Finca 57

I came up with a name for our urban farm: Finca 57. And since the few posts I write are all about the farm or the house, I decided to move my blog. You can now find me here: http://finca57.blogspot.com/.

Finally Laying

Our five new girls took a lot longer than normal to start laying. Normally they should start laying by four months but it took more that six months for ours. I think it's because we put them in with the big ones too early so they weren't getting the chick feed, which is higher in protein so helps them mature faster.

We're still not sure about one who may still be a rooster. I haven't been able to determine if there are five distinct new eggs yet. But there hasn't been any crowing so fingers crossed.

New Colors

I recently did some barter work for a landscape plan for the front of our house. We also had a plan to paint the house at some point but we moved that up to the front because we didn't want to do the landscaping work and then come back and trample all that work. Our friends Brooke and Ian live downstairs from their landlord who recently had their house painted by Martin Klein Professional Painting. A recommendation was good enough for us so we had him come do our house.

A friend of ours had lent us book, Bungalow Colors Exteriors, that went over classic color combinations for houses of the era. Not only we did determine what kind of house ours is, a Foursquare, but we got very good ideas about how to accentuate some of the detailing. We're very happy with the end result.

Before

After

Now it's time for the landscaping. You can see the bush I removed towards the rear left and the holly that I'm slowly removing to prepare for the new layout. I'll post photos when we finish with that.

Partial Dismantling

I was at this engineering seminar last Tuesday and ran into the local representative for Simpson Strong-Tie, whom I've known for quite a number of years now. He told me that he had been looking for my contact information online and came across my blog, but not Mosswood Engineering. I knew it was my blog because he mentioned the chickens. This is the second time that a colleague has looked for Nate, the engineer, and found Nate, the chicken farmer. That inspired me to do a little house cleaning that has been in the back of my mind for awhile.

I bought my domain over ten years ago but unfortunately didn't get natewilliams.com. Natewilliams.us isn't too bad, though, considering that these days I probably couldn't get anything remotely close to my name. It may seem a bit egocentric, but this was still back in the day when you needed a website to show off your photos or write about what you were doing. It's funny to think back about all the time I spent scanning photos, reducing the file sizes, writing in HTML, when now you can do it all with a few clicks. I sound like an old man reminiscing but this was only ten years ago.

Anyway, in the beginning I loved the idea of an online presence; I thought life should be an open book...share it all. I've come to my senses since then, but I did still have remnants of those shared moments that I thought better removed than available to anyone with the correct search string. So I just went through my website and deleted a lot of pages and collections of photos. I did keep a lot pages, though, mostly related to climbing, juggling, and traveling. There are a few stories I wrote that are still worth a re-read...early blog entries I suppose, or maybe more like memoirs. There's the Search for Sylver Goode, the Snake Dike Ascent, and the Weeping Wall Ascent. They could use some editing but maybe another time. I do wish I had done the same for my El Cap ascent but that one was just too much to take in and write about while it was still fresh.

Water, Part 3: Rain, Rain, Stay Right Here

The rainy season has officially arrived and I of course waited until the last minute to put some things together that I was planning to get to all summer. But I finally completed the projects and can now add another part to the series. This part on water has to do with rainwater harvesting. I think I initially heard of rainwater harvesting in my first green building course and it immediately intrigued me but it's taken five years to do anything with it.

October of last year my father and I went out to Benicia to pick up a couple of used food barrels, which I intended to convert to rain barrels. This year I built a platform with room for three so I need to go back for another. With some parts from The Urban Farmer Store in Richmond I added valves and tubing connecting the two together and then cut off one of our downspouts and added a diverter with a built-in first flush system. With a few pieces of PVC I connected the supply pipe and I was ready to harvest some rainwater.

You can see the diverter at the cut downspout. The first flush continues down and then turns 90 degrees to daylight a ways from the house. The barrel overflow also connects into this pipe with a T fitting.

