Consolidated Kansas

[tweetybaby2005]

Happy birthday Trish. Hope you have a great birthday!

 

[Trish44]

Thanks for the birthday wishes, it was an alright day, nothing special. I'm saving my birthday dinner for when we go to KC next.

tweety, just keep the bird cool & it may take a couple of days for her to feel better. Yeah when they first started out those totes were $25 apiece & then it got popular for people to buy them & they raised the prices on them. I should have gotten one when they were cheaper.

 

[chicken danz]

Those totes in this area go for $125 each. If I could get one local for $40 I'd jump on it. It's insane because they don't pay for the totes when they order stuff. We used to get them at work all the time but it was nasty stuff in them ...like 100% acid that would burn through your shoes and your feet.
I put a huge list of birds on some of the facebook pages for sale. I was gone a good deal of the afternoon trying to get some more information for my building and socializing yesterday. But the rest of the day I was answering inquiries. Now if some people would come up with some money that would be great. I have a couple of appointments tomorrow for buyers. Of course the same people that are always asking me to hold birds and then don't show up are asking me to hold them again. Really? Do they not remember they didn't come the last time they said they would? I wish I had a billing system and could bill people like doctors offices do to patients that don't show up.
I got some building estimates yesterday. They came in pretty good. The problem now is finding someone to do the other work for me. Because I'm in a rush, I want to hire a lot of the stuff to get done that I would normally tackle myself...like doing the concrete work. I am getting too darned old for that crap. I decided to try to get a slab poured before the building is built which really puts me in a rush. I'm trying to find one person/company to do the site prep and pour and finish the slab. You'd think that would be normal but around here it seems to be two different people. It's going to be expensive for sure. Looks like the extras I need done will cost as much as the building itself. It's insane. I wish I had known about all this and this company earlier in the year. I might have been ready for fall then.
Then the big problem comes in because I have to build all the interior stuff myself. All the pens in and out, my incubator and brooder room, putting in a sink and electric and all that. That's months of work alone. But I don't have months for sure.
I went out to work on my hoop coop yesterday but got very little done before I had to leave. I was having trouble lining up the two halves to wire them together. Hopefully it won't feel quite as miserable out there today and I can get that done. I really need the space to get some of these babies out of the house.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Wow, Danz!!!! Sounds hectic! Too bad, again, that were so far away! DH does concrete and while I don't know what all kind of site prep you need I think he does that regularly. Hope you have a good turnout this afternoon and that people show up!!
I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going to get the last few chickens that I want to add to my flock. Then I got a chemical hit, no clue what kind tho, so I'm not feeling the greatest and it makes it super hard to get stuff done.

 

[chicken danz]

Oh I wish you were!!! I am getting a dead end here. I have gotten a couple of names but no one answers their phones. I also have tried to get phone numbers but they don't have anything but a cell number. Arg! And then some of the others have full mailboxes so you know they aren't going to check messages.
I am in a hurry and like normal no one around here rushes to do anything.
I guess if I can get some birds sold at least that will be one step in the right direction.

 

[Trish44]

We have trouble any time we look for someone to do anything where we live as well danz. I'm just amazed when we start to call around & nobody wants to come, geez what's wrong with my money I think to myself & do they not want to make any. It was like pulling teeth to even get an electrician to come out & then when they did they said they would get back to us & we never heard from the guy again, so nothing got done of course.

We have quite a few really hot days still coming, I just want to wish them away so it will cool down a bit. My birds have been suffering in this heat & you try to do things to make it as comfortable as you can, but yet the heat still continues.

 

[cherwill]

Cherwill, that sounds like a blood sugar problem. Have you ever had problems with that? I am hypoglycemic and I get like that when my blood sugar gets too low. Sometimes if you eat too many carbs you can have an overload then a dump. I had eaten oatmeal one time before a blood test a couple hours later. But my blood sugar had peaked then dumped and the doctor reading my blood test called me in panic mode thinking I would be in a comma with blood sugar that low.
I also feel similar when my oxygen level gets too low. But then it's more of a heavy feeling like my arms and legs have taken on about 50 pounds extra each.
If that happens again I'd certainly go get some tests done.
I have tomatoes now that the rabbit didnt' bite into but they aren't ripe yet. It's insane as late in the year as it is.
If I were trying to grow bugs I'd be having a great harvest though.

Your chickens would love a harvest of bugs!

