Had a bit of a crisis happen today. With Father's Day being celebrated at my house this Sunday, today was the day to move the chicken coop off the patio so I could clean up for the festivities. My brother and father were on hand to help. We first painstakingly raised the coop up onto 4 bricks per corner in order to lag in my brother's 4x4 with pneumatic tires attached. This of course took multiple trips across town to my folks place and to our neighborhood True Value.
All was well after a re-inflation of one tire and we were in the process of lowering it down onto the wheels when disaster struck.
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Timber!
Thankfully no one was hurt. I was the closest to being under it as I was on the far right removing bricks when it tipped. I stupidly tried to hold it up with my left side and failed. Also thankfully, the only major damage was to what we call the toad stool, which is the concrete seat that got smashed. It's ok though as we didn't like it anyway. Now we just have to figure out how to get the rest out of there. I'm hoping the roof made it ok, it's tough to tell if it racked or not. Oh, and the toad stool did tear a chunk out of my trellis 2x4 that we'd screwed into the floor joists to give something to lift as we drive it to the final resting place.
Anyway, I'm not really sure why it went. I figure it was several reasons rolled into one perfect storm. Let's see if I can name them all... The bottom right tire is over too far toward the middle, the front roof is much longer than the back and thus heavier, the pavement is sloping that way, and the jack may have been not perfectly on center when I was raising the coop off the bricks. Any or all of those things could have caused it. Safe to say it doesn't matter though, it happened. And now we have to fix it in a hurry so we can have Father's Day out there. Heck, I still haven't taken the cover off the BBQ to see if it's ok or not. Man, there's too much to do.
So, at 10:00 AM tomorrow morning as many big guys as I could arrange will be descending into my backyard to lift it back into place. Oh, and if you happen to be in the area and want to help, there is the promise of eggs come Fall in return.
About the only good thing to come out of it is that I got to install the Trex pieces to the bottom boards from the bottom and not the top. Not that it matters much, but it's done.
Wish us luck tomorrow as I've got to get this thing off my patio and hopefully the girls into their coop. Sheesh!
All was well after a re-inflation of one tire and we were in the process of lowering it down onto the wheels when disaster struck.
Timber!
Thankfully no one was hurt. I was the closest to being under it as I was on the far right removing bricks when it tipped. I stupidly tried to hold it up with my left side and failed. Also thankfully, the only major damage was to what we call the toad stool, which is the concrete seat that got smashed. It's ok though as we didn't like it anyway. Now we just have to figure out how to get the rest out of there. I'm hoping the roof made it ok, it's tough to tell if it racked or not. Oh, and the toad stool did tear a chunk out of my trellis 2x4 that we'd screwed into the floor joists to give something to lift as we drive it to the final resting place.
Anyway, I'm not really sure why it went. I figure it was several reasons rolled into one perfect storm. Let's see if I can name them all... The bottom right tire is over too far toward the middle, the front roof is much longer than the back and thus heavier, the pavement is sloping that way, and the jack may have been not perfectly on center when I was raising the coop off the bricks. Any or all of those things could have caused it. Safe to say it doesn't matter though, it happened. And now we have to fix it in a hurry so we can have Father's Day out there. Heck, I still haven't taken the cover off the BBQ to see if it's ok or not. Man, there's too much to do.
So, at 10:00 AM tomorrow morning as many big guys as I could arrange will be descending into my backyard to lift it back into place. Oh, and if you happen to be in the area and want to help, there is the promise of eggs come Fall in return.
About the only good thing to come out of it is that I got to install the Trex pieces to the bottom boards from the bottom and not the top. Not that it matters much, but it's done.
Wish us luck tomorrow as I've got to get this thing off my patio and hopefully the girls into their coop. Sheesh!
I am glad no one was hurt and the structure came out of it relatively unscathed. Hopefully you will get it righted and relocated successfully without further mishap.
ReplyDeleteOh, dear :-O
ReplyDeleteNoooooooo!! So glad nobody was hurt. Hope it's safely in place and you and your hens are both relaxing and enjoying your weekend by now!
ReplyDeleteMan, that sucks. You should try moving it to its location on its side so it doesn't fall over again.
ReplyDeleteWow, I guess that was just a durability test. It looks like (from reading your other post) it withstood the test.
ReplyDelete