What I Should Have Done 15 Years Ago, for My Chickens

Our outdoor wood furnace is not heating our vents. Heating our water real nice, but not our vents. It's cold out, like 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Problem is we're burning all this off-road diesel for— ah, shoot. Well, that's like fossil fuel. I mean, it's not as cool not as sustainable as wood grown from our own farm. Dollar for dollar, it's not as cheap either, certainly. You want to go around and unlock it for us? Wow, thank you. All right, got the key. This is the fuel for our Kubotas. It's nice, nice off-road diesel on farm. It's food— it's fuel for our generator. There's no alternative for that. There is for our wood furnace or our heating. And what in the world? I've got two different sets of key and none of those is them. We lock this, but for that reason right there, we had the guy who fills these things say one time kids filled the entire tank up with sand. That's a mess. Haha. I'm like, 4 keys. I don't know, 2 where this one was hidden, and I think this is it. So we want this to be our generator and farm equipment fuel. It's nice to have it as a backup, and in the fall and maybe spring when it's not consistently cold. See, we've only got— we've got 8.5 inches in there. You could probably use it filled up, but hoping to get our wood furnace going before, like, we're out of this. Let's go see what we can find out about the boiler. Okay, try it now. We have our wheel collapsing. We got problems. We got things on the list of things to do. You know, we could fix that But I'm also thinking, let's get our nest box from Premier One, and then we can remove this out of here and make some modifications. Fix that wheel, fix it so it doesn't happen again. Turn this into a hitch so we can actually pull this behind the side-by-side. It can go out in the field in the spring. So we're gonna have some— we have a bit of modifications to the Chickshaw 2.0. Maybe it's a 3.0 coming. Yeah. All right, let's see what's going on with this thing. 181. And that's not the problem because we have hot water. These lines, are they hot? These lines are hot. Not awfully hot though.

Is this supposed to be hot, Papa?

Pump's hot. I wonder if that's not supposed to be hot. I didn't mean it's burning hot.

Papa, is this supposed to be hot?

Pump might not be working that great. Maybe it's enough to get it to the water heater, but not to the coil of the, the, uh, ductwork. How empty was it? Was it that full?

No, it was pretty empty.

It was that full last night? How much did you have to put in there? Oh, um, like a wheelbarrow load? You can shut it before we turn on. You can shut it.

Probably wheelbarrow load.

Okay, so it's burning fuel, but it's just keeping our hot water heater. It's not having to call in a lot of fuel. And when I say fuel, I'm talking about wood fuel. The fan's working, you can hear it going.

I can hear it coming.

This is where the hot water— yeah, that's hot. That's not real hot. Goes in, goes into here, and the fan is pushing it through all those coils. I wonder if our coils have gone bad because this is not hot at all. So I measured the temperature up there with this on, it's like 60-something. Coming out. Well, when I run the furnace, it's like 110. Hot water heater, hot going in. Woo! Real hot going out. It was up and over. The coil's hot out here. Wow, it's not hot inside. Let's call Shane. Well, didn't get a hold of Shane. Let's text him and see if we can figure this out. I think it must be that coil. Wow, I think it puts off a lot of smoke right now because it's not having to go much. Once it gets going, it starts burning its own smoke and creates soot. Super efficient, but it's not called upon right now. Hey Jonah, tell me about your sword. A really cool sword. How'd you get those screws through? You have a tool? There's a, there's a toolkit that does that? No, you're just flat like that.

You buy them at Lowe's.

So yesterday you were saying you're having a problem.

These wiggle.

You had me saw this round peg for that to be the handle. What wiggles?

This handle. I still took that one last in, and I think that—

I think that last one will hold it.

I hope.

That'd be nice. Is it sharp?

No, I didn't sharpen it.

What are you going to use it for?

Just to have it.

It's pretty cool. Gosh, you're a big animal. Does that feel good, buddy? She'll get her. Come on. I swear they lay down in their poop because it's warm. Yep, look, she's got poop all over her udder. And I've been wondering, why does she have poop all over her udder? She's got all this clean grass to lay in, and she picks the poopiest spot, probably because it was warm. This is crazy, Flossie. Now this is what I miss, being at the house and can hose her off. Crazy. It's disgusting. 10 minutes later, we're finally ready to milk. Let's, uh, refer to the book. The book. Polyface Designs. Gideon, is that you? I don't know, man. That's gonna be a big mess. I'm not building a design from it, but I am gleaning. We're gonna do a chicken mineral feeder. It's about time. We're about 15 years overdue for that. You need a good grit feeder, aragonite feeder, kelp. We're gonna do it all in one. We're basically inspired by this water cover. I just want to get some basics on the design, then we're going to build something with a platform. What's the matter? This idea, but a hinged roof, a floor custom fit for 4 mineral feeders, 2 for grit extra teeth, and one for a regular, one for kelp. Are those tin snips still down under there? Yes. All right, I should put those back in my toolbox. Carpenter pencil, Jonah. I kind of need a tool bag for assignments, stuff I could put my tools for that project in. See if there's something I could fine for that out here in the loft. This could work. Wood furnace still ain't working. Actually, no, my hands were cold because that's 66. All right, here we go, we're doing it. I have an idea in my head, some guidance from Polyface Designs. I guess it might keep falling off, although that's not a mineral feeder. That is— it's the same idea. We're going to want the chickens to be able to reach their head through but not bother it too much. Can you carry this? Yeah, thanks. Another thing we need is, uh, you know what, let's do 2 new ones so that we can— if this works, we can teach you guys how to do it. We're just gonna— here's the concept: we're gonna put this inside of a feeder and they're gonna be removable. It's gonna be easy to get them out hence the hinged roof. And we'll put their minerals and grit in these things, and they'll reach in and not be able to like get on top of it or perch on anything. They'll only be able to put their head in there and get this. This should be a pretty simple build. I was thinking, you know, I could put a wall between them and then you could mount them to it. They have these mounts, but what good would that do to me? You got to be able to clean these out. I mean, it's gonna, it's gonna happen. So you'd want to be able to reach out in here and grab it and get it out and be able to clean it. I mean, something's going to get in there. There's a piece of plywood. Can I have that right there? Yeah, that'll work. We dare to go into this wood scrap stall and see if we can't find some— the cool thing— oh look, that's basically all we need right here. 1x2s. I don't know if that's enough. Uh, maybe we can find a little bit more, and then I think that's it. Oh, and maybe we could find a roof. The roof panels in here, John, or somewhere else? There's a clear one. There's a white one. Roofing screws. I'm gonna use regular wood screws. Do you know where our regular wood screws are? They're about that short. Okay, well, look at that. I like that piece of plywood even better. It's thinner. I kind of want— I want this to be light. Let's see if this is— I think it's going to be just right. We're going to cut it a little bit. These will have to be inside. That could be there. This one would have to be inside, so it'd be pretty close. Well, that's perfect size if they sit up like that. This might work better though for a, for a grab-and-go kit. Yeah, nice. And you can grab it with one handle. All right, cool. We'll take that back upstairs. I've got my floor, I've got my corners. There goes something like that. Oh yeah, it's going good. Then I'll do my next— I'll take these and do my— I don't know, cross it, cross I'll do it like that. Oh yeah, I could have done like that. It won't matter. You can only have 4-inch gap.

