Chicken House

Window Washer Rig

At one time I had a Special Rigger License in NYC, which meant that I was in the business of hanging 2-point suspended scaffold off the side of tall buildings. Hanging either with ropes or steel cable. It is an interesting occupation.

When a building has a built-in rigging system, usually for the purpose of window washing (and glass towers need their windows washed) then it is called a 'house rig'. We recently saw this house rig in operation and thought it quite unique for the angles of the building.

To spend a day hanging on the outside of a building in NYC, particularly in good weather, can be a pleasant activity of seclusion in the heart of urban density. On a windy day it can be like sailing the skies.

The snail is a refuge from our recent basement flood.

Chicks... or, a Poet w/ Poultry

I bought chicks today. Three Ameraucana and three Barred Rock. We set them up with a box in the living room where we can tend to them until they are hardy enough for outside life.

Mudslide, our shorthair border collie is hiding under my desk. In part we bought them for him, he needs a bit of socializing, and in part we bought them for our own spirit. I had thought about getting ducks, we have not had any ducks in a real long time, not since Perry City near to Podunk, but I ended up opting for the known duties of chicken tending.

On Saturday we are going to a Long Island farm a bit east of us for a Cornell Cooperative Extension class on chicken raising as a warmer course. We hope to socialize.

Years back we had chickens, and guinea fowl. The law is that as non-farmers we can have six chickens, no roosters. We can have as many guinea hens as we want... but they fly around and make a whole lot of noise and for now we want to get along with the neighbors. We have had a rooster or such but though they are a lot of fun they make noise early in the morning and inevitable result in the chicken police showing up at the front gate.

When we had the chickens before it started with a few and then word got around our semi-suburban working-class the neighborhood  that my wife kept chickens and suddenly lost chickens were being brought to us from all around. They were not always in the best of shape and my wife took to nursing them in the garage. This put the garage in limbo for anything other than bird poop.

Eventually all of the chickens and guinea fowl got taken out by the raccoons. Then the raccoons were taken out by distemper. We don’t see raccoons now but the garage was inhabited by feral cats overwintering.

While we had the chickens we did harvest the eggs. More than that there is a family that lived up the street of two women, a couple with a brood of two boys and a girl. These are not the most intelligent people on the planet, but it is for their ilk that we especially like where we live. The children used to come around and ask if they could search the yard for eggs. They were not doing this for an Easter hunt, they were hungry. We took to calling them the Egg Children.

We feel a bit blessed that I did not break down and buy a goat. I really like goats a whole lot but we do not quite have the yard for them. My wife wants a jackass.

Faux Fireplace, Wrapper 01

Spirit of Aviation Restored -- NOLA Lakefront Airport

frm my stonemason friend Michael Davidson

we hung the 11ft big guy last week at historic city of new orleans WPA ART DECO Lakefront Airport (historic photo of Spirit of Aviation) and the party still is going /Py

1930 original by Enrique Alfarez   carver and cast stone expert
removed and feared destroyed in 1960 retro fit
recarved and poured into cast stone molds by Mississippi Stone Guild
team jaques Murphee lead carver
James Molton  mold maker
Michael Davidson  owner and beard 

Flickr: Mississippi Stone Guild's Photostream (lots of pix of neat work projects)
Welcome to the Lakefront Airport

speakertext version: For Three Days They Were Not Able to Identify a Body That Had No Arm