Consolidated Kansas

[HEChicken]

Trish and I were both posting at the same time so I didn't see her post until just now. I agree about not feeding the cats that fancy stuff, Danz. Hunting is work and they won't do it unless they're hungry. If you over-feed them, they won't have much motivation to get out there and look for their own food.

I saw a video this morning of a Blue Heron hunting for, then catching and eating a gopher. It was pretty amazing. Perhaps instead of barn cats we need to be looking at barn herons to keep the mouse population down!

Tweety, I meant to say - I'm sorry to hear you haven't been well. I hope the antibiotics kick in soon and you get to feeling better.

 

[chicken danz]

I agree that female cats are the best hunters. Our new mama cat is MIA right now. She was here this morning snooping around but I can't find her now. She might have found the barn and got busy catching critters out there since it has been drizzling most of the afternoon. I got the only pair of shoes I can wear right now wet out in the yard just feeding the babies so I will just have to wait and see if she shows up. The little male cat is crying his head off. He is very lonely. He's too big to be nursing but still does. She might be trying to stay away from him to wean him as well.
It seems to be the concensus to keep cats hungry to get them to mouse. But I've had good mousers for the last 30 years and none of them have ever been hungry. My only problem is that they want to bring their mice to me instead of just killing them.
I decided to sand and work on an old antique incubator I intend to turn into a coffee table. I thought I could do that and stay off my foot. Wrong! I had it out on the front porch working on it in the rain. Now I have fine saw dust mud every where...including on me. It's red wood and that stuff goes every where.
Tweety I didn't mean to ignore the fact you are sick. I do hope you get over that stuff this time. Looks like I will be down near you on Sunday. I think we are taking a vehicle to my sons new house. I can't wait to see it. And if I know where it's at then I'll know where to go visit.
I just turned down a potential sale this evening. I am just too tired to deal with people and I have nothing to wear on my feet. What is wrong with me??? I beg for sales and now I am saying no.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Thank you to those who wish me well. This hasn't been a good year for me so far. I was usually quite healthy and hardly needed to see the doctors. But this year, I sure am glad that I've good insurance.

Danz, glad you could see yore son and DIL. When you come back up this way and able to stop by to visit, let me know. Would love to see ya.

 

[Trish44]

danz, we don't let our cats go totally hungry for sure, they get fed every day, but just not fancy stuff. They get dry cat food but they still go out & hunt mice & even sometimes baby rabbits if they find them.

It has rained pretty much all day here, a light steady rain. I agree we need it, but it sure made things messy today to get things done. I had a couple of guys come to get some rabbit hutches I was selling & I'm so glad there were two of them. They had to carry them uphill to their truck & they kept slipping in the mud. I couldn't see myself doing that with this leg like it is, so I was glad it was them & not me. They finally got them up in the truck & tied down. I had to do all of my chores in the rain this evening as well, so I was pretty wet by the time I got done with it all. I think the goats were glad they had their shelter to get in this evening, they ate & went right under there to get dried out. They hate being wet & even the sheep went into their shelter this afternoon as well. My poor chickens were just soaked by the time it was roosting time this evening. The silly things stayed out in the rain & boy were they soaked through. I have a couple of young pullets that will hold out till the last possible moment to go in, it's like they're defiant teenagers or something. One went over by the side of the run & then when I would go over to let her in she would run back off again. Finally when all the other birds were in she decided she had enough of the rain & went in. The older birds all go in most of the time with food, but these younger ones are sometimes aggravating to get to go in at night. I have one hen that never has found a place in the flock & she stays by herself & sleeps in a dog house every night. She just refuses to have anything to do with going in. She sometimes eats with them but she makes sure she gets back out before bedtime.

tweety, I'm sorry you're having a rough year with your health. It seems to be going around this year, me with my leg & you with other illnesses, now danz & her foot & ankle. I sure was having to be careful out there in the mud this evening, that hill is slick when it's wet.

 

[chicken danz]

Thank you to those who wish me well. This hasn't been a good year for me so far. I was usually quite healthy and hardly needed to see the doctors. But this year, I sure am glad that I've good insurance.

Danz, glad you could see yore son and DIL. When you come back up this way and able to stop by to visit, let me know. Would love to see ya.

