A new look at an old project – The paperclip holder

Posted on March 17, 2023 by Sam

Hello again friends of Borouz Woodworking as well as Wolf Studios! Sorry for the lack of a post last week, I had become busy with travels so I was unable to make one.

Now that I am back however I wanted to give a little view on one of the old, old, old projects that I had worked on when I was younger that I had forgotten about.

Back when I was younger and newer to woodworking one of the old projects I had done was with making a paperclip holder using a cap of wood and base of wood with a strong magnet inside of the cap to hold some paperclips.
Paper clip holder bases

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Change is for the birds re-deux

Posted on March 13, 2023 by Marisa

I’m a little late to the party but here we go.  We had been noticing that we just were not getting the eggs like we had been.  Now there are reasons for this:

  1. Lazy.  We just were not checking the boxes everyday and in the winter they freeze and burst and the girls, well, they get hungry and everybody likes chicken.
  2. The decrease in daylight.  Production just goes down as the days get shorter.
  3. Water.  During the summer they had watering cups in the run and your normal galvanized waterer out in the bigger open run.  When freezing started we took our rain barrel and added a fish tank heater and circulation pump which runs to a pvc pipe with nipples.  This prevents the water from freezing, keeps the water moving which keeps stagnation at bay and also keeps warm water constantly moving through the entire system.   The nipples might make them feel like they just are not able to get as much water as easily and eggs are mostly water.
  4. Stress.  In the winter things get boring we all feel the blues.  Plus a few months ago a guinea hen wandered up here from parts unknown.  We put her in the flock to keep her safe and waited to see if anyone came to claim her, they did not.  I think it stressed the flock out.

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Raised Bed Greenhouse Top

Posted on March 11, 2023 by Bill
Raised Bed Greenhouse

Raised Bed Greenhouse

We would like to put up a greenhouse, but for the time being, we do not have one.  We’ve been researching crops you can plant early, and found that the brassicas are very frost and cold tolerant.  In fact, they do not like heat.

We started a flat of brassicas at the end of January, and have had to pot them up already.  They are to the point where they need to get in the ground.  With the warm winter we’ve had, we decided that rather than just potting them up again, we’d plant them in the raised bed across the driveway.  We toyed with just putting some kind of cold frame over it, but saw something similar to the one we built.

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I May Have a Problem

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Bill

Am I a hoarder?  How many pen blanks are too many?

A Lot of Pen Blanks

A Lot of Pen Blanks

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Change is for the birds part deux

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Marisa

When we built the new and improved coop I wanted features:

  1. I wanted to be able to stand up fully inside the building and in the run.
  2. I wanted to be able to collect eggs without having to go in the building.
  3. I wanted a run that had a roof so that I no longer had to walk in muck.
  4. I wanted an automated pop door.
  5. I wanted good airflow.
  6. I wanted electricity to the building but have it all run in conduit to make it rodent proof.

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You’re Always Just One Click Away

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Sam

Penn State click pen assembly diagram.

Penn State click pen assembly diagram.

Hello once more friends of Borouz Woodworking as well as friends of Wolf Studios.

I’ve recently finished up another pen for a request given to me a couple weeks ago.

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Disassembling a Pen

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Bill

If you make enough pens, eventually you may need to disassemble one.  Reasons may range from assembling wrong, to breaking something, to screwing up the blank.  Recently, Sam was making a pen, and I was helping trim the blank.  I managed to trim 3/32″ off of it.  We wondered if this would still work but the only way to tell was to assemble it.  He did, and it wouldn’t.  The pen tip stuck out about 1/8″ when fully retracted, and way too far out when extended.

We decided to disassemble it.

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Change is for the birds

Posted on February 27, 2023 by Marisa

Three big changes are happening for the chickens.

  1. We are switching from sand in the coop to coffee grounds.
  2. We are resolving the muddy slop in the run with compressed bedding pellets.
  3. We are changing their food in 3 ways.

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Repairing a Harbor Freight Ultrasonic Cleaner

Posted on February 24, 2023 by Bill

A while ago, while repairing my old Jonsered 2050 Turbo chainsaw, I bought a Central Machinery Ultrasonic Cleaner from Harbor Freight. I heard they were really good for cleaning carburetors.

Central Machinery Ultrasonic Cleaner

Central Machinery Ultrasonic Cleaner

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Measure twice, cut onc

Posted on February 23, 2023 by Sam

Hello once more friends of Borouz Woodworking for this Wednesday with Wolf Studios I wanted to touch on some of the more recent projects I’ve been working on.

Recently I’ve had some orders put in for some family members who want some custom pens. After receiving all the requests and purchasing the kits and blanks, as well as creating a couple blanks for the orders, I was finally able to start work on the project.

pen kits

Pen kits ordered from Pen State

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