With the west wall taken care of there was the matter of moving the minivan coop so it sits farther back into the area of the aviary. The whole point of dropping that hard ass tree that was behind the coop was to allow for the moving of the coop. I cut the stump down enough to allow for the coop to be moved back at least three feet. I also had to shift the van coop over to the left by about a foot and a half since it was up against the west fence, with only a foot of space. This would make trying to clean the coop from the side of the sliding door difficult if not impossible. With the aid of the tractor, the van coop was pushed back and pulled to the side enough to reestablish its position where it needs to be for the construction of the rest of the aviary walls. Now for the east fence wall. Just like on the west fence wall, I started off with attaching a board to the north fence with which to anchor the first fence panel. This time I was able to use a regular 2x4 instead of a 4x4. Unfortunately I didn't have any more PVC pipe so I had to resort to just sinking the posts the regular way with concrete. Once the first panel was hung, I was able to determine where the next couple of posts would have to go. With the position of the first post, I found that for me to be able to use the tree to the left of the Ranger Cab Coop, I would have to shift the fence line by a few degrees. While this would not be desirable in establishing a fence, I didn't really have any viable options. I drilled the next fence hole where it would put a slight angle in the fence line going up to the tree. I also had to attach a short 2x4 to the tree so I can hang the fence panel against the tree without it sitting at an awkward angle. I will need to source one more post to finish up the east fence wall, which should only require one more 8ft panel to finish things up. Once that's done, I can start sinking posts along the front wall. I have a chain link gate panel assembly that I want to use for the front door since the front wall is going to be open save for the chicken wire, all of which will allow for ventilation through the aviary. I will probably need four, maybe five more posts to cover the run of the front wall, and will need to hang 2x6 boards along the tops of the posts to start the actual roof/wall junction of this structure. Things are coming together.
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With the fences pulled down from the old chicken yard, I started mapping out where the new fence walls will go for the construction of the aviary. One of the things that I wanted to do when I started sinking the posts was to utilize some scrap PVC pipe that I would sink in the holes after drilling them out, with the intent of putting the posts into the pipes. Reason for this is so if/when the posts rot, they can be pulled out from the PVC pipes and a fresh one sunk without having to pull the concrete clod and redoing the entire thing, with a fence in place. With the first couple of posts established, I moved onto setting up the panels. I started off with a board against the north fence and tree. I used a salvaged piece of 4x4 which had a large hole drilled halfway into the board so the 4" deck screws can be drilled into the large board with enough coming out the other side to ensure proper attachment to the fence boards. At this rate I started getting panels hung up all the way to the tree on the side of the minivan coop. Since the panel that is against the tree extends out a couple feet, I was unable to sink a post to attach to the edge of the panel since the root ball would extend out from the actual tree. To fix this I drilled a hole a short way out, sunk another PVC pipe and will just have to use a couple of tie boards to attach the end of the tree panel with the end of the next panel. The post will be attached to the opposite end of the next panel so it will be like an extended fence panel. There would be one more post that needs to be sunk to terminate the fence run where the front of the aviary will be. The last fence panel was trimmed by a couple feet as it wasn't needed. I could've sunk the last post out enough to utilize the whole panel but I had my front wall established in my mind, where it would be a couple feet out from the two cab coops. I don't want to use extra material where I don't have to. With the west fence established, I will be maneuvering the minivan coop to where it will sit back more into the area of the aviary. The ramp on the front of the minivan coop will need to be able to sit at a point where its inside the aviary and still have room to walk around as well as allow the chickens to be able to walk in and out with ease. Once that is done then we will get the east side fence panel set up as much as we can with the available materials.
