February – end of month review

Posted by louisa on Monday 28 February 2011 in chickens, frugal, goals, growing, less than 12 clothes challenge, making, meta | 9 comments

February seems to have flown by and has been a lot of fun — a good balance between work, household/growing/making productivity, crafting, and future planning.

Goals in 2011 progress

I’ve started making progress on some of the more long term goals – started sowing seeds which will hopefully turn into homegrown veg and again, I’ve made things with wood which will help with my “make a piece of furniture” goal. I haven’t baked each week but I’ve tried a few new recipes – including some lovely cinnamon biscotti – so at least I’m doing bits. (We’ve not been baking much bread recently because it’s still a bit too cold for yeast to rise properly.)

From my secondary list, I’ve also tried making soap, although I’m not sure it’s been a success yet (the soap in the moulds is still very soft). I also made a notebook (above) from scrap paper and a curtain sample, which wasn’t on my list but I had so much fun doing it that I think “learn different book binding techniques” should be on there now! Finally, we’ve been working to reduce our food waste (and save money/our sanity) by preparing meal plans – we’re not sticking to them 100% but they’re working well in general.

Buy less than 12 items of clothing in 2011

In my no more than 12 items of clothes in 2011 challenge, my tally is still zero — I’ve not bought anything this month either. I have though started looking at stuff rather than just shutting myself off from the possibilities – partly because I need to develop willpower rather than just avoiding temptation and partly because I feel like it’s time I had something new to wear (I’ve not bought any clothes since November – and that was only replacement jeans). It’s when I’m getting ready to go to drama – the classes I teach or rehearsals etc – because my suitable clothes are such a subset of my wardrobe — they not only have to be neat enough to wear outside the house, they can’t be too cleavage-y (which is a problem with a lot of my clothes because my body is too cleavage-y!) and they have to be suitable for wearing as a supposedly-responsible adult in front of teenagers. I have plenty of plain t-shirts to wear but a limited amount of warm clothes so I’ve been getting a bit bored – and as we’re preparing for a production at the start of April, I’ll be there a lot more regularly which will mean cycling through them more. So long story short, I might break into my quota in March.

Growing stuff & the chickens

My chicken keeping spreadsheet

Posted by louisa on Thursday 24 February 2011 in chickens, Featured | 9 comments

I’ve had a number of visitors and a few emails from people asking about my “chicken keeping spreadsheet” which I thought was a bit weird because while I do have one, I haven’t really spoken about it (…have I?). I’m actually quite chuffed with my chicken spreadsheet though so inspired by Jono from RealMenSow‘s market price for homegrown veg spreadsheet, I thought I’d share my chicken one for those people who’re interested in it – and anyone else who may be now they know it exists :)

I’m a bit of a spreadsheet nerd. I like graphs. I like formulas. I like automatically inserted data. And my chicken-ing spreadsheet reflects this. If you like those things too, you can download it from here:

• .xls spreadsheet – for Excel
• .ods spreadsheet – for OpenOffice Calc

I made it in OpenOffice Calc but to “release” it here, I’ve converted the formulas so they’re Excel (and Google Docs) compatible. I *think* they work – although I’m not sure the graphs do. Do please shout if anything doesn’t work for you and I’ll try to fix it ASAP.

Column widths and heights are almost certain to need adjusting.

About my chicken spreadsheet

It’s evolved over the last eight months – it started as a simple one sheet list of expenditure but now it keeps all sorts of data in it – and does a lot of calculations to save my little brain from having to do any work. And also it has a useful summary sheet (seen in print preview above) and graphs in it. Mmm, graphs. It may have grown to be a bit overly complicated for some people’s liking but it works for a spreadsheet nerd like me :)

There is some dummy data in the spreadsheet templates above – based on my girls – just to show what it can do and the formats (for dates etc) needed to make it work. Possibly best to overwrite this (and for more rows, copy existing data then overwrite it) to preserve formulas (where applicable).

It’s focused around egg laying, because that’s what my chickens do. I could easily extend it to include details about meat chickens if we end up going that way – with nice alerts to tell me who is ready for the chop!

It’s designed for domestic chicken keepers – people with backyard hens for eggs & pleasure rather than business/profit. If we get around to selling any eggs at any point (we haven’t yet, we just give them away), then I’ll include a sales sheet. (If you would like that sheet added and can’t make it yourself, let me know and I’ll work it out. If you can make your own sales sheet for use in this overall spreadsheet, do share!)

It’s released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license – ie, you’re free to download it, use it and modify it to your heart’s content but if you want to share it (whether in the original form or with your own additions included) with anyone else, you must share under the same licence and give me a credit.

Below, I’ve given lots of nerdy detail/info for using the spreadsheet including how to change various defaults and about ways I’d like to improve it. In case you’re interested/feeling nosey, my “live” chicken spreadsheet – with all the correct data in it up to today – is available here.

Playing catch up

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 22 February 2011 in charity shopping, chickens, growing | 3 comments

Apologies for being a little quieter than normal recently – after my busy work weekend, I had lots of exciting plans for yesterday but all of them went by the wayside in favour of sitting. Ahh, sitting.

