Driving through highway construction zones between Helena and Great Falls I snapped before and after photos of a section of I-15 in Mid Canyon blasted on Monday August 23rd.

The ‘before’ image shows a demolition truck perched above I-15 just past exit 244 and the ‘after’ shows the northbound lanes filled with boulders Tuesday morning.

–

WKP’s Montana 2010 Photograph Gallery.

[View with PicLens]

1280 x 800

Square Butte Sunset

–

I constantly use cut and paste. On my Macbook the Command, C and V keys are shiny from use. There is a feature I have always wanted and that’s multiple cut and paste.

I’d like to be able to cut (copy to clipboard) several pieces of information; a song lyric, an image, a file title, a link and a symbol or whatever and then be able to paste any.

I could cut them in order and be able to paste them all at once or
I could cut them in any order and press command-spacebar-v and a menu will come up asking which to paste.

This has been a feature I would like to have for a few years now. Someone at Apple Computers please add that to the next OS. Just wanted to put this out there since I’ll never get around to writing a program to do it. I have a great idea for a phone app too.

For some reason the ethernet port no longer works on my PS3. This could be a mechanical issue related to lightning, product failure or something else however the wireless function works so I pick up our network wirelessly and all was well.

Recently when I load the Netflix disc, the screen remains black for a longer than normal time. The PS3 is lagging terribly. If I eject the disc, the PS3 is bogged down and takes an inordinate amount of time returning to it’s home screen. Without a restart the PS3 barely functions.

In lieu of streaming on PS3 we just switch to the Wii which also connects wirelessly but does not lag, does not fail and works just fine! I am not talking about a lag in the streaming, I am talking about the Playstation itself no longer responding. Ejecting the disc works but then the PS3 is sooo slow it won’t even load the images on the home screen.

I think the PS3 delivered a cleaner image so I want to know what’s up? No searches resulted in the answer so I’m documenting our problem today.

I am a huge fan of Netflix and my PS3.

After a hurried review of the coops, kindly displayed on backyardchickens.com, considering appealing and practical details I began constructing what has become a fairly nice looking, soundly built, safe home for our new hens. I would say it’s well-designed but the process was rather piecemeal. For example; After concluding that I would make a walk-in height run area with a raised coop to resemble my own house, I began by holding a stud upright and marking what I felt would be the lowest ceiling height I’d care to walk under. For placement of the studs, I considered the available widths of Hardware Cloth, nailed them in place and then figured out what to do next… step by step, without a great deal of forethought.

Presented here are pictures and details of the finished coop . As I built the hen’s new residence, I documented the day by day construction process. You can read about the entire process here on this site. You can also find my page at BackyardChickens.com

The nesting box door is detailed with a fake portico, complete with copper lid.

The chicken’s door is heavy and hangs from a rope through a pulley to outside. Pulling the rope, opens the door – the heavy weight brings it swiftly down.

The large operable window has hardware cloth to protect when left open. Below the perch, the floor is also screen to allow droppings to fall through. A plywood piece was cut to insert during cold months.

The coop does resemble the main house.

Now 3 weeks in our care, the chicks are nearly ready to move outside. At the end of the warm sunny day, building day number 20, they were brought back indoors until next weekend when they spent their first night solo.

During construction of this coop, the following wildlife ventured by the building site: Red Fox, Red-Tailed Hawk, Coyote, Skunk, Raccoon and Rat. For these critters I buried the wire below grade and used hundreds of fasteners. Best of luck to the birds.

Want more? Check out the step-by-step.

Enduring several seasons of waking to the sound of my neighbor’s rooster perched less than 100 feet from my bedroom window, I had complained a fare share about those birds in this close suburban zoning. When my daughter came home with 6 chicks in a box, what was I supposed to say?

After a healthy review of backyardchickens.com, I’ve begun construction of our Chicken Coop. I’ve decided to document the process for BYC and thought I’d get it right on wkp.us, then paste to backyardchickens.

