Building Activities at Tres Colinas

Tres Colinas on the road less graveled

In my 12/1/2013 post, I outlined my plans for our chicken coop along with my intention to build a swing/play set.  I also shared that our house construction was finally underway.  The weather was uncooperative for about a week but that left plenty of time for lots of accomplishments.

Chicken Coop Update

I managed to get most of the coop built and one coat of paint on it before we had a week of rain and very cold weather.  I finished it around the middle of  December.  I used finished broadly as I still have to install my feeding and watering systems.  As, we won't be getting any chicks until around mid-March, I will wait and use the cooler weather for other outdoor projects (fencing and fruit tree planting being top priorities).  Here are pictures of the coop construction:



The framing is in place and the metal roof is on.  You can see
the hardwire mesh floor and venting just under the roof eaves.
 



The siding is on and the nesting boxes are built.

 
 

Painted and basically finished.

 

 

This shows how the nesting boxes are accessed from outside
the coop.  You can see the "human" door on the left.  The
"chicken" door is on the opposite side, going to and from
the chicken yard.

 



 

Swing set Construction

This little project was a Christmas gift for Ava and Cora, so only had a week to complete it.  Fortunately, it was fairly easy and the weather was good.  Here's how it was done:

Framing the play fort with 4x4s and 2x6s. 
It should handle anything the kids can throw at it.

Decking, railing, ladder and roof support added.

Finished product.  A little tricky building it by myself
(especially installing the swing legs and beam).  That's why
tractors have front end loaders.

House Construction

After signing a contract in August and seeing no activity until mid-November when the foundation was framed (picture in last blog), we were a little discouraged about the lack of progress on the house construction.  We realized a good deal of that time was spent on finalizing plans and other paperwork but still thought a lot of good weather days were passing without any construction.  Then December arrived and so did the builders.  Here are pictures showing the major phases of construction to date:

The plumbing is roughed in.

Digging out for the beams.

Cables in place and ready for concrete pour.  These blue cables
will be stretched to increase the concrete's strength.

Starting the concrete pour.  We used about 90 yards of concrete.

Concrete pour half finished.

Pour finished, finishing work underway.



Slab finished and curing. Note the cables (not the toe plate bolts
sticking up) sticking out near and horizontal to the ground.

Finished slab curing for about ten days.

Applying 33,000 psi of pressure to each cable to
stretch it tight.  Each cable was stretched five inches.

Walls going up as the framing begins.

All walls up along with some OSB siding.  Starting on the
ceiling and roof.

OSB siding on and major progress on the roof.

Framing essentially complete with moisture barrier in place. 
Adding soffits and siding at the eaves.

At this point, the house is considered forty-percent complete.  It's amazing to me that this required a total of eight days of work.  Allow me a moment to editorialize about that work.  So far almost everyone that has worked on our house has been of the Hispanic race and most likely Mexican heritage.  Many have limited English speaking abilities.  It is fascinating to me that so many Hollywood types complain about racism and stereotypes when almost all of my stereotypical opinions are due to what I've seen on TV and in movies.  Everyone knows that Mexicans are slow and lazy...always taking siestas (again from Hollywood productions).  I've been blown away by the work ethic of every one so far.  They arrive about fifteen minutes before sunrise and get prepared to work.  As soon as there is enough daylight to see, they go to work.  The first break they take is for lunch (many worked while they ate-especially the concrete workers) and that lasts about thirty minutes.  They work non-stop until it is too dark to see and then return the next day to repeat the process.  Everyone was busy all of the time, NEVER standing around talking or wasting time.  They have been professional, polite and respectful.  While this is the work ethic that made America great, I suspect it's hard to find among most citizens now.  That's all I will say on that other than I am very impressed with the workers I've seen to date.  

 

The next steps should be the installation of the windows, doors and the roofing.  Once that is done, I just might start sleeping in it.

Chicken Coop Plans

I have been researching chicken coops most of the summer.  There are a lot of plans and ideas on the Internet but none seemed to be exactly what we wanted.  Raising chickens is growing in popularity but most coop plans are designed for small yards (less than eight birds) or for someone intending to make a living off chickens by raising hundreds of them.  We plan to have between fifteen and thirty birds and so fell somewhere between what is commonly needed.  So, I was left to take what I considered to be the best ideas from various coop designs, mix in a few ideas from local farmers and meld them into a coop design to meet our needs. 

