Consolidated Kansas

[tweetybaby2005]

I'm jumping in herre for a quick read. I've been working from 6:30am to about 10:30pm for the last 2 days. The product I'm responsible for has a major issue. As you all know, we can't have issues when it comes to IRS and tax returns so the developers are working feverishly to come up with a solution. They had turned a fix over this morning but we found out late in the afternoon that it has caused another major regression. I feel like I'm living in the Groundhog Day movie. LOL.

Speaking of coffee... I sure have been putting my new coffee maker to good use in the last 2 days since I have to work so much. Right now, I'm waiting for a 7:30pm conference call and my little coffee maker is cranking out some strong coffee for me so I can stay awake! I also cannot stand weak coffee. The few times I've tried my coworker's Keurig, the coffee was just too weak for me. I wonder if it was because she didn't buy the right kind of K cups. I know they have the reuseable K cup filter thingie but when my coworker used it for the first time, I have to help her clean up the overflow mess. Again, it could be a user error. Anyway, my stomach just can't handle the acid in the coffee so I had turned to Puroast coffee because they have low acid yet still bold enough for me. I ordered it online but my friend told me she saw it at Wal Mart. I was taken by surprised since I thought they are not available locally. I will have to check it out since shipping and handling costs almost as much as the coffee.

Almost time for me to get on the conference call. I missed out on the nice weather these last few days. I miss my birds even more.

Stay warm everyone. It will be another cold freezing day tomorrow.

 

[cherwill]

LOL !, I didn't know chicken people were also coffee" birds of a feather".I can't stand weak coffee! and every time I buy it I have to be able to smell it first. I'm sure I look pretty dumb at the store trying to squeeze some air out out of the bags so I can smell it, the bitterness does have a smell tho and so far I rarely end up with coffee I don't like.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one trying to smell coffee in its sealed bag!

We're kind of coffee snobs too using your term sharol. My DH buys green coffee beans from a place in California & roasts his own beans. He bought a coffee roaster a few years ago, it wasn't cheap, but he roasts only about a half of a pound at a time so we have really fresh coffee all the time. You talk about something nasty, when we go to his brother's place they make weak store brand coffee & it's barely like drinking coffee to us at all. We got hooked on the more European type of coffee when we started going on cruises & we like it strong too. They have really good European coffee on the ships. The coffee maker I use now for myself has a coffee bean grinder built into the machine & I put the whole beans in & grind it first & then it goes down into the part where the water runs over it. I only make one cup at a time since I have to limit how much caffeine I have in a day due to my heart problem. My DH has a french press he uses for his & he likes that. I just got him a new bigger coffee mug for Christmas that is a collector's item & he is happy with it. He's left handed, so it's hard to find him something he is comfortable with using. tweety I think Danz mentioned it that there are little reusable cups you can buy in a package if you want to use your own coffee or tea in the Keurig instead of buying the ready packaged things, we saw some while we were out shopping & were looking at them because my son bought one for them. He probably will just buy the little prepacked things though because he has to leave so early for work in the morning he says he doesn't have much time to make coffee before he leaves.

Oh my! Now I'm jealous. I think it would be fun to roast my own beans.

I grind my own beans fresh every morning and it does make a difference. I've also noticed the people (like my in-laws) who like their coffee extremely weak always say it's because coffee is bitter. First, my in-laws are very cheap and won't spring for quality coffee. Second, over-extracting the grounds, which you will do if you don't use enough for the size of your pot, makes bitter coffee. How's that for a bunch of coffee snobbism!?

Weak coffee is bad enough, but the stuff they make looks more like weak TEA!

I'm jumping in herre for a quick read. I've been working from 6:30am to about 10:30pm for the last 2 days. The product I'm responsible for has a major issue. As you all know, we can't have issues when it comes to IRS and tax returns so the developers are working feverishly to come up with a solution. They had turned a fix over this morning but we found out late in the afternoon that it has caused another major regression. I feel like I'm living in the Groundhog Day movie. LOL.

I hope it gets settled soon. With the holidays and the cold weather, I'm sure this is not the best time for work problems. Not that there's a good time for work problems ...

I was just enjoying seeing my chickens spend some time outside again, but tomorrow is supposed to be cold enough, they'll probably hang around inside.

 

[TheDownyChick]

TheDownyChick, I think it would be an excellent idea to get her outside on such a nice day and get some fresh air.  I don't know what to tell you on the other symptoms - hopefully someone else can help….

I did take her out for a while! Thanks! I was afraid I kight make her worse. She is eating medicsted feed and I put duramyacin in her water. There is this tan colored crusty stuff on one side of her comb. Is that a scab or infection? I habent heard her sneeze in a while. She clucks softly to m

 

[TheDownyChick]

Ugh. My quote thing didn't work right. Sorry!

 

[sharol]

Ugh. My quote thing didn't work right. Sorry!

LOL, mine don't work half the time, either. You can edit a post with the little edit button down at the bottom of the post, though. Try, try again.

 

[chicken danz]

It's so cold today. The wind is picking up even more and we're getting a few flurries. I am not looking forward to going out to care for birds today. I have a feeling this is going to be a minimum to get by kind of day. Even the ducks and geese are laying low today.
I'm dealing with a case of exhaustion for sure. I'm so glad Christmas only comes once a year!! It takes so little to make me sick. I'm really trying to fight it off right now.
I had DH open the gates when he came home from work so at least I don't have to run out and do that. Not that the birds are running around the yard.
I was at a beer brewing place in The KC metro area and they had raw coffee beans and a roaster for them. The roaster was pretty pricey and I am sure it would be quite simple to roast them in an oven rather than buy another appliance.
I keep my whole beans in the freezer to maintain freshness. It sure helps.
I'm going to have to go get feed tomorrow. I sure hope this wind goes back to a minimum by then. I sure don't want to be shoveling feed in this cold wind.
Tweety I'm sorry you are having to work so many hours. How frustrating.

