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  1. saysfaa

    Parenthood Thread

    We didn't do Santa. For gifts, we favored experiences rather than things. It was not exclusively so but they were common and popular gifts. Examples: Homemade tickets to an afternoon of swimming or ice skating or bowling, craft classes of various kinds. Going to the zoo is a popular date choice...
  2. saysfaa

    Best and Worst Books You Had to Read in School

    The best was Silas Marner. Most of my classmates didn't like it but I liked the historical fiction aspect. And Shane Tate, until I had to write about what the teacher saw in it instead of what I saw in it. One of my all time favorite books, Alas, Babylon, was often assigned according to the...
  3. saysfaa

    Heat source. Too many opinions. Gotta quit FB.

    I quit some years ago for similar reasons. I handle that issue by using the telephone, mostly. Even if they don't have a website, I can usually find a phone number or can see enough of their page to get that much. Sometimes, such a place just doesn't get my business. I will go further and/or...
  4. saysfaa

    Why do you raise chickens?

    To take care of them. I miss taking care of livestock like I did growing up on a working farm. All the aspects: deciding what they need, figuring out how to give it to them, choosing which and how many to get, naming them, tending them, watching them interact with each other and their...
  5. saysfaa

    New to raising chickens – what essential supplies and equipment do I need?

    In order of hierarchy of needs (like Maslow's hierarchy of needs): Air (not as flippant as it looks*) Variable warmth if baby chickens** Water, a water bowl or waterer Food, a feed bowl or feeder Grit Space Other flock members Shelter from predators*** Shelter from weather*** A roost A nesting...
  6. saysfaa

    Stormcrow's Hobby Farm

    Generally, it is not less dollars no matter how you do it and even if you don't count all of the costs - like any of the costs of the land, fences, trucks for bringing feed, your time and such. Some people find it well worth the cost because of things like knowing how well the cattle are...
  7. saysfaa

    Help! Need to refurbish inherited coop!

    That should do very well. Another thing you can do for them is add "clutter." That is anything they can use to break up their lines of sight. Things they can go behind or hop up on. Like a couple of straw bales stacked on each other or stumps or lawn chairs tipped over or a pile or teepee of...
  8. saysfaa

    Help! Need to refurbish inherited coop!

    Most are done wrong. Bare minimum space, not even bare minimum ventilation required by different systems. They are usually designed by people who know how to build sheds and they add nest boxes and a roost. Or by people who might have looked up the dimensions required by commercial chicken barns...
  9. saysfaa

    Help! Need to refurbish inherited coop!

    Just leave it. The airflow is what you need in your climate. Fans will not do nearly as well even if you don't consider their downsides. Is that the roost in the front right corner? If so, you might add a second roost in the back or the right side so they have the option of the more sheltered...
  10. saysfaa

    What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

    There is some good news, I guess. Only about $20 more for some wiring and we will have a new furnace for all practical purposes.
  11. saysfaa

    What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

    Fyi. If the people that sold you a house did not register a Lenox furnace they replaced, it still has a warranty for the parts for five years. Just not for ten years. The first company missed that, which combined with two or three other things led to getting a second opinion and going with the...
  12. saysfaa

    What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

    My heartfelt sympathies. The tech from the second HVAC company just left. We are into this $650 paid to the first company (they say we need another $1270 to replace all the drain stuff too) and $950 paid to the second company. The furnace is still not working, some of the time.... just like...
  13. saysfaa

    Waterproof Bedding for Nesting?

    Coffee grounds, wood shavings, grass hay, pine straw. Maybe PDZ. These aren't really waterproof but I think they will work for you if the moisture is from humidity rather than leaks. It sounds to me like it is. Coffee grounds can be bought already dried - somewhat similar to wood shavings. Or...
  14. saysfaa

    Is frostbite avoidable without electric heating? Should I add heat to my coop?

    I would put the outside one on the shady side of the coop and at about halfway up the side of it. This is to get it in the same microclimate that the coop is in. Or maybe a fence post nearby. Inside, pick somewhere as typical as you can - neither in a draft nor in a dead-air pocket if the rest...
  15. saysfaa

    how far is to far to drive to obtain a bird

    I didn't know how to tell "reputable" from any other kind of smaller-than-hatchery breeder. Still don't, for that matter. The more I looked, the less sure I got except for the ones I am pretty sure were not reputable. Complicated by having very different goals than most such smallish breeders...
  16. saysfaa

    What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

    Me too. I didn't notice the leaving the town afterwards part but sure did notice the take a loss (or sometime, take a razor thin profit) until the little guys were gone part. Not just Walmart, either. Or just Amazon. I also think Amazon is trying to do it Fed Ex and UPS now.
  17. saysfaa

    What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

    Once a business has have enough of a monopoly, they don't have to be as responsive to customers. Whatever way. Maybe giving value - various kinds of service, prices - maybe other ways.
  18. saysfaa

    What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

    Anyway, do check your furnace filters, and the water trap. Dirty, even filthy, filters shouldn't have taken out the blower this fast, or the gas valve at all, but it really does shorten the life significantly. And it might complicate getting the manufacturer to honor the warranty.
  19. saysfaa

    What are your frugal and sustainable tips and tricks?

    :(, mostly reversed today. I'd call it more than two steps even though the plumbing went well. I call the plumbing 1 1/2 steps forward. The extra half step is because he fixed the leak in the bathroom sink too. I paid another $500ish for a gas valve installed in the furnace this morning. The...
  20. saysfaa

    Extreme calcium preferences

    That would be better. They don't get smelly?
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