Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

Cave of the Winds is in the area and in my slim and trim days I took the back tour of the cave, off the beaten path.

Hawkeye, I love Catalpa trees too. They are so pretty in the spring and I don't really mind their mess. I'll just mow over it with all the cotton from the cottonwood trees! I'd forgotten about those trees but they are fast growing and I need some more shade around here.


My DH has been working on 3 more small coops for my birds but I told him it's just too hot to mess with right now. He looked the picture of misery but assured me he likes the heat and he wanted to finish them. Hope he doesn't get heat exhaustion, then I would feel guilty for life. I think I'm going to have to get ill humored and convince him it can wait. It's just too darn hot.

Wow, that cave sounds neat! I would love that! Yeah, I'd take Catalpa over cottonwood. BUT, at least you have shade! So, that's a good thing, even if you are battling cotton. And I don't think I'd mind the seed pods too much on the Catalpa, I mow over anything and it all gets mulched down. Hope you can convince your DH to take it easy in this heat!

I found a catalpa tree a couple miles from my place here. It is where an old homestead used to be. They put in a newer home a little ways from it. I've been thinking about going up to see if there are any seed pods or volunteer trees up there. Hawkeye do you know when the pods are fresh and ready to be planted. Do they require being chilled before they germinate?

Nice!! That is what I did! I found a Catalpa tree in the park in Wichita and then pulled down the seed pods! LOL If no one is mowing under that tree, I bet you can find volunteers easy! They just spring up everywhere. Take a bucket and a shovel with you. Now would be a good time to go collect them, there should be a bunch. The seeds already fell earlier this Spring. And it only takes 4 days to germinate the seeds, they are FAST! And then they sprout up! I do have the seeds I collected in the fridge. I'm thinking about taking them out today and soaking them. Any of them that swell up after they are soaked-- those are the ones that are good and stick those into a pot. I bought one of those 32 hole seed starter "pots"-- it's that paper fiber stuff. Anyway, when those get growing, just transfer them outside when the weather is a bit nicer. I've read you can germinate the seeds without being chilled, but I was just going to try to do it the right way. But this late-- I'd just give it a shot and if they don't swell up when soaked, then you could throw them in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

Hawkeye, I like Catalpa trees too, we don't have any here but I wish we did.

I went out at noon & watered everyone & went ahead & sprayed off the rabbits again, they were already super hot


My DH is out digging dirt out from under the new coop. He is trying to get enough out to put some blocks under there for support. Fortunately it is very shady where he's working & the heat doesn't bother him like it does me. I came in from being out there about 30 minutes & was nauseated from the heat. I just can't take it at all, I get really sick fast. You all be careful out there & don't overheat!

If you get volunteer oaks-- I wouldn't mind having a couple. I haven't been able to grow them here-- I tried Pin Oak. They died on me and then someone was saying that they need acidic soil, I think?? Or maybe it was the opposite. Your DH is crazy to be out in this heat! I'm reading 108 here in the shade. Ugh!! Hope your rabbits and birds do okay today.




HE Chicken---

Oh wow-- well sounds like Co is out, then. You could head over to Missouri and check out the Ozarks! I LOVE doing that! They have lots of caves, I love seeing caves. My favorite area is the Kimberling City/Branson area. There is a lot of things to do, plus you can rent a boat and hang out on Table Rock lake and rent a cabin on the lake. One of my favorite things to do is rent a pontoon boat, an innertube, and stay out on the lake all day. They have grills on the boats, so you can grill steak and chicken and hotdogs. They have a lot of cute cabins. And of course, there is Silver Dollar City if you want entertainment.

That is terrible about your daughters foot/leg. I'd be super worried if he's thinking staph, because that is pretty serious. If you need info on horse vets, I can help! I've been to several and love most of them, but stick to the ones that are close by. My favorite "quickie" for shots, etc-- is the Mulvane Animal Clinic. I can call and get all my shots and pick them up and give them to my horses at home. Then if you have a serious problem that might need surgery or more intervention, then I go to Equine Surgery Center-- with Dr Spears , Dr Riding, and I forget the other guy-- I like them all. I like the Dr who's name starts with a K the most. LOL Wish I could remember. There is another vet in Augusta I used for years and years. His name is Dr. Neilson, and he's pretty good too. I use a family clinic in Derby because it's close to me for our family Dr's. They are on Rock Rd-- Derby Family Medical Group. If you are interested, I can tell you who I think the best two Dr's are. There is a group of them. There are a lot of great Dr's in Wichita, too. I just don't want to drive into Wichita. Anyway, yeah, I hope you can get back to "boring" too.

