Consolidated Kansas

[cherwill]

Well I've been so busy my head is still spinning. I've been doing last minute things to get ready for Christmas & was still wrapping when my DH got home last night from work. He was mad at me that I didn't have it done already, but I had been going all day trying to get things done. I managed to get it finished shortly after he got home. Then I had to bathe the two little dogs & use the hair dryer to dry them because they were shivering. We're having Christmas with my son & grandaughter & her sister today, so it's going to be a full day.

And he survived??? LOL! I think my DH quit making comments like that the year I told him he could be completely responsible for everything that had to be done for his side of the family and his work shift and I would take care of the stuff for my side.

Hi All! Wanted to stop in and wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

My chickies are doing fine. I have several in molt and the baby silkies are getting big. They are so cute to watch with mama, but they are scared to death of me, oh well.

Not doing too good health wise. I was in the hospital again all last week, but I really hope this finds everyone well. (Can't even begin to go back through all 300 posts I've missed, sorry)

Hugs to everyone!

I'm sorry you're still dealing with the health issues. I hope something gets squared away quickly. Stay out of the hospital for the rest of the holidays if you can!

The only thing I would really like to do is find a way to put a small Christmas tree at my Mom's grave. She was born in the depression and they never had a Christmas tree until she and my Dad got married. It was a very important thing to her. I think it would only be fitting that she could still have one. I thought of using battery operated lights but the batteries would only last a day or two. It's a shame I couldn't find some solar operated lights. I have some garland that has them but they never put out enough light to see.

Even if you can't light it up, maybe you could still put a small tree out there. It wouldn't show up at night, but you would know it was there.

Looks like my eggs are a bust from the power outage. That was an expensive lack of electricity. Those were directly from Hinksjc and were anything but cheap. $%^&*()
We are experiencing freezing fog this morning. Ugh! I really wish it would warm up before I have to go do chores. It was supposed to be sunny but cold today. There isn't a bit of sun yet.

I saw in a later post that one of the eggs had pipped. Yippee! Maybe there are more that were just slowed down.

 

[chicken danz]

I'm glad to say that Cloud is doing better now about getting up. She has even taken a couple breaks from the pups and laid in DHs bathroom for a little while away from them. I still want to get them moved outside. I wish it weren't so cold. My floors are covered in mud. Not that I am tidy but it looks trashier than normal. i wish I had a big Sweeter heater to use in the dog house. That would be ideal.
I did have at least one chick hatch. I haven't looked closely yet today. I have a few more eggs to go in today from my own birds so I guess I will check them out then. I don't want to disturb any that have a chance of hatching. I may have the same issue with these today because the power outage would have affected them too. I am just thankful it didn't kill all of them.
Dh plans to go to Topeka later to start his Christmas shopping. Imagine that! Anyway I need to go get just a couple of things but don't want to go with him because I would be gone all day. One of those would be another gift for him. I'm afraid he won't leave until half of the businesses have closed. He never leaves at a decent time. If he would leave soon I would just head up there after he did and not mention it to him. I need to get these few presents wrapped for tomorrow as well as some house cleaning and my usual chores.
The geese are hollering for fresh water all ready. Yep Lizzy I have reverse door bells as well. If they even see me they will start yelling. Of course that is followed by putting their wings up in the air and running around like excited little kids. Love those guys!
I think I am going to try some fermented feed just on the chicks in the brooder and see how they do. I can handle that much a day.
Then when I get the left over yeast from my son later this month from his batch of beer I am going to try some for the geese. I really don't like the idea of having it in the house but it's the only place I have where I can do it.
I am almost afraid to go out to my house where they have the colds. They seem to be spreading. DH stuck his head in last night and said the chickens were are huddled around the vaporrizer watching the steam like chicken TV. I figured that was good. Maybe they will all get a little bit of benefit from it. With colder weather though I am afraid they'll all stay inside and the colds will spread even further.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Tweety I am sorry you are still suffering. I do wish you have a merry christmas

Ok FF,,, I need someone to give me some direction. I started a very small amount to see if the birds would take to it. I put 5 cups in a small plastic bucket inside of a 5 gallon. I poked some holes inthe small one. I put water in to cover the feed and put 1/4 cup UPACV now it has been 24 hours, no sour fermented smell, no bubbling. What do I do and have I dont everything ok??

 

[Hawkeye95]

Josie-- great advice for Cloud. Hope you are having a great Christmas break!

