Relying on Stuffs
We tend to all rely on so much stuffs, on our road to self sustainability and self reliance, we decided lately to build a chicken coop with absolutely no experience in building anything but IKEA cupboards.
Cutting Stuffs
This part of the building is the easiest. You just need something to cut with, and some stuffs to cut. We got the chance that the (future previous) owner has scored a nice stash of oak wood, super resistant, but a real mission to cut. I first went with an electric chainsaw, only to realise very quickly that I would need some serious gear, as oak is like metal and I had tons of it.
Lucky for us, next door live Robert and his wife (I didn't ask him if I could talk about him, I am sure it's fine), a 87 years old retired carpenter that always has tricks ,tools and some great stories to tell.
We became good friends since we moved in here, and we exchange fruits, vegs, and whatever story of the moment.
He has a wealth of knowledge on so many subjects, and has been self-teaching himself for his entire life. He built a church in Chicago 40 years ago, his father was also a carpenter(you sense the pride when he talks about him) at a time when we were still handcrafting wheels for horse drawn carriages.
When he offered to help building the chicken coop, I jumped on the occasion as I know absolutely nothing about building stuffs.
I am making that 😣 face
The idea was to sort out the wood in 3 sections:
- Beams
- Planks
- unusable wood (ready to be "processed" for burning)
I managed to sort out a good amount of planks and beams, now we just had to clear the area to set up our chicken coop. We were lucky that the barn was already built with concrete floors, as predators won't hesitate to dig under the chicken coop to get the hens.
Buying Stuffs
Of course the enterprise wasn't entirely free, as I had to buy:
- Chicken fences
- Nails
- Door Hinges
- Some "crampillons" (some big ass staples)
Failing at stuffs
It really starts to feel like making music.
Before Robert arrived to help, I thought I had this and could build it up on my own, I started trying to get that nail through one of the beam, but even after hammering it like a maniac, there were no way it would go deeper(just fucking say your joke @dandays).
It felt a little bit like a failure, but I eventually came to realisation that it was nearly impossible without a drill, the good new is that it only took me one nail to realise that there were no way to build it just with nails only. You can compare it to the invention of sound engineering in music, technology for the win!
After that I fell into an architectural rabbit hole when Robert explained the importance of Math, Geometry and the precision of the craft. I realise how similar it was with writing a good song, putting first the foundation of a song with the harmonic structure.
Learning Stuffs
This is the bass of a song. this is where you get your rhythm and the harmonic base, metronome in your hand, the tempo should stay assertive. Some people call it the foundation of all living things.
That 90 degree angle is very important, I can't remember exactly why but it is quite practical. You will notice that I rarely handle a tool as Robert wanted to do pretty much everything, The picture below is quite impressive.
So apparently you can "shave" a wood with a chainsaw if you know what you are doing, we literally created lego bricks 🤡. It was almost as easy as IKEA.
Oiling Stuffs
I also learnt that you gotta to oil that shit up sometimes. Before hammering any sort of longer nails through two oak sections, you must first drill it to the length of your nail, then insert your nail with some thicker oil (chainsaw oil for example) on it. [You can now insert any joke of your choice]
In music you call a friend saxophonist or trumpetist to add a solo to your track, they tend to really oil that song up.
Filming Stuffs
This is me as an influencer trying to take credit for something that I barely built. It's gonna look great on Instagram with a nice filter on.
These little beams that you see at the junction are here to maintain the structural integrity and making sure it stays at a 90 degrees angle. It's just genius, and I would have never thought of it.
We moved fast and starting setting up a scavenged door, much lighter and easier to handle (made of pine tree). The hinges will be able to support easily its weight.
We were trying to recreate the scene from "The Shining" from another angle.
Danny????
The knife is here to make sure that the door won't stick to doorframes and is at a sufficient angle to rotate, while we are screwing it to the vertical beam.
As you can see some of the wood looks rotten but it's actually still very solid and will handle easily few tons. Most of the houses in the surroundings are made of Oak wood and will survive centuries.
We decided to dig inside the wall, and set up the beam in it, we will add concrete afterward to solidify this shazam.
One door hinge, two door hinge and...Voilà !!!
Naya doesn't look impressed at all.
To sum up:
We are almost done with the strucure and the door, next step will be to add the chicken fence, wooden planks and probably some inside spa for the hens.
Cheers!
edprivat.com