Chicken Coop... The Build, Foundation

I've never done this before.  I can sit and plan for years and tinker with the concept forever and never actually build the structure.  With the looming deadline from the wife (not to mention egg delivery, incubation and the eventual hatching of chickens...in our living room), and the hole in the back yard, it's now time to make this work.

 

I ventured over to my nearest big box store to start pricing things out.  I knew that I needed to get concrete for the foundation and wood to form it.  Concrete can be purchased in a multiple of ways:  by the bag, by the truck, and individually by component.  Concrete is comprised of four basic components.  They being cement (glue), large aggregate (stones), small aggregate (sand) and water (catalyst).  Mixed together in different ratios and sometimes with admixtures (extra ingredients for slowing the chemical reactions) yield different strengths.  For a chicken coop, that's more than enough information without sidetracking to the engineering side of things. 

 

Purchasing by the bag, at the time of construction, was the most economical.  The other methods were either too costly (by the truck) or overly cumbersome (by the component) for my needs.  However, if one were to price compare, realize that by the truck method has two options.  Either, buying a minimum of 3 cubic yards from a drum mixing truck (typical concrete truck) and throwing away whatever wasn't used; or, hiring an onsite truck mixer which humorously sounds like a Willy Wonka machine.  The onsite mixer can deliver any quantity to your project, but the dis-advantage is the higher cost and a limit in cubic yard production, which honestly wouldn't be reached for a chicken coop.  Buying each component individually, combining them in the right proportions each time was just too cumbersome for a placement as large (small?) as my project.  Purchasing by the bag with all the ingredients mixed together already in the right ratio in bags that all weighed the same worked out just perfectly.

 

I was lucky enough to stumble upon a long-term sale at Home Depot for 80 pound bags of Quickcrete.  Quickcrete is a premixed bag of all the necessary components (minus water).  The sale had the bags at $2.88 each!  Normal pricing in my area is around $4 to $5 for each bag.  My Jeep can handle only so much weight so I could only purchase 10 to 11 bags at a time.  I computed the quantity of concrete needed, which at 0.60 cubic feet per bag required in excess of 50 bags.  Over the next few months, I purchased 60 bags making roughly 6 trips.  We returned the bags that we didn't use (probably should have kept them due to the affordability... oh well).

 

Next, I needed to form out the foundation for the concrete to be placed within.  I purchased about 10 sheets of OSD board and cut them to shape.  The below photo as the perimeter of the formwork installed.  I placed a width template made from a 2x3 with two OSD sourced scrap to make a hook.  The template kept the outer walls at a fixed distance while erecting. 

 

Side note, the Honda Odyssey's cabin is coincidently the perfect size to lay a full size 4'x8' sheet of plywood flat.  Just incase your looking to purchase a family vehicle and your wife doesn't consider a pickup truck as a "family" vehicle...

Due to the slope in my backyard, I also purchased six 8"x48" sono tubes (seen above).  Sono tubes are typically used as a cylindrical footing for decks or perhaps even small barns.  Dig a hole slightly larger than the sono tube with a post-hole digger to the depth required (for me, roughly 4' to 1.5' depending on location), insert the sono tube, place a couple inches of stone for drainage at the bottom, then concrete.  For my application, I wanted some additional support due to the slope of the yard.  Overkill, perhaps, better safe than sorry, right?



With the sono tubes and formwork in place, I put stone along the bottom of the form and compacted with a heavy rod.  I placed braces (they look like an upside down "L") around both perimeters.  The bracing was measured for the height of the form plus an extra foot to pound into the ground.  It was made up of 2"x3" lumber purchased with the OSD boards.  In hindsight, I should've made the bracing much stronger; concrete is heavy and the form will want to move as it is filled.  

As cost effective as it was to purchase the bags of concrete (seen under the blue tarp), renting a concrete mixer from them was a nightmare.  The tool department does not make reservations so first come first serve.  On a Saturday morning, these mixers apparently go rather quickly.  I arrived and was unable to rent the large sized mixer, instead, I was given a smaller one.  I didn't fret to much about it, I figured its better than mixing by hand.  Freshly mixed concrete has a limited time; it starts to cure as soon as it is mixed.  Within a couple hours, it sets up and becomes very hard to work with.  Having a mixer saves on the time.

