Consolidated Kansas

[ocap]

would this kind of carabiner work for hinge and latch?

Yeah, I think I'm going to go with HEChicken's idea for the conduit panels with chicken wire for the 3 inside panels & then fasten them to the metal t-posts. My problem now is I need creative minds to help me figure out how to do the gates so they will be able to open & shut for me to be able to get in & out of the pens. I have to make 4 gates & somehow use the t-posts with them. Does anybody have any brilliant ideas? I seem to be out of them.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Sorry you didn't sleep Hawkeye - I know that feeling so well, of lying awake worrying about things.

I sprouted for the birds a couple of years ago, using the jar/cheesecloth method. All the sprouts got eaten, but I didn't get the sense they were going ape over them - it was more like pick through and eventually eat them all. My mum used to always sprout for us when we were kids and a little pile of sprouts would constitute a "vegetable" on our dinner plates. But when I suggested to DH that we could eat the sprouts I made for the girls, he tried some on his salad and his response was "so-so". So with the cool reception they got, I didn't continue doing them. Karen - are your birds eating them with gusto? I tried 6-8 different types of seed/grain to sprout - wheat, beans, lentils etc, but I couldn't tell if one got a better reception than another.

This morning we were sitting and drinking our coffee when I saw an animal in the pasture. I keep a pair of binoculars on the window sill just for this purpose, so I grabbed them and looked. Yup, my first coyote sighting since we've been out here. I watched as he ran AWAY from my chicken coop and finally disappeared through the north end of the pasture. So glad he didn't seem to be a problem.....this time.

I want to start the sprouting thing!! I saw that they make special lids for putting on mason jars to do this-- some come with very fine stainless steel mesh put into lids and others have plastic lids with very small holes in it. Interesting!

<------sprouting lid!

<--- this one comes in varying sizes for seeds

ANyway, I think I'm most interested in growing Fodder!

He was just scoping you out, probably smelled your chickens, he'll be back. My GPs have been really busy at night lately, so much so that in the morning when I got out they're passed out in the yard sleeping.

Hawkeye, I hope your hubby can find a job locally & you won't have to have sleepless nights too much longer, that's miserable.

Karen, The sprouting looks interesting. I used to have a sprout jar, but who knows what happened to it. What seeds do your chickens like the best?

I got a text last night from a friend of mine who said her egg lady got a divorce & the hubby got the chickens, so I guess she'll be buying eggs from me now. Yay, another egg customer!

I agree--- the coyote will be back. But they don't usually fight with fencing. But he may try to dig under or find some other way in. By the time you spotted him, he might have already sniffed it all out and was heading out to think about it. Good news that you have another egg customer!

Wow I have been busy watching babies hatch and this thread took off on me lol I have 7 so far and 5 pips. They are taking their time
I like the sprouts I have been wanting to do this.
Gonna snap pics once they are all out and dry. I had to lower the temp a tad because they were panting. I hope this doesnt mess things up too much

Good luck!

Trish44 ~ Another option for building your pens that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet, is using the metal posts. They are easy to drive into the ground with a post driver and can be wiggled out (or use a car jack and chain) if you want to move them. You can fasten the wire to them or make the panels like someone suggested and fasten those to the posts for upright support. I only use the metal here and they work well.(except to hang a heavy gate from) They can even be used for the poles in a small shed.

Great idea!

Must have been a night for not sleeping, I did the same thing just worried about different things I am sure!
I wonder if my birds would like sprouts. We have a chicken bucket in the kitchen that I throw just about everything into to take out to the birds and when I brought it out for them the other day there were a couple stale chocolate chip cookies and that is what they fought over! Junk food junkies.

Watch for that coyote. Those day time loners are the ones that will cause you the biggest problems. And he will be back looking for an easy meal.

Wondering where Danz is last night and today.....

It is cold out! I need to get a move on today and get the house cleaned. I really need to start painting something, anything really would be good. Everyone stay warm!

Right-- where is Danz?? Sorry you had a bad night of sleep too. Mine will be resolved once my DH nails down another job BEFORE his time is up!

FUNNY about the stale choco chip cookies!!! LOL

 

[checoukan]

Ok, going to throw my 2 cents in. Yes it is cold, DH just called, and said it was snowing heavy where they are fixing a water leak, they have fixed 3, they sure are getting cold out there.

