Dirt feels good

You know how some days you feel like you can't do anything right? Today was one of those days. I missed a call, let someone down, and then it was far too late to do anything but apologise.
The reason I missed the call? It wasn't raining today. I was hanging washing out, then working in the garden, and didn't hear the phone. All very understandable, but I still feel bad about it. Today I woke with pain in my neck and shoulder, having not slept well, and confused with the clocks change. Maybe confused is too strong, but it leaves me out of sorts for a day or 2. I'm out at work tomorrow and Tuesday, then busy Wednesday, so garden work had to be today or next Thursday. With the location, and time of year, I have to take advantage of the lack of rain whenever it happens. There is no, maybe later in the week, here!
The pain in my neck and shoulder is an old thing that happens now and then, a cramping/spasming muscle, which if left unchecked becomes really painful and affects my entire back. Out with the exercises I used to use to ease it and then make it all work some more by digging and building things in the garden. It aches now, but is moving a lot better. Exercise really does help sometimes.
The mission for the garden today was to tidy up the compost, dig some more of the pond, and stop the cat digging my bulbs! The cat issue was simple - put some sticks in and across the bed where the digging is happening. Deter them and they'll go and dig somewhere else. It worked for the garlic, that's why they started elsewhere: in the bulb bed. Hopefully that'll sort it out until the bulbs poke green through the soil.
Tidying up the compost was more of a problem. I've been using one of those black plastic "dalek" style bins. Fabulous invention, easy to place, move, fill, absolutely brilliant. Until you get rats move in and live in it. The neck is great for filling, and keeps it all nice and warm, but you can't really get a fork in there to stir the compost properly. So the rats love it. The rats have to go, so the dalek has to go. But I still have compost....

Three pallets and a few screws later, and my compost is mostly contained, and I can get in there and turn it regularly to deter the rats.It's uneven because I didn't bother trimming the pallets to size. I don't care really, it's just to contain a sprawling pile of rotting vegetation and to provide a space for me to throw more. It works, and there's plenty of space for more to be added.
I dug the pond hole a bit deeper before deciding that my shoulder wasn't going to like that for too long. So it's still not finished but it's a bit more done than it was. I also added 3 more pallets to the growing hen run. Again, it's not finished but it's a bit more done than it was.
Through all of that I realised I'd forgotten something. Dirt feels good, and helps me to feel better. I'd lost the time and head space to just work on my own, in my garden, breathing in that special earth smell, feeling the mud dry on my hands, the wind through my hair, hearing the birds and insects around the place. It's healing.

Hen house build complete - ish.

OK, so the guttering and drinking water system isn't done yet, and it needs wood preserving stain painting on, which needs a dry couple of days... But it's pretty much done!
The rear access door is fitted, with a support for when it's open so it doesn't over strain the hinges.

Access door closed - it'll need a catch of some sort on the left side for added security, and the hasp on the right will need a peg or padlock, depending on how secure I decide I want it to be. The door opens from the top down and it's really quite heavy so I've made a frame to support it when open. It seems to work ok.

There you go, access door open, resting on the support. An added bonus is that I'll have somewhere to rest bedding or a bucket for cleaning out. The hens will have plenty of room in there, and I'll be making a perch to go in there too - a free standing one that I can take out to scrub now and then. Having had hens before, the perches can get disgusting!
After the rain we've had I'm waiting for the hen house to dry out properly, and a couple of dry days after that to get out there and paint it all with the wood preserving stain. At some point over the next couple of weeks I'll pick up the fixings for the guttering and sort that out too.
Then it's on with the run!
The hens can't free range in the garden here, it's just not safe, or fair to my neighbours who have, between them, several dogs, gardens full of veg, fruit, and flowers, and one who is scared of birds. So, my hens will stay securely penned. They'll have plenty of space, fresh air, and sun weather, and I'll make sure they get all the garden weeds and pests they can handle, but they'll stay in the pen.

