The Front Porch Swing

[Beekissed]

You are home, brother!

Right here on the front porch! Are you getting this snow storm? It's pouring it here in a blizzard and mounting up quickly, a very powdery snow...I bet the skiers are really loving this stuff.

The good news is that it warmed up for all this snow, so it doesn't take your breath away to go feed and bring in firewood. My flock are utilizing the deep litter in their coop to stave off boredom and I throw them a couple of large apples a day to help with that. They have tossed the bedding so much in all these days of cold that it is very dry, which is a good thing and better than the last cold snap that happened right after heavy rains and the bedding was moist, so it froze.

I gave them some extra feed filled with BOSS to keep them busy too...I know on days like today that I like to huddle down with good food and ride out the storm.

I hope everyone out there is staying off the roads, holing up in a warm place and being careful when they go outdoors to feed and water.

 

[TexasLisa]

Good Morning Everyone!

Well, I hate to tell you this but the sun is shining here (finally) and it is 48 degrees. Might get to do some work outdoor before the cold spell hits again next week.

Bee, that rooster of mine (Angel Eyes) is too smart for his own good. I have two roosters and he is the dominant one. He and I don't see eye- to-eye. I have been doing what you told me to do. I carry a stick with me and I make sure he gives me a wide circle. This morning I go to clean out the coop and to fluff up the shavings. He and the girls were on the other side of the coop. There is a fence separating us. I had the coop to myself and my back to the door. That smart alec walked from the other side of the coop, through the smithy, and around the fence to attack me from behind. I did not hear him come in. I heard/felt wings flapping and was thinking, 'Molly is flying up on my shoulder'. It wasn't Molly, it was ....evil music playing......Angel Eyes!!!

Here I am in my pink pjs (with bunny rabbits on them) and chasing him all over the yard. It was a good thing I didn't catch him. I know what dinner would have been. I have neighbors too....sigh.....

My DH says there should be a show called "Are you smarter than a chicken?"

Lisa

 

[Beekissed]

Here's an experiment I tried a couple of days ago. Back story: I have an outside cat that's a little wild but can be handled and petted a bit. He's young and in the past couple of months I noticed he was going farther afield. He is an intact male so it's likely he is traveling to find a female. Well, on his travels he got into a tangle with an older intact male that lives in these parts that comes here hunting him to pick a fight. Twice he tangled with him and in this last battle he came away pretty banged up.

He had a cut over one eye that healed pretty quickly and he's crippled up in one hip, with a large open gash there. It's been exposed and the meat showing for over a month now...just not seeming to heal like cats normally do. No drainage or anything...just that big hole and he limps pretty badly and has lost muscle tone in his hips. He doesn't let me touch it or look at it much, so I've been unable to treat this spot...and cats lick off anything you do to an area anyway, so it's hard to put any kind of ointment on such things. He's been licking this place pretty steadily but it just doesn't seem to heal over.

I made him a soft, warm bed on the back porch and have been feeding him the occasional warm tuna/chicken broth meal to try and help him get supplemental meat in his diet now that he can't hunt effectively. This last warm bowl of food, I figured it couldn't hurt to try and dab on some castor oil on that wound. It's an antibacterial, antifungal and antimicrobial and it also has properties for soothing pain and inflammation. It's very tacky and hard to wash off even when using hot water and soap, so the worst that could happen is that he lick it and drive the CO deeper into the wound and maybe have himself a good bowel movement in the process.

When I touched it, I could feel the wound for the first time and I think what redness I am seeing is the underside of a flap of skin that has wrinkled up and has died...really needs removed as it smells like it's rotten. I knew he wouldn't tolerate me touching it to clean it or remove that skin flap, so I just dabbed on a thick amount of CO while he ate. He didn't move away so I did it again. That was two days ago.

Today he is walking better...I kid you not! He is putting more weight on that leg and walking faster. I caught a glimpse of that wound and it's smaller! I can tell he's been licking it but the redness is going and I think that skin flap may be missing...I can't see it there anymore. I petted him and barely ran my fingers over it while he was eating and smelled my fingers..no coppery, rotten smell and that bumpy place where the skin flap was seems to be gone.

I've also been experimenting with the castor oil on some of my more arthritic joints and it's working! Within minutes.

Mark three up for castor oil....first it helped my gimpy old rooster's leg and my older hens' swollen ankles/feet~while also taking care of scale mites, then the cat, and now me. I'm liking this stuff!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Oregon checking in and requesting something very lemony with sticky glaze, please!

 

[TexasLisa]

Oregon checking in and requesting something very lemony with sticky glaze, please!

Welcome from Texas! How is the weather in your neck of the woods?

That lemony dessert with a sticky glaze sounds scrumptious!

