Feathering Your Nest: 5 Advantages of Chicken Runs

• Considering the issues at Monsanto and other GMO companies along with growth-hormone-infused “food”, it’s no wonder people are looking at organic alternatives. The trouble with that idea is that grocery stores charge enormous amounts of money for organic foods. People know they need a better alternative, but they can’t afford it. They feel trapped and helpless. Well, we’re here to show them how they can not only afford it, but benefit from having chicken runs in their back yards.
  

  One: Nutritional Advantage

  Eggs contain every one of the nine amino acids the human body needs for its best nutrition, but are not manufactured by the body. Eggs are also high in Vitamins E and A as well as beta carotene and omega-3 fatty acids. Professional egg and chicken farms’ produce has its nutrition severely curtailed by antibiotics and growth hormones, so people are getting only about one-third of the nutrition they should be getting. Those chickens running around your back yard are giving you the Full Monty, so to speak.

  Two: Better Chickens                                      Would you be happy trapped behind walls with no fresh air and no exercise? Of course not. Neither are chickens. On professional egg and chicken farms, the fowl are not allowed to roam about and must spend hours if not always inside a box. No healthy animal can produce under those circumstances.  When you have feathered friends in the back yard, you may be very certain what goes into their feed. The chickens in your yard will contain much less fat and calories than professionally farmed chickens. Their meat will be bigger and taste better than professionally farmed fowl, too.

  Three: The Gift that Keeps Giving

  Let’s say you have a fenced back yard and can let the fowl range freely. They love to eat the bugs in gardens. When the harvest is in, chickens will chew on dead plants, seeds and bugs as they are fertilizing your garden patch for next spring. Chicken fertilizer is all natural as opposed to store-bought synthetic fertilizers. It is higher in potassium, phosphorous and nitrogen. Their scratching aerates the soil in preparation for planting in the spring. From beginning to end, you have one incredible gift wandering your back yard.

  Four: The Lesson Advantage

  Kids love animals. Imagine the lessons they will learn from watching and raising your chickens:

  
  • The feed and care of an animal teaches them how to care for themselves
  • Chickens are friendly critters, so the kids will learn social skills
  • Chickens are great in gardens, so the kids will learn how to till the earth
  • The kids will become closer to nature, a great benefit for them                                                                                                                         

  Five: The Neighborly Advantage

  Since store-bought organics are outside the price range of most people, making a deal with gardening neighbors would be of benefit to all. Offer fresh eggs or a roasting bird to neighbors in exchange for something you need in their garden. All of you will be assured of truly organic fresh food instead of questionable produce from the grocery. Everyone eats clean and healthy, which cuts down on doctor visits and the price of pills to restore the health.

  There is something to be said for getting back to nature, contact us, so we can show you how to begin.

Tips for Keeping Your Storage Shed Organized

Adding storage sheds to your property can be a wonderful way to de-clutter your home and take advantage of the space you have. However, if you're not careful, your storage shed can become the most disorganized place in your home.

According to the Message Media article, "Tips for a Tidy Shed or Garage,"

"A well-organized shed can save homeowners time and energy, as it’s easy to abandon or delay a project if you can’t find that pair of work gloves you stashed."

Most of us don't want to think about the time and money we have poured into projects that we never finished, but if you follow these suggestions for keeping your storage shed well-organized, you will find it easier to follow through on your intentions and finish your projects in one sitting.

1. Tidy Up Frequently -Ideally you should go through your storage shed once a month and put anything away that is out-of-place. By revisiting your organization on a regular basis, messes are way less likely to get out of hand. The first time you do a major organization of a cluttered storage space, you should take everything out and only put items back in the storage shed when they have a proper place.
2. Use Shelves, Hooks and Pegboards - Simple organizational tools like shelves and pegboards will help you find the things you're searching for quickly.
3. Prioritize Your Placements - Analyze what items you use the most often in your storage shed and put them in an easy to reach place near the front of the storage shed. Don't forget that you can hang items on the back of the shed doors for quick access.

If you're looking for a quality built shed that you can count on for years to come, please contact us. We would be happy to build a shed to your specifications to meet your needs.

Two Car Garages for the One Car Family

It can be hard to thin about a 2 car garage when you are a one car family, but the investment may be worth more than you think.

Adding a free-standing garage to your property can help increase the property value when you get ready to sell your family home, but even while you live there adding a two-car garage instead of a single car garage can be a good investment.

With a growing family at home and a home to care for, chances are you have a lot of stuff that needs to have a place to call its own. If you opt for a single car garage, before you know it, bicycles, the lawnmower, the snow blower and the patio furniture may well displace the car from its rightful place in the garage.

After a few months, it's easy to argue that the car was built to be outside in all kinds of weather, but the grill and lawnmower were meant for sunny days. Even if you just decide to put your tools around the edge of the garage, they'll soon make a single car garage an obstacle course for those walking to the car and for the driver trying to pull in or out.

One of the reasons many people consider getting a garage is to prevent the elements from having an impact on their vehicle. After all, no one likes hail damage.  But if you trade hail damage for scrapes from your children's toys, your garage is probably not doing its job.

Opting for a two car garage gives you extra space to store your lawn equipment, outdoor toys, sports equipment and more. And, when you decide you need a second car for your spouse or one of the children, the space is already available.

Contact us for help designing a two-car garage that offers you the storage space you need and still leaves room for the car.

Practical Considerations before Homeowners Add 2 Story Garages

Garages are usually an afterthought tacked onto a house, because they're a necessity. They don't often receive the same respect and enthusiasm the inside of the house gets. They are rather plain and boringly functional. Garages are handy for a lot of things: getting out of the car dry when it’s stormy outside, storing the lawn furniture in winter and the snow tires in summer, chucking the half-used cans of paint into a corner, storing the camping equipment, sports equipment and extra Girl Scout cookies you got stuck with after the sale ended. However, there are many homes not possessing such a great storage area. These homeowners have a couple tough choices to make, but first they need to know a few things before they think about adding 2 story garages to their homes.

