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Yeah! After having to start completely over, I have finally finished the back piece to hubby’s hoodie. Things went pretty smoothly and only at the end did I have any major boo boo when my Russian Join came apart. Luckily, with all the mistakes I have made since I started knitting in general, I have learned how to fix those without out having to unravel my whole project. I told hubby things were going too easy and it was time for me to make a mistake. He smiled at that one. At the top I needed to put my work on stitch holders:
I had one that came with my learn to knit kit, but I needed another. As it is a few days before payday going out and buying one is not an option. So I mention my problem to hubby and here is his solution:
A nice piece of wire that I hooked together at the ends. It is nice to have a knight in shining armor around to solve all my DIY dilemas. 
So what does this pile of wood have to do with chickens? Well along with 3 days off from work, this wood will be used in making changes to the brooder, nesting boxes, and houses that the chickens use. Hubby dropped this load off shortly before lunch time today. He is working at the county commissioners’ office and no one else wanted the wood, so he brought it home. He brought it home on a flatbed pick-up…cool thing about this pick-up is not only does it haul a lot, it dumps things off like a dump truck. Hubby then returned at lunch time and we sketched out roughly what our goals were and how we were going to approach it. I volunteered to get some of the things ready, so that we could get started shortly after he got home. I began by first clearing out some brush that was growing up around the edges. We are trying to keep that area clean and make an area in the middle where the chickens can hide from predators. If we let the brush build up on the side, the hens try to escape.
My working companion
This little guy peeked down at me from the bill of my hat as I was taking a break. I got a pic and then sent him on his merry little way. I must have picked him up while chopping down the brush, as I did see a number of caterpillars as I was working. For my next project:
brush pile
left over wood from previous projects
Both of these piles needed to be moved from the middle of the yard. We are going to tear down the brooder and rebuild it, along with the nesting boxes and place them where these piles were. It only took me a few minutes to move the two piles. The brush pile went where I stacked the fresh cut stuff and the wood pile went closer to the side where the door is. After we get done this weekend all left over wood will be moved to the outside of the enclosure.
The great thing about piles of wood left for a long time means lotsa yummy bugs for the chickens. Here they are having a buffet on various ants and other bugs. This space is now ready for the building to begin. We want the buildings away from the sides (less chance of escape) and closer to the house. A year ago when we first built the chicken house, we made it farther away due to the smell. Now we use a natural wormer from Holistic Horse which helps with the smell. We were somewhat skeptical at first of their claim, but were pleasantly surprised by the results. Plus by spraying down and scooping out underneath the houses once a week also keeps the smell down. Another reason is to make gathering eggs and having broody hens easier. Our setup now makes it hard to gather eggs, because we have to climb through a tiny door and crawl around on our hands and knees…no fun when you have reached double digits in age. Plus the setup only allows for one broody hen at a time, so it requires us to break up anybody else who decides to go broody. Not good if you are trying to replenish your flock on your own. So now hubby is home which means back to work and more updates as it happens.
Tal and I went to Tallahassee and did a bit of shopping for both bikes today. The objective was two bicycle computers and a new seat for The Beast, but I also purchased some green bandannas as skirt guards on Beauty. Just goes with the whole frog theme.
This frog was given to Wifey by our landlady, so I installed it on the front mudflap. The eyes move around when the frog is turned or shook.
Here is the computer for Wifey’s bike. It’s a Schwinn, purchased for less than $10 at Mal Wart. I assumed they were all the same, but when I got them home, there was a silver and a red one, so the red one went on my bike. I did a roll-out test and measured the circumference of a 28″ wheel with 28 x 1 1/2″ (40-635) tyres, and it came-out to be 2208 millimetres, just-in-case you were ever wondering if you could use a bike computer with your English roadster. Calibrating is as easy as entering that number for your wheel circumference. 
Here’s a pic of that awfully comfortable Cloud-9 seat and the new red cyclocomputer on The Beast. It will match my red milk crate panniers.
The reason for the computers is that Cyclingchicken is very serious about improving her health, and wants to track her progress. One of the tools for doing so is by keeping up with how many miles she is riding per week. Our sources, Yahoo Maps, Mapquest, and our landlady’s car tripmeter, have each come up with a different number, far off from the other two, so we decided to just get some computers. We got two so we wouldn’t be arguing over distances like we usually do. I tend to use alternative routes to avoid heavy traffic, while Honey tends to plow on down the shortest possible route, traffic-be-damned, which, to me, defeats the purpose of putting on more mileage. So, I sometimes I have to convince Wifey that my alternative routes aren’t as far out-of-the-way as they feel to her. :)
Last week, we ordered a full chainguard for Wifey’s bike from Yellow Jersey. They sell roadsters based on the original Raleigh roadster design and manufactured in India, but the chainguards Yellow Jersey sells are made in China. I don’t care, so long as it is metal, fits, and does it’s job. That job is to prolong chain life by keeping it clean, and prolong pants legs life by keeping them out of the chainwheel and chain. A plastic full chainguard is certainly better than a hockey stick type, but will eventually grow brittle and crack, plus, I haven’t seen any as cheap as this one: $50.00.
