Chicken Coop

When my son and his family came for a visit in August, they gifted me with work days...asking what I wanted done. lol...Really? Anything at all, they replied. Really? lol...Ok then. I want to build my hen house, line the drive with stones (tons and tons all around the property), and have a trench dug on one side of top drive area.

We worked our butts off, and man, oh man did they kick it! Tommy and I (with some help from dil Dia) built the hen house. It's very similar to the one I had in Illinois, but on a larger scale.
 

My handsome son getting ready to cut the wood.

We worked all of one day, and part of another to do all this, but it got done! They literally saved me...easily?...a month or more of work doing it all by myself. Needless to say, I was thrilled, and beyond grateful for their help.

Prep work: I dug the holes, and Tommy and I cemented the the 4"x4" base posts in place.

Beginning building the coop on stilts!

Tommy adding walls to the coop.

The finished coop with temp chick quarters in front (covered by tarp).

I have some water run-off issues when it rains. Mostly it's pretty minor, but with a 200' slope top to bottom of my property, there are bound to be a few problem areas. The driveway is one of those areas. So, I'm hoping the stones, and trenches dug here will help with some of that as it crosses the driveway.

Beautiful job lining part of the drive with stones...kind of between upper and lower drive areas.

More stone work!

Thankfully, I have a LOT of stones on my property!

At the curve on lower half of drive.

Upper drive trench.

We all worked hard, and got a lot done. Even my 3 yr. old GrandBoy dug trenches (aka holes), and moved rocks! The kids were troopers!

A restful moment in the shade.

Chillin'.

 It was a fun day.

Ciao

Rural anomalies

While this experience has been a tremendous learning experience, it has also been one of the most stressful experiences I've had...lol...and I've had some doozies in my life.

As soon as I got here I began making phone calls to get work done: road graded in, electrician, supplies to be delivered, ordering cabin, well driller, backhoe operator, etc. I left uncountable messages with every contact I received for these different people. If I even received a call back, it was often days, and even weeks later. IF I even received a call back...often, I didn't.

My property is in a very rural area; I'm an hour from any town with 'some' amenities...like grocery stores, a WalMart, and basics like that. Home Depot and Lowe's are further away...about a 2 hour drive one way. There is a very small town about 20 minutes away where there is a small, locally owned hardware store (can you say "expensive"?), a convenience store (again, expensive), a small 'country' store (again...VERY expensive), and a locally owned restaurant. That's about it for businesses aside from a couple of real estate offices, the post office, Ranger station, and a couple of locally owned mechanics' shops.

I knew all of this when I bought this property, and I'm ok with the distance away from such things. I also realize that once the initial work is all done, trips to 'town' will lessen drastically. (I'm always having to go pick up this or that plumbing, electrical, lumber, etc.) This land is raw, and I'm developing it from the ground up...literally.

 
The real challenge, though, has been getting...and keeping...people up here to do jobs I can't do myself. But...things are progressing...slowly...but they are progressing. Will I be ready for winter? As of today? I'm not sure. Found out yesterday that my new (second) contractor may be called away for an out of country job that will prevent him from finishing the general work inside the cabin. Yet one more hurdle. The folks up here just aren't very reliable...even when they stand to make a decent amount of money from the job.

More pics later...

Ciao

Lazy Bones...And now I'm found!

July 19, 2015

Lazy Bones

I’ve been quite remiss in doing any entries. I think I started this blog too soon…one can only post about plans so much before it becomes…monotonous?

 

I’m here on my property now. I left Illinois for New Mexico on May 10, 2015, though I was supposed to leave earlier. I was delayed by the tornadic storms stretching across the US…North to South. Horrible flooding and tornadoes hitting so many people during the week prior to my actually leaving. Anyway…I arrived in NM May 12^th.

  

I towed a very small Uhaul…5’x 8’, so I only brought ‘must have’ things…kitchen stuff, camping gear, tools, camp chairs, etc. Even so, it was loaded for bear! As a matter of fact, my son took a day off to help load it. The next day, as I attempted to leave, my vehicle just didn’t feel right. I drove to the local tire place only to be told that the Uhaul was overloaded, and putting too much weight/pressure on my tires…rear tires were actually bulging. Sooooo…I hightailed it back to my son’s home, and proceeded to unload, and repack the trailer. Took me a couple of hours, but I got it done.

Off again the next day…much more lightly packed, and vehicle driving much smoother. Wish I had a picture to share of my SUV and the Uhaul trailer, but didn’t think to get one.

As per usual, it took 2 ½ days to do the drive…same as the drive to Arizona. Unremarkable except for the moment when I looked in my rear view mirror and wondered aloud, “WTF! Get off my ass, asshole!” lol…the “asshole” was the Uhaul I was pulling behind my car. Took me a second to go, “Doy! Seriously?” Gave me a good chuckle each time I glanced in my mirrors and saw the Uhaul behind me.

I’ve been documenting everything with videos and pictures, so I’ll post each step in order until I’m all caught up to date. Right now several things are in a hold…i.e….I’m waiting for the electrician to lay the conduit in the trench I had dug (Done now), and to install the electrical service panel prior to the electric company installing poles (Done now), etc to connect electricity to my little cabin. I’m also still waiting on the well driller to come out and get that project started (Well drilled, but no well pump as of today 9/23)! So, it’s a good time to play catch up, though I’m doing small projects while waiting on the biggies.

These are all photos of parts of my property prior to doing any of the road work, tree cutting, etc. Taken just after I arrived here in May.

Ciao…