Coop update III

Well, more progress has been made but I've lost control of the coop as it has been invaded by girls! It's currently full of dolls and "making house" type stuff. >:(

On an up-note the girls love playing in it.

We finished three garden beds that are attached to the backside of the dry stone wall. They got a good mattock'ing compost and some improved topsoil.
They're now ready to receive plants. Worried about loosing everything we plant to waskaly wabbits, so will fence of the garden ASAP.

We camped up at the block the other day now that the nights are getting Warner too. Great fun, until bed time:-(
Try again soon, but will take the night light for the tin lids.

On a side note. The photo below shows a very effective method of getting in a quick nine holes with a three year old! Played ok 44 for 9 holes (8 over.)

Also managed to finish a gift this weekend. A blackwood cutting board.
Turned out real nice. Liza wants on now too. 

Coop progress 2

Well winter came and went and still we've not got too much further on the coop.
Until last weekend that is!
We have the bones of the enclosed run and doors!!!

Spring has also bought the bees!
I've placed a photo of our drive way at the bottom of this post, it shows the trees in blossom. Each tree was absolutely laden with flowers and the bees! Oh my so many bees. Each tree had very loud hum of busy bees. Awesome :-p

Nature knows no pause...

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her self to all inaction.

From where I was standing the last few weeks, it seemed as though I was starting to be over run with an impossibly invasive ivy vine, darkening my skies and strangling my passion for the building design process.

But, owing dogged persistence and willingness to never sleep more than about 4 hours per night, we submitted the Development Application to the council today! And paid their exorbitant fees...

So it's predicted that it should take about 3 weeks, we'll see I guess.

Even if I knew..

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces. I would still plant my apple tree.

Guess what? Yeah, we planted our apple trees, a Granny Smith, a heirloom something something red? some citrus, including a lime, a lemon, an orange, and a williams pear.
We lost light whilst planting so didn't bother with putting the protective net around and in short order, wouldn't you know it, by the next morning the lime and lemon where reduced to twigs! I hope they come back once spring returns.

My mum and dad visited in the school holidays and helped us nut out a few issues with our plans, which are getting closer all of the time (Thanks dad). We all got stuck into clearing the house plot somewhat, felling two trees and removing about three tones of granite boulders, that will go into our garden wall.

Nanny did some knitting whilst she was down and you can see the picture of my youngest in her new outfit, thanks (mum)

An annoying amount of weird shaped heavy arse rocks and being reduced to working alone means, that I needed some help, so i came up with this lifter.
Using the equation F1*L1 = F2*L2.  I figure that the small rock in the picture is about 60kg!

Rock splitting video

A recent rock split.

Coop progress

Well it's now officially been months, but it's getting closer.

If only we stopped BBQing and worked more we'd be done by now.

Go big or go home (chicken!)

March 2013
Well I never thought that this day was coming. The beginning of the coop!
We leveled the rock wall at the four corners to hold the bearers (150x75 recycled hardwood.)
100x50 recycled hardwood joists made up the subfloor.

Bearers and joist in place

I got a bunch of 100x50 hardwood from the recyclers a few weeks ago, I was planning to use it for the coop as is but when I started cutting it to Length I thought "it's just a chicken shed, not a bomb shelter" so I ripped it to 50x50 and made the frames from this stuff, not only is it strong enough, it now when twice as far.
Being so old and dry, it's been a real dog to nail and I quickly found that I needed to pre drill!

In the photos below I have a shot of the sprit level proving how level the joists are. Now this came about because the day before, as Liza and I were placing the bearers, Liza swore black and blue that it was not level at all! (owing to the slope of the block) even though the water level was spot on, she just didn't believe it... Well Lize, do you like apples?
Low tech baby, Yeah!!

Level?

First Wall frame going up

 May 17 2013
Well, it's been slow going on the coop but there has been some progress, which is good.
Today I braced the frame and filled in a few missing studs, placed the rafters on for the roof and the battens for the iron that we'll pick up during the week.
In addition to this I tied the frame down to the bearers with some uni-ties and the rafters where tied down with triple grips and hobb nailed too.

Yesterday saw our friend Richard and his daughter Julia visit from Sydney. Richi and I tackled a large boulder with wedges and the crow bar... See upcoming post for our success.

Bracing going on and rafters awaiting fixing

Battens and done, bracing done. Ready for iron.