Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[WIChookchick]

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Oh Terri I am sorry to hear that.. there is some one giving away Mille fleur roosters on the CL now (Madison one).

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Shanti- I would offer $20 plus an incentive such as a gift card to her favorite store, more I-tunes down loads or the like. Every few months or so. 20 dollars just doesn't hold the same WOW factor as it did when we were younger. She could make more babysitting, and she may point that out. OR she can earn "points" towards a big gift item she wants like bling for showing (if she shows horses), or putting points towards a new electronic item like a laptop (newer), phone or something else she wants...
Just a thought.


I didn't sleep much last night, our main downstairs heater went out, so I put the oven on warm and opened the door, its electric but I kept waking up after dozing off in my DH's big comfy chair to check on it. I finally slept from 4 am till the dogs woke me at 640... way too early.

Fed horses, chickens, client horses, had some decafe and took a nap for an hour and a half. A very nice lady whom my client bought a horse from, after I tried him out, then did the delivery of... she came to visit with her former horse today. I took this great day and got in a ride on two of the client horses, one is his "steady" eddie former schooling horse he bought 2 years ago, the other was his 3 yr old green broke (started under saddle and has a few rides on him) youngster.
SO not a bad day, I am tired and can't wait to get to sleep.
Have a great one!
Carol

 

[Cindlady]

Hi All

Sorry about your chicken..... sure hope you get whatever has been taking them.

Cleaned the coop and put up the tree today. Didn't decorate it yet, it was a new tree and needed allot of "fluffing".... took hours! Everything hurts! Took a nice long soak in the tub and now I'm getting sleepy... now if I can just get to sleep and stay asleep! Made a good size lasagna for supper and the 3 of us made it almost all gone! 1 piece left... probably lunch for DS.

Well, just have to get the girls breakfast mash ready, stoke the fire and hit the hay... Night all!

 

[Dr HaHa]

Good Morning All! TO hope all your birds reappear! shanti we got an allowance as kids and we had to work for it. Sometimes.

Spoiled snots! Nowadays think having a warm meal put in front of them is a pretty good deal for a little help. Crabby ol man!

Was laying in bed this morning thinking of starting a lurkers thread. Just think of it. One page forever, no time consuming reading.

The rain hasn't frozen yet here hope it's the same for everyone! tiki what breed of eggs are you thinking of hatching?

Been having bad thoughts AGAIN!

Cind lasagna

been eons since we;ve made it. Think it's time. Maybe when L gets back. Their inducing her DD this morning

L's been gone since Thurs. sure has been quiet.

Have figured out what's going on with my stupid knee. Have been wrapping it and putting ice on it. It's better but it's not going to go away. Had a torn medial meniscus fixed years ago . It's now burning in the same spot.

WCc hope you get your heater working! BBP good score on the feed! jim sounds like draining the hoses is gonna be the way to go, just a pain to do. Better get my dishes done and get back in the bedroom.

 

[Terri O]

Good morning all! I thought I would have a ton to read this morning...nope! THanks for the condolences on my lost birds. They wont be reappearing DrH...unless they are coming to life with no heads! That owl eats the head and lungs and leaves the rest of the birds since they (most of them) are too heavy to carry off. That is why I think the little D'uucle is totally missing. Didnt appear that he got any last night...got most of the guineas in with a long pole. I think I said that already

Tiki...yeah this coop has been in the works[meaning the back of my mind] since spring when I got these Blue Ams from Jim! They have been living in the dog kennel and could go inside to a smaller dog cage that I had perches in. Since they have been full sized for quite a while now,

they havent all been able to go inside and roost. There is a sunshade over the kennel so the owl cant get them but in the spring I want to be able to protect them better from other varmints! Plus I need to move the Buckeyes into that coop too so they can go outside and free range. They are not happy in with the show birds!
OK, there is my "reasoning" for what it's worth!

I sure hope it doesnt rain here today...I have a lot of stuff out from the shed! They are saying scattered showers but rain developing tomorrow night...hmmm. I hope I get done by then!
WCc is stopping by to day, maybe she can help me get stuff back in?

OK gotta get the list made for cooking on Friday...not that she will actually purchase what I NEED! Got another recipe for my cookbook too...Spinach Tortelini Soup--no spinach!

Have a great day! Terri O
(PS) your turn Jim!

 

[bigzio]

Light Rainy Morning... What a great Packer win yesterday. Hope the injuries we suffered turn out to be minor.

