Consolidated Kansas

[JosieChick]

Oh bummer, so sorry about your brahma girl. I lost an EE a few days ago. She was just a pullet and got puny and weak and died. It was just like that cochin roo. I thought she was looking better because she was up and eating/drinking then the next morning she was dead. Stinks.
Don't you just love when you try to do something and it takes 12 years longer than it should and then you hardly get anything accomplished. I felt like that when I was trying to get my student loans straightened out. It was like chasing my tail.

I lost a Dan Powell bred brahma girl this morning. She had doing the topsy turvy thing, but yesterday showed real improvement, and last night she was eating on her own like she hadn't eaten in weeks. Why do I get my hopes up? She was dead this morning. I should know they have that last bit of energy before they die. She was such an awesome looking bird with the best feet and leg feathering I had ever seen on a brahma. It was a real disappointment..
I had another issue take to much time this morning. Somehow when I made a credit card payment it referred back to an old bank account I haven't used in at least 5 years. The account has been closed a long time and I had removed it as a source of payment. I looked back into my account and it shows nothing but my current account for payment. The first phone call I was told to just go in and make the payment off the right account....which I did.
Well then I got another email from my credit card company saying they had suspended all my ability to pay on line. So that meant another long phone call. I guess the emails they are sending is late coming in and I was assured again that all was well and that only referred to the old account. I get so uptight worrying that things go awry due to computer glitches. It worries me sick.
Then I tried to email a towing bill to the insurance company and the email address the adjuster gave me was incorrect. Grrrr! So now it is back on the phone again to see what I can do about that. It is no wonder I seem to get nothing done. This entire week has been like this.
Never ever refinance a home and total a car at the same time. It's a mad house!!! Then I have to worry about car shopping too. It is going to have to wait and I hope my old junk car keeps running long enough to get me by.

I keep laughing wondering where whoop whoop KS is!!! So sorry about Millie, hope she is on the mend soon.

My car is still in whoop whoop KS. Monday morning they said they thought they'd be finished with it by that afternoon and they'd call me. Here it is Wed afternoon and I haven't heard a word from them. I would have called them multiple times in the past two days except I don't know how or when I can go and get it with the other things we have going on anyway. I did get one of our inop cars running this morning. It needed a new battery but I couldn't even get it started to go get the battery, but finally was able to jump start it this morning so at least we have two vehicles running.

My Millie (Mille Fleur Silchin) is still showing respiratory symptoms. I've been treating with VetRx but it doesn't seem to do much for her. She's had so much eye discharge that her eyes get sealed shut and I have to help her open them several times a day. She's such a timid thing that I've been feeding and watering her separately so she will settle down and eat without fear. Yesterday I segregated her into a small chick run just so she can get sun and fresh air and still eat and drink when she wants to. This morning I finally broke down and started her on Denagard. I had been hoping it would run its course like it did in a few cockerels that were snuffly awhile back but so far no sign of improvement. I was gratified to go down to see her this afternoon and find her eyes open all on her own. I wouldn't have thought the Denagard would kick in that fast but maybe....

Not fun about freezing in the new house! Glad that it was something that doesn't have to happen again. Great news about Lucie! Maybe you'll have some time to decide what to do and maybe it'll sort itself out if it is grafting on new bone! I would probably go ahead and hang the drywall over the plaster if it were me. Plaster is so hard to keep from cracking. Most home shows I watch now just knock out all the plaster walls and get rid of the knob and tube and hang up drywall. What happens to it if you want to hang pictures, etc? Anyway, good luck with the repair!

Oh Josie, I'm so sorry I forgot to reply to your post when I was writing - that's why I prefer to multi even if it gets long because at least then I remember what I was going to say. I'm afraid I'm with Hawkeye on the plaster. I understand that keeping it plaster keeps the "authenticity" of the older house but plaster is just a pain in the butt to deal with, and if you ever resell, buyers are going to prefer to see drywall than plaster too. It is difficult to hang pictures in plaster without cracking it, and repairs aren't as easy either. I would also cover it with drywall if it were mine.