Construction began without clear definition for the size, aesthetic or methods. I found plenty of coop designs that appealed to me on backyardchickens.com. After reviewing several dozen tabbed pages with family members, we agreed on a walk-in height run area with an elevated coop.

–

Day 1: Chose a spot in the yard, atop my tree nursery and last year’s garden, dug up and potted some baby trees, transplanted others and graded the area.

Tuesday (Day 2) after work, I picked up 24 @ 4 In. x 8 In. x 16 In. Heavy Weight Solid Block for $1.29ea and Built a perfectly level foundation, burying the blocks below grade to prevent dig-out and intruders.

Day 3. Early start on the framing. Tools scattered about, our Labrador lying in the morning sun between stacks of lumber and the building site, a loud saw cutting, the first few boards being nailed and suddenly the three of us saw each other at the same time: A beautifully colored, healthy looking Red Fox just 15′ away. The dog bolts, the fox leaps and runs for it Labrador sprinting yards behind it’s bushy tail… quickly into the woods.
Wow! What an ominous start.

10:30am, I stop framing to document: An hour and half after the fox incident I hear the unmistakable hoarse, screaming kee-eeeee-arr of a Red-Tailed Hawk circling overhead. I have my work cut out for me building a secure home for these birds.

Not one for elaborate plans, I concluded on a design; I am going to make the coop a replica of my house. With this in mind, I walked outside, held a stud upright and marked a spot I felt would be the lowest acceptable walk-in height, then I measured it. (I’d like to build a nice coop but keep it relatively unassuming on my property) 5′-6″ plus the plates and a drop in grade make the headroom around 6′. The house will sit higher so it’s gable end will clear the flat roof. I didn’t want the structure much over 7′ tall but it’s going to be.

Day 4: Thursday, after work – ply roof and continue framing.
Day 5: Friday, after work – Paper roof, some fascia, ply coop – still no floor. Some painting done. In shop, made windows from reclaimed tempered glass and 5/4 mahogany scraps, and cutout trim for the half-round vent windows. There are many details, but I want this to look like my house. Today I pulled out a bunch of scraps of clear cedar clapboard leftover from a job a few yrs back. I can’t wait to side this thing but I don’t know what to use for all the 3/4″ trim I need to add since I don’t really want to spend any more $. I’ll use something I have.

Saturday, Day 6: 12:30pm start: Built nesting boxes, framing, nailers, primer and details! 8:30pm finish.
Sunday, Day 7: 1 week of progress and things are looking good. Today, I bought hinges and a few pieces of 1×4, finished coop fascia and soffit, roofing, siding and trim details. Today I fastened 70% of the Hardware Cloth. (An interesting term for wire screen!)

Day 8: I skipped real work to progress the ‘coop’ which is now nicer than most homes. Today, I got a lot done. The hardware cloth installation is complete. I graded the soil away from the coop as it’s on the downside of our yard and water will rush toward it during heavy rains.

My friend bet that I couldn’t make a door in 20 minutes, so please notice the high-quality, 19 minute, door. It’s made from leftover 5/4  fir flooring. It really came out nicely. The rails line up with the wall blocking and the bottom plate of the coop. It was joined and then glued up with Gorilla glue. Once the glue dried and the slab hung I was amazed at the perfect fit. These boards were finished with Sikkens products in 2005. Stored in my shed and in perfect condition, I think I will leave the door stained.

Thanks to Lee for the beautiful asphalt work today. I cut step-flashing from sheet copper and bent the pieces by hand, passing them up to Lee.

Left to do: Build floor system, create nesting box door/front facade, make chicken door, make the large access door, trim 2 sides before siding and possibly another window.

Day 9: Made side door from reclaimed wood, made second door to access nesting boxes, primed interior.

Day 10: A little progress each day! Today I fastened the nesting box door, framed and installed the floor. I screened under the roost area, leaving 1/3 of the floor open. For the floor, I used a cabinet panel leftover from a kitchen install. It’s laminated on both sides with a super-slick surface which should make washing a cinch.

