What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

I have a "routine" in my Silkie pen to try to keep everyone safe. I have a game hen in there with the Silkies and she has 3 babies. Since she can be super aggressive where her babies are involved, I pen her up in a 3 ft x 8 ft pen during the day inside the run. Her babies can easily go through the fence so they have the run of the whole chicken yard, but she can't. Then I let my Silkie mamas out of their brooders so they can take their babies outside without getting attacked by the game hen. In the process of putting everyone back where they go for the night, I realized that ANOTHER (separate) game hen in my main coop had left one of her babies outside in the chicken yard. It took me 15 minutes to catch the booger. I opted NOT to give the baby back to the game hen and instead slipped her under my BO hen named Red who is currently broody. It is pouring buckets today.... I had to put on all new, dry clothes after feeding everyone but I took the opportunity to check on Red & the baby. I also wanted to put some chick starter & water in there by her nesting box since I'm sure the baby will be hungry. Red grumbled at me when I lifted her hind end up but I think the baby is still safely tucked away under her because I saw baby feet and heard chirping. No new siblings yet that I could see but it was dark and hard to tell.

I'd bet it's already rained 1-2 inches today....on top of the 6+ inches we've gotten over the past week. I did get most of the hoop house netting on yesterday except for the door end. I also ordered another net which I will simply add over the cheap Amazon one. Double netting never hurt anything, right? I hope to start getting plants in the ground on Friday or Saturday this week....FINALLY!

 

[SheaLoner]

If you are handy fixing stuff, goto the junk yard, a lot of time people get rid of them, just because they got a new one, or ok it stopped working, but all that really went bad was the clixon, thermal overload or relay on the compressor, a 10 or 20 dollar fix. I know the guys at several of the junk places and they let me poke around and I'll find one like that, hell, you can even grab the parts off another one they got, to fix the one you want, and walk out with it for like 20 dollars or so.

It's worth a try.

Aaron

Junky ones here go for scrap the minute they hit the curb. And its "illegal" to scrap one with the door attached. So any in the junkyard are wrecked.

 

[638858]

I have 5 freezers not counting the 2 on the refrigerators.. my chest freezer in my BBQ Shack went out last summer and I was unaware until it was a stinkin mess.. haha.. mom and dad are downsizing and I just got a big stand up for $125.. it’s sittin on the porch waiting to be put in the rotation..

 

[Ascholten]

Junky ones here go for scrap the minute they hit the curb. And its "illegal" to scrap one with the door attached. So any in the junkyard are wrecked.

You'd be surprised how many people don't know the law on the fridges / freezers and bring them whole to the junk yard. They just want their nickel a pound or whatever they can get for them. Again, if you know the guys, (start a rapport, it never hurts to meet new people!) , bring them a few dozen free eggs or something, I use coffee) maybe you can get them to put one aside for you. The bigger yards, no probably not going to happen, they don't give R, A, really, but the smaller ones, it's a good chance.

Never hurts to try, at worse, you lost what? 30 minutes of your time?

Aaron

 

[TJAnonymous]

TJ that was what I was thinking ! just have an external thermostat on the thing, NOT hard to do! very good insulation. Styrofoam works plenty well, and good ventilation. That is VERY important, many people don't realize how important the air circulation is, but yes, it's very doable for pretty cheap.

Aaron

I can't remember if it was someone on BYC or elsewhere that showed this to me -

https://www.storeitcold.com/product/coolbot-walk-in-cooler-controller/

It basically helps the window A/C unit regulate properly to work as a walk-in-cooler unit. I really need a cooler to keep stockpiled animal feed and extra eggs. I'm going to add it into a section of my barn but first I need to get an electrician out to add a dedicated circuit for it. My electrical box in the barn is pretty small and I'm not sure if it can handle the load/circuit or not.

Yet ANOTHER thing on my to-do list that really needs to get done ASAP. I really want to build a root cellar too but that will be more difficult than a walk-in cooler because I live on the side of a foothill with bedrock literally 2 ft below the surface.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I have 5 freezers not counting the 2 on the refrigerators.. my chest freezer in my BBQ Shack went out last summer and I was unaware until it was a stinkin mess.. haha.. mom and dad are downsizing and I just got a big stand up for $125.. it’s sittin on the porch waiting to be put in the rotation..

We have:

1 large chest freezer
2 full sized refrigerators with freezers
A dorm refrigerator
1 small chest freezer (currently unplugged but used to store animal feed)

And I STILL don't have enough room.

 

[Ascholten]

I live on the side of a foothill with bedrock literally 2 ft below the surface.

Better than where I am in Florida, where the water table is sometimes literally a few feet under the surface. At least you can use dynamite to solve your problem. Im pretty screwed and the whole root cellar / basement thing is only a pipe dream at this point

Aaron

 

[TJAnonymous]

Better than where I am in Florida, where the water table is sometimes literally a few feet under the surface. At least you can use dynamite to solve your problem. Im pretty screwed and the whole root cellar / basement thing is only a pipe dream at this point

Aaron

I'm pretty sure you can't use dynamite ANYWHERE anymore unless you want ATF on your doorstep.... But I get your point. Our water tables are pretty high too, although not quite the same as yours. I've been trying to figure out if I can create an above ground root cellar (think 'earth house' type construction) so I don't have to deal with the bedrock but still get the benefits.

 

[Ascholten]

That controller is Way MORE than you need to pay.
All you need is a thermostat really, an external one.
A, bypass the one in your fridge, a jumper wire.
B. hook the external one to the power line
c. put the probe in the room, center is probably best.

The added TC controller now turns on / off the fridge / freezer when you need it now, instead of the one inside it. Being you want it at a temperature of about 37 degrees .vs. 77 degrees for a typical AC setting, id probably want twice the BTU that is listed for cooling a room by the AC guide, in other words if they say your 10 x 10 room needs 5000 btu to cool, get a 10k for the fridge. With good insulation, once the temp comes down and the humidity is out, and the thermal mass is at temp it should be efficient, but having that little bit of extra on it, helps ensure that when you do walk in and out a few times with a load of meat, it can get it where it needs to be in 12 hours, instead of a day and a half, type thing.

Aaron

 

[TJAnonymous]

That controller is Way MORE than you need to pay.
All you need is a thermostat really, an external one.
A, bypass the one in your fridge, a jumper wire.
B. hook the external one to the power line
c. put the probe in the room, center is probably best.

The added TC controller now turns on / off the fridge / freezer when you need it now, instead of the one inside it. Being you want it at a temperature of about 37 degrees .vs. 77 degrees for a typical AC setting, id probably want twice the BTU that is listed for cooling a room by the AC guide, in other words if they say your 10 x 10 room needs 5000 btu to cool, get a 10k for the fridge. With good insulation, once the temp comes down and the humidity is out, and the thermal mass is at temp it should be efficient, but having that little bit of extra on it, helps ensure that when you do walk in and out a few times with a load of meat, it can get it where it needs to be in 12 hours, instead of a day and a half, type thing.

Aaron

I have a 14,000 BTU LG unit with dual inverter. Should be more than enough... The room size will be somewhere around 10 ft x 6 ft.

I don't want anything to freeze....just stay cool so maintain a temp around 33-35 degrees.