Consolidated Kansas

[Marty1876]

It is. I hope everyone one is staying in the state!

 

[HEChicken]

Danz I can't believe how much you got done and that is when you are sick! Hope the new meds get you feeling better right quick - and your kitty too. I went through that with DD's cat last year. He had a UTI and crystals and I spent a small fortune on him at the vet. He came home on two types of meds and a bag of special feed that cost $4/lb - more than the people food! He's fat and sassy now though, so I guess it was worth it.

 

[chicken danz]

This cat is a special one. I rescued her from my neighbors roof after he killed the mother cat for having kittens up there. There were 3 of them but she is the only survivor. One of them disappeared at about a year and the other was killed by a neighborhood dog thanks to the drug addicts that threw the cat in the dogs pen. ANGRY!
Anyway the kittens were too young to eat and I had to hand feed them from day one. They would get so messy that they each got a bath in the kitchen sink every time they ate. This cat used to get in the shower with me. She has no fear of water. Anyway she isn't a normal cat at all. She's 13 years old and finally learned how to stomp her paws like a normal cat just a couple years ago. She doesn't meow at all. I think when they were tiny and screaming from starvation,once she was cared for, she just never had a reason to meow again. She just opens her mouth and no sound comes out. She sleeps on my pillow every night with her feet wrapped around my head. If I ask her for a kiss she will walk up to me and put her forehead on my face for a kiss. Sometimes she kisses back but that usually involves a little nip on the cheek. She loves every one and doesn't understand people who don't give her attention. She is grossly overweight. She was patterned just like a leopard. As time has gone on she has turned gray in the face and her markings have blended so she only looks leapardy on her legs now. But she is still beautiful to me. Loosing her would be like loosing one of my children.
Right now she is mad at me because I gave her her medicine and she was not happy about it. I just hope she gets well.

 

[cherwill]

DH and I would love to move to the country, but he can't live more than 5 miles from the fire station. Heck, it's a mile from there to the edge of town, in most cases.

We check things out, off and on, but everything is at least twice what we're paying for our current house. I know my in-laws would loan us the money to make both payments until our house sells, but I don't want to get in too deep. What's the point of having a place in the country if we have to work three jobs to pay for everything and we never get to do what we moved there to do?

Someone mentioned wanting to build a cement house. We've seen a couple go up around here, but they're still very new. Does anyone know how they hold up over the long run? In theory, they should weather pretty well. It should hold up MUCH better than the average basement, right? DH has been fascinated with the idea of building one ever since he saw the first one around here.

If we could move, we want lots more chickens and some quail. We'd love to raise a cow or two each year. And goats. DH wants goats. He grew up with a couple of goats and says they're lots of fun.

 

[Hawkeye95]

DH and I would love to move to the country, but he can't live more than 5 miles from the fire station. Heck, it's a mile from there to the edge of town, in most cases.

We check things out, off and on, but everything is at least twice what we're paying for our current house. I know my in-laws would loan us the money to make both payments until our house sells, but I don't want to get in too deep. What's the point of having a place in the country if we have to work three jobs to pay for everything and we never get to do what we moved there to do?

Someone mentioned wanting to build a cement house. We've seen a couple go up around here, but they're still very new. Does anyone know how they hold up over the long run? In theory, they should weather pretty well. It should hold up MUCH better than the average basement, right? DH has been fascinated with the idea of building one ever since he saw the first one around here.

If we could move, we want lots more chickens and some quail. We'd love to raise a cow or two each year. And goats. DH wants goats. He grew up with a couple of goats and says they're lots of fun.