I'm not sure when I'll be back down there. I am sure they are going to be doing some remodeling as time goes. I will probably come help with that, particularly if they decide to lay some tile. I've laid tile for years so it's cheapest to call Mom. LOL I know this is going to be an adjustment. They went from a new house they built to a 14 year old house. But after having to live in a motel for over a month I am sure they'll just be glad to have a home again.
The Mama cat is back this morning. She must have been hunting.
Oh I didn't mean to imply anyone here just let their cats go without food, but I do know some farmers that do and I think it's terrible. I also know some that don't feed their chickens and then wonder why they don't live long. They just let them eat whatever grains get spilled while they are storing or feeding their other livestock. Grrr!
We didn't get much rain at all. It was more of a light sprinkle all afternoon. We really could have used more than just something to raise the humidity for sure.

 

[sharol]

I tilled the part of the garden where the peas, onions, and potatoes were before harvest thinking I might try for a fall garden, and it was so dry that the tiller didn't bring up ANY moisture. I think maybe the garden is done except for the stuff that is still growing (tomatoes, zuchinni, yellow squash, and cucumbers) for this year. It just isn't worth the cost of water when it is that dry.

Copper is down to 7 eggs, and 3 of them look like quitters to me. Today is day 19, and 4 of them look viable. I left the 3 because I could be wrong. I almost threw out one of the first group of eggs I hatched and it went on to hatch into my rooster, so I'll give them until the others are done. Nothing smells, so they get more time. I moved Copper and her eggs into the hoop coop yesterday (she was NOT AMUSED at being picked up and carried the length of the yard, but she settled down when she found her eggs in the nest box). My daughter and her kids are coming next week, so I really hope some of them hatch. I have had 3 broody hatches, and each time there are 3 chicks, so we will see.

It felt like September last night. Loving this weather.

 

[cherwill]

I hurt my hand so I'm typing one handed and will keep this short. Ron, I'll try to remember to take my camera and get some pics of my broody set-ups next time I'm out there.

I saw in a later post that your hand is feeling better; that's good to hear. I hope it stays that way.

These are the three amigas

Beautiful!

Good morning all! Nice to be back on the board to read some posts. I have been sick since I last posted. The weekend was horrible. Went to the Dr on Monday and was put on antibiotics. She was surprised to see me back so soon ... I was in to see her 2 months ago when I was sick and completely lost my voice for 2 days. She thought I didn't completely recover from it and it just reared its ugly head again after the long stressful traveling overseas. So I'm back on antibiotics so hopefully I'm on the mend.

It does sound like you never really recovered from the original illness. I hope you get it taken care of for good this time. Hopefully the rest of the year will be better for you, and you'll stay healthy.

Of course if I would watch the weather forecast then I won't hang all my laundry out last night and get them all soaking wet from the rain.

I had to laugh because my MIL has complained about doing that so many times!

I tilled the part of the garden where the peas, onions, and potatoes were before harvest thinking I might try for a fall garden, and it was so dry that the tiller didn't bring up ANY moisture. I think maybe the garden is done except for the stuff that is still growing (tomatoes, zuchinni, yellow squash, and cucumbers) for this year. It just isn't worth the cost of water when it is that dry.

It's the opposite here. We've had enough rain enough times that I don't think it fully dries out underneath. I hope you get some rain soon.

 

[chicken danz]

I tilled the part of the garden where the peas, onions, and potatoes were before harvest thinking I might try for a fall garden, and it was so dry that the tiller didn't bring up ANY moisture. I think maybe the garden is done except for the stuff that is still growing (tomatoes, zuchinni, yellow squash, and cucumbers) for this year. It just isn't worth the cost of water when it is that dry.

Copper is down to 7 eggs, and 3 of them look like quitters to me. Today is day 19, and 4 of them look viable. I left the 3 because I could be wrong. I almost threw out one of the first group of eggs I hatched and it went on to hatch into my rooster, so I'll give them until the others are done. Nothing smells, so they get more time. I moved Copper and her eggs into the hoop coop yesterday (she was NOT AMUSED at being picked up and carried the length of the yard, but she settled down when she found her eggs in the nest box). My daughter and her kids are coming next week, so I really hope some of them hatch. I have had 3 broody hatches, and each time there are 3 chicks, so we will see.

It felt like September last night. Loving this weather.

