- Thread starter
- #331
June,
We're fine but my husband's sister's home lost the roof, one room and the garage. No one hurt in the family but it was too close for comfort. My son Andrew (and my grandson Jacob) live less than a mile from the worst of the damage and husband's parents across the highway from him. Andrew is a fire and rescue/first responder and being so close, he was one of the first on the scene. When I called to check on him he was on the scene pulling an old man from the rubble of his trailer that he was trapped in and just as he got him out, the whole trailer went up in a ball of fire from a gas leak then explosion. There were around a dozen trailers in that little trailer park and they were nothing but piles of rubble and people had to be helped out of them. When I called Andrew and heard the tone of his voice, I knew it was bad, that was around midnight. So we all loaded up with gear and headed out there to help (me, my husband and youngest son (24 yr old). In the short time it took us to get there, there were already hundreds of rescuers on site, it was incredible. We helped to walk pastures looking for people and I helped at the triage site they set up in the middle of the highway to treat injuries and get victims sent out by ambulance. We were there till about 3:30 am and there were hundreds more still there when we left to go home. They were just then getting the power lines up where they could search the other areas. I had to be at work at the hospital at 0630 and there were plenty of searchers there so we did leave. I'm on the showmeresponse team, professionals in Missouri can sign up to be available for disasters. The feed store where I get my gold and green stuff was right on the highway there, on the corner in front of the trailer park and there was hardly a stick left there, all gone. It was owned by a young Mennonite family, good people. They're considering buying my husband's parents place to start up again. They closed their convenience store/gas station when the new 4 lane hwy was finished a couple yrs ago on 65 hwy. There was a Mennonite family in a trailer just a quarter mile from the store that was blown up by the tornado and the family was scattered over 10 acres, kids all over the place in the pastures. Took a while to find them all but none of them were hurt badly, SO weird.
I am so sad for all the people affected in Indiana and Virginia and the other states hit by the tornado's. I feel so lucky. We have come so close, so many times.
As far as your chicks, chocolate is so hard to know it's chocolate until you can do test breedings. If you have a rooster and a hen that you feel are chocolate, breed them together. If they are really chocolate you will get 100% chocolate chicks, No exception. Any other outcome and you're dealing with a combination of genes that make a color that "looks" chocolate. In a lot of ways, it doesn't matter if they are true chocolate or not if they are beautiful and correct. The only issue I have is when they "look" chocolate but are not true, recessive, sex linked chocolate. That causes a lot of issues then when someone buys a chocolate and expects to be able to reproduce that chocolate color or you're trying to build a flock of chocolates for yourself. I had some that I felt certain were chocolate but I was so worried they weren't because I didn't have any proof of parentage to support my thoughts. Now, I have been able to produce chocolate based on breeding and what I am getting is correct for the way this gene works.
We're fine but my husband's sister's home lost the roof, one room and the garage. No one hurt in the family but it was too close for comfort. My son Andrew (and my grandson Jacob) live less than a mile from the worst of the damage and husband's parents across the highway from him. Andrew is a fire and rescue/first responder and being so close, he was one of the first on the scene. When I called to check on him he was on the scene pulling an old man from the rubble of his trailer that he was trapped in and just as he got him out, the whole trailer went up in a ball of fire from a gas leak then explosion. There were around a dozen trailers in that little trailer park and they were nothing but piles of rubble and people had to be helped out of them. When I called Andrew and heard the tone of his voice, I knew it was bad, that was around midnight. So we all loaded up with gear and headed out there to help (me, my husband and youngest son (24 yr old). In the short time it took us to get there, there were already hundreds of rescuers on site, it was incredible. We helped to walk pastures looking for people and I helped at the triage site they set up in the middle of the highway to treat injuries and get victims sent out by ambulance. We were there till about 3:30 am and there were hundreds more still there when we left to go home. They were just then getting the power lines up where they could search the other areas. I had to be at work at the hospital at 0630 and there were plenty of searchers there so we did leave. I'm on the showmeresponse team, professionals in Missouri can sign up to be available for disasters. The feed store where I get my gold and green stuff was right on the highway there, on the corner in front of the trailer park and there was hardly a stick left there, all gone. It was owned by a young Mennonite family, good people. They're considering buying my husband's parents place to start up again. They closed their convenience store/gas station when the new 4 lane hwy was finished a couple yrs ago on 65 hwy. There was a Mennonite family in a trailer just a quarter mile from the store that was blown up by the tornado and the family was scattered over 10 acres, kids all over the place in the pastures. Took a while to find them all but none of them were hurt badly, SO weird.
I am so sad for all the people affected in Indiana and Virginia and the other states hit by the tornado's. I feel so lucky. We have come so close, so many times.
As far as your chicks, chocolate is so hard to know it's chocolate until you can do test breedings. If you have a rooster and a hen that you feel are chocolate, breed them together. If they are really chocolate you will get 100% chocolate chicks, No exception. Any other outcome and you're dealing with a combination of genes that make a color that "looks" chocolate. In a lot of ways, it doesn't matter if they are true chocolate or not if they are beautiful and correct. The only issue I have is when they "look" chocolate but are not true, recessive, sex linked chocolate. That causes a lot of issues then when someone buys a chocolate and expects to be able to reproduce that chocolate color or you're trying to build a flock of chocolates for yourself. I had some that I felt certain were chocolate but I was so worried they weren't because I didn't have any proof of parentage to support my thoughts. Now, I have been able to produce chocolate based on breeding and what I am getting is correct for the way this gene works.
He just knows how to show off those fancy saddle and tail feathers. Gorgeous!