 

After roughly 20 bags, the mixer died.  Not wanting to loose time, I pulled out my wheel barrow and started mixing by hand.  My wife called Home Depot's rental department and I had to relay the issue while I was mixing and pouring the next load.  The gentleman (let's call him what he was, the manager) said that there are no other mixers on reserve.  He drove out to my home and proceeded to diagnose the mixer as inoperable.  I helped him load it back onto the Home Depot rental pickup truck that he drove to our home and he proceeded to leave.  As he was leaving, he asked how long I used if for.  Despite the hardship I was about to endure, the manager felt compelled to charge me a half day's rental, instead of a full day as initially rented.... gee, thanks Mr. Manager, how kind.  I didn't finish my little pour until 12 hours after starting with the mixer. 

By night fall, I was done.  Along he way, I inserted 12 anchor bolts, troweled the exposed top level and smoothed over everything for a clean finish.  I washed up my tools, placed the wheel barrow and horses as support for the tarp, covered the concrete, showered and passed out.

The next morning...it rained.

The following week was very humid and muggy... PERFECT weather for the concrete to slowly cure to full strength.  Typically, you can wait 24 hours to remove the formwork, however, with the amount of moisture in the air, the concrete was too "green".  The form needed to stay in place until the concrete reached that pale gray color.  Besides, I had plenty of time before the flock moved in, so I waited until the following weekend to strip the forms.

 

Here are shots of the form in place just before being stripped.  In the following photo, you can see that the form did move slightly out of square due to the inadequate bracing used.  This would eventually lead to a slightly out of square coop.

 

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Chicken Coop... The Design/Breaking Ground

So it's been a few weeks now and progress has been slow.  Being a "weekend warrior" means that I only have 24 hours at most over a weekend to work on the coop design and construction.  As the weather improved slightly, the ground thawed just enough to start digging out a foundation on February 28, 2016.  My plans are not yet complete, but I knew that I needed to dig down for stability and security.

My property is on a slope, roughly 13^o. This means digging deeper on one end of the structure's base to level the foundation.  Since everything is dependent on a sound foundation, time is being spent to ensure a proper footing is in place. Once dug out, the area will be leveled and formwork will be added in preparation for concrete.  I know what you're thinking:  "Concrete?  Really? Isn't that overkill?"  My response is only that I have to make sure that the coop will be stable in strong winds and be able to keep out critters that will kill the flock.  Those critters include ones that burrow under fences.  A concrete base will help mitigate that potential.

So far, I've managed to dig down roughly two feet at the east end and one foot at the west of the coop base.  In doing so, I've come across two layers of "trash", compressed over the decades/centuries.  It's quite intriguing finding broken porcelain dishware, glass bottles of varying sizes, wrought iron components, an older version of a spark plug (I think) and yes, even a coin (1911 wheat back penny)!  We're considering getting a metal detector to find more "treasure" (as my son had called it).  We've also found discarded architectural details from our home:  a stone fireplace lintel, similarly as found in our parlor (seen here).  Another find was what I can only assume to be the daily meal of my home's former occupants.  Oysters and clam shells were found in extreme quantity throughout the trash layer with random bovine bone fragments.  My father, forever the pessimist, has kept fretting over my property being condemned for finding human remains... hasn't happened yet.
 

The coop/run design will have a footprint of roughly 12 feet by 6 feet and orientated west to east.  At the east end, an elevated coop "living" area will be built.  It will be 6 feet wide, 4 feet long and will be 2 feet above the ground.  The height of the coop will vary from roughly 4 feet to 5 feet.  The idea for it being elevated is to give the chickens a shaded area under the coop while in the run as well as making it harder for predators to gain entry into the more secure coop at night. The roof of the coop portion is still being considered.  I'm weighing the pros and cons of using asphalt versus cedar shingles.  The extra expense of cedar is just too hard to ignore, but cosmetically, more appealing.

The run potion of the design will be open on all sides not taken up by the coop to take advantage of as much fresh air as possible.  The roof will be either a clear corrugated panel system allowing sunlight to enter yet stopping rain and snow, a solid metal panel for strength or a plywood/shingled roof.

