Tuesday, April 20, 2010

My latest finds and a chicken tractor


Here's a quick peek a couple of things we're working on around the house...


I've been keeping an eye out for a vintage fan to mount on the wall in our bedroom rather than have a ceiling fan.  I love having a fan on while I sleep in the summer, especially with a window open too. 


 There are a lot of these old fans floating around.  A lot of them still work just fine and most of them have a little rust, a few dings and chipped paint.  I love rust, dings and chipped paint but when I found this one, I knew it was the one.  It was still in its original box with the tag on it and all its papers and looked brand new.  It had been stowed away for the past 50 years in someones attic in Michigan and now it's back in Missouri, where it started out...where it belongs.


It's like a sweet homecoming.

The door on the barn track is another project we've got going on in the bedroom.  I found the old door at a flea market and Jeff hung it from the track for me.  I've got to decide how I want to finish the wood and put some opaque plexiglass in the window.  I'll have another door on the same track on the other side of the fan for the closet...one of these days, hopefully. 

Jeff's a busy man.

Recently he's been helping me get a garden ready and building a chicken tractor.


I, of coarse, "supervised" (skimmed through books) from right here...


for all of about five semi-relaxing minutes.  Then it was back to refereeing kids and animals, playing name that bug and 20 500 questions times four chatty children and fetching tools, drinks, sandwiches and bandaids, nursing baby, changing diapers, etc, etc.

Back to the tractor.  While preparing this post, I realized I didn't have any good pictures of the completed chicken tractor, so I grabbed my camera and headed out to snap one or two shots.


As soon as the girls (hens) heard the clickety click of my camera, they started heading over to the tractor to pose for me.  We let them roam free all day and they typically only come to the tractor to get a drink or lay an egg, unless there's a camera involved, then they're all over it.  Even Petunia, our barn cat, got into the act.


Silly cat, she thinks she's a chicken.
She was snacking on chicken feed when some of the hens spotted her and decided they couldn't let her hog the camera.


"Move over cat!  This isn't about you!"


Before Petunia knew it, she was being ganged up on by the girls and she was run out of town!


The kids named the hen on the far left Eye Pecker, and for good reason.  I'm guessing even Petunia knows about her reputation.  Chickens just can't resist pretty little sparkles, especially that chicken.  "Oh, what's that pretty sparkling thing in your face?" she clucks.  "Here, let me..."  peck, peck.  "OUCH!!  That's my EYE!"  Yep, they're not very bright.

Anyway, for anyone that's curious, Jeff made the tractor out of an old chain link dog pen.  He made an A frame from two of the panels and closed up the ends with chicken wire.  Then made a small coop at one end with a ramp that we pull closed at night.  The roof of the coop is made of left over metal roofing and is only screwed down at the top so we can lift it open to gather the eggs like so...


Every now and then, we find a kid in there, but it's usually just hens and eggs.

He can pull it around the yard with the riding mower when he needs to, hence the name chicken tractor.

Welp, that's all.



24 comments:

  1. I love that fan! I just recently found and purchased one.. but not in its original box!

    The eye pecker! I love your life :)

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  2. Lovin' the fan!! So cute!!
    Elise

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  3. Cool fan story! Wow, you do live a busy life! I don't know how you do it all! Where do you get the track for the door? I have always loved that look!
    athomeamy1@windstream.net

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  4. Chicken tracker? Looks like Madison wins that contest. She led you right to them. Nice work Madison, and Jeff too.

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  5. I recently sold a vintage green fan...gee I miss it!

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  6. I LOVE old fans and I LOVE doors on tracks. Can't wait to see how it looks when it's done!

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  7. I like the tractor--I'm jealous! And the chicken-cat drama. Tell Madison she needs to pose for some pics with my postings. Daddy checked and found out you can't have chickens here, but as long as the neighbors don't complain they don't care. We have a neighborhood complainer--so, no chickens for us.

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  8. I just visited your blog from "pretty and posies", and instantly became a follower. Love it! Have you done a post on the barn door below your cute (clever) fan? or perhaps you could share where you found the hardware to hang the door? Anticipating visiting your blog on a daily basis. Your pillows...sighhh...

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  9. Oh shoot! I should have mentioned that the hardware came from Lowe's. I'll try to go into a little more detail once we've finished it.
    ☺ Celeste

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  10. Love the fan and the chicken tractor. We are considering chickens, and that looks doable. The only problem is that our cat would attempt to eat the chickens....

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  11. What another great idea you have...to attach the fan to the wall instead of a ceiling fan! SO CREATIVE! To think it has been sitting in an attic for 50 years! What a great story :)

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  12. Our kids have found that the chickens (Bantam R.I.Reds)will peck your feet, fingers and hands, but never an eye! Ouch! The Polish that we had last time never seemed to do that.
    (We just slimmed the brood Saturday from 19 to 11. There was a lot of squawking after 7 of the girls left with their new owner. The remaining girls set to work establishing a new pecking order immediately.)

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  13. Why is it called a chicken tractor? Is that a dumb question? I even married a farm boy and we both don't know what that is. HELP!

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  14. Ha! That's okay Rebekah. It's a floorless, portable chicken coop designed to both protect the chickens by keeping them fenced in and because you can move it around, give them constant access to fresh grass and bugs (and won't "burn up" one spot in the yard.) They're becoming more popular with the whole organic/grass fed movement or whatever. We still just let ours run free during the day, but it's handy on days when we can't be around to kind of keep an eye on them.
    ☺ Celeste

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  15. If I had only known that fan was hiding out her in Michigan!;-) So cool!!

    I am so interested in how your hens are doing and the construction of your chicken tractor. We are really wanting to get a few hens but are concerned after our neighbors' hens came up missing. We have coyote around here. Have you had any unfriendly visitors?

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  16. Hi Melanie, We lost one to a hawk during the winter. I think they really stood out because of the snow which made them easy targets. The hawks stayed very close by the coop for several days after that so we kept them "cooped up" the rest of the winter. So far that's the only loss we've had but we do shut the tractor door as well as the coop door every evening. They're a lot of fun to have around and behave almost more like pets. They're really sweet ameracuana chickens (not purebred though) and they're known for their agreeable temperments.
    ☺ Celeste

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  17. How cool Celeste! And I love your green fan too!
    The Chickens are real pets, right?
    I'm dreaming to have some soon for the eggs and for mthe kids to have fun with them!
    Just lovely!
    Enjoy the weekend :-)
    Li

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  18. I just found your blog, and I'm hooked! What an amazing project you took on building your cottage! Looking forward to exploring your blog some more!

    Jill

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  19. Thank you so much for you kind comment on my previous post darling!
    Federica
    xoxo

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  20. I absolutely can't wait to see the final result. Wow...such work but such fun. Love your vision.

    xoRebecca

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  21. Wish you a wonderful weekend darling!
    Federica
    xoxo

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  22. LOVE the fan!
    I wanted to let you know that there is an award waiting for you here:
    http://thevisserclan.blogspot.com/2010/05/award-i-feel-so-lovely.html
    happy blogging!

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  23. You are one busy momma! Loving your little pets!

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  24. love your chicken tractor! (fence :>)
    We have a flock of brown egg layers, and a proper little chicken house, but the fencing is wire-on-wheels and can be attached to 3 different sides of the henhouse. Works great. Good luck on the potty training...my friend is working on that for her 2 yr. old,!!! also...D.

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