Chicken Tractor

What the heck is a chicken tractor? Well, thanks to Mother Earth News and a few web resources I decided to go with a portable chicken coop often referred to as a chicken tractor. The main advantage of course is the ability to be transient. Moving this every few days gives the chickens fresh ground to forage through and a natural fertilizer treatment. We plan to make several trails through our forest; I think pulling this through the forest slowly will help create trails.

Taking a cue from Dad, the entire tractor was made from reclaimed or scrap wood, minus the roof, chicken wire and hinges that I had to buy from Lowes. I found an scrap pile of wood on a lot down the road and looked online to see who owned the property. It was some investment group out of Louisiana, so decided to just take it. 5 pallets were bought for $5 and used as the base and side paneling of the hen house. I was even able to reuse the nails. I'm off today and will install the chicken wire to form the run.


BASE, 2x10 green treat split in half and a pallet at one end to make the base structure.


Hen house built. You'll notice the wheels at the rear. It looks heavy, but actually rolls nicely on the lawn. The roof has hinges on the front, so it lifts up from the rear. I plan to put the nesting boxes along the back wall, so I can lift up and easily retrieve eggs, or clean.

Projects Complete, Projects Started

We've been rather busy over the last few weeks. Cecilia has been feeling much better over the last month since she's started taking a suite of vitamins. This is the busy season at Progress Energy, so the stress level is a little high at work, but she's handled it well. She's looking two months out when the work level drops, and she'll be able to take a week off for her own personal enjoyment.

Speaking of time off, our group at work accomplished two goals last year. 1) We successfully implemented some physics modules in a new weather model and tested, so we're ready to transition from an older model to this "next generation" weather model for use with our air quality model. 2) We developed what is termed a coupled meteorological-air quality model. Basically, the weather model above was connected "in-line" with our air quality model, so they are both running in synchronicity. The weather model passes atmospheric conditions to the air quality model, then the AQ model uses that to move pollutants around as it steps forward in time, then the AQ model passes pollutant information to the weather model, which impacts the amount of radiation, it steps forward in time and passes the new info to the AQ model. At any rate, this was a big project and although our computer science expert did most of the programming, I helped with various parts around the edges. Back to time off, my boss came to me this week with a piece of paper and told me I got a bonus for last years work. I thought it would be a little money or a day or two of payed vacation. When I read the bonus it said 40 hours of time off. Needless to say, I was estatic to get a whole extra week off this year. I looked at what I have saved up now and have 60 hours already in the bank this year.

On to the projects underway... I should have my fence complete today. After work this week, the prep work on the last section of fence was done. All that needs to be done today is laying out the woven wire, stretching and driving the metal posts. Here is the section of fence I completed last weekend.



A couple other projects done over the last few weeks are my worm bin and seed starter table. Thanks to Mother Earth News and my neighbor who's sister is really into worms, I decided to turn our scrap food into prime fertilizer. We have been composting our scraps for the last few years, but it just seemed you have to wait too long to get the good soil. So, I got a couple of rubbermaid containers. Holes were drilled in the bottom of one container, food scraps, minus any meats is placed in the bottom and covered with a mixture of loose soil and shredded newspapers (I have a lot of newspapers that need to be recycled). 4 dozen red wiggler worms were bought at the local bait shop and placed in the bin. The worms dig down and process the scraps then turn to worm castings. After one week all the food was gone, so I dumped the next load of scraps and covered. Evidently, after a few months the bin will have thousands of worms and a harvest of worm castings I can use for starting my plants. So, with very little effort you can basically nourish new plants that you'll eventually eat with the scraps of the plants you just ate. It's a neat sustainable and efficient system.

The other small project was to make use of a table we bought a while back only for the top. Part of the top (butcher block) was used for the back splash in the bathroom I did a year ago. Last year I tried to use the table to start seed with one small grow light, but it did not work that well. My neighbor told me his Dad always used flourescent lights to start seed. We had a 2 ft flourecent light fixture in our bedroom closet that was replaced. This was the perfect size for the small table. My problem was two fold. 1) A reflecting hood to focus the light downward was needed and 2) The light needed some type of bracket that would allow for easy adjustment as the plants grow. The fun part was trying to figure out how to do this at minimal cost. My answer to the hood was a cheap aluminum vent pipe, and for the bracket, PVC pipe and parts. All of the parts were less than $10, but the bulbs with correct light for plants did add $12. Here is the final product. The light is hooked to a chain that can be adjusted.

