Chicken Retirement Coop

As I need my movable coop for the new batch of ex battery hens I needed somewhere else for my three surviving ex battery hens from last year to live. This is what I've come up with:

Earlier in the year a customer gave me a coop with some wire panelling, so long as I took it all down and removed it for her. Seemed like a good deal as the panelling is really good quality and has already come in handy. The only down side was the fact I had to dig out the wire all round the pen that was nailed onto it, this took a bit of time but with a mattock it wasn't too bad of a job.

 The coop on the other hand was a bit pants.

The pen I took down

 The coop is an off the shelf mass produced thing, with the thinnest possible wood and far too many places for mites and other bugs to hide. The only reason it had lasted as long as it had was because it was under cover the whole time.

The coop - Cheap and poorly designed

 The first thing I did was to loose the nest box off the side. It was so weak and leaky I don't think it would have held the straw for bedding let alone a chicken. I then stripped off the roof which was two layers of timber nailed together - a perfect hiding place for red mites.

I then set about making it useful, but without spending a penny (except a few screws). I raised it up so rats and mice can't nest under it, using some wood from the floor we ripped out. Added a perch inside and sectioned off a small area for a nest box. The removable "easy clean" floor got fixed in place, because sliding it out made the whole thing want to fall apart. And finally I added some bitumen roofing and a side panel made out of scraps. I used toggles here to save having to buy any hinges

After I'd done a bit of work to it! Still looks rough but at least now it should work a little better.

In the end it's about right for three hens (possibly a couple more) and it now sits in the back garden. It was never my intention to have free ranging hens, or any in the garden, but these three hens seem to spend most of their time around the house so we decided why fight it!
Anyone else been making good with old chicken pens?

Wooden Potting Tray

The other gift I made this Christmas was a wooden potting tray for my mother.

 Over the last couple of years I have slowly (and I really emphasise the word slowly here) been doing all the carpentry bits to a rather amazing potting shed we've been building her. I'll do a post on the shed once it's finished, but it's going to look like it came straight out of The Garden magazine or Country Living and make a lot of people jealous.

She did ask me, if I had the time, could I make her a wooden potting tray as it would look much nicer than a plastic one in her new shed. I made out I hadn't got time, then made her one anyway!

A fairly simple project made from reclaimed wood and a piece of ply. Although to make it stronger the ply is routed into the wood and all the corners are mitred, glued and nailed together. I finished it with a good, thick coat of oil.

She seems really pleased with it, so much so that she sent me a rather staged picture of it in "use" to put on my blog. If she manages to keep her shed this clean then I will be impressed!

Homemade Toy Kitchen

I managed to finish Ev's and Melissa's present on Christmas eve (after a quick drive to my dads to get some perspex off him for the cooker door).

The finished kitchen before we wrapped it on Christmas eve

 I was possibly cutting it a bit fine but my lack of indoor space to build things in made it difficult to put together (on the floor in the spare room) with cutting being done outside between rain showers. Luckily I did manage to borrow a workshop for half a day to get most of the main bits cut a week before.

With doors and cooker open

 The knobs all turn, the cooker is lined out with shinny foam and there's plenty of storage for all her kitchen bits and pieces.

The total cost of this little kitchen set was £30 (not including my time!). Just for a sheet of ply, a metal mixing bowl and some varnish, everything else was salvaged from work and I'm happy with the results.

Straight into some cooking!

 Christmas morning was lovely, she opened it and just started to play with it, not really noticing any of her other presents (except the one with all the toy food and pots and pans). She just started cooking straight away!

Melissa liked her presents as well!

 This is our first Christmas where we've just stayed at home instead of travelling to family. It was lovely and relaxing (well I didn't cook the lovely dinner - so it would be!) and just nice to watch Ev play with her toys and try to play with her little sister.

By the end of the day I was completely full up on toy food - I couldn't eat another bite!

I know it won't be long until they start asking for things for Christmas that they see on the telly or that their friends have got, so it's nice to make things like this for them now and hopefully they'll get years of enjoyment out of it.

Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago today was our first full day here on our little homestead.

There was just the two of us that morning and a rather large bump in my wife's belly. Our life was in boxes all around us, the heating wasn't working right but I was feeling very happy.

We'd managed to buy a smallholding before I was 30 and we'd be able to bring our future children up in the countryside.

Before - although I moved the greenhouse up with us.

Fast forward two years and I'm even happier. We've doubled in size as a family, learnt loads, made new friends, done plenty to the house and gardens, got planning permission for an extension, planted an orchard and this is only the beginning!

I'd like to say thanks to everyone who has read and commented on this blog over the past two years. It's been the motivation I've needed to get up and try something different, plan my next big project or look at things differently. I don't think I would have got as much done without it or without reading everyone elses for ideas and inspiration. So thanks again and I hope you all have a good Christmas!

Homemade Christmas Presents

Today I've been busy making Christmas presents.
I won't post what I've made this year just yet, but as you can probably guess it involves wood!

A Snowman tree decoration made out of a holly log with a walnut hat!

One of my favourite homemade Christmas gifts was these little snowmen Christmas tree decorations that I made for all the females I had to buy for that year (they did get more than just this though), everyone loved them and I see them in the trees year after year which is really nice.

Making things this year has been a little more difficult as I haven't got a workshop to build gifts in, so the spare room has become an assembly area, needing a good hoover up later, with time spent in a friends workshop to do some cutting. I'm not making many gits this year, just a couple, but I do love doing it as it feels much more personnel than an item you've just purchased on line.

Anyone else been making presents this year?