My Chicken House

My dear husband built me a chicken house ten years ago. It's a wood-frame building set on a concrete curb-like footer.

We got some perfectly good surplus windows for little-a-nothing, and a couple of doors the same way.

We designed sort of a vestibule/storage area just inside the exterior door, where we keep the feed and whatnot. The second, inner door lets you into the Inner Sanctum where the chickens live. We did purchase a set of nesting boxes with hinged roosts with little sliding doors on the backs so we can gather eggs without having to go into the chicken house, and he built "low" (about a foot off the floor) and "high" (about waist high) roosts out of 2x2's, along three sides of the inside of the chicken house.

It has a wood floor, covered with a linoleum-type flooring (probably vinyl or whatever they're making that stuff out of these days), which we got as a remnant. When we have chickens, we layer the floor with four to six inches of wood chips for chicken litter. We have traditionally purchased said wood chips from a local farm supply outfit. Now that Steve is doing more carpentry, he makes plenty of sawdust but I'd want to sift the fine dusty stuff out of it if we were going to try to put any of that on the hen house floor. Nobody, including my chickens, needs to be inhaling wood dust.

There is a little slider door that you can open and close with a rope on a pulley, that opens out into a fenced, covered yard area so the chickens can go outside, see the sunshine and feel the wind, and still be in a protected environment. It's like a porch except that it's bare ground out there. We call it the chicken yard.

The fence around the chicken yard has a gate-like door that we can open to let the chickens out to free-range for the day, if we wish. Unfortunate experience has taught us to let them out when we are going to be around to monitor things. We used to let them out in the morning before we went to work in the city, but there's a lot can happen when you're gone eleven, twelve hours a day. We changed to leaving them penned up if we're going to be gone and only letting them out when we're there.

On the other side of the chicken house from the little yard door, is another little door that we use for clean out. This one is just a little door on hinges that locks with a bolt-latch. We like to do a thorough clean out about twice a year - all the old, used litter goes out, sweep the floor, maybe scrub any crusty places with a stiff bristle broom. That flooring could also be mopped and disinfected if it seemed necessary. We would then put the chicken litter in the compost heap.

I posted a current pic. It looks a bit overgrown right now, but we've been away these seven years and it's surrounded with chest-high weeds and poison ivy. Someone has had a dog or dogs in there, so there is a little chew damage, some dig-out places, and a couple of the roosts are broken, but it all appears to be relatively easy to repair. We just have to get the human house habitable before we can start on the chicken house.

I'll post again when there's some progress to show.

Gardening Notes

We pull our rows up in ridges so the plantings are raised. Not a raised bed, but raised rows. Here's a picture of this year's garden so far, with a picturesque backdrop of trees.

We have an assortment of tomatoes, peppers, a row each of Georgia sweet and Texas 1015 (sweet) onions, some cukes, a watermelon, a cantaloupe, some okra, green beans, beets and carrots in the raised rows in addition to the corn circles.

We also have some garlic (not shown in this photo). I'll relate The Legend of The Garlic (with picture!) in a separate post in the near future.

By the way, in case you're interested, the trees shown include Black Walnut, Pecan, Hackberry, Elm, Honey Locust, and an olive relative I call "Sweetbush" because of the way it smells when it blooms in the spring. Downright intoxicating, the Sweetbush.

Elsewhere on the acreage live Juniper, Cottonwood, Mulberry, Willow, Cypress, Sweetgum, Oak and Pine trees. Possibly also a Redbud, the Oklahoma State tree, which I planted over ten years ago, but have not yet found.

Seven Circles of Corn

Someone on one of my gardening groups had posted a question about something called Corn Circles. I had never heard of this before and googled the term. Only found one article that mentioned the topic in a few sentances, in the middle of the article.

The article I found referred to corn circles or corn basins. The concept is that you raise a crater-like ring 18 to 36 inches across and plant the corn in the ridge of the ring.

It mentioned planting the "Three Sisters" - corn, beans and squash. The corn supports the beans, the beans feed the corn, and the squash provides ground cover to serve as a living mulch which keeps the moisture in the ground. The basin collects water when it rains or when you water.

You may know that corn needs to be planted somewhat en masse so the stalks can pollinate each other. In traditional row planting, the recommendation is usually to plant at least four rows to accomplish this. The premise with corn circles or corn basins, though, is that the circular configuration in an 18 to 36 inch circle provides the necessary proximity to achieve pollination.

So - I decided to give corn circles a try!

I created seven circles with 13 to 17 plantings each. I planted the corn with peas instead of beans and only planted one squash per circle since the squash spreads out so vigorously.

I will post updates and progress notes about this as summer progresses.

Vermiculture!

GUESS WHAT?! Today I found my old original worm bin! I can't believe it's still there!

It is a plastic under-bed type plastic storage box that I had drilled holes in the bottom for drainage and around along the sides under the rim for ventilation. I place either nylon screening or some of that garden mulch fabric against the holes to help keep my little darlings from escaping through the holes.

I'd kept it out back under some trees where it had shade during the day to help keep it cool enough to keep from baking my little wormies, and close enough to the house to make it easy to carry kitchen scraps out to the bin.

One of our cats, Cookie (aka "The Mistress of Stealth"), liked to perch on a limb, we're guessing to watch for any small critters that may have been interested in the worm bin.

Scared Steve out of ten years' growth one evening about dusk when he was out there piddling around and saw this pair of eyes about waist high. We had seen larger wild cats before, like a bobcat as big as a medium sized dog, so his first thought was what does that pair of eyes belong to and how big must it be if its head is at waist height? But it was just Cookie, perched on a tree limb, watching the worm bin.

If you're interested in or curious about keeping earthworms, check out the The Worm Bin. It's a Yahoo Group all about earthworms, castings, and wormbins.

