Meandering Miata, Chicken Madness, Edge of Tomorrow

So you may recall that I reported the sale of Cindy’s Miata a couple weeks ago to a couple 18 year old kids.  What I didn’t report was up until Friday, the vehicle was technically still owned by Cindy.  When the kids picked up the car I had Cindy sign off the title with the understanding the kid was going to be going to the DMV with his dad the next day to do the title work and registration.  Well evidently we had a misunderstanding.

The kid did not get the title transferred which I was checking on periodically through the Florida online title check website.  I alerted Cindy to this and the potential issue with someone else being in possession of a vehicle with an open title.  She contacted the kid several times, asking when it was going to be done.  There were several excuses and fuzzy promises of resolution.  Finally late last week she used stronger wording which evidently resulted in the kid finally getting his ass to the DMV with one or both of his parents.  Both Cindy and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the updated title change status online.  I was beginning to have nightmares of worst case scenarios where the car is involved in an accident where someone is injured or even the kid’s parents coming back at us saying they want the money back.

Our Friday night began conventionally with pizza, Mexican Coke and watching a show recorded on the X1 DVR.  However after the show was over there was still at least a solid hour of daylight left.  Since my weekend was looking so busy I had the bright idea to head outside and get a head start on to do’s.  Cindy was off on Friday and got a lot of stuff done but had more tractor mowing to do.  While she was on the tractor finishing up I did other yard maintenance including weeding, abbreviated weed whacking session, sidewalk blowing and even bush trimming in fast forward mode.  I got a ton done in a very short period of time, resulting in a totally soaked shirt, despite working in dusk conditions.  The sweat was worth getting a jump on the list.

Saturday morning we had to pick up the dogs from Ali’s place since she is out of town for a few days.  We went from there straight to Rural King, a store that we will be frequenting much more regularly in the future.  We needed to get supplied for the chickens we planned to pick up this weekend.  We grabbed a big 40lb bag of chicken feed, kiln dried wood shavings for the nest box/coop area, water/food dispenser and a few other items.  Despite doing a decent amount of reading about chicken care already we were still a bit nervous about making sure we had everything we needed.

When I got home the next to do was multiple oil changes.  The Tacoma, party van, and Craftsman tractor were all due for a petroleum transfusion.  The process went smoothly all the way around, the only annoyance was just how hot and humid it was, despite being relatively early in the day still.

So last week I documented the assembly of the chicken coop I had bought several weeks prior online.  I commented how the coop despite being good looking did not seem like it was going to be very durable at all.  The Chinese fir it is constructed out of is very thin and light.  I just did not see any way it was going to hold up outdoors for more than a few months.

So despite dropping what I would consider a rather large wad of cash on this coop, I was investigating alternatives.   A Craigslist search on “chicken coop” landed me on an odd looking coop (Jeremy actually showed me this type of coop a long time before).  On the side of it was stenciled “urbanchickentractors.com”  so I jumped to the web site to see what the deal was.

These mobile, self contained and decidedly unique coops are built by some guy in nearby Sarasota in his back yard.  He advertises that each coop is built with at least 30% recyclable materials.  I flipped through the site watching his video and checking out the different style/size chicken tractors he makes as well as the additional options.  It’s almost like buying a car as he custom builds each tractor to order.  The ability of the coop to be very easily moved courtesy of the wheel and handles on each model would be ideal.

I was so interested I actually called the guy, whose name is Ira and talked to him about the coops.  He seemed like a very friendly a good guy on the phone.  He said with his current workload. (he has a normal job as well), that it if I ordered a coop it would take about 5 weeks to be completed.  I thanked him for the information and told him I would get back to him if I wanted to go that route.

So now my head was churning through scenarios.  Since we planned to get the chickens this weekend I considered letting the birds hang out in the coop in a box structure until a new chicken tractor could be built for them.  There were some down sides to this idea.  The wood coop would obviously be in degraded condition after having chickens living in it for a month outdoors, making any hope of selling it to someone else nearly impossible.  Also, buying a brand new chicken tractor is not a cheap proposition, once I started adding in the various options the total price was getting perilously close to 4 digits.