I just bought some lights for next year. DH had seen these shooting star tubes on a tree on a tv special and really loved them. I looked them up and the ones like that are super expensive. Like $70 for 5 tubes. Anyway the only store that still had them anywhere around here was Menards in Manhattan. I just checked again and they were on sale for half price. So I got out the old credit card and ordered three sets. It's crazy I know, but he never gets enthused about my decorating which is normally a big deal to me. My son is going to go out and pick them up for me this afternoon. I can't wait. Next year I'll get to display them. Of course I won't get them until mid January when we have our Christmas together.
So this tiny little tidbit has me excited about Christmas finally. Maybe I should dig out just a few things to put around the house for a few days. I really need to go pick up a couple more items I saw by looking on line but I sure don't want to be in the crowds.
My Dad told me this morning we are having prime rib for dinner at the assisted living home. That will certainly be a different meal for a Christmas dinner. Not really a fan of it because it is too fatty for me but I will deal with it and not complain. The important thing is to be with him. I need to get his gifts wrapped and the ones for my sister as well. Maybe in a day or two! LOL!
I just saw a pip on one of the eggs I thought was toast. That cheered me up a little. I really had given up. The period of cool must have slowed it down. But at least at this point I know one is alive.

I don't know, I think prime rib sounds like an amazing dish to eat! YUM! I sure hope you get more pips than just the one. Good luck on them!

Yes - it has an auto turner. I can set it to auto turn every hour, 2 hours, 3 hours or completely off. I am not a big fan of the auto turner. I like hand turning I have it set to auto turn every 3 hours - but I'm also hand turning once in the morning and once a night too. I guess I just want to DO something.. this thing is awesome. I love how you add water without having to open the top. It has a little ball in there that rises when the water level rises so you can't overfill it - the ball shuts it off at the top. I like all the beeps and whatnots it has too. Oh - and when it auto turns, it plays a nice little soft music You can turn that off, but I like that part of it!

I'm very happy I bought this. My BF is making me a nice candler for Christmas! I am also going to go ahead and get another EcoGlow too from Brinsea. I can set it beside my other one to increase the area of warmth for the chicks.

Well, it sounds pretty darned easy to use! I may just have to save up for one of those! The water ball sounds great! Wow! Love that it sings and beeps! Smart incubator! I really want an EcoGlow, too.

I'm glad to say that Cloud is doing better now about getting up. She has even taken a couple breaks from the pups and laid in DHs bathroom for a little while away from them. I still want to get them moved outside. I wish it weren't so cold. My floors are covered in mud. Not that I am tidy but it looks trashier than normal. i wish I had a big Sweeter heater to use in the dog house. That would be ideal.
I did have at least one chick hatch. I haven't looked closely yet today. I have a few more eggs to go in today from my own birds so I guess I will check them out then. I don't want to disturb any that have a chance of hatching. I may have the same issue with these today because the power outage would have affected them too. I am just thankful it didn't kill all of them.
Dh plans to go to Topeka later to start his Christmas shopping. Imagine that! Anyway I need to go get just a couple of things but don't want to go with him because I would be gone all day. One of those would be another gift for him. I'm afraid he won't leave until half of the businesses have closed. He never leaves at a decent time. If he would leave soon I would just head up there after he did and not mention it to him. I need to get these few presents wrapped for tomorrow as well as some house cleaning and my usual chores.
The geese are hollering for fresh water all ready. Yep Lizzy I have reverse door bells as well. If they even see me they will start yelling. Of course that is followed by putting their wings up in the air and running around like excited little kids. Love those guys!
I think I am going to try some fermented feed just on the chicks in the brooder and see how they do. I can handle that much a day.
Then when I get the left over yeast from my son later this month from his batch of beer I am going to try some for the geese. I really don't like the idea of having it in the house but it's the only place I have where I can do it.
I am almost afraid to go out to my house where they have the colds. They seem to be spreading. DH stuck his head in last night and said the chickens were are huddled around the vaporrizer watching the steam like chicken TV. I figured that was good. Maybe they will all get a little bit of benefit from it. With colder weather though I am afraid they'll all stay inside and the colds will spread even further.

Sounds like Cloud is doing great! Amazing that she is basically house training herself! Nice! I hope your birds will be okay. I know that is worrisome!

I cut out lots of mini gingerbread houses the other day and baked them up and then put the pieces in zip lock baggies. This morning, the kids and my parents who are staying with us for the holidays all decorated them and put them together! It was so much fun! I'm going to go see if I can load up a couple of the pictures!

 

[lizzyGSR]

I'm glad to say that Cloud is doing better now about getting up. She has even taken a couple breaks from the pups and laid in DHs bathroom for a little while away from them. I still want to get them moved outside. I wish it weren't so cold. My floors are covered in mud. Not that I am tidy but it looks trashier than normal. i wish I had a big Sweeter heater to use in the dog house. That would be ideal.

The geese are hollering for fresh water all ready. Yep Lizzy I have reverse door bells as well. If they even see me they will start yelling. Of course that is followed by putting their wings up in the air and running around like excited little kids. Love those guys!
I think I am going to try some fermented feed just on the chicks in the brooder and see how they do. I can handle that much a day.

I'm glad to hear Cloud is doing better!