 

[HEChicken]

Tweety, thanks for checking in even though you are so busy - it is always nice to hear from you.

Danz, I hear you on the wind! I woke in the middle of the night to hear it howling and it is not a sound I enjoy. It dropped more than 40 degrees since the warmest part of the day yesterday and was in the teens when I got up this morning. After I woke during the night, I realized I hadn't filled up the feeder in my coop last night as I usually do. I haven't forgotten to do that for weeks, and I like getting up in the morning knowing that between the feeder being full and the heated dog water bowl, they have what they need and I don't have to rush out there, but this morning I had to go out as soon as I woke up.

The DownyChick, I'm glad the hen is doing better. The crusty thing on the side of the comb sounds like it could be a scab but I dunno....I would probably leave it and if its a scab it will fall off eventually.

I had a friend who decided to go into business making gourmet coffee beans a few years ago. He got the roaster and whatever else he needed and then he asked me for some help putting together a website for him. I agreed to do it and bartered my time for coffee beans. Unfortunately, the coffee we made from those beans was so weak we really didn't enjoy it at all. I don't know what the problem was, but when we used the usual amount of ground coffee (after freshly grinding it ourselves in our coffee grinder), the coffee was so weak I couldn't even drink it and we wound up having to use triple to quadruple the amount of coffee to get a decent cup of coffee so the beans didn't go very far. Since then I've just bought a decent brand of ground coffee from the store as at least that way I know what I'm getting and know I can make a strong cup of coffee from it.

 

[sharol]

I keep my whole beans in the freezer to maintain freshness. It sure helps.

I freeze the beans I get from Washington, too. The most economical way to ship them is to buy 10 lbs at a time. I know some of the coffee experts say not to freeze them, but I've had good luck with it and no noticeable difference in flavor.

 

[Trish44]

Tweety, thanks for checking in even though you are so busy - it is always nice to hear from you.

Danz, I hear you on the wind! I woke in the middle of the night to hear it howling and it is not a sound I enjoy. It dropped more than 40 degrees since the warmest part of the day yesterday and was in the teens when I got up this morning. After I woke during the night, I realized I hadn't filled up the feeder in my coop last night as I usually do. I haven't forgotten to do that for weeks, and I like getting up in the morning knowing that between the feeder being full and the heated dog water bowl, they have what they need and I don't have to rush out there, but this morning I had to go out as soon as I woke up.

The DownyChick, I'm glad the hen is doing better. The crusty thing on the side of the comb sounds like it could be a scab but I dunno....I would probably leave it and if its a scab it will fall off eventually.

I had a friend who decided to go into business making gourmet coffee beans a few years ago. He got the roaster and whatever else he needed and then he asked me for some help putting together a website for him. I agreed to do it and bartered my time for coffee beans. Unfortunately, the coffee we made from those beans was so weak we really didn't enjoy it at all. I don't know what the problem was, but when we used the usual amount of ground coffee (after freshly grinding it ourselves in our coffee grinder), the coffee was so weak I couldn't even drink it and we wound up having to use triple to quadruple the amount of coffee to get a decent cup of coffee so the beans didn't go very far. Since then I've just bought a decent brand of ground coffee from the store as at least that way I know what I'm getting and know I can make a strong cup of coffee from it.

It sounds like your friend wasn't roasting the beans long enough. My DH usually does a fairly dark roast so the coffee is more stout because that's how we both like it. It does make a big difference in taste as to how long you roast the beans. You don't want to burn them, but they need to be dark enough to give them some good flavor. He puts his roaster on top of my stove when he roasts coffee so he can turn on the exhaust fan & exhaust the fumes outside for the most part. It does smell like roasting coffee beans in our house for a day or so every time, but it's not an unpleasant smell. We order our green coffee beans from Sweet Marias in California. They do sell a small amount of roasted coffee too, but they specialize in green beans & roasting equipment. The owner travels all around the world finding the best coffee beans he can & he publishes a newsletter too. We used to buy green coffee beans from Spice Merchant in Wichita, but they kept raising their prices & they're not the most friendly people in the world either, so we just looked for somewhere else to buy the beans.

It's supposed to be back to the 40s tomorrow, I can't wait for that, I hate it being this darned cold, it's just miserable. I had a lot of things to catch up on yesterday out there with the birds & animals since we had been gone. I will have to clean out rabbit trays again when it warms back up, I'm sure not doing that out there today that's for sure. I agree Danz, it will be just the minimum today.

tweety I hope things settle down for you at work soon so you can get some rest.

We had a few hours with my DH's mom when we went to Missouri the other day & she is going to be 92 next month & has Alzheimer's. She has done fairly well until recently & she is now having a hard time remembering her children's names & connecting them to the person. She is very disconnected now & is getting more & more into her own little world. She is happy though & still fairly cooperative most of the time. It's just hard for them all to see her going downhill so much now. She was diagnosed several years ago & they started her on the medication right away & that has delayed this stage for a long time, so they have been lucky.

 

[chicken danz]

I finally got the battery back in my camera. Here is the dish I got from one DIL and the towels I got from another one. It's hard to judge size in the picture. The dish is a good size. It would be great for serving cookies or something on.
HEChicken where's your pictures?
My son who lives in Manhattan just called. They have been having power surges and outages the last several days. His refrigerator has quit. Unfortunately he has a high deductible on his home owners insurance. They just bought this 2 years ago and it will be a week from Tuesday before the service person will be out. What rotten luck!