Pallets and Platforms

Posted on August 19, 2019 by TJ

Look! Look at the photo above! Yesterday I saw the first autumn leaf on the ground. Autumn is getting closer…

Friday’s canning tomatoes and freezing green bean exhausted us so on Saturday EJ and I rested.

Sunday I cleaned the house a bit while EJ was out doing something else. Then we worked together at organizing his garage. Everything from the basement and garage at the old house downstate was put into the garage up here, so organizing it is a long-term project, a marathon job, not a sprint. Plus, we don’t work on it when we have higher priority tasks to do or when it’s freezing in the winter.

This is where the yellow jacket nest is.

Hannah Joy doesn’t like going out through our main entrance because a yellow jacket had stung her last week. They built a nest under a post next to the porch steps. Usually, when I give Hannah a command to go onto the porch, she runs onto it and then waits for her treat, but now she is in such a hurry to get inside the house before the yellow jackets sting her that she ignores the treat. We were trying to figure out the best way to get rid of the nasty buggers, and then yesterday another yellow jacket landed on Hannah’s head. I said, “That’s enough!” and I drove to the store and bought some Raid Hornet and Wasp spray. We waited until dark and then EJ sprayed their lair. He sprayed it again this morning. But Hannah is still scared so this morning she stopped at the kitchen door, refusing to step foot into the entrance hall leading to the porch door. When I put her harness on, she ran to the door leading to the deck instead. Poor baby.

The baby chicks are growing up fast! Every day they are noticeably bigger, and they are getting more feathers. I would try to take photos or videos of them for you, but they try to rush out whenever I open their coop door, and I have my hands full trying to keep them from escaping.

The articles I read on the internet said that the chicks should be kept separated from the older flock until they are 4-6 old–or even 8 weeks. Once we let them join the others they will be able to go outside, so I’d like to keep them contained until they are big enough to not be a predator’s McNuggets.

After EJ left for work this afternoon, I went out to the chicken coop to build platforms. I figure that when the chicks get old enough to mix with the older flock, they will all need more roosting/nesting areas.

The previous owners of our house had left behind a few wooden pallet pieces and EJ brought home discarded pieces from his previous job. We’ve put them all to good use, using many of them as bases for our raised garden beds. I used five pieces today to build platforms for the chickens: two vertical ones to hold up two horizontal ones forming a double layer of platforms. I would have liked the top platform to be a little lower, but I had to work with what I had. Maybe in the future EJ can help me lower it. If nothing else, the cats might enjoy sleeping up there. I nailed thin wooden boards to the fifth pallet piece to be used as a ladder.

I saw Millie rubbing up against a hen this afternoon–you know, as cats do–and the hen ignored her, so it appears they are all co-existing quite well.

I’ve been turning on the outside deck lights at night. With the light on, I can watch the raccoon sneaking up to eat from the bird feeder tray. I’ve been watching a raccoon as I write this post. Hannah Joy is fast asleep on my lap and totally unaware of the raccoon just outside the window. I’m hoping she doesn’t wake up because if she sees the raccoon, she is going to explode with excited barking. Raccoons are very cute and I enjoy watching them–as long as they don’t threaten any of my animals.

I heard coyotes howling in the distance when I went out to shut the animals in the coop for the night.

Oops, Hannah just woke up and noticed the raccoon. Now she’s alert and on guard. I’m quite sure the raccoon won’t be back for a while. Hannah keeps us safe from all threats, real and imagined. The other day she knocked a candle holder off the window sill and then spent the next 10 minutes growling at it. LOL. We sure love our Hannah Joy.