First one thing and then another

Have you ever noticed how beginning one task can lead to something else entirely different? Well that’s just how my day went earlier this week.

Up until about a year ago, I had my little flock of laying hens in a small frame chicken house surrounded by a 900 square foot run.

I moved the hens in to a new hoop house and a much larger run when I increased the size of the flock. Over the last few months I have removed the fence and decided this last week to pull the chicken coop to a new location.

I hooked my little Ford truck to it and began pulling. The soil was rather dry but the 4x4 skids under the coop just plowed in and it quickly became stuck.

What to do?

Pull harder. I began backing up and then tugging a little harder. At first, the building budged a little. The next tug resulted only in the loud sound of crunching wood and a sudden sense of lightness in the truck as it separated from the resistance of the chicken coop. Drat! The cast iron eye bolts the chain was hooked to pulled through the 2 x 4 frame member.

What to do?

I hooked on to the other end of the coop to pull it out the other way. The eye bolts on that end of the coop were ½” bent eye bolts not cast. A few tugs resulted in pulling them out straight. Double drat!
What to do?
Well, as it was getting on in the afternoon and resident grand-daughter number one was due home from school, I just left the coop where it was and moved my truck up to the house. Tomorrow is another day, right?

Tomorrow did come and I was ready to take on the task of moving the chicken coop which had become the task of repairing the chicken coop.

I used my small trolley jack to lift the building. Then I put two eight foot long round posts under it to use as rollers. I replaced the bent eye bolts with the cast iron eye bolts from the other end. Using my truck I slowly pulled the coop as far as I could before needing to shift the rollers under it. After doing this a couple of times, I had the building up on solid ground where repairs could be made.

After removing the trim and siding, the broken 2 x 4 was fully exposed. Removing it was a straight-forward process as was replacing it with a new one. Be assured, the new was installed with additional 3 inch screws and extra bracing.

Once the framing was repaired, all that was left to do was replace the siding and trim. Repairs to the chicken coop were complete!

A sense of accomplishment and was accompanied by thankfulness for the tools, strength, and know-how needed to accomplish the repairs.

Now, I still need to move it but I’m going to save that for another day.