[Monday 3.2 miles; Wednesday 3.2 miles]
No doubt you have heard of a chicken tractor. That is a kind of portable chicken coop that you can put your chickens in and move them around the yard. The bottom is open and the theory is that the chickens can peck at the ground within the confines of the tractor but be relatively safe.
We had one of those for awhile. The chickens got along ok. We had some problems with predators. But it generally worked. We got tired of moving it around so eventually it was a parked tractor and after that we gave away the whole mess.
A couple of weeks ago I bid on some surplus over in Tuscaloosa, about an hour drive away.
At the same time my wife has been encouraging me to build her a regular shed type chicken coop.
So, I bid on this surplus, really scrap metal. And they had a “reserve” price on it. But I only bid the minimum which was not enough to win. So I didn’t win. I received an email tell me I didn’t win.
Then, a day or two later I got another email telling me I did win, which was a surprise to say the least.
So we borrowed the neighbor’s trailer and we went and got our scrap.
It is the scrap body of a 1970’s era helicopter. It is all painted up in the livery of the Tuscaloosa Police.
Shorty after this all came to light in our household, I was told that it would make the basis for a great chicken coop. So now I have a new project which is to modify the helicopter into a chicken coop, a non-travelling kind. I’m going to be cutting out some partitions and panels, tearing out the rest of the wiring and whatever else bits are in there, and closing up the holes where the doors used to be.
If I am unsuccessful, the scrap man said I should be able to get about $.30 a pound for the aluminum.
It has actually proved to be handy already. I had a man come by and look at a little carpentry job I need help with. I gave him directions: told him how to get on our street and then I said, “We’re the house with the helicopter in the driveway.”