Went to bed last night with the wind blowing strong, but nothing too bad. We almost always have bad winds on Christmas - I'm talking 90 mph + gusts. Husband woke me up right around daylight (fyi - that's not that early in Alaska) yelling, "I think the coop is gone, the ducks were on the back porch." So, I jump out of bed, throw on sweats and heavy clothes and we head outside to find this:
What you see is the BOTTOM of the coop. This photo was actually taken after we'd gotten the birds out and tried to brace the right wall that is coming apart. The whole thing went over during the night. How the ducks didn't blow away, I'm not sure. The floor of their "bedroom" was never attached to the structure, so when it went over they were left sitting in the open. Wes found them huddled against the back porch trying to get out of the wind. Unfortunately, the chickens were locked in their bedroom and had to ride it over. I was terrified we were going to find dead hens when we opened the door (which we had to pry around a branch that had gone through the roof.) But nope, they were all in there, flustered but fine. One of them was still even trying to sit in the nest box, which was on it's side!!!!
Thank the Lord that I hadn't gotten around to changing out the lamp I keep in the chicken's bedroom from a regular bulb to a heat lamp. If I had the straw would have surely caught on fire.
More of the disaster scene included one of the rabbit hutches turned over.
Again, luckily, we never attached the actual hutch part to the stand, so it was easy to right and leave on the ground (that's the frame to the left). Poor guy, I was so worried about him. He's 6 years old, which isn't young for a bunny. But he was okay. Had to do some digging to find him in the straw where he was hiding.
The winds have been blowing all day at sustained 65 mph + with gusts over 90mph so we couldn't do anything to right the coop. We only had tarps for a roof and had to cut them off to keep them from catching the wind and blowing the thing down the draw into the neighbors house. Right now the whole thing is braced by the trees behind it.
We tried to secure doors but even sitting a big rock and the wheel barrow on top of the duck door wouldn't hold it. It actually lifted the wheel barrow and tossed it about 4 feet. We'll have to replace hinges and locks on all of them.
The biggest loss is the bale of straw and most of a brand new 50lb bag of layer feed that scattered when the coop went over. We salvaged what we could but it wasn't much.
Our garage is overcrowded with junk already and I have 7 two month old chicks in a kiddie pool and 12 four week old chicks in a tote out there now. So, this is the scene in our garage at the moment. It's gonna STINK by the time this is all said and done!
I was running on adreneline this morning and then started to let myself get depressed (spent a bunch on Christmas, not sure where the $$ will come from to fix all this) but then decided it wasn't worth the effort to feel depressed. They're all alive and well, nothing's irreplaceable so I should be thankful.
You gotta love the things Mother Nature can dish out!
What you see is the BOTTOM of the coop. This photo was actually taken after we'd gotten the birds out and tried to brace the right wall that is coming apart. The whole thing went over during the night. How the ducks didn't blow away, I'm not sure. The floor of their "bedroom" was never attached to the structure, so when it went over they were left sitting in the open. Wes found them huddled against the back porch trying to get out of the wind. Unfortunately, the chickens were locked in their bedroom and had to ride it over. I was terrified we were going to find dead hens when we opened the door (which we had to pry around a branch that had gone through the roof.) But nope, they were all in there, flustered but fine. One of them was still even trying to sit in the nest box, which was on it's side!!!!
Thank the Lord that I hadn't gotten around to changing out the lamp I keep in the chicken's bedroom from a regular bulb to a heat lamp. If I had the straw would have surely caught on fire.
More of the disaster scene included one of the rabbit hutches turned over.
Again, luckily, we never attached the actual hutch part to the stand, so it was easy to right and leave on the ground (that's the frame to the left). Poor guy, I was so worried about him. He's 6 years old, which isn't young for a bunny. But he was okay. Had to do some digging to find him in the straw where he was hiding.
The winds have been blowing all day at sustained 65 mph + with gusts over 90mph so we couldn't do anything to right the coop. We only had tarps for a roof and had to cut them off to keep them from catching the wind and blowing the thing down the draw into the neighbors house. Right now the whole thing is braced by the trees behind it.
We tried to secure doors but even sitting a big rock and the wheel barrow on top of the duck door wouldn't hold it. It actually lifted the wheel barrow and tossed it about 4 feet. We'll have to replace hinges and locks on all of them.
The biggest loss is the bale of straw and most of a brand new 50lb bag of layer feed that scattered when the coop went over. We salvaged what we could but it wasn't much.
Our garage is overcrowded with junk already and I have 7 two month old chicks in a kiddie pool and 12 four week old chicks in a tote out there now. So, this is the scene in our garage at the moment. It's gonna STINK by the time this is all said and done!
I was running on adreneline this morning and then started to let myself get depressed (spent a bunch on Christmas, not sure where the $$ will come from to fix all this) but then decided it wasn't worth the effort to feel depressed. They're all alive and well, nothing's irreplaceable so I should be thankful.
You gotta love the things Mother Nature can dish out!
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