Wisconsin "Cheeseheads" - Page 2406

Good Morning everyone and welcome Huntress78 .

Amy - I wold cook the coon, why waiste it ;) Croc pots work wonders on all kinds of meats and a some BBQ sauce :)

Vicki - We have a sand point as well , but its our house well. We have a handpump well out in the yard but I need to fix the pump part the washer disinagrated,both are only like 14 feet deep and my step-dad did the house one and the other one was already here.  We have a pretty deluxe pump though for the house thanks to my step-dad being a Union pipefitter forman.

Well hopefully today will be a cleaning day. The kid's friends are going somewhere today so  no extra kids running around. I think I may also primer the ceiling where we had a leak, it looks bad and for now we cant replace the ceiling so I guess painting it will mask it a bit. Boy the joys of living in a old trailer. I can't wait to get some money saved up so we can use DH's VA loan to get a better place. But anyway, still no white eggs found and the kids have been all over and I've been looking as well. I'm thinking they may be in our "island" its a big 50' x 20' pile of branches and down trees covered in thorns and brack berry plants. So of course there is no way I'm going in it. Oh I forgot to mention my DS of course is exploring farther on the property now and he ended up some how ticking off some hornets and got stung 5 times. All on his legs, poor kids was red all over and swollen as can be. Luckily he's not allergic like my dad. Well I guess thats about it. I hope everyone has a great day.

Ok, I have a puzzle for you knowledgeable chicken folks   Here's the background for those not following my "chicken tales".  I have 4 large "special black" hens that were in pretty rough, ok, really rough shape (lots of missing feathers, completely bare butts & heads, dry skin, no shine, badly underweight), the 1 I call Stirfry with what appeared to be severe vent gleet, when they were rescued in early May.  I was told at the time they were 18 months old.  recently (2 weeks ago?) 1  went broody so of course she has stopped laying, the hen that I call Soup and was in the best shape, by far, than the others when I got them is still laying a nice large egg almost every day, that leaves the 2 (crockpot and stirfry aka pasty butt) that were in the worst shape when I got them.  1 of them (not sure which for certain) has layed a thin-shelled egg for at least the past week (prior I would find one occasionally) and 1 of these 2 chooks is not laying at all for about the same period.  No one is showing any signs of egg bound, tummy bloating, etc with good appetites, active, nice shine, no nasty bugs, and all seem to be otherwise fine.  Any ideas why the stop laying etc.?  I have been trying to up their protein with dehydrated mealworms (til I ran out), scrambled eggs, etc. as well as free access to oyster shell of course. I also have been adding just a sprinkle of DE on top of their feed for the past few weeks. I have been adding diluted save-a-chick to their water lately because of  the heat.  We have been getting pretty hot even up here but not like you poor folks in the south!   I did switch their feed to Purina Layer crumbles from Nutrena pellets several weeks ago (with only 4 chooks it takes me several weeks to go thru a bag).  I bought a new bag of Nutrina pellets 2 days ago and plan to switch them back tomorrow because I do NOT like the crumbles!

Ok, don't think I left anything out.  Oh yeah, they have access to a run and almost every day are allowed to "play" in the larger fenced in grass yard area around the gardens for a couple hours (especially during the heat of the day).

So, any ideas why the thin-shelled egg from one and no egg from the other?  I should add that one of them was in the pattern of several days of good eggs, then a "mis-fire" aka no shell or very rubbery, then over a couple days it would improve until back to normal eggs then it would start over.

APYL~ our house well used to be a sand point but when things went really dry in our area for more then two years about 7-8 years ago we put in a drilled well and are now down about 75 feet.  My hubby used to work off and on for a well-driller in his younger days and brother-in-law owns a well drilling company which one of our sons has worked for him for many years .  Soooo, we get all our well work either done at cost (drilling) and all our pipe etc. for free  .  As for the hand pumps (yes plural) I have picked them up for super cheap over the years at barn sales.  We don't disconnect our drilled well for house water, we just plug it into the gas generator if we are out of water for too long.  Otherwise we just use the rain barrels and the shallow well.

Poor baby!  sounds like he got nailed by ground wasps.  Problem for us too in sand country.  Know too well what you mean by living in an old trailer!   We did the same (actually DH's old hunting "shack") moved into it when he was forced into early retirement until we could get our new place.  Must be another one of those flat roof ones, right?  Ours leaked like a sieve no matter what we did!  Hang in there.  Trust me, you will soooooo much more appreciate your nice home when you get it!   Just keep chanting like I did, "it's only temporary, it's only temporary" 

Huntress!! Appreciate the advice on the taxidermy. I'd already skinned it before reading your post (watched a YouTube video); did a pretty good job for my first try, if I do say so. Since I put in the work, what's the next step? It was a big male, plenty of fat on him. Coons are all pelt, it looks so puny without.

