Fowl Run Construction part 1

                     

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links to products that I use and love. If you click through and make a purchase, I’ll earn a commission, at no additional cost to you. 

                            

What happened in the movies is happening in real life.  A virus got loose and is leaving death and destruction in its wake, except, lucky for us no one turned into zombies.

However as you know Covid-19 continues to turn our lives upside down any have lost their livelihoods, lives and loved ones to this disease. Covid-19.  As you know many countries went into national lockdowns. You remember, we couldn't leave our homes only for emergencies and to top up on our groceries. 

This event made me realize that my family and I, and I'm sure many others were not prepared for this situation at all.  

"We need to be ready for next time", I thought to myself.

 Veggies and meat. 

Farming!

Farming on a small scale, very small scale. Small game, small planting vessels.

Veggies and meat. Veggies I'll discuss in another blog.

For now, The Meat.

The meat, the live stock, obviously no cows, sheep, goats or pigs especially for those of us in residential, urban areas. Its got to be small and manageable preferably quiet, for the neighbors, so that's Rabbits, chickens( noisy), pigeons... Rats?

I chose chickens. Chickens need to be housed, well, any animal you decide on will need residence.

                    

I built a foul run and that's what this blog is about today.

                                                                    

 Shutter ply Sheets, a brick pallet and old lockers.

I started with the old lockers I got gifted, second hand. My plan was to use the lockers as nesting boxes. They are the perfect size and they have doors, all I needed to do was cut entrance holes for the birds to enter through.

As seen in the pictures below. We measured, marked and cut out the holes using a jigsaw.

Measure and mark

Cut out

                    

Right! So once the holes where cut we placed the nest boxes on the pallet. I was super lucky because the length of the lockers fitted perfectly on the pallet. It was actually smaller by about 10mm which was actually great, it gave me 5mm play on either side.

fix boxes

painted nest boxes with handles moved

So I acquired two sheets of shutter ply, second hand. Since the pallet was to be the floor it dictated the size of the coup, so naturally I cut the shutter ply to size, remembering to minus the thickness of the board at two ends so that it would not end up bigger than the pallet when being assembled. (phew that was a mouth full).  As seen in the pictures above three boards to make the walls.  I nailed the boards to each other and to the pallet.  The nest boxes I screwed into place, through the coups walls and to the floor.  After painting the nest boxes I moved the handles to make it easier to open. Now with the fourth board, I used as a door for maintenance.  I measured the space between the top of the box to the top of the wall and cut. I had some old door hinges that I used.   As can be seen in the pic below.

The Beam across the door is to prevent the handles getting damaged.

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Once again lady luck was on my side, I had just replaced a roof sheet on my house so I used that to roof my fowl run. Three meter roof sheet cut in half covered the coup perfectly. Incredible!  I went around with a tube of left over silicone and plugged up all the holes and over the nails. 

Side note before fixing one side I cut a little door into the sheet. Chicken size.

     

         

 

 

I just needed a coat of paint, protection from the weather. For that I got my team in. They did a great job.  We used plain old waterproof paint. Left overs.

The fowl ran could not be completely finished as I ran out of material. So this is going to have to be part one and will have to be continued.  But so far it looks great and the boys also have a  "doll house" to play in, they call it their tuck shop.

                             

   

Then we got to look as getting these guys to move into their need home.  Because they are free ranging it at the moment and making a lot of noise.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for part two when we extend the run.

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My First Grotto.

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links to products that I use and love. If you click through and make a purchase, I’ll earn a commission, at no additional cost to you. 

                                       

     

So I start with the foundation.  Clear out the space, mix up the concrete. For this I used the ready mix bags from builder's warehouse. Mix, cast, leave to set.  The following day I used up the left over blocks from a previous project to build up the base. This is the load barring part of the structure.  I  proceed to fill cavities and gaps with cement.
Now this needs to dry and set so that it can be filled with rubble and compacted. Then I close the top with dry cement....topping.

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Now the base is done, it time for the actual arch.  I need a form to build on.  Shutter ply and hard board/Masonite. To get this right I measured the statue, head to toe and finger tip to finger tip and then added about 10 - 15 mm right around.  Fortunately for me I was  building up against an existing wall so there was no need to do anything around the back of the grotto.  After positioning the form into place it was time to start the stone work.

                                                     

                                                  

                                         

I started by sorting the stone, gabion stone I used. They are hard. I kept all the small to medium sizes together. Mixed up the cement and started placing stone upon stone. Fitting, removing and refitting the stones like a puzzle. I kept my mortar on the wetter side so that its more sticky than dry. It took a while. After I had completed the dome I proceeded to clean the stone and fill any gaps.
I was tempted to pull the form out to see how the grotto would look.  With the stone work still wet, I decided to leave it just as is.

