It's vacation time

Well it is finally here, vacation!  The coop and various other project have been put on hold while Procrastination Ranch goes on vacation.  A road trip that has been long over due.  The PNW needs to be explored, and we are the ones to do it!  I fully intend to nerd out at the local museums featuring the great migration to the west.  Lewis and Clarke museum and the like.

Everyone I know that has been to, or lived in Oregon says the same thing to me;
"you would love it there!"

So we are very excited to go.  This trip in particular has been talked about for years.  Back in the day (before kids) we had grand plans of all these road trips.  Oregon and Washington being top on the list.  Now, a mere 10 years later the time has come!  We did Washington years ago when friends of ours were getting married in Spokane.  I decided that we would extend the trip for the wedding into a family vacation and made arraignments to fly into Seattle and rent an RV and drive across Washington to the wedding, and then continue on into Canada for a week and fly back out of Seattle.  One big loop.  It was amazing, to say the least.  But I digress...

Oregon here we come!

(Mom and Dad please feed kitties and doggy and water plants... the ones in the back too.  Oh, and get the mail?  Pretty please?  Thanks!!)

Coop De Ville

So the chicken coop is coming alone nicely, with progress being made almost everyday.  I have photographic evidence to prove it!

The chicken ramp

I just love the sound of the hammer clacking against the nails and wood.  It was very satisfying whacking with all my might and watching the nail imbed itself into the paneling.  Wiping sweat from my brow, I imagined the grateful little chickens running around and pecking at the carpenter ants that are over running my back yard. 

View from my kitchen window, the open half of the one wall will provide a nice breeze to keep the chickens comfy in our dry hot summers.

We got nice heavy duty hinges for the double doors.  Mmmmm hardware....

The top to the nesting boxes is done!

The last of the walls are done and the window has been installed.  Complete with hinges to let some air in.  Happy chickens make lots of eggs :)

All the openings have been covered with chicken wire to keep predators out. No animal is going to eat my chickens before I do!

The dang staple gun kept getting jammed making the chicken wire very difficult to get done, which was frustrating in and of itself because it should have been one of the easiest jobs!

The kids have proclaimed that they are sleeping in the chicken coop tonight, with plans to lay down blankets and pillows.  After trudging load after load of stuffed animals and books and blankets the kids talk about how awesome it is going to be, then (spoiler alert!) mom says no, put it back.
awe shucks!  :(  "We never get to do anything fun!"  They cry. 

     Part of me wants to let them go through the motions and see how long it takes before they are knocking on the door to come in for a snuggle and a story.  However these thoughts are ignored and instead the old fuddy-duddy wet blanket comes out of my mouth - shooting down their nocturnal adventures.  Maybe some other night, but for now I have other plans for them... like cleaning their room for instance, which has been turned upside down in their enthusiastic pursuit of sleeping in the coop.

The pressure is being felt to get the Coop De Ville (yes I named the coop and yes it is the "Coop De Ville") done soon as we have planned a road trip up to Oregon for the end of this month and I want to get those chickens in there when we get back. 

I got my glads in the ground!

Let me start off by saying that I have never had the best luck with plants.  Noah has the green thumb in the family.  Give me a cactus and I will give you a dried out twig stuck in a pot.  I have been that way my whole life.  Sad I know.

So I have these Gladiola bulbs, and a packet of wild flower seeds that is suppose to attract butterflies and hummingbirds.  I know that the glads are going into the front planter, that much has been established.  Noah says "we need to get the drip irrigation going before the flowers go in."  to which I scoff and say "It is not necessary! That's too much."  To which he says "Are you going to go out twice a day to hand water?"  Drip irrigation it is!

We bought some nutrient rich top soil (until we get the compost established: too many projects!) and mixed it into the existing soil after a good soak and weeds pulled.  Of course Noah had a graph paper sheet drawn up with the planter's specs all to scale telling him the exact placement of the drip irrigation heads so that each bulb would be evenly spaced for proper water coverage.

That's great honey, point to the spots and I will plant!