The Denagard really does seem to have made a difference - I'm kicking myself I didn't do it sooner. Her eyes were open this morning and I thought for sure after a whole night they'd be sealed shut. The only reason I hesitated is it always feels like a guessing game to pick the right antibiotic and I didn't want to create resistance by trying the wrong one(s) first. I went with Denagard as my first choice because I think I remembered hearing it works best for respiratory stuff, and a few days ago Danz reported success with it on birds with similar symptoms. I'm so glad it seems to have made such a rapid difference. Glad she is feeling better!

I hear you on the tools. I am strong on "a place for everything and everything in its place" but DH tends to get something out and get distracted and it doesn't get put away. I have a little cordless drill driver that I love because it is good for so many projects and I was really upset a few weeks ago when I needed it and it wasn't in its place - or any other place I looked either - and he was away on a business trip and I couldn't even call him to ask where I should look. I threatened to buy him one of his own if he wouldn't put mine back where it belongs, but that would likely be a waste of money as he would misplace his, then take mine and leave it lying somewhere anyway

. At the end of the day, I'd rather have him than not have him so I try not to let these little frustrations make me forget how lucky I am to have him but.... sheesh.

I know this feeling all to well!!!

Well I really appreciate every ones advice on the plaster walls but we have decided to go ahead and repair them. The entire house is plaster and lath and it would probably cost us a small fortune to replace it. Most of is in pretty good shape except the one upstairs bedroom and even that isn't bad. They just took the lazy route and covered it with thin sheets of wood that weren't even cut well or to size and it looked awful. So I have ordered repair stuff and we have some friends that are going to help us do it ourselves as we can't afford a plaster guy right now. I have watched several This Old House videos on how to repair plaster and think we can get it looking pretty nice. Evidently the fatal mistake people make is trying to cover cracks without resupporting the surrounding plaster. When an old house shifts and the plaster pulls away from the the lath it causes a crack. The key is to re attach the wall to the lath first, then fill the crack. Several holes are drilled around the crack and injected with a substance that is then screwed into place while it drys to re attach the wall to the lath. Then the crack can be filled.

I would like to keep the house as true to itself as possible because we are going to apply with the Kansas Historical Society to get it listed as a historical home and if they accept it we are eligible for state grants to help fix it up. So we might be able to get a grant to help stabilize the foundation and get the summer kitchen stabilized so it isn't lost because it is a mess out there. If we go in and goof around too much with it we could make the house less likely to be recognized. The other problem with hanging drywall over the plaster is that the original woodwork around the windows is practically "lost" once the sheet of drywall is hung up against it. They would be essentially flush.

Yuck, it is raining and very cold out today. I know we need to rain but it is kind of nasty out. My goose pen is already a mucky mess, I am sure this is only going to make it worse. Should have gone and picked up feed yesterday!

 

[JosieChick]

Argghhhh! I just wrote a long post in response to this and lost the whole darn thing! Anyway, here goes again.

