Hal Schibel

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
- You must gather 12 eggs

To document completion of the BB, provide the photos or video (<2 min) of the following:
- Tell us in 1 paragraph or less about the hens/ducks/etc you are collecting the eggs from (Are they yours? A friends? How many hens?)
- A bird in the nest or nesting box
- An egg in the nest or nesting box
- A dozen eggs you have collected

Some of my chickens have started laying! They will be 6 months old in about a week. I have 26 birds, 22 of which are hens, 3 are ducks, and 1 is a rooster that I got from someone across town.

The Saggittas started laying at 4 months and I've caught some of the Plymouth Rocks laying at 5 months. I haven't caught any of the others laying yet (Americaunas, Brahmas, Columbian Wyandottes, and Bielefelders). We're at the start of November and we're getting 3-5 eggs a day. Quite a few have been double-yokers, which is exciting. At first I was finding eggs in random places on the ground and I like to think that those were each chicken's first egg and it took them by surprise.




Here is one of the Saggittas in a nesting box and you can see an egg in the box next door. This is an old cupboard I found in the barn. When I first moved the chickens out to this coop, they could almost all fit in one of these boxes and now they are huge! They also keep throwing the straw out of the boxes, so I need to figure out how to get the straw to stay in or put something down under the straw. Any suggestions?


Here's a Plymouth Rock nesting with an egg. All the straw got kicked out again.


Here is a bounty of eggs.


A dozen eggs.

So a few weeks ago one of the vertical pieces of the door broke and I had to replace it.

Through pressure testing I am learning what pieces have to withstand the most pressure and you can tell which parts these are because they are the only ones with brand new lumber.

The latch on the door has to withstand a lot of pressure and the latch I made wasn't strong enough so I cut out a notch instead of screwing on a vertical piece, if that makes sense.

You can see here the latch is bent and the vertical 2x6 on the left side of the door is split down the middle.



Here is a closeup of the latch and the weak system I started out with. The vertical piece is split and bent and does not hold up against the amount of pressure that this system requires.



Instead of screwing on a new vertical piece, I cut a notch in the horizontal piece that is already built into the side of the baler.



I installed a new 2x6 in the door and re-installed the latch.



I learned that when building with old reclaimed lumber, you do need to pay attention to where the most pressure is applied and consider getting new lumber for those components. The door has definitely caused the most problems in this project.

So my first two ended up being two inches short so I overcompensated and made another one that is about eight feet long rather than six. I made it out of wool, which was a bit difficult to weave with because it sticks to itself at times. But it looks pretty cool and it's comfortable to hold.

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
- weave a leash that is at least 3/4" wide and 2 yards long (Note: the above instructions are for a leash of 55" not the required 72")
- must have a handle
- must have a swivel snap bolt/hook or other appropriate hardware to attach the leash to a collar
- must use natural materials
- must use warp-faced weaving techniques like tablet weaving or backstrap

To document your completion of the BB, provide proof of the following as pictures or a video (less than two minutes):
- the loom and materials you're starting with
- the weaving in progress
- the finished leash - showing handle, attached hardware, and possibly a ruler or tape measure

The starting materials.




Getting started.



Weaving in progress.




Sewing.





Finished.

To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
- build a loom capable of weaving a warp-faced fabric at least 2" wide
- weave a small sample of warp-faced cloth to show the loom works

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, provide proof of the following as pics or video (less than two minutes):  
-  your materials used to make the loom
-  the process of making the loom
-  the finished loom making warp-faced cloth

After doing a bit of research, I made an inkle loom! I roughly followed this tutorial but changed a couple things because I didn't want to use glue. I struggled with the tension peg because I didn't have any ideal materials around for that and I still didn't really understand how it worked until I started weaving but I eventually made it work. The pegs stick out about 4.5 inches, so it is definitely capable of making fabric at least 2 inches wide even though I didn't make anything that wide to begin with. I loaded it up with string and had no sense of how big it was going to be and it ended up way smaller than I thought it was going to be. The moment I started weaving and discovered that I can move one half of the strings up and down to go between the strings that are being held down by the "heddles," my brain exploded. Like it finally made sense what was happening. I could not conceive of what was going on until I got to that point. Once I started I obsessively finished the strap to see how long it was going to be and I got about 4 feet in less than an hour (I didn't do any fancy patterns), which was super super fast. I always thought weaving was going to be extremely slow.


I found this 1x4. I think it's 8 ft long.


I cut it into pieces following the tutorial I found. After I started putting it together I decided to make the upright pieces longer so I could overlap pieces and screw them together instead of gluing them.


Here are the pieces laid out with the smaller uprights based on the tutorial.


Here I swapped the smaller pieces out with slightly longer ones so I didn't have to use glue. I ended up with one 3' piece, one 1.5' piece, and two 1' pieces.


Sanded the boards a bit.


Screwed together.


