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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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. 

Water Harvesting Tank Installation

Catch and Create your own water

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. 

With the resent scarcity of rain, water has becomes the new 'rare commodity'. Soon we'll be trading it on the stock market if things continue the way they are. With low to no rain fall coupled with a "....I pay my water." attitude we are heading for trouble. So in keeping with the 'green' trend and the save water campaigns being run by government, here's what I did.

I installed a 5000l water tank. Simple as that. Rural South Africa has been doing it for years.
First I cleared out a space for my tank and leveled the space out. Then I proceeded to mix up a batch of dagga...mortar, not weed! Cast a circular foundation and let that set and cure, 24 hours.

Since I was on a tight budget I opted for stone instead of buying blocks or bricks. Stones were free and I happen to like a stone finish. It was time to tap into my inner stone mason. I had to tap quite deep. I'm not gonna lie, it was labor intensive. Collecting and carrying. Then I sorted them and began to lay my first course. It was like doing a puzzle. Looking for the right piece to fit in and those that didn't cooperate got chiseled to fit. I must say, with all the chiseling, mixing and carrying my arms got quite the workout, it would have been great to have a mortar mixing machine but my protruding veins and glistening skin from the sweat gave the ego a great boost.

I brought my master piece up six courses. Cleaning the cement off the stone. 

                    






 

I filled her up and compacted the earth and rubble till it was hard. I now had a hard solid platform for my big green water tank. Now an empty water tank is not that heavy. It's getting ones arms around the thing to that may cause problems. At this point it's good to have a second pair of hands to help lift and position.

Right! Once I had it up and positioned I anchored it down with wire. On the top are 'pikes' that are for tying the wire round. Within my stone work I build in steel pegs. As the tank is positioned under and at the end of the roof, one can simply redirect the down pipe to run into your tank.
Now when it rains all the water God sends, you catch....amazing!

Now what happens when it doesn't rain? Well you make your own water. How? Easy, an what's more you've been making it the whole time and you didn't realize it.
The roof on your house is a water making machine. Condensation people! We have been wasting liters and liters of water. But now with my snazzy green water tank I get water even when it doesn't rain.

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