Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

Hurray! Your tomatoes are beautiful!

Some are determinate & give fruit all season long while indeterminate varieties bloom all at once & don't keep producing more. In your cooler Canadian zone Tatsiana in Canada has a lovely website of heritage varieties for cooler zones. Here in Calif only hot zone varieties work well. I tried some Hungarian & Russian varieties here & they did poorly.
TATSIANA
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I love perusing her website:
https://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Tatiana's_TOMATObase_-_Heritage_Tomatoes

Our 100 experimental tomato containers as far back as 2011. The experiment ruled out the varieties that didn't produce well here.
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Bela, Violet, & Mini foraging around the yard 2011 ~ wish we could back 14 yrs again!
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I have both, but even my determinant variety has given me a few more lately.

My indeterminate variety is about 7’ high now the photo is of one of the indeterminate varieties. It was too tall and started growing along the gooseberry vine so those two are twined together now, I pruned the tomato vine last month and it did wonders for the fruit. I am tempted to take cuttings from it and grow over winter.

 

[Ponypoor]

Big Doings at FBA

Hello everyone. I am back. Thanks for bearing with me. The loss of Nimue was a real shock and really has me still reeling. However, life goes on and the chickens need my attention.

After I finished grieving and got back to observing the flock, this is what I found.

The flock was locked in the complex for 5 days after the attack so that the hawk wound be encouraged to move on and so that, hopefully, Niamh would find someone to hang out with and perhaps merge with the main flock.

Well merging did not happen. Lady Featherington scares the life out of her. Sydney is not kind as well. She can hang with Aurora, no issues there. Aster will peck her but not run her off. No one has accepted her to be their friend. Any hope that Aster wants a traveling buddy has been dashed. She is a loner by choice.

This led us to consider other options.

Yesterday, we went to a swap meet and found a polish that is a little younger than Niamh. Her name is Joy. She is in quarantine until I can get her tested to confirm she is not carrying anything. Eve named her and considers Joy to be her chicken.
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Joy is in Hattie House under quarantine. She looks to be around 4.5 months old.

The plan is to introduce her to Niamh at night in the Cluckle Hut. As she is younger than Niamh I am hopeful Niamh will teach her and they will bond.

More to come!

So very eggcited for you, your family and Joy.

 

[rural mouse]

Not me. I think @rural mouse came up with Leah. I can’t even name my own chickens right now let alone offer good ideas for others!

The right name will click. Until then, added excuse for sitting and interacting with them

 

[RoyalChick]

It's time for another Shrimpie Sunday update.

The little shrimplets are 2 weeks old and are now all over the tank. They are big enough now I can leave the light on. My poor plant is thankful for that I'm sure as it took a slight hit with me keeping the lights off most of the time while they were super tiny. I have tried counting them now that they are all over and exploring and I keep getting different numbers each time. I think I have about 15, maybe more. I really need to clean the algae off the front of the tank but I'm going to leave it for another week. The shrimplets are almost big enough to eat the fish food if I crumble it up really small, but right now their main source of nutrition is still the algae. I was finally able to get a video of them and have them show up on camera. They are still a little blurry but at least they show up. Last week when I tried I got nothing. Hopefully next week if they keep growing like they are they will be in focus more.

Never in my life did I think I would get drawn in to little shrimps but I have to admit they are pretty cool! Can't wait to see them all grown up!

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Good afternoon everyone.

ugh I am tired. The last 2 1/2 weeks I have clocked in at work after my therapy appointments. The first 3 times mom stayed and loafed around incase it proved to much to handle or we got busy. We were kind of slow and I did not do things I should not and was ok. Then mom decided if I was going to clock in she was going home and would come back if I needed her to, again all ok. Well, there is a "bug" going around and it hit mom, Betty, and Leena who was hired after I had to take time off for the surgery. Mom was down for the count and could not get out of bed. I worked Thursday and Friday with Leena. Thursday was slow, normal but we got slammed Friday. Oh I was sore Friday, but not from shoulder overuse, I am out of shape again after only a month. Those concrete floors killed my feet, legs and back. I can do everything at the Diner except the mopping. I tried but 3 passes in with the mop and it felt like my shoulder was being ripped into so I passed that chore off. Friday evening the "bug" hit Leena and hit her fast. Yesterday I worked with the other girl Tracie who can only fill in on Saturdays and after she gets off her full time job during the evenings if we need her. The last 5 Saturdays have been dead, really not worth opening. If they do get a busy spell it has been around 4:30ish to about 7. Mom thought we would have a easy Saturday. LIES....ALL LIES!!

I had 3 cars waiting the moment I opened the doors and they did not stop coming or calling in until 7. Saturdays special is 2 large Pizza's. We sent 36 pizza's out the door in a 4 hour time frame among everything else. Me and Tracie ran out of Donuts by 2, and ran out of pizza dough by 6:30. By closing time my shoulder was hurting. Mom who is starting to feel better came a little early and helped us close it down and clean it up. I cleaned everything with a ice pack strapped to my shoulder and mom yelling at me to sit down I had done enough. I did not, I wanted out of there and to come home and crash into my bed.

