Illinois...

[BReeder!]

Shout out to @Justso . It was great to meet you this weekend. Thanks for showing us your setup and sharing some knowledge. In that 20-30 minutes I learned just as much I did in months online. I hope to meet again one day.

The idea to do an Illinois meet up came up. I hope you don't mind me putting this out there on you, Justso. I am curious though to know if there's others out there in Illinois who are interested in such an event. I am jealous to hear that other state forum's have meet ups and we don't.

 

[sharkerbaby]

The idea to do an Illinois meet up came up. I hope you don't mind me putting this out there on you, Justso. I am curious though to know if there's others out there in Illinois who are interested in such an event. I am jealous to hear that other state forum's have meet ups and we don't.

I'd be interested if I could arrange my schedule. I'm kind of quiet on the boards but I'm here keeping up with you all regularly.

 

[Faraday40]

A BYC get-together sounds like fun. Perhaps a simple picnic at a park with BYO food.

This last week has been very rough. (My fav hen & both our dogs died.) Lots of tears & sadness!

However, there was one bright part. Here are my 2 baby seramas.

The white one reminds me of the siklied serama daddy. "He's" very needy and peeps a lot to be held.

The chipmunk one is quiet, slightly smaller, and content. "She" looks like her mama serama.

The white one was peeping in panic (unless being held) nonstop. It got old really quick! I asked the kids to donate a stuffed animal they no longer wanted to the chicks.
Here's their new mama: a rainbow tiger.
We were making all kinds of predator-prey jokes about it, but by the end of the night, they eventually fell asleep with the help of this cheap carnival toy.

 

[Justso]

You know I'm game!
Faraday I'll bet you're a good cook.
If we're up for sooner than winter, start putting locations out there. I'd wager the mosquitoes will let up later this month. Thank BR!

 

[BReeder!]

Just saying, I make a mean chicken and sausage jambalaya that holds up well in a crock pot...
It tastes so good, it probably scare the feathers off my chickens when they smell it cooking.

 

[cavemanrich]

I will bring some of my flutes for entertainment..

 

[Faraday40]

It's COLD out there today! Teddy came inside to sleep. (It was funny to have a rooster alarm clock.) I went into DD's room to wake her up & Teddy heard my voice - so he started crowing. He has no snooze button. She scooped him up & brought him into her bed for cuddles - but he kept crowing. This time in her ear. LOL

Trouble's chicks are 4 weeks old. I decided to leave them in their garage cage since they were looking rather chilly. Perhaps they'll get some grass time later today. Everyone else enjoyed running around outside & munching on frost.

Hard to believe it was 85'F a couple days ago. I picked a bunch of green tomatoes and the last of the green beans yesterday. I put a blanket over my Swiss chard, beets, carrots. I think I can keep them going a couple more weeks since I'm still over-loaded processing my tomatoes. My pathetic broccoli was just starting again. (Something kept eating it. Probably the same critter that stole all my apples & pears right off the trees!)

 

[Molpet]

The chickens didn't like yesterday or this morning. I have a hen with six 12 day old chicks and she has them out...
Turkeys have been full of themselves. I processed the oldest tom a couple of weeks ago. The 1 1/2 yr tom doesn't seem to beable to keep the teanagers in line.

no frost except the tops of the zucchini , they have just been sitting there with one fruit about 3' long for week. no great loss. The chard can take a frost, at least mine does. Kale gets sweet after a frost and can survive down to -5.. I have had some kale over winter. Of course it goes to seed the following year. The blossoms are like broccoli and quite good.

 

[Faraday40]

Anyone know much about leeks? Mine are still looking thin. (about 3/4 to 1" diameters) I left a couple in the ground last winter. (They looked more like grass & not worth dealing with.) A few survived & I picked them on Memorial Day. They were more like green onions. I'm debating throwing some leaves over them & waiting 'til spring. The 1st year we grew leeks, they were amazing, but the past 2 years, we got the garden in late.

@Molpet Speaking of turkeys, when processing them, what's different than chickens? How do you pluck? Christmas (white one) is our biggest. The other 2 are likely females. Is 5 mo the avg age to process?

 

[Molpet]

Anyone know much about leeks? Mine are still looking thin. (about 3/4 to 1" diameters) I left a couple in the ground last winter. (They looked more like grass & not worth dealing with.) A few survived & I picked them on Memorial Day. They were more like green onions. I'm debating throwing some leaves over them & waiting 'til spring. The 1st year we grew leeks, they were amazing, but the past 2 years, we got the garden in late.

@Molpet Speaking of turkeys, when processing them, what's different than chickens? How do you pluck? Christmas (white one) is our biggest. The other 2 are likely females. Is 5 mo the avg age to process?

leaks will over winter, they say you can dig them through the winter. I grew them 2x. Last year they didn't do good but the year before they were great.

Usually at least 6 months for heritage turkey. They don't get tough like chickens
The 2 1/2 yr tom I just did was tender although I still miss him