"It might collapse" I thought. Step away, step away.
I returned a week later to remove the wooden form. While praying, I gently cut and tapped at the wood until it came out. I sighed and smiled with relief. The grotto didn't collapse or fall.

             

Now once everything was dry I could clean up and finish. I used a wire brush to clean away the dry chunks of cement and cement dust.  Then I plastered the inner wall.  Around the base I layer facebrick. Pretty straight forward. Between blocks and facebrick I chalked a strong cement mix. This is to act as a glue. Thinking back I probably should have used pins/pegs to tie the two together.

This was an awesome experience a lot of fun and lots of hard work. I got my sons in to help me fit a little door.

         

       

Block Bench

 Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links to products that I use and love. If you click through and make a purchase, I’ll earn a commission, at no additional cost to you. 

So my cousin came to me and asked "Ricky, can you build a bench with bricks, cement an stuff?". I glanced at her from the corner of my eye and giggled "yes".  She went on to explain that the people she was renting from wanted a bench next to their pool.

Later that week I went round to have a look and to here what the client wanted. The mother and her two daughters handed me a picture downloaded from the net and ask " can you make it?" I said nothing and took the page.

They lead me out the door to the back, the pool area, to show me the space.

 Picture to the left is what I found. The client told me that they got a guy in who claimed to be a bricklayer and he said he could recreate the bench on the page.  They where mortified by the result.
I'm standing there smiling thinking "Damn, this guy is gonna make me look SO good".
I proceeded to break the existing structure with my hammer and chisel. Cleared the space out. I use a straight edge and spirit level to level out the ground.

I marked out a curve in the sand and packed out the blocks to create a visual. Then I called the girls, and granny, to come look. Granny took one look and said "it too big, make it a bit smaller". I did. Then called them out again. They where happy with the size. Lucky their gardener was on hand to help bring closer the sand, stone and cement. Together we mixed up a gauge of concrete. We cast the concrete foundation. Then let it set over night.

Next day started with the block work. Block by block. Brought the bench up. The seat I left hollow. The seat I filled with rubble and sand. Compacted that.

I layed a row of blocks on their side as seen in the pick to the left. Good bum to seat ratio.

I started to plaster the structure up. I'm not the best with a plaster trowel and hand hawk but the job came out Beautiful.

I went ahead with the levelling of the area in front of the chill area. Layed the pavers that were there and spread the stone about. The painting was done by the family themselves. They did an excellent job.

How To Survive Load Shedding

HOW TO SURVIVE LOAD SHEDDING

             A Layman's Guide

All is well, the TV is on, the kids are occupied and calm. Pots are simmering and hubby got his feet up. You're home and it has been a long day....and then....

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It happens. Load Shedding. Eskom strikes again. You feel the sadness creep up into your soul as you scramble, scratch and fumble around looking for your phone to activate the torch app. Meanwhile the kids have 101 questions about the obvious and your mind hasn't processed "the we need light" part properly yet. Know the feeling?

Well, here are some suggestions and ideas

Luminous paint. Paint a one of the kitchen drawers with luminous paint so when the lights go out.....glowing drawer. Why do I need a glowing drawer? That's your emergency drawer. Matches, candles, lamps, torches etc.

Or one could invest in rechargeable bulbs. Clever bulbs that have their own batteries that charge while the power is on and then stay on when the power goes out. I personally love these bulbs however, they are a bit pricey so, I would not fit the entire house rather the necessary areas like kitchen, bathroom, outside....OK maybe the living room. 

Nothing worse than not being able to cook or God forbid we can't make a cup of tea/coffee. For me the obvious choice here is gas. Two plate stove is all you need really. One for the kettle and one for the pot. There a range of gas stoves to choose from. If your a camper then don't break the bank your only gonna whip it out for those three hours of load shedding then pack it away after.  If your already on gas good for you. Work safely with gas. 

To keep devices charged there is a power station ( a big larnie power bank) which can charge most devices and power lights. These cost a pretty penny so in your emergency drawer have spare emergency power banks to top up cell phones. 

For surviving load shedding the fridge and deep freezer can remain off for the three hour shut down. Fridge will retain its cold for 4-6 hours freezer 24hrs. Freeze up a few bottles of water and when the power fails pop the frozen water bottles into the fridge. Also a full fridge holds its temperature longer. 

TV? ....leave it of even the devices for that matter. Devices (cell phones) are there for any emergencies illness, accident etc. Talk to each other it's only three hours. Dust off the old board games.

Oh p.s. remember switch off appliances at the plug sockets to protect them from returning spike or surge. Or purchase surge protector it looks like this.

The name of the game is "be prepared."  So in closing, when the lights go out don't rise to the occasion, sink to your preparation.

Disclosure: This post contains some affiliate links to products that I use and love. If you click through and make a purchase, I’ll earn a commission, at no additional cost to you.