Building New Coop/Barn...Phase 5 Great Barn Build, OCCUPIED! 3/6/16

[speckledhen]

Decided to do a rustic rock wall since we have so much rock around here to use. Not an easy chore, but trying to get something to hold back that bank before it rains and washes all that red GA clay down onto the pad. The rocks at the top are just sitting and waiting. I ran out of steam moving the huge ones for the first base row so will continue tomorrow. Will put the paver base between the rocks and wet it since we have a good size pile of it left over.
Next picture is coyote scat--showing that to see if anyone knows what those big brown seeds are from? Are they brown because they went through the digestive tract or just brown and what are they?
And Finn, who followed me all the way down the hill, smelled the scat and the tracks, rolled on the ground looking cute and then came back up with me. I have my own guardian.
This is how low I had to put my game cam to catch activity on the power line easement road-I would have had pics from this morning if I had it this low at that time, but I misjudged.

 

[aart]

Gonna have to move those rocks later for drain?
No scale for scat....but they make me think of Paw Paw seeds.

 

[speckledhen]

Gonna have to move those rocks later for drain?
No scale for scat....but they make me think of Paw Paw seeds.

Probably the drain would go in front of the bottom row, may tilt those big ones to a slant, not sure yet, was just getting them down there.

The seeds are pretty large, reminded me of extra big cantaloupe seeds but with a harder hull on them. I'm not sure who has pawpaws up here-wish I did. I wanted those years ago but never could find any except some super expensive seedlings online.

Found this online re: coyote scat:

Quote: And mystery solved:

 

[speckledhen]

Our barn is ordered, deposit left, couple of changes made. Didn't go with the company we had been researching for several reasons, one of which was that this one offered double doors we could replace the roll up door with, which always concerned me a bit (a bit drafty, prone to spring breaking, etc). We added one window, so the cooler side of the barn that faces our house and gets morning sun will have 3 windows and the opposite/back side will have two windows. AND, we are having them insulate the roof instead of us buying it and doing that highwire act part ourselves. So, one entry door with a diamond window, opposite wall double solid doors instead of that roll up door and five windows instead of the four we originally had in the plan.
The colors are a tad different shades than the other company. We're having it be two toned (no extra charge) the bottom third will be something called Light Stone, the top 2/3 will be ivory as will the roof and the trim will be "rustic", which is sort of a barn red, to tie it in with other buildings on the property, including our house.

The pic below is a bldg in sorta similar colors to what ours will be (except the trim and roof) in the two toned pattern.


Will have this arrangement-front facing our house. Because of the pad we have, we are putting the long, gable end facing the house. Hard to explain but it just works better with the pad that was made (back isn't that square so want to stay away from that edge, shortened bldg to 20').


Back side:



left,with double doors (the program wouldn't let me put them together since this one if from another company)


Left.

 

[aart]

<thumbsup>

 

[speckledhen]

Tomorrow, DH goes into town to get the permit then we wait for them to install. Probably be at least 3 weeks, hard to say for sure. This company has a better rep than the original one we were thinking of using, which had quite a few BBB complaints.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

That looks better anyways.

 

[speckledhen]

<thumbsup>

That looks better anyways.

Thank you both. I think paying for them to insulate that 7' high roof is better than my poor hubby risking a fall to get up there and do it himself. I'm going to try to finish my rock retaining wall tomorrow, not really a wall, per se, but just rocks set into the sloping bank with paver base to keep the dirt back. There will be room for perforated drain pipe to be trenched around the barn to divert any water. Hopefully, we'll have good luck with this project. Weirdly enough, though this business lot is in Murphy, NC, the rep who helped us today found that he and my husband grew up in the same town, went to the same middle school and graduated the same year and know a lot of the same people. That is on the west side of Atlanta. Crazy small world to have them meet up 48 years later!


I'm off to bed, got up way too early. Coyotes were at it again last night, too. They have skipped only one night in the last two weeks. DH called the elderly woman across the street who has one lonely Golden Comet left, survivor from a fox attack, and told her they were close by this morning. She had not heard ANY coyotes, though they were basically singing right by her bedroom and right by her chicken coop for two weeks. Good grief. That sweet little hen may not last long. She thinks that letting her free range is safe because she thinks the hen stays by the house. She doesn't. We had to slow down because the little gal was running across our street, which is a gravel, dark, leafy predator highway, exactly where the fox got her sister a couple months ago.

Good night, my friends. Off to listen to some chillout music and pass out. More manual labor scheduled for tomorrow.

 

[speckledhen]

@shannonh , you asked me:
"How big is the run in the top pic i had that same ideal and i dont no the run part how big do I need"

I borrowed that photo from the web, but it belongs to one of our members here. I think it's about 24' long, not sure how wide it is. A general rule of thumb that we sometimes start with is about 10 square feet per bird in the outside pen. So, if I have ten chickens, I'd need 100 sf and a 10x10 run would be adequate.

 

[1muttsfan]

Looks very nice, I like the two-tones sides better, just looks more upscale than a plain pole barn.

Likely your neighbor is tired of taking care of chickens and would not grieve to see this one go