Snow Day

What a great extended weekend! We were off work this past Friday and I had Monday off for the MLK Holiday. I woke Monday morning and the computer models indicated the likelihood of a nice snow storm Monday night into Tuesday which verified. Snow fell hard from early Tuesday morning through 1 pm or so. Our storm totals here, just south of Raleigh, ended up being the greatest in the whole state at around 6 inches. It also worked out nicely that we were able to watch the inauguration!

Here are some pics of the house during the storm.





Our dogs had a snow day as well. Since roads were closed for the most part and there was no worry about them running out to the main road, they were allowed to run free in the neighborhood for several hours.





I worked hard all weekend and Monday, and achieved my goal of putting all the posts in the ground for our back lot fence. My neighbor Greg Petersen has the fence left over from his effort a few years ago, so once the cement sets this week, I'll be able to stretch the fence. He's selling me the the fence for $100. I spent $150 on posts and required tools like post hole diggers, spade and fence pliers. That puts the costs of the fence at less the $300.

Here is the fence line along the very back part of the lot as indicated by the red line in the previous blog entry.




Here is the fence line closest to the house. This was my first ever shot at setting fence posts, so you'll notice it's not perfect.



Here are some pretty pictures of the snow in our little patch of forest and the neighbors farm.

New Year!

As the new year arrived, new ideas followed. First of all, we had a great Holiday season. I say Holiday to include both Thanksgiving and Christmas since it's been some time since the last life-update. I traveled without Cecilia to Marion for Thanksgiving and to Ormond Beach for Christmas. It was a blessing to see all of you during those trips. I tell you what, the time I spent with Family really sparked a sense of wellness and purpose; it's really hard to put in words. It was a joy to see all my nieces and nephews. My trip to Florida was excellent. I got to spend three days with Grandma Meader, visit with Aunt Joanne and Uncle Charlie and had a wonderful lunch with Kristen, Caitlyn and her boyfriend and Bryan in 85 degree heat. The following week I had off work, so I decided to start working on some of my new ideas for the new year.



Our main, or maybe I should say my main goal for the new year is to fully utilize our land. When I first moved in with Cecilia, it was quickly realized that the property was much larger than I expected, but most of the area was forested, with a large part of that being a mass of briers, bramble and bamboo. We has a small part of it cleared and fenced in (shown as existing fence in figure) . However, we still have a relatively large area of around 1 acre that is still wooded. For years I've been interested in fully utilizing this area, so once my neighbor fenced in his back yard, it created a great opportunity to fully fence in our unused forest area since his fence, the neighbor next to him and a neighbor on the backside already had fence lines along my property. In the area photo you'll see several red lines along the property which indicate the only property line I need to install fencing to fully enclose our property. That is my goal this winter and using craigslist I've been able to find plenty of fence material for cheap.

Once this is complete I'll be able to start on several other projects. 1) I want to clean our forest area, so that it's easy to walk around without having to dodge briers or scrub brush. There are also a number of dead trees and smaller trees growing underneath some of the larger trees. I bought my first chainsaw to help with this chore. 2) There is a nice area in the center of the reclaimed land that is open. I want to raise a few free range hens for eggs. This open area (where1735 is in the image) seems like a great location. This are is loaded with bugs, so I'm sure the food supply is unlimited. I'd like to have this ready by spring.

These photos are of the back lot. You'll notice the people behind out lot have a nice farm-like setup. They have goats and a small horse that always come when I'm back there working. I'll pick off a few was myrtle greenage to feed them, so we're friends :-)

A third idea is another expansion of the garden. I have several other spots in the back yard, once I cut down a few trees, that will support crops. I'll end up doubling the number of raised beds which will basically be three more 3'x20' beds. I'll probably stick with this through the summer to see if it's enough to support our produce needs, but if not, I still have some more suitable land. Anyhow, these are my "green" goals for the new year.

