Consolidated Kansas

[Naughty]

my ac has been out all summer... and my house is really a mess because a fan keeps us cool - but only if we are doing absolutley nothing and sitting in front of it... dare to dream of rain? maybe even before my tomatoes are totally done in

on the upside - my girls are really really enjoying the grasshopper invasion of my garden - i am seriously hoping to save at least the tomatoes

and as i weed the garden- i left a big ol section of the yard to grow tall - cut it down and dried it - presto... homemade hay for em - they are too spoiled to nest in pine shavings...

something must be kicking in though - i am starting to get eggs again - cant wait until the heat lets up - figure all my babies willprobably start at once lol

 

[Hawkeye95]

we have a 20% chance of rain here in the Wichita area. I'm not holding my breath. Yesterday was 111 degrees- our area broke a record for this same time back in the 80's. It was much cooler today- ONLY 110 here.

BTW- last I checked, Atwoods still had misters. I don't know if you have one of those stores near you- it's a farm store. I got the cheapy "Cobra" mister, where it looks like a hard plastic pipe molded up into the stance of a cobra snake. It works really great! Been using it since our heat wave. It was $10 including tax.

 

[Ivywoods]

It's been raining here tonight in my area.

I'm going to have to check out one of those misters. I've been lucky so far. I've not lost any birds to the heat. Hopefully it won't get as hot as it has been I think they are predicting mid 90's for the next week or so.

Talk about grasshoppers! This is the worst year I can remember for grasshoppers. I think I need about 100 more guineas! Ever had a BIG grasshopper get down your shirt and then start kicking? Gives me the shivers just remembering it.

 

[Hawkeye95]

We got no rain. I'm not surprised. This morning I did get up pretty early so I could work on the floor before it got too hot. I'm not quite finished... but SOOO close! I could have started framing tonight if I had finished. But maybe I still can if i move fast enough. I put the subfloor down and screwed it all down and cut out notches so it would slide around the remaining two posts i am leaving up. The other two posts I cut down with a new saw my husband got down for me to use. It was a bit scary at first- I think he called it a hack saw. It was really long and had a long exposed blade. That thing vibrated me down to my toes. Anyway, the only thing left to do is to cut off the 3 inch strip of subfloor that needs to get put down and notch it out too so it will fit around the posts. I'll do that this evening. I'm already hot and exhausted! Oh, and I painted the top part of the floor this morning, too. NO hair accidents occured. But I need more paint to put a second coat on. Figures. So I'll likely make another run to Walmart today.

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

Quote:
Could it be a sawzall. Looks nice.

 

[chicken danz]

Hey everyone! I am so proud. I got a call yesterday and some of my bantam polish chicks got top prizes in the fair. They are going to a further competition in Grand Junction,NE at the end of August. One of them got Grand champion over all. Another one got a purple or whatever first place is, and the other one which was shown by another member of the family got best showmanship. What makes me happiest is the kids that have these are so thrilled and pleased. I love it when kids are happy. The father told me the judges said those were the finest polish they had ever had entered. The little girl who got best showmanship wasn't interested in chickens but now she is! Love it!
I am so jealous of those of you who got rain. I was so counting on it! We didn't even get clouds last night.
Loralee, I cracked up when I read about the paint in your hair. I have spent so much time with the bottom of my hair painted white!
You really are doing a bang up job on your chicken house. I don't coat the under side of my flooring simply because it is well off the ground. But it certainly can't hurt a thing. Next build consider buying two pieces of thinner flooring material and putting them on top of each other. It isn't any better but it saves a lot of lifting. I can't believe you could even handle that alone. Amazing!
LN2008, I have lots of chicks. Pure and mixed. I sometimes go to Ottawa to buy feed so that puts me a little closer to Lawrence.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Yeah, that sounds really familiar! I bet that is the name of the saw! The blade went back and forth like an electric knife- except it was only one blade. I just held it still and pushed on it to make it cut through. Even at that, it took longer than I had hoped. Glad that part is done.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
Well, handling it alone was not that easy. I'm glad we have the kid's wagon to scoot them around. When my husband got home last night, he helped me drag the pieces out to the coop. Okay, so you have Polish? Where did you get your chicks? That is awesome that they won!! Very exciting! I was in 4H as a kid and i showed the WCB Polish that my dad raised. I won with my rooster and a hen first place at county. It was so much fun. Before we showed them, my dad helped me bathe them in Palmolive very carefully to get them really clean and scrub down their legs. They were gorgeous and because they free ranged, their feathers were not straggly like everyone else's that showed up. I hope my new chicks are as nice as they ones my dad raised. I would love it if my boys could do 4H too with the chickens.

 

[cherwill]

Quote:
YES! My husband and I mow lawns as a side business and it has not been so fun this year. There doesn't seem to be anything that helps me recover my energy (the sciatic pain might be a factor here), so I just feel like I'm getting weaker and weaker throughout the day.

My chickens seem to be handling it OK. We put a fan in their coop, they have a lot of shade in their yard and we give them fresh water and sometimes ice cubes a couple of times a day. Between us and the neighbors, they get some cool greens and veggies every afternoon. We also have a broken micro-dripper under one of the lilacs in their yard, so it floods under there every day and the chickens are really enjoying it. That's why we haven't fixed it.

Happy late anniversary ChooksChick!

Someone (sorry, I lost track of who) was asking about getting chicks from Orscheln. Here in McPherson, they have the best selection in spring but they did have chicks for sale again last fall. They were all in one bin and not sexed, but that's how we got Ruby (a silver-laced Wyandotte, we think). We were happily surprised to be able to find chicks for sale at that time; we were looking for one to keep the stray buff Orp company. As a side note, we finally found out how a very tiny stray chicken ended up at our house. The woman on the corner had apparently got a chick thinking it would be a great yard pet in addition to her pet dog, and the chick got away. I'm thinking that lone chick dodged a couple of possible bullets! It might be wrong, but she doesn't live there any more and I haven't passed along the information about where her chick ended up.

 

[chicken danz]

Loralee, your house looks amazing. I can't believe that is a first build. You are doing a terrific job. I am sure what you were using was a reciprocating (recipro) saw or Sawzall (brand name). If you get them planted firmly against the base plate they don't shake quite as bad but they still shake.
I was gone all day yesterday. It's amazing how many posts I had to read through this morning.