Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Oh Ivy I'm glad you found a place. Did you make an offer on it? I hope for your sake it goes through.
Marshmallow has been out in the kennel for the last 36 hours or so. I noticed she hadn't eaten or drank a thing or gone to the bathroom. She is very particular about not going anywhere in the yard or where she sleeps. She came in and ate like a total pig and then asked to go out. I let her out and need to check on her soon. As hot as it is I imagine she'll be ready to come back in the house. and cool off. At least I hope so.
I am tired and have a terrible headache today. I guess I'd better get out and get busy even though a nice long nap sounds better.

 

[HEChicken]

Kansaseq, I use a mounting block too. I used to always mount from the ground but when I moved to the barn I am at now, the ladies there are older and all use a mounting block. I started using it too, but felt a bit woosie doing it. Then one of the ladies had an issue with her gelding's back, and had a horse chiropractor come out to see if there was anything he could do to relieve the pain. He said it is MUCH better for the horse if we mount using a block, because when mounting directly from the ground, one tends to put a lot of weight on the right wither, by grabbing the horn and hauling oneself up there, pulling on the saddle in such a way as to add a lot pressure there. Over time, that can lead to pain and back issues for the horse. If I have to dismount for any reason, it is good to know I can get back on directly from the ground, but when I am mounting at the beginning of our rides, I now use the block without feeling bad about it!

Ivy - that is exciting news about finding a place. I firmly believe that if it is meant to be, it will all work out. Nevertheless, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Will it be a big move in terms of distance? I.e., will it mean changing jobs as well as residences? And you mentioned downsizing - would that be a temporary situation just to make the move easier, or a permanent condition?

Our official move was yesterday so we are now in our new place. Well, sort of. The movers screwed up and ran out of their own trucks so our crew had to go and rent a Penske truck. It was about half the size (so they say) of their trucks and they couldn't fit everything in. We were only asking them to move the big stuff as we're quite capable of moving smaller items, so we were a little annoyed to have the truck full and some of the big stuff still not on it. The actual crew was terrific - the screw up was with management, who sent them to rent a truck not large enough to fit our stuff in (and that is AFTER they came out to see what we were moving and give us a quote, so they knew exactly which items needed to go on the truck. Grrrrr.)

The other hiccup was that the basement in the new house was 3/4 finished. We decided to go ahead and get it fully finished prior to moving as we knew once we had our furniture down there, we'd never get around to getting it all back out to finish it. So I started talking to contractors two months ago. You know where this story is going, don't you? Yup. Two months of one excuse and delay after another. I finally blew a fuse at the head contractor last Tuesday and told him "Look, moving day is this Saturday, you've had X amount of time to get your act together and get it done. Now there is no way it will be done in time and I'm not happy". He cleaned up his act right away and had someone out there at 7am the next morning. Long story short though, because several sub-contractors were needed - electrician, drywall, trim carpenter - and lining them all up doesn't always work out, they were here until 11pm Friday night working and then texted that they'd be back at 10am - on moving day. Needless to say, we had to tell the movers they couldn't move any furniture into the basement since the work wasn't completed yet. So DH and I spent the night on couches in the living room, since we were not able to get our bedroom set up. But we'll get there.

Drinking coffee on the wide front porch this morning, listening to the sounds of nothing but birds singing and my roosters crowing - no city noises, no traffic - DH turned to me and said "I love it here". That was all I needed to hear.

 

[Kansaseq]

HEchicken, congrats on moving into your new place! Sounds like you now have your own little piece of heaven

I hope you'll be really happy there!

 

[chicken danz]

Wow! The move is on! I would have to win a major contest or lottery to move. In fact to do what I'd like around here I'd have to pulll some $$ from the sky.
I'm feeling totally drained this afternoon. I was seriously considering a nap but it is getting late. I need to water the garden but I keep thinking it might blow a rain storm up. I guess it worked both times I watered before. It rained a little.
I got the new eggs in the incubator and got the hatcher loaded again. Most of the eggs that went in today are duck eggs. There were a few guinea and pheasant. Nothing special.
Trish I haven't candled any of my eggs. I just tend to wait until time to move them to the hatcher. I always have a fear of throwing away a viable egg. I would have liked to candle my orpingtons today but by the time I got done with all the others I was tired of it.

 

[Trish44]

HeChicken, Congrats on getting moved, sorry your basement work didn't get finished, but at least you got moved. There is nothing like the quiet out in the country is there? We're not that far out of town, but it's enough to make a big difference. We can sometimes hear the sirens, but it's not close enough to be a bother. We do have neighbors around us, but most of the time we don't hear them. We have this big hill behind us between us & the road so that is a big, big buffer too & it saved us when the neighbor's trailer blew away over a year ago. I think if it weren't for that hill we would have a lot more problems with the north wind, it is a pretty good block. The house is built into the hill on the first level & then we have a second level that comes out in the backyard at ground level if that makes any sense. The front of the house is mostly all windows & the floor plan is open in the front part all the way to the 2nd floor celing, so it's like 20 feet up to the ceiling there. I haven't figured out how to paint the walls on that level in the front part as of yet & haven't gotten DH to help me with it, so the bottom has been painted & the top is still not. He doesn't seem to think he has to do things around here to help, it's really aggravating because I just don't feel safe on ladders any more.

