Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

@HEChicken Yeah you deserve some rest for sure. I hope this week is much better than last.

I have been working all week on winterizing my pens & am almost there. I have just a couple more things to do & then I think I can call it good on that. The goats & sheep waste so much hay throwing it on the ground that I have been picking it up & putting it in chicken pens & in the goat & sheep shelters. I don't put the really wet stuff in but the top layer is dry.

I guess we're officially back to regular time now. Gosh I wish they would leave it alone & just let it stay one way or the other. I hate that it gets dark so early, that's the pits.

 

[chicken danz]

What time it is on the clock doesn't matter that much to me. I would rather deal with it getting dark earlier in the winter than have to deal with daylight at 10 pm in the summer. Mostly because I work until dark and in the summer that means less sleep because I still have to get up as early. I've read recently where several states are considering going back to standard time permanently. I think that would be wonderful. The time change is hard on everyone.
HEChicken I hope this week goes totally positive and you get some much needed sleep. You're due for some luck.
I'm still not even ready to start on winterizing. I sure hope I don't get caught with preparing in 0 degrees cause the temps fell all at once. I just have so many other projects to get done beforehand.
If I didn't have so many appointments to attend these days it would help. I am so sick of being on the go. I just want to stay home and do what I can.

 

[HEChicken]

Ha - well I have a funny/ironic story to tell about the time change. It was my turn to get up and do the 2am treatment on the cow, so I set the alarm on my phone. Well, you know how phones these days change the time automatically, and the time change officially occurs at 2am. So, at 2am, the alarm went off, woke me and out I went. When I got back in, the clock in the kitchen read 3:25. I just knew I hadn't been outside for an hour and a half but it took me a minute to figure out what happened! The ironic part is, if I had set it for 1:59 instead of 2am, it would have woken me a whole hour earlier.

 

[chicken danz]

Ha - well I have a funny/ironic story to tell about the time change. It was my turn to get up and do the 2am treatment on the cow, so I set the alarm on my phone. Well, you know how phones these days change the time automatically, and the time change officially occurs at 2am. So, at 2am, the alarm went off, woke me and out I went. When I got back in, the clock in the kitchen read 3:25. I just knew I hadn't been outside for an hour and a half but it took me a minute to figure out what happened! The ironic part is, if I had set it for 1:59 instead of 2am, it would have woken me a whole hour earlier.

Your phone allowed you to get an extra hours sleep. Yay!!
This time change was pretty seamless for me. Other than yesterday was DHs day off and with him still on night shift I was ready for dinner and bed and he was still out messing with things.
We've gone one more week of this and then we're having a meeting of the minds. I've got to make sure things get turned back around to decent hours when he's not working nights. Problem is when he is working day shift he still doesn't get home until about 7:00 to 7:30 PM. It sure is inconvenient.

 

[Trish44]

@HEChicken that sounds like something I would do. I just hate it getting dark so early because I do chores in the evening & now I have to start even earlier. I really don't mind being out later at night when it's light because we're not early risers here with DH's schedule. We still don't have all of our clocks set yet, we'll get it done eventually.

We got some rain last night, I don't know how much but it started about 10:00. We just had gotten home from the theater when it started. Speaking of that, we were in the theater getting ready to watch a movie at our local theater when the earthquake hit. That was a weird feeling having the building shake like that.

 

[Trish44]

I've been busy & haven't remembered to post this but I wanted to warn everyone to watch your chickens closely if you free range. Sunday I was out changing out my waterers & getting the heated bowls hooked up. I heard a chicken squawking in distress & looked over by the lagoon where the sound was coming from & there was a coyote within 50 feet of me. It must have smelled me or heard me because it stopped chasing the chicken. About that time my GPs had heard the chicken squawking & took off towards where they saw her come from. They ran right by the coyote but it saw them & took off at a dead run. They must have intersected at some point up the hill. This was in the middle of the afternoon, broad daylight so they're getting much bolder. It really freaked me out looking right at a coyote that close. I told my DH I guess I'm going to have to take the 22 out with me when I go outside.

 

[HEChicken]

Wow that is scary Trish. I've been that close to them as well but with a fence between us. Hopefully the GPs scared it off. I wonder if you need more LGDs since the coyotes are able to get that close right under their noses. I've always heard that a pair is the minimum but in areas of high predator load, more is better and it sounds like you might have a high predator load there.

Not much new here. We continue to treat the cow every 3 hours around the clock which means I'm still setting alarms to get up in the middle of the night. It is nice having a partner to alternate but it still means we each have to do 3-4 treatments each day. The udder remains tight and full, very swollen with a lot of edema. But otherwise, you would never know how close to death she was just a few days ago. She is eating, drinking and caring for her calf as though nothing were ever wrong. The calf, Hallie, is super friendly since she had so much handling in her first few days of life. She bounds up to us and loves to be scratched - quite different than our previous dam-raised calves that were quite skittish at this age.

 

[chicken danz]

I've noticed the predator load is really heavy this fall. Thank heavens Yeti has started to work now. He will be a year old in about 3 weeks. I also think the electric fence is having an impact. What worries me though is I've seen the ducks walk under it and the wire touch their backs but I guess they are insulated enough it doesn't make ground. Who would have thought? I haven't however seen the chickens even go near it. The animals seem to sense the electric current without touching it....except the ducks. I guess they think they are special!
I know you'll be glad when you no longer have to get up around the clock to work on your cow. You and your partner should be congratulated for staying in there and saving her life.
I made it past the "bewitching hour" without my hand getting worse so I am feeling optimistic. I can't say that it has gotten substantially better, but at least it isn't worse at this point. Maybe I will heal yet. I do have a lot more movement in my fingers, but unfortunately not without pain.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Yep even in the city predators have gotten very brave have had a big Coon walking up to my front door every evening at 7pm thankfully i haven't seen any sign that he is trying to get into the coop but that could be because I leave their light on until 9pm as I have 7 8wk chicks in the coop and want to give them the extra tine to eat since most of the adults even with the white light on are already roosting or getting ready to which really give the chicks time to eat their fill and then with full crops they are up on the roost or into the chick cage ready for bed.

Danz am so happy to hear that will keep sending prays and hope you continue to heal well and fast.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I've noticed the same about the feathers insulating against the electric. When we rotation graze, it doesn't matter where the electric fence is - the chickens are still able to free-range as they just go under it and it doesn't seem to touch them at all. Now I've had a couple try to go over by standing on the lower wire and those birds sure did get zapped but as long as they go under, they are fine.

Dani, it is only a matter of time until that coon is a problem for your birds. I would get rid of him now while you have the chance, if I were you.