With the menacing trees taken care of in the chicken yard, the next order of business is dismantling the fences that make up the chicken yard walls. This was going to be necessary for a couple reasons. One, because the new aviary walls will be brought closer in to the car coops, making the square footage of the area smaller than the old chicken yard, the old chicken yard fences would be redundant. Secondly, the posts for the old chicken yard fences are starting to rot at the bases and as such, would've needed reinforcing to keep the fences standing upright. Plus, I can use these fence panels in the construction of the aviary walls later on. Some of the posts for the old fence, especially on the east side of the chicken yard, which are newer, may be salvageable, especially after breaking the concrete from around the bases of the posts, allowing me to further set up the aviary walls with what I have available. The fence panels that were made for the west wall of the chicken yard were done cheaply, using only two 2x4s for each panel versus three like the regular panels. This is fine as I can reinforce the panels with an extra board near the top for the sake of anchoring the chicken wire to later on. I had already used one of the old chicken yard gates to construct a new main gate earlier, leaving the other gate/kit available to possibly build the second main gate if that one starts warping too much in the future. The western fence is being dismantled with the panels stacked against a tree to have them ready for use in construction of the west wall of the aviary. The scrap PVC pipe and wood that was up against the old chicken yard wall will be moved, opening this whole area up for future use in any number of ways. Because all the posts were rotted along the west fence, save for two, the dismantling of the west side of the chicken yard was pretty fast. This also opened up the area, allowing me to restage the scrap wood and pvc pipe on the side of the storage shed where it's facing the chicken yard. This effectively opened up the greater area, allowing me to be able to park another vehicle in this area if I so desired. I did lay some gravel over the area to cover up the ruts where the old fence panels sunk into the soft ground earlier. With the fence completely removed all the way up to the north fence, which also opens up the gate at the north fence, I got everything staged so I can start sinking posts to set up the new walls for the aviary. Now for the east fence. This part of the job was a little more problematic due to the idea that there were old vines I had to cut up to clear out of the way, along with the well established posts that I wanted to be able to salvage. With each panel removed, we had to work the posts to loosen up the soil around the concrete clod so the post can be pulled up. Afterward I used the crowbar and baby sledgehammer to crack the concrete clod enough to break it apart from around the post. The first four panels going from the house north to the north fence were regular three 2x4 panels, nice and sturdy. Once these panels were removed and staged out of the way along with the posts, I moved on to the last four, which were made with two 2x4s. The pickets on these panels also were attached using a brad nailer, so the movements that were involved with removing the panels loosened up many pickets, causing the panels to fall apart to a degree. After looking at it, the panels that fell apart the most will probably be fully dismantled and reassembled using three 2x4's to make sturdy panels. Since we're not going all the way up to the house with the walls, I won't need as many panels as we removed from the old fence. The eastern wall of the chicken yard is no more, with the panels and posts removed, opening up all the area. The catamaran boat in the middle will need to be moved against the eastern fence with the other boats to get it out of the way so the ground in this area can be smoothed down, especially where erosion has begun under the house, as can be seen in the right side of the picture. With the east wall down, I will have to move the catamaran boat to the other side against the east fence where the other boats are staged, then also move the pallets that I had on the other side of the east wall for stacking firewood. The plan for the firewood will be to set the pallets up against the north fence, and build an awning to cover the firewood so the wood can remain dry when it rains. This will further clean up the area by putting these things out of the way against the outer fences and not in the middle of the yard as they would be if these items are left where they sit after removing the fence. Once everything is fully cleaned up, I can start drilling holes in order to sink posts to set up the walls for the new aviary. Instead of just sinking the posts in concrete as before, I'm trying to figure out some sort of way that I can put the posts in the concrete but make them removeable when they do eventually rot. Whether I use some PVC pipe sunk in the middle of the concrete to insert the posts, or wrap the posts with something like heavy plastic to serve as a sleeve so the post can still be pulled out, I want to make replacing these posts easy when they do inevitably rot away from being in the perpetually wet ground. After bringing down the large tree that was hovering over the top of the minivan coop, which was a PITA by the way, I took a moment to cut the trunk a little more. Again, this tree, which I don't know what it is, seems to be made of iron or something. The chainsaw worked overtime as did the reciprocating saw in order to cut through the wet and seemingly hardened wood. I replaced the chain once and almost