Another addition. or two....

So today, thanks to my Aunt Cheryl I acquired a few vehicles.  I got a 90's style ford F-150.  It is awful rusty but I am going to try to get it running and use it around the farm, but I haven't completely decided yet.  It has no breaks, Grandpa and I found that out when we were trying to load it. 

You can see I drove it into the ditch as we went down the hill to avoid running straight into Aunt Cheryl's pickup.  At that point I was saved by a small stump to ram up against.

We proceeded to pull it back up the hill a bit and coasted it onto the flat.  Once on the flat we backed the trailer up to the truck.  Here again I thank grandpa for buying the winch that we have on our deck over trailer.  It has saved us more times already than I can count.  We winched the truck on easily and we were on our way.

 

Unloading it was a charm! Grampa used a large stick to push the truck and we just rolled it off the trailer with a loud bang.  I don't have pictures but Allyssia and I towed it up to the house with my OBS Ford, it was quite a sight coming up the driveway. 

 

The second vehicle is a Mazda MPV mini van. 

We actually got this one to run to get it onto the trailer.  We had it running when we got the Ford but had to come back for it.  The second trip was Myself and Jake,  Allyssia's younger brother.  We had it loaded in no time and chained down. 

 Again I failed to get pictures but to get it off the trailer we had to jump start it with the bongo truck. (I will have a post on the bongo truck soon).  The van runs nicely but needs some work.  I plan on bringing it to Barry's Garage in town to have him check it over for an inspection to see what it needs before deciding what I really want to do with it.  Overall it was a good day and tomorrow's post will touch on the rest of the day and the other projects that I have worked on. 

So until next time........ 

 

The little blue chicken coop/shingle mill

As promised I have a nice post planned for our little blue chicken coop.  Our coop has led many different lives before it became a coop.  Its first life was as a small pop up camper which was disassembled and turned into a small trailer.  From there Don Chaimberlain, a good friend of my Grandfather and, I built it into a shingle edger shed.  I don't have any pictures of it as a shingle edger due to the edger being gone when I received it.  I had it full of random junk for over a year before we decided to build it into a chicken coop.

As you can see all 4 sides were open for access of the edger but that just wont do for chickens in Maine.  Two sides were boarded up completely and the other two were left for access.

It also needed a new roof to replace the rotten hand made shingles that were on the roof so it got some nice free roofing that I picked up and the ridge cap that my boss gave me after finishing his metal roof.

It then needed a paint job so after much fighting with the Paris farmers union folks we had an almost matching blue to paint it. On this side as you can see there are hinges to access the egg boxes for ease of picking the eggs. 

The coop is also well insulated with 2" foam and mill felt on the walls and ceilings. 

After the coop was finished we had to think of a way to protect our chickens.  We seem to have a high predator population here. (I think its due to their great diet and all the chickens they get to eat) So I set out building a safe chicken paddock. Using 2x6's, hog fencing, a little duct work from work and chicken wire I think we accomplished just that.

I have tried attaching the paddock directly to the coop for moving it but it is just as easy with two people to move the coop and then the paddock. 

That's all on the little blue chicken coop for now!!

Tack room lockers

Today was another day of fun at the barn as I custom fit a set of six lockers into Allyssia's tack room.  It is going up quickly and it even looks half decent but it is rough going because the back wall is one inch rough pine boards and so they are all a little bit larger or smaller than the next and they all stick out a little more or less than the last.  

Here is most of the framing for the lockers built.  On this project I decided to use planed 2x4's because I wanted as much room in the doorways as possible and it is easier to work with than wet hemlock.  The hemlock also tends to twist a bit when it dries and doesn't leave as nice of a finished edge. I did however use pine 1x6's for the floor inside the lockers that my grandpa so kindly sawed out for Allyssia.

Then we started on the lockers themselves, these first two did not turn out as great as I imagined they would but I am slowly getting the hang of this whole carpentry thing and am tending to cut things longer rather than shorter now because as they say you cant stretch a board and especially not a piece of plywood. 

Regardless of the little mistakes these two came out pretty decent.  the worst part was putting the shelves in the top and having to take it half way back apart to get the plywood in there.  I am hoping that it will be strong enough because I know that sometimes shelves like this get very overloaded.