 

Here are some standards/requirements for a chicken coop:

• Minimum of two square feet of floor space per chicken
• Eight inches of roosting space per chicken (roost should be at least two feet above the floor)
• At least one nesting box per four hens
• Protection from predators (snakes, raccoons, foxes, etc.)
• Good ventilation

In addition, we had the following preferences:

• Easy external access for egg collection
• Easy provision of drinking water and food
• Easy cleanup of the coop
• Easy collection of waste products (chicken manure is a fantastic garden fertilizer)
• An attractive coop

After taking all of these factors into consideration, we came up with the following design features:

• The coop will be eight feet wide, eight feet deep and approximately five feet high.  This sixty-four square feet of floor space will accommodate up to thirty-two birds.  While that might be a little crowded, they will only be in the coop at night and will have a thirty-by-thirty foot pen for daytime use along with some free-ranging opportunities (after I train the dogs to ignore them).
• There will be eight nesting boxes that can be accessed from outside the coop by lifting a hinged door. 
• The coop will be three feet above the ground with two doors and two windows.  One door will be for the chickens (with a ramp) and the other for us.  All doors and windows will have spring catch locks.
• The top six inches on all walls will be open and covered with hardwire cloth for ventilation as will the windows.
• There will be a PVC feeding tube that is accessed from outside the coop to drop food into a pan.  The tube will be big enough to hold several days of food.
• We will buy and install an automatic drip watering system.
• The floor will consist of two inch by six inch joists covered with one-quarter inch hardwire cloth.  This will allow chicken waste to fall to the ground for easy collection with a shovel and no need to clean the coop floor or have or replace litter.  In fact, we intend to never go inside the coop.  Any inside cleaning can be done with a spray hose from the door. 
• The coop will be covered with wood siding (painted barn red) and covered with a white metal roof.

I hope to have it finished by the end of this week if the weather cooperates and will post a picture of the finished product.  Pam plans to order the chickens for spring delivery.  She has been studying the various breeds with a strong interest in heritage breeds.  She claims she will be the queen of the chickens after I get the coop built (we shall see). 

 

Once the coop is finished, I have to construct a swing/play set before Christmas for Ava and Cora.  I bought a kit that has everything but the lumber which I will buy, cut and put together.  Any spare time will be devoted to continued clearing of brush and repairing fences.  Last, its time to plant fruit trees and bushes.  While I am busy with all of this, we hope to see significant progress on our home construction.  The builder only worked about two days in November so this is as far as they got.

 

 

After twelve months, twenty four days and twenty and a half hours of living in this camper...we are ready for this house to be built. 

Garden Plans

Garden Plans

I've been busy preparing for both my Fall and Spring garden and thought I'd share my plans.  I don't consider myself a radical survivalist but to quote Jason Robertson, "Food from grocery stores scares me."  I don't think we have any idea what we are eating any more.  Between the pesticides, herbicides, hybridization and genetic modifications the food we buy to eat has changed dramatically over the last fifty years.  Most of these changes were designed to improve productivity and not necessarily nutritive value.  Some may be harmful over the long term.  Anyway, I am going the heirloom and organic seed route as much as possible.

I've got about an acre inside my fence that I am preparing for the garden (includes fruits and vegetables).  A diagram of what I am working toward is shown below.  Our soil is well suited for blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, persimmon trees, figs trees, peach trees, citrus trees and any type of melon.  It needs some improvement for apples, pears, plums and most vegetables.  At the beginning of fall, I planted a mixture of oats and Austrian winter peas in all of the garden areas.  When these crops mature (around January) I will cut them down and disk them into the soil.  This will add both Nitrogen and organic material to my sandy soil.  After allowing three weeks for the soil to absorb these new nutrients, I will plant all of the berries and the fruit trees and get started on the Spring garden.   

You can see that I have divided the vegetable area into three sections.  Each is fifty feet wide by one hundred feet long.  I will rotate using them for vegetables every three years.  The other two years they will be in a cover crop or in some other phase of improvement.  This avoids overuse of the soil, allows time for soil improvement and avoidance of plant diseases (common when the same soil is overused). 

 

I did plant a small Fall salad garden (20'x20') this year.  As the soil wasn't quite right, I had some topsoil delivered and spread it around.  I planted: radishes, carrots, mixed greens, butternut lettuce, broccoli and kale.  It's been raining so everything is coming up and looking good.  With the weather patterns in south central Texas, we can have a Fall garden continuously through the "Winter" and can generally start a Spring garden in February.

 

I saw an article on the Internet recently proclaiming that Texas was the future of America.  It supported this claim with a list of ten reasons including jobs, land and housing cost, cost of living, low taxes and finally the rise of new cowboys (people moving to Texas to find a better and more self-sufficient lifestyle).  I guess I fall into that category as I wasn't born in Texas but got here as fast as I could.