Today I have done absolutely nothing at all. Well, I did go out and sit with the chickens with the coffee pot, but that requires no energy to do. I slept with my ice packs last night and took one of my pain pills. When I got up my shoulder is not hurting and I have gently moved it around with zero pain so I think yesterday was just a warning.

Mom is even better today and she informed me that after therapy tomorrow she is sending me home and I was to rest a few days.

 

[BY Bob]

Good afternoon everyone.

ugh I am tired. The last 2 1/2 weeks I have clocked in at work after my therapy appointments. The first 3 times mom stayed and loafed around incase it proved to much to handle or we got busy. We were kind of slow and I did not do things I should not and was ok. Then mom decided if I was going to clock in she was going home and would come back if I needed her to, again all ok. Well, there is a "bug" going around and it hit mom, Betty, and Leena who was hired after I had to take time off for the surgery. Mom was down for the count and could not get out of bed. I worked Thursday and Friday with Leena. Thursday was slow, normal but we got slammed Friday. Oh I was sore Friday, but not from shoulder overuse, I am out of shape again after only a month. Those concrete floors killed my feet, legs and back. I can do everything at the Diner except the mopping. I tried but 3 passes in with the mop and it felt like my shoulder was being ripped into so I passed that chore off. Friday evening the "bug" hit Leena and hit her fast. Yesterday I worked with the other girl Tracie who can only fill in on Saturdays and after she gets off her full time job during the evenings if we need her. The last 5 Saturdays have been dead, really not worth opening. If they do get a busy spell it has been around 4:30ish to about 7. Mom thought we would have a easy Saturday. LIES....ALL LIES!!

I had 3 cars waiting the moment I opened the doors and they did not stop coming or calling in until 7. Saturdays special is 2 large Pizza's. We sent 36 pizza's out the door in a 4 hour time frame among everything else. Me and Tracie ran out of Donuts by 2, and ran out of pizza dough by 6:30. By closing time my shoulder was hurting. Mom who is starting to feel better came a little early and helped us close it down and clean it up. I cleaned everything with a ice pack strapped to my shoulder and mom yelling at me to sit down I had done enough. I did not, I wanted out of there and to come home and crash into my bed.

Today I have done absolutely nothing at all. Well, I did go out and sit with the chickens with the coffee pot, but that requires no energy to do. I slept with my ice packs last night and took one of my pain pills. When I got up my shoulder is not hurting and I have gently moved it around with zero pain so I think yesterday was just a warning.

Mom is even better today and she informed me that after therapy tomorrow she is sending me home and I was to rest a few days.

Good gosh! Take care of yourself. That's more than anyone healthy should be doing.

 

[RoyalChick]

The right name will click. Until then, added excuse for sitting and interacting with them

Oh yes - I spent a good 20 minutes discussing names with Geronimo who has taken an interest in me. Don't get me wrong - no cuddles - but she has taken to jumping up on to my coffee table to observe me more closely. I hope she will eventually tell me her name.

Geronimo managed to shut her brother's head in the rat-proof chicken feeder. I foolishly thought that I could remove the clip that holds it open so it doesn't crush a chick. They are now too big to get crushed, but I didn't think about what would happen if a heavy chick like Geronimo stood on the treadle to open it and then jumped off so it clanged closed on a chick's head that wasn't standing on the treadle.
Poor Mr. Chips, he had to use feet and wings to get his head out, but I don't think any real damage was done.
I realize that they not only have to be heavy enough to work the treadle, they also have to be big enough not to eat from the ground. Tassels holds it open for them, but the Littles haven't understood how important that is!

Here is Tassels supervising feeding before bed. Note the clip I am using to prevent it closing fully.

 

[BY Bob]

House Chicken

Niamh spent almost 2 hours in the house this afternoon. She wandered the kitchen and dining room, hung out with the cats, ate some cat food and did not want to leave when the time was up.

She did not explore any carpeted areas but she is certainly ready to be a house chicken.

 

[rural mouse]

Oh yes - I spent a good 20 minutes discussing names with Geronimo who has taken an interest in me. Don't get me wrong - no cuddles - but she has taken to jumping up on to my coffee table to observe me more closely. I hope she will eventually tell me her name.

Geronimo managed to shut her brother's head in the rat-proof chicken feeder. I foolishly thought that I could remove the clip that holds it open so it doesn't crush a chick. They are now too big to get crushed, but I didn't think about what would happen if a heavy chick like Geronimo stood on the treadle to open it and then jumped off so it clanged closed on a chick's head that wasn't standing on the treadle.
Poor Mr. Chips, he had to use feet and wings to get his head out, but I don't think any real damage was done.
I realize that they not only have to be heavy enough to work the treadle, they also have to be big enough not to eat from the ground. Tassels holds it open for them, but the Littles haven't understood how important that is!

Here is Tassels supervising feeding before bed. Note the clip I am using to prevent it closing fully.
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She's deflating hormonal egos early!!!!

 

[Ponypoor]

The right name will click. Until then, added excuse for sitting and interacting with them

I keep trying to name the Noirans but don’t want to until I am sure they will stay.