I think I'm turning into my mother. Not that it's a bad thing, she's amazing. But she has a bunch of chickens, and I just never thought I'd want chickens like I do this spring. So, because we live on almost 2 acres, and were planning on getting pigs this year in addition to our horse, dog and cat, I figured we'd just go all farmy and add chickens to the mix as well. My local (45 mile away) farm and ranch store has chicks already and will continue getting them every week through May, but I can't go get any yet. I need to build something to keep the chicks in AND a coop/run for when they get bigger. We want about a dozen hens, and have some scrap lumber we should be able to piece together a lot of the coop from, so I've been doing some research--well, according to my mom, I've just been asking her a lot of questions--but she sent me a book and some web sites, and here's my favorite site so far for chicken information: http://www.backyardchickens.com/ Amazing amount of information, coop designs, etc. This should be fun.
Also ordered some non-hybrid seeds (I know, I'm a little behind here) and am planning on planting as many of them as possible this year. I'm a little nervous about starting plants like tomatoes, peppers, etc.--I've always just gotten them from the greenhouse, so we'll see how that goes.
Now here's my fixit project for the week:
Yep, that's my son's glasses. Ahh . . . active 9 year olds and glasses just don't mix. And these were supposed to be the flex titanium ones that had a lot of bend in them. We're due for an eye exam, so I'm scheduling him another appointment and we'll end up with new glasses then, but in the meantime he's near blind without his glasses, so he can't just go without them, so mom and dad had to come up with some way to stick them back together, and here's what we're trying:
I actually ended up using a dab of hot glue to hold the two pieces together since JB Weld takes a while to set up. Mixed up some JB Weld--it's like epoxy with metal flakes in it--and gobbed it on the joint. Then added some wire to the mix as a bridge between the two pieces. I ended up using a thicker wire than is in the picture just to add some extra strength. Let the whole contraption set up overnight, and here he was on his way to school this morning:
We'll see how it holds. Hopefully it will last until his new glasses get here . . .
10 comments:
Good job on the glasses! I've done that trick many times.
I just finished our chicken coop & run earlier this week. I only spent $88 on the whole thing, not counting some materials I had on hand. Pics are up on my blog.
Be very careful LOL chickens get addicting!
I've fixed glasses with JB Weld, and with silver solder.
I don't know what kind of chickens you are planning on getting. White Leghorns will produce about 6 eggs per week per hen. If you get 12 of those you'd better plan on eating lots of eggs. Other kinds of chickens usually won't lay as many.
I'll go with Chris on this: use scrap material anywhere you can. The chickens don't care what it looks like. For shelters in our chicken "cage" I have a big square plastic trash can on it's side, a 55 gallon steel drum on it's side, and an old dresser with the drawers taken out. I covered the top of the dresser with shingles to protect it from rain.
Chris, your chicken coop looks professional compared to mine. I'll try to get some pics of mine up this weekend.
Chris--that addiction must be why my mom's got 50+ hens! Your coop looks great--how many does it hold? I kind of want a pen we can walk into so the kids can go get pecked . . . :)
Bitmap--Didn't think of solder--could have done that a litte faster. We're planning on getting whatever chickens our only source has on the day we decide to get them I guess. I'm hoping for brown egg layers. We do eat a lot of eggs (I don't buy cereal anymore, so we have a lot of egg breakfasts). If we have extra, we have friends who can take them off our hands I'm sure! :) Can't wait to see your coop pics! Thanks for coming by!
it's not just active 9 year olds that go through glasses like that. I can hardly make it 6 months without mine breaking. I took my broken pair in when I got a new pair and they were able to fix them with a spare part on hand, it didn't match so they did it for free. You can't really even tell unless you look closely. Now I have a spare pair. I guess your boy can use his welded glasses as his spare when he gets the new ones. ;>)
Angela, you are amazing. That's all I have to say.
WOW - what a great idea! And when the new ones do arrive, I would definitely keep them as spares in the BOB in case of emergency (or while fixing the new ones when "something" happens to them heehee).
Can't wait to hear more about the chickens adventure.
Looks like a good repair job to me...and I should know cause I've had to fix mine many times!
Believe me, you will love having your chickens. I do have some suggestions when you choose your breeds. If you want your flock of chickens to be self sustaining ( ie reproduction them selves without the use of an incubator) look for some breeds that will go "broody" some of the best choices are Cochins. Cochins come in both a bantam and a standard size. They are agressive nest sitters and you won't get tons of eggs from a cochin. However, if you get other layer breeds as well and get at least one nice rooster, the cochins will set any eggs you want them to. I have a few hens here that will set nests, but they are not reproducing themselves as much as I'd like so this year I'm also getting a few cochin pullets and hopefully they will be ready to set a nest next year.
Just for future reference, I have successfully repaired several pairs of eye glasses with heat shrink tubing.
It even works as a joint where the arm meets the rim.
Ya made it work though, that is what counts!
Good job.
Check this site out:
http://www.zennioptical.com/cart/home.php
Lots of glasses starting at $8.00. They might not be the prettiest or whatnot but for those prices keeping a couple spares in the medicine cabinet is reasonable.
I have worn glasses for a long time and from time to time they get broken. Luckily work makes sure I have a couple extra pairs every once in awhile and I have been able to squirrel away a few pairs.
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