Josie, when I had my really old victorian house I gutted the entire thing. Rewired, replumbed and sheetrocked the entire house. I wouldn't do that again like that. I would do one room at a time starting with the upstairs so all that mess didn't end up coming down in the finished area. The problem with sheetrocking over plaster is that it makes your walls too thick so your beautiful old trim work doesn't work any more. Yup, that is an issue.The problem with removing lath and plaster is that sheetrock isn't as thick as the old stuff so once again the trim work doesn't sit right. Yup, that is why we are going to try to repair the plaster. I think we can get it looking pretty nice. But it is easier to cut down the wood on a door frame or window frame to fit and remove and replace old wood than it is to try to make old stuff look right by adding on. The other option that might really work is maybe finding really thin dry wall that would be more of a skim coat and not add that much thickness. These old houses are never square. Hahaha! SO true!! Back when mine was built they just eyeballed everything. The studs were supposed to be 16 inch centers but some were 15 and some were 17 etc. After years of settling nothing was square. I would still take my old house over this one a million times over. I love that wonderful old charm. I wish I could build a copy cat of it. I'd be thrilled.
I was glad that I did gut mine in the long run because I unearthed a multitude of wiring nightmares that could have started a fire any day. All the wiring has been redone. The previous homeowner did that. They did cut into the hardwood floors upstairs though and their repairs are awful so the hardwood floor people are going to fix it. It made me wonder how it had survived over a century and a half. Just out of curiosity does the house still have the original siding and trim and footprint inside? It has about half the original siding. The previous homeowners started replacing the original clapboard with cement board siding. Most of the trim is original but the homeowners painted most of the wood trim in the house white. The exterior trim is almost all original and in fairly decent shape. Unfortunately and addition was put on in the 50s and half of the wrap around porch is gone now. I am still hoping we can get registered with the historical society, especially to get help with the summer kitchen in back which is original and in very poor condition. If it does you can get like a 1% loan from the historical society to do remodeling and repair work. It might save you some $$ in the long run.
I had trouble sIeeping last night then fell asleep about 5 am and overslept this morning. It's been sprinkling and drizzling here all morning. That means a wet slick mess outside. I guess I can't complain cause it is some moisture in some form. The ducks are having a grand time playing in the mud.
Trish I envy you getting work done on your coop. Maybe some day I'll make some progress here. I checked into the greenhouse option for a grow out coop but I learned it doesn't stand up to the wind so that option is out.
Hawkeye I swear if DH put his stuff up he would be surprised at all the tools. He leaves them laying out wherever he uses them. It drives me nuts. I hate to think of all the things he has ruined. Must be a guy thing. DH puts things in buckets when he is done working on a project and then we have all these dumb buckets everywhere with stuff in them and you have to rummage around looking for crap. I had a tool kit my mom bought for me when I first moved out here that had slots for all the little tools and pieces. I used to put everything back into the kit when I was done. Now 3/4 of the stuff in there is missing. Sigh.

 

[chicken danz]

Josie, I think you are making the right decision on the house. You know this group.
We all have to express our opinions but that is what makes us special. As long as no one becomes offended it's all good.
I think if I had done the same I would have gotten a lot of work done sooner. The problem with my old house was there were layers upon layers of wallpaper over the plaster and they had reconfigured the walls to make it a duplex during the depression. I tore it all out and went back to the original floor plan.
I realized later I could have gone in and cut through and repaired the plaster to rewire it and could have just unhooked all the old wiring. It would have been a job as well but still not as much work as we did anyway. My roof was in poor shape and lots of the ceiling plaster was ruined. I doubled the cost of the house by doing the roof but it was money well spent.
There was also no insulation in the house when I bought it so while I had the walls out I insulated the entire thing. I don't like blown in insulation cause it tends to pocket in places, miss fire stops and pile up. Cellulose insulation was all that was available to insulate with at that time but if they'd had the fiberglass blow in stuff I would have used that. I would have done a million things different if I were going to do it over again.

 

[HEChicken]

I must admit I hadn't considered the issue of trim - I bet you will get it looking really nice.

That is weird about the hacking of the credit cards - do you know how they are getting the number so often? I've never had my card numbers hacked. My only issue with a cc was when my whole purse was stolen two years ago. It was several hours before I noticed it was missing and by then they had charged up about $3K on the cards. They did start with small transactions at RedBox to be sure the card was going to go through and then went to Walmart and spent thousands. I had words with the security division of Walmart asking how they were able to get away with it and it turns out it is a Walmart policy NOT to ask to see ID. They did have the thieves on video surveillance footage though so I hope they were apprehended and prosecuted since of course actions like that raise the prices for all of us. I wasn't liable for the charges since I reported it stolen but Chase told me the way it works is they give me my money back and then they go after Walmart (and any other retailer) to recoup their loss. So in the end, it was Walmart that lost the $3K, and they pass those losses along to us in the form of price hikes so in the end we all pay when something like that happens. It makes me really question the self-checkouts, as it would be so easy to use any card at a self-checkout, bypassing any security measures at all.

