Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

What a bum! You should have gotten Ivy's boy before she sold him.I didn't think about him not being a good boy. I just kept the one I thought was best looking. I guess that is one reason I try to keep a back up roo around. I wish I still had the breeders info where I got my polish. I am sure she'd have one. I tried to find it some time ago and didn't have any luck.
I've been trying to car shop via phone and internet. Someone needs to start throwing some numbers back at me if they want to make a sale. I was looking at new vehicles but found a 2012 they used in the dealership with more bells and whistles and low miles with extended warranty.
Trish what kind of car did you get? I'm not finding all I want. I want that back up camera but not finding anything with them. I might have to settle for an older vehicle and save my pennies to buy a newer one later on. I get my mind set on something and it is really hard to change it.

Our new car is a Chrysler 300, but the backup camera is a special safety package we had to order with the car. I really like it though & it has some other nifty safety things too. They're especially good for people like my DH who doesn't always pay attention to what he's supposed to be doing. If he gets too close behind another car it slows down automatically & if someone is in your blind spot there is a yellow triangle that shows up & it beeps at you if you try to change lanes. It also has this thing that I think is hilarious because if it thinks you're getting too close & not braking a big red BRAKE! light comes on in the dash & it actually says that. It has park assist also, so when you're pulling into a spot like with a pole it will beep & give you warnings about how close you are. The backup camera is really sensitive too because my chickens set it off. I hope you find a car you like, they should be willing to negotiate this time of year, they don't sell that many cars in the winter.

 

[checoukan]

Well they brought the squirrel cage fan with the brackets welded back, and reinstalled the unit back in the old furnace. We do not use the old furnace, as we have an out door boiler. We only use the fan that distributes the air thru the duct work in the house. So all hooked up....nothing happens!! checked everything, and nothing. Went and bought a new compassitor, nothing. So, I guess its going to be a cool one tonight. Guess I better go fire up the fireplace.

It always seem when we have a winter storm, something always goes wrong with the blower part of the heating. ALWAYS!!! Boiler works wonderful, hot water is wonderful from the boiler, I just don't think when these guys plumbed this that they got everything right. Oh, well. Its not bad in the house, glad its not 0 out and 20 mph winds from the north!!

 

[mstng67]

Hey Danz, get some pork chops out, and some mushroom soup.  Brown the chops, turn the heat down to low, add a little sage, mushroom soup, with ! cup water.  Cover, cook 20 minutes, turn meat over simmer anouther 20.  Done bake a tater, and salad.  Done

A cup of white wine instead of the water and it is even better!

 

[mstng67]

Thanks for all the great ideas everyone. I'll share them with my wife tonight.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Lost my show hen, and then lost anouther one that evening, I didn't even know she was not feeling well until that morning. No coughing, sneezing, watery eyes nothing. I am just sick. I don't know what hit them. I was going to show them at Pryor, and then their show career was over, and they were going to become mothers. Well back to the drawing board. I still have 9 show hens out there, but not in condition. I wish they would hurry with my barn!!

Oh no!! I feel your pain! I lost one of my best girls this winter, too! I have no idea what happened to her. She was one that did really well at shows last year and then bred to get most of my beautiful birds now. I had less culls from her. I was hoping to pair her with an even better rooster this year. Anyway, sooo sad, so I'm sure you feel just as disappointed. Most of my roosters were soaking wet this morning. I have no idea how they did it. But the snow and water does not "roll off silkie" and they were freezing. I put in two heat lamps into their pen and they immediately all huddled under it. I checked them a few hours later and they were dry, fluffed and picking on each other again. I'm leaving the lamps on tonight, I don't want to risk more wet silkies and have silkie popcicles in the morning.

OMG, I don't believe this! They gave me a tracking number so I decided to look it up and see what day they projected it would arrive and it wasn't making sense because it kept referencing "arrival in Wichita, KS". Now I'm really curious where it is coming from because sure enough, it already arrived in Wichita and is scheduled for delivery TOMORROW!!! Considering I hemmed and hawed all day today and didn't finally place the order until this afternoon, I can't believe it will be here that soon. It almost looks like it was shipped from Wichita. Amazing.

Soooo, did you get it? Which one did you get??

Ok, I need to vent for a minute. Why is it every time I try to sell birds I get people who can't pick them up for x number of weeks, want to know what kind of deal I will make on already very low priced birds and I have to meet them at some set location?!

When I buy birds, I don't haggle the price, I don't ask if I can show up in two weeks and I sure don't TELL someone when and where they will meet me to sell me their birds! Shipping birds is starting to look a lot better, I can just drop them off at the PO and be done with it.

