Weekly Journal #2 and Progress Update

Summary
This past week has been chock-full of building!! A lot of new experiences for me.
I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures of the coop in progress--due to copyright on the coop plans, I am not permitted to post pictures of the full coop in progress online. If you know me in person, feel free to come over and check it out. Such pictures will be on my project presentation on the 22nd on May.

The weekend of the 12th was a busy one--my sister and I framed all four walls of the coop. This includes the front, back, and side walls. There were some bumps in the road, but they all came out decent. This was my first ever building project.
My sister is more of a woodworker than I am, so I enlisted her to give me a hand, and I'm very thankful for that decision. She helped me learn to operate the tools, and taught me how to use wood correctly. And she was a big help in the actual building. It sped up the process immensely.
We had some major problems that bogged us down, mostly stemming from the fact that of lot of the wood was not top-notch quality. A lot of it was warped, meaning not straight, making it difficult to get the studs to attach correctly, or to accurately measure certain parts. If you need to build something, go to lumber yard and pick the wood yourself!

I use a saw!

Carrying wood, sanding, cutting, drilling, and hammering were all part of the weekend's work.











Over the rest of the week, I assembled the pieces of the frame to make it look more like a three-dimensional structure (pictures unavailable online). This included a lot of drilling, screw driving, measuring, and crying (kidding--except over warped wood. No, still kidding). I had help from my sister and my friends Ray and Mary once again during this process. This is a project that is mostly impossible without a pair of helping hands from time to time.

Some clamped studs from the frame.

On Tuesday, Mary and Ray accompanied me to Littleton Lumber to purchase some more wood. I was missing two 2"x2"x8' strips, and I was hoping I'd be able to buy more there. They didn't have two-by-twos, however, so I bought 6 two-by-threes instead. They'll offer more support for the roof anyway. I also bought one more 2"x8"x8' board. I need two of those for roof rafters, and one was warped beyond repair, so I purchased a new one. We put it all in Mary's station wagon to get it home.

Hi!

The remainder of the time that day was spent digging (again). I need to put in cinder blocks to keep the coop off the ground, so moisture doesn't rot the wood. Unfortunately, New England grows rocks, so much of the time was spent digging those up, making the task much longer and more painful (ow, my back). Our favorite rock-removing tool is a 5-foot long solid iron rod, with one pointed end. I named him Vlad the Impaler.

Vlad and the Shovels (sounds like a bad band name)

Mary and the biggest rock we encountered. We aptly named it the Dinosaur Egg. It's bigger than your head, I promise.

That day, Mary, my sister, and I also began to set the cinder blocks, narrow ends up. It wasn't til the following day that we had real problems, though. Leveling the blocks was a challenge, and, once again, the rocks didn't make the job any easier. We settled with an extra inch sticking out, but we were cold and tired by that point. It'll do the job just as well. In the end, we got the first 4 out of 8 set. (There are 8 because one needs to go below each vertical stud for support.)

 The blocks are 8 by 8 by 16 inches--we had to dig at least a foot for each block!

Today, I headed west to Athol to visit Mr. Josh Pincus, the livestock manager at the Farm School I attended in 4th grade. He gave me some advice, and good points about interacting with chickens. (He also said that they are mini dinosaurs, which I do not find hard to believe. He told me they killed a mouse once.)

Listen to the interview with Josh Pincus here!

I spent the rest of today setting the last 4 cinder blocks. This time, I overlooked the directions and set them wide side up instead of narrow side, so I could avoid digging. The rocks are an absolute nightmare to deal with. The only complication this creates is that of sheet metal. Small pieces of metal are tacked onto the frame beneath each stud for extra water protection. They cover the area that touches the cinder block entirely when the block is narrow side up, but not wide side up. That is alright though--the zinc plates are an extra precaution anyway. After setting and leveling the blocks, my sister and I painstakingly moved the huge frame onto them, and leveled them again as necessary. I'm so proud of all the work! Next step: the roof!!

 Nailing zinc plates under the point of contact between the cinder blocks and frame.

 Part of the frame set on the wide side up blocks.

Reflection

The pea stones left in the coop area are still awful, in the way, and plain ugly. Mom is having parts of the garden re-landscaped though, so maybe the landscapers can find a clever way to get rid of them. Also, I need to take into account gardens for Mom around the coop. Getting rid of the pea stones would be good for flower garden aesthetics too. To warm my animal-deficient mother up to the idea of chickens and a coop, I've brought up the topic of chicken-friendly gardens. Mom loves gardening, but she's been having issues with deer and other pests eating her plants recently, as she hasn't had as much time to combat them as usual. Chickens eat almost anything, so the good news is that, if chickens don't eat it, chances are most other animals don't either! She wants to add more plants to her garden, so I'm looking into that. As for how this relates to the pea stones, I want mom to be able to plant some things around the coop once it is completed--such as a climbing plant on the hardware cloth. It will not only look pretty climbing up the enclosed run (for Mom), but it will also serve as a source of summer shade for the chickens (for me). And if the area looks nice, Mom will  be happier with it (I love you, Mom!!).
Over the course of this week, I've learned a lot about wood and building. I've learned how to keep it from splitting, how to identify and avoid warped wood, how to avoid knots in the wood when nailing/driving screws, how to use a level and leveling sand, and to always measure the width of the saw blade before cutting! Most of what I learned this week was about handy work--all useful skills to have later in my life (how to use a hammer is always a good one, you know). And how to deal with rocks. I still can't get over this.
Josh Pincus also gave me some good tips for warming people up to animals. He says exposure and involvement are the two surest ways to get people to enjoy animals. He says chickens are pretty easy once they are fully grown, which is yet more incentive as to why people should keep the animals. Not only do they offer eggs, but once they reach adulthood, they are pretty low-maintenance. Also, he says he hopes I like eggs--once grown, they will lay approximately one a day each. That's five eggs a day! Over time, there will be plenty for me, my family, my neighbors, and my friends!