Gotcha! After I wrote that question I wondered if you were setting on up for the turkeys. I am sure they will have plenty of space still, those are huge hoops! Cute story about Matilda, I am so glad she survived, sounds like a special girl!
Yeah, insurance bites. We had kind of lousy insurance before the clinic sold but the clinic paid for a lot of stuff when insurance didn't so that was nice. Now we have a higher deductible and the corporate vet clinic will pay for part of our deductible but I am just overwhelmed by bills right now. I think I am going to just plan a birth center birth and be sure that the midwife I am working with is clear and agreeable to what I want. I think going with a nurse midwife will increase the odds that our birth will be more natural anyway and I think everything will go well so I don't see why there would be need for medical intervention. It is just exhausting trying to get it all squared away.I'm glad your t-posts are finally in - who knew you would have to wait so long for such a common supply? This hoop coop is actually the first of two. I am making them as breeder pens for my turkeys and my muscovy ducks. I've read that muscovies are very good at hiding their nests and turkeys also have distinct ideas about nest placement. In both cases, I doubt if their choice of nest site will be safe given the close proximity of coyotes this time of year, so I am building them each a hoop house they can be locked in for "breeding/hatching season". They won't be happy as they are used to great freedom but at least they'll be safe and have a chance of successfully raising their young.
Suzette is an EE but Matilda is anWhen I built my first incubator, I wanted to do a test hatch with local, rather than shipped eggs, however living in the city, I had no rooster. So I looked on CL and there was a lady advertising eggs for eating, but I contacted her anyway and asked if the eggs were fertile. They were, so I bought some to hatch. She was a distant relative of the chicken-raiser - the chickens lived out in the country somewhere and she just took the eggs to sell in the city, so she had never even seen the parents. I asked her what breeds they are and she didn't have a clue. Matilda has black skin which would indicate perhaps a silkie heritage (I think there is another breed or two with black skin but now they're not coming to mind). However she just turned two at the end of January and has never had a broody day in her life so I truly
. Matilda does not look EE to me as she has no beard or cheek muffs. Her legs are slate grey. And she lays such a light brown egg that when DD was collecting eggs for me she thought it was a white egg. She is very people oriented, and always wants to hang out with me, chattering away non-stop. When we lived in Wichita she was convinced she was supposed to be a house chicken, and would follow me up the deck stairs and had a knack for following me into the house so close behind that I would step in, and turn around to close the door and have no clue she was in the house! More than once I didn't know she was inside and would get quite a start as she suddenly jumped up onto the dining room table or other such surface. She would walk around examining everything with great curiosity, muttering softly to herself the whole time but in all the times she came in, she never once pooped in the house. When the fox visited, the one bird I would have been the most devastated to lose, was Matilda. I was so busy watching for and dispatching it, that I wasn't able to make sure she was okay, but once I knew it was safe, I went to find the flock and they were all behind my horse shelter. I saw Matilda and called out "Matilda, you can come out now; its safe". She immediately started walking towards me and the rest of the flock followed, single-file. I try not to anthropomorphise too much and I really don't believe she understood my words, but I think she did trust me and knew I would not call her out if it was still dangerous.
Well I need to get a move on. Need to finish the white cupboards today and start painting the island cupboards. I blew most of yesterday running errands and getting feed. I hate going to the feed store because the bill is always so much. I need to sell a few more birds to lighten the feed load. Today is supposed to be warmer so I hope to get out there and snap some pics of birds for sale etc. I should really sell some pullets but I am having a terrible time deciding which ones! I really like all the girls, it is hard to get rid of them.Oh UGH about the insurance!! No fun!! Right now, we have fantastic insurance-- it's so wonderful it's just insane how happy we are with it. We pay for hardly anything at all, and even our co-pays are really, really low. Our deductible is very low, too. Like REALLY low. We have a Traditional plan because of my health issues (it's a bit more to pay for, but the trade off is perfect for me). Anyway, that is another thing I'm going to miss about my DH working at Boeing.I know we're going to get some crappy insurance that we have to spend a fortune on and have high deductible and high co-pays. Seesh, I hate this whole thing. If I wind up in the hospital again, who knows what that could do to us financially. Agreed on the good 'ole days... I'd love to trade for services! I hope you don't go early for labor so that you can do your home birth with the other lady. Even so, if you have to go to the labor centers, I'm sure you can still meet most of your birth plan-- with the drug free, and be free of most intervention! So it might work out just as well, anyway, with less clean up for you.
Yes! Ugh. I can only do so much at once and they are oak but we have country white paint for them. So it has taken several coats to get them covered but I am getting there. Let me know if you can't find your fence stretcher and we will look at getting one. We did buy the twisted wire horse fence, I couldn't buy barbed wire. I have an huge aversion to the stuff. I had a quarter horse mare for years that had an old injury on her hind leg from being chased through barbed wire fencing by dogs and she always had trouble with that leg. I know they can injure themselves on anything but I really hate barbed wire. I wish I was rich and I would do that fancy vinyl, flexible horse fencing! It looks so pretty, like a race horse farm! Our barbed wire up here is really loose too but I think it is just from years of neglect, I am sure if you keep up with it and maintain it the fence will stay fairly sturdy.
Still painting your cabinets?? Id love to see a picture when you get them done!I forgot to ask DH if we still have the fence stretcher! It was my parents, and if they took it back, it's buried in a storage shed while they are out of state for a couple of years. If we don't have it, you HAVE to have one-- I bet they aren't that expensive. But it would be nice if we had ours (for free)! But it comes in handy later on down the road if you ever have a line get droopy. You should unhook all your t-post clamp and unwind at your wood post point and start ratcheting it up nice and tight again, re-wind and re-clamp. It really doesn't take that long to fix fence. But I have to say-- we did our fence nearly 13 years ago, and it is STILL tight! We did a great job on it. But my neighbors fence is a mess. She didn't buy the barbed wire-- but bought the straight twisted wire and it doesn't hold up like barbed wire does. Her's is falling all over and they used the fence stretcher too.