So I want you to cut here and then cut here and then cut here.

I'll do it.

Do it for my hand.

So we only want a 4-inch gap so the chickens can't get in there. We've cut his board and now I want you to screw this on. Okay, I want to at least get this far before We got— we got a break for— it's time, it's time. We got a break for lunch.

But could I help you, Papa?

At least— yeah, you can help me, of course.

Can I screw it away?

We're going to get this all— ah, shoot, just short of 17. Really, I want you guys to see this, where I'm going with this, just in case I don't get to it today. I mean, something like this. Goes pretty fast. It'll be kind of neat to get to it today. It just depends on how office work goes. I'm calling it. This is too jerry. The screws are just a hair too short, and I feel rushed. I feel like I'm not doing a good enough job. Like, this is barely— this is just barely holding together. See? Come on, come on, I gotta do a little better. Even though this is just a prototype, it's got to be a little bit better than that. These might do. I need a little more time. Those will actually do. So let's get another here. I got more screws. Look, Gideon, I got it!

Can I have it sharpened?

You mean like an angle, maybe? There it is, easy. Come on, Gideon, I got your sword. It's time to make lunch. Both of you have swords.

I still got more work on mine.

I still got more.

I went to cook. We don't have tomatoes. It's Taco Tuesday. We have to have tomatoes. It's that time of the year, I guess, where a grocery store run is necessary. I mean, how necessary is salsa? I mean, you know what I mean? But we'll do anything for the beautiful one. What do you think? That's enough? Yeah, we're calling winter harvest tomatoes. Oh, we got our lettuce. Oh, the cat has figured this out that it's warm in here.

Look at that rascal.

Hopefully he's not pooping in there. So this is cool though. This is super cool. What is it, December 1st tomorrow? And we're harvesting our salad out of here. Who loves you, Becky? You do. Henry's still asleep.

Yeah, he wouldn't let me put him down.

Got you some lettuce out of your garden too. So you get the lettuce cut up, washed. What's your duty, Mom?

I'm gonna try to get this out. I'm gonna take the baby and you do this.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, our broth, our meat, our onions. I mean We could have had a decent meal without salsa, but it does, it does put the icing on the cake, doesn't it, Beck?

I finished it.

What? Look at that thing. That is cool. Good job, man. Proud of you. At least one of us finished our project today, huh? Yeah. Rice and onions.

Well, garlic and then garlic and—

oh yeah, why'd I say that? Garlic and onions, because I'm thinking you're gonna cook rice in this. I am. And I'm— it's been a while. I'm excited about this. Here I need to do garlic and onions, so we're going to make our own spice because the, the, the spice we have mix, kids don't like it. So we're going to do— if I can set him down. Are you happy enough? Maybe you would like to play in the pots. Would you like to play in the pots? Nope. Bowl.

Nope.

Now I know what Mom goes through all the time. She wants to help but can't.

I made your garlic.

Okay, well now I can maybe do something because I can do it with my hand. I'd go to cooking oil at this moment. Lardo. Oops, I'm sorry. Lardo is not cutting it, man. It's taking too long. Going for the old butter. Hard to lose with the Butter.

We like butter here.

Beauty just sprinkled some— a little bit of oregano, a good bit of chili powder, and a good bit of cumin, and that's it. I think the chili powder would be what's making it hot, right, Rebecca? So we're easy on it. Oh, you know what? We're missing one thing. Redmond salt. Mucho. How'd it turn out, Beck?

Turned out good.

Does it work? I mean, it's store.

Let's just say this, they're grocery store tomatoes, and as Jess says, grocery store tomatoes taste like disappointment. But I know they're gonna taste good because I know that they aren't as good as homegrown.

Does that—

I don't know, that didn't make any sense.

No, that made no sense.

I know that they're gonna taste— I have low expectations. They'll taste good enough is what I meant to say, not that they'll taste good.

I've got a mountain of animal food with a little bit of guacamole on top. This turned out great. We have kombucha left over from the party.