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Chicken coop roof trusses

Today I cut the seven rafters for the roof trusses. The coop will have an interesting “saltbox”-style roof, spanning between a 6′ wall on the back to a 8′ wall on the front, with a 10′ peak.

It may seem counterintuitive to make the trusses as the next step after the floor, but it makes sense; easier to work on them on the floor than later when the walls are in place, and I can use the floor as a template for the sizing.

You may notice that three of the left-hand (back) rafters have extra bird-mouth notches in them; those three will go on the two end walls and the center wall, for a little extra support:


The rafters will be connected together with OSB gussets… some other day.

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Building chicken coop floor

Today I built the floor of the new chicken coop.

Here I’m marking where the joists are to be attached on the two long rim joists:

Measuring corner-to-corner to check that it’s square:


The rim joists laid out:

All the joists in place:

A joist hanger:

Me carrying one of the plywood floor panels with the handy Gorilla Gripper:

Construction adhesive:

Floor in place and nailed down:

Covered against the anticipated rain:

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Building potato planters

Today I built the potato planters. My first project with the new table saw and nailer; they certainly made the job easier.

I made three planters, for three different varieties of potatoes. I basically stuck to my design, except I decided the interior pole wasn’t needed, since the boards stay in place quite well without, more so with dirt inside the box.

The loose filler boards were cut a bit longer than the sides, to make them easier to grab and remove when harvesting potatoes. I kinda like the interlocking look, too. The boards will be slotted in as the plants grow.

Now we just need to get some dirt!

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Materials exposed & organized

Today I re-stacked the materials delivered yesterday, so I can reach the various bits in the order I need them.

Footings, roofing, Lexan for windows, etc in the foreground, and the big 8x lumber pile in the background:

Lumber, plywood & OSB:

Everything:

Flooring joists in the foreground, and floor plywood exposed in the background:

Studs etc:

Trim and 1x4s:

Fence posts, siding, furring for potato planters:

Potato planter design

Sometimes I’m not too fussed with tidy lines  when drawing in the Linea app. Here, I’m using it to help visualize the frame for a potato planter box. The four sides will have removable boards added as the plants grow.

Making three of these will be my practice project to get used to the new table saw and nailer, before I start work on the new chicken coop.