Back when I was still having to spend most of each year in Denver, here just a few months each winter, I scored BIG time one winter during the annual S.W.E.E.P. event when people sit on the curb all the crap in their yards and homes too big to set out for usual garbage pickup. Being a dumpster-diving packrat I of course SCOUR the neighborhood for treasures (though I AM better now about putting stuff OUT for pickup as I try to make my yard look less 'Third World" each year). Two households had set out a LOT of chainlink driveway gates....I did not know WHY I wanted them, but I am John Starnes....it was my JOB to make a few trips in my van and stash them in my backyard before making once again, reluctantly, that LONG drive back to icy brown Denver in April.
Once back the next fall, one early evening I was getting "altered" on a certain herb, free-associating as usual ( I LOVE how cannabis can enhance creative thought processes) and starting playing around with mix-and-match combinations of these gates. I soon realized I had JUST the right mix to make a very sturdy and spacious henhouse. I constructed it atop 4 layers of scavenged carpet to keep racoons from digging their way in from the sides, and used various scavenged wires and cords to lash them all together into a very rigid structure not even jiggled by hurricanes to date. At sundown the chickens go in, I take "Mr. Rooster" out and put him in a dog carrier in the garden shed, cover that with heavy cloth then close the shed door (this spares my neighbors his crowing as I let him out 10:30 AM on weekdays, 11 AM on weekends), then close the henhouse door and tie it shut with a piece of phone cord to keep racoons from forcing it open.
It cost me nothing except some physical and mental energy, and for four years it has also served as an arbor for "Gracie's Grape" and "Gray Street Grape" for shade in summer, sun in winter for the hens, and grapes for me.
Peek and You Shall Find! John
In tampa they tell me I'm not able to keep chickens.. very sad indeed. Wish there was a way around this problem
ReplyDeleteLots of Tampa people have chickens, just no roosters. All across America, healthy civil disobedience about back yard chickens is resulting in those rules being changed due to their being defied by millions of citizens. To my way of thinking, if George Bush and Co. can commit such a mind-boggling array of crimes against America and the world, and instead of facing justice, be rewarded with huge annual pensions and "socialized medicine" of calibers you and I could never imagine, we can sure as hell indulge in the innocent pleasures of a few back yard chickens and enjoying cannabis in the privacy of our homes. I very much doubt that the Founding Fathers envisioned a time when the nation they created would result in the citizenry fearing and obeying the "public servants" they elect and whose paychecks they provide.
ReplyDeleteAre you inside city limits?
ReplyDeleteyes and plenty of Tampa folks have chickens.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try it. Stupid code enforcment said they'd fine me if they see them on my property but its worth a try. I've always wanted chickens and my daughter loves them as well! Thanks john! I love reading your blog. Check out mine sometime!
ReplyDeleteThat was nice for hen cage but its to expensive!! but I like it i try to make like that but by wood hehehe .. I don't have money buy iron !!! good job!!!
ReplyDeleteProcrastination Free Living
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ReplyDeleteHurricane proof homes