How To: Chick Roosts

And now for something different...
------------------------------------------------

To my regular readers (is anyone left? haha), a brief explanation first.  A couple of weeks ago, we received a "surprise box" that we ordered from Cackle Hatchery.  This is a box full of baby poultry and it sounded like a ton of fun (it is!!).  Jeff and I have talked about having chickens for years now (he grew up with them) and since we now have 5+ acres in a farming area, and winter is finally over, we decided it was time.   I had researched many breeds and was having trouble narrowing it down.  Plus, it seemed they were going to be hard to find locally.  Enter Cackle, which came highly recommended by a great friend.  I looked at their site, saw the surprise boxes, and here we are!

We wanted to provide enrichment for them and so we set out to put together some perches or roosts for the wee chicks.

I should also mention that before the box arrived, but after we had ordered it, we did stumble across some Gold Laced Wyandotte chicks at the local Tractor Supply.  They were a breed on my wishlist and so we grabbed them.  They were the "advance party" before the box got here.  As a first time chicken raiser, I had a bit of a concern about taking on 40-50+ at once for my first time.  Could I keep baby chickens alive?  According to the Wyandottes: Yes, I could. 

We got the first group on April 1st and made the first perch, April 3rd.   Shortly after the surprise box arrived, on April 15th, I decided to make another perch for the Wyandottes and make alterations to the original design for the surprise chicks.

Here's how we made them:

Materials:

* Yardsticks (we got ours at Lowe's, for just under $1 each) (you'll need 3 yardsticks for a one sided roost, 5 for a double sided one)
* 1/2" dowel rods (again found at Lowe's) (I bought the 72" ones and cut them into 4 pieces for 18" perches)
* Wood glue
* Some type of clamps, I even used large binder clips on the second round
* Something to cut the wood with - I used a scroll saw, because it was handy and portable.
* Drill with 1/2" drill bit for wood
* Pencil to mark cuts and holes
* Something to mark angles with is helpful, you'll need to cut a few 45 degree angles.  Without an actual angle tool, you can also use a piece of the yardstick, laid cross ways, to draw a square on the material and then slash through corner to corner.  That will give you a 45 degree line.  (At the center of those slashes is also a center point to drill a hole.)   

I hadn't taken step by step pictures, but did take a few along the way.  So I'll try and explain how we put them together.  Hopefully it makes sense!  Feel free to comment down below if you have questions.  At some point, I may try and do some more detailed photos of the process.


For the first one, we started with two pieces 12" long and glued them together at the ends to form a 90 degree angle.  We also made a support for the diagonal piece by cutting a piece as long as the width of the yardstick, plus a 45 degree angle.  That, and the vertical, go on the same side of the bottom piece, as seen in the lower left of this picture:

For the diagonal, cut a 45 degree angle to line up the bottom end with the bottom horizontal and the small support piece.  Then cut another 45 degree in the top, lined up with the top of the vertical.  Glue the ends down.

Here's another view of the end.  You'll want to make two of these.  We did them in a mirror image, so the whole thing would be symmetrical, but that's probably not critical.   

Next, mark the holes for the dowels and drill them out.  I had bought a couple of 72" dowels from Lowe's and cut them to perches of 18", which gave 4 per long dowel.  We did one in each end and an additional one in the middle of the base and the diagonal.   Drill the holes, and glue in the dowels.

Here is the first perch we made, all finished:

And here's that first perch, in the brooder with the little Wyandottes.  Before they started perching on it, they really liked to sleep under it:

 Playing with perching:
 

They've got it down here, at two weeks old:

At about three weeks old, I made them another one, since they all wanted to use the one they had and couldn't all fit!  They had also been moved into a bigger brooder so they had more room.

For the surprise box of chicks, I wanted to make a larger, double sided perch.  I started with a 24" horizontal and a 13" vertical, to raise the base an inch off the bedding.  We realized it would have been good to raise it up out of the bedding, to offer them BABY baby perching options.   I also added an inch to the bottom of the little end support pieces.  Then measured and cut the diagonal pieces the same as before, just twice as many

All other steps are the same, marking holes, drilling, and gluing in the dowels - just more of everything. 