immediately dulled the chain in the process of cutting the stump down enough to where I'll be able to push the minivan coop over it later. The trunk was chopped enough for me to move it out of the way so it too can be cut up later on, probably with the expenditure of more chains. With the large terminator tree finished off, I turned my attention to another tree in the yard. This tree is actually a dead tree that is pretty much just the trunk, but its dried out and probably 50ft tall, which makes bringing it down a bit of a problem. The approach I took to this tree was to raise an extension ladder to allow myself to climb up the tree a good 15ft. From there I tied a rope at about 20ft or so off the ground. The rope was routed out to the area that I want the tree to fall when its cut. I did have to tie a second rope to the first rope to allow myself the ability to pull from a safe distance against the tree trunk. I then cut into the trunk below the rope tie off point with the reciprocating saw until I was about 95% through the trunk. I went to the ground to pull on the rope, causing the tree to sway enough until it finally splintered enough to start coming down in the area I wanted it to fall. Once the tree was on the ground I commenced to chopping the trunk up into manageable logs that can be used in the stove later on. The intent was to cut the tree trunk to about 6-7ft so the remaining trunk can be used in place of a post in the middle of the area that will become the aviary later. This trunk will be plenty hefty enough to support the boards that will be hung across the area to support the chicken wire, with even the extra cutting of notches into the top with which to rest the boards as I build the roof structure. With the main trees taken care of, for the most part, I took a few moments to clean up the area of all the tree detritus, which also included burning up the huge pile of branches and other debris from the super tree. I want to get the stage set so I can start dismantling the fences that used to make up the walls of the old chicken yard area. Since new walls will be set up that are more closed in, there's no need for the old fence walls that will just be a redundant set of walls making the whole area feel even more closed in. Besides, I need fence panels to build the new walls for the aviary later and what better place to get them than from the old chicken yard fences? With the whole gate fun taken care of, I turned my attention to the chicken yard. I took a moment to do some cleanup work, moving the leftover pickets and boards from the fence that was dismantled over to the chicken yard for later use. The other gate was also moved into the chicken yard with those pickets along with the old gate/new fence panel, since this panel is still a viable fence panel. It will be used to create the walls for the new chicken yard. One of the things that I noted was with the minivan chicken coop, I would want to move it back some. Reason for this is because the ramp on that coop reaches out farther than the front of the cab coops. The front wall of the new coop setup is going to have to reach out a couple feet from the fronts of the cab coops to allow for movement around the front of those coops. As a result the minivan coop would have to go back a good way to allow the ramp to be able to have some space between it and the front wall so the birds can be able to use the ramp. There's a problem though, there's a big friggin tree right behind the minivan coop. This huge tree is the same tree the birds were using as a roosting post skyscraper for a while. To move the minivan coop back, this tree has to go. I started off by using the reciprocating saw to cut the low hanging branches that I could reach from the ground, taking time to cut the branches into small manageable pieces that can be stacked onto a burn pile where the branches are as compacted and close together as possible so there can be more material in a smaller space so when this pile is fired I can get complete consumption of all material with minimum time and labor invested. I had to climb up on the top of the minivan to cut some of the higher branches to lessen how much material was on the main branch since this branch is huge and is overshadowing a large part of the yard. after analyzing the branch and plotting cut points on the bottom of this large branch, I determined where I would need to cut in order to allow the branch to come down without any risk of hitting any of the car coops, much less the house. My plan ended being to cut into the branch until the integrity of the wood started to sway, then coerce the branch to splinter enough to get a controlled fall to the ground where the branch won't just explode and fall onto the coops. After trying to cut this branch with the chainsaw, changing the chain, and trying again, this tree is one of those trees that seems to be made of iron as the chain would not cut into this wood easily. I found that I had to continue to use the pruning blade with the reciprocating saw, slowing whittling away until I cut halfway through the branch and it started voicing its disdain towards being cut. I went to the ground to pull on a low branch and kept pulling on it until the branch finally