Lisa

 

[SelfMadeFarming]

Ugg, it's snowing here again in PA

I usually don't mind, but the wind and cold temps are making it unbearable to be outside.

No eggs yesterday or today yet, I keep going to the coop every 2 hrs, to check for eggs. So that I can get them quick before they freeze...
But I'm just making a fool of myself getting all bundled up and heading out for zilch

 

[IAFarmGirl]

Iowa here checking in.

Surprisingly we currently have blue skies and the sun is shining!

Of course it is the calm before the storm because we are supposed to get hit with blizzard conditions tonite and tomorrow with the attendant cold temps....again.

The wind is picking up a little but not too bad right now and the temps are mild at around 25. But we are supposed to have a high of -2 and winds 25 to 30 mph on Monday. I sure hope and pray this is the last of the polar vortex's for the year.

On the plus side I am getting 8 to 9 eggs per day from 9 hens with this crazy weather and all.

And one of my turkey hens started laying this week...do you suppose it is a sign of an early return for spring?

DH is currently bringing in wood for the week so we don't have to dig it out of the snow. We do have propane heat but the price of that here has gotten ridiculous! No one can afford to pay $4.79 a gallon for heating so the wood stove is going full bore! I thank God everyday for all the trees he saw fit to put on our property and they need thinned so it works out really well.

Stay warm everyone!

 

[Beekissed]

With permission from LJ, I've posted a wonderful story about her animals and her place, which I love to hear and see!

We have a 3/4 sized Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster that was brought here because he was harassing the dog and boy at his previous home. He is completely entertaining, very feisty but usually not at all effective with it, so is a mascot for us. He "helps" Gust play fetch by chasing Gust while Gust chases the frisbee. Gust ignores him most of the time, but occasionally will pin him to the ground with a paw. He often helps us catch escapee hens by mating with them. We've named the rooster Tonka. And because he is so feisty he has not been integrated into the General Population but instead free-ranges on the back side of the coop and sleeps in the "Naughty Cage."

We have a few habitual escapee hens that Tonka has adopted into his harem. He has two EEs -- Cheeks (as seen in my avatar photo) and Violet -- a Golden Sexlink named Eclectic, and a California White we call "Flighty Whitey." He used to have a Black Australorp, we named Lovey as she was SO determined to be with Tonka, but she was more trusting than the others and got loved to death by the Rouen drake (

... I'd gone to a huge effort to make an enclosure for the ducks, but "someone" kept letting them out despite my very loud protests, and that "someone" refused to believe me it was a problem until we lost Lovey).

A few weeks ago Violet, who has always been independent, started sleeping in the now-empty cockerel coop. We have taken the doors off that coop, and though the roost is up nice and high I worry about her staying out all night.

About a month ago one of the younger mutt hatchlings let herself out of the General Population enclosure and has been grazing the front side of the coop, outside the kitchen window. I'm no good at chasing chickens, and Dad keeps telling me he & the guys have put her back in, but every morning she is out and about at first light and works those leaves all day long. Every day Tonka makes the treck to the front side of the coop to try to woo her into his harem, and every day Tonka goes back home without her. I've been rooting for Tonka because I'd feel a lot better if the new girl had a secure place to sleep and someone to look out for her.

Here is Tonka during one of his recent courtship visits. It was a foggy day. The photo was taken from the kitchen deck.



(We shall pose a moment here to reflect upon how beneficial all those leaves would be if they were shifted into the coop or run, but as we ourselves are not built for that type of manual labor we will have to move on from this thought.)

The fat fluffy white bird in the back is the new girl (I pretty sure she is part Easter Egger because she has some fluff in her beard), and Flighty Whitey (I hate that name, but it sticks stubbornly) is the one closer to the camera. You can see that Flighty Whitey is looking a little ragged ... this breed didn't joined in with the Ugly Molt this year ... I think she is jealous because she always comes with Tonka when he comes courting the new girl.

The other day when I was out with the birds I opened the front and back doors to the feed shed (it fills the space between the two coops) and Tonka and all his birds took the shortcut to come through to the front side of the coop. When Tonka and the others went back to their side of the coop, Violet had stayed in the front with the new girl. I thought maybe if I opened the gate to the run both birds would re-join the General Population and I wouldn't have to worry about the new girl being out on her own.

Both birds did go into the main run and I immediately lost track of the new girl (we have other all-white fluffy-faced small combed birds). I kept my eye on Violet, and it took her about 2 minutes to find her way to the back gate and hop over to rejoin Tonka ...

Here is a terrible and blurry action photograph of her fluffy blue butt going over the gate out back. She is honey colored up front, and fades to blue in the back. Right now her tail is looking spectacular and I wish I could have gotten a better photograph when she had it all fanned out for balance.