I use the what a lot of feed stores call utility panel. It is made out of wire like cattle panel, but the holes are 4 inches X 4 inches. Now, bantams will not stay in these too good, if they are the small ones, but will hold any standard bird. I use t posts to hold the panel. That way, when I decide to rearrange, all I have to do is unwire the panel, pull the post, and pen is moved. I think most of these utility panels are like 20 ft long. My new runs will be 20 long X 5 ft wide. I watch on craigslist for old chain link fence gates, they work really well for in and out of pens. Once my panels are up, then I use the chicken wire, and cover the top of the run so the birds cannot fly out. I don't worry about preditors cause the runs will be in the area where the GP's roam. Also with the chicken wire on the top of the run, I don't have to worry about hawks coming down into the run.

Not all feed stores carry the utility panel. It is not a cattle panel, hog panel, of combination panel. Don't let someone try to sell you one of those, cause they are not the same. Guess I better go take a picture so you will see what I am talking about if you have never seen these panels.. These panels, are 5 feet tall too.

I have several leaning up against an old garage, but one was sticking out some so you can see the holes are 4 X 4. And then just for kicks, I took a picture of the guys workin on the barn. It is snowing a little here, and wind is blowing BRRRRR!
They did not get to work monday because of rain. They didn't work yesterday, cause I guess they were going to get muddy feet, so now, I guess they will work in the snow, and cold wind. It would just be too cold for me to stay out there, course I guess they are tough.

 

[chicken danz]

I'm alive. I am trying to get caught up. One day of no posts and I had pages and pages to read. I hope every thing I multied shows up because I will never be able to remember it all.

Danz-- your chipmonk story was FUNNY! I'm really glad you caught the little guy, but wow, good thing the cats were asleep and it all worked out well. When Josie said "super sonic chippies" it cracked me up thinking about it zooming around and you seconds behind it. hehehe What are you going to do with your albino turkey? I'd love to see a picture of her (on a much nicer day when it's warmer out there). The wind today is INSANE!!! I'm so glad I got water cleaned and refilled when it was nice.
I think when the albino lays I will expose her to one of the boys. Only a female can be an albino. So if I can tell when they poults are young whether they are albino or not, I can sell the boys as eating birds and cull the females. Or maybe sell all of them as meat birds with the understanding that is what they are for. I have people interested in birds for breeding and for eating. She is just such a sweet bird I can't butcher her and I feel responsible for her.
I would sell her if she could have a pet home with chickens. That is what she is used to. I always figured I would just butcher her but I just can't do it. I wouldn't even want to eat her.
Oh no. Yes, agreed, they can be pretty dumb. I'm so glad that my big birds, I don't have to worry about them getting wet or being outside. But when you have tiny little bantam breeds-- or birds that don't have feathers that SHED water... Ugh. Can cause a lot of problems when they get wet and cold. I sure hope they will be okay and don't come down with colds!

I lost two birds after all the rain and then the temperature turning cold. Both were small and fairly young so a first experience. Obviously got soaked and just sat there and froze to death. Unfortunately they were both pullets. I little Mille fleur D'uccle and a little barred rock. Sometimes I think they get outside of the coop for the first time and then can't remember how to get back in.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SpooncreekJenn


Finally got our lil seperation coop done we made the runs out of PVC really light and easy to move and cheap
The whole thing was about 200.00 in material but a lot of labor thank gosh my Dad and Sister like to help.
We are pretty proud of the lil red barn.

That is very cute. I have a moveable PVC pen I made and it has been my all around best project that has given me the most use.

Michelleml, What a great find for the cat.

So, aside from making soap today, I had sprouts ready for the birds. My quart jars seem to do an amazing job of sprouting. I bought these stacking tray thingies that work but not nearly as simply as the quartz jars with a rim screwed on over cheesecloth for draining the water. They loved the the sprouts and I have tons left for our salad tonight. Yay, sprouting!

I was going to ask you about the sprouting but I see you covered it later.

