Portage River Farm
Notes on our struggles and successes on our family farm in rural Michigan.
(Pinckney, Michigan)
30 Apr Thu 2009
Slow Progress On The Coop
My top priority is to get the chicken coop done. You may recall that the chickens were set up in temporary quarters in the back room of a butcher shop on a nearby farm. They are under the care of my brother-in-law, Tom. Since returning from my business trip, I have been trying to find the time to make major progress on the coop so as to not impose on Tom's hospitality for too long. Regrettably, spare time has not been very abundant and progress has been slow.
I managed to get water and electricity run to the site previously. Thus far this week I have laid out and pounded in the poles for the perimeter fencing and placed stakes marking the locations for the ten piers that will form the foundation of the coop. My next step, if it ever stops raining, will be to use the auger on my tractor to bore the holes for the piers.
I debated with myself for a long time before settling on a design for the foundation of the coop. The possibilities were constrained by two issues: 1) the organic farming requirements don't want treated wood in contact with the ground and 2) the high water table will prevent concrete pilings from curing properly. The first issue meant that I couldn't use the usual solution of putting a treated 4x4 post in a hole with a little concrete at the bottom. According to my advisers at Lowes, the second issue would cause a solid concrete piling to slowly crumble and fail. I imagine that there must be some other solution to this since they use concrete to build bridge pilings but who am I to argue.
In the end, I decided that the cheapest solution was to bore ten holes 4 feet into the sodden ground. I plan to fill those holes with brick bats and large rocks and then pour dry cement mix into the holes on top of them. I plan to top each piling with a concrete block above ground level and then build up from there. This solution will give me a relatively solid foundation that should be resistant to frost heave. It will also be cheap and help me get rid of some of the rocks and bricks that the previous owner left around in piles.
The possibility of finishing this project up any time soon seems remote. I'll just have to keep plodding along and hope that the weekend will find me pleasantly surprised at how well the coop is coming along. I doubt it but we'll see.
I managed to get water and electricity run to the site previously. Thus far this week I have laid out and pounded in the poles for the perimeter fencing and placed stakes marking the locations for the ten piers that will form the foundation of the coop. My next step, if it ever stops raining, will be to use the auger on my tractor to bore the holes for the piers.
I debated with myself for a long time before settling on a design for the foundation of the coop. The possibilities were constrained by two issues: 1) the organic farming requirements don't want treated wood in contact with the ground and 2) the high water table will prevent concrete pilings from curing properly. The first issue meant that I couldn't use the usual solution of putting a treated 4x4 post in a hole with a little concrete at the bottom. According to my advisers at Lowes, the second issue would cause a solid concrete piling to slowly crumble and fail. I imagine that there must be some other solution to this since they use concrete to build bridge pilings but who am I to argue.
In the end, I decided that the cheapest solution was to bore ten holes 4 feet into the sodden ground. I plan to fill those holes with brick bats and large rocks and then pour dry cement mix into the holes on top of them. I plan to top each piling with a concrete block above ground level and then build up from there. This solution will give me a relatively solid foundation that should be resistant to frost heave. It will also be cheap and help me get rid of some of the rocks and bricks that the previous owner left around in piles.
The possibility of finishing this project up any time soon seems remote. I'll just have to keep plodding along and hope that the weekend will find me pleasantly surprised at how well the coop is coming along. I doubt it but we'll see.
John_3
12:00 AM EDT