Conceptual views using Google's Sketchup CAD software (free download here):

A general list of materials being used will be ready-mix concrete bags for the foundation, embedded concrete anchors, Douglas-Fir 2x4s, pressure treated 2x6s, corrugated polycarbonate roof panels (maybe), CDX plywood sheeting, roofing nails, felt and shingles, exterior grade construction screws and washers, wood weather protectant stain, door hinges, vinyl flooring, masonry sand and pine shavings.  There are also miscellaneous wood components and hardware needed for the hatch and ramp (to be made from scrap).

Next up, the build.

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Chicken Coop... the Beginning

It's been my wife's ambition over the last few years to have a chicken coop installed in our back yard.  After the birth of our son, the idea had started to percolate.  When she was diagnosed with Lupus, our priorities changed drastically.  After her health stabilized, our second child was born.  Things have been rolling along smoothly (well, as smoothly as possible with a 3 year old and baby), when one of my wife's co-workers brought in a carton of fertilized chicken eggs from their home.  She called me VERY excited and asked, no, correction, she stated that we are getting chickens.  There wasn't any point in arguing, her voice was unapologetically happy.

So the research was restarted.  Chicken habitats, housing, feed, water, predators and winter protection were revisited.  I contacted our Town Hall's Building and Engineering Department to inquire about any issues.  I'm glad I did.  There is a permit required for having an accessory building, which a chicken coop classifies as (I suppose it's the same as a garden shed).  Regarding a location for the coop, there are no regulations limiting owning chickens in our town, so long as the accessory structure is located behind the back plane of the house, at least 10 feet away from the property line and is less than 200 square feet in size; a permit consists of $50 with a one page application (name, address, description = Chicken Coop) and a plot plan was all that was required.  

The Town Planner was excited about the prospect of chickens, yet realizing that people like to complain; the following advice was given from her experience, not due to any current regulation requirements, but just as a courtesy.

1.  Avoid getting roosters as they tended to be the main complaint that the inspectors get.

We don't want a wild cock chasing us around our own property and didn't see the need to have fertilized eggs on a regular basis, so that aspect wasn't an issue.

2.  Place the coop in the center of the property, as far from neighbors as possible.

The location, however, is an issue.  From our research, chickens need a certain amount of sun light for egg production.  There's no sense in having chickens that don't produce eggs, so consideration for sunlight overshadows (haha) the neighbors' needs/wants.

3.  Hide the coop using landscaping (bushes, trees, etc).

If there are funds left over, I don't mind beautifying our property.

We sat down and considered the sunny and shaded areas around our property as well as distance from our neighbors.  We took to forums and have found that the three main concerns with the location (after installing the coop) were long walks during the winter, flooding and utilities (water and power).  It would seem that most owners placed the coop as far as possible from the home and did not consider the need to maintain the flock year round.  Access to the coop during the winter and heavy rain is important for feeding and collecting eggs.  Also, an area in the property with a high water table can lead to flooding of the run and potentially health problems for the chickens.  Power is highly recommended for providing minimal heat to keep water liquid for the chickens during the winter and running water would be for cleaning out the coop on a regular basis.  Which, by the way, seems to be the cause for any smells from the coop.  A periodic cleaning should keep the coop comparatively smell free, thus negating the need for the coop being as far as possible from the home.  So, we chose a location that was in partial sunlight, near our rear door and has access to a powered receptacle for an extension chord as well as a water spigot for cleaning out the coop.  The location is also not in a watery area and not at a bottom of a hill.



Plot plan somewhat as submitted to Town Hall

The plot plan was approved February 17, 2016, by the Town Planner.

With the location settled, we looked into various other coop designs to find the one that best suited our needs.  We do not have a fully fenced in back yard.  As much as we would like the flock to roam freely, for their safety, we would have to keep them secured in the run. 

If you are new to this venture, the coop is where chickens sleep, roost and lay eggs.  The run is a protective enclosure for the chickens to somewhat run around in outside of the coop.  Chickens need to be protected from predators such as hawks, eagles, raccoons, foxes, etc.  There are a number of installations that help in preventing predators from harming the birds.  These range from using concrete blocks around the perimeter of the base, a poured concrete foundation, gravel and hardware cloth.