I finally got the call that my car is ready to be picked up!!! So this afternoon when DD gets out of school she will drive me there and then we will both drive back. I am so excited to finally get my car back - I've really missed it.

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Congrats on the pips! Moving the incubator is no big deal at all. Get ready to have lots of fun today! Especially with Sam coming home! I meant to say-- your vet must be like a SUPER AWESOME vet if he actually 'sacrificed' his own dog to get blood to use for YOUR dog. I mean... wow! That was an amazing call and I'd say your vet is a very smart guy. He knew what he needed to do to save your dog and he went for it. Truely... hang on to that vet!

He is the same vet that took care of Fern when she was hit last summer. He doesn't have good communication skills at all and you can tell her doesn't really like talking to people much. But, when it comes to the animals, he is great - which is what matters.

I have 4 pips! I'm all ready for the chicks except I need to clean up the feeder/water bottles that I will use in their box.

Sitting here knitting and waiting for the vet to call so I can go get Sam!

 

[JosieChick]

I must admit I hadn't considered the issue of trim - I bet you will get it looking really nice. Thanks! I originally thought we could just go over the really bad room with drywall too and that was my plan but then a lot of issues cropped up. The walls and ceilings aren't square upstairs, they angle up into the ceiling and the space between the trim on the window and ceiling transition is narrow. I was a bit scared of the plaster but now that we have a friend who is familiar with it I don't think it will be nearly as bad as I thought. Plus it would be a hot mess to tear out all the plaster and lath! It is hard to change anything like the layout of windows/doors when you have plaster but I don't think we are going down that road anyway. I just want the nursery walls to not look absolutely awful.

That is weird about the hacking of the credit cards - do you know how they are getting the number so often? I've never had my card numbers hacked. My only issue with a cc was when my whole purse was stolen two years ago. It was several hours before I noticed it was missing and by then they had charged up about $3K on the cards. They did start with small transactions at RedBox to be sure the card was going to go through and then went to Walmart and spent thousands. I had words with the security division of Walmart asking how they were able to get away with it and it turns out it is a Walmart policy NOT to ask to see ID. They did have the thieves on video surveillance footage though so I hope they were apprehended and prosecuted since of course actions like that raise the prices for all of us. I wasn't liable for the charges since I reported it stolen but Chase told me the way it works is they give me my money back and then they go after Walmart (and any other retailer) to recoup their loss. So in the end, it was Walmart that lost the $3K, and they pass those losses along to us in the form of price hikes so in the end we all pay when something like that happens. It makes me really question the self-checkouts, as it would be so easy to use any card at a self-checkout, bypassing any security measures at all.

I finally got the call that my car is ready to be picked up!!! So this afternoon when DD gets out of school she will drive me there and then we will both drive back. I am so excited to finally get my car back - I've really missed it. Yeah!!!

Oh and I greatly appreciate everyones opinions. I am a bit concerned about the resell of the home someday but our house in Wichita was all plaster too. I think if someone is looking at an old home they kind expect that. As long as the house is maintained and the walls are in good shape I don't think people even take a second glance at the walls.

We actually had insulation blown into the house in Wichita and I think we kind of made a mistake with that. It isn't going to be a problem for a while but evidently when you add insulation to an old house you should apply moisture barrier to the exterior to prevent the house from wicking moisture into the insulation. This causes all kinds of trouble later on with warping, mold, wood rot etc. I think we were talking to a friend back east that does period restoration on old homes and he was telling us about that because so many people are going back in and insulating older homes now. Live and learn I guess!

