Well, winter is really trying to stick around, here, in northern Minnesota. 2 days ago we got a nice little snow storm and this morning is was a balmy 35 degrees. I said it a couple of weeks ago that I was not about to Mother Nature dictate when Spring was going to come to this area, and I seem to still be fighting her. Regardless of the weather, my quest to force Spring to be here continues. This morning, I took my son out to the driveway and we temporarily put up 3 sides of the new chicken coop that we are building, to get it off the ground. Below are the pictures of the current state of the chicken coop.
I plan to put a cement slab in and put the new chicken coop on it, and starting figuring it out the other day, by using bags of quick-crete, and it will take about 52 bags of cement (80 pound bags) to make the slab. yesterday, when we were in Grand Rapids, i decided to get some more bags of cement. That is when I came to the full realization about the weight of things. I bought 12 bags of cement yesterday – that comes to 960 pounds!! Needless to say, the Suburban wasnt real pleased about having nearly a half ton of cement put in the back of it, and 12 bags is nowhere near the 52 that I will need to complete the slab!! Going to have to make a few trips into town for cement I think….
This will be my first crack at trying to build roof trusses. Wish me luck! Youtube is good for some things, but I have always found that applying things that you read or watch to actual practice, by your own hands, is usually not the same. I am generally pretty good about working my way around things though, so we will see if in mid-winter, if I still have a roof or not.
Here are the current pictures of the 3 sides I have so far. The last side is going to be a major pain in the butt because it will house a huge triple pane bay window that is nearly the size of the wall. (Thanks for the Windows Dee! Dee owns the Spring Lake Store about a mile away).
To save on money, I will be looking around for used wooden pallets, tearing them apart and using the wood for the siding of the coop. That triple pane bay window that I mentioned is so heavy, that it took 3 people to move it into the garage. Puting that on a wall and lifting it into place should prove to be very interesting – especially since i will likely be doing it by myself!!
Crystal Rayne 