Day 11: A few pieces of siding and corner return calculations

Day 12: Saturday – We’ve had the chicks about 2 weeks now, I’ve lost the ‘period’ key on my keyboard, so the rest of this article should be one long run-on sentence! Today I fashioned corner returns, built a chicken ramp, added soil, a slate landing, nesting box trim and perch and some more 1x exterior trim, Yay!

Day 13: Made and installed chicken door, using a heavy door, pulley and rope to the outside. It’s pretty cool – just pull rope and hook on cleat to open, remove and weighty door falls closed!

Day 14-17: Monday – Thurs., Rain: Uh-oh… All I can say is, I visited the coop and hid from the rain while joking around with a friend about the luxurious accommodations these chicken will have. Left to do; small interior trim and finish siding two exterior faces. Still deciding whether to add a window to South side.

The chicks are bigger and growing feathers by the day. They are handled every day. Our lab is very patient and watches them, as they run around the living room, without leaving her spot on the couch. They follow us. They squawk when initially picked up but relax a bit and will come and jump on a hand or stand willingly on us while we sit with them. They are adorable, like most babies.

Day 18: Friday afternoon added siding and made the nesting bin door handle; a copper-roofed solid mahogany ‘basic’ replica of my life-size front entry.

Day 19: Almost done. Painted more, patched all the nail holes, painted portico details. Made copper corner returns and small copper roof then cut the final siding pieces up to the soffit. Yay!

Day 20: Painted most, Still need to side one face, ready to share pictures online.

The final structure is solid and dry inside. It is fairly high-quality for a few dollars worth of birds but what the heck… hope they like it.

Here’s a picture of the Main house;

The hens spent the weekend in their new home and seemed to move in and out of the house and fly up to the blocking, exploring a few feet off the ground. We took them back inside in the evening and brought them out again in the morning.

Well, that’s it. It’s taken 3 weeks to finish, using a few hours after work each day. I invested a bit of creativity with some salvaged parts to make the most of it. I opted not to use the moldings that fill my shop to cut back on the extravagance level and still it’s thick and richly appointed – for a chicken coop.

—

Construction methods and materials:

The walls are 2×3 with 1/2″ plywood, paper, cedar trim and cedar clapboard siding.

The roof is 2×4, 1/2″ ply, paper, aluminum drip and rake edge, copper step flashing and asphalt shingles.

The pen area is 2×3 studs with 1/2″ square hardware cloth. I used a pneumatic brad stapler and fastened the hardware cloth with many 1″ galvanized staples.

Materials purchased or supplied:

• 4x8x16 Heavy-Weight Concrete block, $1.29 ea.
• 2×4 Pressure-Treated sill-plate
• 2×3 wall framing, $2 ea.
• 2×4 roof system, $2.75
• 1/2″ cdx plywood walls and roof sheathing, $17 ea
• 30# roofing felt
• Asphalt roofing shingles, $70 sq.
• Aluminum drip edge, $3 ea.
• Copper step-flashing, (made from scrap copper sheet)
• Pine and Cedar trim – cornerboards, fascia, soffit, casing, etc.
• 1/2 x 6 Cedar siding, clear and FJP
• 1/2″-square Hardware Cloth – expensive!
• 1/8″ and 1/4″ Tempered glass windows
• 3/4″ Ikea panel, used as floor
• 1 5/8″ closet rod, 8′
• Pneumatic staples and nails – LOTS.
• 5/4 T&G Fir flooring
• Misc Hardware; pulley, handles, eye bolts, hasp, latches, etc
• Paint; primer and exterior
• Misc. mahogany boards
• Copper sheet
• TLC

Figuring the costs for this particular structure would be difficult as several supplies came out of my workshop including; approx. - siding $150, cedar $80, fir $50, mahogany $30, tempered glass $50 combined with some know-how became window and door units, etc… I believe total cash spent to purchase what I didn’t part with was around $800 – though I hope to provide a breakdown. Suffice to say material costs exceed $1,000 and labor input exceeded 40 hours. It was purely enjoyable, time well spent. Creating on the fly made the project all the more exciting.