It did happen again the next time we went to the garden. I think it was Monday, another hot and very humid day. I tried to pay more attention to what was going on, and realized I feel like I'm not getting enough oxygen. I do have asthma which kicks up only intermittently. It's been about a year since I felt like I was having an actual asthma attack, but I'm wondering if this is some version of one. There's no audible wheezing, but I feel like I'm gasping for breath a bit. Maybe it's deeper in my lungs where I can't hear anything? Years ago, DH & I used to go to someone we call the Herb Lady and she helped him so much with his lifelong allergy problems. We've been doing a sort of maintenance thing, but we're thinking maybe we need to go see her again. I know my doctor will only want to give me a prescription for an inhaler. I have used one in the past when I thought it was absolutely necessary, but I don't like them at all.

Sounds like some kind of place you visited, Danz! I have this idealic dream farm in my head too but I don't know if it'll ever happen because I get enthused about new stuff (animals) way too often for it to turn out like in my head!

I have a dream hobby farm in my head, too. I'm sure the reality would be a real wake-up call, but I'd love the (highly unlikely) chance to find out.

I have good intentions but just don't have the energy to complete all I want or need to do any more. It just gets too overwhelming sometimes & I just give up. I really haven't seen anybody around with East Indies ducks. I know someone else looking for a Nigerian Dwarf Doe so if you find some let me know so I can pass it on.

I really didn't get much at all accomplished today but I didn't set out to either. I got that window installed yesterday & I guess that was my accomplishment for this week. The chickens are thanking me for giving them more air circulation in the coop.

I have the same problem; my stamina can't keep up with my desires any more. It sometimes takes me days to complete something that should take 4 hours if I could just stick with it. Congratulations on getting the window installed; that doesn't seem like a quick or easy thing to do!

We have our FIRST egg!!!!!

Congratulations!

Even in the dark driving home on Wednesday, I could see that the grass was knee-high, so first thing yesterday I jumped on the mower and got some of the yard mowed. I still have more than half to do though. My mower has a flat tire so before mowing I have to fire up the compressor and pump it up, then keep an eye on it while mowing in case it loses air again. I pumped it up around 1pm yesterday, mowed a small patch, then went to get on it again at 7pm and the wheel was sitting on the rim again so the puncture must be decent sized to have let out all the air in just those few hours. Of course fixing it rather than just pumping it up each time is on the to-do list but right now my priority is to get the grass cut and once I'm caught up I'll have time to fix it. I hope.

My garden is producing wonderfully. The tomatoes are all ripening and yesterday I picked about 50lb of tomatoes. As soon as I get done with this update, I'm going to start making a batch of pasta sauce. We eat a lot of pasta in the winter and I had been hoping to get enough to make sauce but last year only really got enough to meet our needs of eating fresh and make a few jars of salsa. I'm thrilled to have enough to make sauce this year. I also have peppers growing like crazy and lots of greens. I harvested some onions and carrots yesterday. I lost my first set of zucchini plants to squash bugs so I replanted them before I left. Its amazing how fast they grow! By the time I returned, I see that they have zukes on them already that will be ready to pick in a few days time. And no squash bugs now. I had read that if you have problems with squash bugs, you can pull the plants and start over and the bugs aren't as bad on the second planting because they don't move in this time of year. Or something like that. Anyway, so far, so good. And, as fast as they grow, even if I have a problem with them again, there is still time to do a third planting, so I'm not giving up on them.

The potatoes are ready to dig so I'll probably do that this weekend. Fingers crossed for a good harvest.

The sheep and goats didn't notice I was gone I don't think. All except for Smoky my boer billy. He was pleased to see me yesterday and came over for lots of scratching and attention.

I lost my crested turkey while I was gone. She was broody in a corner of the chicken yard and while I knew it was a risk to have her sitting outside, I was hoping since she was within the confines of the chicken yard and the dogs sleep there at night, that they'd keep her safe. Well, DD was taking care of the birds for me and she got lax about putting the dogs in the chicken yard at night and my turkey paid for it with her life. I'm pretty upset about it.

Other than that they all seem to be doing well. Some of the juveniles grew so much just in the two weeks I was gone, I couldn't believe it. I had a juvenile turkey who is Royal Palm/Bourbon Red mixed. They hatch out looking pretty drab and feather out quite drab too so I was pleased it was so plain looking, because it makes it easier to butcher when the time comes. Yesterday when I was doing a head count, I noted that all my Black Spanish juveniles were present and accounted for - though much larger than when I left - but couldn't see the mixed bird. That's because overnight that darn bird turned from being drab and plain to being stunningly feathered. I cannot believe this is the same bird I left only a couple of weeks ago. It grew a tremendous amount and apparently traded out its juvenile feathering for its adult feathering and it is really quite beautiful. Darn it. Hopefully its a tom - that will make it easier on me.

