Building a very shotty chicken tractor

I am not a craftsman. i have grrreat ideas and can draw them out pretty well, but the combination of my lack of knack and the crappiness of my screw gun's battery life create pretty poorly constructed projects.
That being said, this didn't need to be THAT sturdy, just a little day playpen for the girls to get some nicer front yard grass, and maybe borrow the neighbor's grass on occasion. Needed to be lightish weight, sturdy enough to compete with the cats, and roomy enough for 2 - 4 wandering chickens.

The best laid plans......   did not come out as they were planned, but i think it'll do the trick:

I planned to do a triangular structure at first... then changed my mind to do a little square, then went back to the triangle idea. I should have put the handle on the inside for better integrity, and i should have used a screw driver, but as i said my gun sucks so i stuck to mostly nails.

I soon discovered that the old scraps of wood i had laying around were insufficient and employed the husband to pick up some supplemental (and just the right amount of) lumber from Lowes.

I was going to cut nice angles at the top of some pieces of wood to make the top of the triangle, but sticking them at an angle together seemed to work just fine.

The frame held together alright, though the ricketyness of nails is obvious. I used a skillsaw for most of my cuts, but used my miter saw for some smaller pieces. To patch up some of the ricketyness i added some little scraps of masonite to hold the separating pieces together.

I scavanged some plywood from my neighbor's house (shh, don't tell them) to use as the door, and had some hinges left over from a salvage of the other neighbor's old cupboards.

I had some chicken wire scraps laying around and used those to cover the two ends. Was going to use some bigger wire for the rest of it, but it is a pain in the butt to use, has too large of holes, and i'll have other uses for more wire anyway so i took another trip to lowes to get more chicken wire and some staples for my staple gun. The wire is attached with both staples at frequent intervals, and bracket v shaped nail things that are a pain to nail in but quite sturdy - those are at strategic structural intervals.
I also sandwiched the chicken wire at the two ends with two pieces of wood to hold the wire down and hold the bottom of the triangle together.
I also attached a big honkin clasp to the door that my husband brought home the other day. it is huge. but i like it.

After all the chicken wire is wrapped and tightened aroudn the top and sides, i cut a piece of the larger wire to fit along the bottom. This will ensure no knocking over of tractor will result in 'get the chickens from underneath'' as well as preventing the girls from completely decimating my lawn.

Voila! Add a water cup and some chickens and you have an instant play date or snack bar. They were a bit confused at first, but the lush grass is keepign them occupied.

The ladies left behind were quite displeased at the removal of their friends, but i found them a tiny patch of grass in the back to keep them occupied and they quickly forgot they even had other friends.

A success!
This project was quite inexpensive. The two pieces of wood we had to buy were about $10 total. I had all the nails and screws and the rest of the lumber already from previous projects, and the chicken wire was about $20 with lots left over for fencing around gardens. I wouldn't recommend a structure like this to be a long term habitat, but it's just fine for a portable 'eat the grass over here, girls' type enclosure.
PS: both these girls have laid today already, i think i will be sure to make it a habit to only bring the chickens who have already laid into this enclosure as there is no nest box.

Do you have urban chickens? Do you let them free range in unfenced areas, or do you use tractors?

More Homemade Goodness: Mayonnaise

Wowee. Who would of thought little miss fat free would be making mayonnaise from scratch?
I got the recipe out of Nourishing Traditions, and agree with the author that the olive oil is a BIT much flavorwise: think i'll mix with some sunflower oil or something else next batch. In respect to the author and her copyright i won't post the specific recipe here, but the basics that i used are:

• fresh eggs from our girls
• extra virgin olive oil, in this case it was infused with garlic as i roasted some garlic in oil yesterday (450 degrees for about half an hour in a foil packet = amazingly spreadable delicious garlic)
• fresh squeezed lemon juice from my Meyer tree
• salt
• whey

I used my husband's grandmother's old food processor and mixed it all up into a thinner than store bought, rich, bright yellow, blend of delicious mayo. It's tangy and garlicy, a little too olive oily, but i can only imagine the delicious chicken salad this is going to make!
The addition of whey promotes lactofermentation that extends the shelf life of the mayo as well as providing more enzymes and greater nutrition. Apparently mayo normally only lasts about a week or two, with the whey the life is extended to several months, in the fridge of course. I'm letting it sit out to ferment a tad, well covered, until bed time and will then stick into the fridge. I need a bigger fridge, by the way in case anyone wants to donate one,  ;)

wish i had some smaller jars. 

note to self for next shopping trip to the feed store.

