Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Time to loosen up some stiff fingers on the keyboard. I feel like I'm progressing sometimes and other times not at all. I think the stitches will come out in the morning and hope that allows me a little more movement in my hand. I can move all but one of my fingers now. It's just painful to do so. But I've been making myself do so at least several times a day. I also have to get PT back on my schedule. I had postponed making another appointment to see if I made it through the weekend without going back to the hospital. I'm still running a fever off and on but not constantly.
My oldest sister came over yesterday. She has been working on keeping my floors up since it's impossible to sweep one handed. Instead we worked on some of my projects I haven't been able to do alone. We got the duck pond cleaned, and started building a feeder for my calf I had in mind to build. She's not a carpenter and it was funny watching her. It made me feel a little better about my dumb left hand. At any rate it gave me an opportunity to get it started which was probably a two person job to begin with. Now that I have just the basic frame put together I might be able to finish most of it by myself. I'm still impatiently waiting on DH to get the pen built. Maybe I'll eventually get my calf home.
It was one of my off center days and I spent more time falling than standing. My first fall was in the pig pen and I landed right in the middle of a mud puddle. Of course the pig thought it was a great opportunity to play and decided to lean against me to get scratched while I was struggling to get up. Another time I was trying to drag the hose across the yard and tripped and fell again. That one hurt. Then I fell in the driveway trying to balance myself so I could use the drill left handed to screw in a screw.

Danz I know the hand will feel somewhat better when you get those stitches out, it always does. I know my knee felt a lot better after I finally got those staples out. I hope the fever goes away soon so you feel better. It was good of your sister to come help you. I would be the same as her, I'm not a carpenter either. I manage to cobble things together, but they're not always pretty. Geez be careful or you're going to end up hurting something else if you keep falling. That's how I was before I got my total knee done, I fell all the time. I would hate to do that now & mess up my knee.

Yesterday afternoon I took the rest of my BLRW chicks out to the hoop coop. I knew I was going to have to put hardware cloth over the bottom part of the pen but I ran out of time & had to go get lunch ready so my DH could go to work. I came right back out after lunch & already one of the chicks had gotten through the chicken wire & got eaten, grrrr. I spent the next 2 1/2 hours putting hardware cloth all the way around the bottom of the pen, it about killed me. I was so tired by the time I got that done & then had to do all of the feeding. I was dragging myself into the house by the time I was done. I'm still paying for that today. It's really hard on my knee to be bending over for that long, it swells & hurts. I'm glad to have it done finally. I have one more hoop coop I would like to do like that, but it's not going to get done right now. I started putting tarps on the north sides of pens but need to go get some new tarps. I added pens & one of my big tarps I noticed got ripped really bad so I have to go get some new ones.

 

[Trish44]

HEChicken it sounds like you're doing the same thing I am right now, just trying to get things ready for colder weather. I have been putting extra bedding in my pens & started putting tarps up as well. Today I spent the afternoon trying to get my summer water buckets taken out & putting my heated dog bowls in the pens. I had to dig up some stepping stones from the front yard & use them for sitting the bowls on so that took longer & I had to have my DH push the wheelbarrow down to the pens after I got the stones in there because it was too heavy for me. I was using small pallets but a lot of them have rotted so I had to find something else to use. If I don't sit them up on something the chickens just kick bedding into them & make a mess. I have a couple more pens to do yet but at least I got most done today. I'm not hooking them up to electricity yet but at least they will be there when I need to. I'm not sure what I'm going to do in the chick pen yet. Hopefully they will get a little bigger before it gets too cold. Normally I don't have little chicks this time of year, so it poses another problem.

 

[chicken danz]

I have nothing ready for winter yet and still need to butcher several cockerels before then. I don't think having a hand injury could have come at a worse time. I was hoping DH would be drilling a hole and setting a gate post for my calf pen today but he decided he's going to go to Tulsa instead. He doesn't seem to understand the importance of getting some of this stuff done.
I had a surprise visit from my son and daughter in law and was thrilled yesterday afternoon. Normally I would have been horrified and not having the house cleaned but I thought this time they'd surely understand. I had found a recipe for a tortilla soup using chicken breast and used up a half turkey breast in it. I think it worked out pretty good since I didn't have several ingredients and used substitutes for a lot of things.
My daughter in law was thrilled to pick in my garden and got a grocery sack full of tomatoes and green beans to take home. I can't imagine them ever being able to eat that many tomatoes. My plans were to freeze them but picking them and getting them in the freezer just was something I didn't have time for since it takes me so long to do my chores right now. Maybe the weather will hold a while longer and I'll have more later to freeze. She also took some green ones to try fried green tomatoes. Another thing I wanted to do but can't do a good job of slicing with one hand right now.
I had three dozen eggs which went with her as well. She had only asked for eggs. Of course that is what I had the least of, but the girls will lay more.
I've got to go get a load of feed this morning. I am totally out. Sure seems like it went really fast. I've got to get this hand well so I can get back to bird selling. I'm also out of chick starter which means another trip that will take around 3 hours to do. It's going to be a busy week. Hopefully the doctors visit today will prove to be positive.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz I sure hope you get good news at the doctor visit today.

Yep Trish, winterizing isn't fun but there's no point putting it off until the weather is really cold and miserable. It feels good to get it done now and be ready when the time comes. Today I plan to build my first hay wall and start feeding hay. They are still grazing but I know the quality of the grass has really gone down with the shorter days.

Happy Halloween everyone!

