Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Farm Projects in the Works

Right now we are working on building a new movable chicken coop, called a chicken tractor.  We modeled ours after the Joel Salatin design, with just a few modifications.  Our other chicken tractor is very sturdy, but VERY heavy!  In order to get the wheels out of a rut, we had to lift it way up off the ground, and out would run our flighty chickens, into never never land.  Have you ever tried to chase a chicken around 7 (no 14 acres, because they run to our neighbor's property, too!) acres?  What about 7 chickens? We bought a net to catch them with, but it is ridiculous!  They fly up high into the trees, too.  Well, at least we keep the neighbors entertained. :)  Well, the new chicken tractor will hopefully keep them confined so that we can actually get their eggs (and hopefully, add more chickens, so that we won't have to BUY eggs!).
Next on the list (well, MY list at least....) is a deck for our back door.  Currently, the sliding glass door opens up to a 4 foot drop - not very safe with little ones around!  Not to mention that if I want to hang laundry to dry, I have to go out the front door and walk all the way around to the back - with all that wet laundry!  A deck will be nice. But really, our front "porch" is very rickety and needs to be replaced as well. 
Fencing across our front yard would also be nice!  Right now our whole pasture is fenced, but our yard is not.  So anyone, along with their animals (horses! dogs, etc.) can just stroll in, and our children (though they know better) could just stroll out.  Our garden has hoof prints in it.  Not good.
Oh!  With us living in tornado alley, an underground storm cellar in also very high on the list to accompany our mobile home.  Preferably before the spring time.
Some friends of ours were at the Big Texas Shindig with us in Big Sandy, TX, (post to come about that trip) and they were talking about looking into building an earthbag home.  That got me researching them, and just finding out more about them.  I also liked that straw bale homes were COOL in the summer time, but they are made out of straw, and that just seems strange.  We just have lots to look into before building our home!

1 comment:

  1. Front fence = Check
    Back porch = Check
    Front porch = Check (finally)
    Storm shelter = Nope

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