Sorry, thanks for listening to my rant.

There is no way I'd stand for that. This is why we need to get into shipping birds. So far, I've been able to bring birds with me to the shows and sell them there and I've had a few people come out to the house here. I think if someone wants you to hold a bird or drive the bird to them, then you can tell them you have a $20 deposit due the same day, and then a gas charge-- like a vet would make. And my vet charges me $50 to make house calls. So I'd tell them you have a $50 gas charge just to make it worth your while. HA! Let's see what they say then...

I'm sorry you're having problems with selling your birds. I have had the same kind of thing when trying to sell rabbits, they ask me to hold them for two weeks & I just have started telling them no that whoever gets here first with money gets them because I have held them & then had them back out. I also have had people want me to drive to Wichita to bring them eggs, eating eggs, that is an hour trip for me depending on which part of town. People can be so ridiculous sometimes.
Yeah we also had the snow/sleet thunder & lightening thing during the night, it woke me up with the bright flashes. I don't ever remember seeing anything like that before in the winter. We had sleet this morning, so I'm sure it was real fun for my DH when he went out to get the old truck to go to work this morning. I haven't ventured out yet, I really wish I didn't have to, I can see the wind is blowing pretty hard out there, it's not going to be fun.
I'm so sorry you're sick, I hope you feel better soon. I'm suffering from a bladder infection that has now gone into my kidney & I can't even get out of here to go to the Dr. My Dr. is in Wellington. I have had these infections for a lot of years & it gets old. On a brighter note, you have three chicks so far, I'll send you a pic as soon as I can get one off my phone. I tried, but it didn't upload for some reason. I may have to take my camera downstairs & get one. There are some other pips, but not too much more activity yet. Sunflowerparrot's two little eggs have now hatched also & I have some pips on the Salmon Faverolle eggs in there too, I can't wait to see those, they're my first chicks from them & there are only 3. I may keep them & see how they turn out, we'll see. The rooster I have is kind of ornery, he comes after me when I go out to feed. I've attributed it to the small pen they're in right now, we'll see is he straightens up when they get moved to the new coop & have more room.

Well I hope you all can stay warm today & don't get lost in a snow drift!

That is just ridiculous! I've never heard of people wanting to buy something and then asking to HOLD it?! What on earth are they thinking? I had a horse for sale a while back and someone told me they could not come to see her until 2 weeks later and wanted me to hold her. NOW WAY, Jose! I told them that "if" the horse was still here in 2 weeks, they were welcome to call and make an appt to ride her. I sold her in a few days to a lady that came out rode her and took her the same day. In fact, she showed up with her horse trailer. I'm so sorry about your infection and that you're not feeling well. That has to be miserable!

I got mine for $386.95 total with shipping. I didn't think that was too bad really..

Wow!! That was a GREAT deal!!! That is only a bit more than a fully loaded Brinsea 20! I'm going that route the next time I buy an incubator.

So I guess the foot of snow has thrown a wrench in the fence building plans this weekend which is a total bummer. Does anyone want to try to reschedule for next Saturday March 2? Looks like the weather is supposed to be warmer (51!) Let me know if you are available and we will plan a day then. I was so excited to get the fencing up and get the horses moved down. DH thinks the chicken pens won't take much longer either so hoping to plan on moving the crew in two weeks.

Okay, I was wondering about the snow and Saturday plans! We tried to dig out today but failed. In fact, no one down here was able to get out. And we had 2 people with tractors and plows give it a good go. The funny thing is that both of them got their tractors stuck! The drifts were so high today! I was up to my knees. We gave it up and came in. I was tired of shoveling. I did refill water and food for everyone and they were doing well.