This shows a bit of the setup. You can just about make out the main coop's nesting boxes to the left on the far side of the gate. The blue tarp on the right is covering The Naughty Cage ... 2/3 of that is for Tonka & his harem, 1/3 is available for other things. We put the nesting boxes and Naughty Cage there so they could have protection from the big evergreen. Someone was doing something very odd with all that wood, so I piled it there hoping they'd get the hint to take it away and try again with a less cumbersome solution ... the wood will probably rot in place adding to the White Trash motif.

I haven't seen the new girl outside the fence again. Win!

In other news, the indoor beasts are wreaking havoc as usual. Here they are tearing the place apart.



Finally, here are two photos of Mt. Hood with a bit of the house (dining room) included so you can get a better sense of the perspective. I'm always disappointed that the mountain looks so tiny in photographs when in reality some days it fills the view ... these photos are only slightly better for getting a perspective, but it's something.

Sunrise Perspective



Sunset Perspective


We only have a couple more days of gorgeousness before the drippy gray Oregon Winter returns.

I'm pressing Dad to get on seeding the White Dutch Clover. We don't have snow, but I want to get those pastures "greened up" ASAP. The Nursery has been "too busy" to spare anyone for field prep & seeding. Next it will probably be too wet until July ...

 

[Beekissed]

Good Morning Everyone!

Well, I hate to tell you this but the sun is shining here (finally) and it is 48 degrees. Might get to do some work outdoor before the cold spell hits again next week.

Bee, that rooster of mine (Angel Eyes) is too smart for his own good. I have two roosters and he is the dominant one. He and I don't see eye- to-eye. I have been doing what you told me to do. I carry a stick with me and I make sure he gives me a wide circle. This morning I go to clean out the coop and to fluff up the shavings. He and the girls were on the other side of the coop. There is a fence separating us. I had the coop to myself and my back to the door. That smart alec walked from the other side of the coop, through the smithy, and around the fence to attack me from behind. I did not hear him come in. I heard/felt wings flapping and was thinking, 'Molly is flying up on my shoulder'. It wasn't Molly, it was ....evil music playing......Angel Eyes!!!

Here I am in my pink pjs (with bunny rabbits on them) and chasing him all over the yard. It was a good thing I didn't catch him. I know what dinner would have been. I have neighbors too....sigh.....

My DH says there should be a show called "Are you smarter than a chicken?"

Lisa

It's those fancy pants you and TW keep wearing!

I like your husband's idea!

Next time, don't chase....just sit and wait where he's likely to be and wait until he is busy doing something else...just like he did to you. Act like the roo to train the roo! Ambush him! Then get him several times before he can get away. Then sit and wait some more...wait until he's busy with something else like eating, mating, etc. Then WHAM him again!

It can be fun and it doesn't have to get strenuous...this fat lady don't do no chasing of chickens!

I let them come to me. Like my mama always said, "Ya gotta sleep sometime....and when you do, I'll be waiting.".

Oregon checking in and requesting something very lemony with sticky glaze, please!

Yay!!! Leslie is here!!!

Lemony with sticky glaze comin' up!

Iowa here checking in.

Surprisingly we currently have blue skies and the sun is shining!

Of course it is the calm before the storm because we are supposed to get hit with blizzard conditions tonite and tomorrow with the attendant cold temps....again.

The wind is picking up a little but not too bad right now and the temps are mild at around 25. But we are supposed to have a high of -2 and winds 25 to 30 mph on Monday. I sure hope and pray this is the last of the polar vortex's for the year.

On the plus side I am getting 8 to 9 eggs per day from 9 hens with this crazy weather and all.

And one of my turkey hens started laying this week...do you suppose it is a sign of an early return for spring?

DH is currently bringing in wood for the week so we don't have to dig it out of the snow. We do have propane heat but the price of that here has gotten ridiculous! No one can afford to pay $4.79 a gallon for heating so the wood stove is going full bore! I thank God everyday for all the trees he saw fit to put on our property and they need thinned so it works out really well.

Stay warm everyone!

We are 30 degrees here too but no sunny skies. I'll take the warm weather, though! Iowa, checkin' in!!!

Welcome Iowa!!!!

I'm thanking God for all the wood and wood fire nowadays too....nothing like a wood fire when the snow is piling up. We keep a good bit of wood on the porch for the deep snow days but usually cart wood up on the days when the ramp is clear.

We are all getting increased laying in this cold snap! What's up with that?? Unusual, for sure.

 

[Beekissed]

Here's a girl that needs some love and prayers, so could you all speak for her? Sometimes when you hurt this bad you just have no words left for prayer, so was wondering if you guys could pray for her. I think her name is Ashley.

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