Chicken Tractor Retrofit
Back in December, 2005, just a few months after we arrived here in Texas, we built a chicken tractor to house our chickens, the original process which you can see here.
Well, fast forward 12 1/2 years, and while it has served us well, it had also begun to fall apart, with uprights rotting, etc.
Given that this was the only real overnight housing for our main flock of chickens, I felt a retrofit really needed to be accomplished in one day. I figured there was no way I would be able to do that myself, and so I requested March 2018’s community work day, and this past Wednesday, we men began the process with haste…
The plan was to pull it all apart, replicate the siding, the front frame, the lower section in the back, and the upper “penthouse” section, and then put the sections back in place, and then the siding pieces. This would allow for not having to re-design things, and allow for using the same roofing and chicken wire pieces without having to re-do those.
But first, we had to pull all of the staples to get the chicken wire pieces off. Everyone got to participate in that, and it actually took a little while:
Here, the roof, siding, and lower back section (which you can see on the ground upside down on the right) are removed, with the front frame and penthouse section still in place:
Here you can see the back section center right, upside down, and a youngin’ sitting on the back door:
Still working on the penthouse section:
Here on the left, you can see the penthouse section removed:
And here, the new front framing and new uprights are in place:
And here’s the new penthouse section, guarded well by a couple of smiling gents…would you trust these fellers? 😉
Skipping forward a little, here we are with the back and penthouse sections in place, and the new siding installed:
And here’s the front view:
And from another angle. I was really hoping to get to this point so we would at least be able to box them in for the night, and thanks to the Lord and the guys, we were able to! But, we did pray the Lord would grant the chickens safety through the night, being they were a little more exposed with the chicken wire not put back:
Here’s looking in the back. I decided to use the same nest-box structure as it was still in fairly good shape:
And here’s how we attached the roofing tin:
And just a metal flashing piece to cover the roof apex:
Here’s the smattering of the old pieces and new left-overs all over…quite the war zone! 🙂
Well, the next day, after God did graciously grant the chickens’ safety through the night, I went ahead and stapled on all of the chicken wire pieces, and they all fit very nicely! Good job to the chicken tractor retrofit crew! Now all we need is some paint:
Hopefully a little more so now! 🙂
Curtains & Pecan Shelling
Over on the ladies side of things, they graciously helped Sue make some new curtains:
And did some of the pecan shelling from the pecans the Lord granted us from our trees last year, which is something of a time-consuming process. The lady who did this got quite a bit of them done!
We are very thankful to God for His graces and mercies in allowing us to be a part of this fellowship. We thank Him for the people here, and we always pray we do these things in love and service for each other out of love and service to Him!
And thanks to the folks for all of the help! May God bless each of you and your households with an abundance of His graces, and temporal, spiritual and eternal blessings!
— David
