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The weather is still unstable and it’s no fun getting all my tools out and freeing the chicken coop from the tarpaulin protection just when the rain starts pouring down. I did manage to find a hole in the clouds and mount the roosting hatch though:

I went to the DIY shop to buy screws for the hinges but I couldn’t find any that were both short and thick so I ended up sawing the end off those I already had, with a blade from a hacksaw:

I’m sick and tired of this weather and this project standing still, but fortunately the weather forecast is looking good now. I need some clear days to be able to paint the whole thing. I still need to mount the egg hatch, the window, the chicken door and the main door in the side before painting, but hopefully the weather will be better now.

Now excuse me while I go and put on my raincoat

I came out yesterday and found more of my corn plants loosing the battle against the heavy wind we are experiencing at the moment around here. The meteorologists say it’s not unusual at this time of the year but I’m noticing the wind because it’s damaging many of my plants, especially since I was convinced that this new garden was far better shielded against the wind. I guess I have to improve the protection against the wind next year as this has been a problem for me every year.

I have tried to rescue the rest of my corn plants that are still standing with poles hammered into the ground as a support structure:

As usual, the lazy man’s way to solve trellis problems in the garden – cable binders :

A better solution would have been using old seat belt – or even better: Protection against the wind.

My bean trellis was not strong enough either, as it collapsed when the pressure from the wind increased:

It’s difficult to imagine that this was once a bean trellis but check out this post to see the original structure: Building a Better Bean Trellis

Somehow I managed to rescue the trellis and you might even be able to find some beans in the picture:

Fortunately my tomato plants are well protected against the wind because they are close to the concrete wall, but then they were hit by blight – nobody said this would be easy . I have tried to do some damage control by removing most of the affected leaves and fruits. Now there’s not much foliage left to do the work but hopefully the plants will be able to cope anyway.

They remind me of my old tomato plants in my old garden. I didn’t prune them because of blight though, but because I wanted the sun to be able to reach the tomatoes. Now I’m not sure what’s more important – foliage or direct sunlight. I just know what we all want: Tasty juicy tomatoes, blight or not.

This chicken coop window is putting my woodworking skills to the test – angles, notches and glue etc. I’m using one of the plywood sheets as a guide to make sure the window frame is in a right angle. Hopefully the plywood sheet has been cut in a right angle The protective plastic is still on the plexiglass in the picture below:

With the protection removed the plexiglass piece is able to move around inside the frame so I fixed it with masking tape, and glued the joints of the wooden frame together:

I made some marks on the plexiglass sheet to be able to place it in the middle of the frame:

Now the glue has to dry before I can mount the window in the coop. It also needs a silicone seal around the edges between the plexiglass and the wooden frame to protect against the weather.

I managed to get the egg hatch done too:

A stiffening frame has been mounted on the backside of the plywood sheet.