since the heat dropped a bit, too...

Bailey was chatting with me while I worked, and jumped in to take on cleaning out the water barrels.The screens just aren't enough, they are good, but dirt still accumulates!

After another round of chores, sprouts, and more, a beautiful evening settles in and we head in to the next task.

We are making little forward steps with out projects around here, but always have more to do, of course. What are you doing in your gardens and livestock pens this time of year?

Moving Birds Around, Breeding for Demeanor as Well as Breed Standard

No matter how much feed is in the feeder, topping it off leads to chickens rushing up to make sure no one gets something they didn't. Plus, they really want those sunflower seeds!

The geese really do have their own area. And they know it, too. They like their little area, but really only want it when they have little ones or when the bucks are out munching on the mesquite beans near their area. The remainder of the time, they like the back yard, the dog's pool (so she bounces through theirs from time to time) and to wander around giving a piece of their mind to all of the other animals. Mother Goose, Mr. Wiggly and little Miss Friendly are quite the fun little family. I keep thinking that I need to adjust their area, but don't really know what to make different since they like to wander and keep away the hawks.

There were, however, a number of changes we needed to make this Spring. Funny thing how it struck me the other day, these (along with the three in the house) are the only little ones we have left from the Spring hatch. Three light Brahmas, a Polish, a bantam Cochin pullet, and a standard Cochin. Those in the house are two Silkies and a bantam Cochin. All of the others were either sold, or we knew they were roosters so when they were large enough, we sent them tot he freezer. I believe one of the Light Brahmas remaining is a cockerel, so because we like his personality, we will be keeping him as a backup to see how he comes out. (You should hear him practice crowing! Sounds awful, but hey, that voice changing thing...)

That is a LOT of animals off to their new homes beginning new flocks around Tucson this year!

In the process, we did a lot of moving around. This is Bucky. He is a Buckeye rooster who has been living with the laying flock in the big pen. He has been the backup for the Buckeye hens, and while he is very sweet and a good strong Buckeye, the other rooster in that pen was too rough to live with. After the other rooster went after both Wyatt and me, he was a marked boy.  Wyatt traded the two boys, just to see what would happen. The hens in the Buckeye pen MUCH prefer Bucky. And when the other rooster moved over to the big pen, Speckles (the roo that was in there) and the hens from the big pen set to teach him MANNERS.

So far, the manners thing seems to be working. I had wanted to not keep him, and hi son definitely didn't have a temperament I liked, but Wyatt wanted him to have a second chance. And I must admit, he is taking to that second chance. The jury is still out though, he and a couple of the Phoenix hens have had some seriously loud disagreements!

But when Bucky moved in the the ladies, things went randomly calm. The Light Brahma in the next pen over thinks he needs a regular talking to, but the hens are happy, and egg laying in that pen is up, too. 

We even moved these two little Buckeye hens in too. We did it at the same time, and gave them their new hanging feeder, too. We weren't so sure how it would go, and Wyatt stayed out there for some time cleaning other waters and keeping an eye on them, but they have acclimated quite well. We should begin seeing eggs from them in the fall.

We are still working on the last touches of the grow out pen, but did get the majority of the primer on. Hopefully in the next week we will be able to finish that and share it!

What are your Summer home, farm and livestock projects? We would love to have you all share them with us and the other readers!

Friends Do Everything Together- Including Cause Trouble...

It began with the Light Brahma who is on top in this photo. She prefers to hang out in the house. She likes to move the eggs around, sit on them, and sometimes eat them if we don't get to them fast enough.

I have to crawl almost completely inside this house and pick them up to get to the eggs!

On this particular day, I had to pick both of them up. They are friends, as you can tell, and they were trying to work together. They don't bite be, or even pretend to, but when I go for eggs, they whine. A rather high pitched, screechy whine. And as soon as I let one go, she jumps back on top of the other, thwarting my progress toward collecting eggs from this pen. I think they believe they will hatch the eggs themselves, though, they are notorious for having little peck holes in the eggs they are sitting on.

I have tried wooden eggs, and that usually works for about a week, until one of the kids inadvertently collects the wooden egg or they figure it out and leave me the wooden egg at the opening of the house.

These two have become best friends and accomplices, so I check them for eggs several times a day as I go past!

On this particular day, though, I wasn't fast enough. And if they thought they looked innocent when I walked up, here is the evidence: broken egg shell glue by egg goo to her leg feathering.  My son walked past when I was trying to deal with them, and he just said, " Mom, those girls are nuts. YOU are washing that bird!" Such a sweet boy... ehemmmm...

I suppose we all need a best friend- one to have fun with, and cause trouble- or get into trouble- with. Who is yours? And who are the best friend/ accomplices at your house?

Adventures in Home Repair- the Ceiling Fan Edition, part one...

Part of the fun of being a military wife is all of the fun things you learn to do on your own. And with your kids. All military wives know the same fun of any wife whose husband travels for work. You know, the cars where the alternator dies and all of the electrical goes out in the fast lane at the top of a hill at rush hour and you pray as you muscle it down the hill with a foot on the brake, hoping the other cars let you over so you can coast into the church parking lot at the bottom of the hill in the scary part of town? (Cue kind father in law to bail you out and bring a mechanic to the rescue... husband had barely crossed the state line when that happened!)

Yeah, that kind of fun. And I must note, my husband's deployments and TDYs, incessant as they were, never took him overseas. He almost did, but then they changed his orders. I know how lucky I am, but I still spend a good bit of time on my own, troubleshooting issues, hiring contractors when needed, and learning LOTS of new skills!