As I got to the last locker and building the divider to go in, it was starting to get extremely easy. it's funny how that happens. I almost felt relieved that I was done but I was also thinking "Hey I'm getting good at this let me do a few more". But in reality it went well towards the end except that I ran out of plywood for the shelves.

Allyssia is supposed to get more plywood and then I will be forced into building doors for the lockers.  Speaking of doors and the tack room, my previous project was putting a half door on the tack room and if I do say so myself, I think that it came out quite well.

When more materials come in there will be more on the lockers.

 

For those wondering I still don't have pulleys for the Quadractor.  I did get a nice set of Timken pulleys but they were a slight bit larger and they were rubbing where they shouldn't. I did get the matched pairs of belts for the primary drive but before I undertake that project I want to drive it again and get my grandfather over here to try it as he is part of the reason that I bought it.  More updates soon and probably another time hop back to the building of our wheeled chicken coop!

A well placed farm stand!

So here it is at last.  The farm stand is in its resting spot for the summer.  We set it onto cinderblocks to keep the wood from rotting and leveled it by eye. 

For my first major carpentry project it came out pretty well especially after being towed down our long driveway to get to where it is now.  There is still a few small things to be done such as building some brackets for the roof supports to set in to make it a little more sturdy and then we are going to add some smaller produce shelves above the main shelf. We also have more signs to make but for now we started with two nice chalkboard signs.

The egg sign will stay the same, it will just be moved around but the other will eventually become our price chart and tell what is in season.

 So if your in the area stop by and buy some eggs, please!!!!

 

 

A much much needed update

So it has been a long while since an update.  Allyssia and I were both sick for a few days and I got nothing done for that week.  The following weekend myself and my boss went to Warwick, Rhode Island with one of our suppliers for training at Viessmann Academy.  We learned about the new gas condensing boilers that have come into the U.S. market.  It was a very nice mini vacation and an exceptional learning experience.  Since then I have been right back at it and have a few projects under way.
         Unfortunately the Quadractor has not progressed along much.  I did get the new carburetor kit for it and have completely rebuilt the carburetor as well as added new gas lines a new filter and cleaned the tank out.  The engine starts and runs remarkably well but with still no idler pulleys, I am not moving anytime soon. 
         Speaking of moving,  I caught my farm stand on the run today.

It towed remarkably well and may have actually helped smooth the driveway out some.  When I finally caught up to the stand I found the farm stand thief...

I think she is getting impatient and wants to start selling eggs, or maybe she is hoping that being ready will help the weather warm up. The stand is now sitting next to the road and will be open daily with fresh eggs and come summer, fresh produce.  Tomorrow I am going to do another post with a few pictures of the farm stand along the road as when we finished tonight it was to dark for pictures.  Also tomorrow will be the starting pictures of Allyssia's tack room lockers.  I am very bad at taking before pictures but luckily this project isn't finished yet so there is still time.

 

The first of the horse barn projects

Today I was able to strike another job of from my to do list for this summer.  Allyssia and I built a sawdust bin for the barn.  It is nothing overly major but for my part time carpentry skills it's a job well done.  I started early this morning and of course I completely forgot to take some before pictures so until I get it through my head that the before pictures are important, these will have to do.

Allyssia is getting quite handy with the drill!  Everything was done to match the barn so its all 1x6 boards.  That also makes it easier because all our fencing is 1x6 so any extra boards can be used for fence repair. 

The outcome is quite nice.  It is indeed square AND level.  We also have removable boards for this open end so when our local sawmill has shavings and sawdust we can stockpile it.  The top of the sawdust bin is also boarded off as a storage space and yes it is braced because it will get overloaded.  The tool holders were another  amazing idea by Allyssia to tidy up the barn a little bit.  They are merely scrap pieces of 2" PVC pipe from my work for the tools to hang in.
         I feel that I should say that all of this work could not be accomplished if it weren't for the tools I have.  Between my Estwing hammer DeWalt drill and battery sawsall and my new Makita skill saw these projects go smoothly.  My next project will be a half door for Allyssia's tack room.  We are putting this on a little late as we have sold our goats and they are the ones that made the most mess in there. Hope you have enjoyed the update.