Helpful hints for building coops

[aart]

Slaughtering is done.
Last one almost got away.
Good thing I left the garage doors all but closed.

Little bit of karmic justice, maybe....
cut the hell out of my pointer finger last night, sore as hell and had to wear a glove while slaughtering...
...and broke my big ole thumbnail down low trying to skin the feet(which I over-scalded and ended up tossing).

Still gotta finish cleaning up and butchering.....gonna be a long day.

 

[jvls1942]

Art, let me help you here. chicken neck has a head on the end of it, finger does not. maybe that will help you know the difference.
Whenever I had a sore cut like that, that would be the finger that got bumped the most.
Raining pretty good here right now.
I was going to stop at Menard's, but I didn't feel like walking across their big parking lot in the rain. Maybe tomorrow. I want to look at their tall toilets.
....jiminwisc......

 

[NewBoots]

maybe someone should invent a light duty electrically driven chain hoist suspended from the ceiling ..
Last night I made sweet and sour blue cabbage
It was my first attempt. It tastes real good either warmed or cold.. easy recipe.
......jiminwisc....

Recipe please! We love that stuff. Going to get some sauerkraut going before too long too. Got to wonder why the purple stuff gets sweet n soured and the white stuff gets sauerkrauted?

One of the toilets in our old house was up on a raised pedestal, no idea how much it cost the original owners to do that.

Did the old house sell?

We wish, there's a hangup, the scope they sent down the sewer line was really bad awful. We're hoping it won't run us over 12,000 to fix.

Here's the fence:

And here's our first chicken:

When he's fully hooked up, he spits water!

 

[aart]

Art, let me help you here. chicken neck has a head on the end of it, finger does not. maybe that will help you know the difference.

I cut it while using a big knife to open a bag of salad......I did cut my finger while slitting the throat of a chicken, one of my first slaughters, never did that again.

We wish, there's a hangup, the scope they sent down the sewer line was really bad awful. We're hoping it won't run us over 12,000 to fix.

OhNO!! That stinks.
Your new fencing is gorgeous, tho.

 

[jvls1942]

good morning good people
We had a light show just before midnight. about 2 inches of rain in about 1 hour. cloudy now, but supposed to clear up this afternoon and get warm and humid.
Boots, I like your fence.
You have a handyman ?? Paint me envious..
I can't even hire anybody to do odd jobs.
BIL and I are getting too old to trade help with each other.. Oh, he can help me, but I am useless in return..
Is that sewer pipe from the house to the road? It might be the town's responsibility ..
If it is a private septic system, then it is a definite "AW S--t"..
....jiminwisc....

 

[aart]

We had a light show just before midnight. about 2 inches of rain in about 1 hour. cloudy now, but supposed to clear up this afternoon and get warm and humid.

It over here now, I can hear but it will probably mostly miss us..
Wish I could say the same for the heat and humidity....not looking forward to that.

 

[jvls1942]

I don't think I would want to be out in a boat on Lk Mich right now.
.....jiminwisc.....

 

[jvls1942]

Boots, sweet & sour cabbage recipe.
I used a purple cabbage because that is what my friend gave to me.
fill a deep pot with shredded cabbage.
don't worry, It will cook down in a short time.
chop up an apple about the size of a granny smith.
add one or two teaspoons of salt
one or two teaspoons of black pepper.
add just one of the salt and pepper at first.
you can adjust all ingredients when the cooking is finished.
3/4 cups of sugar. (brown or white)
1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar. (i used white because I couldn't find the apple cider)
the recipe I used said to fry an onion. I think you could skip frying it, because everything is going to be cooked down to unrecognizable mush..
I added a cup of water. found out later that it was not necessary. It doesn't take the cabbage long to release a lot of juice.
At the end of cooking, I cooked the cabbage uncovered for awhile to let some of the liquid evaporate.
put a lid on the pot . this will help the cabbage to cook by steaming it.
after you stir the concoction a bit. start cooking it on low heat. when some juice forms, raise the temp enough to get it boiling.
then turn the heat to simmer and stir it about every fifteen minutes. try to get the liquid to just work up through the cabbage, barely.
let it cook like that for a couple of hours.
check it for tenderness until you get the crunch, or lack of crunch, you desire.
make a couple of pork chops and enjoy.

 

[NewBoots]

Thanks for the recipe Jim! I'll be trying that out soon. The weather has shifted to early fall here so hot sweet n sour cabbage with pork sounds awesome! We like our cabbage with kielbasa or sometimes those cheese wieners (guilty pleasure).

The damage to the sewer is between the house and the edge of the curb, and here, that makes it our problem. The city is only responsible for the main and street part. The house was built in 1901 so while we hoped we'd be okay, it isn't really shocking. The cost IS shocking.

Lakeside is a kinda county kinda small town with little industry (used to be a mill town many years ago) so there is nearly always someone available to lend a hand with varying degrees of expertise.

The shed/garage build begins on this coming Monday so we're looking forward to that. We'll be able to clear out the stuff that was temporarily shoved into the spare room (does anyone else always think: "spar oom" ala Mr. Tumnus?).

 

[aart]

Mr. Tumnus

Narnia? ....don't remember details on "spar oom" tho.