And here is the double perch in the brooder with the surprise chicks.  They LOVE it and used the baby perches, just off the bedding a ton in the beginning.  They also really like sitting on top of the yardstick side pieces.  I often find them sitting shoulder to shoulder on/in the ends.

I hope this helps if you are interested in making a baby perch/roost for your chicks! 

Sound The Bugle

I finished my NaMoPaiMo horse today.  The last year has been... hard.  I tried to focus on the good in my year in review post, but there was a lot of hard stuff too.  Such is life?  I have been grieving on different levels.  Friendships lost after a disastrous trip that was supposed to be a childhood dream come true.  Grieving leaving Japan and the friends I made there.  The distance from a people and culture that I feel aligns strongly with my values, and a place that felt safe, refreshing, beautiful, spiritual.  Our house hunt was a trial beyond words and the trial didn't stop when we finally found a place.  It's full of problems.  I could go on, but I'm still trying to stay positive through it all.  Trying.

Back to the horse, I started painting him before the middle of the month, Way early for me, the Queen/Captain of Team Last Minute - who painted her entire large Traditional scale horse on the LAST day of the first NaMoPaiMo.  This year, I was going to do it differently.  I was going to start early and venture into the exciting world of using pigments.  A solution to really the only downside of acrylics - difficulties blending.

On the 14th I talked to my Granny, the woman who raised me.  She wasn't feeling well, but said she'd be okay in a couple of days.  I told her I loved her.  On the 16th, she passed suddenly.  I have been feeling utterly destroyed.

For a week I couldn't attempt to create anything.  I thought surely "making" would help me.  A love of creating things is one of the biggest things I got from Granny.  But I couldn't do it.  I sat at my desk, moved paint bottles around, and cried.  Day after day.

Two days ago, I thought that I should come up with a meaningful name for my NaMoPaiMo horse, just in case I could pull up out of the downward spiral in time to finish him.  I spent an evening searching various inspirations, nothing clicked.

That night, in the shower, I started humming a song from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.  The more I thought about it, I realized he had a name.

Sound The Bugle

Well, then I had to get him finished.  Yesterday, I sat down, took a deep breath, started mixing paints, and he started coming to life.

Today, after another emotional breakdown, followed more ridiculous drama with the house/our neighborhood (guns are involved), I put on some upbeat pop music and finished painting.

Sound The Bugle
Bryan Adams


Sound the bugle now
Play it just for me
As the seasons change
Remember how I used to be

Now I can't go on
I can't even start
I got nothing left
Just an empty heart

I'm a soldier, wounded so I must give up the fight
There's nothing more for me
Lead me away
Or leave me lying here

Sound the bugle now
Tell them I don't care
There's not a road I know
That leads to anywhere

Without a light I
Fear that I will stumble in the dark
Lay right down
Decide not to go on

Then from on high
Somewhere in the distance
There's a voice that calls
Remember who you are

If you lose yourself
Your courage soon will follow
So be strong tonight
Remember who you are

Yeah, you're a soldier now
Fighting in a battle
To be free once more
Yeah, that's worth fighting for

2019 World Travel In Review

In this, my 7th blog post of the year, I'll attempt to do a somewhat abbreviated review of the long, strange trip that was 2019.  Many of these events could be their own posts, with many more to fill the gaps in between, and maybe they will be at some point.  

----------------------------------


We started the year in Japan, and are ending it in North Dakota.  Yes, the time came to leave Japan -  after living there for 4 years - and I'm not sure I've fully dealt with that yet.  The move itself started in May and ended in October, during a blizzard.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.


The first several months of the year/last several months in Japan were a bit of a blur, as we tried to cram in any last minute trips.

We went to Hirosaki Castle for the Sakura (cherry blossoms) in April, but this time we stayed until after dark.  Then we crammed out onto a bridge, with thousands of other people, so that I could get some of the iconic night time canal pictures.

