Tub, Assembled

This has been a long time coming.

Last Wednesday evening, the bolts I ordered for the tub feet arrived. It was too late to go out and try them out, then I had kind of a busy day Thursday. I did manage to make it out to try them out and saw this:

The t-bolts fit perfectly

They fit perfectly, like they were made to fit on this tub. That was excellent.

Foot fastening setup

I ended up adding a washer for more friction, and they went together nicely. I'm pretty happy with how well the paint job is holding up this time around, too.

Feet installed on the tub

Putting all the feet on the tub went quickly, and then it was ready to be flipped over. Except, well, the place it needs to be flipped over into isn't ready yet. So there will be a little pause there.

Soaking the peat moss

In the meantime, I realized I better get to soaking the peat moss for the bog. Peat moss comes in compressed bales with not much moisture in them, and it is hydrophobic, so it can take a long time to wet it fully. I put it in the dog pool and filled it up with water. The bale I got was a little damp which has helped get the process started. I need to make a trip to the hardware store to pick up some washed sand to mix in.

Chicken yard excitement

With that done, I did a bunch of maintenance work in the chicken yard this weekend, including changing the bedding in their coop and forking the ground to soften it up and make bug hunting easier. One of the chickens has an infection on her foot, we think from being bitten by the skunk while it was in its death throes, and I've been out there a lot this week giving her medications. She's doing much better -- she'll be on antibiotics for two weeks at least but they do seem to be helping. She's not as active as the others right now, but she was also very interested in hunting for bugs in the turned-over dirt.

posted by ayse on 05/24/21