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

[topdycke]

Is the debris something that the animals could use for bedding and break down to compost and get something out of it?

 

[ozexpat]

we compost the smaller stuff.

coconut branches have many uses.

we use them as wind breaks on the north side of our tree protection square fences (pal-pals) .

the leaves are stripped so there is just the solid stems. the stems are bundled into stick brooms. we can produce five or six a week and the gardener sells them for 25 cents each.

the main branch of the stripped limbs are used as firewood or bundled and sold for a few cents each as firewood.

if the gardener/house keeper are industrious, they can make an extra $20 per month from the coconut branches.

I would love a chipper but when it comes down to it, its just another liability.

the construction guys completed 8 panels of fence by 10am. we are 80 pusogs short to complete the job. I am hoping they will be available by Thursday. in the mean time they will stucco the hollow blocks and build the panel closest to the gate with river rocks.

of all goes well, it will be complete by Saturday.

 

[vehve]

When will you be able to post pictures again, Oz?

Glad to hear things are going well there. How's Mozza's nose?

 

[ozexpat]

I won't be heading to the city for another week or so. I had planned to go tomorrow but I need to get the pigs sold and that requires being in kabankalan at 330 Thursday morning.

I did bring my digital SLR so I should have some decent pics. most of ours are VGA from cheap phones

 

[vehve]

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures. Any thoughts on when you might be making the feed mixer?

 

[ozexpat]

Mozza's nose is doing fine. I am waiting for the the experts as to when to put the solid ring in.

When we arrived, buck Rogers had swollen testicles. Bernie thinks that Jun-Jun may have kicked him there as he was rather malicious. The said scrotum is back to normal.

A few chickens mysteriously died whenever Bernie was off as well. Just a random bird. I would get a picture sent by Rona as she was instructed to do. The birds never had symptoms. I feel the dearth was associated with dinner needs.

Egg production always dropped when Bernie was off as well.....

I am so glad they are gone.

Dodong and Lillian seem the complete opposite. The biggest tell is the kids. Ronas kids looked like street people. I am not talking about clothes as we furnished them with clothes from Mrs Oz relatives kids that were next to new. The kids were dirty. ground in dirt on their necks dirty. the younger one would always be running around without diaper and dropped her waste like a chicken. Lillians kids are without fancy clothes but clean and fresh. they are also courteous and run to greet us with smiles.

We have to pull out all the lumber drying under their house as the diapers that the kid ditched are stuffed under there.

Our workers use charcoal fires to cook. (Its standard practice here. while I am happy to buy them a gas stove and bottle, they would have to pay to full it themselves. they all decline). the pots are provided by us. Most are Kitchen Aid extras of mine. It took Lillian a day of scrubbing to remove the carbon and find out the pots are red.

I could go on and on.

While it's still early, I have no bad vibes about the new couple. Dodong is a good worker who follows instructions. his English is poor but we can communicate. Lillian is a reasonable cook. she is not the fastest housekeeper we have had but does a good job. we are happy to work around her breastfeeding and getting her kids to and from school. let's hope that it continues.

 

[vehve]

Everything I hear about Rona and Jun-Jun makes me happy they're gone.

By the way, something like this might be useful over there for emergency cooking:

https://www.varusteleka.com/en/product/wild-woodgas-stove-mk-iit/29294/

 

[ocap]

Everything I hear about Rona and Jun-Jun makes me happy they're gone.

By the way, something like this might be useful over there for emergency cooking:

https://www.varusteleka.com/en/product/wild-woodgas-stove-mk-iit/29294/

We have a similar stove available in the USA (wood for fuel), I cooked on it for three weeks during an extended hike of the Appalachian Trail, our model uses one double A battery for powering the fan. I think the name is "Zip Stove".

 

[Tomtommom]

Everything I hear about Rona and Jun-Jun makes me happy they're gone.

By the way, something like this might be useful over there for emergency cooking:

https://www.varusteleka.com/en/product/wild-woodgas-stove-mk-iit/29294/

Better

 

[ozexpat]

I will take a picture of a Filipino wood stove this week.

Mrs Oz left on a jeepney to kabankalan this morning. She will get an AC bus from there to Bacolod. its about 6 bucks round trip with jeeps and a taxi to her folks house. The car costs around 16 dollars in diesel and it's way less stressful to sleep on a bus. she will return on the morrow.

I have to get up at 2:30 to load pigs and get them to market.

I will let Bernie actually sell them. hopefully we get $2.20 a kilo.

I will take pictures.

We will haul 1000kg of coco lumber home. I need to have a wood drying shed built. Bernie is casting the footings out of concrete today as well as building a landing outside the egg house to set the concrete sink.

We set 100 more eggs today and we have chicks hatching..

We are on sow watch are waiting for the milk to drop .

Another fun day in paradise.