splintered an slowly descended to the ground, still attached, but broken. It was almost perfect. With the large top of the branch now at ground level, I can now chop away at these branches bit by bit to dispose of. As I cut material away I can continue to cut into the larger portions until the whole thing has been whittled down enough that I can cut into the broken base more to finish off the branch safely. The rest of the branches should not be much of a problem that I can't just hack these branches and let them come down. The main thing is having to cut the bottom of this iron tree, at ground level, that should be fun. Either way, this tree has to come down so the minivan coop can be pushed all the way back. After making the decision to redo everything in the chicken yard, which segued into redoing one of the main gates, we now have the disassembled gate that will be getting reassembled as a longer gate, with some modifications. There are two tubes of different sizes that slide into each other to allow for an adjustment of the ends to create different lengths of gate. Since we're making a gate that's longer than what this setup allows, I'll have to use the two larger tubes and one narrower tube to create an extra long tube assembly. To do the bottom tube setup, I had to use some scrap round tubing, one of them had a smaller tube welded in the larger, which kind of recreated the same setup as with the other tubing. With this other tube setup done, I was able to get the metal frame setup assembled, so I can then move on to getting the 2x4's in place. With the 2x4's in place and the tubes secured with screws through the 2x4s and frame ends, the next move was to hang the gate frame. Since the post side of the hinges were spaced differently due to the different construction of the old panel, I had to remove one of the hinge lugs from the post and drill a new hole that was closer to the other hinge lug to allow for the hanging of the gate frame. After hanging the gate frame on one of the hinge lugs, I marked and drilled the new hole and installed the other hinge lug, allowing me to hang the gate as intended. With the gate hung, I can start attaching the pickets. As I hung the pickets, I found that at the very end, there was only enough room to install maybe a half picket. Only problem with this is the metal frame would make it a little difficult, as it would require holes to be drilled to accommodate sheet metal screws. I ended up removing half the pickets and attaching them from the other end up to the middle, leaving the narrow gap in the middle. The solution here was to attach a final picket right in the middle over the narrow gap. At least by putting this odd picket in the middle, it kind of looks like an intentional design of the gate. With the gate all done, the last things to do was install the hinges and the latches in the spots to allow them to mate with the other gate. I also installed the caster to give that added support so the gate will not slowly sag over time. This new gate is much lighter and easier to move and closes nice and flush with the other gate, no odd gaps or twisting which made the whole thing look cheap. With our gates set up as intended I can move on to other bigger and better things, namely the chicken yard. After really thinking about things, I decided to implement a new plan regarding the chicken yard. Since we got the main gates up, we pretty much turned the birds loose across the whole yard. While this is fine, the time will be coming to start planting and these assholes are all over the garden. Plus there is still the threat of air attack against the birds. The plan I have is going to be to move the fences on the west and east ends of the garden in closer to the car and cab coops then create a screened front wall along the front of the car coops, and topping everything off with large chicken wire fencing along the top, supported on a frame, creating a structure that will be part aviary and part shed/canopy. The rear section, set up along the north fence, would have corrugated sheet metal reaching out 6ft to create a covering that would allow for setting up things like bulk feeders, nest boxes and roosting posts, among other things. The vision is pretty colorful in my mind. With these plants set into motion, obviously I'll be dismantling the west chicken yard fence, including the gates. I started off with the removal of the short section of fence that connected to the house and to the gate post. The ground in this area was eroding anyway and the fence posts were already unstable so it was just as well that this fence is coming down. Another thing I thought about was the issue with the main gates. Since we used off the shelf fence panels for gates, this created the problem of one of the panels warping. Even with the support of the caster wheel and tension wire and braces, the 2x4's that make up the panel started bending unevenly, causing the panel to twist oddly, creating unsightly gaps and making the gate sag and drag and be a bear to open at times. Something had to be done about that, and this is where the old chicken yard gate comes in. The plan will be to disassemble one of the gates, using the gate kit to build a long gate to span the length of the old gate, which