So then I returned to the ad for the used chicken tractor on Craigslist.  It seemed to be priced high for a used item but after I identified it as the aluminum/vinyl siding model which is the most expensive tractor UCT sells, I softened a bit on the price although it still was way more than I would pay.  I emailed the seller looking for more info.  Late Saturday morning I got an email back describing a few aspects of the coop as well as offering a big discount off the listed ad price, a full third less.  Now you have my attention.

Early Saturday afternoon I called the woman and talked some more.  She described the coop as being 2-3 years old and in great condition.  She lived off the same exit as Siesta Key beach is, a good 90 minutes away.  I told her that if she would agree to an even lower price I would shoot up there and get it immediately.  She held firm to her 33% discount, I told her I would come anyway and take a look.  Cindy was game for an unplanned 200+ mile round trip.  I emptied out the back of the truck, only bringing along ratcheting straps and assorted bungee cords if needed.

Thanks to the GPS and a 75 mph average speed we found the house with no issue, making the trip in around 90 minutes.  We pulled into the driveway and were immediately impressed.  The big house was situated on a large, beautifully landscaped estate.  We walked up to the house as we looked around at the awesome estate and rang the doorbell.  After 30 seconds with no response I rang it again, this time with more pressure, thinking perhaps I didn’t activate the chime.  I definitely heard it the second time.  Still, nobody answered the door.  This began  a close to 15 minute ordeal, trying to get someone’s attention.  We knocked, rang and walked around the side of the house looking for any signs of life.  It made no sense, there were cars in the driveway, we could hear tv playing inside and even dogs barking but still the front door remained unopened.

Finally we heard a voice inside and the woman I spoke to on the phone answered.  She apologized although I am not sure quite how long she heard the ringing/knocking.  Her elderly husband evidently was sleeping but there were also two perfectly able grandchildren in the house that apparently don’t open doors. The only theory I could come up with was the woman was in the middle of a long and arduous BM when we arrived.

She instructed us to walk to the back where she would meet us.  The back of the property was as beautiful as the front.  We walked by an impressive and large vertical hydroponic garden.  Everywhere you looked I saw tons of dollars and sweat equity invested.  The chicken tractor obviously had sat unused for awhile.  It looked older in person than it did in pictures, the front of it had black mildew, some parts had some rust and the grass it was perched upon was pretty overgrown. My first impression was the woman had exagerrated her 2-3 years old claim on the phone.

When the woman opened the large side panel we were introduced to the current coop residents, wasps.  There were two active wasp nests attached to the interior roofline.  The inside of the coop was clean enough, the vinyl siding that was used inside and out holds up very well.  The detachable long run was great and one of the things I liked about the tractors.  I wanted our chickens to have lots of room to move about.  This  coop also had full wire on the underside of both the main tractor and the extended run, protecting the chickens from certain predators that would go so far as trying to dig underneath.  Both Cindy and I really liked that.

The woman gave us quite the sales pitch on the coop, claiming it will last for years and years which it very well may.  I just questioned why she wouldn’t have cleaned it up more to sell it.  The woman’s husband did some modifications to the coop, including the large side door.  He evidently used a brass hinge originally which is not suitable for outdoor conditions.  As a result both sides of the coop had pretty gross looking rust stains blemishing them.

Now I knew that more than likely after some pressure washing and elbow grease I could get the coop looking much better.  I could tell Cindy was more off put by the current visual.  I probably could have/should have repeated my lower offer for the coop based on the way it looked but I didn’t.  Despite the warts the coop was worth the number she threw at me based on my knowledge of what a new one costs.  I told her we would take it.