I thoroughly enjoy my geese as well, though my DH complains about how noisy my single chinese goose is. The geese are such characters - they're always doing something goofy! I'm hoping to get my reverse doorbell back. She hasn't done that since we brought her back home after being at my friend's house while we were gone. I guess it's just time to bring out the treats!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Okay, here are the pictures I just uploaded of what we did this morning. I made up the dough last week and have slowly been working on cutting out pieces over the week and then storing them in ziplock bags as I get them baked up. We made enough to 11 houses, although I still have tons of dough left over, but there are only 10 of us, so figured it was over kill. The kids each decorated their own house and put it together with royal frosting and then decorated it. Here is what we did:














The plan is to have Hot Chocolate tonight with our mini gingerbread houses and eat them with our hot cocoa! So it should be a lot of fun!

 

[chicken danz]

Hawkeye can't wait to see the pictures of the gingerbread houses. I still want to do mine. I wish I could store them somewhere when they were done just so I could enjoy them. I should have done them a month ago.
I just ordered a bunch of stuff from Bath and Body. I am such a sucker for a bargain. Seriously it is one of the few things I pamper myself with. They are having an awesome holiday sale starting today on line so I stocked up. I had some coupons for 20% off and free shipping so it made them reasonably priced. I might donate some for some late Christmas gifts to my DILs.
I need to tighten the purse strings though. I still have a couple of credit card bills to come in.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye can't wait to see the pictures of the gingerbread houses. I still want to do mine. I wish I could store them somewhere when they were done just so I could enjoy them. I should have done them a month ago.
I just ordered a bunch of stuff from Bath and Body. I am such a sucker for a bargain. Seriously it is one of the few things I pamper myself with. They are having an awesome holiday sale starting today on line so I stocked up. I had some coupons for 20% off and free shipping so it made them reasonably priced. I might donate some for some late Christmas gifts to my DILs.
I need to tighten the purse strings though. I still have a couple of credit card bills to come in.

The pictures are posted directly above your post! We put them together (the idea was we were supposed to do them yesterday, but I had too much to do!!) this morning. Anyway, they fit on mugs, so we're going to make up big mugs of hot chocolate with whipped cream and stick these on and eat them with our hot cocoa! Never done it before, but figured this will be a fun tradition to start. I saw the idea on Pinterest! I mean.... they have the coolest stuff on there, right?! And I totally wanted to do it. Now... finding the TIME to do it was actually pretty hard. But I finally got all the pieces cut and baked yesterday evening. I'd been working on them all week. Got the last of it cut/baked yesterday.

I love bath and body! I am a sucker for shower gels. I always put shower gels on my Christmas list!

 

[Trish44]

Merry Christmas to you all! I know everyone is probably still running around doing things, but I hope you all can take some time to relax & enjoy family. Tweety, I hope you feel better soon, prayers are coming your way for your recovery.

Hawkeye, those little gingerbread houses are really cute, good job!

Danz, I'm glad Cloud is doing better.

We just got back home from OKC where we took our granddaughter to see her daddy, my son & celebrate Christmas with him. We had to get a motel room because Dana wasn't up to company, she has had a really rough time of it & still is. We had 5 of us & two little dogs in the room, but it all went OK, even though one of the girls ended up having to sleep on the floor for lack of room. She was a good sport about it though. We got out of OKC just in time because there is an epic snowstorm coming their way tomorrow, I sure hope we don't get what they're supposed to get. They said on the news down there last night that we're supposed to only get 1-2 inches, I hope that's right. We get snowed in here with this darned hill with very much snow. The only way out of here is with our old truck because when it snows or ices the driveway turns to an ice skating rink & we can't get our cars up the hill, it's uphill at both ends. I wish we had been able to put in a new driveway when we did the house improvements, but we ran out of money. Anyway, we made it back home & I'm tired now. I plan to go take a nap before I have to go out & do chores. I sure am not looking forward to the temperatures tomorrow & having to go out & feed & water in that, ugh. It was already really cold in OKC before we left, it made me hurt even worse.

My chickens were just fuming wanting out when I got here so I let them out for a few hours since they have been locked in since we left yesterday morning. I sure hope they will all be OK in this storm, it's going to get down to 12 degrees tomorrow night.

Well everybody try to stay warm & enjoy the holiday!

 

[Trish44]

Oh I forgot to mention with all the talk about incubators lately that Brinsea has some special prices for the holidays on incubators & the ecoglow is also a few dollars off plus you can get an additional 10% off with their coupon. I just ordered two of the small ecoglows for use in my brooders this coming spring. I will probably need another one yet for the other brooder I plan to build also, but I'll wait to get it until later on. I have to make room for the brooder first in the garage. The R-Com like Sunflowerparrot got also is on sale right now, I can't remember for sure the price. Oh & we found out it is now made by Brinsea also.