I envisioned these bulbs all shooting up out of the ground, 4 feet high all in full boom and evenly spaced so as to please the eye when one would gaze upon them. 
Another nice deep soak, and I was done!  It feels good to get projects done.  To get my hands dirty and sweat.  And I will have something to show for it!  Now about those rosemary bushes...

The chicken coop continued...

The rains stayed for not very long so the remainder of the wood was used to frame out a little bit more.  Grandpa (or Baba as he is called by his grandchildren)  came over to help out. 

The boys finished almost all the framing  and dreams of farm fresh eggs filled my brain as I watched the skeleton of  the coop from my kitchen window.

These wood slats were found on the trash heap left on the property from before we moved in, Noah figured they would work good as a chicken ramp to go down into chicken run.  It looks like it was made just for chicken claws, I have no idea what the original purpose was for it, but it is a chicken ramp now!

We could wait no longer for a sweet score and caved in buying 6 2X4's to add more to the coop.  After the nesting boxes were framed out it was decided that the plywood would be the next step.

cluck cluck

The beginning of June came with a heat wave and early on the first Sunday Baba came over with his van and they got 6 sheets of plywood to start.  The roof and half a floor later it was really coming together.  Some of the walls and nesting box would be piecemealed with the scraps and another run of plywood to finish it off.  The little hen house was strong and sturdy. 

We began talking about how we would transport the chickens.  "We're going to have to use the van or the suv..."  "Too bad we don't have that big dog crate anymore!"  and the like.  It was getting exciting, something we have talked about for years was very close to happening. 

Chicken Coop

After acquiring a sweet score of $1 for a 8ft 2X4 back in early May, we (and when I say we, I mean Noah) started two of the sides of the chicken coop that weekend. 

Some plans purchased online proved to be too complicated and costly for the simple chicken coop that we had in mind and Noah decided that he would mostly wing it and took just a few of the design aspects from the plans and altered to fit our liking.  After talking out some design aspects, he was off and running.

This is how it all started, one side framed out on the ground waiting to be put up.  The other side was done as well and the window dry fitted to ensure proper fit.

The window was made by Noah using a random piece of glass that was found and framed out with scrap molding that was found in a trash heap on the property. 

Score!

 The weather had been heating up these last two weeks and the average temp was high 80's low 90's.  Summer seemed to be encroaching on Spring.  Back off summer, dang!  Wait your turn. So with the weather so nice, and such a lucky find on timber, it seemed as if the time was right to get at least the frame of the structure up and go from there. 

So two sides were completed with plans to get more done during the week.  Then the rain came!  Project put on hold for the next foreseeable future... at least until the wood dries out!



Pretty up that front!

The front of the house is sad.  It is sad in that it is so cute, with so much potential but has been neglected for a while.  Dirt and weeds over grown and parched.  It needed help, poor little thing!

I have plans for you!

I decided that I would make most of what I can with found and recycled items.  Craigslist scores and what have you.  I wanted to see how much I could get with out getting new items, I was on a mission to do this as "green" as possible.  Can I just say for the record that I hate that word.  It has lost all it's meaning and has become like a pop word or buzz word and too much is associated with it.  And yet I have used it, so there you go!  Here is a crappy picture of the front taken with a phone, isn't she cute!  I just love this little place.

Needs work!

This place really had potential and I was inspired by the space.  There were so many options that I kept changing my mind and sketching designs only to scrap them with the proclamation that I could do better then that!  Ah, procrastination rears it's ugly head yet again.  Weren't these all just excuses?  Forget about it and dive in and let go!!

The front planter was a great place to start.  Upon further inspection, it was noted that the wall needed some repair work.  Nothing that little replacement brick and some mortar couldn't fix.  There were already water lines with spigots run in the bed and the dirt wasn't in too bad of shape.  I had some Gladiola bulbs and some wild flower seeds that were suppose to attract humming birds and butterflies, so I would start with that.  The Glad's needs were easy to tend to.  Lots of water and full sun.  Oh, you like full sun?  Well you got it sister! 
I just love the tall stalks with those bursts of bright flower buds all around. The height of the flowers are perfect for the recessed property.  You would have no problems viewing the beautiful flowers from the street and it will give the place nice curb appeal.  Well if there was a curb, it would have appeal!