How They Could Use the Garages

People see a gable or a small deck on a two story garage and think what a great place to rent to college students, singles or family members in need of digs. On the other hand, there are other just as great uses for such an apartment:

• Live in the apartment yourself while you save up to build your own home
• Use it as a vacation property if you own the land
• If you live in the snowbelt and own property in warmer climes, use the two story garage as a snowbird retreat
• Rent it out when you return home in the spring or summer
• Place your quilting frames, sewing apparatus and display cases in it
• Securely lock away your gun collection there when you’re not hunting
• Home offices, workshops, man-caves and she-sheds could use a place as well

Now that homeowners’ imaginations have been whetted, we’ll go a little farther and sketch a picture for them. Imagine a detached two story garage erected directly behind or a little kitty-cornered to the house. Now imagine a covered walkway between the garage and the house. Not only does it look a little Gone With the Wind-ish, but it will keep you dry as you leave the car for the house. Beside the house where the attached garage would have been had you chosen that option, picture an outdoor room. A stone fireplace holds a barbecue rack, while homemade bread rises on the hearth. The bar is next to it, while your choice of outdoor furniture holds friends whose mouths are drooling at the amazing aroma of the barbecue or the steaks. Next to the outdoor room, the kids, who are awaiting their burgers, are splashing in the pool.

Practical Considerations

Of course, to bring all these lovely pictures of two story garages off, homeowners will need to check with their county building offices. Permits, property restrictions and zoning rules might apply. Homeowners should also check with their Homeowners Associations to discover their rules and restrictions, too. Other things to check out include:

• Some towns and communities have height restrictions
• In historical districts, especially, there could be restrictions governing the appearance of the garage (it should look “colonial”, “southern plantation”, you get the idea)
• There is usually a rule concerning the percentage of a property covered with concrete patios, for instance, or asphalt driveways

When you contact us for more information, we can discuss designing the garage to look like the homeowners’ home or perhaps a style to complement the house. We think you’ll be impressed.

Storage Sheds Save You Money

Everywhere you look people are using storage sheds in trendy new ways. A simple Pinterest search will show you hundreds of ideas for transforming standard storage sheds into a personal oasis that will make your friends' and family's jaws drop. However, as exciting as the new uses for storage sheds can be, it's important to remember that using your shed simply for extra storage still makes a lot of sense.

A growing portion of the population is paying a fee every single month for self-storage facility rental. It starts out simply enough, a person decides that they need a little more room, just for a little while. Eventually they will take the time to go through their belongings and weed out unnecessary items so that the extra storage is no longer necessary. Inevitably the plan to pay for self-storage for a few months turns into years. When you consider that the average monthly fee for a self-storage unit is $100, (it can be much higher in popular urban areas where space is at a premium) you can easily see that it doesn't take long for a storage shed to pay for itself. 

The only reason most people don't immediately consider a personal storage shed is that they think their storage needs will be short-lived. However, if you happen to be one of the few people who really can cut down on their extra belongings and eliminate their need for storage, then you can actually join the trend-setters that are turning their storage sheds into backyard havens. 

For information on quality, Amish-constructed storage sheds that can help you eliminate your ongoing monthly storage fee, please contact us.

From a Shed to a Play House

Recently we have been going through all of the fantastic uses of Amish-made storage sheds. This week we wanted to focus on the play house. 

When it's too hot or too cold for your children to play outside, or just as a special space that is all their own, a storage shed designed to be a playhouse is a great option. With a custom-built storage shed, you can create the play space your children need to be safe from the weather and still out of the house.

Let's face it. Kids need time to be messy, create art and be loud. It's part of being a kid. But no one can blame you for not necessarily wanting that in your living room or at the dining room table. In a storage shed playhouse, you can create an art room, block building center or doll display extraordinaire.

With the option to include heating and cooling systems, you can give your children and their friends a safe and fun place to play no matter the weather and the adults can enjoy a little more peace and quiet around the house.

Your storage shed playhouse can be custom-built to any configuration that makes sense for you and designed to look like an Old West sheriff's office or a child-sized replica of your own home. In addition, with fine Amish craftsmanship we can add built-in toy bins and shelves, so that having a place to play doesn't mean leaving a mess behind.

To design the perfect storage shed playhouse for your family, contact us. We have designs to choose from or can make it completely custom designed for you.

Amish Sheds: A Mother-In-Law Apartment

Many families are finding themselves caught in the so-called Sandwich Generation, caring for their own children and their parents as well. While having your parents or in-laws nearby to create long lasting relationships with your children and so that you can be sure they are taken care of is often something we wish we could do, many of us understand the danger of living with our parents.

Sharing a single family house with your parents or in-laws can lead to family tension and stress on your own marriage as well as between you and other loved ones. Especially after the death of one parent, the surviving parent may want to live closer to his or her children and grandchildren, but not be ready to give up living independently.

That's where an Amish shed may be the perfect solution. These custom-built out buildings can be the exact right size for an apartment for loved ones. These sheds can be built to accommodate electricity and plumbing, making a comfortable small, but independent space for your loved ones.

Since the Amish sheds are delivered to your building site completed, there are no worries about construction messing up your landscaping, but you can still provide a small home for your older loved ones to maintain their independence while being nearby.

When you contact us to design the perfect building for your space and needs, we can discuss all the features you might want. From rafter storage to bay windows, your custom designed shed can add value to your property and help keep your marriage healthy and happy.