Really nice set-up H&R. That's gotta be wonderful having a heated garage. I could use a set-up like that for sure. It would work great for the 6 bushels of potatoes I have too!

Busy day yesterday. Thanks for the encouragement to get me going on the snow blower repairs! I actually got it done. Now if you are right Jim, I won't have to worry about it snowing this winter and that would be perfect winter weather as far as I'm concerned.

Glad you're happy with the feed deal BBP. I still think mine is a better deal @ .16lb for a complete layer ration that is all bagged...not braggin, just sayin

I think the $20 a week sounds perfect shanti. I would think as long as you don't get any complaints in regards to pay, it's a win, win for you both. I'm sure the brutal cold weather in Jan will be less than pleasent for a 14 year old. Good Luck with the new job. Hope it's just what you've wanted.

Good to hear that the coop is coming along TO. Don't like the lenoleum on a coop floor though. But you can prolly do it the way you want, eh! It will be happy Bucks for sure!

Sounds like Ryan filed an appeal in regards to using steroids. Never ever has player won the appeal though, and he's prolly gonna have a 50 game suspension next year. Doctors don't administer synthetics to players, if they know what their doing....in my opinion.

Big kettle of bean and ham soup for supper today. I'm a soup guy for sure.

later... bigz

 

[jvls1942]

good morning all, I slept well and POPPED out of bed at 9:30AM

I feel that it would not hurt kids to do chores for no pay, so whatever you give them above that should be OK.. As kids we did chores and had no allowances.. The only problem I see with paying them specifically for one job, is that they will not do any other chore for nothing.. If she points out that she can make more babysitting, ask her ,, how much have you made lately ??

Mom had 3 girls and 3 boys.. It was a standing rule that we would baby sit for free for anyone who was going to church on Sunday.. and we had to refuse pay if it was offered..

Brent, see? I told you, fix the snowblower and you won't have to use it.. Now go fix those umbrellas..

I was raining here, but now it is snowing..

an owl cannot eat a lot per setting.. a mouse usually will fill the bill. a chicken's head and neck is about the same size as a mouse.. I have left duck carcasses for them to come back to.. they come back and kill a different duck..

Yeah DrH, draining the hose looks like the way I will go.. i have to find an old hose and cut it shorter so I don't have so much to drain.. about 20 feet whould work just fine.. there is one down in the garden, if I can find it under the snow..

can these heat tapes be spliced safely to work under water ?
(nside a hose)? I suppose one could tape a heat tape to the outside of a hose and plug it in only when needed, ? I think I have lots of the heat tape in the garage somewhere..

I have to head to the car hospital and have Annie's heater wire attached.. It is loose at the fuse box and doesn't always go on when you thump the box..

 

[brandislee]

Quote:
I don't pay my kids $ yet because they're 3 and 5 (although they do do chores- both are responsible for feeding an animal and the 5 year old gathers eggs on the days she's not in school plus various other household tasks), but I probably will pay them some when they get older, and I do pay my 5 year old for any especially hard "bonus" jobs she does, like when she helped me dig potatoes and harvest beans. Especially if you claim any farm income it's not a bad idea to pay them (and claim it) because you don't have to pay any taxes on it, and you can pay them up to $4000 (it might be higher now) before they have to pay taxes. My parents used that every year. Which leads me to my point- growing up I kind of got paid and kind of didn't. I had a checking account and my mom "paid" me, but it was the money I used for gas for my car (we lived 20 miles from school), to buy lunch tickets at school, pay for other school activities, and occasionally I was allowed to use to to buy clothes and the like. So my parents basically were writing off the money it took to raise a teenager. It was genius If you're basing on the same pay babysitters make, I never pay less than $10 an hour, which I know may be a little steep to some. If I were you I would pay on a weekly basis, like she makes $40 a week or something. I wouldn't pay her quite $10 an hour because they are her animals, but I do think it's a good idea to pay teenagers who do that much work because it teaches them that you value the work that they do AND teaches them to handle money... the caveat is that if you pay them you pay for less of their stuff, especially the "wants."