We've had a few good storms and the barrels are already filled, probably about 100 gallons. But now what do I do with the water? It's still the rainy season and will be for awhile so I don't need the water for anything outside. And herein lies the problem with harvesting rainwater in this area. When you need the water is during the dry season, but 100 gallons won't last very long during that time. So storage becomes the key element and one hundred gallons just won't cut it. We're talking about needing storage for hundreds of gallons if you were going to keep it to outside use; and if we start considering indoor use as a possibility, it gets into thousands of gallons. Indoor use isn't on the near horizon since that would involve some complex plumbing but I would like to have more storage for outside use so it's either a lot more barrels or look into some large storage tanks. I've seen some cube shaped containers used for cooking oil that hold a few hundred gallons and have a metal cage on the outside making them stackable so maybe a few of those along the side of the house.

Right now this is all a bit experimental for me but there is a potential for serious harvesting and if you can manage the storage, you could theoretically get off the water grid. At the moment the only legal indoor use for harvested rainwater is for toilets and possibly laundry. But with a metal or clay tile roof, the harvested rainwater would be safe enough to drink and could then be used for showers, sinks, dishes, etc. I don't know if I'd ever go that far but I like the idea of it.

Water, Part 2: Out Damn Water! Out!

This is the second part in a series that I hope to write about water. Earlier this year was Part 1 about supply. Not too long after that we had to deal with the other direction, water leaving the house. When running the kitchen sink faucet we started to hear a the sound of water leaking somewhere. Luckily we still had a home warranty insurance that the selling agent had given us. They sent out a plumber who found the culprit, more galvanized pipe.

I can't believe that pipe actually took that long to leak. The rusted holes must have been so clogged with junk that the water just ran right over it. The plumber replaced it with a new section of black PVC pipe and tested it with the sink faucet running. No problems.

Then a few weeks later I was crawling around in the crawl space (it's my man cave) and noticed that the cripple wall framing in that same area was very wet. As it turned out, when the plumber cut out the old pipe he must have weakened another joint that only released water when we used the upstairs bathroom. So three weeks of showers and sink use had contributed to more leaking. I called up the insurance again and got the same guy out. He replaced more sections and now we have a leak-free pipe junction.

That still leaves sections of pipe that are bound to give out in the future, like the shower drain pipe. It makes me wish we had replaced it when we had the kitchen ceiling open for the supply piping. Here's hoping it holds out for a good long while.

Chicken-centric

I recently had a client from a ways back contact me after searching for me on the internet. He was finally able to reach me at my work email address but I think he located that somewhere else. He did mention that in his search he turned up a blog that seemed chicken-centric and asked if that was me. I guess that's a sign that I need to change subjects.

I didn't have an easy way to post from home so haven't been making many entries. But now I think I may have a solution so stay tuned for more...chickens! Not really. I'll see if can come up with something a little more interesting. Like how about a quick update for those who actually check in. Veronica is in Venezuela this week visiting her grandmother who isn't doing well. She returns on Saturday and then we're going to Morocco on Tuesday for a wedding. We get back and Vero starts a new job that she's very excited about and I leave for Moab for a week of mountain biking. After that we'll be sticking around through the end of the year and beyond.

Lots of Eggs

This blog seems to have turned into a chicken blog but maybe that's what happens when you have something new and interesting. Some day this will turn into the baby blog, but not soon enough for my mother. Speaking of babies...well, actually, the chicken equivalent: eggs. First the update: Shortly after the last post Richard came up to help me build a fence for the chickens to give them another layer of protection and keep them from destroying the rest of the yard. While we were doing that, Vero searched for chickens on Craigslist and found plenty. You can find anything on Craigslist...really, anything. The first people to get back to her had a couple laying hens in Petaluma only ten months old, so she and my cousin, Gennie, went to get them while Rich and I finished the fence.

A couple hours later we had skipped the whole chick raising process and went straight to egg producing hens. Buyer beware, though...the other people were getting rid of theirs because they were too noisy. Okay, I mean how noisy could they be? Well let me tell you,  some days they make me want to go back to the rooster. At least he crowed and then waited ten minutes before doing it again. These ladies just cry and cry; I can't even describe the noise they make but it's enough to drive me crazy some mornings. But hey, we were getting eggs on a regular basis.

And then a few weeks ago Shakira, the remaining Arucauna, started laying. Check out the tiny blue egg:

Now we're up to three laying hens producing at last count over a dozen eggs in one week. Our remaining chicken, Clementina, looked like she might never lay but today she laid her first so we're about to have more eggs than two people can handle.