Danz, sorry you're not feeling well, I hope you have a better day tomorrow. I have not accomplished a whole lot today, it's been really hot here & I don't take the heat well, so I haven't been out too much. I will have to go out before too long & do chores. I did manage to go out & take some pics of my little chinchilla rabbits that I need to sell, they're weaned & ready for new homes. I had to catch them & move them to their own cage so I could get the pics. I have 5 little Mini Rex rabbits that will need homes in about 3 weeks too, they're cute little things. They just came out of the nest box recently & are eating & hopping all around. I go out there to feed & they will be sitting in the feed bowls waiting on food, a bowl full of rabbit, it's so cute! My little Campine hen now has decided she is broody, what is going on around here? She is sitting in my planter on the front porch. I guess when I get done gathering eggs for the incubator I'll give her a couple to sit on, silly hen. If she gets spooked she jumps off & just chews you out, then she'll go back on the nest. I was looking at my records & I can candle my 3 Cream Legbar eggs tomorrow, I sure hope they're developing. These are my other expensive eggs. The guy is supposed to send my other eggs tomorrow I think. His hen went broody right in the middle of collecting my eggs for my order, so I only got half of them at the time. I was hoping his hen would start laying again so the eggs wouldn't be too far apart & he notified me that he should be able to ship them this week, hopefully tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed that I get a better hatch on these than I did with the Swedish Flowers. I had incubator issues in the middle of incubating those though, so hopefully these will do better.

Oh did I tell you all that I got a strange Welsummer chick from the two that hatched? I can't remember who I told & who I didn't. My friend sent me some eggs to incubate & only 2 ended up making it to hatch out of 6 that she sent, she only has one hen. Anyway, one of them is white instead of the usual Welsummer colors. You can barely see the caramel colored stripes on it's back. I posted the pic of them on the Welsummer thread & some of them say it's a DQ & shouldn't be bred of course, but I didn't want it for breeding anyway, just laying. I can tell the other one is a pullet by it's coloring, but who knows what this one is. I'm going to let it feather out & see what it looks like, it should be interesting.

 

[cherwill]

Drinking coffee on the wide front porch this morning, listening to the sounds of nothing but birds singing and my roosters crowing - no city noises, no traffic - DH turned to me and said "I love it here". That was all I needed to hear.

That's what it's all about in the end. I'm happy for you.

 

[Tinychicks]

HI everyone! I am in Hillsboro but frequent Wichita. I am looking for another Faverolle hen, and possibly a home for a Faverolle cockrel. This is my first year of ever having chickens. I look forward to chatting.

 

[HEChicken]

Welcome TinyChicks! I don't have Faverolles but hopefully someone else can help you. We are a chatty bunch, so check back often

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye-I LOVE the greenhouses made from doors. How unique and creative! Sounds like you had a great little mini vacation.

..........................AND>>>>>DH and I found a place where we want to move. We both fell in love with it. However, I am not sure the deal will go through. The seller may back out. Time will tell, but it is going to be a very busy time for us getting our place ready to sell, and all the other things we will need to do. I will be going back to work tonight for the first time since my knee surgery, so I hope that goes well.

Due to the move I will be selling down on some of my birds. I haven't decided which ones will be available, but I will post it once I know. Some are already spoken for, so I need to see just what I want to keep and what will have to go. I am really excited and hope the deal works out.

I was telling my DH about the greenhouse made out of doors and windows and he was having a cow, since we don't know if we'll be here. I hope this new house works out for you!! So exciting that you found a house down there near your sister! You'll be closer to everyone else, too. Nice!! I get down that way a couple times a year, not as much as I should. I sure hope it all falls into place and it works out smoothly for you.

I, too, am suprised he allowed his pic to be taken. We know a great Amish family. Sam butchers my chickens and his wife sells the best pies I have ever tasted! They are the sweetest couple I have ever met. I didn't know that they didn't allow English in their homes. We have been in Sams several times. They have a little outhouse/shed building out by the road that they keep a cell phone in that they share with one of the farms across the street. So when you call and leave a message they will call you back. Where was this place you went Hawkeye?

Okay, I don't remember the name of the road, but as soon as you take the Yoder exit, you drive down that main highway that runs right by the restaurant and the meat company, and then you turn left onto a street that takes you west thru town-- the road you turn left on is right where the Yoder school is. Then surprisingly, there is a neat "down town" area on that road, they have a community covered picnic area and a little shopping in there. Continue on past that, then you hop back on the highway that cuts thru at a Y and then they are out of town just a tiny bit from there on the south side of the road. I could probably look it up and tell you streets if you are wanting to contact them. Or better yet, I could ask my MIL and have her give me the name/phone number. It might be one of those things where you leave a message and then they post it on the board and the family will call you back. The family did say that they have a community phone-- sort of like the party lines back in the day where anyone can get on and hear other conversations.

