Two out of three, Minus Curly & Kathy, End of Easter
Two out of the three last weekends Cindy and I have worked ourselves silly on construction of the new chicken coop(shed) and the attached chicken run. When I first envisioned upgrading the chicken living quarters I grossly underestimated the amount of time, effort and money it would consume. It’s getting to the point of near lunacy but there is no turning back now.
The chicken lady was supposed to meet us Friday after work to do the rooster exchange. When Cindy called her to set up the time she got a call back saying Friday night was no longer going to work, neither would the rest of the weekend. In addition the chicken lady actually was skeptical that we had roosters as she said she has not seen Nona, the rooster we already gave back, crow yet. Well this just further aggravated us and made us decide we were done dealing with this woman. Her sloppy sexing of her chickens had caused Cindy and I enough stress. We hated the idea of giving back Curly and Kathy, a situation we would not have had to be in if Anna was more careful with her chicken sexing.
On Saturday morning I placed an ad on Craigslist saying we had two free roosters available to a good home where they would be used for breeding or free ranging. I had exactly one person respond who I could tell from his texting was probably hispanic. Of course this raised a red flag as rooster fighting is a mostly hispanic hobby. When we were driving back from picking up lumber at Home Depot I had Cindy call him to vet him a bit. Her spanish speaking ability would help. Ernesto seemed to be on the level. He said he has a bunch of hens and he wanted to start breeding them. Both Cindy and I got a decent vibe from the guy so we made arrangements for him to stop by later in the morning to get Curly and Kathy.
We had all the chickens out all morning. Just as they normally do, the two roosters were the most interested in following us around the yard. I felt very guilty that they had no idea this was going to be the last time they were going to be able to roam the wide open spaces of our back yard. When Ernesto showed up he was carrying something that almost looked like a briefcase. The holes on the side clued me in that it was for animal transport. It looked too small for even one bird, let alone two. I told him he could have one of my unused Rubbermaid containers for the birds but he said it should be fine, he has transported a couple birds in it before.
We first got Kathy to come over as Cindy sprinkled corm into the chicken run. Ernesto, who obviously had experience catching chickens, crawled in and was able to grab Kathy’s leg and then was able to get him under control. Kathy was carrying on the entire time but did not try to peck or attack Ernesto. Cindy and I tried to reassure Kathy as we got him in the small box and closed the lid. Of course we both felt terrible.
We used the same tactic for Curly and felt the same guilt and sadness as he got stuffed into the small box more or less on top of Kathy. Ernesto could tell that Cindy and I were attached to the chickens and asked us if we were sure we wanted to give them away. We told him we were and we just hoped he would take good care of them which he said he would. The rest of the day it felt weird and sad being out in the yard without the two roosters hanging near by.
On Saturday the chicken run construction was slow and steady. I got a total of nine 4×4’s cemented into the ground as well as getting the automatic chicken door mounted into the side wall. I was worried that getting the chicken door installed in a plastic shed would not go very well as it is designed for conventional construction buildings.
My rigged mounting system worked out pretty well. I have to admit I felt some hesitation as I used the drill to punch a hole in the wall of our brand new shed and then hack out the rectangular template with my sawzall. Cindy and I were quite pleased with the end result. The door install looked clean and worked well as documented in this video. We worked until after 5 on Saturday before calling it a day. We were both beat.
Saturday night we watched Million Dollar Arm, a movie based on a true story, which I had no idea about until Cindy told me afterward. It was just a feel good, high quality movie all the way around. It’s story revolving around baseball, the sport I thought I would make my career in my youth added to my enjoyment of my film. It’s a high quality A- rental all day long.
Sunday morning Cindy and I got busy early. Going into the weekend I had ideas that by the time Sunday night rolled around we would be completely done with the chicken run. I still had that pipe dream in my sights early on Sunday.
I made a poor decision early on when after removing the support braces I had in place near the base of the 4×4’s while the cement set, I decided to dig a trench in front of the front edge to attach a 2×6 and bury some hardware cloth. I did not fully fill the post holes for 4×4’s with cement on Saturday, I planned to top them off later Sunday. Well digging the trench actually made a couple of the posts loose so I had to replumb and secure them. I was annoyed by my stupidity.
Cindy and I had a couple sticking points throughout the day Sunday while we made adjustments to my mental blueprint on the fly. It took some thought to come up with how we wanted to lay out the roof beams in a way that will allow support of the corrugated pvc panels we are going to cover it with. We also had to come up with ways to fill the small gap that exists between the shed and the run due to the small platform offset.
It felt weird just having the two hens, Lola and Lucy running around the yard on Sunday. I thought about Kathy and Curly quite a bit and hoped they were doing ok in their new home. I actually texted Ernesto this morning, he said they are doing fine and were happy. I can only hope he is telling me the truth.
I got a decent amount of work done solo when Cindy ran out to get coffee, some brackets from Home Depot as well as pick up the dogs whom we are watching through Wednesday. By the time she got back I had the front and rear roof line supports in place. We continued to work right up until Cindy’s mom showed up for our casual Easter celebration. The stopping point for Sunday left the frame for the run pretty much complete with 2/3 of the front wired in as well as the left roof section. There is still a painful amount of work to be done which I hope to chip away at somewhat after work this week.
Cindy’s mom, brother, niece, and her boyfriend all were over. Only her mom was there the entire time with the others stopping by a little later. Cindy’s daughter was a no show which was disappointing as I knew how much Cindy was looking forward to seeing her. I was very frustrated by it but this has been a pattern that has gone on for as long as I have known Cindy, so sadly, I wasn’t that surprised. I can only hope sooner or later she will understand how much she hurts her mom when she breaks promises again and again. I know at twenty one my biggest concern was not how my actions affected my parents. Hopefully as time passes she can gain some more appreciation and awareness of a circle bigger than what is directly in front of her at that moment.
Sunday night Cindy and I were pooped from another weekend of mostly non-stop work. In addition to helping me Cindy found a way to put together a nice little Easter celebration for her family as well. As I mentioned at the start of this entry, the chicken coop project has mushroomed into something much bigger than I originally expected. I am confident the end result will be a pretty awesome living space for however many chickens we house.
With my Easter weekend being so busy I hardly had any time to dwell on it being the first time the holiday was not shared with my mom. At this point there have quite a few “mom isn’t here any more” moments that still seem foreign and impossible. They are slowly becoming more realistic each time it happens.
If you want to see the video of the run construction so far, look no further.