The size of the run and coop both depend upon the number of chickens that you plan on keeping and the type of chicken species as well.  I've also found that it is recommended to plan a little bigger on the coop/run just in case.  As far as the size goes, the square footage varies from one source to another; where one source will indicate ten square feet per bird and another will say that four is a general rule.  Whether or not the chickens free range is important as they'll need more or less room in the coop/run.

Looking at BackYardChickens.com, we had hoped to find detailed plans indicating "what and how much".  Unfortunately, such plans are nearly impossible to find unless you're willing to settle for a lousy shack or pay for the several advertisements available.  If we were so inclined, we could also purchase a kit and assemble it.  As easy as that would be, I'm not too keen on paying $500+ for a kit with lower quality wood.

Continuing our search for samples, we came across a couple that built an impressive coop/run combo.  The couple manage a website called steamykitchen.com.  They called their coop design the Palace Chicken Coop and they detailed the construction of it here:  The Palace Chicken Coop.  They have a link for a Google Sketchup plan (very useful) and plenty of photos showing how they built it.  My wife and I do like the appearance and the size.  However, the issues that have me somewhat concerned are Scott's justifiable disclaimer (being not an architect nor an engineer) and their location, Florida.  Reading their posting and the numerous comments that followed, I was concerned that living in Florida would have a vastly different weather cycle than living in New England, where we are.  Their foundation was also not very deep, practically at ground level, which would lead to frost heaving issues in the north.  The lack of snow in Florida also has an impact on the structural supports were it to be in our area.  This is not a negative to Jaden and Scott, the post creators, they live in an area that is completely different than our own and likewise, our coop would have to be modified to reflect that.

SteamyKitchen.com - The Palace Coop

So, using the conceptual plan from steamykitchen.com, we know which way we'd like to go for our flock.  Due to our different locales, I've tasked myself with fully designing the coop and run based on my location, taking into account the snow and wind forces that are common in New England.  I also felt sorry for my unused, old and dusty engineering manuals from college and thought, why not?

Future postings will update the design and construction phases of our Chicken Coop.

 

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Touring My Home - Possible Addition

This past month I had the pleasure of being taken on a tour of my own home by Edward Sunderland of Sunderland Period Homes.  Mr. Sunderland was showing me my home, yes, I was the tourist.  Nearly every room was visited by our tour group of two as Mr. Sunderland showcased the details of each room to his pupil.  And there were lots of details.

Before Mr. Sunderland's arrival, my wife and I were contemplating an addition, containing a garage and new kitchen with a wrap around driveway, all in the appearance of 18th century architecture.  I had received an advertisement from Sunderland Period Homes, generically, and decided to contact them for suggestions for our home.  Being a full design/build firm located in Connecticut and specializing in the restoration/recreation of colonial period homes I thought who better to give us insight.

On the Sunderland Period Homes' website, there is a video (seen here:  Collect This) hosted by MSN giving an introduction to their work.  Mr. Sunderland gives a tour of some of his client's homes.  It was at the end of the video that the twin hosts (literally) became a little cocky, joked and asked Mr. Sunderland about the costs of the homes which they toured.  The answer was between 1 and 1.5 million dollars.  After hearing that, I was fearful that this particular contractor was way out of my price range.  Let alone willing to offer free advice.  I figured it couldn't hurt to try.

I drew up a sketch of an idea (albeit, over-ambitious) and emailed it to Mr. Sunderland.  The response I received was not what I was expecting.  He personally responded and said (and I am paraphrasing) that my sketch is not historically accurate and began to dive into the why.  Basically, my Ell's conceptual window fenestration was incorrect, as was the placement of the chimney.

Rear Existing Elevation - As Is (No Addition)
Not to Scale

Proposed Side Elevation of Ell Addition
Not to Scale

It was in that same communication that he suggested a visit to our home.  Why not, I thought.  Perhaps he needed an idea for his next project and besides, I would love to pick his brain, a quid pro quo.  We scheduled for a late Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday came.  I was so excited, like a little schoolboy.  We cleaned our home as best as we could in the days prior.  The day of, I rushed home and eagerly awaited his arrival.  I hate to make this sound like I was waiting for the President to arrive (or some hot model), we rarely "show off" our home, especially to those in the "know".  He arrived exactly on time in an old Subaru that's seen a couple of construction sites.  Quite different from the image one receives of a business owner who builds million dollar homes.