Gosh Danz are your birds still going as nuts as mine are about this FF? You would think after awhile they would get used to it & not be so crazy, but half the time when I start out trying to put it in the feeder they knock half of it on the ground or on themselves. I'm just fighting birds to try to get the darned stuff in there so they can eat, crazy birds!
Yep they act like they never get fed. I am now feeding them all out of this huge barrel I have in the shop, except for the bin for the babies and one 5 gal bucket I have in the house for quick feed. I have got to find an easier way to handle it though. It is so heavy and I use so much. And I can work it better if it is wetter, but then I haven't gotten any thing big enough that works to drain it.
The biggest advantage to this now is that all that fine feed that was getting left in the bottom of their feeders is now getting used. That alone has to help some....or would if I would quit spilling so much. I realize that I doubled my work because I have to handle the feed twice. Once to put in the barrel and a second time to dip out and feed. Regardless I am still enthused about the FF.
One new problem was that I had quite a bit of it freeze before the birds ate it. I haven't figured out how to avoid that on these really cold days.

This bowl is 15 inches in diameter. This amount of sprouts was from 3 quart jars. The sprouts were just packed in those jars and really fluffed up once out. The chickens loved it. We spread it around in different areas so that all of them could get some.






On the right in the back is a bucket of seeds -- the salad blend -- I bought them from www.sprouthouse.com. It's a 4 or 5 lb. bucket and I don't remember how much it cost. They are organic seeds and this mixture is clover, radish, broccoli, alfalfa. I only used 1/2 C of seed per quart canning jar. I cut 3 or 4 layers of cheescloth, laid it over the mouth of the jar and screwed on the rim over the top. Then, I soaked the seed overnight and drained it the next morning. Rinsed twice more that day and 3 times everyday thereafter. My seed took 4 days to sprout fully but it can take 2 to 6 days, depending on weather.

Wasn't it WichitaKidd who said "No pic, didn't happen."?

I included the soaps, shampoo and face cream I made myself. The Castille bar soap on the right is also used to make my laundry soap and automatic dishwashing soap, with added ingredients of Borax and Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. The Castille soap is for the kids with allergies. It's a great winter soap because it is so mild and gentle -- it doesn't dry your skin like even my regular Dove soap did. The Daydream Believer soap is my original recipe and fragrance. I just made it and the shampoo today, so the jury (8 kids) is still out on this one. They are all fighting over bath time, though, because they love the smell. This soap is also used to make the shampoo. It smells so yummy. You can see how the shampoo separates. It does have to be shaken before use, but we've gotten used to shaking our shampoo. The facial cream is an overnight cream, my own recipe, made with cocoa butter, shea butter, tamanu oil, carrot seed oil, liquid silk (amino acids) olive oil, bag balm, castor oil and honey. It smells like chocolate. It has worked great for my hands, elbows, and face this winter. I also think it is the reason my fingernails have grown out since they don't crack easily anymore. I don't sell this stuff, I just enjoy making it for myself and the family and it is saving a substantial amount when you take into account how much we use of these kinds of products. (Anything to increase the chicken feed budget. Ha!) It's much better environmentally from the ingredients to less plastic bottles going to the landfill.





See how little seed you need. You could use less than 1/2 C for sure because mine was just packed in there.
Amazing stuff. Do you make the Castile soap? I am allergic to so much soap that I could sure use something. My face would break out if I used a lot of shampoos that I was allergic to. So if I found a shampoo that I didn't have an allergy to the ingredients, I used that for bath soap. Then they started making bath gels and I found some I can use...surprisingly with a fragrance which is usually something I can't use.
By the way I am waiting to get low on washing machine soap so I can make my own detergent. I didn't want to make it until I needed some because I need a place to store it.

This morning we were sitting and drinking our coffee when I saw an animal in the pasture. I keep a pair of binoculars on the window sill just for this purpose, so I grabbed them and looked. Yup, my first coyote sighting since we've been out here. I watched as he ran AWAY from my chicken coop and finally disappeared through the north end of the pasture. So glad he didn't seem to be a problem.....this time.

These are usually young coyotes who sneak around in the day time that haven't learned their limits. I lost a birds to one of them when I only had one dog. She was asleep when he grabbed it. I heard a squawk, went running around the house just in time to see the coyote making off with a bird. When he came back to kill the second one the dog was awake and aware and chased him off. Never saw it again after that.

Wow I have been busy watching babies hatch and this thread took off on me lol I have 7 so far and 5 pips. They are taking their time
I like the sprouts I have been wanting to do this.
Gonna snap pics once they are all out and dry. I had to lower the temp a tad because they were panting. I hope this doesnt mess things up too much

Congrats!! That is great!