Cecilia is going through a program that has a cornerstone based on nutrition and not drugs. A comprehensive blood and urine test indicates that she's deficient in several main vitamins and at least part of her problem is a digestive track yeast infection. We're in a great situation because many of the veggies we have now are high in B vitamins and other vitamins and minerals. Over the last few weeks she's been feeling much better, so we're going to continue a strict nutrient dense diet.

Here are some recent pics of the garden.

The fall garden

Fall Garden

I planted a larger fall garden this year. Our favorites are Brussels sprouts; the plants are more numerous and healthier than last year when some developed a disease. As I probably say in another blog, other cold weather crops include broccoli, collards, lettuce, cabbage, Kohlrabi and arugula.

Here are some pics:

Traveling Stories and our New President

The Gilliam's of Johnston County have been pretty busy over the past month, thus the lack of new blogs. As the previous blog tells, Cecilia and I took our annual vacation to Holden Beach 4 weeks ago. The week after our return a trip to New Orleans was planned. We made these plans at least 6 months ago with the main intention being a big concert called the Voodoo Fest that had three bands, which have been among our favorite older bands from the 80's and early 90's. These bands were REM, Stone Temple Pilots and Nine Inch Nails. The concerts were good, especially REM who we saw a few years back in Raleigh. Our hotel was down near the water front area close to the famous Bourbon Street. The food and sites were great. Personally my favorite part was just seeing the old building, streets and to a lesser extent weird people. Unfortunately we did not take any tours, but if there is a next time the tours will be a main part of day. I was somewhat amazed that the part of town we stayed showed no damage from Katrina.

This time of year premium bottom fish like grouper and red snapper move from the deeper parts of the ocean along the continental shelf closer to shore, so I always take a bottom fishing trip to stock up on fish for winter. The chance presented itself last weekend as the weather was perfect. Since the big boat was sold a year ago, I rely now on my brother-in-law who has the 31 ft Bertram, however, that boat had a little damage and Steve had plans out of town. So, I contacted his fishing buddy who has a much smaller boat. We went out 30 miles offshore in 120 ft of water. We had absolutely the best fishing trip ever. Doug had fished this area for 30 years and said the fishing was the best he's seen. Everyone had a great time. The best bite was around noon and over the next two hours we hooked up with nice sized snappers, black sea bass and trigger fish as soon as our bait hit the bottom and in several instances two fish at a time. The cooler, a big cooler was so full by 2 pm we had to quit. When I returned it took 3.5 hours to clean the fish even though I took a whole small cooler full to a friend at work. I took a few pictures to remember the trip, but almost every minute have been seared into my memory.








President Barack Hussain Obama

What a long campaign. It's nice that the election is finally over. Too much time was spent over the last year in our household keeping track of the election, so I'm looking forward to getting back to other important things around the house. I realize many in the family were strongly against Obama. If it ends up after 4 years that I was wrong in my instinct of who he is and what he'll do as President, I expect a "I told you so", but right now there is good bit of confidence that he'll be a good if not great leader of America. One of the most positives that came from this election in my opinion is the end of Karl Rove-type politics of character assassination rather that issue-based dialoge. Obama, as many of my blogs have argued, faced the largest number of character attacks via email smears, books and directly from the opponent. When you say a potential leader of the country is an empty suite, Muslim terrorist sympothiser, socialist or traitor rather than challaging policy using factual information it does not benifit the country as a whole. Obama kept a cool, benevolent demenor throughout the negative campaign, and this in the end won out. Personally I was skeptical after 10 or more negative mailers were sent to our address over the last week, but substance won over smear this time around.

I get a sense that a major part of his plan, which is backed by many of leading economist will be a major investment in the nations infrastructure which includes bridges, roads, a new energy infrastructure. The key word is investment as projects like these will benifit the country for decades to centuries. Some think the governement does all this stuff, but the reality is small buisness are at the core of these efforts and the created jobs are ones that stay in America.

love you all!

Robbie

Beach Trip at Holden Beach NC 2008

We just got back from our annual beach trip at Holden Beach yesterday. It seems these trips are just too short, over before they start, but that's what happens when your having a lot of fun I guess. If I had the ability to hand-pick the weather for the week, the conditions could not have been chosen any better than what Mother Earth gave our family.

We left on Sat morning and checked in around 2 pm. The weather was cool, windy and a little rainy Saturday, so we left the boat on the trailer and fishing rods in the truck and enjoyed the fact that we were on vacation and had no responsibilities except to enjoy life and each other.