With no delay, after introductions were made, we toured the James Warner House.  The first thing I noticed was Mr. Sunderland feeling my walls.  I'm not trying to be cute.  He actually felt the paneling of my dining room. Seeing the bewildered look on my face, he said he was feeling for the imperfections made by the craftsmen as they planed the surface flat.  Unfortunately, according to Mr. Sunderland, most homes have had their woodwork sanded flat in preparation for painting in recent years.  Mine, sadly, are painted an awful green.  The sanding removes the subtle groves left by the craftsmen 200 years ago, a lost character of the home.  Come to think of it, it wasn't until the previous owner that the home's interior was painted.  Imagine that, 250 +/- years of being unpainted, then one careless owner (or deranged interior decorator) paints nearly everything AND wallpapers whatever wasn't!

With glances around each room, Mr. Sunderland was able to tell me which details were original, or not.  Thankfully, we have many original details throughout our home.  One in particular which stands out is our guest room.  Though our home's records date to around the middle of the 18th century, Mr. Sunderland looked at the details in our guest room and said that it is a transitional and a "newer" room, decorated in the Federal style.  The molding around the windows combined with the mantle points to the Federal period.  Also, the firebox seems to have been modified into a Rumford fireplace.  So, although the house was built circa 1760, the guest room was later modified to the fashion of the times, perhaps closer to the 1800 to 1810 year range, in my uneducated guess.

Circa 1800 Rumford fireplace.

Rumford fireplace, at an angle showing how shallow the revolutionary design was.

Fascinating... Warning, history lesson to follow:

Benjamin Thompson, a.k.a. Count Rumford
(1753 - 1814)

Count Rumford (born Benjamin Thompson in 1753, in Woburn MA, Count of the Holy Roman Empire after his defection to England and deeds for the Bavarian court) was a loyalist during the beginnings of the American Revolution. He left the American colonies after the signing of the Declaration in 1776. Between 1796 and 1798, he published a new method of fireplace construction. It became widely popular throughout Europe and crossed the 'pond' quickly. Along with many homes, the Rumford fireplace was installed in our home during a Federalist period decorating endeavor.  The new design lessens the depth of the firebox, making it quite shallow compared to a "regular" fireplace.  The height was increased and the throat that connected the firebox to the chimney was made more narrow as well.  The sides of the box were also made less square, angling towards the center.  This made the fire in the fireplace closer to the center of the room producing more heat and less smoke with a better draft from the narrower throat.  Better fire, more heat, no smoke, who could complain about that?

From Wikipedia.com

Moving past all the little details, towards the end of our two and a half hour tour, Mr. Sunderland and I discussed the addition. He asked a basic question: "What do you want?" Our most simplistic answer:  A larger kitchen.

We discussed modifying the galley kitchen that we have now and that really ended up simply moving cabinets around.  We were still left with a galley kitchen.  As we reached the rear of our home, Mr. Sunderland entered our enclosed porch and standing in the center, did a 360.  "Here" he said, "I would place the kitchen right here." He added he would remove the ceiling, install beams over head, a few windows, enclose the walls, put in a foundation with decorative stone to match the rest of the house, new wide plank flooring, widen the doorway to the keeping room or remove the wall all together."

Pricing was not discussed.  Well, it was asked, but Mr. Sunderland was hesitant to give forth a number without researching it first.  I'll have to wait and see what he'll come up with, though I fear my piggy bank isn't large enough for the level of detail that Mr. Sunderland is capable of.

Loosing a three season porch for a new huge kitchen... we would need to weigh the pros and cons.  We do love the porch as its shady and cool during the hot summer months. Though a new kitchen designed by someone who's familiar with 18th century architecture is quite enticing.   Another negative, though quite minor, is that I would loose my work area.  That is until I build my barn/garage.

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Stone Wall.

Sometimes I get bored.  I'll start one project and become frustrated with how long it is taking to finish, switch to another and at some point in the future, return to the first project (sometimes not).  So when I started to take apart one of our retaining walls, my wife gave me a scared look.  Call it "deer-in-headlights".