Most of my broody chickens gave up while I was gone - yeah!!! I had left the incubator running and a couple of chicks hatched this morning so I'll be able to give them to the last couple of broody hens. However I think another bird went broody just yesterday. She seemed to be out foraging yesterday morning but spent the afternoon on the nest and acted very broody when I checked under for eggs last night. She is still on the nest today so I guess just like that - ! - she went broody. Oh well, I can set some eggs now for her to raise when they hatch if that's the case.

I'll check in here and there over the next few weeks but anticipate being pretty busy while the garden is producing as my goal was always to grow enough to put it up to carry us over the cooler months.

It's great to see you back here. You've had a hectic summer.

Sounds like a real pain to have to mow AND keep airing up the tire, but putting off the mowing only makes it worse.

My garden is doing pretty well. I'm getting a steady supply of tomatoes. This year I'm making crushed tomatoes with nearly all of them. I ran out of what I had frozen from last year. With my nephews coming over regularly and the pasta casserole being one of their favorite things, I'm using a lot of crushed tomatoes. I SHOULD make the crushed tomatoes into lots of batches of marinara and freeze that, but that requires a lot more chopping of veggies and stuff, so I haven't been doing that. To make the crushed tomatoes, I just dice them and cook them down, then run them through the food mill on the biggest holes. Then I freeze them in 28 ounce batches since that's how much is in a can of crushed tomatoes. Of course, that means more work each time I want marinara, which is nearly the only thing I used crushed tomatoes for.

We're still digging potatoes a bit at a time. We pulled all the onions and I chopped a froze a bunch of those because the red and white onions don't store well long term, at least not for me. We're still getting plenty of kale, the carrots look like they're coming along nicely, and we had to pull all the fennel because it was starting to sprout from within itself so it was becoming almost all core. The green beans are starting to flower. The last batch of beets I planted are not doing much; if I get two decent beets out of it, I'll be lucky.

I'm so sorry about your crested turkey.

Just a quick note. HE glad to see you are back. So sorry about your crested turkey. She was so unique.
I went out to start chores and came back in to get the camera. I officially have 5 peachicks that Patty, the mama peahen hatched. Here are a couple pictures I took before she decided I didn't need to be looking at them.

Cute!

I just got back from therapy awhile ago

How is the therapy going for you this time?

I'll be curious to see what you come up with. I built a platform for my water barrel using cinder blocks to raise it up and that provides quite a bit of pressure.As you can see, I could go another layer of bricks higher and get even more pressure but this height is perfect for me to still be able to easily reach the lid to get it on and off.

That's a nice setup. I don't have room for it, and not enough chickens to worry about it, but I really like it.

Happy
Birthday
Trish!!!

Sorry I missed it, Trish. Happy birthday!

They came in pretty good. The problem now is finding someone to do the other work for me.

That's a problem here, too, but not because of distance. Our contractors and handy men are just so booked up, you can wait weeks for a call to be returned, and then months to get to the top of the list for work. Many of them are quoting roofs and big projects for a year in the future.

Tweety, I don't know where your post went; I thought I had it multi quoted as well. Sounds like you're as busy as ever. Try to stay cool!

 

[chicken danz]

We have trouble any time we look for someone to do anything where we live as well danz. I'm just amazed when we start to call around & nobody wants to come, geez what's wrong with my money I think to myself & do they not want to make any. It was like pulling teeth to even get an electrician to come out & then when they did they said they would get back to us & we never heard from the guy again, so nothing got done of course.

We have quite a few really hot days still coming, I just want to wish them away so it will cool down a bit. My birds have been suffering in this heat & you try to do things to make it as comfortable as you can, but yet the heat still continues.

I was at a friends yesterday afternoon and one of her hens was having a terrible time. Reminded me why I didn't want black chickens. Now I have several. One more reason to get this darned building in. At least they would have shade and air movement.

It did happen again the next time we went to the garden. I think it was Monday, another hot and very humid day. I tried to pay more attention to what was going on, and realized I feel like I'm not getting enough oxygen. I do have asthma which kicks up only intermittently. It's been about a year since I felt like I was having an actual asthma attack, but I'm wondering if this is some version of one. There's no audible wheezing, but I feel like I'm gasping for breath a bit. Maybe it's deeper in my lungs where I can't hear anything? Years ago, DH & I used to go to someone we call the Herb Lady and she helped him so much with his lifelong allergy problems. We've been doing a sort of maintenance thing, but we're thinking maybe we need to go see her again. I know my doctor will only want to give me a prescription for an inhaler. I have used one in the past when I thought it was absolutely necessary, but I don't like them at all.
Cherwill, I am having the same problem. That is actually why I am in the house right now. I can't breath in this high heat and humidity or severe cold either. The inhalers are great when you need them but if you aren't having an actual asthma attack it seems to make me feel really shaky. I don't like that at all. I've been really having problems recently with all the humidity and the heat.