I Should Have Been a Cowboy

Longhorn Visitors

I returned to Tres Colinas after a brief trip to Caldwell and found these visitors in my front pasture.

I spent most of the morning trying to determine where they came from and who owned them.  I'd not seen any Longhorns while driving up and down our road.  They aren't that common as there are much better beef breeds available.  After numerous calls to neighbors and the Sheriff (they handle wandering cattle problems), I finally identified their owner was my neighbor on my south property line.  I've never seen any activity on that property but it seems he dropped them off on Saturday and just assumed the fence was good enough to hold them.  When cows are moved to a new pasture, they often try to return to their prior home.  While they couldn't get that far, they could cross to my land. 

So, I fired up my tractor and herded them back through a small hole in the fence.  This was a little tricky as the hole was only five feet wide.  I guess their cattle drive genes kicked in as all I had to do was keep the leader moving in the right direction and the rest followed.  I did give them my best Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood) stare a couple of times.  I repaired the gap and thought they would stay as they had plenty of grass to eat and access to a stock tank (water) on their property.   I was wrong as I guess they prefer my grass and water.

They were back the next evening, eating my grass, drinking from my stock tank and wreaking havoc on my deer feeder (like a bad brother-in-law).  I guess they could smell the corn in it and decided it was a candy machine for them.  They knocked it over and managed to get the top off, giving them access to 150 lbs of corn that I had recently loaded.  That kept them busy (and happy) for awhile.  The dogs are keeping them from getting too close to us and Pam did yell that we were Aggie's not Longhorns (that had little affect).  I don't like to think what those horns could do to our vehicles or the RV. 

Hopefully, their owner will round them up in a day or two, although they are pretty.  Fortunately, they can't get to my black angus or I might have some Longhorngus's next year.  Yippie-ki-yo-ki-yay.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Busy September

Tres Colinas on the road less graveled

I said I would try to blog more frequently but I've been pretty busy this month. 

Patiently waiting in line to buy Kolaches

 First, we had the Kolache Festival.  It was the same weekend as the Texas A&M-Alabama Football game so the attendance was less than the typical 12,000-15,000.  Still, there was a big crowd and lots of Kolaches to sample.  I may have said this before but Caldwell was originally a Czech settlement and this festival celebrates that heritage.  It began with the singing of the National Anthem, the Texas State Song (also known as the Texas National Anthem-I like the sound of that) and finally the Czechoslovakian National Anthem.  Then you lined up to buy Kolaches.

Kolaches bagged up for sale

Personally, I went for the raspberry, blackberry, poppy seed and key lime (like a summertime party in your mouth they claimed) versions of the Czech pastry.  I had to stand in line for an hour but it was worth it.  There were also lots of arts and crafts as is typical of festivals like this all over Texas (every town seems to have some type of festival during the summer).  All are centered around some type of food (sausage, fish, beef, etc.) and/or some form of arts and crafts.  It gives us something to do instead of drink beer all the time. 

 My next big event was attending an A&M football game.  I've attended college games in several different stadiums and they all have their traditions and unique spin on how to support their football team.  After visiting Kyle field, I don't think anyone beats the Aggies.  They have the Corp of Cadets that march in and sit together, they have a military style band that plays military march songs (kind of like watching Ben Hur, Patton and a couple of WWII movies at the same time) while executing precise military march movements across the field, they have cheers led by Yell Leaders (all male) who use hand signals to tell you what to cheer (this is why they have midnight yell practice the Friday before each game), the students stand the entire game (this indicates their readiness to respond if called on to play-hence the 12th man concept, they yell "Whoop" after each first down and high five each other around the stadium with each touchdown, you kiss your date after each score, they play their fight song a couple of times and everyone sings it while swaying arm-in-arm (some schools play their fight song ad nauseam) and finally (this really wasn't an all inclusive list) the Corp members chase, catch and throw the Yell Leaders in the campus fishpond after a victory.  Between these activities and getting to watch Johnny (Football) Manziel, it was one of the best college football games I've attended (Gig'm Aggies!).

 

 

Foundation

Either side of these events I started building a well house.  I needed it to get the sun off the water tank (we essentially had hot water all the time without a water heater) and to protect the pump wiring from the dogs (who decided it was chewable).  I'd never built a building before so it was trial and error.  I built it on pier blocks to make it easy to level and because I didn't need it to have a floor.  Then I added the walls, roof joists and the siding (I also anchored it to the ground with anchor rods and straps.  Sounds simple enough but there were several "learning opportunities" at every step.  I also hadn't worked with sheet metal and learned (the hard way) a few tricks on how to handle it.  I plan to add some white trim to the door and as the shed is 8'x12' will also build some tool storage inside.  With that experience behind me, I'm ready to start on the chicken coop in a couple of weeks (have to let those metal splinter cuts heal first).   

