The Great Chicken Coop Relocation

As told by my husband, who did most of the work:

Came home from work to a light rain and hooked the trailer up to the Astro Van. Backed it up to the coop and raised the coop up using the car jacks. So far so good.

Then the coop wouldn't coop-erate and go on the trailer right, but no worries, it sat on the beaver tail, and that would make it easier to offload. Besides, I only had to drive across the yard with it.

Drove down to the other driveway, where the greenhouse is, and went around it, onto the lawn. Spun tires. Spun 'em s'more. Felt the van settle down into a groove. That means its time to do something different, so I went and got the Volvo (from hell).

The Volvo (from hell) has a tow hook on the back of it, so I put a load strap around the coop, and attached it to the car. Figured I'd slide the coop off the back of the trailer, and then drag it to its final home.

The Coop slid off the trailer, did a half-gainer, and landed upside down. No damage to coop or trailer, but the bottom of the coop has no shingles, and it wasn't in the right spot, so I figgered I better flip it over and put it where it belongs.

Bear in mind the wind is blowing pretty good now and the rain is running off my ball cap so I can't see much.

In order to flip over the coop, I have to get the trailer outta the way, but its still hooked to the van, which is still stuck in the mud. The trailer is a big tandem axle flatbed, not like I can just unhook it and roll it outta there.

So with the right equipment (and cuss words) I got the van outta there, and moved the trailer about ten feet away using armstrong power. Then I got SWMBO to slip a cinderblock (CMU for the engineering crowd) under the coop while I rocked it. This made for a fulcrum that would result in an easier flip of the coop.

Pushing as hard as I could, I could get the coop to roll on to the CMU, but not flip the rest of the way back onto its feet. SWMBO came and pushed with me, and with the both of us working we managed to get it back upright, without rolling over onto the Volvo (from hell) which woulda been really bad.

With it back upright, I got into the Volvo (from hell) and dragged the coop as close to its final resting place as I dared, but it still has another 12 feet and a twist to go. If I try to drive that with the Volvo (from hell) I will end up in the creek, so I think I am waiting for the ground to get a little more solid, and then I'll use the Astro Van as a bulldozer and push the coop into place. It should slide pretty well if I get it up onto a pair of 2X4 "skis." and put a "bumper" made out of a 2"X 10" on it.

Just another day Chicken Ranching.