The weather improved Sunday as the sun and warmth returned, although it remained a little windy. I put the boat in the water early while Cecilia worked on waking. We did a little flounder fishing with no luck. A friend from work came down Sunday evening through Monday afternoon, so we fished quite a bit and although we caught 3-4 flounder and a few other assorted fish, nothing was large enough to keep for dinner.

We had several other friends make short visits, so there was not a whole lot of alone time, but we did get a few more fishing trips together. The highlight was on Wednesday when Cecilia hooked what I'm positive was the largest flounder we've ever caught. The tell sign is when you pull up on the rod tip and cannot budge the fish. Unfortunately the fish had half the finger mullet in it's mouth, but not the hook, so as it's shadow came in sight the fish released the mullet. Cecilia did get excited when she pulled a flounder in the boat later in the day, but the fish as a little short to keep at 13 inches.

I fished each morning early. It was nice to have the company of Cody and Cady. They make great boat dogs. For the first time, although the weather, moon and time of the year considerations pointed to one of the best weeks of fishing of the year, I did not catch a single keeper flounder all week, only a few bluefish and lizard fish. The two keeper flounder were hooked in quick succession Thursday morning from the pier. I found out that day that the flounder action was hot Sun-Thu in the morning at high tide. The flounder lady I made friends with caught 4-5 good sized fish each morning. Nonetheless, the trip is mainly about having fun and not neccessarily catching fish the whole time. Cecilia and I had a nice fried flounder dinner on Friday night before we left.


Cady in the Captain chair


Cody and Cady on our Dock


Oh, Cecilia did not spend much time at the beach, but I got a little saltwater therapy almost every day, mostly in the afternoon. The surf was not good enough most of the week, so I swam or just floated in the ocean in the afternoon and some evenings. A few good waves were caught on the Saturday we arrived.

My main regret as I sit here Sunday morning is that I did not take more pictures of us, but I did take some of the dogs.

This is a picture of a place we call Bailey's beach, which is the spot we started taking Bailey our first dog that died last November. We take the dogs here to let them play and swim. Cecilia and I wrote some words about Bailey and read them on Wed afternoon in memory of her.



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Politics 2008

As I write my blog this morning Colin Powell just endorsed the judgment and leadership style of Barack Obama. Any non-biased person over the last month would agree that Obama presents a more calm, collective and intellegent approach to problems. McCain has not only shown that he had poor judgment in his pick of Palin, but has proven an erratic leadership style by the fact that his campaign jumps back and forth its focus. Powell just stated a similar opinion and talked about the jumping from Ayres to tax/wealth redistribution.

The Ayres issues is just silly. It was the Annanburg Foundation, a Republican group that was started by one of Reagan's ambassadors, who funded Ayres proposal for an education program for intercity schools. That is right, if you want to tag Obama as a radical supporter of a terrorist then you need to also agree that the Republican Annanburg Foundation funds terrrorist. Again it's silly to say that because a group of Republicans and Democratic civic and buisness leaders in Chicago serve on a board that focuses on educational issues and one of the members did some bad things 30 years ago that all the people somehow are tied to those past transgressions. I just recieved a flyer from the NC RNC regarding this and shot back an email that describes my Republican roots including the scouting merit badge that orginally had me register as an NC Republican. I told them Bush lost me and I'm now an Independent, and a large part of that transition are the Rovian political strategies that this Ayres issue fall within.

They also sent another flyer that further illustrates how behind the times Rovian politics is now. It tries to link Obama to Hollywood. I know this is a good dogwhistle with the base of the Republican party, but come on, send me something on how John McCain's policies are better than Obama's. Again, don't treat me like I'm stupid Republicans. When your only telling me how bad the other person is and not telling me how great you are, there must be something your hiding.

One last piece of information is Obama's latest fund raising. This is the definition of grass roots organization and contributions.

Over 632,000 new donors.

3.1 million total donors.

More than $150 MILLION.

Average contribution for the month was under $100.

Average contribution for the entire campaign is around $86.

As a proud American, I'm even more proud that I have been a part of what could be a historic election. Each time I see an Obama ad in NC I see my small contributions put to good use.