And Then There Were Two

If you've been keeping up with our adventures in raising chickens, I have some bad news. Starting out with five chicks, we're now down to two. Of the five, one turned out to be a rooster. Vero had predicted Pasty's gender very early on and on Memorial Day he confirmed it with a prepubescent crow, which then got louder and more frequent as he gained confidence. The neighbors we spoke with directly didn't mind it but we had heard that some others were a bit unhappy about him. So executing the plan we had in case of a rooster, I killed him and we ate him. The killing went okay but the butchering was the hard part. We had to make various cuts and pull out innards and be careful of the bile, all from a basic description in a book. In the middle I decided to look up a video on YouTube, which of course should have been the plan from the start. Just like that, a guy in the woods was on the iPhone screen showing us the whole process. The most important lesson: make sure you have a very sharp knife.

So that makes four. The remaining hens were all expected to start laying soon but Vero and I had a vacation planned. We had a friend look in on them and let them out occasionally but this past Friday we got a call from him. There had been an attack. At first it seemed that it had been raccoons because he had accidentally left the run open overnight. But as it turned out it was the neighbor's dog, which means it happened the day before during the day. Only one chicken appeared unscathed; another was missing tail feathers and had blood in the tail area but seemed okay; another was found in the carriage house with wounds and a possible broken leg; and the last was found deep in the far corner of the carriage house, dead from a head wound.

All of this was relayed to us by our friends. We had them lock up the first two and then put the third in a separate cage with food and water in case the wounds were recoverable. We arrived yesterday morning and I inspected the one in the cage. It wasn't good; she couldn't walk and the wound on her back was deep and there were worms in it. She had to be put down. While Vero went to another room, I apologized to the chicken and dislocated her neck. She was the most beautiful of the four and I think the first layer. Our friend found three blue eggs in the nesting boxes and those only come from the Araucanas. The other Araucana survived and we haven't seen any more eggs.

So goes life on the urban farm. The chicken experience seems to be a strange dichotomy; they're not quite pets but close enough that their death is a little harder to take. For now we'll let the two survivors be but will probably start the process again with new chicks soon.

Protecting the Farm

I had to share this because it was a proud moment for a father...of a cat. My cat, Ash, a Siamese, turns fifteen this year and has become very chill in his old age. He's enjoying his life as the only cat in the household and although he used to be a lot more territorial he just hasn't really cared much lately about other cats coming around the yard. Lately a white cat has been hanging around and pestering the chickens, but fortunately the rooster has stepped up and is playing his protective role.

Friday  morning as I was about to go to work I heard a little ruckus in the backyard. I assumed that the chickens were bothering Ash, which they have been doing occasionally now that they're as big as he is. But what I saw was the white cat being chased by Ash and then the most amazing thing happened: Ash full on tackled the other cat with both of them tumbling for a moment before the white cat escaped and took off across the yard. And then it got even better as not only Ash took off after it but so did Tasty, the rooster. The image of both Ash and Tasty running across the yard after that white cat is one to be remembered. I only wish I had gotten it all on tape.

I did start filming as soon as I could in hopes that something just as exciting would happen but Ash just ended up cornering the other cat, who was desperately afraid by this time. It was trying to jump straight up the fence but to no avail. I eventually grabbed Ash to get him out of the way so that I could rescue the other. It took off towards the other side of the yard, though, still trying to scale the fence but I eventually was able to grab it and toss him out through gate. I'll be surprised if it ever comes back after that experience.

It turned out that the video was a fairly entertaining glimpse into our urban farm with the cats, the rooster, BART passing by, and dogs barking. Just another morning in North Oakland.

Water, Part 1 Revisited

A few months ago I posted about having the plumbing replaced in the entire house in Water, Part 1. What they didn't replace was the section of pipe from the water meter to the house. I think they asked if I wanted that replaced and I said no to save some money. Well, last weekend it came back to haunt me. I was breaking up some concrete in the front yard and one piece wasn't coming up very easily so I yanked harder and up it came along with a copper pipe, which turned out to be the incoming line to the house.

My first inclination was to bend it back straight but I stopped myself in case it broke and I had a gusher on my hands that would have been an even worse problem. So I let it be and spent the next couple hours digging a trench from the house to the sidewalk since I figured the whole thing would need to be replaced.