Yeah, I think I'm going to go with HEChicken's idea for the conduit panels with chicken wire for the 3 inside panels & then fasten them to the metal t-posts. My problem now is I need creative minds to help me figure out how to do the gates so they will be able to open & shut for me to be able to get in & out of the pens. I have to make 4 gates & somehow use the t-posts with them. Does anybody have any brilliant ideas? I seem to be out of them.

Do you know anyone that just welds as a hobby? I can give you some ideas if you do.
Quote:

I want to start the sprouting thing!! I saw that they make special lids for putting on mason jars to do this-- some come with very fine stainless steel mesh put into lids and others have plastic lids with very small holes in it. Interesting!

<------sprouting lid!

<--- this one comes in varying sizes for seeds

ANyway, I think I'm most interested in growing Fodder!

I'd love to as well but that is another project!!!




Right-- where is Danz?? Sorry you had a bad night of sleep too. Mine will be resolved once my DH nails down another job BEFORE his time is up!

FUNNY about the stale choco chip cookies!!! LOL

Cubbysan, I love it. Your multi didn't post. It's awesome that she is taking an interest in something besides video games and smart phones.

Trying to resurface. I worked all day again yesterday and then up this morning and started again. I had the guy here for the home appraisal today. I didn't get a 10th done of what I wanted to before hand. I had planned to go car shopping today after he was done but I am way to worn out. I was hoping to get a good deal being the end of the month. It's been a full month since I totalled my car and I still haven't looked for a replacement.
I have learned a lot the last few days. I have got to get some stuff out of here. The longer I worked the more I threw away. One thing I have tons and tons of is salt water aquarium equipment. I always hoped to get it going again but it is also time consuming and expensive. I have literally thousands of dollars of equipment and aquariums I'm not using. It's time to sort it all out and purge a lot of excess. Maybe I'll get this stuff sorted through and sell what I can then start one with just fish in it. I had all kinds of corals and stuff and they take a lot of care.
I also confirmed beyond a doubt that DH is the worst of hoarders. I got a bit irritated when I would ask him to do a simple thing for me and he couldn't handle it. I asked him to clean up a couple of "his" areas he uses and he just put it all in bins. That just makes a mess for me to sort out later. I threw away the contents of one of his previous "clean up" bins yesterday. It had been in he basement for three years. What was good was out of date or ruined so it all went in the trash. Made me start dreaming of all the stuff I would get rid of if he were gone. And some of the stuff I trashed from else where ended up back in the house. Grrr!
I seriously have way to many projects and hobbies. So much that I have tons of old hobby stuff I forgot about cause I haven't pursued them. Another area to decide what is important to me to keep. Karen I so desperately need your craft room. And then there are all the antique projects. I have so many that I need to complete and then sell. I used to spend gobs of time working on them,but they too have been pushed on a back burner.
Anyway it's over complete with him witnessing chicken in the bins and my olandsk in a cage in here. I just can't change everything to refinance the house. I've felt more stress about this than anything in a long time.
it's been spitting some snow off and on here all day. Nothing much but pretty constant.

 

[checoukan]

I know what you are talking about Danz, I clean in the man cave this morning. I hauled the front of the toyota pickup I drive back and forth to work full of newpapers, magazines and what ever else I could haul to the paper pal!

Im not even going to say anything about it. Just clutter, and yes, he is a horder, and compulsive, and all that good stuff, but I am some too, but I can get rid of something, he can't.

 

[cubbysan]

This bowl is 15 inches in diameter. This amount of sprouts was from 3 quart jars. The sprouts were just packed in those jars and really fluffed up once out. The chickens loved it. We spread it around in different areas so that all of them could get some.






On the right in the back is a bucket of seeds -- the salad blend -- I bought them from www.sprouthouse.com. It's a 4 or 5 lb. bucket and I don't remember how much it cost. They are organic seeds and this mixture is clover, radish, broccoli, alfalfa. I only used 1/2 C of seed per quart canning jar. I cut 3 or 4 layers of cheescloth, laid it over the mouth of the jar and screwed on the rim over the top. Then, I soaked the seed overnight and drained it the next morning. Rinsed twice more that day and 3 times everyday thereafter. My seed took 4 days to sprout fully but it can take 2 to 6 days, depending on weather.

