Jay Angler

I had the same conundrum with a friend who married late in life.

Lee Valley tools makes a *really* good quality stainless compost bucket. I figured if she didn't use it for compost, she'd find another use.

I'm no longer in "deep freeze" country, but my immediate thought was: how did that moisture get under there in the first place, and how can you make sure it doesn't come back?

I'd hate for you to do a pile of work, only to have the thing tilt again!

Josh Hoffman wrote: I had considered a 2" or 3" pvc pipe section with ball valve at both ends for the days I know we will have torrential rain. Had I considered this when I placed the swales, I could have made it work better than trying to retrofit it now.

I'm assuming you also considered making more swales to cope with the bigger storms?

Cost is not my limiting factor. First, I have a lot of downed trees and a neighbor with a saw mill he loves excuses to play with. Second, we've got a fairly decent "spare parts" collection that I can raid including being able to upcycle hinges and other fittings.

However, vermin are an issue. Voles, mice, huge rats, squirrels, racoon are all looking for dry places to dig under or chew into. So I want to build it securely - yes, a door is more work, but if it keeps squatters out, I will take the time to do the job right.

My limiting factors are: 1) to design light enough for a relatively small tractor to lift it when we need to move it (which isn't likely to be often.) So sneaky hints to keep the weight down while not making it too fragile for wet snow and 80-100km wind gusts. Alternately, hints to make parts of it come apart as suggested up thread. Doors with hinge pins are simple to take off for a move, and then re-install.

2) I am soooo.... done with tarps. Anything based on that is out. In our climate they solar degrade and start shedding microplastics within 2 years and I plan to live longer than that!

3) I also need hints to help me build it as much on my own as possible.

The hints about keeping the overhangs small to reduce both weight and wind load is good, as my inclination is the other way as we're so wet all winter. I'm going to have to figure out how to balance that one. This is definitely not a climate for *no* overhangs, but I've had temptations in the past to make structures shorter when I didn't really need a lot of height, and that means that overhangs need to be safe for taller people who could run into them. But going taller on such a small structure will make it tippier, so more hints about how to make safe overhangs seems like a good thing.

Wood floats and you want the water to exit where it's safe to exit, right? So the wood is "floating out the exit"?

Assuming so, you need to makes something sieve-like that will encourage fewer wood chips to leave, while allowing the water to leave at the rate necessary?

Off the top of my head, I'd make something like a loose wattle panel, possibly curved depending on how exactly the water is exiting. Since I grow it, I would likely use bamboo to make it, but any other woody plant that tolerates pruning would l do it, and willow or hazel are classics for this sort of job. If nothing else, this would be proof of concept and help you make more "permanent" design decisions.

If the risk of big storms is seasonal, I would make it removable. It is still likely to slow the exit of water, so you will need to balance reducing your work-load vs keeping the water from choosing another spot to overflow.

Rico Loma wrote:I'm showing my ignorance,  actually my best quality, but what's a spaghetti  farm?

What is a Spaghetti Farm?

I forget that English can be a very local language! The short answer, it's any relatively long, narrow farm - skinny so the only thing worth growing is spaghetti which is also long and thin!

Historical Origins - the longer answer and somewhat off topic

Land in some areas of Canada was gifted to immigrants who had "Served the Crown". Since everyone needed water, the land usually started at a river and went back from there for some distance. Since families were large at that time, when the sons were "of age" the land was divided to give each son a share, but they also needed water access, so that division was in strips. Go through 3-5 generations and you end up with a pile of long skinny farms leading back from the river, and on a map it did look enough like a line up of spaghetti that the joke was born.

Welcome to Pemies, Doug! Thank you for the great post.

Samantha Lewis wrote: I pull out the big feathers and pluck the rest into a cloth bag or old pillow case so I can easily clean and save the small feathers.  

Are you keeping wet feathers then, and how do you get them cleaned and dry?

I also pluck by hand. My neighbor built a plucker, but it didn't work for the birds I was doing and it wasn't very adjustable.

Once when we had to do a large group of meat birds, I was loaned a plucker with a horizontal moving cylinder that I had to hold the birds against. I would work for small quantities at a time, but I found it quite hard on my back and one had to be *very* careful to hold the bird just right or it would tear the skin or rip parts off. Hubby tried one and handed the job back to me!!

Josh Hoffman wrote:This pop up tent is used for the barn and around the property. Easy up and down, durable and stakes down to do okay in the wind.

It appears from the confusing webpage, that the base is 47" by 47", suggesting my existing skid would be on the "snug" size.

However, I already have problems with my Muscovy landing on tarp covered mini-hoop shelters I use for moms with babies, and they have *sharp* claws, so the tent isn't an option.  

I'm looking for something that will last. Because of how wet we are all winter, I will have to use some metal as well as wood, but that's what I'm aiming for.

Josh Hoffman wrote: I am familiar with plucking but this looks to be worth a try.

One of my goals with our homestead is to be able to "grow healthy fat". Let's just say, I'm suspicious of a lot of store-bought fats, not to mention the cure-all "low fat diet" that substitutes more sugar than I can tolerate.

So to me, the benefit of taking the time to pluck birds when I can, is that I can harvest and render the fat in the skin which is lost when you pull the whole skin off.

So to me, it's a balance of time vs benefit. When I can spare the time, I will take the pluck approach. When I can't, I will take the easy parts.