We are like Sharol. It's extremely dry and those sprinkles all day yesterday never made it to the ground. I normally pump out the duck pond on to the garden to water it and clean the pond at the same time but that wind storm that took down our power lines also took down the power to the pump in the duck pond. I haven't had a chance to get any one out here to look at it yet.
I wish some of you that have gotten so much rain would send a little this way. We get it north, south, east and west but it just seems to skip around us.
My garden is just getting started well but if we don't get rain there won't be anything left to harvest. Between that and the bugs its a mess. I did see one lone green bean yesterday. Not hardly worth picking was it?
I started getting ready to go feed while ago and got sidetracked here. It sure doesn't take much to break my attention span.
I was trying to decide what to do about my light brahmas. Two months with the new rooster and we haven't had one fertile egg. He is a beautiful SQ import but I am thinking he may not be fertile. That is really sad. I have a couple of old roosters I could use but I was really wanting to use the SQ breeders.

 

[HEChicken]

Before you give up on him Danz, why not try AI'ing? It may be that like Hawkeye's silkie roosters, he just has too much fluff to get the job done.

Yeah, I heard that up your way there hasn't been near as much rain. That is good for the hay crop which is a bumper crop up there and they've been able to cut and bale. Down here the rain has come too much and too frequently for them to get it cut and baled so there is a lot of concern about hay shortages this year.

My garden is enjoying the rain, I have to say. Sorry to those whose gardens are suffering from lack of it. Of course the weeds are loving it too so its a never ending battle with them and the bugs. I planted green beans this year for the first time I can ever remember doing so. I planted two varieties, and only one 4' row of each but every few days I have to go out and harvest the beans because they're growing so fast. Here's the thing. I'm not that crazy about green beans! I grew them primarily for DH who will eat them raw or cooked and loves them. However we've had so much other stuff to eat and since most of the other stuff we both like, I've been struggling to use the green beans. I froze several pounds of them last week and only just used up the last harvest, and when I was out there this morning, I saw that there are some that are growing too big again. Gah!!! Me and my big ideas. I was going to can some but then I saw that you can't water bath and they have to be pressure canned for 25 minutes after you put the pressure regulator on, and they recommend venting steam for 10 minutes before that. Is it only me or does 35 minutes seem like it would be WAAAAY over-cooking them? It does explain why canned green beans are always so limp and over-cooked. I decided I didn't grow fresh produce just to cook all the nutrients out of them so I froze them instead, but there goes my vision of jars of produce all neatly lined up in the pantry.

I picked my first tomatoes of the year this morning. They are absolutely HUGE but of course because of all the rain, the skin is splitting so I'll have to try to cut out the good parts. At least the chickens will be happy to help me clean up the parts that are too soft. I lost all my zucchini to squash bugs so I replanted those the other day and also planted another row of carrots. I still need to replant some kale, spinach and mustard. They bolted in the heat but its coming up on time to plant them for fall so I pulled out the bolted plants and will replant in the same spots so we'll have them coming on again later in the year.

Tweety, I hope you are feeling better today!

Danz, glad your mama cat is back.

I guess I've become the crazy chicken lady. Lately I've had several requests from friends or friends of friends to take a chicken they can't keep. In one case it was an accidental rooster living in the city and my latest acquisition is a pure white Silkie. She belonged to a friend who has had terrible luck with what is probably a coy-dog. It has been very brazen, coming and snatching birds in daylight and they've had sightings of it right up close to the house. A couple of days ago they had 3 chickens but it came and took two of them during the day and they returned to find this lonely little silkie and asked if I would take her so she won't be alone and since clearly, it isn't going to rest until its got them all. She is a sweet little thing, only 3-4 months old and has settled in nicely to a quarantine pen.

Ron, I keep meaning to take my camera with me when I go out and I keep forgetting. I'll keep trying.

 

[chicken danz]

HEChicken the reason for leaving the vent open is to get all the excess air out so the heat rises faster. Once the steam starts I put my regulator on and adjust the heat when I get to the 10 pounds. Then cook them under pressure for 25 minutes. If you do them a lot longer they loose flavor. It actually has worked well for me especially if I have another load to get ready. I can pack the next 7 jars while the first batch pressure cooks. Non Acid foods require pressure cooking rather than a hot bath. I love home canned green beans. But the way my crop is going this year I doubt I'll be canning anything.
My son freezes his beans but I don't care for frozen green beans.
I just fed a big bucket full of cucumbers to the birds. Boy were they happy. Of course that was only one side of the yard. The other side didn't get any. I did the feeding and watering and had to come in and rest my legs a while. I ran some extension cords while I was out there and am pumping out the duck pond. I don't think I'll do any cleaning this time cause it gets really slippery out there when you get the water going. I wouldn't have done it now but it totally wreaked.
I should get back out there and see if it's done pumping. The garden is getting an extra smelly drink today.