Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Here's the scoop on the peafowl. I had heard of people eating it before but couldn't imagine. Anyway the bird is mostly meat. The legs and wings are much heavier bones and much longer than what you see on a normal bird. The wings have about as much meat on them as you would find on a breast of a home grown chicken. The breast was massive. The peahen was mostly meat. Makes sense. Their strength and therefore their principal muscles are their wings and their breasts. I was actually thinking if they weren't so darned expensive and beautiful I'd grow some just to butcher. Pretty amazing amount of meat for one 6 month old bird.

Wow I wouldn't have ever thought that about peafowl either. They're just too darned expensive to even think about growing them to butcher though, that would be some expensive meat by the time you got them to butcher size. I just have the two females & one male left now since I lost my other male recently. It had to be the nicest looking one I lost too, naturally. The male is very protective of the little black shoulder peahen. She is still very young & yesterday he was up on the roost beside her & was halfway covering her, I guess to keep her warm. I never worried about them last winter but then it wasn't nearly as cold as this year. They did fine last year, but I hope I don't lose any more this winter. Their roost is halfway back in the hoop coop & the back is covered with plastic as well as the sides, so hopefully they stay warm enough in there. I don't think they stay as warm as chickens.

It shows you how I haven't felt all that well today, I looked at the weather for today instead of tomorrow, it's really supposed to be 37 here tomorrow. Thank goodness, I can use a few days above freezing. It's going to seem like a heatwave after today.

My kitty in the garage I guess has decided she's going to be a garage cat. She hasn't wanted to go outside as of yet, she has been loose in the garage for the last week totally so I guess that's where she wants to live. She has a bed & a litter box, food & water, so I guess she figures she has everything she needs in there. I have opened the door & she has been right by it & runs away from it when I come in.

 

[22qZoo]

I had a scary surprise Sun.morning , I went out to let the chickens out and there were 4 of them wandering around looking for breakfast. The little Duccle, the young white Jersey cross, and the two SLW's. They were fine and didn't seem any worse for wear but it sure made my heart skip a beat. I had some "stuff" stacked up behind the coop for the winter , apperantly they got back there and it got too dark for them to get back around and in. I guess I'm pretty lucky, such a cold night and thankfully no preditors . We'll be doing a better job taking a head count now at bedtime.

 

[cherwill]

I have had Dishnetwork since it came out & it rarely goes out unless we have a terrible storm here, then everybody's is out. We checked into getting DirectTV awhile back because they told us Tom could get all of his baseball games. Well guess what we signed up & found out the next day they had lied to us so we canceled it & kept our Dishnetwork. They're also more expensive for the same channels we have on Dish & we actually get more channels for our money. We have heard they have more outages than Dish from other people who switched.

I must be one of the oddities then because I hated Dish. A salesman happened to come to the door right as I was considering it anyway so I made his day by inviting him in and signing up on the spot. The problem is, he sold me a $45/month plan, but every month the bill was over $70 due to all the additional fees and charges and taxes he had failed to disclose. Then, the first week we had it, we had a storm and the dish went out so for hours we couldn't watch anything. If we'd had it for longer, we'd have had things recorded on the DVR but because it was a new system, we didn't have anything pre-recorded yet. After that it wasn't so bad when it went out because we could watch pre-recorded stuff BUT if the DVR was in the middle of recording something when it went out (which was often), we'd have a big patch of static for most of the pre-recorded show, which was pretty frustrating.

Add to that, that twice, the DVR kicked on in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and deleted EVERYTHING we had pre-recorded. The first time that happened, I got on the phone to customer service and they refused to back their equipment. After the second time it happened, I just made note of the 2-year anniversary of when we signed up, since I signed a 2-year contract, and the day our contract was up, I called them and told them to come and get their equipment. That is when we switched to Netflix and have been much happier with it.

It's interesting how different the service is in different areas.

We seriously considered a device like Roku and using Netflix and/or HuluPlus, but we didn't think we could watch what we wanted when we wanted. Several of DH's co-workers love it, though.

 

[sharol]

re: dish

8 years ago we moved to the country. We live in an earth sheltered berm house, so we knew that getting wiring into the house might be a deal. My DH loves sports, so he wanted DirectTV for the premium sports packages. I called them and they came out. They took one look at the house and wouldn't even TRY to get the cabling into the house even though we had a couple of ideas about it.

When we ordered Wild Blue satellite TV through our coop (ok at first, dropped it after 3 years because it was so slow), the person that installed for Wild Blue said he could run the cables for our satellite TV at the same time. I asked him if he was a Direct TV installer, and he said no, but he could either put in the cables or do a complete install for Dish. At this point we were both so irritated at DirectTv, that we agreed. Absolutely no regrets. Jim (at Tom VanSickle for those of you near Emporia) has kept us up and running for 8 years through 2 upgrades and a change to satellite (from our wireless last year to Dish.net -- not too bad, but not cheap). We have had few outages even in heavy rain, and he even installed a UHF over-the-air antenna that brings in the Topeka UHF channels. I can't say enough good about his work and installs.