Our official move was yesterday so we are now in our new place. Well, sort of. The movers screwed up and ran out of their own trucks so our crew had to go and rent a Penske truck. It was about half the size (so they say) of their trucks and they couldn't fit everything in. We were only asking them to move the big stuff as we're quite capable of moving smaller items, so we were a little annoyed to have the truck full and some of the big stuff still not on it. The actual crew was terrific - the screw up was with management, who sent them to rent a truck not large enough to fit our stuff in (and that is AFTER they came out to see what we were moving and give us a quote, so they knew exactly which items needed to go on the truck. Grrrrr.)

The other hiccup was that the basement in the new house was 3/4 finished.
Drinking coffee on the wide front porch this morning, listening to the sounds of nothing but birds singing and my roosters crowing - no city noises, no traffic - DH turned to me and said "I love it here". That was all I needed to hear.

YAY!! Glad you are mostly moved in! I'd be ticked about the movers. I hope they plan to get everything all sorted out for you. That is part of why we'd hire movers-- so we don't have to take anything up or down the stairs! Sheesh. So I take it that your bedroom is going to be in the basement? Is this a viewout basement? I just don't think I could live in the basement unless it were like mine. Which is really less of a basement and more of a half covered lower floor. It worries me in tornado warnings, because I'm pretty sure our basement is not exactly ideal to be hiding in, but it's better than sitting around on the top floor. On the other hand, the other 99% of the time, we enjoy a second level that has as much natural light as the main floor. We have two bedrooms downstairs (where my oldest son sleeps) and our game room, and our family room. It's the perfect setup. I would love to have that nice wide front porch! We have a typical porch for a modern home, it's about 6X10. Enough to put a bench out there, but that's about it. This is why we've worked so hard on our backyard to make up for the lack of neat spaces built into the home.

Wow! The move is on!

I hope this isn't a running theme beginning to trend with us! We found out that instead of Boeing shutting down late next year, they are giving their manages bonuses up to $40K to close their programs up early. My dad's program is shutting down in two months now! He was going to get his layoff now, but fortunately, he has found another job and I'm praying it does not fall thru. Now I need MY dh to get another job. Sigh. My parents will (hopefully) be moving to Seattle now. I'm digging in -- praying we don't have to go anywhere. But I'm more worried now since the company is making this big push to shut it down ASAP and we'll be out of a job in as short as 5-6 months instead of the full year they were talking about. Everyone is going to be fighting over jobs.

Oh did I tell you all that I got a strange Welsummer chick from the two that hatched? I can't remember who I told & who I didn't. My friend sent me some eggs to incubate & only 2 ended up making it to hatch out of 6 that she sent, she only has one hen. Anyway, one of them is white instead of the usual Welsummer colors. You can barely see the caramel colored stripes on it's back. I posted the pic of them on the Welsummer thread & some of them say it's a DQ & shouldn't be bred of course, but I didn't want it for breeding anyway, just laying. I can tell the other one is a pullet by it's coloring, but who knows what this one is. I'm going to let it feather out & see what it looks like, it should be interesting.

That is really interesting! You should post a pic here! I want to see!! I'm not involved in Welsummer's, but I find that fascinating! I wonder what happened-- what genetic ground color do Welsummer have? Are they silver based or something? Perhaps that chick has an incredible amount leakage coming thru, which is giving it that color?

HI everyone! I am in Hillsboro but frequent Wichita. I am looking for another Faverolle hen, and possibly a home for a Faverolle cockrel. This is my first year of ever having chickens. I look forward to chatting.

TinyChicks--

and WELCOME to the Kansas Thread!! I dont' have any faverolle either, but I bet someone on here does. Oh and we have a Kansas swap-- that might be a better place to check out! Post your "wanted" here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/275183675880038/

 

[chicken danz]

Welcome Tiny chicks. I probably have one I could spare but am quite a distance from you. I have a few chicks but I never know what will survive and what won't since I hatch so many. Are you looking for a hen or a young bird to grow up with yours?

OH Hawkeye that is so discouraging. I hope you aren't forced to move early. It's unfortunate that you don't have a firm date and options so you knew when to get your house on the market or not. That just seems so unfair.
I wish I could afford to move elsewhere some day. But I'm sure as long as finances hold up I'll be here till I die. It would just be nice to pick a perfect private farm with lots of trees and mild temps, and even rain once in a while. That would be great.
I was watching the weather last night and probably Ivy and Bamaproud are the only ones that potentially got rain. I was sure looking forward to it. I need to go water some more now.
It was a very tiring weekend. I really could use some peace and quiet.
My daughter called at 7:30 this morning and a coon had killed two of her lavender orpingtons. She was not at all happy!