Opened the bin that the big dogs food is in and managed to slip and fall in it!!! I swear if someone would video me out trying to feed they'd wonder how on earth I didn't break every bone in my body. Instead I usually have layers of bruises.
Then I went to the brahmas pen. The breaker had tripped. I pulled the cords out of the snow and of course thy had crap sitting on top of them that I had to shovel out to get the cord. The last insult was that the plywood I was trying to use the other day to block the wind had been laid on the cord and I couldn't get enough snow off of it to lift it up. So I dug yet another extension cord out of the snow that wasn't attached to anything and plugged it into the first one so it would reach. The dang breaker tripped again.
Then I went to the brooder house and sure enough the power was out. Another GFI tripped. Luckily that one reset.
In desperation I finally unplugged the cord that went to the brahma pen from the others. Then took the extra extension cord I had dug out of the snow, plugged it in inside the brooder , made a hole in the screen and ran the brahmas cord in through the screen. Finally had power to the brahmas and the brooder.....if it doesn't trip again.
Then I went out to check out the further out houses. I had to dig to get two gates to move but at least they have power out there to keep their water from freezing.
This is all the more reason I see to get all this stuff in a building instead of having stupid cords run everywhere. I never even attempted to make it out to the peafowl pen or the geese. Of course the geese were out running around with angel wings in the air yelling at me. At least I knew they were okay.
I did loose one little Breda fowl in the brooder since it was cold in there. I was afraid it would be a lot worse.
I've actually been trying to car shop via the internet today. I think I am going to call a dealer and see what the very best deal I can get is. They obviously don't have any body shopping today so they are being pretty accommodating.
I might end up buying a car unseen.
I have dough rising for my cinnamon rolls too. Sure hope these turn out well. It's a new recipe I found and have been dying to try.

OMGosh!!! You fell IN the bin?!?!? I sure hope you are okay, even though that is a funny story!! Sheesh! Poor girl! It sounds like that was a heck of a mess getting all of that sorted out. Hope you find a car you want! It took us forever to finally find the vehicle I have now. I wanted a good price, and everything on it. Just keep looking!

Danz, I don't know how you manage to do everything you do!! My goodness, I know I could not do it. Course we were not fighting the snow, we just had sleet. light snow and a little freezing rain. Shoot it was still 32 degrees in the barn this morning. No frozen water. In fact everybodys auto waterer's were still working so that takes a BIG work load off my back.

Im looking at buying a WCBP cock out of Mississippi to replace this one here. Hi is not showing any interest in the females, and well he better get to work, or......

I think have almost everything ready to go to the show. I want to go to Hutchinson again this spring, but have not heard anything from them on entries? Hawkeye have you?

Still have not heard anything from my DH.

I hope he does not have to go find a whole new squirrel cage fan. May get chilly in here tonight. Oh, how Im going to hate to have to start the fireplace!!

Hey, check your Poultry Press-- there is that lady that wins all the time with her WCBP! She posts ads in the newspaper. I love that breed and have been soooo tempted to contact her! I bet she'd have a great rooster around. I'm over loaded with roosters right now. I have not heard about Hutchinson-- but I thought it was April?? I found it on the website-- I'll go hunt it down. http://www.poultryshowcentral.com/Kansas.html Okay, found it. It's May 4th, so we have a bit more time! I'm definitely doing that one again! It was a lot of fun! I'm sorry your heat isnt working and what BAD timing!!! I hope the fireplace will do a great job for you!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So last night I locked up all the layers. This morning I went out to find that Cocoa (my white crested black polish hen)-- the one that is brain damaged by Seymore--- was left outside!!! She had ice coming off her crest and tail feathers, but she was alive!! I couldn't believe it and was kicking myself for missing her! She never stays out!!! I don't know what happened to make her hang out in the pen. That is nuts! I'm soooo glad she is okay.

Then the silkies had some how got wet and their feathers just can NOT get wet. They turn into wet cats and they were freezing and miserable. I got the heat lamps on them and they dried out well. Sheesh. It was one thing after another and we spent the day trying to dig out. But I just don't think that is happening. Got the horses locked in their stalls for the night and fed them their grain and hope they will warm up. Mr Meat is doing great-- he's in the last horse stall on the end and he's acting like he has no idea it's cold out! I checked his water and food and he's all set. He's doing better than anyone since his set-up is pretty insulated in the barn in the horse stall.




I got this one put on my facebook page. This was after I shoveled the walk way. Still, we had 16 inches in the yard. And we had 2-3 foot snow drifts, and guessing that is higher in some areas where it goes up the side of the barn and is nearly as tall as me.

 

[JosieChick]

