NOCC - Progression

It's happening!

For all those who have been watching the NOCC (New Old Chicken Coop) come to life, well, from that last attempt which we no longer speak about, to this! It is not yet finished, however it is well on its way. We have hit a few 'unexpected' issues along the way, but it has been so much fun to work through them with my awesome partner in these crazy ventures (Queen Cassowary).

So as a quick recap, we got an old van, and we are making it into a chicken coop, well, more an isolation coop for when we get new birds or a sick bird. We moved the van into place with no 'major' problems, however the first attempt at creating the 'living' area was a fail. We have switched to wood frame (instead of poly pipes) and it is working :) So far so good!!

So this is what it looked like when we started again. Poly pipes down and a lot more wood was brought up from our 'resource pile'. The great thing about collecting things that you might use later, is that when you think of something to make or do, we have 95% of it here already :) Wood, tin, pipes, screws, wires, and more... (including the odd fridge!)

Back to the progress, we redesigned the frame of the coop to be wooden, this was a challenge as the outdoor area is going to be about 3 meters high, and 4 meters wide, so it is not too small. The problem with the poly pipes was that they could not support the weight of the shade sail over that large distance. We did consider only using chicken wire, however when there are no chickens, ducks, geese or guinea fowl in the isolation coop (NOCC) then I will use it to grow something (veggies in a hydroponic bed most likely), so I wanted to have the shade to enable the area to be used for lots of different things. So wood it is. Problem with wood at this size is the weight of the wood. Getting it that high was a task and a half. The only ladder we have is a three step ladder (plus the part on the top) and we don't have the funds to get a bigger one just yet, so we make do.

This is the frame, made mainly from hardwood from an old shed frame. The screws that we used to hold the whole thing together are screws that have been kept from other projects, or saved from things that we have pulled apart over time. One of the most important things that we have found when recycling things, make sure that you sort things out. Put like screws together, put cables together, try to sort of everything you can as you pull things apart (or collect things) and add them to your growing 'resource pile' so that when you need screws, it is just a matter of getting the screw container, inside it you should have lots of little containers, or compartments) and working what fits where. It is nice when it all just happens, however sometimes you just have to buy things :(

From this part, we needed to connect the frame to the van, and to the other end of the fence (the part you are looking at now is the middle of the outdoor area. If you remember from previous posts, where the shade cloth is attached to the van, there is a wooden frame we made around the door, so we chose to use that as the far left point to connect to. That part was relatively easy, however really important to keep the whole 'shape' of the frame and support it later.

This is all we really needed (on both sides) just to ensure the frame would not move to much. Then the other side of the frame needed to come up. That was a new problem, as now the top of the frame was over 3 meters high, and screwing things above that was 'comical', however we did it. At times we joked "you know those 'health and safety on the work place' videos you see and think, yeah, sure, WHO would do that, who would balance on one leg on top of a ladder with a electric drill in one hand and a heavy beam of wood in the other, while looking at the 'view from up here'.." .. yeah.. that was us :) It was a really nice view though!

So this is the other side, the side that is attaching to the fence. It comes down on a slight angle to help water not pool at the top of it, hopefully it works. We do try to think of everything that we might need to take into consideration, however I am sure that we have missed one or two things, but we will catch up :)

Now, shade cloth time, so one end is already attached to the van (from the earlier failed attempt), no need to change that too much, just throw it over, nail it down as we move along.

And it is working! It is ALIVE!!! Under the shade cloth you can feel it cooler already, shaded and calming. Whoever goes in here will be happy :)
So we went along and touched it up, making the shade cloth as tight as we could, however realising as we along that there must be something more to this than just pulling it tight and nailing it on. There are some points where it sags a little, and some parts where it is not too even, but nothing around here is perfect so why should this be! :)

This is a view of one of the corners, just in the case that you are wondering. If you would like more information about whatever else (like how, when, where, etc) then please just ask, I have lots more photos and information, I just don't want to over load you.

We wanted to make a little gate at the end that is NOT the van end, so we supported the top of it (that will be the top of the door frame) and then built a gate underneath it. In the final view of the NOCC I will put up more details about how and why things are the way that they are.

This is Scarlet testing out the gate for me :) It is not finished, I have to put latches on it, and I am thinking about putting a spring on the inside so it automatically closes, fancy eh? :)

So that is the stage we are up to now, we are about to go and keep going. The shade cloth is up, a gate is up, the wire is looking good, nearly done! :)

I hope that you all enjoy the progress of this, I will let you know how it goes, but here are some other photos from the helpers that we have had so far in the project.

Scarlet on a coffee break, it is hard work supervising all the humans!

Robin was around a lot to ensure that the quality of the wood met her high standards!

And Charlie made appearances here and there, just to see if we had anything nice that she could eat, the answer was always no.

I hope that you all have a great day, we are going back out there to get this done! Enjoy your life, and be inspired by the beauty around you.

Some ducks....

Chickens, ducks and geese

This little clip is an experiment to see how well linking my little clips of my crazy girls will go on my blog. So far it looks a little slow and choppy, but we will see :)

I talked before about setting up a YouTube channel to put all the clips onto, I think that will be the way to go, and link them from here.

Here are some of the ducks and geese. The geese are so interesting, they are so curious, whenever you do anything, there they are to check out what's going on. Chickens will get in your face to explore things, they will jump in a hole as you are digging it, or try to examine a chainsaw while you are using it (not too smart), but geese are different, they don't put themselves in harms way like chickens do, but they still want to be involved :) They still like to know what is happening, and if they can eat anything that is happening (as you can tell by this page alone, nobody is starving here!)

