Some nice milestones, and a loss
Well, let's see.... Lots going on here.
We lost one chicken. There was snow on the ground, but I couldn't find any non-chicken tracks. I couldn't find any breaches in the chicken pen. No blood, no carcass. Just a handful of feathers inside the coop. My best guess is a raccoon, or maybe a possum, came down a tree. But who knows. We don't have a CSI: Chicken Coop team. Emily, we hardly knew ye.
But today was a big day at the new homestead.
The metal roof is done. And I have to say, it looks fantastic. And it should be good for half a century or more. The roofers even replaced our skylights with more efficient ones for free. (I was going to tell him we didn't want to do the roof after all, so he threw in the skylights to get me to close the deal.)
The gutters and downspouts are done too. The installer was nice enough to notice one of my rain barrels, and set it up for me. Bonus!
And last but not least, the wood burning stove is in too. A week ahead of schedule. We're supposed to burn only small fires the first few times, so we did a little test fire tonight. The boys were fascinated, of course. I'm looking forward to getting the hang of it's nuances. I'm really looking forward to getting a real fire going.
No pictures because I leave when it's dark and I get home when it's nearly dark. Maybe I'll snap a couple tomorrow.
Good times...
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posted by e4 @ 1/07/2011 05:50:00 PM
4
comments
4 Comments:
Poor chicken! We lost one of ours too but it may just have wandered off and died of sheer old age - she was 10 and had been unwell earlier in the year. The bantams we have now did turn into pets but hopefully the next ones won't. (the last ones didn't).
We put a colour steel roof on this house about four years back. No painting for around half a century! On the other hand - we don't have access to wood so we simply insulated lots and use one bar electric heaters when necessary. The bonus is that nearly all electricity here is hydro with some wind so I don't need to feel too guilty.
Will be nice to see a photo or so,
viv in nz
I have to say that I'm loving following the progress of your little homestead. Congrats on the new roof ... and the woodstove! I'm sure you will absolutely LOVE heating with wood ;).
Sorry to hear about the chicken. You mentioned not tracks. Could it have been a bird of prey?
knutty - I wish we had electricity that came from something other than coal. But then again, we do have an abundance of wood, so I guess you can't have everything.
Wendy - It could have been a bird of prey, but from what little I can tell, the chicken was taken from inside the coop. It doesn't seem like a hawk or owl would go in after them.
Also, three of the remaining chickens didn't want to go in the coop even at dusk for a day or two after.
It could be that there were tracks that I just didn't see among all the chicken prints.
The roof sounds awesome.
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