Shed Roof by Halvsies

Continued from "The Old Goat Shed: Roof It Or Lose It."

Dan is making progress on the old goat shed re-roofing project.

Framing and roof rafters for the extension of the shed

Nailers

The nailers are oak, given to us by the fellow from whom Dan bought his sawmill. They were cut on that same mill.

Metal roofing panels

Originally we were going to get the same metal roofing panels that we put on the chicken coop. They were corrugated metal panels from Lowes. That was a little over two years ago, and we discovered that what is being sold there now is a lighter weight panel; too light, really, for a roof. Most metal roofs are at least 29 gauge, more often 26 (the smaller the number the thicker the panel.) Customer reviews said the lighter panels are extremely thin and easily dented or bent. Not that Lowes advertised it, but we found out that their panels are now 30 or 31 gauge. We feared one fallen pecan tree branch would trash the roof. Dan started calling around to price panels.

In years past we've tried to support local businesses when we could, but usually ended up at the big box stores for big projects because of the limits of our budget. Dear Readers, we've discussed worsening quality before (in the comments in this post) and most folks agree poor quality is becoming a universal problem. I say this is an unfortunate consequence of our current economic system, because their definition of success is "growth," i.e. ever-increasing profits. Ideally that comes from selling more product, but when sales drop other measures must be taken to maintain that precious growth: raise prices, spend less on materials and inventory (cheaper quality), cut services, cut wages, or lay off workers. It's why the system is ultimately doomed to fail. The only hope would be for manufacturers and businesses to be content with simply providing a product or service and making a living, but we all know that ain't gonna happen. However, as prices go up and quality goes down at the large scale chain stores, the small local business, with lower overhead and no investors to please, is able to be competitive.

Anyway, we found a little place in town that cuts and sells metal panels. Our 29-gauge galvalume panels were cut to order and about 20¢ cheaper per square foot than the flimsy big-box panels!

As to the title of this blog post, why roof by halvsies? Well, when Dan removed the remaining fascia board off the back of the shed he discovered that the ends of many of the original rafters were rotted. By roofing the newly extended half first, we'll be able to keep everything (including the goats) undercover while he repairs and roofs the second half.

Here it is so far:

It reflects a lot of light - I like that.

First half paneled. This shot shows an overhang for what will be a door.

Eventually a wall will be built along the posts and girder in the above photo. The goat door will be under the overhang which will protect it from rain and mud (something we've had a lot of problems with in the past). The goats' area will be more than doubled once we're done, and I'll have plenty of room for milking, feed processing, and storage of goat stuff too.

The second half will be more complicated because of the structural repair I mentioned. You can read all about that here.

Shed Roof by Halvsies © June 2016 by

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

Mid-Summer Garden Report

June was very hard on the garden with daytime highs in the mid to upper 90s (30s C) and only seven-eights inch of rain since mid-May. I spent most days using our wood chips to mulch. I used our collected rainwater to water the beds, dressed with compost, and then applied a thick layer of mulch. I worked in small sections because when the air is that hot and dry, moisture evaporates right out of the ground. I've been able to keep most of of the garden alive, but it struggles.

Still, I have some nice photos to show you, although production has slowed down and much of the garden seems stunted. Cantaloupes, for example are small, and have stopped flowering.

Cantaloupe and bush beans.

But they've been tasty. Green beans are slow too, and I've only been able to can six quarts so far.

Sweet potatoes and marigolds

My 3 rows of okra don't seem to be growing at all.

In one of the old, unkempt beds of the garden I discovered several
clumps of multiplier onions that escaped being harvested last fall.

Cucumbers and dill along a cattle panel
trellis with sunflowers in the background.

Most of the cucumbers have been bitter from the lack of water,

but the plants are loaded with flowers and honeybees.

Honeybees visit the sunflowers too.

The next two rows of trellises are tomatoes, along with more dill, sweet basil, and multiplier onions.

Sam keeps me company while I work in the garden. He has tomato
plants on the left and Jerusalem artichokes behind him on the right.

Tomatoes are just beginning to ripen.

The first of my tomatoes all suffer from blossom end rot. Gardeners know this is caused by a lack of calcium, but it's not necessarily because calcium is lacking in the soil. It can be caused by something interfering with the plants calcium uptake, things like not enough moisture in the soil.

Another place loaded with honeybees is in the popcorn.

Last year I was rather unceremoniously corrected by a number of people when I mentioned that I looked forward to our bees helping pollinate the corn. Corn is wind pollinated, which of course is true, but having seen bees in my corn in the past I added corn to the list of plants my bees would help. It would have been more correct to say that the corn helps the bees rather than the bees help the corn.

Honeybee busy collecting pollen in the popcorn. The grain-like
 things are called "anthers," and they bear pale yellow corn pollen.

