Kristen’s Chickens and Farming Ventures

[WhoDatChick]

So, what could possibly go wrong?
(Stealing the bold titles for narratives from @BY Bob to make them easier to find)

A house update... our first floor decking is done, so basically we have a floor. It is flat and brown and I didn’t walk all the way to the house for a picture. DH still has to do some blocking underneath now that the plywood is all down, because working under the 18” of crawlspace is going to be so much easier. Some of the first floor wall panels have also migrated to the site.

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This was what we came home to after our firewood run for Wayne. Here’s a link to that post over on @Ribh’s thread (trying to conserve precious cell data so I don’t get slowed down) https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ribhs-dcoopage.1295189/post-22200914 for a little ride up the Mountain through the woods and a cloud (I don’t think @aart or a few others here are over there, but you might like to see it). So, what could possibly go wrong? FIL, BIL, and a tractor, that’s what.

To get the panels here Andrew, another guy and I hand bombed them carefully onto our flat deck, stacked them neatly, strapped them down and they made it the 3 miles of treacherous road no problems. No bending, cracking, breaking, dropping, and only limited swearing involved. These pictures don’t even begin to show the extent of the issues but...

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You can sort of see how the tractor forks are in the wrong place (not centered on the 8’ walls), it is quite overloaded, and, if you look closely, you will notice the bottom panel (supporting all that weight) is essentially hollow. It’s the dining room panel with the opening for the French doors, and that big hole is where the forks are! So the whole load is essentially resting on about a foot of wall at the back of the forks. DH (in the red) tried to point this out, lots of yelling ensued. I retreated to the trailer, made dinner, and prayed for the safety of our walls and DH. FIL almost rolled the tractor several times in the 300-400 feet between here and the build site. No walls or in-laws were seriously harmed in this process, though the walls did suffer some small damages (hopefully nothing too structural).

Yesterday, Andrew went to town for bloodwork and picked up our perimeter drain pipe, elbows, and three 5 gallon pails of waterproofing goop stuff for the foundation. The waterproofing stuff is down in the heated common building until Sunday, when we, according to our weather forecast, should be able to apply it.
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I believe I’m going to be shoveling drainrock sometime in the very near future. As I am the default Grunt labor (catch being I won’t work around FIL or BIL)

Oh. Ma. Ga. Kris... ... this is crazy! So glad most survived this assault!

 

[WhoDatChick]

Okay.. now I am all caught up here ... I’m so afraid of going back to Bob’s and Ribh’s threads

 

[Ribh]

Okay.. now I am all caught up here ... I’m so afraid of going back to Bob’s and Ribh’s threads

Nah. Just read on from where you land.

 

[BlueBaby]

@Kris5902 One of the 3 Barnevelder pullet's layed her first egg today! Roger got in the nesting box with her to make sure that the older girl's couldn't run her out of it until she was done. Roger is such a good roo!

 

[pspatbyc]

I have a full incubator!
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And the North East corner of the the first floor is vertical.

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I may not have my wheelchair accessible or level side entry, but we will get there one day. We also seem to be missing the Eastern Windows. Code and the house was designed to be right next to other homes on a city lot Whatever... we can always renovate later.

Okay so I've never done an incubator. Come hatch day do you take the eggs out the incubator and then let them hatch in a brooder box or do they hatch in the incubator and then you take the chicks out??
Good luck with the hatch and the house. The pic with the saw horses cleared up questions I had cause I was thinking the panels were complete wall sections with insulation and sheetrock. I was worried for you about your panels. I don't know how you've managed to keep your sanity with FIL et all.

 

[pspatbyc]

I’m now thinking the house is going to look very, very big... maybe it’s a bit too large, but there’s not really any going back now.

I’m mostly blaming the crawlspace I didn’t want, and the proximity to the road... it was supposed to be much closer to the field, where it was flatter, but I’m thinking I can probably put a large walk in root cellar under the deck that will now be needed off the south side. Even a 10x10x6 one would significantly reduce the amount of backfill needed there. Quite perturbed about the placement still.

I think it looks so big to you because you've spent to much time in the RV . Soon you will be in your new home and things will be better

 

[BlueBaby]

@pspatbyc The egg's hatch out in the incubator and dry off first before moving them to the brooder.

 

[Kris5902]

Thanks @BlueBaby for answering about the incubation, it’s been a busy day. And way to go Roger and the new Barnie layer! And welcome @jolenesdad I’ll warn you, I’ve gotten sidetracked from chickens over here and there’s a whole lot of General life stuff, ranting, and house building as well. I’m sure it will swing back around to the chickens soon though!

 

[Kris5902]

So, I’m wondering if I should do daily house updates for a while, or just wall by wall once the sections are in? Turns out they did give us two main floor eastern windows, now I’m worrying about the eventual upper kitchen cabinets... and BIL is complaining about the second story toilets not lining up with walls. Don’t worry, I plan on having a real plumber do the plumbing (hopefully by bribing my uncle with fishing and beer)

Sammy and Barney are back in the Meat Tractors with their respective flocks. And of course it’s rainjng now so I need to run out and fix the tarps in the dark

 

[BlueBaby]

So, I’m wondering if I should do daily house updates for a while, or just wall by wall once the sections are in? Turns out they did give us two main floor eastern windows, now I’m worrying about the eventual upper kitchen cabinets... and BIL is complaining about the second story toilets not lining up with walls. Don’t worry, I plan on having a real plumber do the plumbing (hopefully by bribing my uncle with fishing and beer)

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Sammy and Barney are back in the Meat Tractors with their respective flocks. And of course it’s rainjng now so I need to run out and fix the tarps in the dark

Oh, no! Now your new east wall is going to get all wet!