Wild Hope Homestead

Ok, I think you’ve earned an update on the big backyard Demo Project by now. Yes, it’s been going more slowly than I’d like, but that’s always the way. I am very pleased with what we’ve done so far. If you’re new to these parts, the demo project is a multi-faceted re-do of the chicken coop/woodshed area. At its last mention, we had established firewood rack #1 at the new firewood site by the rubbish bins, closer to the house and away from the chickens, and had excitedly hired and put to work a stump grinder. We had also demolished the wooden garden edging in the Cedar Pen up to the chosen point and removed it into the carport.

After this, we removed the big stump at the corner of the former raised garden. I did a lot of digging around this stump. It had multiple deep roots and it was proving to be quite stubborn. Then The Husband came along with a classic ‘out-there’ method of getting it out. This involved wedging the wrecking bar right under the stump, propping up the other end on a car jack on top of a round of wood, then raising the jack (along with the wrecking bar and stubborn stump) with a hook fitted onto the cordless drill. I don’t know where he gets these ideas from, but this one definitely worked! After a couple of goes, the stubborn stump released its grip on the ground and we were victorious.

I did a lot of excavating around the stump in the corner, but it had a long reach.

The Husband’s new method of stump removal.

Next up, I moved the small kennel coop into the other pen, removed the black plastic from the brown fence and the roof of the old fort shelter in front of it and removed the wire surrounding the roof. Then The Husband demolished the old fort shelter while I dismantled the chicken coop. I set up the small coop for the chickens, giving it a thorough spray before re-filling it with bedding. The chickens are cozying up in there and I am cleaning it often until the new coop is sorted. Dismantling the coop I built under the woodshed roof was fairly straightforward, as it was all screwed together, since I knew this day would come one day. But I had to spray for red mites as I went, at least down the roost end, as there were nests of eggs behind some of the pieces of wood where the previous sprayings just couldn’t reach. Then there was wire netting to remove from both sides of the gappy brown fence, just on the most important section of fence to be removed first. And dirt is slowly moving down from the raised garden bed, either by digging or us standing and working on it or The Little Fulla sliding down it. There is another stump in there that will be coming out soon.

The demo site: taking things down bit by bit. As you can see, The Little Fulla has been doing some serious work in his excavation site.

The Husband gets heavy-handed with the old fort shelter while The Little Fulla is forced to watch from the sidelines, even though he really wants to help.

Bye bye to one structure.

“I will take down this wall if I have to do it with my bare hands!”

A ‘before’ photo from the garage side door. The chicken coop I built is under the roof on the right.

The view just keeps changing. Where did the coop go…?

The chicken coop is gone! Now the chickens have to cozy up in the small coop until the bigger, better one gets done.

So much has been done, but so much still to do. The wire netting has been taken down from both sides of the brown fence now.

As the dirt level comes down, we can see that the fence is actually in really bad condition down there. All this was covered by dirt before. It would only have been a matter of time before this fence started imploding, so it’s just as well we’re doing all this. Same goes for the woodshed.

This is not a happy fence.

With all these bits and pieces done, this leaves moving all the firewood out of the old, rickety woodshed. We have put up firewood rack #2 and partially covered it with our favourite temporary solution: black plastic. I have a love-hate relationship with the black plastic. Why we have so much of it I cannot even remember. When the woodshed gets demolished we might be able to re-use some of its roofing for the wood racks.

Hello firewood rack #2! This one is longer than the first.

There is a lot of wood in this woodshed. So many wheelbarrow trips.

Stacking the firewood in its new home, smaller pieces at the top and bigger pieces at the bottom.

As of tonight, I have moved the entire wood collection of one woodshed bay onto the new wood racks. One down, one to go. Once all the wood has been moved we can begin demolishing the woodshed and the section of fence that it’s attached to. That will be exciting. I can’t wait to get stuck into that. Meanwhile, the new coop will be landing very soon! It will need assembling, but that’s not going to happen until the site is ready. And so, we truck on…