Heat lamp fire in chicken coop.

The chicken coop caught on fire!!  I went outside just at first light to let the sheep out of the barn when I started to smell smoke. I looked over at the chicken coop  and saw smoke pouring out of it. I ran over to the coop in my tennis shoes, dress slacks and leather coat. I did check the door to see if it was hot before opening it. If it had been hot I would have had to just call 911.  It was cool so I opened the door. My heat lamp had been knocked down and was hanging three inches above the wood pellets. A two foot area was blackened and hot.  I immediately unplugged the heat lamp.  Surprisingly, the chickens looked alive.  They were clucking and throwing a fit but the outer chicken door had not opened up yet as it was still too dark.  I left the door and ran for a bucket of water, I had not gone ten feet when I realized I had left the door open and was now feeding the fire much needed oxygen.  I went back to shut the door and there were now flames shooting out of the floor of the coop.  I shut the door and ran for the old house to retrieve a five gallon bucket, along the way I found an old metal watering can I filled also.  I used the old metal watering can to put out the fire.  I then raked all the hot coals and wood pellets outside the coop onto the ground.  Once I had those cleaned out I went and got my sawzall and cut all the burned wood out of the coop.  I then took a small axe and whacked on the wood floor to get all the hot charred wood out of the floor.  Once all that was done I soaked the area in water again.  Once I was certain it was all out I went inside and told the family of our near miss.  Sarah wanted to know why I did not get a picture of the coop with smoke coming out the door.  I told her that there is a time for photography and a time for fire fighting and they don’t always coincide.  Priorities in life are a necessity. 
I had been wanting to update my baby area but it was working for me so I didn’t really see a need.  This is a good reason to make some improvements.  The first one is going to be lining the area with concrete board.  No more fire hazards after that, and I will be screwing my heat lamp in place so it cannot be knocked down.  Funny thing is I unscrewed it two years ago, I used to have it permanently mounted on the wall so it could not fall.  I guess I should have left it that way.  I will also use some hardware cloth on inside so the little birds cannot get in and eat any of the food. 
Amazingly, no chickens were killed in the fire or from smoke inhalation.  They have started laying better!  I am getting way more eggs than I was prefire. 

Sawzall all burned material out of coop even though it was still hot.

floor of coop burned.

Outer wall of baby area.



Stovetop downdraft fan

On Thursday I had the heating guy come out and look at installing the duct work for our downdraft fan.  He wanted to look at the owners manual for the fan, but despite some desperate searching it was no where to be found.  I printed one off the internet five minutes before his arrival.  He actually read the instructions!!  The horror and determined that the four inch ventilation damper I had obtained is insufficient.  He said he would contact his suppliers.  He called the next day to say that he could not find one for vinyl siding.  So now the onus is back on me to locate the proper wall vent and call him back.  I will be searching for that tonight so I can get this project done and laid to rest before the end of the year.
The best part is I will not have to crawl under the house in the dead of winter.   A very nice thing indeed. 

Oven area needs some cupboard doors.

I had the custom cabinet guy come out on Wednesday to give us a quote on the walk in closet.  I walked him upstairs and gave him some scribble scratches on a few pieces of scrap paper.  He seemed happy.  We then proceeded downstairs where I said I need doors for the oven area.  We settled on plywood that are filled and sanded and ready for paint.  This works out well for the overall plan of repainting the cupboards.  As an added bonus he asked me if I wanted doors on the stovetop enclosure also!  I told him to throw those into the quote also!  This will catch me up on all outstanding doors except in the laundry room.  The kitchen is high visibility so I am really happy.  The quote will be here in a week.  He told me as long as I didn’t need the job done before Christmas he had plenty of time.  I told him the new year works well for us. I cannot tell you how happy this makes me.  The walk in closet is a big deal and takes a huge load off.  It will be a great way to start the new year. 

Stovetop needs some cupboard doors.

“What?  Was that a command or a suggestion?”



“I look so innocent”

We are waiting for this calm to develop in the puppy.

The puppy is a dog weed basically.  He grows and grows and grows.  He is 19.3 lbs already with no signs of slowing down.  It is amazing how quickly he is gaining weight.  It shouldn’t be since he consumes two times as much food as our adult 50+lb dog does. Luckily, he is smart so that is offsetting his puppy behavior.  He is truly annoying.  At night he wants to go outside and pee every 15 minutes.  Can you imagine how awful pausing your movie every fifteen minutes is when you have no control of the pause location.  It is crazy.  He pees every time.  I offered a suggestion to Annmarie that we not let him drink any water after dinner.  She wasn’t going for it.  He can now jump on the couch, so now we are teaching him the “off” command.  He is also starting to bark at the cats inside the house.  That is a big “NO”, he ignored Annmarie this morning until she hollered at him.  He took her serious and stopped.  They tell you to maintain your calm and control.  It is not always possible.  We are picking him up every day and carrying him around to get used to being man handled.  I want to be able to carry him or put him on his back whenever is necessary without him panicking.  He will now sit for his food and tonight he waited for a release command.  He is scary smart. 

It is the first week of December, in Eastern Oregon.

It is amazing!  It is the first week of December and the snow is gone, no more in our little neck of the woods.  We had a very warm chinook wind come off the mountains and melt all the snow off in a single day.  I went to Pendleton for errands in the morning and by the time I got back that afternoon this is what I saw.  The stupid trees better not get fooled and try and come out of their winter stupor.  It will kill even more this year than last. 

I had to rush out to the back runoff creek and move fencing.  I have cow panels hung over the runoff creek in six different places.  I had to go lift all those sections of fence out of the creek bed while it was still dry.  It is incredibly painful to do while hanging over a two foot deep raging runoff stream.  I don’t swim well and those conditions are better for a kayak than swimming.  I walked around in a long sleeve shirt only.  It was great, bad for the trees but very pleasant to be out and about.  I had an EMS call and had to run from the school house to my pickup by the house.  I thought I was going to die before I got to the truck.  I definitely need to do more aerobic exercise.  The horses and sheep are starting to go up on the green hillside and eat the grass that is now growing again. 

I cannot believe it is December, wore a long sleeve shirt and blue jeans to move fences.