Here, I have removed the old hockey stick type chainguard, and will remove the bracket from the downtube. I had to unbolt the seatstay to get the rear part of the guard off.
Breaking the chain. A good chain tool is important for this. This is the original chain for Beauty, and in perfect shape with no stretch (I measured it). Beauty had low miles. The Beast required a new chain when I installed it’s full chainguard. 
This chain still needed some serious cleaning, though. Previous owner had used a cheap, vegetable-based oil on all moving parts, leaving behind a gummy residue. 
I put the chain in a shampoo bottle with hot water and a couple drops of dish soap and shook vigorously. Look at that dirty water!
I finished up with a good scrub with an old toothbrush and a good soaking with foaming degreaser.
Nice, clean chain, which I hung up to dry. 
I then turned my attention elsewhere for awhile. Removing crankpins without the special driver/remover is a risky operation. I still bent this pin a little, but it came out fine. I always loosen the nut, but don’t remove it until the pin is loose enough not to need hammering.
Most full chainguards clamp to the chainstay, but Raleigh roadsters come with a braze-on for that purpose. It fits the same bolt that attaches chainstay to seatstay. I somehow lucked-up and had several of them, from where, I don’t know. 
This meant drilling a hole in the chainguard for the attachment bolt. Step drillbits are so convenient, and cut a clean hole. I had to clean shavings out of the chainguard, but it arrived plenty dirty on the inside, anyways. 
With the chain dry, it was time to attach the chainguard to the bike. Putting the chain through beforehand it is important, as the alternative is to attach the chainguard and then turn the bike vertical to get the chain to fall through the chainguard.
This is the aggravating part of this process, mainly because I refused to remove the rear wheel to do it. Part of the chainguard had to be removed in order to go through the chainstay. A curved piece of sheetmetal was produced to go there, using the same bolts that attach the guard to the chainstay. I attached the tab first with the lower bolt and folded it backwards, then put the guard through the chainstay and pushed the tab up using an aviation scribe. There was a threaded bar on the backside that also had to be pushed up and aligned with the upper hole. Complicating all this was the fact that the chainstay was flat here, causing the clamp to not fit right. Luckily, I had some longer metric bolts that fit. 
I then reattached the chain. It is important to drive the pin only far enough to be even, then work the link back and forth to get rid of the bind.
I reattached the crank, being sure to drive the cotter pin in with a few blows of a hammer. I only recently learned this technique, always thinking before that the nut on the cotter pin got it tight enough. No wonder my cranks always came loose before. Here, I was lubing the chain. Just because a chain is covered and clean doesn’t mean it doesn’t need lube. The nice thing about a full chainguard is you can put a good bit on without worries of attracting dirt. 
Every Chinese chainguard fits differently- the one on my bike had a serious gap between elbow and rear sprocket hub, so I made-up the difference with two pieces of electrical tape. The gap isn’t so bad on Beauty, so it only needed one piece. 
I had to remove the pedal to attach the pie plate because it is a modern platform-type. A period block pedal would fit right through the sliding window. A word to the wise- positioning the hole toward the top, above the crank will keep the sheetmetal window from sliding off and disappearing at an inopportune time. ;) 
The finished product. It rubs a tiny bit, but it’s hard to find a full chainguard that doesn’t rub in some way. Now, Honey can wear bellbottums or broomskirts with no problems!
This is the old door to our chicken enclosure, and it’s probably about a year old. Our enclosure has been through many incarnations, from a small run fully enclosed, to 1/8 of an acre open to the sky. This door has been through all that. I built this thing in a short amount of time, with limited materials on-hand. That’s why it’s only 4 1/2′ tall, crooked, with saggy hinges. I don’t know how many times I have bonked my head on that lintel. I got so mad one time that I knocked the doorway apart with a hammer and had to reconstruct it. 
I had been putting-up mesh to keep young chickens in all day, and uncovered a door that a friend of mine at work had given me. Honey and I are several days into the Love Dare book, and the latest dare is to do some unexpected act of kindness for your spouse. I knew how much she hates that door, so I decided to do something about it. 
Tal and I went to my shop with the wagon and picked up some broken sign posts. I drove two in the ground the right distance apart, then bolted the hinges of the door to the straightest one. The posts are strong enough not to have a lintel, so I just put more mesh a foot upward from the door to match the 6 ft welded wire fencing. Now there won’t be anymore hitting our heads. The other side wasn’t so straight, so I had to add some wood to cover gaps. The door swings outward. Tal was helpful in all this, keeping the hens away from the gap I’d made in the fence with his trusty plastic Pirate sword. 
A few of my hens have this fetish for digging huge potholes directly in front of the enclosure door, usually the same ones every time. I actually butchered two of our hens this weekend, partly for that reason and partly because money’s tight and we needed meat. The worst perpetrators were both Silver-Lace Wyandottes. I don’t think we’ll be getting anymore of them. They were conniving and mean. So, I bury wire mesh in the ground a few feet out from the door so I don’t have to twist my ankle in a pothole as I step into the chicken yard 
cyclingchicken
dadabean