Relying on Stuffs
We tend to all rely on so much stuffs, on our road to self sustainability and self reliance, we decided lately to build a chicken coop with absolutely no experience in building anything but IKEA cupboards.
Cutting Stuffs
This part of the building is the easiest. You just need something to cut with, and some stuffs to cut. We got the chance that the (future previous) owner has scored a nice stash of oak wood, super resistant, but a real mission to cut. I first went with an electric chainsaw, only to realise very quickly that I would need some serious gear, as oak is like metal and I had tons of it.
Lucky for us, next door live Robert and his wife (I didn't ask him if I could talk about him, I am sure it's fine), a 87 years old retired carpenter that always has tricks ,tools and some great stories to tell.
We became good friends since we moved in here, and we exchange fruits, vegs, and whatever story of the moment.
He has a wealth of knowledge on so many subjects, and has been self-teaching himself for his entire life. He built a church in Chicago 40 years ago, his father was also a carpenter(you sense the pride when he talks about him) at a time when we were still handcrafting wheels for horse drawn carriages.
When he offered to help building the chicken coop, I jumped on the occasion as I know absolutely nothing about building stuffs.
I am making that 😣 face
The idea was to sort out the wood in 3 sections:
- Beams
- Planks
- unusable wood (ready to be "processed" for burning)
I managed to sort out a good amount of planks and beams, now we just had to clear the area to set up our chicken coop. We were lucky that the barn was already built with concrete floors, as predators won't hesitate to dig under the chicken coop to get the hens.
Buying Stuffs
Of course the enterprise wasn't entirely free, as I had to buy:
- Chicken fences
- Nails
- Door Hinges
- Some "crampillons" (some big ass staples)
Failing at stuffs
It really starts to feel like making music.
Before Robert arrived to help, I thought I had this and could build it up on my own, I started trying to get that nail through one of the beam, but even after hammering it like a maniac, there were no way it would go deeper(just fucking say your joke @dandays).
It felt a little bit like a failure, but I eventually came to realisation that it was nearly impossible without a drill, the good new is that it only took me one nail to realise that there were no way to build it just with nails only. You can compare it to the invention of sound engineering in music, technology for the win!
After that I fell into an architectural rabbit hole when Robert explained the importance of Math, Geometry and the precision of the craft. I realise how similar it was with writing a good song, putting first the foundation of a song with the harmonic structure.
Learning Stuffs
This is the bass of a song. this is where you get your rhythm and the harmonic base, metronome in your hand, the tempo should stay assertive. Some people call it the foundation of all living things.
That 90 degree angle is very important, I can't remember exactly why but it is quite practical. You will notice that I rarely handle a tool as Robert wanted to do pretty much everything, The picture below is quite impressive.
So apparently you can "shave" a wood with a chainsaw if you know what you are doing, we literally created lego bricks 🤡. It was almost as easy as IKEA.
Oiling Stuffs
I also learnt that you gotta to oil that shit up sometimes. Before hammering any sort of longer nails through two oak sections, you must first drill it to the length of your nail, then insert your nail with some thicker oil (chainsaw oil for example) on it. [You can now insert any joke of your choice]
In music you call a friend saxophonist or trumpetist to add a solo to your track, they tend to really oil that song up.
Filming Stuffs
This is me as an influencer trying to take credit for something that I barely built. It's gonna look great on Instagram with a nice filter on.
These little beams that you see at the junction are here to maintain the structural integrity and making sure it stays at a 90 degrees angle. It's just genius, and I would have never thought of it.
We moved fast and starting setting up a scavenged door, much lighter and easier to handle (made of pine tree). The hinges will be able to support easily its weight.
We were trying to recreate the scene from "The Shining" from another angle.
Danny????
The knife is here to make sure that the door won't stick to doorframes and is at a sufficient angle to rotate, while we are screwing it to the vertical beam.
As you can see some of the wood looks rotten but it's actually still very solid and will handle easily few tons. Most of the houses in the surroundings are made of Oak wood and will survive centuries.
We decided to dig inside the wall, and set up the beam in it, we will add concrete afterward to solidify this shazam.
