Are you ready for winter? Not me, again....

[gtaus]

My list is way too long to accomplish. !!

Well, I guess you will at least know what was not done come spring. Maybe some of that can be completed then, or maybe it's just water under the bridge and you don't have to worry about it.

 

[gtaus]

oopps just realized you meant cleaning out the garage for vehicles - not cleaning out vehicles. Of course my vehicle is sparkling - no wrappers or cups- no dog hair - no shavings - no duck chow.... Again sticking to my story.

Somehow, after reading your recent posts, I think you might be the one with old french fries in the car in case of emergency. I'd suggest throwing some granola bars in the the glove box, but make sure they are in a rodent proof container. I had some candy in the car and when I wanted to have a bite or two, all I found was a mess of shredded paper and plastic along with mouse poop! That duck chow might be really good for attracting small visitors. Hope you clean it out.

 

[DukesDucks]

My granola bars, like my emergency candles, melted themselves into solid globs.

 

[gtaus]

My granola bars, like my emergency candles, melted themselves into solid globs.

I don't know what to say. At least you should be able to eat the glob of granola bars. I just bought a container of tootsie rolls to leave out in the car. It will be a long time before I worry about them melting. More like I'll have to put a tootsie roll in my mouth and suck on it like hard candy for about 10 minutes before I can chew it.

 

[Sally PB]

It's about time to put the emergency tote in the trunk of the car. Candles, snacks, blanket.

 

[vpatt]

I haven't done very well keeping up with anything over the summer. August 12 I fell (feeding the chickens) and broke my elbow. My local hospital would not do the needed surgery and I had to cross the mountain to UVA hospital. Then I tested positive for covid before they could do the surgery. I was sick for so long that I didn't get my surgery until October 26 and by then I needed an elbow replacement. So other than leaves and straw nothing much has been added to the run. I've decided since we have very few food scraps (hubby has hogs right now) that I may just keep adding the straw and leaves with occasional scraps. Do you all think that will work and keep the chickens happy?
Also, I lost my big Polish rooster this morning. A hawk got him.

 

[Sally PB]

@vpatt, I'm so sorry to hear about your health troubles, and the loss of your roo.

I do "snack time" every afternoon, and it's just their food wetted into a mash. They love it, it's good for them, and easy for me. In the cold months, I use warm water to make the mash, and that goes over very well with the chickens. Sometimes I put scraps or greens on the top of it.

 

[gtaus]

I haven't done very well keeping up with anything over the summer. August 12 I fell (feeding the chickens) and broke my elbow. My local hospital would not do the needed surgery and I had to cross the mountain to UVA hospital. Then I tested positive for covid before they could do the surgery. I was sick for so long that I didn't get my surgery until October 26 and by then I needed an elbow replacement. So other than leaves and straw nothing much has been added to the run. I've decided since we have very few food scraps (hubby has hogs right now) that I may just keep adding the straw and leaves with occasional scraps. Do you all think that will work and keep the chickens happy?
Also, I lost my big Polish rooster this morning. A hawk got him, but my hubby got the hawk.

Yeah, sorry to hear about your health problems. I know a lot of elective surgeries have been put on hold because our hospital is dealing with so many cases of COVID patients. I was telling my anti-vax relative that over 95% of our current COVID cases in the hospital are with unvaccinated patients. They are gumming up the system. Unfortunately, he remains unconvinced and says that is all fake news. He gets his "news" from Facebook and believes that is real news.

Dear Wife works at an assembly plant and they are currently experiencing a rash of COVID cases. Lots of people out on a 10 day unpaid vacation. But, so far, the people with vaccinations are staying out of the hospital and not experiencing the severe symptoms. We are both vaccinated and will get the booster when it is available to us. I encourage people to get vaccinated, not only for their health, but the heatlh of everyone else in their circle. I am a (semi-retired) RN, and I am not concerned about the political arguments over the vaccinations, I am only concerned about the public health aspect of the vaccinations and how they are indeed keeping people from developing the most severe symptoms and keeping them out of the hospital.

But, we have seen some personal health issues not addressed until too late due to the COVID situation in our hospital. Don't know if that was your situation, but that is what is going on here.

The straw and leaves with occasional scraps will most probably keep the chickens happy. I usually throw my scraps and chicken scratch right on top of my chicken run compost litter. My chickens love to scratch and peck through the compost, not only for the scraps and chicken scratch I feed them, but also they dig down looking for bugs and worms to eat.

Sorry about your rooster. I don't let my chickens free range. They live their life in the coop and in a bird netting covered chicken run. I live on a lake, and we always have hawks and bald eagles overhead. Free (meal) range chickens would not last long in my yard. I don't blame a hawk or eagle for trying to grab a chicken dinner. I just spend about $7 for bird netting that covers 13X13 feet of my run. This year I expanded my run to 3 sections, so the birds had lots of room to move around. When I mow the lawn, I gather the clippings in the bags and dump them in the chicken run. So, I bring the free range to my chickens.

 

[vpatt]

Hi gtaus, I feel like I have been gone from here forever.

I basically do not free range any longer. Most of the past issues were foxes. Some of these chickens do fly the coop, tho. But the hawk was in the run chewing on Elvis. I have been thinking of different things I might do. Bird netting is one thing I mentioned to my husband yesterday.

I believe Covid is real...I think it may have hit me harder because the broken elbow had already knocked the stuffing out of me. It is healing, but very slowly. Being in a splint for so long has really messed with my hand.

 

[gtaus]

Hi gtaus, I feel like I have been gone from here forever.

I basically do not free range any longer. Most of the past issues were foxes. Some of these chickens do fly the coop, tho. But the hawk was in the run chewing on Elvis. I have been thinking of different things I might do. Bird netting is one thing I mentioned to my husband yesterday.

I believe Covid is real...I think it may have hit me harder because the broken elbow had already knocked the stuffing out of me. It is healing, but very slowly. Being in a splint for so long has really messed with my hand.

The bird netting is really cheap and I have not had any attacks on my chickens. I think it works great.

I did not mean to get so preachy on the COVID subject. It's just that COVID is running rampant in Dear Wife's company and I am concerned she/we might get infected. There are past health concerns in our family that put us at a greater risk of comorbidities. Her good friend at work is out for 10 days due to COVID. Fortunately, her friend has had the vaccinations and is not suffering severe symptoms. But others at her work have refused to take the vaccinations and some of those have ended up in the hospital. My brother is a teacher and lots of them got COVID from school. They had 2 teachers who got COVID at school, brought it home, and one had a dead husband within the week and the other infected her parent who passed away. It does not get more real than that.