Wasn't it WichitaKidd who said "No pic, didn't happen."?

I included the soaps, shampoo and face cream I made myself. The Castille bar soap on the right is also used to make my laundry soap and automatic dishwashing soap, with added ingredients of Borax and Arm & Hammer Washing Soda. The Castille soap is for the kids with allergies. It's a great winter soap because it is so mild and gentle -- it doesn't dry your skin like even my regular Dove soap did. The Daydream Believer soap is my original recipe and fragrance. I just made it and the shampoo today, so the jury (8 kids) is still out on this one. They are all fighting over bath time, though, because they love the smell. This soap is also used to make the shampoo. It smells so yummy. You can see how the shampoo separates. It does have to be shaken before use, but we've gotten used to shaking our shampoo. The facial cream is an overnight cream, my own recipe, made with cocoa butter, shea butter, tamanu oil, carrot seed oil, liquid silk (amino acids) olive oil, bag balm, castor oil and honey. It smells like chocolate. It has worked great for my hands, elbows, and face this winter. I also think it is the reason my fingernails have grown out since they don't crack easily anymore. I don't sell this stuff, I just enjoy making it for myself and the family and it is saving a substantial amount when you take into account how much we use of these kinds of products. (Anything to increase the chicken feed budget. Ha!) It's much better environmentally from the ingredients to less plastic bottles going to the landfill.





See how little seed you need. You could use less than 1/2 C for sure because mine was just packed in there.








I'm not crazy about these sprouters because they are much flimsier than they look and just awkward to handle. The lids have holes in them for rinsing the sprouts and the bottoms of the clear trays also have holes in them. The holes are large enough that the tiny seeds fall through. You cannot wash these in the dishwasher because the plastic will melt.

Boo! These are a nuisance. The jars are just so easy to set up and easy to rinse -- love them.

Sorry to those not interested for the off-topic stuff.

I went to a soap making class this weekend. I had a blast, and can't wait to be able to use my new almond / orange soap in a few weeks.

I make my own clothing detergent, sounds like we use the same ingredients. Tried making dish detergent with no luck, my dishes ended up with a white film on them. Plus my dog for some reason decided to taste it when I threw it into the dishwasher, so that was a call to poison control. I save tons of $$$ on clothes detergent.

 

[SpooncreekJenn]

That is a great idea for the broiler tractor I am going to put together in April.. would be easy to move by hand and not worry about having to use the 4-wheeler... I would have to have some weight on it though so it wouldn't tip over in the wind. (I'm in a completely open field with no wind break)

I used big tent stakes a u shaped rebar to hold it down if that helps.

 

[cubbysan]

Deerfield Acres (Karen),

The man I took the soap making class from said that in the future, maybe he and I can get together and make soap with my eggs. I have never heard of soap with eggs, but he said it is out there. He has never made it, because most of his customers are vegan, they won't even use the goat milk soaps.

 

[HEChicken]

Danz, I don't know how you go about selling aquarium equipment, but it sounds like you might be able to finance your new car by selling it, and that way you wouldn't have to get into another car payment.

My processing equipment arrived today. I certainly cannot fault that ebay seller! I purchased it on Monday, and the projected delivery was Friday, but it came a day early. Darn. And here I was thinking I had a great excuse to put off processing one more day. I showed it to DH and he agreed that it would be easier with a drill press (which we don't have) than a hand-held drill, even though it can be used with the hand-held. So I said "Oh good. So that means I can't process until we get a drill press, right?" He just kind of snickered.

Meanwhile, I had defrosted one of the chickens from my freezer, so I decided to use the knife that came with the kit to cut it up, just to see how sharp it really is. Hoo-boy. I'm a little bit scared of the knife now - I have never sliced up meat as easily as that. That will be good for the chickens I'm processing though - they should barely feel anything.

