Chicken Coop Entrance Upgrades

It looks like I will be stuck at the farm for several months, as I expect my job starting will be postponed for quite a while, and finding a different one impossible in the receding economy.

Which makes this the perfect opportunity to dig into the massive wishlist/backlog of projects I have here for the farm. Really the farm is about as nice as it gets for being stuck in one place, excellent indoor gym, nice house, lots of space outside.

The chicken coop was once a chicken coop for housing some dozens of chickens. It has not served that purpose in a long time, having been given a new roof and concrete floor it is now a garden shed. It is a surprisingly warm building in winter for having no heat. I am not sure why it is so warm, some combination of the south facing windows and having an attic.

Already partially excavated in this photo, it is quite clear how this spot becomes seriously muddy, with lots of water and poor drainage.

It does have one oddity, which is that a concrete footing of the foundation runs some eight feet beyond the edge of the building. My assumption is that this is because that bit of foundation was laid with the building originally planned to be oriented 90 degrees in a perpendicular direction, but was changed when they realized more south-facing exposure would provide warmth in winter.

The result of this barrier of concrete is that water is trapped on two sides in a corner right where the front entry to the chicken coop is. This makes for an impressive and annoying mud pit right outside the door. I aimed to fix that.

The phases of construction, not quite in order. Yes, the door is a brighter red. I repainted it a week or so prior, while painting some beekeeping equipment.

Excavations were accomplished with pick mattock, and uncovered a small paving of bricks from an earlier endeavor to prevent this problem. Said bricks were under three inches of mud. In order to prevent the new paving from suffering the same sinking fate, a deeper foundation was dug in which I first laid a layer of branches in the mud (not a normal step, I was inspired by an article about birds’ nests), then a layer of sand, and then a layer of gravel. On top I laid a number of spare rugged plastic patio tiles surrounded by a row of those bricks.

It really wasn’t that hard of a project, made entirely of spare materials. The major difficulty was heavy rain, resulting in the excavations being entirely flooded. Podcasts provided entertainment during the course of the production. It looks great, which for the relatively low effort evolved makes the value/work ratio quite high.

1 thought on “Chicken Coop Entrance Upgrades”

  1. I disagree with finding a new one at current situation. Remote work require much facilities and technologies. Telemedicine, K12 remote education and robotics will be on the rise. Simply because we need these technologies to cope with everyday life.

    My friend’s daughter actually using Zoom to have out of school classes. My mom has been doing remote teaching back in China. Only time in decades we are both complaining having to work more because of remote technology ;-P

    If you look back in history, most opportunities seed during recessions.

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