As many of you know, we had a lot of trouble with thieves and vandals in 2012, both animal rights activists and common burglars. Because of this, we’re making some serious security upgrades before getting back into the business of selling meat and eggs regularly. I’m repairing fences up front and building some new ones in the back. I’m presently working on the easternmost perimeter fence (“the back fence”). After it’s done, I’ll fix up one of the old broiler houses and move the ducks to there. This will give them a larger area with a couple small ponds to play in, and get them out of the north garden so I can start planting.
As I was putting up the fence through a section of woods, trying to decide which trees to use as fence posts, I noticed a clump of trees–or, actually, one tree with five trunks (a cottonwood, I think)–and thought it would be an ideal place for a deer stand.
Then I noticed the view from there to the trails and what will be gates, and I thought, “Hey, that’s a guard tower.”
It would be a good place to mount security cameras and maybe lights. And if it’s weather-proof enough, we could have a wi-fi repeater up there so the signal will cover more of the property. Then that got me thinking about power, and I pictured solar panels on the roof but thought they would be too shaded when the trees leaf out. But the roof could still catch rain for the ducks. And maybe, eventually, we could even add a repeater to boost the signal on the walkie-talkies.
The tree is on the outside of where I’d planned to put the fence, though. I looked around, and not only are there plenty of trees I could use to run the fence around the tower, but there are thorny little trees right on the outside of where the fence would be. And even a place for a little moat! My imagination started going from this…
…to this…
…to something more like this: 
It was at that point that I realized I was going to have to call in an expert.
In addition to being eleven years old, and therefore, a natural expert in tree houses, Noah has been to OSU’s Architecture Camp a couple of times. He also has probably several thousand hours of experience running simulators on building, defending, and attacking cities, castles, and walls. Besides that, he’s one of the heirs to the farm, so I figured he should have some say in how this thing is built.
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Speaking of expert help, I was contacted recently by a veterinary student who’s coming to Ohio to start graduate studies at OSU studying “sow lameness in group housing gestation farms.” She wants to bring her three favorite pigs–totaling over 1,100 pounds–to Columbus with her for company. She reached out to Woodland Urban Farm hoping we could board her pigs so she could see them regularly while attending school. I told her I don’t presently have facilities for hogs, but would be willing to work with her to build something. She’s as excited to teach me about raising pigs as I am to learn from her. She mentioned us maybe raising some hogs to sell, so maybe that’ll happen next year.
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Finally, an update that has nothing to do with the title. Earlier this year or sometime last year, I traded a guy a chicken for some ducks, and sold him another chicken. These were free birds someone was giving away last year when I picked up the ducks. I hadn’t finished repairing the hen run yet, so these chickens were cooped up in a barn, not scratching around outside as I’d prefer. They were various breeds of dual-purpose (ie., brown egg layer) hens and a few roosters. I was happy to make ten bucks apiece off them just so I wouldn’t have to continue feeding them.
Then he referred a friend, and the friend bought more chickens. I didn’t have enough cash on hand to make change for the amount he paid, so we worked out a deal where he got even more chickens for even less. At that point, I hardly had any left. I had six–two big, pretty Buff Orpingtons I’d have liked to have kept as broody hens, one that was probably a Golden Comet, two mixed ones I hatched myself last year, and one little, black, banty cockerel. Mayda said she wanted to keep these, so as I got call after call from people with foreign accents asking for live chickens, I just told them I was sold out.
Then a few days ago, a raccoon found a hole into the barn and dug it bigger. I found one Buff Orpington hen alive, two chickens dead, and the rest missing. (The ducks and goose were all fine, which surprised me, since the coon had to go through them to get at the chickens.) I’m not buying more chickens until my fences are up, the ducks are moved, the barn is cleaned out, and I put sand on the floor to use as bedding. At that point, I’ll order chicks, both layers and broilers, but not before. When I do sell them, it won’t be alive, as I wouldn’t make any money buying chicks, buying feed for them, and then selling them for only ten dollars. It’s worth it to me to do the extra work of processing them so I can get full price. So no, I don’t have chicken. And I don’t plan to have live chickens. Ask me again in a couple years when I have spent hens.
That said, it looks like we’ll have broilers in June and eggs this fall. I have duck eggs in the incubator right now, so with luck, there will be duck sometime this summer as well. I also have many, many tomato and pepper sprouts in the basement right now, as well as several tomatillo sprouts.