Cement houses really aren't that new at all! They've been doing it for decades. In my neighborhood-- almost all the houses around me ARE cement houses. And I'm the one who said we wanted to build one if we move. About 12 years ago, the Kansas State Fair had an exhibit where they had new technology for building cement homes-- making it easier to build and hopefully stronger. It was with the styrofoam blocks and those ended up withstanding the wind speeds they had hoped for. Even at the point they set up the display-- they said the technology had already been used for several years and met their criteria. The house across from me used the styrofoam block method to build his house. In fact, right after we bought our property out here, we were hit by that huge tornado that took out half of Haysville. It was BAD. The funny thing is that the neighbor lost his entire roof and a few windows, BUT the house stood stolid! It was a direct hit and I'd say that is pretty darned impressive. It mangled the trees on our property and someone's barn ended up in our hedge row. We still find pieces of it now and then to this day. He told me last year, he still doesn't have one crack in his foundation-- and that's after being hit with that monster tornado. The cement houses are cement right to the top of the roof line. The windows are literally sectioned off with forms-- so there's no putting in bigger windows later on down the road- or adding one in, unless you are serious about doing some concrete work. The same way with his front door and all openings. Then they build the trusses over the top after it's sheathed and sided. No need to insulate your walls either! It's done when they pour that concrete all the way up to the top. We watched it in action when the other houses around us were being built. Good for being energy efficient, good for tornados, and good for termites, etc. It's a win win all around, I think.

You could buy in on some beef if you don't ever get the land to own your own cows. My neighbor down the roads always offers up to some of the neighbors (us included) the chance to buy a whole, half or 1/4 of one of his cows. Everyone takes him up on it. He drives them over to be processed and we get back neat little baggies of hormone free meat. You should try to find someone near by that is willing to split the cost with you!

 

[Hawkeye95]

She sounds like she is a very special cat. I sure hope she will be okay. I'm so sorry she isn't feeling well right now. Odd about no meow! But kind of a neat quirk she has.

This cat is a special one. I rescued her from my neighbors roof after he killed the mother cat for having kittens up there. There were 3 of them but she is the only survivor. One of them disappeared at about a year and the other was killed by a neighborhood dog thanks to the drug addicts that threw the cat in the dogs pen. ANGRY!
Anyway the kittens were too young to eat and I had to hand feed them from day one. They would get so messy that they each got a bath in the kitchen sink every time they ate. This cat used to get in the shower with me. She has no fear of water. Anyway she isn't a normal cat at all. She's 13 years old and finally learned how to stomp her paws like a normal cat just a couple years ago. She doesn't meow at all. I think when they were tiny and screaming from starvation,once she was cared for, she just never had a reason to meow again. She just opens her mouth and no sound comes out. She sleeps on my pillow every night with her feet wrapped around my head. If I ask her for a kiss she will walk up to me and put her forehead on my face for a kiss. Sometimes she kisses back but that usually involves a little nip on the cheek. She loves every one and doesn't understand people who don't give her attention. She is grossly overweight. She was patterned just like a leopard. As time has gone on she has turned gray in the face and her markings have blended so she only looks leapardy on her legs now. But she is still beautiful to me. Loosing her would be like loosing one of my children.
Right now she is mad at me because I gave her her medicine and she was not happy about it. I just hope she gets well.

 

[ChooksChick]

Trish-Yes, I think it would set that up on a small table or some sawhorses or something to save your back. It makes it SO much easier! It looks like it will work nicely.

I have 3 new babies this morning!

Two wheaten ameraucanas and one MYSTERY CHICK! I am not sure what happened there. I am very careful about keeping my breeders penned and separated, and when I gather eggs I mark them as to where they came from... except the free range eggs that I sell for eating. I had one chick hatch in one compartment; a wheaten out of a wheaten egg. In the other compartment I had one wheaten out of a wheaten egg, and one totally yellow chick out of what I "thought" was a golden lakenvelder egg. It's not a golden lakenvelder chick. I don't always mark the lakenvelder eggs because they are quite a bit smaller than the jumbo eggs my leghorns lay. The only explaination I can think of is that one of the leghorns laid a much smaller egg than usual and I mistook it for a lakenvelder and put it in the incubator. It will be interesting to see how it turns out. It's a completely yellow chick, but that can change. Most likely the rooster would have been my black copper marans rooster, Fuzzy. He is such a good boy and takes such good care of his girls.