Drilled holes. I didn't measure these placements at all (didn't seem super important to get these exact). I struggled with the slit and wish I had made it smaller in hindsight.


I got a 5/8" dowel and cut it into a bunch of 5 inch pegs. I later realized that I didn't have a big enough drill bit to make holes that these would fit through so I had to whittle them a bit and hammer them in (which also meant no glue but at the same time the holes weren't super straight so it's a little cattywompus (is that a word?)). I sanded these by hand.


Here is the loom!


Had a bit of trial and error with the tension peg. Will eventually replace with some purchased materials to make it nicer but it works for now.


Making the shuttle. At first I tried making it out of round wood but I kept splitting it when I tried to drill the holes. I eventually found some lumber that looked like a good size and used that. I drilled 1/2 inch holes through it and then cut it right outside the holes and then whittled it into shape and sanded the heck out of it until it was how I wanted it. If you try and drill the holes on the end of a stick you will not get the hole exactly where you want it. This thing is pretty cool and I'm glad I took the time to really sand it down.




The tutorial said to make "heddles" and I was so confused until I got to the point of threading the whole thing. This weaving tutorial was invaluable.


All set up and weaving.



I got four feet out of this. It got tighter as I went, which I was not expecting. Also the extra big part of the slit for the tension knob that I thought was a messup is actually perfect for holding the shuttle.

New submission with no plastic anywhere to be found.

First one is creamy kefir gorgonzola dressing for salad, blended in a glass blender.
Ingredients: kefir, lemon juice, green onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper, white wine vinegar, gorgonzola cheese.

Second one is salsa simmered in a pot and lightly blended with an immersion blender.
Ingredients: tomatoes, chilis, garlic, red onion, red wine vinegar, paprika, coriander, cilantro.

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 mins):
  - give the recipes for each thing you are preparing
  - ingredients to make the condiments or salad dressings
  - making the condiments or salad dressings
  - finished condiments or salad dressings

Minimum requirements:
 - Green (fresh) head
 - Dry handle passes all the way through the head
 - Big enough to be useful.  At least as big and heavy as a common hammer
 - Handle that you can comfortably hold
 - No wedge
 - Made with hand tools only

To get certified for this BB, post three pics.  
 - Your chunks of wood that you are starting with (one is clearly green and the other dry)
 - Progress about half way through, with the hand tools you have decided to use for this
 - Final product held in your hand showing that your thumb and first finger can touch (any fatter than that and your hand will get very tired using it)


I pulled this very old stick out of the brush pile. It's a little wet because it just started raining but it has had plenty of time to dry and shrink. I stuck it by the fire for a bit to dry it off more. The bigger piece was from a freshly cut branch - I sawed off a chunk.


I peeled the bark off of the head. This is willow.


I found some sort of auger laying around when we moved in and I used it with a ratchet. At a certain point it was spinning but wasn't going in so I started hitting it with a mallet then turning it with the auger a couple times and then hitting it with the mallet and so on...


Complete.

Requirements for this BB:
 - Flat mounting surface
 - Round off sharp edges
 - Hand tools only

To get certified for this BB, post three pics.  
 - Your chunks of wood that you are starting with
 - Progress about half way through, with the hand tools you have decided to use for this
 - Final product

Chunks of wood. I was also gathering chunks of wood to make door handles in the barn.


Progress.





Here are the flattened mounting surfaces.


Here they are all mounted! I used my new mallet to hammer in the nails.

Thanks, Judith! Being unfamiliar to the world of weaving, I am still a bit confused about what that is but I will have to go and investigate. I knew it had to do with weaving because it had string on it and the previous owner had a giant loom and ran a craft shop out of her house. I did not find anything else having to do with weaving in the barn, although I did find some skiis and an antique scythe that looked pretty neat.

Does anyone know what this is? I found it in the barn and I'm guessing it has something to do with weaving.

Thanks all!

Update: It seems like it is starting to seal!

So after researching gleying I tried a bunch of things. I dug out the sides to make it shallower (the steep sides made it difficult to tamp and the clay I was trying to spread on kept slumping). I then covered all sides with dirty chicken brooder bedding and a bit of limestone powder (not sure if this did anything) and then covered in cardboard. I put more water in but it still kept draining pretty quickly.

Over the last few months I've been dumping the dirty chicken/duck water into the pond to get some gunk in there and this last week the water has not been disappearing. I think part of that is the colder weather reducing evaporation but the other part is the water is not percolating down into the ground nearly as fast. I also got a couple more ducks last week and they've been hanging out in there (even though I just filled up their tub with nice clean, fresh water they want to go down into the yucky half-finished pond).

I have several other ponds to experiment on as well. I have one that has a bunch of the chicken brooder bedding in it but no cardboard and another that is just a hole in the ground. I'm curious to see what they will do after the winter when that area floods and I set the ducks loose to have fun.