Some ideas of things to do with this delicious mayo:

• chicken salad with local pecans and golden raisons
• herbed mayo with fresh dill or parsley or cilantro
• tuna salad
• some kind of party dip
• egg salad - though seems a bit redundant and cholesterol heavy with all those eggs!

 Culmination of the last few days' projects. From left to right:

steel cut oats soaking in warm water with a bit of whey, destined to be breakfast porridge (soaking grains with whey or vinegar increases their digestibility and increases enzyme and nutrition content); today's rich and delicious mayonnaise; Kim chee fermenting for a few days before going into the fridge.

What are some of your favorite homemade vs. store bought condiments you like to make or eat?

Homemade Sour Cream

• 2 cups fresh cream, preferably raw
• 2-3 tablespoons cultured buttermilk
• sprinkle of salt

• Boil a canning jar to sterilize. Mix the cream and buttermilk together and pour into warm jar, mix hard and sit at room temperature overnight or until thick to your preference. Keep well covered and store in ridge up to 3 weeks. Can be mixed with spicy or other yummies to make a flavored dip, or added last minute to dishes you want a bit creamy.
  

PS: update. I skimmed this cream off myself. turns out it wasn't totally just cream.... so my sour cream isn't exactly creaming/thickening at this point --- but hopefully it will at least get a tangy sour taste so that i can mix it into things.


I belong to a local raw milk co-op: we get raw milk from a dairy in Schulenberg who raises pasture fed jersey cows. Organic goodness.  Since reading parts of Nourishing Traditions I have decided to radically change our diet. I have long preached eating as much homegrown, whole foods, as i say "eating close to the earth." But when i really thought about what we eat most often, i come up with : soy milk, tofu, cereal, canned beans, lunch meat, and purchased veg/chicken broth, low fat honey mustard salad dressing. These are overly processed things treated with chemicals and high heat, even when i buy as organic as possible. So what will i be doing differently?

To start with : lots of fermented foods. Kim chee using whey from cheese making and yoghurt making, cultured milk products from raw milk, soaking grains in whey and making my own warm cereals, sproating more grains, making my own ketchup, mustard, and mayo from homegrown tomatoes, mustard seeds, and chicken eggs. I also whipped together some very simple salad dressing: some fresh herbs in a bit of olive oil and a mixture of red and white vinegars. That's just a start. I'm motivated and ready to plant some mustard!

First thing i'm trying with this batch of raw milk is sour cream. I skimmed the cream off the top  so that our drinking milk will be lower fat. With the cream i will add a bit of cultured buttermilk and let sit overnight to produce sour cream. This isn't the same as the stuff you buy in the store as it is cultured and more alive. Won't be for cooking but can be added last minute to things to cream them up a bit and add some good milk without as much lactose that i can't digest.

I highly recommend chicken Nourishing Traditions out of your library - it is truly inspiring!  It reminded me of so many things i used to know and practice, and gave me some better information on some of the pieces of knowledge i had but didn't know how to explain to others.
Fats must be consumed to help absorb good vitamins and minerals and make our body function. Raw milk when cultured is a great source of good enzymes and vitamins that are more easily digested than pasteurized milk not fermented. I need to be eating more balanced whole things to be getting all the good things my body needs, and to help wash out the bad things like heavy metals that have found their way inside me.

Christmas Baking Days

My next few posts will be recipes for Christmasy cookies and breads.
It is hard for me, a northerner, to get geared up for Christmas and feeling festive. There is no snow to sled in. There are no frost covered trees. The red cardinals look out of place on the green grass, and it just DOESN'T feel like Winter when it's 65 degrees outside.
But one thing has always meant Christmas to me and my family: baking cookies for friends and families in our festive aprons with Christmas Tides on the stereo (old carols played with antique instruments). This familiar music paired with the methodic and repetative nature of baking really puts me in the spirit.

Before long my husband and i were dancing around the kitchen like silly little village folk, waving the rolling pin around and kicking up our knees. Yes, our neighbors think we're crazy.

If you try any of these recipes, let me know how they turned out. We'll be saving some for ourselves and giving the rest as gifts. 

Here's to the smell of baking goodies!