I have long been terrified by electrical work. It is on my list of classes to take, when the time arises (haha), but until then, I will learn a little at a time. Recently, a ceiling fan with a light, originally installed by a contractor (long story) literally fell out of the ceiling. Thankfully, no one was right under it, but it did sustain a couple broken light globes and a bent fan blade arm. 

I did what any goofy girl who no longer trusts contractors but wants it fixed would do...

I took pictures of the parts left behind, and stopped at the local Ace Hardware on the way home. While I really like Lowes for a number of things, when it comes to quirky how tos and random things you only run into in your part of town, the local small hardware store is a good first stop.

So I pulled out my not-so-smart phone and showed him what was left and where I thought it had failed,

which was this bracket you see below.

The man agreed with me that washes might be just the trick to getting the tiny screws to hold in the bracket. Then he explained how to hook up the wiring- white to white, black to black, and add the blue to the black bundle since it had a light on the fan, and leave the green as it was for the ground. That sounded easy enough, so I purchased washers and headed for home. Note to all of you for future reference- the washers actually needed to fit in the bracket- oops- so luckily we have a big stash of washers in the tool shed!

That afternoon, Bailey tried to hold the fan up for me to wire back together. We realized quickly that was just too awkward. So we took a bar stool, and stood it on the counter. We propped the fan on the stool, and the kids tried to help me by passing tools up when needed and making sure I didn't knock the fan down. 

That way, the wiring went pretty easily.

See? All hooked up, with the little things screwed on to hold the wires together properly.

The kids ended up having to help me shove the wired in while positioning the fan rod arm in the bracket. But then the housing went on fairly simply. And the big exciting part- it turned on! 

I decided to wait on getting new globes (and of course trying out the fan) until I figured out how to bend the arm back into place. I am still having trouble with that part. In fact, I stopped and looked at parts while getting paint at the big hardware store over the weekend. Turns out, the guy there thought I should give up and buy a new fan.

I am not ready to give up on it yet, gonna stop at ACE this week and ask about that part, and see if Wyatt can help me try again tonight, too.It is never as simple as it should be, but if we can figure this out, then Wyatt and I are going to put in a new fan switch in his. A little more intense on the electrical, but I found an online how-to, so you never know...

New Feeders! Always Trying to Improve!

For those of you who follow the blog, you are likely aware of the stages we have gone through with feeders. The chickens like to dump their food on the ground, and we also have issues with summer monsoons bringing water nearly parallel to the ground, wind gusts and micro-bursts, and also with wild animals. It is the wild animals that bring us the greatest concern, since they not only eat a lot of food, but also can bring disease, so we have been through several versions of feeders to try to come up with the best solution for our animals, who rather enjoy their treats along with their soy-free, corn-free, non-gmo organic feed!

Wyatt recently found these feeders he was hoping to try. So we purchased one and brought it home, hoping to see of it would help with all of the competing needs. The Silkie pen was first for this new feeder. 

Being that there was already a hook in the pen, and they don't have as much rain reaching the area where that would put hte feed, it was a good first choice. I added a scoop of feed, which would usually last 2-3 days with them. I didn't figure that would require filling it all the way, which would also mean that I didn't have to fret so much about losing a lot of feed if this idea was a bust with them!

I raided Bailey's stash of bailing twine, and tied the feeder to hang high enough that the Silkies stand properly as they eat, nothing can jump in it, but that the geriatric White Faced Black Spanish hens that are in retirement in the Silkies' pen can still eat just fine. This was very early last week, and it took them much of the week to go through the scoop I put in there. I regularly saw all of the different chickens that reside in there munching away, so I decided it was worth trying a wider spread application of the new feeder.

We cannot afford to purchase new feeders for all of the poultry at one time, but I did go ahead and buy two more last Saturday, and Wyatt and I stood and decided the next to pens for roll out were the main laying pens, the A pen and the Big pen. These pens usually go through about a scoop per day in this weather. So we started in the Big pen, where this 4x4 is angled near the doorway of their barn, helping re-frame it after a micro-burst several years ago. I ran in a longer, thicker cup hook. It wouldn't angled or hang properly if I left it on the hook, so  we put it high enough that the feeder would swing freely and not have any pests feeding on it from the support beam, but still have it centered in and back far enough from the opening of the barn.

As soon as Wyatt poured the scoop in, we were surrounded by hens who felt the need to push us out of the way so they could be among the first to enjoy their new feeder.

The A pen was a little more challenging. There is a metal support for the roof, which was pretty easy to tie the feeder to, since the corners are favorite roosting spots and we didn't want accidental poop in the feeder or rain from the monsoons. The blue in the edge of the photo is a plastic tabletop that we use for nesting boxes to sit on, and that arrangement may have to be revisited if they fuss over the feeder or knock into when they fuss over next boxes (don't all hens want to use the same box at the same time at your house, too?)

So far, all of the new feeders are working beautifully. Feed economy might be slightly improved, although Wyatt is having a hard time with filling the feeders which are slightly smaller than the feed scoop. I will have to help him find a better solution for that this week. We also found a couple white buckets that still have the handles on them, which we plan to try to rig as temporary hanging feeders in the grow out pen and a couple of the breeding pens, I will try to take photos when we work on those so you can try it too, just as soon as we get the buckets unstuck!

What all have you all tried? Where do you put the fodder feed for your chickens for those of you who also use fodder? Please share your photos and solutions with us, and let me know who to credit so that I can share them with others trying to learn! 

Have a great day!