 

[tweetysvoice]

I bought a mister today on the way home from work and the birds absolutely love it! - Especially the ducks and silkies!


When the wind blew a bit the other way, the ducks all waited for it to come back! LOL



And I just had to throw this picture in because I thought it was funny - Ducky and Daffy have so much mist on them that everything is sticking to their bills! LOL

 

[Deerfield Acres]

So, I got some misters set up today and that seemed to help. We're still putting ice in the waterers 2X a day and changing water 3. It seems to be working. The birds just haven't got a clue about the wading pool other than to drink out of it. I've only had one go in voluntarily so I guess if they get more desperate they'll take better advantage of the situation. The bunnies really worry me with their fur coats. Shadow is the largest of the two and he's just laying around with his ice pack and ice cubes. Dottie is still bouncing around and trying to chew up the ice packs so we've had to wrap them in old towels so she can chew the towel and not the plastic. So I guess we're doing okay around here.

Ha! Last night we had another coyote adventure. I was in bed trying to go to sleep and thought I heard a suspicious noise twice but then thought I was only imagining it. The third time I thought I heard the ducks and I flew out of bed, grabbed a teeny tiny flashlight and dashed out to check it out. When I stepped out the back door the coyotes set up a ridiculous racket howling and yipping by the tree line at the back of our property so I flew down to the pen and checked the fence -- NOTHING! I was fit to be tied.

DD is at the age that she knows more than her mother and she gets really bossy when we're moving the fence and just annoys me to pieces. So, I thought, well I need to stop trying to micromanage everything and if she thinks she can do this without my help, well then let her. So I asked her if she wanted to take charge of moving the fence and having the boys move the pens. She was all over it. They got the job done and they all came bouncing in proud as punch and announced "It's done"! How many times have I believed these children only to find a project half done so I decided to check it out after they went swimming. It all looked in perfect order from a distance. Well, after their swim, things disintegrated into total chaos and I forgot to double check the fence! I can't believe I did that! What on earth was I thinking? At any rate, the spikes were in this way and that, DS hadn't mowed under the fence like he was supposed to and both of those things can short circuit the fence. All of the kids are fully aware of how it works but nobody else decided it was important to check the fence for voltage, which we ALWAYS do in the evening. Since it was evening when they moved the fence and then went swimming their minds were wiped clean of any thought pertaining to the fence and so was mine.

Okay so once I realized the fence was dead, I quickly checked the stakes to be sure they weren't the cause and found they were messed up and then checked the height of the grass and that wasn't acceptable, then I check the grounding stake and it's half out of the ground -- no good. Here it is midnight and I have this project on my hands with howling coyotes at the back fence line yipping and watching my every move. I quickly decided the kids were going to have to help me fix this problem and quick. I ran to the house as fast as my chubby legs could carry me and rallied the kids to the cause and dashed back outside to protect my chickens. They kids staggered out into the yard in various states of consciousness and I gave them the old "We've made a mistake and now we're going to fix it" speech, with coyotes yipping in the background and me still with this teeny tiny flashlight. My oldest son asked incredulously "NOW"? I calmly responded "I can't think of a better time, unless you want to go confer with the coyotes about waiting patiently to visit the chickens until we get the fence working again". In his usual fashion he calmly responded "Good point". So we all swung into action resetting poles, DS got the mower and the rest of us chatted and stayed together so the coyotes wouldn't get any fancy ideas about us. Then DH staggers out the back door and asks sleepily "What are you guys doing out here"? I explained and told him we had this and he could go back to bed. He decided he wouldn't sleep worrying about us out in the yard facing off with the coyotes so he hung around. He offered to help but I told him it would take me that much longer to explain to him what he needed to do so he contented himself with just watching.