BlackBrookPoultry- I just bought (and devoured) this amazing poultry book called The Small Scale Poultry Flock . I don't own any other chicken books- I think most of them are overly simple and contain info that can easily be found in the internet (esp here!). But I love this book- it's much more in depth and approaches poultry raising in a practical, integrated way, and it has given me WAY too many ideas... which is going to make this spring interesting, because on top of remodeling half of our main floor this spring I also want to build a green house (that will double as a winter coop) and retrofit our large shed to house even more chicks. ANYWAY my point is there is an entire chapter on mixing whole seed feeds at home, the different proportions and ingredients to use for different ages and types of birds, etc. The whole book has an organic/natural slant, but even if you don't care about that there is tons of valuable information. In case you don't want to buy the book here is the formula listed for layer feed (and this recipe is given only as an example...): (amounts in lbs, formula makes 100lbs) Aragonite (calcium)- 6.5, Nutri-balancer (vitamins)- 2, kelp meal- 0.5, fish meal- 4, crab meal- 2, corn- 27, field peas- 20, wheat- 28, oats- 10.

But I highly recommend the book- there is a lot of useful info in it- on the feed alone he talks about sprouting the wheat portion in the winter, varying the grains as much as you can based on availability, other ingredients that you can use, formula for chick starter, as well as two chapters on producing much/all of your own food (including the protein).

I've got some pics to post, but since this is long already I'll post them separately

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
I don't pay my kids $ yet because they're 3 and 5 (although they do do chores- both are responsible for feeding an animal and the 5 year old gathers eggs on the days she's not in school plus various other household tasks), but I probably will pay them some when they get older, and I do pay my 5 year old for any especially hard "bonus" jobs she does, like when she helped me dig potatoes and harvest beans. Especially if you claim any farm income it's not a bad idea to pay them (and claim it) because you don't have to pay any taxes on it, and you can pay them up to $4000 (it might be higher now) before they have to pay taxes. My parents used that every year. Which leads me to my point- growing up I kind of got paid and kind of didn't. I had a checking account and my mom "paid" me, but it was the money I used for gas for my car (we lived 20 miles from school), to buy lunch tickets at school, pay for other school activities, and occasionally I was allowed to use to to buy clothes and the like. So my parents basically were writing off the money it took to raise a teenager. It was genius If you're basing on the same pay babysitters make, I never pay less than $10 an hour, which I know may be a little steep to some. If I were you I would pay on a weekly basis, like she makes $40 a week or something. I wouldn't pay her quite $10 an hour because they are her animals, but I do think it's a good idea to pay teenagers who do that much work because it teaches them that you value the work that they do AND teaches them to handle money... the caveat is that if you pay them you pay for less of their stuff, especially the "wants."

BlackBrookPoultry- I just bought (and devoured) this amazing poultry book called The Small Scale Poultry Flock . I don't own any other chicken books- I think most of them are overly simple and contain info that can easily be found in the internet (esp here!). But I love this book- it's much more in depth and approaches poultry raising in a practical, integrated way, and it has given me WAY too many ideas... which is going to make this spring interesting, because on top of remodeling half of our main floor this spring I also want to build a green house (that will double as a winter coop) and retrofit our large shed to house even more chicks. ANYWAY my point is there is an entire chapter on mixing whole seed feeds at home, the different proportions and ingredients to use for different ages and types of birds, etc. The whole book has an organic/natural slant, but even if you don't care about that there is tons of valuable information. In case you don't want to buy the book here is the formula listed for layer feed (and this recipe is given only as an example...): (amounts in lbs, formula makes 100lbs) Aragonite (calcium)- 6.5, Nutri-balancer (vitamins)- 2, kelp meal- 0.5, fish meal- 4, crab meal- 2, corn- 27, field peas- 20, wheat- 28, oats- 10.

But I highly recommend the book- there is a lot of useful info in it- on the feed alone he talks about sprouting the wheat portion in the winter, varying the grains as much as you can based on availability, other ingredients that you can use, formula for chick starter, as well as two chapters on producing much/all of your own food (including the protein).

I've got some pics to post, but since this is long already I'll post them separately

our kids are 12(DD), 9(DS) and 6(DS)- we don't do allowances and the kids are expected to help to the best of their abilities with chores or whatever needs to be done. Our DS(9) brought the subject up one time and so DH and I talked to the kids and asked them what way they would like it- if we decided to go the allowance route then any extras they wanted they would have to save up their allowance and get with approval from us, with no extras being purchased by us or we could stay doing what we were doing and everything would be taken care and from time to time extras would be gotten. It took DD less than a minute to decide that we should continue the way we were doing things and quickly told her brothers that they come out ahead this way.

They don't get everything they want but they do take care of the items they have.