Anyway, so today has been catch-up day, as well as supposedly being a normal work day and having to go to Leeds ont’ bus to do some stuff regarding our old house (which we’re *still* trying to sell) – busy day! I started clearing out the chicken coop and had lots of fun with Lime, my favourite of our girls. While she was moulting, she was a little more distant than usual but today she was with me the whole time, including climbing out of the nest box’s open flap to sit on my knee while I cleaned in there (and then came for a wander around the garden under my arm when I went to reprimand our barking dog). I think/hope we’re going to be reasonably logical/hard-hearted with the hens in general — they’re food producers not pets — but I think Lime is firmly in pet territory now. The others still might end up as soup or in a curry but she’s going to be around for the long term.

After that, I potted on the honeyberry plantlets that arrived over the weekend. You know last week when I said we were done for fruit for 2011? Well, I was wrong – I’d forgotten about the honeyberries which I’d bought as part of a big order in November — I only remembered when Fiona mentioned getting one herself on Twitter last week. Anyway, now I have three little ones in pots. I’m not sure where they’ll end up – they grow to about 4ft tall but I’ve filled my 4ft+-tall spots with the fruit bushes from a couple of weeks ago. I doubt they’ll grow that big or even big enough to fruit this year though so I’ll have a little while to figure it out. They’re definitely the last of the fruit for the year though. Except for the cherry tree which is due in a few weeks. And anything else that pops up.

Speaking of popping up, my heated propagator stuff is starting to poke through! My cucumbers said “7-21 days” for germination but have started to appear at 5 or 6 – lovely strong shoots. A couple of tomatoes have made it through too. Away from the heated propagator, today seems to have been the day for my cauliflowers to germinate as well. I am perhaps more excited by all these green shoots than I should be ;)

That (and some work) was all this morning and this afternoon I’ve been in Leeds – at our old house, at the bank and picking up misc things from Wilkinsons (including the last of my soap making supplies – woo!) – and I had a little time for a spot of charity shopping too. I actually looked at clothes in one place – I decided I couldn’t hide from temptation forever and I’ve had a number of good things from there in the past – but didn’t buy anything. I did see a top that I might of bought in a more spend-hearty type – it was nothing special, just a basic t-shirt thing, of the type I wear a lot and already have a lot – but now it wasn’t worth wasting a clothing credit on it — it wasn’t that special and I don’t need it. I think I’m experiencing a mental shift when it comes to buying clothes – hurrah!

I did buy one thing from a charity shop though – a cute little lunch box thing for £1:

Apparently “miko cat” is Boots’ Hello Kitty homage/rip-off but whatever, it’s a black cat (the very best type of cat) and it’s cute. When I brought it home, John clasped it to his chest and asked if he could have it for his pencils. I reminded him that he lost my last lunchbox so no, but we could use it for our pencils.

Now I must go as a I have a wonderfully delicious chocolate-coffee mousse to eat. If you just raised your eyebrows at the thought of a “wonderfully delicious chocolate-coffee mousse”, stay tuned – I’m hoping to post the recipe tomorrow :)

Portable chicken run from scrap wood & wire

Posted by louisa on Friday 18 February 2011 in chickens, making, wood stuff | 6 comments

I was in a bit of a sulk this morning. My weekends – now that the weather is getting better – usually involve playing out in the garden, or at least cooking up treats in the kitchen but this weekend, I’m out all day, both days, at a youth theatre event with the group I help teach. The event should be fun but, you know, not playing in the garden or making sugar-packed goodies. So I was sulking about losing my play time – until I realised there was nothing stopping me playing out this afternoon instead. Even after five years of self-employment, I still feel naughty playing out during a workday – but as soon as I realised I could, I was up and running for the box of screws and our scrap wood supplies.

I find it funny that I get so excited about making things from wood these days because a couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have thought I was capable of doing it. I’m quite a practical girl – I worked as a labourer one summer during uni and I’m happy to get my hands/clothes/face dirty with paint or mud or what-have-you – but I always thought that making things from wood was a Big Serious Skill that wasn’t for my sort. I don’t know why. Perhaps it was because we didn’t really do any big woodwork stuff at school – we did stuff on “resistant materials” (which included bits of woodwork as well as electronics and stuff with plastic/metal) and I remember making little bits of jewellery out of wood and plastic – but it was little things, nothing practical.

I think I started to get converted after we moved into this house just over a year ago – I wanted some airing shelves inside the boiler cupboard so I went over to the DIY shop across the road, bought some 38mm by 19mm lengths, and made them. I think I did a pretty good job – I made them easily removable in case we needed better access to the boiler and they’ve not fallen down yet. Then I decided I wanted a wellie stand for outside and after getting some advice from a friend who is handy with a saw & screws and a scramble around our scrap wood store, we had a shiny new wellie station in a couple of hours. And that’s when the addiction started. I’m not great at it by any means but every time I make something, I learn something new and have tons o’fun :)

Anyway, this afternoon’s project was a portable chicken run so I could let the chickens out of their main run more. I was inspired by Kate from Living the Frugal Life‘s poultry schooner – it would let me use the chickens to weed and de-slug the veg beds but wouldn’t need me watching over them the whole time (or chasing them around the woods when they got the taste of freedom). I wanted to do a hoophouse thing like Kate’s but didn’t have any material to make the hoops – so I ended up making a boring wood frame instead. At least it was all the boring wood was scrap so free though :)

I made the ends first and was a little surprised by how sturdy they were ;)

The sturdiness was beneficial as the only long lengths I could find were lighter than desirable – but with the sturdy end frames and some supporting struts in the middle, it still felt strong enough. So far, so good.