My plan for this past Sunday was to take it easy, what with my squished foot.  Thinking of easy tasks, I ventured into the back yard.  On my way out, I passed one of our sad looking field stone walls.  The previous owner, by her own volition, wanted an o'natural look to everything which basically meant a lack of property maintenance.  She loved climbing ivy plants, the type that root into and damage wood and masonry.  This rear entrance retaining wall was covered in ivy, so much so, that it actually hid the collapsed section of the wall.  It was an eyesore.  So I spent the entire day "restoring" it.  My legs, back and every other muscle in my body can attest to it.  There's no "taking it easy" when working with stone.  I am an idiot.

Before:
Mound of English Ivy.  You cannot tell from this photos but there's a beautiful stone wall hidden underneath.

I tore out as much of the rooted ivy plants as I could.  In doing so, I was also removing the stones.  Those ivy plants dug in deep and with the wall a bit disheveled and leaning outward, eventually, I just tore apart then entire south end of the wall.

Rebuilding:
Bit by bit, I reorganized the pile of stones.  Finding the right stone to fit the corner, or face, is not so difficult, just heavy. Basically, the larger flat sided stones are for the face of the wall and any stone that has two flat faces next to each other make a corner.  All other stones are filler, either for leveling the larger back-breaking stones along the face or within the wall to add mass.  Stone dust is a wonderful filler to fill the voids.  It's similar to sand in that it's a fine material, however, it is more coarse and compacts nicely.  In the photos, the stone dust is the grayish colored "sand".  Luckily, it's the same material used to level the brick walkway.  A surplus amount of it was left around the area.  

Layer by layer, large flat faced stones were placed around the perimeter.  Behind the large stones, smaller pebbles and rocks were stuffed in.  Some stone dust was shoveled around the pebbles until the layer was flat (or as flat as came be).  I hand tamped the stone dust to get it compacted and repeated this process for the next layer.

After trial and error, I eventually got the stones to fit just right.  The shear weight of some of these stones made it difficult to continually place, rotate, remove, etc., especially as the wall grew in height.  Now since this wall was already established, I used the bottom most rows and my eye as a guide to keep the wall straight.  Though, if I were to start this wall from scratch, I would've used a reference line.  Two stakes with a string tied between them makes a great guide for laying the first stones.

I ran out of the free stone dust and was about eight to twelve inches short of the walkway elevation.  I used earth for the rest of the fill and it actually worked out pretty well. I threw some grass seed on top to help curb any soil erosion.

After:

A vast improvement to the Before images.  Notice that the stones are now leaning slightly in as oppose to out, making the wall more stable.

I am pleased with the outcome.  It was honestly my first attempt at a field stone wall.  We have another much larger wall that will need some repair in time.  I would also like to install a small two to three foot high wall along the front of our property.  Done correctly, it will last a lot longer than a rickety fence.  I just love the strength and appearance of a stone wall, don't you?

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Hurricane Sandy Damage.

OK, let's be honest.  We're fortunate. We don't live in NJ or near the Atlantic Ocean. We did experience strong winds but our 260 year old home withstood the winds without an issue. We never lost power nor had flooding.  The worst thing that happened was a few sections of our rear property fence fell down. Not a big deal, unlike our fellow antique home owner/blogger from the Enos Kellogg Homestead who now needs to rebuild their barn.

Like my fellow blogger, I too am now facing a rebuild.  Not a barn of course (I should be so lucky to have our original barn still present) but of our fence.  After cleaning up the fallen panels, I noticed that the vertical posts were completely rotted (read that as completely missing). Several pickets were torn off by either vandals from our backdoor "neighbors" or the neighborhood cats. It was only a matter of time before that fence needed to go.

For the rebuild, I've got many choices to choose from:

1.  Replacement in-kind (least labor involved). 

2.  Vinyl (God-forbid). 

3.  Chain-link (might as well get vinyl).

4.  Concrete liner (looks promising, see below).

5.  Original field stone (back breaking).

As with everything, pricing and labor must be evaluated and in time I'll post up our final decision. 

Yes, that's a concrete wall.  From CustomRock.com, not an endorsement, just credit.

