Washingtonians

[Kaneke]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kookaburra

http://www.ausinternet.com/ettamogah/kookaburrasong.htm

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

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Looks like an incredible success and a beautiful day as well. Good thing it wasn't any closer or it would have been a terrible temptation just to, you know, browse...
Congrats! Maybe next year we'll have a car pool of Washingtonians come visit?

Our next swap is already being planned, though it is a bit farther south, it will be in the Albany/Corvallis area, mid September, or early October...

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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And, for completion's sake , the common cuckoo a Eurasian native.

 

[Kaneke]

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http://fiascofarm.com/recipes/whitewash.html

 

[SadieSue]

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The coops you have known sound lovely. I imagined something similar when we built ours and did paint the inside first with white primer, then a couple coats of white semi-gloss exterior. The reality is less than I imagined, but is much more than the pipe-dream I conjured up just about 7 months ago so I'm satisfied. I am glad I took photos of what it looked like before the girls moved in. When I showed friends and family photos of the interior someone commented, "Looks cozy! Can I move in?". Of course now just a couple of weeks later, those pretty white walls are compromised with trails of chicken poo, and I have a good idea of what a thorough cleaning will entail.

I'm guessing whitewash may have meant something different in the coops you've known. The thought of them being re-whitewashed monthly suggests a soft-focus idyllic pastoral picture, but probably not so soft-focus if that were my sharp lined actual monthly chore.

And yes, many on CL leave much to be desired, although I have seen a few I like.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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http://fiascofarm.com/recipes/whitewash.html

I'm wondering where one finds hydrated lime these days (or quicklime, which Dad preferred, I suspect mostly because it was dangerous to handle). I've looked for it at Del's, with no luck. I used to buy it at the late lamented Western Farmer's.

 

[SadieSue]

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http://fiascofarm.com/recipes/whitewash.html

Yep, figured real whitewash was something like this. I don't see myself messing with any lime in the near future.

 

[Kaneke]

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http://fiascofarm.com/recipes/whitewash.html

I'm wondering where one finds hydrated lime these days (or quicklime, which Dad preferred, I suspect mostly because it was dangerous to handle). I've looked for it at Del's, with no luck. I used to buy it at the late lamented Western Farmer's.

come on over to my place, I have an entire garbage can full of the stuff (more likely to find it at garden centers than feed stores these days) -- got it off Craigslist to discourage moss in the lawn, then decided I actually prefer the moss -- you don't have to MOW moss !!! plus the volunteer lupines seem to like to grow in moss

 

[Kaneke]

would imagine you could get lime at Sunbirds or Yardbirds too ...

or probably hardware stores, or building supply places .. since it's now used more often in construction than on farms

(seems many farmers prefer to use exterior latex now, since there's less problem with breathing dust/fumes or getting it on hands,
also it dries more quickly and cleans up more readily --- just don't let chickens eat any stringy paint residue from washing paintbrushes;
DGS wasn't careful when he washed up after painting the house, and Mary's chickens ate what he dumped out, with fatal results)

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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The coops you have known sound lovely. I imagined something similar when we built ours and did paint the inside first with white primer, then a couple coats of white semi-gloss exterior. The reality is less than I imagined, but is much more than the pipe-dream I conjured up just about 7 months ago so I'm satisfied. I am glad I took photos of what it looked like before the girls moved in. When I showed friends and family photos of the interior someone commented, "Looks cozy! Can I move in?". Of course now just a couple of weeks later, those pretty white walls are compromised with trails of chicken poo, and I have a good idea of what a thorough cleaning will entail.

I'm guessing whitewash may have meant something different in the coops you've known. The thought of them being re-whitewashed monthly suggests a soft-focus idyllic pastoral picture, but probably not so soft-focus if that were my sharp lined actual monthly chore.

And yes, many on CL leave much to be desired, although I have seen a few I like.

No, thick whitewash, and frequent use of whitewash, was a matter of hygiene: it sealed the cracks where mites and ticks hid, and covered the poo streaks, as well as forming a relatively germ-free surface. Old pre- stainless-steel-and-concrete hot-water-pressure-washed milking parlors were also whitewashed regularly (I suspect that's at the base of dairy show-clothes being white). Not coincidentally, it also amplified the little light that made it in through the few windows in most agricultural buildings back in the day.

Whitewashing is a miserably fatiguing job, more like working concrete than using spraypaint, but it did make a more environmentally friendly surface than spray paint or most commercial paints. Toward the end of our home dairy activities, Dad got an old drywall texture sprayer and used it for spraying whitewash: effective, but noisy. No matter how it was applied, whitewash was touchy stuff, prone to flake off the walls in wet weather, and intolerabt of sloppy technique: some of the worst play-places I remember were old chicken coops where whitewash was slapped over rough-sawed lumber, leaving hidden splinters covered with corrosive powder. Those became play-caves precisely because their owners were not organized enough to raise chickens!

You can turn whitewash into a more permanent paint by the addition of guar gum or dried casien; I think there's recipes for those in one of the first three Foxfire books.