Chicken Yard Project: New Compost Bins

The chicken yard was Dan's August project, but it was delayed because...

... we had car trouble. It clanked terribly every time we started it or turned it off, sounding like something was fixin' to fall off. After checking all the connecting rod bearings, Dan finally figured out that the bolts on the flywheel were loose. He tightened them up and the clanking stopped. (Whew.)

The chicken yard project list had three subgoals:

• compost bins
• grazing beds
• a duck house

Materials is always a first step, and Dan wanted to use what we had available. That meant cutting his lumber from an old pine tree he cut down last spring.

Last spring's felled pine tree cut into 8-foot sections and ready to mill.

Those logs became 4x4s, 2x4s, and boards.

He treats lumber for projects like this with old motor oil. He saves it whenever he changes the oil in a vehicle. He thins it with a little gasoline and either soaks the ends of posts or paints boards with it. The gasoline evaporates and the soaked in oil preserves the wood.

Posts soaking in spent motor oil.

I missed getting photos of building the compost bin, because I was tied to a kitchen filled with pears, apples, figs, elderberries, cowpeas, tomatoes and milk for cheesemaking. But I can show you the results.

All home-milled lumber.

We've always had a three bin system, but never managed to use all three bins, so we opted to try two bins. The boards for the shorter front wall are removable, making it easy to get a wheelbarrow in there for dumping or filling.

The back of the compost bin.

We moved the location too. The new bin backs up to the tractor path between the chicken yard and the workshop. The poultry yard has both a front and back gate, so this is a more convenient.

What did the chickens think?

"No way we're going in there."

They weren't convinced, even after Dan moved the compost from the old bins to the new. When I brought them the canning scraps they recognized the compost bucket and came running. I made a great show of dumping it into the new bin, but when I stepped back they just stood there looking at me. Not one chicken ran to gobble down my offerings. Thinking I was standing too close, I moved away. But instead of jumping into the new bin, they ran to the old and started scratching around in it. They knew I'd brought goodies and ran to where the goodies were supposed to be! I had toss several handfuls of scratch into the new bins before they caught on.

"Oh yeah! Food!"

The second item on the project list was to make more grazing beds. I'll show you those next time.

Chicken Yard Project: New Compost Bins 
© Sept 2019 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Carport Repair Logistics

One of the best homestead investments we've made has been our small portable sawmill. I first showed it to you in this post. We found it on Craigslist and got it for building the barn. If we'd had to buy all the lumber for that barn, we'd probably still be working on it, because that's how it is with pay-as-you-go. That lumber mill helped us get the job done and has more than paid for itself.

Originally the mill was set up in the driveway. That meant dragging pine logs up from the woods to mill them there. Eventually, we moved the sawmill down into the woods. It made more sense to haul cut lumber rather than uncut logs, not to mention leaving all the waste slabs and sawdust in the woods and out of sight. The downside was that our outbuildings, fences, and gates made it more round-about to take the tractor down into the woods and back. Even before Dan decided what to do about the carport, he was thinking about an easier way to transport the lumber to the project site. After running through several ideas, we decided to change the chicken yard fencing and install a tractor gate like this...

The chicken yard used to extend all the way to the workshop.

New gate and tractor path.

Now that he's ready to start on the carport, we've been discussing whether to make changes. We had talked about adding an outdoor cooking area and also thought it would be useful to store Dan's log splitter there since that's where the firewood is stored. He proposed extending the roof a bit on the left side.

With all that in mind, he began to mill the posts and beams.

Milling one of our plentiful pines.

As he mills, he brings it up from the woods and stores it in the workshop until needed.

To be continued . . . . .

Carport Repair Logistics © January 2019

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Firewood Box and Barn Bench

Between building the goat barn and repairing the pantry roof, the pile of leftover wood scraps has become pretty large. Add to that a couple of rainy days, and this is what happens.

A new firewood box! The old one was small and rickety, so Dan wanted to make a new one. What's nifty about this one is that it has wheels and a handle.

It can be wheeled out to the front porch where the outdoor rack is and load it up. No more leaving the front door open in frigid temperatures while we carry in armloads of wood to refill it. 

 Dan also made a barn bench!

Rustic, heavy duty, and Meowy approved.

This was made from waste slabs of wood from Dan's sawmill. For every post, beam, or board he cuts, there are a number of pieces that are too irregular for regular building projects, but are still useful.

We're entering the season of small projects, because often that's all the weather will allow. It's also a good time to plan ahead, research, write, and do some creative experimentation. Not to mention enjoying a bowl of soup by the wood fire! We have to appreciate these things in their appropriate seasons, don't we?

Firewood Box and Barn Bench © November 2018 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Not Much to Show on the Barn

Sam showing off the outer wall for the hayloft.

Ridge beam extension at the peak

This will be for a block and tackle.

That's about it for actual barn progress since my last barn post. All of the action has been taking place at the sawmill, because the next step was to cut rafters for the milking room and nailers for the roof.

 

After that Dan got a start on the milking room roof,

Ridge for the milking room rafters.

but then a vehicle problem channeled all energies elsewhere. So while he's working on the truck I may as well get started on the paint.