One door hinge, two door hinge and...Voilà !!!
Naya doesn't look impressed at all.
To sum up:
We are almost done with the strucure and the door, next step will be to add the chicken fence, wooden planks and probably some inside spa for the hens.
Cheers!
edprivat.com
You are so funny!!!
Man have you ever taken on a big project all around with this property. Did you buy it?
Is Robert the neighbor you are no longer on such good terms with?
Love the door.
Not yet, but the owner visited last week and gave us a price. We probably gonna buy it, I wanna see how I feel first after another year of living in it. There is no rush, I don't want to get a loan on 20 years; instead I wanna a ride a bull up to the finish line, and drop a luggage full of BTC on his porch by 2024.
Yep, that's the one! Such a pity, but at the same time I fail to care too much, I hate making general statements, but country folks are sometimes a bit pitiful. There are some good souls out there though.
Me too, right? I don't think I would have been able to do it that well on my own!
Only my husband would compare architecture to music! very poetic and I'm very proud of everything you are setting out to do with or without help.
I love you @edprivat
Hey my darling!
That shit is almost done can you believe it? Then no excuse, we gotta get those chickens hahaha! (Of course you helped me btw) much love ^^
No, I didn't lol!!! I wish I could have but this project was all in good hands from the start!!
Thank you a lot
Congratulations, your post has been selected to be included in my weekly Sustainability Curation Digest for the Minnow Support Project.
Omg thanks buddy @pennsif I wasn't expecting anything ^^ cheers
Careful with that chainsaw (Eugene?)! I'd be wary of using one. Our chicken coop was the old playhouse my kids grew out of. It has served us well for years. It seems foxes are active around here as a neighbour just lost some chickens. I hope our fencing will keep them out.
No kidding with those gears, I am still not conformable with it, though after months of using it for fire wood, it's crazy how we get used to anything. I am still very careful though haha thanks.
I might do the opposite and lets the kids play in the children coop. One question, did you replace your hens once they laid less eggs?
I will share a part 2 but we went with oak planks almost up to the top and then chicken fence to also prevent small birds to get through and steal the chicken's food.
We let the chickens live out their lives as they are partly pets. It's not about the economics really. We have had to add some small mesh netting as their is bird flu in the UK and you are supposed to keep wild birds out, but they used to get in before. We also have a rat problem at the moment. They are digging everywhere in the run and probably getting some of the food.
!ENGAGE 25
Just finished setting up the very rigid (also small netting ) chicken fence, and tied it all up to prevent potential rats. The small birds do steal food around here as well.
I understand why you keep them as pets.
ENGAGEtokens.Building shit is awesome. Building shit with old guys who've seen some shit is even more awesome.
Old guys know some shit, let's stop hiding them in retirement homes please.
Think of the Children!
haha
Try hammering like a sane person.
Hahaha that's excellent, I knew I could count on you
I don't think the community agrees with me, what do you think? You think they're entertained more or less by what you have to say on paper vs the mic?
They hated this one, it's obvious.
I think they loved it!
Now for my real response.
Try hammering like a sane person
When you said the only thing you've built were IKEA cupboards, my first though was, "then this chicken coop ain't chicken shit!" Those ikea instructions are enough to make me hammer like a maniac.
Did I miss the chicken? I saw the dog but I never saw a chicken. Good call posting in built-it. I don't know if I should say it or not but this Ed, the writing and building one who uses musical metaphors, is quite entertaining.
The dog is the neighbour's dog, that's the first time she isn't scared of my children. She always has that worried face haha.
The chicken will come after we secured the coop. I want them nice and cozy, and we are supposed to get them for free, and I love free stuffs.
We might add a rooster very quickly.
Thanks for stopping by, it just take forever to write. Now I am curious to see everyone else's post I missed.
Your hair grew out! Looks pretty cool man. I built one once. I'm no carpenter, but it stood fast for quite awhile. Not an easy task and respect man.
That's some serious skills, well done for building one. I wouldn't have been able to do it on my own.
Yeah man thanks, there's no hair dresser so we will see how far it goes before it all falls off. Maybe some dreads along the way haha.
Thanks so much woohooo!