I'll keep an eye out for the coyote but this morning he didn't act like he even knew the birds are here. He was north when I saw him and continued going north - into the wind - so I don't think he would have smelled them and he never turned around and looked in their direction either. I do feel pretty confident they are safe at night - its hard to imagine any predator getting into the coop. And, our dogs spend the night in the chicken yard (their igloo is in the yard and I lock them in at night the same time I do my last check on the birds, and they don't get let out until morning). One of my dogs loves to chase coyotes. We often flush them at our barn while riding the horses and she will take off after them (a few days ago she scared me by flushing out a big one - at least 50% larger than she is - and taking off after it. I was sure it was going to turn on her at some point and she'd be history, but when she rejoined us, she was unharmed and looking like she had the time of her life). So, I'm hoping that if it comes around during the day my dog will chase it off (she was still in the chicken yard when I saw it this morning), and if it comes at night it will a) be scared off by the dogs and b) not be able to get into the coop anyway. So

it won't turn out to be a problem.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

I used to sprout alfalfa seeds in the late 70's for salad. I used the quart jar/cheese cloth method, too. I hadn't thought of making them for the girls.

The sprouts are really great in sandwiches too, in place of lettuce. Yums!

Karen, thank you for showing us the method on how to sprout the seeds! I swear I'm going to get organized enough some day soon to DO that! Where did you get your recipe for the daydream body soap?? Where do you buy your supplies? A friend of mine makes soap, but she made these wood boxes and then puts parchment paper (i think?) inside to line them and then pours the soap in and then bakes it. Is that similar to what you do?

I slept like crud last night. All the worries/stress is keeping me up. UGH. It's a preschool day for me, so I need to get around and get on with it. I need to run to Atwoods to get some more feed today. I hate the cold. I don't want to do anything. Bleah.

Did I ever get back with you about the antlers on the deer? I say we keep the mommy deer a mommy.

The Daydream Believer soap is a bar soap that I made up myself. I'm working on a shampoo that would be just fine for body soap also but after my shampoo cooled it was too thick! So I need to tweek that recipe a little! I also mixed the fragrance myself. There is a lye calculator through a link at www.millersoap.com that goes to Majestic Mountain. I just plugged in the oils I wanted to use, the type of lie and it calculates how much water and lye you need. It's so cool! I got most of my fragrance supplies and some of the butters and oils through Brambleberry. Majestic has lots of great oils also and has great prices. I just put my first batch of soap in a plastic tub -- I made like 6 lbs. of it. Then I cut it into bars freehand. I found a sale on a guest size plastic soap mold and I have two of those so I used that with my second batch. DH is going to make me a wooden soap box, if the poor man can ever finish working on my chicken projects. I was too cheap to buy one. I do a hot process soap so I cook it in an old crock pot and when it's done it's also ready to use. She must be doing a hot process in the oven. That is way cool -- a box would be great for that.

I'm sorry you're having trouble sleeping. I went through a lot of that myself and it makes a difficult situation worse.

Sorry you didn't sleep Hawkeye - I know that feeling so well, of lying awake worrying about things.

I sprouted for the birds a couple of years ago, using the jar/cheesecloth method. All the sprouts got eaten, but I didn't get the sense they were going ape over them - it was more like pick through and eventually eat them all. My mum used to always sprout for us when we were kids and a little pile of sprouts would constitute a "vegetable" on our dinner plates. But when I suggested to DH that we could eat the sprouts I made for the girls, he tried some on his salad and his response was "so-so". So with the cool reception they got, I didn't continue doing them. Karen - are your birds eating them with gusto? I tried 6-8 different types of seed/grain to sprout - wheat, beans, lentils etc, but I couldn't tell if one got a better reception than another.

This morning we were sitting and drinking our coffee when I saw an animal in the pasture. I keep a pair of binoculars on the window sill just for this purpose, so I grabbed them and looked. Yup, my first coyote sighting since we've been out here. I watched as he ran AWAY from my chicken coop and finally disappeared through the north end of the pasture. So glad he didn't seem to be a problem.....this time.

My birds love that mix I got from Sprout House. Even the ducks grabbed some and usually they will bully the chickens out of the way, but the chickens weren't having it and soon had run them off. So they are eating them with lots of enthusiasm. Mine is a clover, alfalfa, radish and broccoli mix -- I don't know if that makes any difference?

Those coyotes. I hope that's the last you see of him.

He was just scoping you out, probably smelled your chickens, he'll be back. My GPs have been really busy at night lately, so much so that in the morning when I got out they're passed out in the yard sleeping.

Hawkeye, I hope your hubby can find a job locally & you won't have to have sleepless nights too much longer, that's miserable.