is around 90". There are tubes that connect the two ends to give the gate support, but these tubes won't reach the whole 90". I'll have to take three of the four tubes from this kit to make a span for the top and use some round tube from the scrap pile to do the same thing on the bottom end. At least this gate kit will be stronger and less prone to distortion unlike the unseasoned wood in the fence panel, and it will be lighter too. If all things work out I may even do the other gate panel the same way with the other gate kit left over from the chicken yard. More to come on this. After having to constantly open the main gates in order to just walk outside for any given reason, I decided that an entry door of some sort would be appropriate to allow for foot traffic so the main gate can remain untouched during all those episodes. What I did decide on was to use a part of the existing fence to construct the door. This would involve sinking another post across from a corner post where I will be making the door. From there I'll cut out the section of fence, creating an opening that will then be closed in with the constructed door, which isn't as simple as just slapping some hinges on the gate panel. The first thing I did after securing the end of the fence to the new post was take a section of 2x8 board, cut to 6ft, and secure it to the post and to the ends of the 2x4's on the fixed fence panel. This will create the backing that will hold the hinges to the door. I also took the section of fence and attached a 6ft length of 2x4 to one end. This end will be the hinged end. With the board on the panel I attached the hinges, hanging the panel in place. I added another 6ft length of 2x8 to the other side of the opening, against the corner post. This side will be the latching side for the door knob. To keep this side from swaying due to the fact that the post is weak at the base, I added a 2x4 across the top. Since the posts are topping at a little more than 6ft, there's no threat to either of us hitting our heads coming through this opening, can't say the same for anyone taller than 6ft. I ended up having to trim the fence panel turned door so I can add another 6ft length of 2x4 to the other end of the panel and be able to close the door with the latch end being flush with the door. This is to ensure the latch on the door knob catches solidly. After adding a 6ft length of 2x4 to one side of the cut fence panel piece, the panel is hung with three large hinges. Afterward, measurements were taken to trim the excess from the panel, allowing me to add another 6ft 2x4 to the other side of the panel and be able to close the door properly with minimum gap between the 2x4 and 2x8 boards. Another 2x4 is added across the top to add rigidity to the latch side of the fence as the post there is weak at the base. Now this is where the meat and potatoes comes in. I had to start fitting the door knob in this oddball location, which was never intended to accommodate a door knob. I started off with drilling a hole with a spade drill bit to accommodate the latch. From there I drilled another shallow hole in the 2x8 and attached the plate for the latch, testing that to ensure things caught solidly. Next I started fitting the door knobs, looking at what I would have to add to allow me to install the door knob assembly close to the proper way it was designed to be installed. After some fitting I found that I would have to cut and install a piece of 2x wood, cut from a salvaged piece of 2x6 This piece would have a notch cut out that will accommodate the door knob mechanism which has to rotate in the opening, while also accommodating the latch mechanism. Later on to get both sides of the door knob to meet flush with each other, I had to cut a circular hole in the picket on the outside of the door, allowing the lock end of the door knob base to be recessed into the hole. This brought the outer half of the door knob close enough to allow the inner half to meet all the way while against the cut 2x board. With some minor adjustments, I got the door knob/latch to operate smoothly while latching solidly. A piece of wood cut from a salvaged 2x6 is cut to fit the door knob assembly inside the area where the latch mechanism is located. This board will go in and out several times before the openings are cut to a satisfactory size to accommodate the door knob internals. The block is held in place with wood screws from the outside while being held with a small angle brace on the inside. With the new gate door completed, we can now move in and out smoothly, especially if we're already outside of the gate and need to go back in for something last minute. There's no need to fight the gate just to run in and grab a hat. With the door I will also be spreading gravel to create a path in front of the door going to the road, as well as creating an embankment so we don't have the dip right at the side of the road that can be wet when it rains. I can also add a light and even a doorbell camera. I will also look at relocating the package drop off crate and signs to the other side of the door, keeping things nice and close together. After trying to troubleshoot what might be going on with the Scion's apparent loss of coolant and subsequent