 

Walls up

 

 

Essentially finished well house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While all of this was going on, we were finishing the tank (pond) digging process.  The digging was completed on a Thursday afternoon and at that point it had about 2' of water from the spring seepage.  It rained 2.5" the next day which recharged the spring resulting in about 5' of water in the tank within two days.  The spring ran for another day or two and then stopped but started again the next Thursday when it rained another 2".  The spring has continued to flow into the tank filling it to overflow.  I planted both ryegrass seed and Tifton 85 sprigs and both have begun to grow with the rains.  This all happened so fast I felt like I was watching the Genesis Project (old Star Trek movie) come to life. 



Finished Digging (you can see Mattie on the right bank waiting for water)

"Where's the water you promised me I could play in?"

 

Add water and instant tank!

Hauling the granddaughters around the Fair

We wrapped up September with the Burleson County Fair.  I'll have to admit being a bit disappointed in the animal showing portion of the fair.  I expected (or at least wanted) to see a variety of breeds of cows, goats, sheep and chickens but that isn't how they do it.  There were some different breeds of cows but everything else was the same breed and color.  I don't know if this makes the judging easier or is considered a level playing field for the competitive entrants.  It was interesting to see the auction held after the judging is finished.  The top five in each category (chickens, rabbits, steers, goats, pigs, lambs, etc.) are auctioned to the highest bidder with the proceeds going to the child (typically a 4-H member) who raised the animal.  It's not unusual to see these animals sell for tens of thousands of dollars.  The buyer views it as marketing expense and a tax right-off and the seller gets a leg up on college tuition.  In total, the fair raised over $1.5 million from ticket sales and this auction (pretty impressive for a rural county).  Of course they had all the rides and fair food (red velvet funnel cake was one of Pam's favorites). 

 

The heifers are doing well (eating grass and adding weight) but we lost one of the cats.  Miss Kitty (the white one with grey spots) disappeared one day and hasn't returned.  That leaves us with the odd couple of Lilly and Matt.  They seem happy with their surroundings and Lilly captured and killed a gopher last week.  Fall arrived on the heels of a norther Saturday evening so the morning temps are in the low 50's with daytime highs in the low-mid 80's.  We are seeing several deer around the tank but haven't seen any hogs since all the tank digging started.  I expect them back any day.

 

Finally, I will end with this picture of Shane.  I said in one of my first blogs that I planned to use the dogs as a deterrent against wild hog interventions in the garden.  It's obvious that Shane took his training very seriously as he literally is using his body to protect a pile of dirt in the garden.  With that kind of dedication, the garden should be safe.

 

 

Rocky Mountain and Texas (Heat) High

Colorado Fishing (reprieve from the Texas heat) Trip

Holly's first trout on a fly rod

I ended the last blog with us leaving Palo Duro Canyon and heading toward Colorado.  We passed through northwest New Mexico without incident (for those who know, that hasn't always been the case for us) and arrived in Salida, CO.  We stayed at the Four Seasons RV park in a campsite that backed up to the Arkansas River.  As soon as I saw the river, I was concerned about our fishing trip scheduled for the next day.  It has rained (unusual for August in Colorado) and the water was both high and a little colored.  This was Holly's first fly fishing trip so I had hired a guide to help us.  We met Abe (the guide) at 6am the next morning at a parking spot in Bighorn Sheep Canyon.  He confirmed my suspicions by telling us we would be fishing mostly around the banks due to the high water.  He assured us we would still catch fish.  Fishing is an exercise in hope and even if the catching isn't great, the fishing always is.  Armed with this attitude (and a couple of fly suggestions from Abe) I set off while Abe worked with Holly.  True to his word, Holly had a nice brown trout on within a few minutes.  We fished all day long and at day's end had caught a little over thirty fish.  Most were Brown Trout but Holly caught a couple of Rainbows.  One of them was 19", so she got the "big fish bragging rights" for the day. 



A typical 16"Arkansas River Brown Trout

Holly and Abe working a section of the river

We stayed three more days with me fishing and Pam, Holly and Cora shopping around Salida.  Then we headed for Gunnison which requires driving over Monarch Pass.  It's a little nerve-wracking pulling a camper over those mountains but we made it with no problem.