We took a road trip down to Kyoto, stopping in Motegi to see the Honda museum.  This was more of a "Jeff thing", at first, but I found myself captivated by the story of Mr. Honda and the incredible, audacious things that he and his company accomplished. 

We also went to Nara, specifically to see the famous bowing deer.  If you bow to them, they bow back for treats.  The bucks were the best at it, the does just tried to help themselves to your pockets.

In Kyoto, we saw many beautiful sights, including Kinkaku-ji, the Golden temple.

Closer to home, we went and saw the Jingle horse parade one more time. 

I also competed in Yabusame for the second time

Practice:

Photo by Osamu Sasaki

Competition:

Photo by Osamu Sasaki

We also jump through all of the hoops of a round the world military move (with pets - more on them below) and also Jeff's retirement.  He retired after 24 years of military service.  His retirement ceremony was held in Japan and it was a very neat thing to see and to be a part of.

For the actual moving, this time I decided to pack all of the model horses myself, after what happened on the move there.  I was quite sure that the Japanese movers would take much more care with them, but it still would have been a big job for them to do, so I did it myself.  I photographed each horse, doing an inventory as they were packed.

A few fun group pictures were taken, like this herd who all came to me through my friend, Sue. 

The OF stablemates each got a bath and were then packed.

As I took pictures, I also took a picture of each tote before closing it,

followed by the number of that tote.  This proved to be quite helpful when I decided to extract a few certain horses right before and after the move.

And here is a stack of horse totes and boxes, prepped and ready to go by the movers.

Our destination upon leaving Japan was Jeff's family in Pennsylvania.  There was where we had left our truck and one of Jeff's motorcycles.  This would be the first roundup of "stuff" we had left all over the country. 

Before we left Japan, Jeff asked me if I'd like to go to BreyerFest, which completely shocked me.  We would be in the middle of this big, crazy move and the truck needed a lot of work done to be roadworthy (the clutch had gone out while we were away).  Jeff pointed out that PA was much closer to KY and we wouldn't have much else going on...  So I had bought a 3 day ticket, just in case.

Jeff busted his butt working on the truck as soon as we got to PA, in early July.  This was the state of things just a couple of days before I would have to go, if I was going to see any of BF.  That's the transmission, transfer case, rear driveshaft, and other components, laid out next to the truck.

One of the people who I was keeping updated on the state of things at this point was my friend, Jennifer. 

I sent her this picture. and got this reply, on a Friday, the first day of BreyerFest.  I was on the way!

I made it to my first BreyerFest!  Thanks to Jeff.

After spending time in PA, doing more house hunting (a whole, long, ugly tale there that started in January, in Japan), we found a(nother) place in North Dakota, put in an offer (our 5th), got it accepted (!!), and hit the road. 

We were headed to a place we'd never been, to live in a place we'd never seen, cause that's how we roll.  Hey, we did it in Japan, why not North Dakota?

Many steps, frustration, and tears later... it turned out that to get the place, we had to repaint all of the outbuildings - on a place that wasn't even ours.  (Thanks, VA loan.  /sarcasm)  This required 6 long days (11-12 hours, no breaks) in August, and gallons and gallons of red and white paint to repaint the 4 outbuildings. 

We both agreed it was good we finished when we did, because neither of us had another day left in us.  The results were nice.

We finally had the go ahead to get the place, though I remained skeptical - until we had the keys in hand, started moving in, and Joey had an official romp in the grass, our grass.

At one point in the moving process, we went back to South Dakota and opened up the time capsule - er, storage unit - into which we had put the Jeep, Jetta, two motorcycles, and a bunch of household/garage/horse stuff.

We did a convoy of most of it, up to our new home in North Dakota.

Our shipment of household goods from Japan finally arrived in North Dakota in mid October - on the same day as a blizzard.  That in itself is a whole 'nother long story, but for now, here's a pile of stuff - including those totes full of horses - in what would be my new studio.