Well I went out to try to feed the puppies and ended up outside for a long time. I couldn't get any doors open. I couldn't find my warm water proof gloves I wore all day yesterday! I usually lay them on the heat vent in the kitchen to dry. They weren't there or anywhere else I looked. The snow on the South side of the house measures a foot to 3 foot. How the heck can you tell how much snow you have when the drifts are huge?
I had to hoe out snow to get to anything. I say hoe because it was the only tool I could find that wasn't totally buried in the snow. I had this one in the shop to stir my FF feed with. I had to dig out the dog pen after trying to navigate down the back steps. It was like step, then down, then step then oops, too far, then step then down and I still missed the bottom step. I had to go back in to get water cause the spigot is frozen. Got them fed. Opened the bin that the big dogs food is in and managed to slip and fall in it!!! I swear if someone would video me out trying to feed they'd wonder how on earth I didn't break every bone in my body. Instead I usually have layers of bruises. Oh no! Hope you are ok, I can kinda see you doing that though!
Then I went to the brahmas pen. The breaker had tripped. I pulled the cords out of the snow and of course thy had crap sitting on top of them that I had to shovel out to get the cord. The last insult was that the plywood I was trying to use the other day to block the wind had been laid on the cord and I couldn't get enough snow off of it to lift it up. So I dug yet another extension cord out of the snow that wasn't attached to anything and plugged it into the first one so it would reach. The dang breaker tripped again.
Then I went to the brooder house and sure enough the power was out. Another GFI tripped. Luckily that one reset.
In desperation I finally unplugged the cord that went to the brahma pen from the others. Then took the extra extension cord I had dug out of the snow, plugged it in inside the brooder , made a hole in the screen and ran the brahmas cord in through the screen. Finally had power to the brahmas and the brooder.....if it doesn't trip again. Hope not!
Then I went out to check out the further out houses. I had to dig to get two gates to move but at least they have power out there to keep their water from freezing.
This is all the more reason I see to get all this stuff in a building instead of having stupid cords run everywhere. I never even attempted to make it out to the peafowl pen or the geese. Of course the geese were out running around with angel wings in the air yelling at me. At least I knew they were okay.
I did loose one little Breda fowl in the brooder since it was cold in there. I was afraid it would be a lot worse.
I've actually been trying to car shop via the internet today. I think I am going to call a dealer and see what the very best deal I can get is. They obviously don't have any body shopping today so they are being pretty accommodating.
I might end up buying a car unseen.
I have dough rising for my cinnamon rolls too. Sure hope these turn out well. It's a new recipe I found and have been dying to try.

Poor roosters, all my birds were pretty ticked this am because our run in opens to the east and the darn wind was blowing that way! Ugh.

Oh no!! I feel your pain! I lost one of my best girls this winter, too! I have no idea what happened to her. She was one that did really well at shows last year and then bred to get most of my beautiful birds now. I had less culls from her. I was hoping to pair her with an even better rooster this year. Anyway, sooo sad, so I'm sure you feel just as disappointed. Most of my roosters were soaking wet this morning. I have no idea how they did it. But the snow and water does not "roll off silkie" and they were freezing. I put in two heat lamps into their pen and they immediately all huddled under it. I checked them a few hours later and they were dry, fluffed and picking on each other again. I'm leaving the lamps on tonight, I don't want to risk more wet silkies and have silkie popcicles in the morning.

There is no way I'd stand for that. This is why we need to get into shipping birds. So far, I've been able to bring birds with me to the shows and sell them there and I've had a few people come out to the house here. I think if someone wants you to hold a bird or drive the bird to them, then you can tell them you have a $20 deposit due the same day, and then a gas charge-- like a vet would make. And my vet charges me $50 to make house calls. So I'd tell them you have a $50 gas charge just to make it worth your while. HA! Let's see what they say then...

I told him I couldn't meet him at his convenience and he said thanks anyway. SO I guess I am stuck with them for now. Sigh. Shipping is looking better and better. At least I can go to the post office on my schedule.


That is just ridiculous! I've never heard of people wanting to buy something and then asking to HOLD it?! What on earth are they thinking? I had a horse for sale a while back and someone told me they could not come to see her until 2 weeks later and wanted me to hold her. NOW WAY, Jose! I told them that "if" the horse was still here in 2 weeks, they were welcome to call and make an appt to ride her. I sold her in a few days to a lady that came out rode her and took her the same day. In fact, she showed up with her horse trailer. I'm so sorry about your infection and that you're not feeling well. That has to be miserable!

When I bought Denver and Jackson we had to ask them to hold them so we could arrange for a trailer for transport. I gave them money both times though so they were partially paid for and moved within a couple days, just the amount of time it took to get a friend with a trailer to haul them.