Phase two, getting the coop and the run into the back of the Tacoma was going to be a challenge made more miserable by the broiling heat and humidity at nearly 3 PM in the afternoon. Thanks to the aluminum frame and vinyl siding, neither piece was that heavy, they were however quite big.  Getting them in the back of Tacoma required them both being placed at an angle which resulted in the  coop hanging far over the right side and the chicken run hanging several feet off the back.

Once they were jammed in the back I utilized my two ratcheting straps, bungee cords and a piece of rope to make sure the chicken housing stayed put on the drive home.  We thanked the woman and began the journey southward.  Cindy and I were nervous about the drive initially.  The top of the coop was exposed to full wind, creating a massively unaerodynamic wall.  We were concerned the wind pressure could either cause damage to the coop or somehow dislodge it from it’s various tethers.   Luckily neither thing happened. The 90 mile drive down I-75 was very long.  I put my 4 way flashers on and set the cruise at 60 mph, not wanting to risk excessive wind pressure. As a result the drive back took 2 hours plus (and a lot of gas), scuttling our plans to catch a movie Saturday night.

I instead got busy with my pressure washer wanting to at least get the black mildew off.  As expected the washer made short work of the mildew, restoring the siding to like new condition, unfortunately it is powerless to remove rust stains which would take another approach.  I also knocked down no less than another half dozen old wasp nests. After I was done I showed Cindy the end result, she felt better about the purchase afterwards.

On Sunday morning Cindy dove right into more coop cleaning early.  She utilized SOS pads on the rust stains and had fantastic results.  She was able to totally remove the rust stains on the siding and did a good job of cleaning up the rust covered child bike wheel rims which were very messy as well.  My main contribution in the morning was filling the holes where the one rusty bracket was located with plastic headed pool cage screws dipped in caulk.  I also tightened a number of the bolts and nuts that had worked their way loose over time.

By the time we were done the chicken tractor and run looked 100% better than it did sitting in the woman’s back yard. It’s amazing what a difference some elbow grease can make.  Getting the chicken tractor made us reevaluate some of the choices we made for food and water containers.  We made our second trip to Rural King in as many days to return a couple items and get a much larger 3 gallon watering station and an equally large food dispenser.  We arrived home only needing to get the chickens themselves.  I called the woman that I was planning to get the chickens from on both her home and cell phone but got no answer.  I left a message which was not returned until early afternoon.

She apologized for not getting back to me sooner, she said she had a very busy morning, selling a bunch of birds via her Craigslist ad.  The sales were good for her but she said she had some bad news for me.  She said the 3 month old chickens she had pegged for me were accidentally sold by her husband.  I was immediately dejected by this news but not for long.  She said she did have 3 more older buff orpington hens.  When she said older I was afraid she was going to say they were a year or two old.  When she said they were 5 months old it was good news, that was even better in my book, they were very close to the age where they can start laying eggs, perfect.  I made arrangements to meet the woman in a half hour at a nearby gas station.

Cindy and I shot out into the back yard to quickly prep the coop, setting it up in front of the bird houses.  Cindy scooped handfuls of the wood shavings into the nest boxes and mixed it in with fresh spearmint from the garden, something she saw was recommended for freshness. We figured we would wait to fill the food and water containers until after we had the birds inside.

I had warned Cindy that this woman’s husband, whom I had seen before looked like he was off the set of Deliverance.  He didn’t disappoint as he stepped out of the van bare foot with the woman.  We came around to the back of the minivan where the 3 hens were in a small cage.  I brought my two cat carriers with to transport them back to the house.  The chickens were a decent size and seemed nervous but nice enough.  When we started the transfer process the woman scolded her husband as he reached in the cage and yanked the first hen out roughly by the legs, letting it hang upside down.  The woman immediately grabbed the chicken and held it to calm it down while she petted it.  She then gently helped us get the hen in the carrier and kept her husband out of the transfer process for the other two.  I gave her the $10 per chicken asking price and thanked her as we headed back towards the van with me carrying the carrier with two birds and Cindy lugging the other.