Once we got everything put to rights then we headed to the house. The coyotes had gone completely silent and I swear they can tell at a distance when the fence is working. We were all pretty amused with ourselves and having a good time laughing at our own expense by the time we were done. My brother called today and I told him about our adventure and the kids started laughing and talking about it. One of the kids said "Last night is one of those times I will never forget"! I imagine not. DD says she learned one thing for sure from the experience and that is that it is no fun trying to get 7 kids to cooperate and get something done and next time she was going to be careful to be cooperating and not instructing. I said "How about the job's not done till it's done"? She said "Yeah mom, that too". So we all learned something and that's the main thing. Poor DH just got caught in the crossfire but even he kept a good humor about it all. What a guy!

Loved the pics!!!! Tweety those are so cute of the ducks with that stuff on their bills.

Hawkeye, DH was so tired from last night's adventure he didn't put up much of a fight to go work on the pens. So I guess there are advantages to every silly thing!

 

[HEChicken]

Tweety that looks like the same mister I got today - the Cobra Mister. I even got green same as you

Hawkeye, thanks for the info. Fortunately, one vet we don't have to change is our horse vet because I kept my horse at the barn we've always been at. In a way it seems silly to have a pasture sitting empty and then pay to keep my horse somewhere else but the reason I did is that we have about 200 acres we can ride at the other place and if I brought him here, riding would be limited to circuits of our pasture or going out on the roads around here. Plus, at our barn we have a small group of ladies that all keep their horses there and we get together to ride, which is so much more fun than riding alone. We all use the same vet and split the farm call when she comes out to do shots or float teeth, and get the feet done at the same time by the same farrier so it works out well.

 

[HEChicken]

Oh Karen, what an adventure that sounds like. The way you relay the conversations you have with your DS really cracks me up - he sounds like quite a character. I wonder if the coyotes can hear a low frequency sound from the electric fence?

 

[chicken danz]

Karen, You cracked me up. I find myself wishing I was half as witty. I went back down to work in the basement some more this evening. I don't know it I'll ever make a dent in it. I almost wish I could make everything down there disappear. I find all these things and wonder why I thought I had to have them. If I'd saved all the money I spent on things I would be sitting a lot better financially for sure. But what fun is that?

 

[Hawkeye95]

HEchicken- Sounds like a rough couple days, hope lots of boring is in your future!

Hawkeye- I may have such a distaste for catalpa because they were so close to our house! Everything was covered in black oil from the leaves during the summer and the rotten blooms would stick all over the sidewalk and cars. Maybe they wouldn't be so bad far away!

I am a nervous wreck, I have two chick orders and two batches of eggs coming this week and it is ten million degrees out! Anyone who says turkeys aren't smart hasn't met my spoiled turkey. Here he is in the best spot in the coop and having a drink from the hose which he just loves and if I don't let him drink long enough he follows me around carrying on until I let him finish!

That is soooo darned cute!! I LOVE turkeys!!!! He looks like a sweetie! What a good boy sitting there in front of the fan! I love the water story, they are so wonderful.

I bought a mister today on the way home from work and the birds absolutely love it! - Especially the ducks and silkies!


When the wind blew a bit the other way, the ducks all waited for it to come back! LOL



And I just had to throw this picture in because I thought it was funny - Ducky and Daffy have so much mist on them that everything is sticking to their bills! LOL

YES!! I have that same Cobra mister too! I have a purple and 2 red ones. My silkies love the mister more than my LF girls out in the big coop. Isn't that funny? Have you ever seen a big silkie all drenched in mister water? I assure you, it's funny! I meant to try to get a picture today of them hanging out in front of the mister. They all congregate in front of the fence line where the mister is-- just like yours! I'm glad your birds are enjoying it. Looks like the ducks think that is the best part of their day! ha! Hope you are feeling better!

Ha! Last night we had another coyote adventure.

Hawkeye, DH was so tired from last night's adventure he didn't put up much of a fight to go work on the pens. So I guess there are advantages to every silly thing!

OMGosh!!! That is an insane middle of the night coyote story!!! That is so neat you got your kids up for that, and that really taught them more than you telling them about it the next day. They wouldn't appreciate the consequences if you hadn't gotten them up so they could hear the coyotes and feel the urgency of the situation. I have say though... ONLY YOU!!!!!!