We had a lovely surprise this morning. Our calf due on Nov 4th arrived a few days early. She is a pretty little heifer calf we have named Hallie since she was born in the wee hours of Halloween morning.

 

[spree56]

What a pretty pair. Calving time always makes me a bit nervous so I'm glad it all went smoothly.

 

[chicken danz]

Congrats on the calf @HEChicken . And a heifer none the less.
I have a small group of ducks hatching today. I have no idea where I'm going to put them.Just my first move in starting to switch to just cayuga ducks and eventually eliminating the other domestic breeds. These can be mixed but all came from Cayuga eggs. I just decided to hatch while they were available. Maybe next spring I'll make a greater move toward changing my breeders.
I got my stitches out yesterday. Strangely enough the knuckle that the cat opened is the best looking area. The doctor said it had the most damage and the most infection but it is fealing fairly nicely. The other incision the doctor made is the one that is still giving me fits.
I really didn't learn anything though. He basically said for me to finish my antibiotics, then wait 3- 5 days after they were done. Then if it flares more then to immediately get in and he will have to do emergency surgery. If it continues to heal then I don't have to do anything but continue with PT. I was pretty unhappy because I would think there would be something they could check now to see how far or where the infection is. The other doctor had taken a culture but the surgeon says that was a waste of time because it may have picked up bacteria from my skin that may grow faster than the bacteria from the wound. I guess that makes sense but why couldn't the surgeon have taken some of the bacteria from inside when he was doing surgery?
So I guess at a minimum, I have to wait another week or so to see if this is going to heal or not. It certainly is still giving me lots of pain and I still have a finger that won't lift by itself. It's so discouraging when I just want answers.

 

[Trish44]

HEChicken congrats again on the new calf & I'm glad things went well.

I went yesterday & bought several new tarps so today I will have fun, not, putting them up. I wish the wind would die down so it would be easier. My DH went to start our old truck yesterday & couldn't get it started even with the batter charger on it. That thing eats batteries all the time & we can't figure out why. He finally took the battery out & took it up to the place where he buys them & left it for them to test. They won't replace one unless they test it first. He never heard back from them last night so he has to go up there today to find out if they forgot about it. Darnit we need that truck, I need feed soon & he has to take the trash to the dump. Quite awhile ago he decided that he was tired of the trash company raising the rates all the time so he has been hauling it all to the dump on a regular basis. We also have to get a new windshield put in it because believe it or not the hedge apples have broken it to bits. I guess we're going to have to find another place to park it after we get it fixed. That was a good sheltered spot to park it so I don't know now where we'll put it.

Danz I hope your hand gets better soon, I know that is miserable. Yeah you deal with the same thing there that I do, waiting for someone to decided to help do things. It's not their priority so things get done on their timetable, if it gets done. I waited for two years to have help getting the posts put in for my breeder coop pens.

 

[lizzyGSR]

I have had birds for years now and have never had an egg break in my pocket... Until the last 12-ish hours, when I've broken FIVE while in my pocket.

Yesterday, I was outside and found an egg unexpectedly. I put it in my pocket and finished what I was doing (getting ready to take the horses to the vet to get their teeth floated). I completely forgot about the egg until I got to the vet's and found it still in my pocket. I left it there for "safe keeping" because I had nowhere better to put it. This morning, I found it again, still in my pocket. This time, it was broken and stinky. I was outside doing chores, so I gathered up this morning's eggs from my ducks and hurried inside to put my coat in the washer, completely forgetting that I'd put this morning's eggs in the pocket of the coat, so they went through the washer WHILE STILL IN THE COAT POCKET!

What a mess!

Apparently, the lack of sleep from not sleeping well plus having a baby and a toddler both waking me up multiple times at night is getting to me.... That coat is currently being washed for the second time this morning.

I think it's a good thing it's Friday!

 

[chicken danz]

LOL I can't count how many times I put an egg in my pocket and bent over against something and smashed it, or worse yet shoved my hand down in my pocket and broke the egg that way.
Speaking of which did you know that is why aprons were traditionally made with big pockets on the front. It was to gather eggs.
I have another busy day ahead and am already behind. I hate it when I have to juggle things and don't have the time I need. So here I am wasting more time.
I worked hard yesterday trying to clean up some trash around here and over did it some. My hand was really swollen last night and I had to keep an ice pack on it during the night. I'm so unhappy with my progress. I am using my hand more but if it swells again it keeps me from moving it.
I lost one of my Icelandic cockerels yesterday. And of course it was my favorite one. I did a necropsy which sure wasn't easy without having my hand to cut with. His mouth was full of blood. All of his organs were perfect and I could find nothing but the blood in his mouth and in his esophogus. I am going to have to conclude he broke his neck. I was out there when he died but not right at the pen when it happened. I heard a ruckus and then found him a few minutes later. His heart had just stopped beating. So sad. I have several eggs in the incubator right now and I sure hope I have some babies from him. I haven't hatched any Icies yet but the eggs are mostly fertile so I plan to soon.

 

[Trish44]

Danz I'm sorry about your rooster

. I hope you get some chicks from them to supplement your breeding group. Sometimes things take way longer to heal than you would like & I know this time of year is busy for you. I hope it heals soon so you can do more things.

I've been busy when I've been here trying to winterize my pens. I have to go out today & put plastic on the north sides of the hoop coops. I have 4 that are 16 ft long so it takes a long time to get them done. Some I also have to put plastic on the fronts of as well.

Lizzy I did that multiple times in the past with eggs till finally I just had to stop putting eggs in my pocket.