Working In the Yard and the Chicken’s Auto Gate Worked Well

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Bob

Tuesday May 3, 2022 Guerneville CA.

Blue sky day

It looked to be another nice day, the sky was all blue and the wind was down.trees7

 

Pink roses

I noticed my pink roses were blooming as I walked by.roses1

 

I’ve been giving them some water to help them along and it looks like it paid off.rose2

 

Cleanup area

Still nursing my sore back I continued to work on cleaning up the blackberry vines in this area and now I think I have them all, at least for now. I put the sprinkler on to water things down.water3

 

I didn’t think that first sprinkler was doing a good enough job so I added this one. I’m watering that little tree behind the sprinkler so my brother Barry can dig it up and move it to his place. It’s an olive tree I don’t need. I’d rather plant something else there instead.water5

 

Another fine chair hopping day so I did a lot of that to rest my back and just enjoy the day.

The chickens were happy to get into the front yard to graze. I usually let them into the front yard towards the end of the day.chickens6

 

Auto door

The automatic door worked well this morning and they were all out in the yard grazing when I got it going. A commenter wanted to know if I invented that door. Well, yes and no.

Nothing fancy

I just sit around and figure out what I need to do a job and that’s what I figured out. But it’s likely I’m not the first to figure that out. :O) I like to do things like that that don’t take any  power to work and I also don’t have to buy some fancy thing to do the same thing.

Today’s eggs

And the eggs got gathered from the nest boxes.eggs4

 

While I was sitting out in the evening I noticed this sunset to the west.sunset8

 

Nice day.

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Clearing Brush In the Yard and Setting Up the Early Bird Door

Posted on May 2, 2022 by Bob

Monday May 2, 2022 Guerneville CA.

Yard work

I’m still nursing a sore back. It’s getting better slowly.

I decided to do a little work on this part of the yard that is getting overgrown. I need to cut out the blackberry vines and the brush that is coming up. Most of the brush is wild plum trees that have started from seeds, that are not needed.brush1

 

A little at a time

The plan was to  just cut a little at a time on and off throughout the day to save my back.. So I worked on clearing that throughout the day. Of course that took a lot of chair hopping and some naps.

My helpers came over to help out once I’d dug up the ground a bit digging the vines out.helpers2

 

I also worked on this part of that patch digging out the wild blackberry vines. Once I get all the big stuff out, I’ll use the power mower to finish it off, but not today.area3

 

Brush pile stays

This is also part of the cleanup area, the brush pile stays as I need places to put the old brush.area4

 

Wild poppies

I noticed these wild poppies are starting to bloom.poppy5

 

Cut brush

By the end of the day I’d gotten most of the brush cut, but not cleaned up.chopped6

 

Plenty of cut brush to clean up, maybe tomorrow as my back already had enough today.brush7

 

Chickens automatic door

Late in the day the chickens went to roost. See that gallon paint can. That’s a weight to open the outside door in the morning when the chickens get up they can step on the trigger and the outside door will open and let them out to graze.can8

 

Getting to the weeds early

I’m a late night person and don’t get up early enough to let them out early so they can feed. And when I do get up and let them out I feed them so they don’t eat as many weeds as are growing right now as they are already full from the feed I feed them and I’d rather they eat the weeds so I don’t have to feed them as much.

You can see the little board with the string on it that they can step on to trigger the door to open so they can get out and feed.trip9

 

When they step on the little board, the string pulls the pin out and the door pops open when the can falls down from the weight in the can.trigger10

 

The can has some rocks in it and will fall down when they pull the pin by stepping on the little board.can11

 

I’ve used this method before and it works pretty good to do the job.

Windy day

The wind was blowing pretty good today and continued in the evening but it was still a fairly pleasant day.

First strawberries

I went to the blueberry pen to check on the strawberries as they are starting to produce ripe strawberries.patch12

 

I was able to eat a few ripe strawberries. Yummy.berries13

 

Nice day.

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