Abandoned

We recently moved back to - well, are in the process of moving back to- an old family place, which has been rented out to various different people over the last seven years.

The most recent renter may be a few marbles short of a bag. He left the most incredible mess I have ever seen in my life, I kid you not.

The #@^&@*# also left his cats behind.

I know he knows he left them - we talked to him on Sunday on his cell phone. He said he'd be finished moving on Monday and told us where he would leave the key for us to pick up on Tuesday. It appears that the last thing he did before he left for the last time was to bring in a twenty five pound bag of cat food, lay it on the floor and cut it open so the kitties would be well fed until we arrived, and left the front window open about ten inches so the kitties could come and go at will.

Two of the cats were at least acquainted with people and were clearly lonely for human companionship. One would come right up to us, talking, rubbing against our legs. The other one was slightly less friendly but not unfriendly - was a little more cautious, but was talkative and almost approachable.

The third one was talkative, but would not let anyone near him/her. He/she would talk to us, but if we talked back, he/she would give us that "Oh, no you don't!" look and run away.

Given that my own cats are aging, and judging by the MESS this guy left (I am not kidding, I have NEVER seen anything like it), even though I saw evidence of things like flea treatment, litter buckets, and cat food, I could not say with any certainty that these kitties have ever had any veterinary attention, in terms of being current with shots and whatnot. In addition, there is that whole thing of the cats using the entire house as a catbox. These factors, plus more I haven't mentioned, led me to the decision to call Animal Control.

Fortunately, the woman in charge of Animal Control in Mustang has a good working relationship with the local vets and tries very hard to find homes for animals that come under her care.

She came out and easily caught the two "people cats," who are now in quarantine at the shelter as I write. They really tugged at my heartstrings, these two, but I have no doubt that they are quite adoptable and will find good homes as soon as it is feasible to release them.

We made a plan about the third kitty and set about, then, to clean the place up. We also have some serious renovation to do there, and once we got all the garbage cleaned out, we began demolition on the parts that have to be rebuilt and replaced, noise of which has further convinced the third kitty not to come near any of us.

So we took up the food for twenty four hours, then set a live trap with food and water in it and were immediately successful in capturing the third kitty, who now awaits transport to the shelter first thing in the morning.

However - now that the house is empty, we have discovered TWO MORE kitties that we hadn't seen before! They were hiding under the dumpster (crying) when we finished work today. I don't know how successful we will be at capturing them since they might associate "food" with "cage," but if they're hungry enough a cage with food in it might be attractive to the poor little things. Since we never saw these last two until we got the house empty, it makes me wonder if there are yet more kitties. These wild ones are the ones whose outcome I worry about. If they can get their shots and be neutered or spayed they could make decent barn cats. They certainly aren't interested in being people kitties right now, that's for sure.

Since all these kitties have had free run of the house for who knows how long, and have done their business in every nook and cranny, it seriously smells like urine and poo in there, even with all the furniture, carpet and trash out of the house. Steve found a super concentrated odor eliminator on the Internet, which we have ordered. It should arrive sometime next week. I'll be sure to post an entry on its efficacy.

Meanwhile, my kitties Muffin and Cookie are sequestered here at our little one bedroom extended stay apartment...where they LOVE it! Nice and cool, all they have to do is sleep all day,thank you very much, and eat once in a while, and if they feel like it, allow us to brush them - the life of Riley, as my mother would say.

April 22, 2009

Earth Day,
Earth Day,
Oklahoma's Birthday!

Tuesday April 21, 2009

This mini suite we're in here at the residential hotel has a main living area with a television and a kitchenette, a good-sized bathroom and a bedroom. Like a teen-inesy apartment. Carpet everywhere except in the bathroom, so that is where the catbox is.

Muffin totally loves being this close to "Mom" all the time, but I am also seeing that I may be able to socialize Cookie a little more in this small space. She still spends most of her time hiding under the bed, but she is coming out a little more - every once in a while I enjoy the pleasant surprise of velvet against my ankles, and even more rarely she will join me on the bed at night or let me pull her into my lap for an ever-so-brief love-fest.

There is a lot of debate among cat owners as to whether cats should ever be let outside or not, but I do let mine out under certain conditions...one being that I can get them back in at night! So over the years we have formed the practice of taking up the food dishes in the morning and feeding in the evening so I can get everybody to come when I call. With a cat who may or may not answer when you call, feeding time can be an excellent motivator. Another plus for me with once-a-day feeding is that I can see who is eating what (yes, I watch them eat).

We started this feeding-at-night thing when we first lived on the acreage, and then more consciously when we lived in Cooperstown - if one, some or all the cats happen to go outside during the day, it's my way of making sure they all come in at night. Believe it or not, even in Cooperstown there are scary, dangerous things about at night - raccoons, skunks, dogs, foxes, and the like. In the hills around the village they also have bears, but those guys rarely enter the village. (Notice I did NOT say they "never" enter the village!)

At the acreage in Oklahoma, we have all that, plus owls, coyotes and bobcats, so while I occasionally let my creatures out to enjoy the day with me, I'm nearly anal about making sure everyone is securely inside come nightfall. To this day, wherever I am, if I awaken in the night to the sound of coyotes I sit bolt upright in a panic until I have taken a mental roll call of all my pets.

This tiny room at the residential hotel is showing itself to be a good way for Cookie and I to rebond, which will be good when it's time for the cats to go to the acreage.

The former renter is all moved out, so we're going out there today to evaluate, to triage what needs to be done, and to work in the garden. Overalls, work gloves, notebook, camera, ice chest and sack lunches; I'm just sorry the cats don't get to go yet. Big job ahead, I know that, but I so love that place.

The day awaits!