I couldn't believe how close the original pipe was to the surface. I had even seen a section sticking out of the ground before but I never thought it was actually part of a pipe being used. That was a Sunday afternoon and I wasn't about to start a project that I might not finish and then be stuck without water for who knows how long. So I left the trench for a week and was able to return to it on Saturday. In the morning I got the parts at Home Depot, shut off the water, and jumped right in by cutting out the old pipe. At that point I realized I was committed and could only hope things went smoothly. But of course they didn't. The old pipe was a little soft and it was difficult to get a clean cut that I could couple to . Then when I did get a decent cut, the water was still coming out slowly and I wasn't able to heat the pipe enough to get the solder to melt. I thought I was stuck and was sure I wouldn't be able to solve it so started to track down a plumber. I called one I know to see if one of his guys could come out but nobody was available and it being a holiday weekend I had visions of being waterless until Tuesday. I thought about it for awhile and then called the same plumber back and asked if he knew what to do. He said to disconnect the pipe at the meter and the water would stop flowing. Sure enough, as soon as I disconnected it the water stopped coming out from where I was trying to attach the coupling and I was able to solder the coupling. All the other connections went smoothly and soon I had it all connected. Next came the moment of truth and I turned the water back on. No leaks! I was a little surprised and very relieved that it worked.

I filled in the trench with drain rock and then soil and now it's back to normal. I'm a little glad that nobody was available and I had to work it out on my own. It gave a nice sense of satisfaction to have a project like that turn out well.

Chile Update

I should have written this update right after the last post because it was only a few days later that I got a call informing me that MKA wasn't finding the interest they had expected in Chile. So it seemed the whole thing was being called off. But then I heard from a friend, who would also be going, that it could still happen but maybe not until June or July. So we'll see what happens.

While I was preparing for this trip, I started interviewing engineers to help keep my business here going. I didn't end up needing to find someone to fill my role but I did hire an engineer to help me with my workload. It's a big step for me and one I had been semi-resisting but now that I've made the plunge, it's a big help to have someone that can be in the office working while I'm scoping new projects or dealing with various questions and crises or just generally trying to run the business.

Coop Progress 4

I finished the chicken coop this weekend with some help from Richard. There are still a few things to be done but the girls are moved in and protected from predators. I think once it's fully complete I'll put together a little video tour.

In Other News

...that's not chicken related. It looks like I'm going to Chile. I don't think I ever wrote a blog post about it last year, but I went to Honduras for four days after an earthquake to assist with damage assessment of the levees surrounding some Chiquita banana plantations. They needed a Spanish-speaking engineer to help with interpreting but in the end I didn't do that much translating. They liked me, though, so after the earthquake in Chile the same guy called me to see if I was interested in going. It's a unique opportunity that I don't want to miss but it's a significant commitment. They don't have a good idea of how long it would last but I'm anticipating at least six months. At first I'll be going down for two weeks and then returning here for two weeks followed by possible longer stints.

At first I was thinking that I would slow my business down and maybe hire one engineer to look after things while I wasn't around. But after some good advice from an architect I work with, I decided to go in the opposite direction and hire two engineers to keep my office running at full capacity. That means that I need someone who can fill my shoes, so to speak, plus at least one more engineer. Things were slow for me for a few weeks not too long ago but now things are picking back up and there is a lot coming in. I already have the junior engineer, which is someone who was doing some work for me last year. And now I'm interviewing some more senior engineers. Fortunately my old boss at Double-D just did a round of interviews looking for an engineer and was able to send a couple qualified resumes my way.

It's a big step for me and I'm a bit nervous but I'm going to run with it and see what happens. I'll write more as it progresses.

Coop Progress 3

The coop is starting to look like a coop. I framed the walls during the week, put siding on the walls on Saturday, and framed the roof on Sunday. I also started digging the trenches for the run walls. I went to Urban Ore to get the reclaimed lumber for the siding. It looked like they were previously used as concrete forms. I picked up some 2x4s too, which I wish I had done from the beginning instead of the Home Depot ones. Now I just need to finish the other two sides, one as a big door and the other with the nesting boxes, plus the run.

The chicks are no longer chicks, rather they look like actual chickens. They were in a teenage stage for a while but now they're almost completely feathered out and growing fast.It'll still be a few months before they start laying but we're ready to move them out of the house as soon as possible.