overheating, I finally started seeing the clues that lead me to the idea that the head gasket was bad. With fresh coolant in the rad, upon starting the engine, the coolant started frothing with air bubbles, indicating a break between the combustion chambers and cooling jacket, probably small enough not to allow water to seep into the combustion chamber, but enough to allow the pressurized hot gases to blow out into the cooling system. Either way, the engine has to come apart in order to replace the head gasket. At the same time the timing chain and hardware have to come apart so I may as well replace that hardware too. First thing's first, I had to drain the fluids and start removing stuff from around the engine. With the radiator removed, the next thing I had to pull off was the serpentine belt. This had me having to go under the car to route the belt from around the power steering pump. I also had to pull the cover off the exhaust manifold to remove the nuts holding the piece on. To get one of the nuts off I had to remove the alternator. Once the exhaust was out I pulled the air cleaner box and started removing wiring, taking a moment to mark the plugs with tape showing the particular load written on the piece. We're off to a start, but with a job like this, I'm going to be taking my time, same as I did with the engine swap. I still have to remove the fuel rail and those plugs, as well as the intake manifold. I also have to pull the coils and valve cover so I can get the head bolts pulled. I got new head bolts with the gasket kit so there won't be any concern with saving or even noting the position of the old head bolts for reuse. I will have to see how to hold the engine still to pull the crank pulley as well and afterward note where all the timing cover bolts are so they can be removed to get that part off. That's one of the biggest things I hate about transverse mounted engines in FWD cars. The work will continue, slowly but surely so the chance of messing up something is lessened. With the old Ford fuel sending unit not working properly, I had to order an aftermarket unit to use on the FMT's fuel tank. Only problem is I don't want to have to cut another hole in the fuel tank, especially since the tank still has fuel inside. The only other option is to modify the old sending unit yet again to accommodate the new sending unit. Really what I'm doing is salvaging the base and somehow merging the two together. What this entailed was cutting out the old stuff, including the fuel line tubes from the base. One of the tubes will be used as the pickup tube but the other one is not needed. I ended up using a rotary tool to cut out the metal around the fuel tube and also a large hole around where the new sending unit base will be mounted to. I drilled holes around this large hole for the mounting holes on the new sending unit. I also drilled another large hole off center to accommodate the fuel tube. After getting the base hole set up for the new sending unit I had to weld a plug over the remaining hole from where the other fuel tube was. Once that was welded shut I ground down the slag to smooth things out then took the fuel tube we'll be using and clocked its output line based on where the sending unit base sat on the fuel tank. This was so when the base is secured, the output would be pointing forward and not backward or to the side too much. Once that was established I welded the fuel tube in place using the surrounding metal that I cut out with the tube as an attachment point so the welding won't damage the fuel tube itself. With the plug in and the fuel tube welded in place I was able to bolt down the new sending unit on our modified base, using small nuts and bolts that came with the sending unit. From there I took the wiring harness from the old sending unit and crimped a fork terminal and secured it to one of the mounting bolts on the new sending unit and a ring terminal on the positive side which was secured to the terminal on the sending unit. This allowed me to test out the sending unit with out multi guage cluster to see how to calibrate the gauge to the sending unit. After playing around with the gauge settings I ended up finding that the best setting that was available on the gauge was one where full reads around 63% full and 0% when the float is around the 1/3 to 1/4 full level. While this is pretty bootleg in its operation, it's kind of idiot proof. When the tank is full its going to read in that 60% ish range for a while. As the level goes down the number will go down and by the time the gauge reads 0%, letting you know its time to fill up, you can still rest easy knowing you still have about 1/3 to 1/4 tank of reserve fuel to get to the petrol station to refuel. There's really no risk of running dry when the gauge hits 0 at this point. With that taken care of, I was able to go ahead and remount the new sending unit assembly back into the tank and remount the tank so later on I can start dumping fuel into the thing and real time test the gauge as well as get the engine back up so we can start really putting this truck on the road for more extensive testing. |
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May 2023
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