Chickens playing out in the garden

Posted by louisa on Thursday 13 January 2011 in chickens | 0 comments

Since it is a nice (if windy) day and Lily-dog was distracted in the top part of the garden barking at the bin men (they’re stealing our rubbish, woof woof woof!), I decided to let some of the chickens play out in the garden this morning. (Because the garden is pretty open at the moment, and there is invariably a dog running around, this doesn’t happen much.)

Mauve, Blue and slowly refeathering Lime – three of the original ISA Browns – were the first batch out – enjoying the good pickings of the raised bed next to the coop, including a rather succulent and long worm! (Photos of Mauve, Blue then Lime & Blue)

Chicken coop to-dos

Posted by louisa on Thursday 13 January 2011 in chickens | 2 comments

(I tried really, really hard to get a “cock-a-doodle-to-do” pun going on in the title but failed.)

I had a day away from my computer yesterday to catch up on outside & animal chores – and one of the things on my list was to give the chicken coop a mega-super clean.

I spotted what I thought was white mould all over the coop yesterday and knowing that’s, you know, not good, I stripped everything out this morning — everything that could be reasonably easily removed/taken apart got taken out so I could scrub *everywhere* down, from every angle.

The coop is about 4ft by 4ft square, with a sloped roof going up to about 4ft high in the middle, and it’s on stilts raising it about 18ins off the ground. I had to climb inside to be able to scrub the roof with (watered-down) disinfectant – perching like a giant chicken until my thighs were jelly! – and it was only when I did so that I realised the vast majority of the suspected white mould spores were actually just damp red mite powder from my last coop dousing. Still, since I was in there, and at least three chickens were in there at all times (keeping an eye on me in their house), I thought I might as well continue with the scrub down.

(Speaking of red mites, they’re back again – we had a few weeks with no sign of them (I presume they don’t like the really cold weather?) but now a small colony has return. I scrubbed it away yesterday but will dust the coop and the chickens this afternoon – I ran out of time yesterday – so I guess that’s To Do #1: dust chickens & coop for red mites.)

The bits of mould that were actually mould were inside the roof – and the roof itself looked damp. I scrapped all the accumulated wet leaves off the top of it in case that was adding the problem but suspect it’s just a bit leaky too – leaks between the wooden slats – so that’s To Do #2: explore a better roofing option.

The wood used for building the coop was treated before it was put together but after a wet nearly-year, I think it’ll need treating again so that’s To Do #3: reseal/treat all the wood. I’ll have to wait for a couple of warm, dry days for that – and will probably have to work out a way to keep it off-limits to the chickens for as long as possible.

Another thing I need to consider is improving the ventilation – poor ventilation is a key cause of mould. Funnily enough, I had thought that the ventilation “window” might have been too big for these cold winter nights – seems like the opposite was the case. Not sure how I’ll improve that without making it draughty or causing more damp spots so that’s To Do #4: figure out how to improve the ventilation without making more problems for myself.

Finally, an idea I had earlier in the winter but haven’t yet implemented has to go on my list: To Do #5: install a suspended floor that is easy to clean and insulated underneath. The current floor is made up of slats so there are little grooves inbetween each piece which accumulated grime – a floor made up from a single piece of wood (or two pieces to make it easier to move) and possibly covered with a scrap of lino would be a lot easier to keep clean. It could easily be “suspended” as there is a wooden baton, about 3cm high, all around the rim of the coop (where the sides are screwed onto) so could rest on that, with some cross bars so it doesn’t sag in the middle. The loss of height wouldn’t be a big deal at all.

Outside of the coop, in the run, there are a couple more things that will need attention this year:

• Reattach their play perches – some of them are a bit wobbly now
• Rat-proof it – the run was built to prevent foxes getting in but we didn’t consider rats. There are a few places where some wire and concrete will easily solve the problem.
• More wood chips – we put about half a tonne of wood chips in the run when we first set it up, then another tonne a month or so later – and I think we need another top up now. (Given the run is four flights of stairs down from the road, it’s a workout!). We use a deep litter principle in the run – the wood chips absorb the poop and rot down to compost. At some point, we’ll dig it out but for the moment, while the reclaimed ground underneath is still settling, we can just keep piling it on.

I guess having that not-strictly-needed cleaning time to think about these things will ultimately be for the best but now I have another eight jobs on my to-do list, I’m not feeling the joy right now!

If you’ve got chickens, anything special on your chores list for the coming months?