We like Dish, and DH even has admitted that for the most part the sports stuff is just as good on Dish (especially considering DirectTv's pricing and questionable sales practices.) It isn't cheap because we have a lot of channels (not the premium package -- had it for a while and never watched the movies or series on HBO and Sho.

Jim says that the signal strength is a function of the aiming and the lack of trees in the way. In any case, we are quite satisfied.

Sharol

 

[chicken danz]

I have no idea what the deal is with the satellite dishes and reception. Our dish for internet was right beside the dish for Dish network. Yet the internet was the worst of the worst. There will never be satellite internet here again! I am perfectly happy with Dish and wouldn't consider changing to another service. However since I am paying for Amazon Prime anyway, and the Roku was less than the cost of a month's tv service I bought the Roku. I intend to use it on a TV we don't have hooked up to the satellite. We could easily do so but I don't like the idea of having to have the TV in one designated spot so I don't want to be drilling holes for cable to it. If however we are really happy with it it could be a major consideration to disconnect the dish service and get a second roku. I really don't see that happening though, because we do watch the Topeka channels through dish for the news etc and I'm not sure we could get them. I guess I'll hold out judgement for what the Roku actually does.
When I lived in town I had cable. We had the best tv service and the fastest most dependable internet ever. If I could get cable out here I'd for sure have it. I suppose though, it is different depending on what company you have as well.
I guess if all else fails I always have chicken TV!
it's supposed to get above freezing here today but it's got a long long ways to go yet. It is still only 13 degrees. I can't imagine it warming up that much. You can guarantee if it does and the wind isn't blowing I'll be out catching up on stuff. I really really need to burn some trash. My geese love the trash pile so I have to be careful what goes out there. It's just fun for them to dig around in it I guess. Dumb birds!

 

[HEChicken]

Its amazing what a difference the sun makes! Yesterday I was so beat down by the constant cold, the constant worry about water freezing, and the constant overcast skies that I actually started researching places to live where the climate is better. I really scared DH, especially when I started talking about a specific house for sale….LOL.

This morning I went out to do the morning chores and came in and told DH how much warmer it is than yesterday and asked him to look at the thermometer to see the actual temperature. I was sure he was going to tell me it was already in the high 20's so was a little shocked when he said it was 9. WHA????? I guess with no wind and a little sun, 9 feels warmer than the teens with a cold north wind blowing. Since then it has warmed all the way up to 15 but even if its still cold out, I don't care today since the sun is out too

The birds must feel the same. The past couple of days very few have ventures out of the coop, let alone the chicken yard, even though the gate has been open all day. Today most birds were out enjoying the sun and ran to greet me quite cheerfully.

 

[ashncarson]

We just have netflix streaming and then whatever free channels that our t.v. will pick up. While my husband would like more, it seems to work for us. I am interested in learning more about netlix DVD but would like to see what they have first.

 

[HEChicken]

We just have netflix streaming and then whatever free channels that our t.v. will pick up. While my husband would like more, it seems to work for us. I am interested in learning more about netlix DVD but would like to see what they have first.

They basically have everything! I have never searched for a DVD that Netflix did NOT have it, including some that you wouldn't expect them to have. For example, I searched for a kids' TV show that was on in Australia 35+ years ago. I.e., something that is pretty obscure here - Netflix had it. Most recently, we were able to watch the whole first season of Game of Thrones, even though DH didn't think they'd have it because it is an HBO exclusive.

 

[Trish44]

re: dish

8 years ago we moved to the country. We live in an earth sheltered berm house, so we knew that getting wiring into the house might be a deal. My DH loves sports, so he wanted DirectTV for the premium sports packages. I called them and they came out. They took one look at the house and wouldn't even TRY to get the cabling into the house even though we had a couple of ideas about it.

When we ordered Wild Blue satellite TV through our coop (ok at first, dropped it after 3 years because it was so slow), the person that installed for Wild Blue said he could run the cables for our satellite TV at the same time. I asked him if he was a Direct TV installer, and he said no, but he could either put in the cables or do a complete install for Dish. At this point we were both so irritated at DirectTv, that we agreed. Absolutely no regrets. Jim (at Tom VanSickle for those of you near Emporia) has kept us up and running for 8 years through 2 upgrades and a change to satellite (from our wireless last year to Dish.net -- not too bad, but not cheap). We have had few outages even in heavy rain, and he even installed a UHF over-the-air antenna that brings in the Topeka UHF channels. I can't say enough good about his work and installs.

We like Dish, and DH even has admitted that for the most part the sports stuff is just as good on Dish (especially considering DirectTv's pricing and questionable sales practices.) It isn't cheap because we have a lot of channels (not the premium package -- had it for a while and never watched the movies or series on HBO and Sho.

