Goat Barn Tour

Here's a short video tour of the goat barn I made from pallets & reclaimed plywood. 

The goal was to give the goats a shelter to get out of the weather and use as much reclaimed materials as possible.

Enjoy!

Avocadon't!

Turns out that yummy green avocado is bad for your animals!

A friend of mine and fellow chicken farmer found this out the hard way when one of his chickens became sick. He was able to figure out that the avocado scraps given were making his bird sick because avocados are toxic to animals. 

I found an article from the Avocado.com on the subject you can view here. So beware before you feed sparky chips & guacamole!

By the way, guacamole can be literally translated to "green shit"!

A Word on Building with Pallets

If you choose, like I have, to build with pallets; there are a few things you should know. First of all, pallets are very sturdy, and usually hard to break. That's why they are used for shipping. Many times they're build out of a hardwood like oak. When you are selecting pallets for building,please consider the following:

1. Always ask for permission to take pallets from the place you are taking them from. Many times, companyies contract with other companies to come take their pallets and pay them a fee. The store basically sells their pallets back to recoup some of their costs. 
2. Never use pallets from a grocery store. Remember the e coli outbreaks? That stuff can seep into the pallets that all the tainted lettuce is on!
3. Get all of you pallets the same size. Standard pallets are 40" x 48". If you have all the same sized pallets, the chances of your project turning out square is better. If you're not building a structure, but just using them for the slats, this is still important to make sure all your slats are a uniform length. 
4. I once read that, in order to use the pallet slats, you had to cut along the side stringers and rock the piece from the center stringer to get a usable board. This works great except, now you're left with a shorter piece of re-usable lumber. I break down my pallets with my trust pry bar and big-ol-hammer. I'll do a video blog on how to break these down. It's not that hard and you get more usable lumber from the pallets. 
5. All pallets are treated for pests. Bet you didn't know that. The international export standard, ISPM 15, requires that all wood packaging material be heat-treated at a core temperature of 56 degrees Celsius for a minimum of 30 minutes or that it is fumigated to a prescribed specification with methyl bromide. This regulation eliminates the presence of pests found in wood thereby protecting crops and forests in other parts of the world. NEVER use the chemically treated pallets. Most pallets have a stamp on one of the runners (thicker pieces usually a 2x4). If the stamp reads "HT", that means "heat treated", you're cool. If it reads "MB", stay away. That stands for "methyl bromide". 

Methyl Bromide is some serious shit. If you uses the MB pallets, and you have other animals around that may chew on wood (my dog does, the goats...), they can be seriously harmed. For more info on MB read here. In my opinion, it's best just to stay away from MB treated pallets. 

Here is a stamp showing that the pallet was heat treated:

Well, there you have it; everything you didn't think you wanted to know about using pallets as a building material. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.

Chicken Coop Tour

Here is a video tour of the old chicken coops. There are currently 2 separate coops and yards sharing a common wall. I will post a tour of the new coop as well. In the new coop, both flocks will be integrated into a bigger coop & yard.

Need Some Feedback Please

Not that anybody reads my blog; but in the rare case that someone stumbles across this, I need your feedback. 

I'm thinking of incorporating videos in my blog, both instructional & informative about the events around here. Would this be a viable outlet or would you prefer to read my lame ramblings? Leave me a comment and let me know what you think please. 
Thanks, 

Eric

Hey Buddy, Can you Spare Some Change?

Life is all about change and change is good. In the past couple years, my life has changed completely. This blog will no longer be only about cycling (hence the new name). While cycling is still a passion of mine, I have acquired additional passions. Passions that are exciting, fulfilling and scary all at the same time. I hope you will join me on this journey of change.

If you were to tell me 10 years ago that I'd be living in Flagstaff on 4 acres with three kids, two cats, a dog, 3 goats, 35,000 bees, and 40+ chickens; I would have said you were nuts. But that's exactly where I am and I love it! 

No longer in the midst of suburbia where my house looked like the neighbor's whose house looked like his neighbor, and so on; I am now "in the sticks". I have added a couple more roles in my life as well. I am now a chicken farmer, goat raiser, gardener, constructor, and maintenance person. I will be writing about these topics as well as cycling and anything else that may pop into my head as I'm clearing tumbleweeds or mucking out the goat barn. 

I hope you will join me on this adventure, it's sure to be interesting!

What's in a Name?

So the title of my blog is "Life in the Bike Lane". In the past, almost all my posts were about cycling in one way or another. 

Now that I live somewhat remotely; there's so much more going on in my life other than cycling,  and much of my cycling isn't in a bike lane or even concrete for that matter; it might be time for a name change. 

Here are a few that I'm kicking around:
My Life
Life as an Urban Farmer
The Homestead

What do YOU think I should call it?