As a consolation for not having many barn progress photos, here are a few of Sam and Meowy, two of our barn cats.

That's about it at the moment.

Next > "'Bones" for the Milking Room"

Not Much to Show on the Barn © October 2017

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

A New Home for the Sawmill

Dan's sawmill has a new home. Yes, we still have it, but it's been stationed in our driveway since he bought it last spring. There's enough room behind the house to accommodate the sawmill plus our vehicles, but it's still been somewhat in the way when Dan is working on lumber. Because all our trees come from down in our woods, it seemed like a good idea to relocate the sawmill closer to the source. It's new home is the doe browse.

Here it is in its new home (labeled "browse #2 on our Master Plan).

I admit it's not much of a browse anymore. First the goats took out all the greenery they wanted, and then Dan had to deal with numerous fallen pine trees.

The oldest trees in our woods are pines, a pioneer species.
We've had a lot of them fall, often smashing fences like above.

So between the goats, those old pines being dragged up the hill,

Pine tree on the left uprooted and toppled. All of these
trees are being used for timbers and lumber for the barn.

and my branch and debris clean-up, we've pretty much cleared the browse out. Because of that, it seemed like a good place to set up the sawmill. It will be easier to transport the finished lumber rather than whole logs.

Eventually we'll have all the pines pretty much cleared out. In fact, heavy rain and wind from Irma are forecast to hit us today, so we may find a lot more downed trees once the storm passes through. The browse is already sunnier in the places the pines have fallen or Dan has taken them out. In those areas the young hardwoods are beginning to branch out and thrive.

Goat snoopervision. Planks on the right are for the hayloft.

Eventually the browse will become silvopasture, although that's likely a few years down the road.

A New Home for the Sawmill © Sept 2017
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Trunnels

Show of hands, who knows what a trunnel is?

If you've read Eric Sloane's A Reverence for Wood or Once Upon a Time: The way America was, then you likely know that a trunnel (or treenail) is a hand-cut wooden peg once used by barn and bridge builders instead of nails. Some folks think this was because of the scarcity of iron nails back in the day, but according to Eric Sloane trunnels were preferred in large timber construction, because they allowed flexibility in joints as the weather and atmospheric conditions changed.

Trunnels: the origins of "a square peg in a round hole."
Drawing from page 36 of A Reverence for Wood.

But enough of the history lesson. With the goats set for winter and our summer-milled lumber curing nicely, Dan once again turned his attention to the upcoming project of building the Big Barn. One preliminary on his list was to experiment making and using trunnels.

The best way to learn a new skill is by doing. In this case, the doing was a small project - a barn bench. A bench is useful and would allow hands-on learning plus a starting point for analyzing problems and mistakes, and for honing the skill. The bench itself would be made from waste slabs cut from our pine logs in the milling of our barn posts and beams.

For trunnels he decided to use oak.

Oak trunnel and pine slab

It needs to be just the right size, not so big as to split the
 the slab, but not too small and be too loose in the hole.

Using a grinder to shave off the trunnel.

Rubber mallet for pounding in

Not bad, with only minor splitting of the pine slab.

This, however, is what needs to be avoided.
(Making the bench a good learning project.)

A useful bench nonetheless!

Lessons learned about trunnels:

• be more exact in size (diameter)
• taper them more

Since the slabs aren't treated, the bench needed a protective finish. I used leftover stain and finish.

Stained, finished, and ready to use.

Hay storage on the left, feed room on the right.

And there you have it.

Trunnels © December 2016 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Longer Logs on the Sawmill

The chainsaw mill has been wonderful for making beams, but there were two reasons Dan wished he could use the sawmill for them instead: kerf and time. Kerf is the width of the cut. The chain on a chainsaw is roughly 0.25-thick with all of that wood being turned to sawdust. The bandsaw blades on the sawmill are 0.045 inch. Plus the sawmill is faster. The problem was that this particular sawmill (Central-Machinery sawmill from Harbor Freight Tools) was only made to accommodate 9-foot logs.

The sawmill as it is sold.

Some brands come with extensions, but this one did not, so Dan decided to extend it himself.

Basically, the sawmill unit sits on a track with grooved wheels. The log is secured to the track and the operator pushes the mill the length of the log to make the cut.

Dan said, well, if he replaced the original track with longer pieces of angle iron, it would give him the ability to make longer cuts. So that's what he did.

He welded three 3-inch, 6-foot lengths of angle iron together and bolted the same green log supports (or whatever they're called) onto the new track.

Bed rails serve as the ends

The entire track is bolted to 2x4s because it tends to shift due to the vibration of the saw.

Sawmill with new extended track.

Next came a trial run.

The saw head takes up quite a bit of the track length, so Dan decided to add two more 4-foot pieces of angle iron to be able to saw 16-foot logs if need be.

Sawmill with second extension added.

All it needs is to adjust the placement of green log supports (or whatever they're called), or add something for new ones.

Then he's ready for these:

Longer Logs on the Sawmill © June 2016 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/