 

[brandislee]

Despite my best efforts, I think my roosters got frostbite, which makes me think that the ventilation in my coop isn't as good as I think it is, or that something is causing too much humidity. Or it was the one night I didn't put bag balm on them because I didn't think they needed it (the night the overnight low was 9- I did it every other time it was lower than that). So... how bad does this look, is there anything I can do for it (for the existing apparent frostbite), and what would you do if you were me? Would you A) add heat, B) add ventilation, or C) put bag balm on any time the temp goes below 10. You know, because we all love multiple choice tests

Also, because someone else shared pics of their lean-to, here is my "chicken tent."

Like the other, it's butted right up to the pop door. I built this after that first snow that melted- that first snow showed me that people weren't joking... chickens REALLY don't like snow! And that my coop is too small to spend all day every day over the winter in. I had been thinking all summer about a way to shelter part of the yard for shade during the summer and snow cover during the winter ANYWAY, but hadn't been able to come up with anything. Apparently I needed the pressure.... lol. But I built this in about 4 hours, including cutting the wood. I first thought of building it out of PVC, but thought better of it and I really don't think PVC would have saved me any money. I got 2 pressure treated 4x4 10 foot landscape timbers (the ground contact portions), 3 10 foot 2x4's, and 10 7' 2x4's. I set the landscape timbers perpendicular to the coop and put 2 of the 10 foot 2x4's on top of them to make a square, then secured them with screws. Then I angle cut (it's about a 45 degree angle at each end cut so the bottom is flat on the landscape timber and the top it flat against the ridge piece, the 3rd 10 foot 2x4) each of the 7 foot 2x4s at each end. I had my husband help me hold up the ridge piece while I screwed the 2x4 supports to both the ridge and the landscape timbers. Then I nailed a 12x16 canvas tarp pulled tight over the whole thing.

The canvas tarp was by far the biggest expense in this project, but I think it was worth it. I think the wood cost $40 and the tarp was $80. But a canvas tarp is both waterproof and breathable, and it's a lot more durable than other tarps.

I'm not really worried about the draft- the pop door is closed at night, and during the day they can choose to be outside or in depending on how cold they are.

I didn't, however, think about the poo factor out there. It's getting gross. I had put some breaking down compost out there, but yesterday I added two bales of pine shavings. I also cleaned out the coop and refreshed the bedding in there- it needed it!

And lastly- my chickens are outside today! It must have rained some here overnight because I woke up and like 1/2 the snow in my hard was melted, so the chickens are out and boy are they happy. I have a dust bath bucket in the coop, but it's pretty small, so they all went straight to the dust under my husband's pickup- the only dry spot in the yard right now- and got some bathing done And here they are grazing under the pine trees.

I'm sure they're not finding much good to eat, but at least they're able to get out of their confined space, at least for today!

 

[Linn Bee]

My Sunday was a beautiful day here for December!

I finished my new pop door. I really like having a sliding door. Also like having inside where I'm opening and closing it out of the wind and weather. So much easier to operate than the outside opening one. I should get it painted before the rain and snow hits. My next project for today, I suppose.

God bless grandchildren! My 8 year old Gypsy decorated the tree and house this weekend. She also made monkey bread and cookies. I get to sit nearby and offer suggestions that she seldom takes. Leave it to her to pick the only incorrect recipe in the book! She wanted to make cut-out cookies so she could decorate them. She picked a gingerbread recipe. Hum-m-m, no ginger in the recipe. No molasses and only 3 tsp of sugar didn't sound very gingerbread-y to me.

I know she followed the directions. I finally suggested she add two eggs when she couldn't even mold the mess into a ball for rolling out. DH says they taste a bit like pie crust. I like pie crust if I've added enough sugar and cinnamon. She didn't. I decided to 'save' the pretty cut-outs with melted chocolate on the theory that everything tastes better covered with chocolate.

She dipped them in chocolate and added decorations. Everyone declared them delicious! I still haven't tasted them and sent all but two (after school snacks) home with the grand-babies.

We got a load of corn yesterday. Asked for 50 bu. but ended up with just over 65 bu. and nothing to put it in. My coop and my garden shed are both minus a large garbage can and I can't take out the garbage until January 'cuz there's nothing to put it in. I sure hope enough of the corn is used and I get my cans back before the vermin get to my feed. Someone took 4 of our 55 gallon barrels with their sawdust pickup and 'forgot'? to bring them back. Sigh!

Made beef/barley with veggies soup today. A perfect day for a hearty home-made soup. Now I'm off to get the new coop door for painting. What do you think? Red or gray? The coop is natural cedar with bright red and grey trim to match the new (metal) garden shed. Red might excite the girls too much. I'll go with grey.