Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the Middle of a Wisconsin winter part 2

[WIchickMama]

has been raining here all morning, which is good and bad. good because we need it, bad because now the grass will grow. AND it is cold, only 60 out and windy, I can actually say it is blustery out. feels like fall for sure.

 

[jvls1942]

Wish it would stop teasing and rain already. Got our hay baled yesterday. So done with that for the year.

Jim maybe the squirrels know something we don't about the upcoming winter. Your insulation will keep his nest warm.

I hope the squirrels are wrong ..
it rained here for a few minutes. stopped for now. Annie went out to mow a little.
She found two nests of ground bees.
we hate to get rid of them,, but one of the nests is right where we park one of the cars.
the other one is under the apple tree

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

has been raining here all morning, which is good and bad. good because we need it, bad because now the grass will grow. AND it is cold, only 60 out and windy, I can actually say it is blustery out. feels like fall for sure.

I needed a coat to do my walking today. I love it. I'm always burning up, and prefer cooler weather. I guess I live in the right state.

We finally are getting a bit of rain. Enough so I don't need to water anything.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I hope the squirrels are wrong ..
it rained here for a few minutes. stopped for now. Annie went out to mow a little.
She found two nests of ground bees.
we hate to get rid of them,, but one of the nests is right where we park one of the cars.
the other one is under the apple tree

Bees are angry here this year. Those ground ones are the worse. I know a lady whose Yorkie was killed by ground bees. They aren't something to mess with, or leave if they are close.

 

[jvls1942]

those ground bees come in all sizes.
these are about like honey bees.
I was helping the neighbor chase his heifers through the woods. they ran over a nest of ground bees. these were larger than honey bees. when we came up behind the cows, the bees were all airborne. His wife walked right into them. she got stung all over .
we had to get an ambulance to get her to the hospital.
I hope you got the bales into the barn.
it doesn't know if it should rain or not.

 

[jvls1942]

I was up at four. went back to bed at 7
got up at ten.
diddling around on the web. found out how to fix the choke plate on the old tiller carb. also found a video how to hook up the auto choke on the lawn mower.
as long as I can't work outside today, I will tinket with the carburetors.

 

[jvls1942]

another 4 AM wake up. had my cuppa already.
Saturday I took a couple of carburetors apart. I discovered that I can use the float hinge pin from a new carb in my old carb. that is a good thing. So Monday I can go pick up the float bowl and put my old carb back together. I don't like the style of the new carbs. too much plastic.
I didn't check the weather for Sunday. If it is dry I will try to get the tire fixed on the lawn mower.
I finally got around to pruning the grape vines and tying up the branches. I think I already said this.
Barb, my sister is going to a pow wow in Iowa. IDK any more about it

 

[wyoDreamer]

Checked the weather report yesterday morning, rain was supposed to stop around 1 o'clock and Sunday was supposed to be dry. At 10 last night, different channel weather report said it was chance of scattered showers all day today. I am hoping for no rain.

 

[wyoDreamer]

@jvls1942 Pow Wows sound fun to me, someday I will go to one.

 

[WIchickMama]

I was up at 4 am too, but went back to bed until 6:30!!!!! What is that, I haven't slept in to 6:30 since getting chickens! Thankfully it was in the 50s and they weren't in a rush to get outside.

I am going to dig up some potatoes and carrots today and put in the crock pot with turkey for dinner. I need to trellis up the raspberries and blackberries and cut down the 2nd yr raspberry canes.

Last chick question (I think) for all of you. Last 4 days we have been letting the hen and chicks out with the rest of the flock for 1.5-2 hrs at a time supervised. The aggressive hen is still aggressive, will intentionally chase after chicks. Everyone else has been great. We put agressive hen in the enclosure where hen and chicks have been and then everyone else is out in the run. Chicks will leave mama and go all over the run, in between older hens, down into the dust bath where older hens are and even go up and start eating alongside other hens and the older hens don't peck or anything (yet anyway, I know that will change when mama weans them).

So question is, since there haven't been any issues can we let them out for the whole day? Do I need to supervise? I would like to go about my day, but I also don't want to come back to a battlefield. I want mama to start teaching babies to go into the coop at night, roost, etc. Plus I am tired of moving them from one enclosure to another.

Agressive hen will need to stay on her own both day and night until we decide what to do with her (rehome or butcher with any cockerels we get). She won't be able to roost at night but kinda the price you pay for being a jerk.

Will need to do some canning and freezing today. Sigh. I wish I could find some ground cherries! Yum