Vicki, since you've checked your birds from head to toe, they might just be taking a break. No one is molting? I'm having some pretty sporadic egg laying trends in my flock too. I have a bantam Orp that lays for a week, then takes 2-3 off. Can't figure her out. Now, I think CC will have some harsh words for that Purina feed, or was it Layena? I'm sure she'll chime in.

good AM,  one cuppa down..  I have eaten coon many times..  If you are planning on doing one, make sure you trim off ALL the fat that you can see or even imagine you see..  from there on, you par boil it and get any missed fat off..  then you are good to go..  slow cook it ..  we like to make BBQ out of it..    My Mom cooked one up once for all her neighbors to enjoy.. none of them had ever eaten coon before..  she pulled me aside and asked me how it tasted etc..  I said it was very good..  then she told me that she didn't think that one coon was going to be enough for all the people,  so she added a porcupine in with it..  the guests were never told that..

the tractor project is on hold until Friday..  then my personal mechanic is coming here to look at the project..  I cannot order an overhaul kit until after he has it all torn apart and we see if the crank has to be resized..  the bearings are available in 4 sizes..standard,, .010,,,  .020,,, .030...  

no word on the pump shaft yet..  the new fitting is a bit more bulky than the old one was.. I am very limited on "swing" room,    I might have to rework either the fitting or the tractor grill..   or both..  

I have to get a neighbor here to lift my loader off the tractor.. 

Yesterday the turkey in the roll of wire hatched out 2 poults.. we caught the babies and she flew away..  we put the babies into the temporarily empty lean to pen and she went in.. they should be a little more safe in there..  I was going to put the oversized goslings in there.. I will put them in there and see how they all get along..   I have 4 other poults in the TV.. I was going to give them to the turkey, but Annie says it won't work.. 

the lady who is coming for the puppy on Sat,.  now wants BOTH puppies..  I really wanted to keep one of them..  we want to skip the next time Nora comes into heat..  February will be the next time after that..  In the meantime Annie told me to look for a non-related male to buy..

somebody mentioned  integrating a sand point into the house well..  legally it shouldn't be done.  especially if the house well is a drilled well with a casing..  and if you have city water in the house,  do not attempt it at all..  in many places, if you had a well and they bring in city water,  the well has to be filled with concrete..   contamination is what they are concerned with..   you do not want to be found to be the contaminating source for the city water works,.

you will be fined and sued until you have nothing left,,  also if you have a well within the house, keep it a secret..  they will make you drill a new well outside and cap off the interior one..

I am picking up 40 guinea eggs from Marlene this afternoon..  then I am giving a dozen of them to Jordan,  the new poultry kid..  11 yrs old..

In one TV I have 4 poults and 3 peacocks  ,, I have 18 keets in the other TV..  all of these babies have to go outside asap.. they stink really fast after they are a couple of days old..

I have several turkeys in one pen that are  a month old,  and some even older..  I will try to add the turkeys and peachicks to that pen and see how they get along.. otherwise I have to set up the other pen with a brooder ..   Ahhhh projects,, how would we ever get along without them ??

I got rid of 5 Delaware pullets,(I hope) yesterday..  they are so hard to sex at that awkward age.

I have another woman interested in buying a small flock..  like 6 pullets and a roo..  I will try to talk her into the Barred Rocks..

bbl        jiminwisc

Amyable, are you planning on home tanning or are you going to send it to a tannery?

Still a Good Morning All! Pulling trays of semi frozen carrots out and bagging them in a few minutes. Dang it I somehow missed FT's door incident. Sounds funny already. TO I KNOW I never said I didn't process my pickles or anything else for that matter but if you don't they better be stored in the fridge! Bigz soo glad your sight is greatly improved! One of the many things we take for granted! Have company coming around 5 going to fix their weed eater hopefully and am shipping eggs, carrots, and onions with them too. Their gardens turned to crap with no water so glad they can use the extras! cs that talk of your babysittin made me think of an old girlfriend's sister who had one bird. We went to her house and stayed overnight for a John Prine concert and she would say Look Tweety is singing into the microphone! Had to suppress a giggle when I told her that the end of the tube it was "singing into" was chrome and it could see itself and thought it was another bird. Cind bet that felt so good soakin in the tub! Ham to go with the eggs? Bl4 that's funny about their favorite shows! Vic still hopin your arm improves! Give it a rest. Ya I know. Tom glad you stopped learing long enough to say hello! Amy  on #2! Never had it before but have had smoked beaver, wasn't all that impressed. Maybe not hungry enough. One of the NHR hens that I hatched from TO's eggs is officially broody. She's been in the nest box for 2 days. I started taking her out yesterday what a growly B! I set her on the floor and she bee lines it right back into the box 3 flights up. I set her on the top and hops down on the entrance bar and right in the box. Poor baby! As soon as I get these carrots taken care of I'm bringing her all the way to the picnic table. That'll make her mad! Back to work and fun. He He!

http://wausau.craigslist.org/grd/3161777236.html

Good horse for kids !!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huntress78 

Amyable, are you planning on home tanning or are you going to send it to a tannery?

I was thinking trying it here at home. Found a 'recipe', involving multiple soakings in salt/alum water, stretching it then rubbing down with neatsfoot oil. What would you recommend?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amyable 

I was thinking trying it here at home. Found a 'recipe', involving multiple soakings in salt/alum water, stretching it then rubbing down with neatsfoot oil. What would you recommend?

Your best chance of keeping the hair in would be to flesh off ALL the fat with a DULL knife and salt dry it. That way you can take some time to decide what tanning method to use. Once all the fat is off (down to the hair follicles but don't cut through them) lay the hide flat on a piece of cardboard and cover it in a quarter inch of salt...non iodized...canning salt is good or 'mixing' salt from the mill. Tomorrow knock off the wet salt and resalt...repeat till the hide is dry. If kept cool and dry and bug free the hide will last a couple months this way.