Starting to plan the run.
The hen house is 4 feet wide, without the nest box, and that's where the run will start, widening from the house out in a sort of wedge shape. The straightest side will run parallel to the fence on the left and will be 4 pallets long and by the time it reaches where the garden drops away (the end of the hen area) it'll be 3 pallets wide (tripling in width from the hen house end)
It's going to be a massive run for them, when we get them. I'm still deciding whether I want 3 or 4? And how tall do I want the run?

Fifteen pallets and some chipped roof tiles.

The roof is done, the scaffolding is still here, and the less said about corporate incompetence and lack of communication the better. The gas is back on. Don't ask.
So, on a positive note, the roof is finished and I hope the scaffolding will be gone next week. Stacked up in the back garden I have fifteen pallets, and a pile of slightly chipped roof tiles.
I'm thinking about the chicken coop. Did I ever tell you about that? No?

A whole pallet for the house floor, supported on sections of pallets cut to size, with reclaimed fence posts to add corners and structure for the upper section of the house. The idea is that the hens will have some shelter under the house for their food and water, with paving slabs for a drier area, to shelter from the weather. We have rather a lot of weather in Wales...

The sides are reclaimed board from a broken fence panel given to me by my next door neighbours at the back. And this is where it stalled last year when the weather got the better of me, I ran out of supplies, and one of the cats became rather expensively unwell with long term implications to boot!

This is where it is today. It's all got overgrown, but the supplies are there to get on with the next stage. I'll be putting the roof on next, seeing if I can fix the hatch panel for the back - for cleaning and access for checking the hens. It also needs wood stain and preservative painting on - I have plenty left from the pallet planter project. Then I can think about the run.
It's all reclaimed and reused wood - the base is a whole pallet, the sides are fence posts and pieces of fence panel, and the roof will be roof tiles. The run, which will be attached - I can't have free ranging hens here - will be more pallets. In the end I will have to have bought the hardware - screws, nails, hinges, handles etc - and some wire mesh to cover the run sides and top.
I'm thinking about how I might add a strip of guttering to the hen house roof, and if that could run into a drinking trough for them? Fresh rainwater every time it rains, could be fab! But what to do if it overflows? Obviously, if it doesn't rain I can just take a watering can and fill it up... But if it goes all monsoon on me, as it does through the year at irregular intervals, will it flood the chicken run? Could I just angle the drinking part so it overflows outside the run? This will require more thought and planning!
I think I should be able to get a length of guttering and the fittings to do the hen house, and the shed - to go into a water butt - for not a lot of expense.
I think it'll be far too late to add hens this year by the time I'm done, but next Spring!

Finally... The roof.

It feels like the scaffolding has been up forever. The car is out on the road and I can't easily cut the grass at the front, or work on the garden close to the house. There's plenty of other outdoor work to get done, when it's not raining, but we do live in Wales.... You know how it is though, as soon as something is denied to you, that's the thing you want to be doing.
At the end of last week they came to finish adding to the scaffolding so the entire house is now covered. On Sunday, I discovered the scaffolding is completely blocking the signal for the satellite dish. Luckily we don't watch much regular TV at all these days, and most of what we do watch is on a season break, not back on air until Autumn.
I phoned the housing association to let them know and was told that, "it does sometimes happen, I hope they haven't knocked the dish while putting the scaffolding up." I told them this was exactly why I was phoning. I don't expect an instant fix but I'd like it logged in case action needs to be taken once the scaffolding comes down, but in the meantime we can't watch the TV and could they give me a rough timescale for the roof work to be completed.
Thanks, we'll log that for you, and No.
Fantastic.
That was yesterday, which turned out to be a good day.
This morning, they came and started work.
There are broken tiles in the skip, piles of shattered wood and roof membrane on the front lawn, and pallets of new tiles. Pallets I get to keep! There are 5 on my lawn, and more being delivered next door. I wonder if I can have those too? I'm going to pop out and ask if I can scavenge the roof membrane for weed suppression in the back garden, but I'll wait until they finish throwing things off the roof!
They way they're cracking on with things they should be done by the end of the week.
In other news, the slugs ate my pumpkins, and I haven't seen the hedgehog since the plastic incident. I hope it's OK.