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Groundhogs Breed Like Rabbits

Baby Groundhog Posing

Have you ever seen the cute furry overgrown hamsters in people's backyard and thought, "Aw, their so cute!"? Sure, a groundhog (also called a woodchuck) can be cute (and funny, as in the GEICO commercial from a couple years ago:  Woodchuck Chucking) until these furry critters begin treating your backyard, garden, deck, and foundation as if they were a wedge of Swiss cheese. And they breed like rabbits too! We saw one in the beginning of Spring, then by June, we had SEVEN cute furry babies and mama eating the grass and various other plantings that my wife and I were caring for.  They managed to dig at least two dens which may possibly be linked together.  The entrances of these dens are huge compared to the size of the fur balls.  One entrance was in a large patch of poison ivy. Good, I thought, though I think these things are immune to the effects of the poison as a scare tactic. The other entrance was under a loose stone retaining wall in the back yard.

Mama groundhog being watchful of the weird human taking photos of her babies

I first tried moth balls. A wives tail surely, but people did swear by it. Our groundhogs did not like them though they did not get rid of our uninvited guests. Instead, our ingenious earth dwellers simply pushed the balls out of their dens or buried them. Now our backyard smells like an older person's closet. Our next option was to get a quote for a "professional" to remove them. Speaking with the pro, it was learned that there are two ways to rid our yard, death or relocation. He described what he did for relocation, setting out 7+ traps for a day and coming back. For a fee that was per a trap set, and per an animal captured. With seven groundhogs, the price would've escalated dramatically.

There had to be a better alternative. We did not want to go around placing poison on our property nor shoot each one. Searching online found that there are "groundhog sanctuaries" in our state. Who would've thought? In fact, one is run by the Audubon Society. We got excited and my wife called up the Audubon Society in the neighboring town who quickly quenched our plans to relocate the hoard. After calling several others, we came to the conclusion that nobody wanted to truly "save" the groundhog, just birds, despite sites advertising it. My wife called Town Hall who suggested a relocation in a local park. Done, we'll take that deal. We really didn't have the heart to kill off the family and getting a quote of around $600 to remove the lot was too excessive for our budget.

For $24.57 (taxes included), we were able to rent a Havaheart trap from Ace Hardware's rental section. At $119 retail ($45 on Amazon.com), it's roughly half the online price for one week rental.  In the first couple of hours we caught THIS MAMMA:

Mama groundhog CAPTURED

A half hour later, this little guy was captured:

First of many baby groundhogs CAPTURED

So what do they like to eat?  Aside from all our plantings, romaine lettuce, sliced apples, old fruit, etc.  We used left over foods from our cooking like the previously mentioned ingredients.  In the first two days, we caught at least two a day, eventually catching six cute furry monsters (with one being the mother).  One last monster was elusive and eventually got the hint when his/her siblings kept disappearing.  The aforementioned sibling woodchucks were released two miles away at the nature preserve/walking trail park WITH permission from the town's park commissioner.

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Crab Apple Tree

We have a rather old crab apple tree that had a rustic feel to it.  The picture above shows the tree to the right of our cat, Oliver, taken in October of 2011.  The trunk is gnarled slightly with three different main branches from the roots.  It was quite nice in the beginning.

It's been several months since our damaging winter event back in October (see the post here).  When the storm hit, the weight of the wet snow combined with the leaves forced the long branches to bow.  The three main branches split creating an open cavity for rot to fester within.

A tree "expert" came by and said that in it's current split condition, the tree may survive for a few more years, but that would be it.  We had hopes.  I trimmed all the branches that were touching the ground now due to that split.  The weight loss helped the crab apple bounce back to life.

Then, after winter finished, spring was in full force.  Though the leaves did come back, the weight of the leaves began to lower the branches again.  Several strong storms later and the tree looked horrible.  Now, towards the end of spring, the crab apples have begun to grow.  Now this is really putting a strain on this once grand crab apple tree.  The trunk separated even more so.  The branches that were no longer touching the ground when I lopped off the "dead" weight are now resting on the ground.  It's come to that time to say good bye.

Here is how this tree looks as of June 2012:

The split at the base:

And the handy dandy lopper that will act as executioner...

I love having a surplus of firewood!

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