View from the top of Monarch Pass

 

We arrived at the Big Texan RV park in Gunnison (so named I assume because 90% of the campers are from Texas) and met Janush (pronounced Yan-ish) the owner.  He offered to help me park the camper at our site and after taking a look at the site, I agreed.  Normally, I have no problems backing the RV into a site but this one was loaded with trees in all directions and frankly I wasn't sure it would be possible even with his help.  I underestimated the abilities of Janush.  He told me to follow his instructions (more like orders) exactly, which I promised to do.  He had me pull up past our site until my front bumper was touching a Cottonwood tree.  Then he barked a series of commands (back up turning your wheel all the way to the left, now all the way to the right, now all the way to the left (this went on for a minute or two) until finally he said "Stop, you are there."  I got out and he was right.  It looked like I had been dropped in that site with a crane.  I felt safe knowing Janush had things under control at the RV park. 

 

Gunnison is a great little town with lots to do in addition to world-class fishing.   I had looked forward to returning to Gunnison since our last visit two years ago.  I was focused on a sandwich I'd had at the Gunnisack (a local restaurant).  When we got there, the sandwich was no longer on the menu. Crestfallen, I inquired of the waiter and learned it was a sandwich they offered only a couple of times a year.  Explaining my fixation on this sandwich, he took pity on me and told the owner who had the chef prepare one just for me.  Every once in a while you get more than you deserve.  The sandwich is a filet of sockeye salmon on a sesame seed bun slathered with gunnisauce (ground hearts of artichoke, parmesan cheese and garlic in a sour cream base).  It's pretty amazing. 

I fished the Gunnison and Taylor Rivers the next few days while the girls hung out in Gunnison, Lake City and Crested Butte.  Holly was going to fish the Taylor with me but the weather didn't cooperate (went from 60's and sunny to 40's with rain and even a ten-minute hail storm).  Being less intelligent than Holly, I fished through it but did catch several trout like the one below (worth it in my estimation). 

A beautiful dark spotted 18" Brown Trout from the Taylor

 

The Gunnison just above Blue Mesa Reservoir

Before we left the Big Texan, I found one more indication of Janush's command of the RV park.  In addition to his parking expertise, he's also found the time to solve many of those nagging little problems we face in the public setting.  I'll share this notice I saw posted in one of his bathrooms as one example: 

When faced with a double toilet paper dispense, I'll always know which roll to choose.
Now that this is taken care of, Janush can focus on heavy water cold fusion development.
 

Matt and Miss Kitty rendezvousing in the barn

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

I mentioned in the last blog that our cat Dan had disappeared so we added two more to give Lilly some company and some help on rodent patrol.  We added Matt and Miss Kitty (brother and sister of Lilly.  It only took a day or two for them to get reacquainted and comfortable with their new home. 

At night, all 3 cats like to sit on the tractor (it comes with a front end litter box)

The big project for September is digging a new tank.  Tank is the central Texas word for pond or lake.  I have two springs that cross the property on either side of the hill where we plan to build the house (and already have the RV and barn).  Both are grown up with trees and grass, so we decided to clear the larger of the two for a tank (for watering livestock and perhaps some fishing).  It had been a tank many years ago but the dam was blown out by a hurricane.  I learned from reviewing TOPO maps that it drains 1100 acres so heavy rains (10+ inches) see a lot of water come through in a hurry.  Based on this, we decided against a real dam and instead will dig it out to a depth of 10' and convert the causeway to a "mini" dam of 4'.  This should result in a 12'-14' deep tank with overflow loops on either side in the event of a major rainstorm.



View from the causeway before any clearing.



Same view after one afternoon of clearing



Every test hole dug 10' deep quickly filled with water from the spring



Pam's Dad enjoying watching the dozer & excavator

Ava, Pam, Mattie and Shane checking out the progress.

When finished the tank should be about an acre in size. 

 Since we were back in Texas, we felt the need to make a bar-b-que run.  Austin (nephew) had a 9am track meet in Lexington, so we arrive early enough to go to Snow's BBQ.  They only cook on Saturdays and open at 8am.  After being named the best bar-b-que in Texas by Texas Monthly Magazine, they usually sell out before 11am.  We got there at 8:20am and stood in line for about 30 minutes.  We got our brisket, pork ribs and pork shoulder steak, stored it in a cooler and made it in time for Austin's race. Snow's pitmaster is a 77 year-old woman named Tootsie.  She is a BBQ Jedi.



Here's Tootsie's brisket.  It was amazing-smoky, tender, juicy & flavorful.

Next weekend is the kolache festival in Caldwell (Kolache Capital of the World) with 15,000 visitors expected-kolaches are a big deal in Texas.  We also have the Alabama-A&M football game, so it should be a little busy in our quiet neck of the woods.   Finally, we have the county fair the following weekend.  I've got to get going with the chicken coop, well house and garden.  With all that going on, I'm going to try to blog more frequently with shorter blogs.

Hope you are all well.