My bees have been busy in the popcorn stuffing their pollen baskets! And if they happen to knock down some of the pollen laden anthers which fall on the tassels, I won't complain.

Popcorn tassels. Each strand is a potential corn kernel.

A dry summer is hard on honeybees because less is blooming, so there is less nectar and pollen for them to live on. When that's the case they must utilize their honey stores, which can mean a smaller honey harvest in the fall.

Unfortunately we cannot collect enough water to water everything. I focus on the garden, but other things like fruit trees and bushes suffer.

Blueberries waiting to ripen

July is my month to harvest blueberries. The bush is loaded but the berries are small. Without enough water they will remain small and not be sweet and juicy when they ripen. Rain is in the forecast, though, so here's hoping.

Mid-Summer Garden Report © July 2016 

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

What Happened to Mama Duck & Her Eggs

At the beginning of the month I told you how we discovered that our missing Muscovy duck hadn't been snatched by a predator, but had disappeared to make a nest and set a clutch of eggs. We discovered this when Dan found one of our ducks wrestling a rat snake over an egg in front of the hay hut. (That story here, "No Hope for Ducklings?") Considering the number of eggshells we'd found and that Dan ended up killing three snakes, we didn't know if she had any eggs left.

When we decided we'd better fix the old goat shed roof ("The Old Goat Shed: Roof It Or Lose It") we needed to move the hay hut because it was right in front of the shed. Dan could pull the hay hut away with the tractor, but we didn't know the status of Mama Duck and her nest. We didn't know the target hatch date and didn't want to hurt her or her eggs (if she had any left). Dan thought he could lift one side of the hay hut with the tractor and then take a look to see what was what. If she was still there I could put her and her nest into the dog crate and move it into the chicken coop. I knew from experience that broody mamas don't like to be moved, but I could close the crate door until she got used to being there. Neither of us thought her spot a very good choice, anyway, because of our cats.

We lifted the hay hut up and looked. No Mama Duck. Dan knew approximately where the nest was but could see no eggs. What had happened? Had the snakes gotten them all? He chained the structure to the tractor and pulled it away from the goat shed.

Well, guess what. Her nest was there and it was full of eggs! They were still warm and the worst part was that we had cracked three or four of them. We could see fully developed ducklings inside. And! They were still alive!

What to do, what to do. My first thought was to push them back under the hay hut in hopes Mama Duck would find them. Noise from the tractor had likely scared her off and I just hoped that when she came back she'd go to the hay hut; it was only a dozen or so feet from its original location.

All the rest of the day Mama kept looking for her nest, except she always stopped where the nest used to be. I made a trail of chicken scratch from the old spot to the edge of the hay hut, thinking if she got close to the hut it would look familiar and she would think to look underneath. She didn't. She kept going back to the original location of her nest.

Our nighttime low was scheduled to drop into the 50s, which worried me, because I didn't think the half-hatched ducklings nor the rest of the eggs would survive that. We could put them under the brooder lamp, but eggs need more than heat to develop. They need turning and the correct humidity. Without a proper incubator the chances of success seemed slim. The only other place to put them was here...

I had two broodies, a chicken and a duck, vying for the exact same spot under the nest boxes in the chicken coop. I knew they had some eggs, but if I could put Mama Duck's eggs under them, maybe they had a chance.

All we could do after that was wait. The saddest part was that Mama Duck kept looking for her nest. Every time I went out to the chicken yard or goat shed, she would run up to me and cock her head as if to ask where they were. I tried several times to catch her, telling her I'd take her to them, but she wouldn't let me get that close.

A couple of days later I heard some low chicken clucking. I took a peek under the nest boxes and saw this.

For the next couple of days we could hear peeping, but rarely saw the ducklings. One day Mama Hen was off the nest and I saw this.

Later that day we got a head count.

Four ducklings had survived, and been adopted by Mama Hen!

She warms them, feeds them, and protects them. Mama Hen is one happy chicken!

Several days later she took them outside for the first time. It was amazing that even at a couple days old the ducklings instinctively try to catch flying bugs. The adult Muscovies are very good fly catchers, and the babies did what ducks do.

And Mama Duck? It seems that by the time she got over looking for her nest she'd lost her inclination toward broodiness. She looks at the ducklings with interest but makes no attempt to reclaim them.

For now, Mama Hen has her brood, the other broody duck has the nest to herself, and the ducklings are being taken care of. I suspect it's only a matter of time before the ducklings start to prefer the company of the other ducks. All species seem to know their own kind, indeed, even the breeds within the species often know their own kind. Those truths can be found in the old agrarian sayings which are embedded in our language. Things like "birds of a feather stick together." These aren't strict rules, of course, but generalizations. Most often the generalizations are true. I just hope they stick with Mama Hen long enough for her to be done with her broody.

What Happened to Mama Duck & Her Eggs © June 

2016 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/