Josie, I think you are making the right decision on the house. You know this group.
We all have to express our opinions but that is what makes us special. As long as no one becomes offended it's all good.
I think if I had done the same I would have gotten a lot of work done sooner. The problem with my old house was there were layers upon layers of wallpaper over the plaster and they had reconfigured the walls to make it a duplex during the depression. I tore it all out and went back to the original floor plan.
I realized later I could have gone in and cut through and repaired the plaster to rewire it and could have just unhooked all the old wiring. It would have been a job as well but still not as much work as we did anyway. My roof was in poor shape and lots of the ceiling plaster was ruined. I doubled the cost of the house by doing the roof but it was money well spent.
There was also no insulation in the house when I bought it so while I had the walls out I insulated the entire thing. I don't like blown in insulation cause it tends to pocket in places, miss fire stops and pile up. Cellulose insulation was all that was available to insulate with at that time but if they'd had the fiberglass blow in stuff I would have used that. I would have done a million things different if I were going to do it over again.

 

[Trish44]

We actually got a little rain last night & this morning, I don't know how much because I don't have the rain gauge out. It was enough to make it muddy outside though.

Josie, hats off to you for taking on an old house, I think the old ones have so much more charm than new ones. I always wanted an old house to fix up, but just never had the money to do it. That's too bad they took off part of that wrap around porch I just love those. I hope the wiring is in good shape, I watch these DIY network shows all the time & see them tearing out all the old wiring & replacing it in old houses. Of course you don't even have to have an old house to have messed up wiring, these people that built this house evidently didn't know what a ground was for & some of the wiring is just screwy here. We had an electrician come out to see if we could do what the air conditioning guys thought we should do in the attic for the heating system, which was adding an additional breaker up there just for that. When he looked at all the wiring here he just kind of shook his head & when he left he said he would send us an estimate & we never heard from him again. We just haven't had the time or money to call someone else out. The electricians around here are picky about what jobs they take on, really all the contractors in this town are like that. You can call one & tell them what you want done & they sometimes tell you they don't want to do it. What, you don't want my money? It's weird.

I just talked to Sunflowerparrot on the phone & Sam is on his way home, yay! He is a strong little pup to go through what he did & make a total turnaround. The Vet really didn't give him much of a chance for making it, but he did & he's going home. He really is a special dog.

Danz, well it's about time we made some progress on this coop, it's been months since we started on it. I'm just getting so anxious about it because I need my birds moved now & it's not done. Even when we do get the building itself done I have to figure out how to do the pens. All of that & the weather to deal with at the same time. I'm just so aggravated that this wasn't all done a long time ago, but it's not his priority & I get reminded almost daily that it's not HIS project or his chickens.

Well I need to go get dressed, my DH's car is also ready to be picked up, yay! So we're going to go eat lunch as soon as he gets back from the gym & get's ready & then go get his car so he can go to work. I sure hope they got it all fixed this time so it works good for awhile. It's just started having some bigger issues & this is the 2nd time he's had to sink a chunk of money into it. The last time it was $1000 & this time $500. I hope you all have a good day!

 

[chicken danz]

I'm still inside. Kind of catching up here and there. It am actually kind of enjoying staying in for a change but I still have to go out and feed anyway. I got the chick bin all cleaned out and freshened up. I so need a building to do all this bird stuff in! Not having this mess in here would be wonderful. I wonder if the chick dust will ever go away completely? Sure wish I could have at least gotten the enclosed covered porch built on the house. At least I could have moved it all out there and gotten some of the mess out of here.
Oh well I guess maybe I'll do better in my next life!!

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Ok looking for hatching eggs. Any suggestions? Oh also to you all who have SFH there is someone on one of the facebook swap pages there is someone selling some roos. It is the kansas poultry swap.

 

[chicken danz]

I believe that is Trish from here. I will need to sell some roos myself later. It is just hard to decide which ones to keep and which to sell.