Karen, The sprouting looks interesting. I used to have a sprout jar, but who knows what happened to it. What seeds do your chickens like the best?

I got a text last night from a friend of mine who said her egg lady got a divorce & the hubby got the chickens, so I guess she'll be buying eggs from me now. Yay, another egg customer!

It's a mixture from the Sprout House -- their site is really interesting. I believe they have mixtures for pets and poultry, unless I'm confusing their site with the 50 others I was on. This one is a "salad" mixture but the birds love it. I figured I'd better get something I would like just in case the birds didn't. It's clover, alfalfa, radish and broccoli.

Wow I have been busy watching babies hatch and this thread took off on me lol I have 7 so far and 5 pips. They are taking their time
I like the sprouts I have been wanting to do this.
Gonna snap pics once they are all out and dry. I had to lower the temp a tad because they were panting. I hope this doesnt mess things up too much

Whoa! Hatching chicks on a cold miserable day will lighten anybody's mood! Can't wait to see the pics. There's just nothing cuter. I don't know about adjusting the temp -- never tried it. Hope it turns out just fine.

I'm alive. I am trying to get caught up. One day of no posts and I had pages and pages to read. I hope every thing I multied shows up because I will never be able to remember it all.
That is very cute. I have a moveable PVC pen I made and it has been my all around best project that has given me the most use.


Trying to resurface. I worked all day again yesterday and then up this morning and started again. I had the guy here for the home appraisal today. I didn't get a 10th done of what I wanted to before hand. I had planned to go car shopping today after he was done but I am way to worn out. I was hoping to get a good deal being the end of the month. It's been a full month since I totalled my car and I still haven't looked for a replacement.

I seriously have way to many projects and hobbies. So much that I have tons of old hobby stuff I forgot about cause I haven't pursued them. Another area to decide what is important to me to keep. Karen I so desperately need your craft room. And then there are all the antique projects. I have so many that I need to complete and then sell. I used to spend gobs of time working on them,but they too have been pushed on a back burner.
Anyway it's over complete with him witnessing chicken in the bins and my olandsk in a cage in here. I just can't change everything to refinance the house. I've felt more stress about this than anything in a long time.
it's been spitting some snow off and on here all day. Nothing much but pretty constant.

I'm so relieved for you that the appraisal is over. That sort of thing just makes me a nervous wreck. Maybe you'll be able to focus better on the car now. I'm sorry but I'm too selfish to let you have my craft room! LOL! I love it out there. It's kind of like when we owned a second home in a small town and just used it for a getaway. When the kids got bored it seemed just the weekend change of pace really cleared the air and made everyone buddies again. We kind of use that craft room for the same thing. If they start picking at each other, I suggest we go work on something together and the atmosphere changes instantly. DH made that a priority when we moved in. I think I'm a little spoiled.

I went to a soap making class this weekend. I had a blast, and can't wait to be able to use my new almond / orange soap in a few weeks.

I make my own clothing detergent, sounds like we use the same ingredients. Tried making dish detergent with no luck, my dishes ended up with a white film on them. Plus my dog for some reason decided to taste it when I threw it into the dishwasher, so that was a call to poison control. I save tons of $$$ on clothes detergent.

Oh! I think I can help you with the automatic dishwashing soap. I found a recipe for auto dish soap that used the laundry soap with Fels Naptha instead of Castille soap, but then you added salt and citric acid to it. Then, you use vinegar in the dispenser to prevent spotting. Both work really well and saves money for more chickens!

Silly dogs, they'll put anything in their mouths. I have 3 little yappy dogs who get into everything. They don't seem interested in the dish soap, however, maybe they can smell the citric acid?

Congrats on your new soap!!!! It's so much fun to make. I bet yours was cold process? I've only made hot process because I'm too impatient to wait for the stuff to cure. Cold process makes a more refined looking bar, though, and just out of curiosity I'm going to have to try it one of these days. I bet yours is yummy!

Deerfield Acres (Karen),

The man I took the soap making class from said that in the future, maybe he and I can get together and make soap with my eggs. I have never heard of soap with eggs, but he said it is out there. He has never made it, because most of his customers are vegan, they won't even use the goat milk soaps.

Now that is something new! I've never heard of it. I would sure be interested in how it's done! I would use goat milk soap -- I've heard it's really nice.