The video clip at the top of the page was just after throwing some seed (you can see some girls in the background actually eating what I gave them) and the ones in the foreground (mainly the Muscovy ducks!) are asking for more or something different, they will not get it, they never do, but they always like to ask, The Muscovy's especially like to eat out of your hand, I think it is their way of ensuring that THEY are getting all the food, and there is no 'waste'. I love them all, and their 'special' personalities :)

I will look into how to get the YouTube thingy happening, I have a lot of little movies like this one, movies about what I have been doing, or just the animals being, well, the animals, very cheeky.

I hope that you all enjoy your day today, hopefully it is filled with chickens, ducks, geese and the rest of life, not stuck in an office somewhere not wanting to be there.

Be happy, I'll talk to you all soon! :)

An anamalistic overview

I was thinking about what to blog, blogging requires inspiration I think, however I am tired, it is Saturday morning, I don't sleep too well these days and I don't really like sitting on the computer, I find it boring and un-inspiring. With that said though, I get to look through some photos for my blog, it is nice to reminisce and see how far things have changed in such a short period (for better or worse)

So, while thinking, should I write a blog on the update of the van/coop.. yes, however I don't have the photos on the computer yet *sigh* too much effort some days! :) Then I was thinking, what about my water moving projects, projects designed to move water around the area; either for power creation, irrigation or aeration. So that was what this morning was going to be, a quick document about the different methods I have tried so far, what I have found, and what I am going to do, but then I got caught up looking at cute pictures of my babies, and said "no, on a Saturday morning people want to see cute animals, not water projects".

The above picture is a quick look at a lot of animals in one picture :) You can see that there is wire between the two cats and the birds, this is a look from inside the 'cat-eo' (if you recall the cat-eo from a previous blog). It has been upgraded since this photo, there is now a flooring instead of natural, which has been met with mixed responses from the feline owners of this house :) So, who is in this picture? Well, starting from the most obvious, Pants, she is on-high to survey the area and ensure that her kingdom is running smoothly, under her (in many ways) is Binx. I have not talked about Binx yet, he is (was) a beautiful cat that we were cat-sitting for a period while a friend was moving houses. Unfortunately for Binx he did not fit in too well. He comes from a home that has one cat, Binx, and that is all there is in life. Being thrown into this house upset him a little since there was already a hierarchy, and he wasn't included. Also being a "complete" cat (all our domestic pets are desexed) I think that he felt out of place. Nevertheless I know that he did have some fun times (mainly with Thunder Cat).
Next in the photo are some chickens mixed with some ducks :) There are two (of our three) breeds of ducks in that photo, The larger ones, I am not sure if they have a breed, cat you have riffraff ducks, is that a breed? They are just mutts I think :) Lovable though. And in the back you can see two of the three Mallards that we have, these little ladies are so cute, so soft and quiet, unlike the riffraff ducks! :)
And then the geese, not much needs to be said for these beauties, you either know geese, or you are afraid of geese, simple. They are so loud, obnoxious, clumsy but so adorable and lovable. When I come outside they stand up tall, open their wings wide and run at me as fast as possible. If I didn't know these geese I might actually be a little weary of this, but they are just trying to get to me ASAP to get all the food! So cute.
The ducks (mainly) like to hang around the cat-eo, because it is also under the kitchen window, and any time we walk past the kitchen they can see us and they let us know that they are still there, I think with the hopes that food will appear for them, hopeful :)

While on the topic of Binx, another picture of the little man (little is relative), and Buttons :) These two didn't get along really, Buttons being the alpha-male in the cat hierarchy and Binx invading his turf (and checking out his woman!), but it never go too bad, a few scratches here and there.

This is Charlie, she is a strange little chicken, lays the cutest little eggs :) She was a rescue chicken from only days old, sad, but happy now :) She bosses nearly everyone around in the fowl world. She is the smallest of all of them, but she will tell the geese (largest) off if they do the wrong thing. It is very funny to watch! :)
She was hand raised due to the fact that she was so small and weak when we got her, but as she got bigger she slowly got introduced to the other girls (only have 5 chickens at that stage) and slowly took over as chicken-on-high, I fear for any rooster that attempted to join this flock!

The last picture I will leave you with is this picture of Scarlet 'protecting' this Brazilian Cherry. The tree was given to us (lovingly) by two very good/beautiful friends of ours, Matt and Juliana. It is growing so nicely, and hopefully it will give us years of joy and fruit :)
Scarlet of course is doing what she does best, being cheeky, poking her tongue out. Scarlet is such a beautiful puppy, she has the best nature about her, but when her heckles come up and her teeth come out, don't poke her! :) Right now she is trying to get to know the Alpacas better, I think she believes that since they share a similar color with her, they must be related (I never said that she was the smartest puppy!) She is a very loyal dog, and protects her heard/flock/family all the time. All our animals live together (except the cats, they just share with the dogs), but the dogs so in and out all the time, they hang out with the ducks and chickens, everyone gets along nicely :) I don't like leaving the dogs alone with the chickens for too long though, Scarlet (especially) likes to go into the chicken coop and search for eggs, I know what you are thinking 'good girl Scarlet for finding eggs and bringing them inside'...no... they are a lunchtime snack for her, and Digger likes to eat the chicken food.. we do have some confused animals out here!

Well, I must depart, the ladies are starting to sing their merry song to me. On a leaving note however, I will be getting a YouTube 'account' up and running soon, and on there I will be putting a lot of movies, movies about the things I am doing around here, and projects, and the crazy things that the animals do, so stay tuned for that one! :)

I hope that you all enjoy your day, and if you have to work today, or you are feeling down, just picture Scarlets little face, poking her tongue out at you :)