In the pet department, we had to say goodbye to The Marshmallows, as I called them - the little white zebra finches - when we left Japan.  Treveling Internationally with birds is very hard, if not impossible and I wouldn't want to try and put the little guys (and girl) through that anyway.  They went to my friend, Angie, an experienced bird lover and owner.

However, we brought back a Joey, after two other families had left him in Japan.

We also brought back Tealight, after taking her over there with us.  She is an across the world, and back again, traveler now.

At Jeff's mom's place in PA, I was reunited with Neytiri, or "Kitten", now named Patches.  She had been staying with them for the 4 years we were gone and is happy there.  On this visit, I made it official that she is their cat now.  Despite still being afraid of anyone outside of Jeff's mom or step-dad, she certainly remembers me. 

At our new home in North Dakota, we added three barn cats to the family.  They came with the property and house we bought.  They were all completely wild when we first moved in, but eventually learned we aren't so bad and even moved inside with us as winter set in.

First to get captured and brought inside was the girl kitten, who I named Sophie.

A while later, I made friends with her brother, who we named Loki.

On Loki's first day inside, he won over Jeff right away.

Last to join us inside was their mom, who we just call Mama. 

Lastly, we were reunited with Jabba, who has to be the world's oldest salamander.  He is a tiger salamander that I found seeking shelter in the barn in SD, MANY years ago, as winter closed in.  We'd had him for at least a few years, before leaving him with friends when we headed for Japan.  We thought we'd most likely not see him again.  He was already full grown when we first found him. 

Yet, he still lives! 

Leaving Japan, I had to say goodbye to the collection of Bonsai trees that I had acquired and cared for over the years there.  This hurt, a lot. 

Shortly after moving into our new home, I started a new collection of plants. Most of them "rescues" off of the clearance rack, because that's how I roll.

Other goodbyes were with good friends I had made in Japan, Angie and Tsukako-san, my Yabusame buddies. 

photo by Osamu Sasaki

 I miss them. 

With new places and new adventures come new friends: Anne and Christie.  Together we formed Team Appa at The Jennifer Show in Colorado.  (Appa is what I call our truck, "yip yip!")

photo by Anne van der Weel

Speaking of Colorado, Appa and I left North Dakota, just DAYS after moving into the new place, bound for Colorado and The Jennifer Show.  One of my primary goals there was for the epic Stagecoach project to see the light of day, in all its messy in progress for a decade glory.  This was the Big Dreams performance class and I went all out.

From Colorado, I went to Arizona.  There waiting for me was... 

Bo.

Also there was Big Blue, my trusty, rusty trailer.

After a good, but too short, visit with friend, Kate, who took SUCH good care of my boy, it was time to go again.  Appa, Bo, Blue, and I left Arizona, and went back to Colorado for another visit with Jennifer.  There I rode my boy for the first time in 4-1/2 years.  It seemed like we hadn't missed a day.

We made our way back up to North Dakota where, for the first time since he was a foal, Bo was able to graze like a "real horse". 


In model horse news, I had started the year with NaMoPaiMo and an attempt at a MEPSA Makeover challenge horse, who did not make it in. 

All three of my NaMoPaiMo horses: 2017: Antar, black Arabian stallion, 2018: Bom Bidi Bom, chestnut Japanese Draft stallion, 2019: Wind In Her Hair, palomino tobiano Chincoteague Pony mare.

I judged my first MEPSA show, which was quite an undertaking, but also a lot of fun.

Once I was back in the U.S., I was finally able to go on the hunt for blind bag Breyers in the wild! 

In addition to judging my first MEPSA show, I also judged at my very first live show!  That was the Black Hills Model Horse Show in South Dakota.  What was really cool about this for me, was the feeling of things coming full circle.  This was the same show that was my "comeback" in 2014.  I was nervous about judging for the first time, but it was fun!

I think I'll wrap up the report here, surely this is enough??  Many other things happened over this wild and crazy year and I've struggled for several days now to try and "trim' this down to a somewhat manageable post.  Let me know if there's anything you might want to read/see more about and I'll add it to my plans for posts in the New Year. 

There will be more than 7 of those. 

Happy 2020, everyone!