Makes me want to be a part of your family for a couple of days and witness all the fun and chaos your family bring! You are giving your kids incredible memories.

Tweety that looks like the same mister I got today - the Cobra Mister. I even got green same as you

Hawkeye, thanks for the info. Fortunately, one vet we don't have to change is our horse vet because I kept my horse at the barn we've always been at. In a way it seems silly to have a pasture sitting empty and then pay to keep my horse somewhere else but the reason I did is that we have about 200 acres we can ride at the other place and if I brought him here, riding would be limited to circuits of our pasture or going out on the roads around here. Plus, at our barn we have a small group of ladies that all keep their horses there and we get together to ride, which is so much more fun than riding alone. We all use the same vet and split the farm call when she comes out to do shots or float teeth, and get the feet done at the same time by the same farrier so it works out well.

Ahhh, well that works out then! There's no way I could afford to board my horses on top of owning all of this property and everything else I do. But it sounds like a nice set up. Who is your ferriar? I use Stan Adkins-- I think he is AWESOME!


Okay-- so it was HOT! Ugh. I had the misters going and everyone was pretty happy about it. They were still panting in the worst of the heat, but they were piled up as close to the mist as possible. We had swim lessons today at the Y and it was a pretty good day.

 

[HEChicken]

Our farrier is Tim Griest - we've been pretty happy with him. He's slow but does a good job and is a very nice fellow to boot.

Trust me though, when I say "board" it is probably not what you are thinking. It is not a fancy barn at all - just a privately owned small barn with just the 5 of us ladies and we make all the decisions about what happens there, including costs. I.e. when the cost of hay goes up (grrr...) we decide as a group that we have to pay a little more to cover it, and when a new horse comes to the barn, we lower the board amount a little. Basically, we each have to chip in what it costs in actual expenses but that's it. And, we share feedings so we don't all have to drive out there every day, which is a very nice arrangement. We just put a calendar on the wall and everyone "signs up" for their days to feed and the other days we don't have to go there at feed times at all.

 

[Trish44]

KarenS, you crack me up! What a nighttime adventure, I'll bet your kids won't forget that any time soon! That sounds like something I would do in the middle of the night. I'm telling you if you had a GP you wouldn't have to worry so much about the coyotes. Mine don't let anything in here, even wild rabbits. If it's not part of their flock of birds or rabbits they know it doesn't belong here, even wild turkeys. They can tell them from mine.

I got an email from my CL ad for my Ameraucana chicks today & it sounds like the guy is going to take pretty much all the ones I have left except what the broody hen hasn't hatched yet, so that will be great. He only lives a couple miles from here too, so it will be easy for him to come get them. I'm waiting on 3 eggs in the hatcher that are due Fri. & then I only have 2 more in the incubator left. I put my Welsummer eggs in & am waiting on those & the peacock eggs with baited breath. I'm crossing my fingers on the peacock eggs, they were so expensive. Since the other ones were a total bust I sure hope these hatch, we'll see.

I lost one of my brown leghorn chicks today, just disappeared into thin air this afternoon. I let some of the young chicks out with the older chickens to start integrating them & they were kind of hanging around the outside of the run this afternoon & sometimes in the run because there are still chicks in the pen. When I went back out this afternoon to put all the chickens in for the night the little pullet was missing. Now I'm down to just one leghorn chick, it seems I'm not supposed to have those for some reason. I was hoping to see how they did with laying, but if this keeps going I won't get to. All of the other chicks were there, just not that one, so I don't know it it wandered off by itself & got lost or something got it. The dogs sleep all day in the heat, so who knows. I managed to keep everyone cool enough today & the little chicks are in the house in crates. Won't my DH be thrilled that we have chickens in the house, oh yeah.

 

[sapphireblu76]

Tweety and Josie, I love the pictures! Thanks for sharing those with us
Karen, what a memory for your children! I hope if anything like that ever happens here, I can be as effective a parent as you.
Hopefully I can find the money to get some misters soon. So far the birds seem to be doing okay with the extra waterers and ice bottles and occasional hosing down when I go out to check them, but I think they would like the misters better. I need to figure a way to get a little more shade going on back there, just for my piece of mind. It seems they have plenty throughout the day in different areas, but more couldn't hurt.