I have a dream hobby farm in my head, too. I'm sure the reality would be a real wake-up call, but I'd love the (highly unlikely) chance to find out.
I have a dream hobby farm in my head too. I have the land but not the equipment or the finances to get things going right.
That's a problem here, too, but not because of distance. Our contractors and handy men are just so booked up, you can wait weeks for a call to be returned, and then months to get to the top of the list for work. Many of them are quoting roofs and big projects for a year in the future.
The people I have building the actual building are from Oklahoma. Even paying a rediculous mileage charge they are coming in dirt cheap compared to the locals and without all the wait. But I am getting very discouraged about getting the local stuff done.

 

[HEChicken]

Hey everyone - just stopping by real quick while taking a break from preserving. Everything seems to be happening at once and I'm spending all day everyday washing and chopping and sautéing and pureeing and canning and……wondering why on earth I planted so much.

Danz, have you looked at the services section under your local Craigslist? Sometimes local handymen will advertise there and you never know….maybe you'll catch someone with more time that way, who isn't with one of the bigger companies that advertise.

Last evening when I was choring, I took a few minutes to watch my 4 Black Spanish turkeys. They are now 5 months old and clearly all the same gender but I've never been sure which that is. I've assumed male for awhile and was disappointed to get all males but figured that solves my problem of which ones to butcher. They're "my" babies as they're the only brooder raised batch this year, so are super friendly and I knew butchering time wouldn't be easy. But in looking at them I realized that if they are male and 5 months, their snoods are way too small. Like, almost non-existent. A few minutes later, the mixed breed turkey wandered by. That one is about two weeks younger but seeing the snood hanging past "his" beak it hit me - the Black Spanish are all female. Now, what are the odds of that? Plus, there is a duck who was raised with them. I had tried to hatch some muscovies but only one hatched and, not knowing what else to do with it, I put it in the brooder with the turkeys, figuring at least it would be less lonely there than on its own. That duck still hangs with the turkeys 90% of the time, and has thus been labeled a "durkey". Anyway, it has been clear for awhile that Durkey is a duck, not a drake, which means that all 5 of the birds I raised in the brooder are female. That just seems so unlikely.

And it leaves me with the quandary of what to do with them. I never anticipated that many females and being so friendly and smaller than males, I'm really reluctant to butcher them, yet don't need that many females. Not to mention, in the absence of a male, I have no way to breed them pure next year. Egad.

It must be something in the water around here as I can't seem to hatch males to save myself. I know many of you would love to have that problem but it really IS a problem when it comes to breeding. I hatched a few birds for my portion of the Aloha project and every one of them is female too. I had hoped to be almost ready to move onto phase two of that program, since the ones I hatched are closing in on 6 months old, but can't proceed with phase two without males. So I have to revisit phase one and try to hatch a bunch more and get some males, which sets me back quite a few months.

And, with all the broody birds I've had this year, I haven't wanted to increase my flock size too much so I've been letting each hen raise only 1-2 chicks. I figured "Oh well, if they're hatching now, they'll be butcher size before winter so I won't have to over-winter them". Well, wouldn't you know almost every chick I've hatched is growing out to be female so knowing me, I'll end up over-wintering them so I can get the eggs come spring.

So then I thought about my over-population problem from the other end. Which hens are getting older, and could be butchered because they've outlived their usefulness. Many of the older ones have a special place in my heart and will live out their days here but I have one who is closing in on 4-years-old and I figured she probably didn't lay many this year and I've never been fond of her so I decided she'll be my first older stew hen for the year. Well, I must have licked my lips while thinking it because the next day that darn hen was in a nest box, broody as can be. This is a 4-year-old hen who has never been broody a day in her life before but just as I decide its her time, she does this to me. Because she knows I can't butcher a mama.

Anyway, break time is over. Back to the hot kitchen with me…..

 

[Trish44]

danz it seems like whenever there is storm damage here that when the local people are too busy we always have contractors driving in from OK to work. They go where the work is so traveling is what they do. You just have to check them out though carefully & make sure their business is legit because you can get some fly by night people that disappear on you after they get money. Never pay them all of it up front & make them complete the work first.