This may be a Lakenvelder after all- there are occasionally pure buff hatchers that end up having GLORIOUSLY perfect markings. Hope this is one for you!

Marty--- exciting that you won the eggs! How did they say they packed them? What kind of feedback did they get on the delivery of their eggs and hatch rate?? I want to give it a go, but I'm nervous about wasting a lot of money on shipped eggs. Of course... it could work out fine, you never know!

AS important as the shipping and packing is the diet of the parent stock. The diet should be high protein and have vitamin supplements (particularly vitamin B) for a strong egg that ships well. THIS is the reason my birds get the special diet they do- so that the eggs hatch VERY well despite shipping. Ask about the diet as well as the shipping.

Hope all are doing well- been really busy around here and I'm suddenly drowning in juvenile birds! I'll be selling them at my own little chick days sale around here, and making a lot of chicken-seekers really happy! There is so much frenzy for chicks, and yet none around here for a few more weeks.

 

[rittert3]

Sorry I've been pretty scarce. I've been busy getting things the farm ready for my birds and as more people are joining our "little" forum here I find it a little overwhelming to keep up. I am happy that more folks from kansas are joining in and welcome to all.

If anyone remembers that sick hen I discribed I couple weeks back, she flared back up and we dispatched and burried her lastnight. The other hens had pecked a hole in the top of her head on top of the infection. I don't think it was anything that will spread she was a 7 year old black star and had been on cedar her whole life and I think it caused a severe infection in her sinuse and eye. I've continued (and will continue) to watch very carefully for other infected birds and havn't noticed any. I'm really going to crack down on try to get these people to stop using cedar it really makes it hard for me to distiguish between environmental causes and viral infections. I don't want that crud around MY birds anyway. I really don't think I'm on the same page with these people any we need to hurry up and get there. They wanted to put a cat in "my" quail house today and won't let me kick their buttercup rooster out. It's imparitive that I get this building disinfected in the next 3 weeks before my quail start hatching. I looked so long and hard for a place to keep birds and it kinda hurts to think I may have to back out of this deal but it's kind of looking like I'm throwing money in a fire and hoping for it to come back out the otherside.

Well that got long, I'll try to get on again soon but like I said I'm getting busy these days.

 

[Ivywoods]

Rittert3-So sorry you are having trouble getting your chicken landlords to see things differently. It sounds like a difficult sitaution. I sure hope things work out for you, one way or another. Yes, it is getting closer to spring, thankfully, and things just get busier and busier.

Danz-So sorry to hear about your senior kitty. Gosh, the things you said those people did just made me boiling mad. I'm not particularly fond of cats, and we actually have one I really like, but I sure don't believe in being cuel to them!

Wow! Lots of folks moving.

Chooks, I sure hope you are right about that chick. That would be awesome. I really am careful about keeping my breeds separated, but I was sure baffled when I saw that chick in there. It doesn't look like the other lakies I've hatched at all! Lakenvelders... my DH calls them, "Lincoln loggers." He always comes up with some goofy name when it's different, long, or hard to pronounce.

Cement houses. I think I will have to do some research on that. Sounds interesting.

Have a great day... night... whatever it is to you guys. I'm going to bed. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[tweetysvoice]

Good morning everyone! I hope it's as nice around Kansas as it's supposed to be in Lawrence! 60 degrees today! I can't wait to get off work!

Sorry you are having such troubles Ritter. It sounds like you are doing everything you can, I applaud you for not just being laxidaisy about it.

Hugs, Danz, about your Kitty. I have a 13 year old that has taken to peeing immediately outside her litterbox. Like she sticks just her front paws in and then goes. It's not too far off from her. She had an intestinal twist a few years ago and has been rapidly going downhill. I feel your pain.