I had to laugh when I saw the barefooted husband step back into the driver seat and start to pull out while the side door on the van was fully open.  Cindy asked if we should tell them.. I told her that he would figure it out which he eventually did.  Wow I can only imagine what goes on around their household.

On the short ride back the house the chickens were pretty quiet which surprised me.  Besides some low chicken mumbling I hardly heard a peep, even as we carried them into the back yard.  The woman had told us that the more shade the better for these chickens as they dont love the heat.  Despite the coop structure providing built in shade for the run under the second level, we thought moving the tractor to a more shady area would make even more sense.  We carted everything over towards the dog deck and set up under the group of palm trees nearby which provided a nice partially shaded area.

Getting the chickens out of the cat carriers and into the the coop area was harder than expected.  They just did not want to leave I assume what felt like safe confines of the carriers.   We had to use a combination of a high angle of the carrier and Cindy’s hands to get them out.  Once they were in there they were quite nervous as expected.  We got their food and water containers filled up and ready to go.  That seemed to help break the ice a bit as they all drank and ate some.

We then let the dogs out to see the new additions to the family.  Of course there was tons of curiosity on the dogs part and fear on the chickens part however as the day went on there seemed to be more calm interactions going on.  The chickens realized they were safe in their new home and the dogs realized the chickens were on the “do not touch list” although I can’t imagine a scenario where I would have both the chickens and the dogs free ranging in the yard at the same time.

Cindy and I hung out with the chickens for awhile before leaving them to relax for awhile.  It felt weird actually  having farm animals in my backyard but it’s good to push your comfort zone.  I did some messing around later, trying to construct some sort of temporary auxiliary cover for the extended run.  My first attempt was utilizing some left over composite lumber that I screwed together.  It was too heavy and too flimsy.  I later wound up knocking it apart and just using two spare long section of 2″x 8″ boards to provide extra shade and rain protection.

Last night after the movie we checked in on the hens.  We were worried that they wouldn’t go up the ramp to the roost bar and nest boxes to sleep on their own.  Cindy and I were happy to see that the chickens instincts kicked in and they headed upstairs.  Cindy named the hens Wilma, Betty, and Pebbles.  Wilma and Betty despite being tied together via Flintstones fame also happen to be the names of Cindy and my grandmother, both of whom passed away.  Pebbles has no family connection but just fit the theme.  Right now I have a hard time telling which one is which.

The first coop I bought/built is now currently on Craigslist in the remote hope someone will buy it to help offset my losses.  I don’t hold out much hope for anyone doing so and envision the coop eventually being set by the end of the driveway to be scooped up by some roadside treasure hunter.

All of the chicken/chicken coop related pics I have can be seen here.

So our Saturday night movie trip got rescheduled to last night although I almost felt like we should cancel again to make sure the chickens first night at the homestead went smoothly.  We decided they would be fine and we went out to Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise’s latest film.  I heard the movie was underperforming at the box office but I also heard more than one person that saw it say it was very good, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Much like Brad Pitt, I find I enjoy pretty much any movie Tom Cruise is a star in.  Well he kept that streak alive.

I didn’t think the movie was good, I thought it was very good.  I thought the plot was interesting, different and kept you on your toes.  The aliens in this film are terrifyingly different than anything I ever saw before and of course the action and special effects were all top notch.  I really don’t understand why the film is not doing better number-wise, I give it a very solid A rating.

On our way into the theater I had a very odd sighting.  I was on my way into the mens room for my obligatory pre-movie bladder emptying.  An older man was in front of me, something that is not odd.  What was extremely odd was he was holding his sandals in his left hand, allowing him to walk into the crowded public bathroom barefooted, where he made a left turn into one of the toilet stalls.  I had no idea why somebody would chose to do this.  I almost felt compelled to ask him why.

Oh yea I forgot, we saw Monuments Men at home Saturday night.  I thought it was rather boring, gets a B.