Okay, I was wondering about the snow and Saturday plans! We tried to dig out today but failed. In fact, no one down here was able to get out. And we had 2 people with tractors and plows give it a good go. The funny thing is that both of them got their tractors stuck! The drifts were so high today! I was up to my knees. We gave it up and came in. I was tired of shoveling. I did refill water and food for everyone and they were doing well.
Yeah, I am stranded up here for now. We haven't seen a snow plow yet and I can only shovel a bit at a time. I can't believe how much snow is out there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So last night I locked up all the layers. This morning I went out to find that Cocoa (my white crested black polish hen)-- the one that is brain damaged by Seymore--- was left outside!!! She had ice coming off her crest and tail feathers, but she was alive!! I couldn't believe it and was kicking myself for missing her! She never stays out!!! I don't know what happened to make her hang out in the pen. That is nuts! I'm soooo glad she is okay.
Poor Cocoa, I had a dumb rooster spend the night outside too. He was put in the "naughty" pen because he wouldn't stop picking on the girls and at dusk he must have flown over the fence to get back in with the big girls but couldn't figure out the gate so he slept in the orpington pen on the ground! He looked like he had climbed everest when I went out this morning!

Then the silkies had some how got wet and their feathers just can NOT get wet. They turn into wet cats and they were freezing and miserable. I got the heat lamps on them and they dried out well. Sheesh. It was one thing after another and we spent the day trying to dig out. But I just don't think that is happening. Got the horses locked in their stalls for the night and fed them their grain and hope they will warm up. Mr Meat is doing great-- he's in the last horse stall on the end and he's acting like he has no idea it's cold out! I checked his water and food and he's all set. He's doing better than anyone since his set-up is pretty insulated in the barn in the horse stall.




I got this one put on my facebook page. This was after I shoveled the walk way. Still, we had 16 inches in the yard. And we had 2-3 foot snow drifts, and guessing that is higher in some areas where it goes up the side of the barn and is nearly as tall as me.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Oh Josie-- that hilarious-- the way your rooster looked after spending the night outside! Well, that is exactly how Cocoa looked! It was like she was a frozen bird, but alive! I'm sure you were in disbelief that your bird made it through, like I was when I saw Cocoa. Poor birds! Sounds like you won't be getting out any time soon, I hope you have lots of food on hand! For now, we're stuck in again too. My DH tried to go to work this morning. He shoveled off the cement apron part of the driveway, but the gravel part of our driveway is too deep to drive through. We'll have to get out the tractor or do something about it today, or I don't know how we'll get out at all this weekend! Anyway, he tried to back out of our drive way, because there is a snow drift on the T part where you back out. So if you back out and then go forward, you get stuck. (we did it yesterday and spent and hour digging a car out) So he thought he'd be smart this morning and just back the whole way out of our driveway and skip the huge snow drift. But it still stopped him! LOL That snow is just sooo dang DEEP! It's insane out there! It's cool, though. I don't need groceries, so we're fine. But I know DH is chomping at the bit to get out of the house and get to work. He goes a little nuts stuck indoors.

Here is the car stuck... he didn't even get very far at all. hehehehe (look how deep that snow is!) He shoveled off the snow onto either side of the driveway, so the snow at the END of the driveway is just how deep it is, not where he shoveled extra snow off.




OH-- and just wanted to mention, that if someone came out to ride my horse and gave me a deposit, I would wait for them to get transport. But it's not the same thing when they just want to think about it and have you "hold" the horse for 2 weeks, when you could sell it to someone else. So yeah, I've done that, I've waited for someone to go get the trailer, even if it was waiting until the weekend. I've sold a lot of horses, but you can tell the difference between a serious customer and a "lookie-loo" -- one has cash in hand (or part of it) and the other doesn't.

 

[WichitaKidd]

Just popping in to post a snow pic. Have never really noticed how "red" my coop was until all this snow.


Hope everyone has a good day. Another work snow day for me (2 in a row WTH).
New batch of chicks set to arrive in just under 2 weeks. Hoping that the weather is good when they get here. Have read that a number of people that had hatchery orders arrive this week had a LOT of loss upon arrival. Just way too cold I guess. Keeping my fingers crossed that things warm up a bit in the next 10 days.

 

[WichitaKidd]

So I guess the foot of snow has thrown a wrench in the fence building plans this weekend which is a total bummer. Does anyone want to try to reschedule for next Saturday March 2? Looks like the weather is supposed to be warmer (51!) Let me know if you are available and we will plan a day then. I was so excited to get the fencing up and get the horses moved down. DH thinks the chicken pens won't take much longer either so hoping to plan on moving the crew in two weeks.

I can probably come out & help for a little while on the 2nd. I'm on call that day (as I am most Saturdays), but if things are calm I may swing by. HEChicken gave me a general idea of where your place is at, but if you can PM me directions that would be great.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Wow this snow is terrible. I need to shove my path to the chickens again and get their roof cleared. I sure hope this is the end of all this. My birds wont go out in the deep snow. So they are bored and picking on each other in the coop. Time to add some things for them to play with. Everyone stay warm and safe today.