Jim says that the signal strength is a function of the aiming and the lack of trees in the way. In any case, we are quite satisfied.

Sharol

That's weird, Tom VanSickle is my cousin, what a small world. I still have family at or near Emporia, that is where my parents were originally from & it's where they're buried now.

When they built this house they put in some PVC pipes they ran through the cement wall downstairs since we also live in a berm house. That's where the wires used to come in for the TV & whatever else they needed wires coming in for. Now they have just drilled through the wall upstairs for Dish & it works fine. We now have the Hopper upstairs & downstairs & really like it. We had to have a new satellite dish put up for that awhile back when we got the Hopper. We get the local Wichita channels through Dish too. We don't have the extra movie channels but we have everything else. I moved the service when I moved from Derby 15 years ago & we've had it every since & have been very happy with it. DirectTV really promises you things that aren't true, we have had them do that more than once & we didn't switch.

I have no idea what the deal is with the satellite dishes and reception. Our dish for internet was right beside the dish for Dish network. Yet the internet was the worst of the worst. There will never be satellite internet here again! I am perfectly happy with Dish and wouldn't consider changing to another service. However since I am paying for Amazon Prime anyway, and the Roku was less than the cost of a month's tv service I bought the Roku. I intend to use it on a TV we don't have hooked up to the satellite. We could easily do so but I don't like the idea of having to have the TV in one designated spot so I don't want to be drilling holes for cable to it. If however we are really happy with it it could be a major consideration to disconnect the dish service and get a second roku. I really don't see that happening though, because we do watch the Topeka channels through dish for the news etc and I'm not sure we could get them. I guess I'll hold out judgement for what the Roku actually does.
When I lived in town I had cable. We had the best tv service and the fastest most dependable internet ever. If I could get cable out here I'd for sure have it. I suppose though, it is different depending on what company you have as well.
I guess if all else fails I always have chicken TV!
it's supposed to get above freezing here today but it's got a long long ways to go yet. It is still only 13 degrees. I can't imagine it warming up that much. You can guarantee if it does and the wind isn't blowing I'll be out catching up on stuff. I really really need to burn some trash. My geese love the trash pile so I have to be careful what goes out there. It's just fun for them to dig around in it I guess. Dumb birds!

We had HughesNet for two years & couldn't wait to get off of it, I won't have satellite internet here again either, it's the pits. They & Wild Blue both have download limits that they just "forget" to tell you about that is in the fine print & then you find out later when they cut your internet down to dial-up speed as a punishment for going over. Heck Windows updates can go over the download limit they set, it's ridiculous & we had one of the highest speeds & paid a goodly amount for service but still went over just with software updates. We never downloaded music or let anyone else do it & that's what they were terrified someone would do. I have friends down the hill from us that lived in town before they moved out here & they had Cox cable, she says that they had more outages with it than they have with the wireless service we both have now for internet. So I guess it's just a matter of where your service is & who runs it.

We just have netflix streaming and then whatever free channels that our t.v. will pick up. While my husband would like more, it seems to work for us. I am interested in learning more about netlix DVD but would like to see what they have first.

We have the Netflix DVD & Blu Ray that I pay for monthly & really like it. There for awhile they thought they would charge extra every month for Blu Ray if you wanted that, but I guess most people opted to not get it if they had to pay extra like I did so they give you the option now to have either for the same price. We have the 3 movies at a time service, but honestly we probably could get by with two. We don't watch as many movies as we used to & I'm pretty busy with my chickens & animals now so I don't usually watch movies by myself. We watch more in the winter than we do the other times of the year when we're stuck inside more. I honestly have found very few movies you can't get on Netflix, I agree with HEChicken about that. We have only found an instance once or twice that they didn't have what we were looking for. If the movies aren't out yet, like you see one that is in the theaters & you want to get it when it comes out you can put it on your list & they will move it up when it is available. You can have a pretty long list. You ask for however many movies you're allowed on the plan you choose & then they send the first ones on your Queue that are available. When you return one you get the next one on your list. You can keep the movies as long as you want & not have any penalties. I have forgotten about them at times & had them for months & they never say anything. I don't like to do that, but I don't usually do it on purpose.

It's still not that warm here, I don't think it's going to make it to what they said today. At least the sun is out though & that definitely helps. We've been battling some stomach thing here & both of us haven't been up to snuff the past couple of days. I don't know what we have had, but I hope it goes away soon. My DH says he feels pretty crappy.

 

[HEChicken]

Whoo-hoo!!! Our forecast for today was only 36 or 37 depending on the source, but our thermometer is already reading 39 and it could make 40 before it starts to go back down. The sun is the best part. The birds are out foraging, the dogs are enjoying lying in the sun, and I don't have to worry about frozen water for a few hours.