Break it down into pieces.

This afternoon, we were putting a new poop guard on the coop. Since the perches climb over our heads and above the nest boxes, we need protection from falling chicken mess as we collect eggs. I first stapled a tarp across, which sagged too much. Then, it was builder board with plastic tarp on top — this worked pretty well, it’s sturdier than the tarp, but dried manure still clings to it.

I recently realized that even though all my heroes have eggmobiles they also have plenty more land, and it doesn’t make sense to move to ours regularly on one acre. We will just rotate the net around coop during building season and keep some seriously deep bedding in the most trafficked areas. So, instead of building a fancier more mobile coop, I’m making the one we have static and upgrading it. Hence the new poop guard.

For this, I found some dinged up 4x10 aluminum sheets at Shapiro. Light, rigid, and not porous, perfect. Beth and I had a really hard time stretching a full 10' across while keeping steady enough to screw it in. We tried taping on end first then pulling, hooking a top corner, all kinds of things. In the middle of my temper tantrum Beth asked if we could cut them into smaller panels. A few more futile attempts, and I took her offer. I also accepted the fact that the coop was definitely not square, and a full 10' simply didn’t fit.

Cutting it down worked great, and even allowed us to divvy up our time nicely — as I measured and cut, she taped the far end, until I returned and screwed it down under the start of the next. Though we lost about a foot of metal with the overlappage, just enough to miss the end by a couple inches, so I have an excuse to get back to Shapiro.

What are you trying to stretch and fit, that could work better breaking down to workable sections? (Have you listened to your wife?)