Now I have to rebuild my shed because the Chicken’s Coop is far superior.

A centerpiece of my living room has been a peaceful community aquarium with decent lighting to support plant life. For over ten years the tank has contained a 12″ Plecostomus and 100′s of Fancy Guppies. At times, it seems as if we have thousands of guppies, which recently was the case causing quite an over-population problem.

Simple solution: Another aquarium introducing Oscar the not-so-friendly cichlid. We started the tank with little Oscar and about 100 guppies, then 2 weeks later added the Convict Cichlid fry. The oscar only ate the smallest guppies over the next month as he grew. It seemed 50+ guppies were ‘familiar tankmates’ and not on Oscar’s menu.

Something odd happened when I rearranged the tanks and set up the Oscar and the Convicts with our Pleco in a larger tank in the living room, then moved the guppies to a new, smaller tank in the kitchen. The move was unsettling to Oscar and it hid behind a rock in the new tank. When the waters cleared, he came out with a ferocious demeanor and ate every one of the guppies in 24 hours! Literally 100 fancy guppies gone overnight. A few days later I dropped in a several dozen more and by morning, gone! Oscar is is a new man.

The convicts are awesome! They live with contently with this Oscar and swim with it when it’s feeding time. I know they will need new confines soon, but they are definitely my favorite fish in a while. These are particularly handsome individuals and should show blues, and the iridescent gold tones as they mature.

Here is a photo of one convict cichlid over 1 month old.

At the recommendation of Netflix Customer Support I emailed HackingNetflix.com with a picture of my laundry room, wallpapered in Netflix envelopes. They posted it for the world to see! Many thanks to Netflix for being the best service I’ve ever paid for and something I truly enjoy.

Streaming Netflix for PS3 discs arrive in the mail, which makes this the second best day in the year. (my birthday, of course, is the best day of the year) I use my Playstation and Netflix far more than I watch Cable TV, so today is like the day I am liberated from the Cable company. Huge!

The result of my wallpaper making it on HackingNetflix.com is an example of how Netflix rocks: I mentioned in the email hackingnetflix.com posted that I share my plan with my daughter. She had returned “Little Miss Sunshine” without the red envelope so I tossed it in with another and mailed it. Then I told her to go clean her room so this wouldn’t happen again. lol. She brought me not only the red envelope but also a DVD labeled “Little Miss Sunshine”
“Oh No! What did we mail to Netflix?” Sims3.

I called right away and talked to a really nice girl who said it was no problem and happens once a day. They’d email me when they’d sorted it out. While we were on the phone I told her about the room I’m wallpapering.

Later that day I received this email:

Hi, Thanks for calling Netflix today! Everyone in our customer service center loved what I told them about you wall-papering your laundry room with the Netflix envelope flaps!  May I recommend that you take a picture and send it to hackingnetflix@gmail.com  I’m pretty sure it would be posted on a well-known Netflix blog (not run by Netflix)!  Just a thought Thank you for being a loyal Netflix customer!

The next morning, I got an email saying they found my daughter’s SIM3 and had sent it. Where I live Netflix is an every other day turnaround. It’s awesome! I feel like I have a huge library of movies but Netflix keeps them safe for me over there in Netflix land.

Thanks HackingNetflix.com for posting my wallpaper. I expect it’ll be a year before the room is done.

[Primer, 3M spray adhesive, Envelope, Polyurethane]

My game has improved. My friend and I played three days in a row, ending in yesterday’s personal best.

Saturday +11

Sunday +9

Monday +4 on 18 holes!!! Woohoo. I held even until hole 12 and then things fell apart a bit, ending with four over par.