Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[maryhysong]

So I have spent my down time researching and reading blogs on peoples attempts to bring their gardens with them to the tropics.

I have developed a list to work off. There are great choices and good subsitutes for some things we cant get. Celery and french beans grow in the Phils in the mountains. Garlic, Onions and Potatoes are common place so I will add them later

A-Z List Of The Tropical Garden
· Amaranth (use leaf amaranth like spinach)
· Ampalaya – bitter melon
· Arugula (rocket)
· Asian Greens – Mustard greens, bok choy, Ceylon spinach
· Beans – Chinese long beans, lima beans, mung beans
· Cabbage
· Cantaloupe
· Cassava (starchy tubers)
· Chard (silverbeet, similar to spinach)
· Cucumbers
· Eggplant (aubergine)
· Endive
· Kang Kong (water spinach)
· Lettuce
· Luffa (angled luffa is a great zucchini substitute)
· Okra
· Peanuts
· Peppers: Bell, Serrano, Jalapeno, Thai birds eye
· Pumpkins
· Radish
· Squash
· Sweet Corn
· Sweet Potatoes
· Tomatoes
· Water Melon
· Zucchini

Oz, I am betting that the Trombocino squash I have would grow gangbusters there. They grow huge, like 3 feet + long, eat small and green or let them fully mature and get a hard skin on them. The picture here http://edible-garden.blogspot.com/2012/11/harvest-monday.html was taken in Nov of 2012 Last week I fed the last two squash to the chickens. The got lost between the couch and the wall. Skin still firmly intact. Insides getting pretty stringy and a couple of seeds trying to sprout, so probably not people edible, but the birds loved them.

 

[hillfloweranch]

BYC friends, I have been off the forum for awhile, my father died, but I wanted to share this pic of him holding a turkey poult and
then proudly smiling next to it when we spent thanksgiving together. He thought I was crazy to raise my own birds, but he loved every minute of the stories
and when he was visiting would talk to them. the last 2 years with him were so much fun, he will be missed very much...but always in our hearts.

 

[katbriar]

HFR- I'm so sorry for your loss. What a great remembrance. I'm sure you have many other stories to tell and smile over.

 

[rolito tabujara]

1. I like the name "Negrense."

2. "it will produce an offspring with a bumblebee color."

I think if someone could create a cuckoo chicken with black & yellow like a bee, there would be people lining up and throwing money to get one!


The reproductive systems of new layers go through stages. Sort of like a teen girl skipping a cycle or having an unusual cycle. It's generally nothing to worry about and corrects itself within a few days. It can also happen to older hens after weather changes.

As long as they have plenty of calcium available and are on a healthy diet, don't worry about it.

Sorry ma'am, i mean a Phillipine beetle color. Thank you for an calling attention to my error. God bless!

 

[Wisher1000]

Hillflowerranch - I am sorry for your loss, but so happy that you were able to spend some special time and build some cherished memories with your Dad before you lost him. My beloved Dad will be 92 in July. He is winding down and I lose him a little every day. My memories of the loving father I was blessed with are so precious to me.

I am a firm believer that the pain of watching our loved ones deteriorate, or even suffer, is God's way of preparing us for losing them. It makes the debilitating pain of losing someone dear just a bit more bearable. My Mom was very ill for years before she died. We nearly lost her several times. What struck me while in the midst of that heartache, was that after the times of her worst suffering (then recovering from it,) she had no memory of the suffering. I believe that event was for her families benefit and prepared us to lose her.

Let yourself grieve, but don't let the grief become a permanent part of your life.

 

[hillfloweranch]

HFR- I'm so sorry for your loss. What a great remembrance. I'm sure you have many other stories to tell and smile over.

Thank you very much

 

[ozexpat]

We are with you in our thoughts and prayers Heather!

 

[rolito tabujara]

Mrs Oz is off on a whole different type of adventure this morning (Sunday)

She was picked up at the house in Bacolod and taken by a military unit to an Amnesty International sponsored camp and project. It contains a group of New Philippine Army (NPA) rebels that have decided to leave the terrorist communist movement they grew up in and become normal citizens.

She is offering her "therapist" with a small contingency of other psychologists to work through the emotional side of integration.

It will continue for around 3 months on Sunday mornings.

Way back in the early eighties she lived with an NPA group of rebels as part of her political science degree. She got to interact with the leaders of the NPA who all had bounties on their heads. A few months later she was offered a full ride scholarship to Moscow State Institute of International Relations MGIMO.

MGIMO used to have a reputation for being elitist (for example, it is usually considered common knowledge in post-USSR countries that, at least during the USSR times, admission to MGIMO was mostly reserved to children of the Party and government nomenklatura). Many of its current students are from families of political, economic and intellectual elites in Russia. At the same time, it remains one of Russia's best educational institutions as it admits a lot of talented students from all over the CIS and holds high ranks in terms of alumni success and average level of standard test results of admitted students. It is also known for having one of the best teaching teams in Europe. Many of the current professors of MGIMO were ambassadors or ministers.

If she had accepted the scholarship she would be labelled a communist and be banned from ever getting residency in the USA.

Fortunately she was just hanging with the NPA as a study and did not get wrapped up in their indoctrination.

Now it has come full circle.

Happy to know what Mrs Oz is doing. Only us, born & raised in the CHICKS area of Negros Occidental knows what's in the heart of our brothers & sisters in the NPA circle. Only us can make them at ease to face a new life. God really knows the person He will send. God bless!

 

[ozexpat]

Here is the bing map of our place with all the various construction projects over the past 13 months - and some ongoing



Pink is piggery for 9 sows and grow pens - not started
Brown is chicken coops - complete
Yellow is goat house - complete
Green is the expanded egg house/feed warehouse - complete
Blue is the veggie garden - ongoing
Red is fence - ongoing

Bernie's house is near the veggie garden,
Other blue roofs - our house, garage and pump house

 

[Bens-Hens]

Good shaped block, minimum road frontage, maximum beach-iness