The newly revived pomegranates and juniper

So, it is final, the gladiola bulbs would go in the front planter with the pomegranate bushes and juniper flanking each end. We started repairs on the wall as we ripped out the weeds and newspaper (provided by the previous tenants, cheap mulching I am guessing?) and mixed in some compost dirt and manure.  Tilling up the dirt and shooing all the spiders that had taken up residence there in the long absence of humans was tough work. 

Dear husband Noah got the drip irrigation started and laid down the tubes making ready for my bulbs. 

Disaster struck!

Heat wave :( 

That and coupled with a sudden cold sidelined our plans.  Slow going but we trudged on being that summer is right up on us.  This is early June already and this 104 degree heat is draining.


I do my best work at dusk anyways!

So it has started....

*positions soapbox*

With the way the world is now, it is no wonder that I have been leaning more and more towards natural living.  The artificial ingredients and poorly made products in third world countries creates futile rage deep inside.  I felt like I was part of the problem by silently contributing to what is wrong with this world.  The lax regulations from the Regan administration started a snowball effect that has gotten out of hand.  Being a child of the 80's I could feel that tiny snowball behind me, gathering more momentum as it gathered more snow made up of greed and hidden agendas.  I do not want to sit idle by while my life is filled with consuming and anxiety and guilt.   And eventually that snowball is going to smack me right in the back of the head while I am distracted by the machine telling me to consume and collect debt and ingest ammonia soaked meat, genetically modified and chemically altered "food".  I plan to dodge that altogether. 

So here I am witnessing the downfall of our society to the top percent-ers running the show and I am not helpless.  Sure I can't stop it, but I can make efforts to not be a part of it.  If I remove myself from the machine I am no longer a cog, but my own.  Screw you guys, I do what I want!!!

*steps off soapbox*

First step was to move to a place that could offer the space to be able to live somewhat off the land.  We weren't going to sell all our possession and buy a lot up in the Alaskan wilderness with out anything but a hunting knife and duct tape.  No, we were going with baby steps.  SO not really living off the land, but you get the point ;)

This little one acre gem became available when we became available, it was kismet!

We began day dreaming immediately!  I would take over the front and install a nice shade tree with planter boxes sporting flowers and herbs.  Rosemary would be going along the slab pruned bush style so fragrant and functional!  The existing pomegranates would go nicely with the gladiolas I had planned for the front planters.  Night blooming Jasmine would go along the fence and a patch of green grass for the other side.  I could see it all now.

We had big plans for the back.  We knew we wanted chickens for sure.  In fact we had decided that a chicken coop would be the first thing done after we got everything moved and settled in.  We talked a lot about getting sheep and goats.  I wanted two sheep for their wool and goats for milk to make cheese and soap.  Mostly we focused on chickens with the plan to visit the idea of goats and sheep once we got the hang of chickens down.

When we moved in there was this corral that was right off the back patio that was installed by the last tenants.  We were told that she bred dogs and would keep them in there.  So sad!  The size was odd.  It was perfect for one pig, but too small for sheep or goats.  We didn't want a pig.  it was too small for the coop, we wanted to give them more space to run around and the coop would take up at least half the space.  Ah, well it would stay and we would find use for it later.  We went about scoping where the coop would go.  This spot too close.... this spot too far.... this space too sunny.  Hmmm.

We began plotting out where the garden would go.  There was much to do with the ground to get it ready.  We mowed down the brush and weeds and began a yard compost. 

So many projects.
 
Well for now, I must finish the semester and get the kids through the end of the school year.  The summer would be filled with hard work and rewarding benefits.  I spend my nights after the kids go to sleep, with a cup of warm tea sitting on my darkened porch listening to the sounds of the country and gazing up at the many stars.  It is so dark and quiet. No sirens, no screaming and yelling.  No neighbors five feet away drinking the night away screeching horrible karaoke and breaking beer bottles.  Peaceful serenity.  A horse whinnies and a peacock meows (is that what they do?) some dogs barking.  But that's it.  I breathe deep the cool air and exhale slowly.  The darkness envelopes me and I already feel at home.  This is it, right here.
I'm living