Friday December 27, 2019 Guerneville CA.
Rats
Last night as I was returning from shutting the chickens up for the night I was walking by my van in the dark. I heard something on it’s roof so investigated.
What I found I didn’t like much. A rat was getting into my van and likely living in there.
I checked around and found this window open just this much. I could see scratches on the window where the little varmint was going in and out. 
I didn’t know if the rat was in the van or out of it.
Moved the video camera
This morning the first thing I did was move my video camera to the van’s window so I can watch it to make sure the rat is going out and not in. If I see it going out or is out I’ll shut the window.
Pruned some more apple trees
It was a cool day so I got the ladder and the pruning stuff and pruned these two apple trees.
I think I have one more apple tree to do and then I’m mostly done pruning trees.
Of course the chickens helped me out keeping me company.
Remodel the rat proof chicken feeder
Another thing I wanted to get done was to put higher side boards on this rat proof chicken feeder box I made. It has low sides so smaller chickens can use it but when the larger ones use it they scratch seed out and over the sides so I need to put higher sides on the box as I need to use it to feed the larger chickens and will figure out another way for smaller chickens to get over or through the sides when I get more smaller chickens.
Here’s the rat proof feeder I need to make the sides higher on. The can is a weight that pulls the lid up when a chicken steps on the trigger on the box top. They do this first thing in the morning to get access to the feeder for the day.
I got out the materials and the tools and cut some boards to length.
Then I took the short boards off and screwed on these higher sides.
Remodeled box
Here’s the new box with the higher sides and ready to go.
This shows the trigger a chicken can stand on to open the lid in the morning to get to the feed. The trigger is hinged and hooked to that wire to the left that pulls out and lets the lid open as the weighted paint can pulls the lid up.
I installed the new box and got it working and by then dark was approaching fast so I went on in the house as it was getting a bit cooler out.
I’ll be watching for the darned rat.
Nice day puttering around in the yard.
