Lazy Gardener's Little Town Farm

[Lazy Gardener]

I've tried it every which way. It appears to be in my computer as a JPG, and every time I try, I get a "sorry, we're having problems" message. I'll have hubby look at it and see if he can figure it out this week. I am mentally challenged when it comes to any thing to do with computers. Give me a spade, and a pile of manure... and I can figure out what to do with that. Computers... not so much!!

 

[CarpCharacin]

How much do you want to crop it?

 

[Lazy Gardener]

The dog pic? I don't think it really needs much cropping at all.

 

[CarpCharacin]

The dog pic? I don't think it really needs much cropping at all.

The one that you want to use for your avatar.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Yes, the dog pic, I want to use that as my avatar, but can't quite figure out how to make it happen.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Today, it was warm enough to work outside without a jacket. Finally, every last stick of firewood has been stacked. Dog caught and ate 2 mice as I was stacking wood. I have a pretty strong stomach. I don't think there is anything more gross than watching a dog shred and eat a mouse.

Pulled a 2" deep cap of frost off one corner of a garden bed to tuck in some garlic cloves that appeared intact after multiple freeze/thaw cycles when they got left laying on the ground. It will be interesting to see if they survive and produce a crop!

2 days of net surfing and phone calls have finally resulted in me finding a source for feed grade whole barley. Hubby picked it up tonight. So, I'll be able to start sprouting for the chickens. Last year, I sprouted in qt mason jars. This year, I think I'll try sprouting in seedling flats.

Seed catalogs arriving! Fedco came today.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I'd love to see a photo and construct details of your field shed. I may be building a Wood's Open Air style coop in the spring, and envision building it as 2 shed roof style buildings that would then be butted up against each other, resulting in a clerestory in the center. This coop will be over our leach field, so I need to be able to move it if the need should arise. It needs to be open floor design, and I'd love to build it in components that could be bolted together.

Do you have a tractor or riding lawn mower, so that you could build a coop on skids so you could drag it?

We have a 4WD truck. I'm hoping that by building it in 2 sections, if the need arises, I can just place some PVC rollers under each section and move it manually that way. That's how we moved the heavy 2 story CP coop. I don't anticipate needing to move it unless we have leach field problems, or I stop raising chickens all together, and decide to sell it. I would not want to even drive the truck over the leach field. Ride on lawn mower, and other light equipment are ok, but I don't want any heavy equipment driving over the leach field.

I envision that each section would have skids as bottom framing. I hate to use PT, but may do so in this case.

I use the heavy boards on bottom and eye bolts to hook to for pulling. No big deal, really. Just be sure your framing has enough structure to prevent any twist issues when pulled. The smaller ones, I can hook to the eye bolts & lift with the front end loader. Moving them isn't difficult, just "lifting" from settling into ground if it has been setting a while for the larger ones.

You can leave some extra length on the bottom and cut a slant, so when you pull, it's like a ski, curved up. The perfect square causes drag if you cannot lift it slightly while pulling.

The big issue with this build: I want an open floor. If I put a plywood floor in, that would stabilize it well. But, without that floor structure, or floor joists, it needs an alternate plan. The small Woods structures I've seen have minimal framing, usually horizontal 2 x 3's at the walls, but they have a floor. I'm thinking that if I do that horizontal framing, I could then do perches on the diagonal, attached to the horizontal wall framing, giving it the sturdiness of a triangle. Similar triangles at the bottom and roof corners should do the trick. Hubby is a building/truss designer by trade. So, he'll be an immense help in the design work. The problem will be in wedding his "do it right" mind set with my "this is what I want" mindset. Fun negotiating times ahead for us!!!

So, I don't keep hijacking this thread, I'm gonna move this post, and all pertinent preceding posts to my Little Town Farm thread.

 

[baymule]

I used 4x4 PT for skids. I put a PT 2x4 at the front and back and cut corner braces, it doesn't warp when pulled. But after framing it up and putting tin on the roof, it is heavy, have to use the tractor to pull it.

If you built it facing the direction you want to pull it, you could run a chain to it, then hook onto the truck and pull it off the leach field. When leach field repairs are done, go to other side and pull it back.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

The set up, including obstacles and terrain might be a limiting factor. But, I'm sure we'll get it figured out. What are the dimensions of your building @baymule ?

 

[baymule]

8’ wide, 12’ long