Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[preciouskitty]

Thanks all for the advise. I decided to call in for to call in for tomorrow. I am sure they will be able to find a replacement, someone who wants the extra holiday pay. Likely going back to the doctor on Friday, as it feels like it is getting worse again, more pain and goo from the ear. Yuck! I got notes now from the most recent doctor visit, and the older urgent care visit(before it ruptured).

I feel like a big wuss. Normally I am fine with any pain. But something about this ear pain has me humbled, omg.

Good call (no pun intended!)

You shouldn't feel like a wuss...I can't even imagine the pain you are experiencing.

If it seems to be getting worse again, any chance you can get back to Doc before Friday ?

Sure hope you start feeling better soon ..

 

[Opa]

A few years ago I had several bales of straw that I had used as snow barriers around the run. I thought they would make ideal much for the garden to help keep down weeds. The straw did help reduce the weeds but it created a far worse problem. After much reading I found that the mulch created an ideal environment for voles. A small rodent with a voracious appetite and is difficult to eradicate. They first devoured all of my sweet potatoes then moved on to the beets and carrots. After eating most of the carrots they used their greatly improved eyesight to select the best tomatoes.

I built traps specifically designed for voles and managed to kill close to two dozen but the carnage continued until after the first hard frost. I have since decided that the best weed prevention method is a hoe.

 

[1muttsfan]

Stacy, so sorry you are feeling so bleah - it can take antibiotics a few days to really kick in, so hopefully you will start feeling better soon. One of my favorite pain combos is 400 mg Ibuprofen with 500 mg acetaminophen - they work really well together when neither alone is enough.

 

[justtricia]

Quote:
That is interesting. I am new to chickens (first year) but not to gardening. I had not thought to use my coop shavings to mulch...so instead of just tossing it you are using it to mulch...does it keep the weeds down? I can imagine that it fertilizes well. How deep did you have to make it to be effective? My tomato plants are huge this year, but my fertilizer comes from horse manure compost (7 horses make a lot of good dirt!) but that doesn't help with the weeds. Thanks for sharing!

 

[gladahmae]

That is interesting. I am new to chickens (first year) but not to gardening. I had not thought to use my coop shavings as mulch...so instead of just tossing it you are using it to mulch...does it keep the weeds down? I can imagine that it fertilizes well. How deep did you have to make it to be effective? My tomato plants are huge this year, but my fertilizer comes from horse manure compost (7 horses make a lot of good dirt!) but that doesn't help with the weeds. Thanks for sharing!

it's just a few inches deep. it's done a GREAT job of keeping the weeds down, but I also got them down before they had really taken hold. As a note, I ONLY used them around the tomatoes since the fruit won't ever be in contact with the shavings or the chicken feces. If you look in the picture, you can see just to the left of the center of the picture where the tomatoes are NOT, how much grass and weeds have grown in. At this point, it's thick enough that I'm just keeping a 1ft perimeter around my cucumber plants and trying to keep it off the green beans.

Thick, tall grass (probably some sort of fescue?) grew up through it, but is greatly reduced this year as well.

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Quote:Originally Posted by SillyChicken I gave an inhalable colloidal silver to a friend of mine when she couldn't go to the dr right away for a serious sinus infection. She said she felt better within days, then as soon as her ins kicked in she went in and got checked. I think they still put her on antibiotics, but it definitely did do something!

I have used it successfully myself for the flu, just not the swine flu. That one took no prisoners! But i did have a lot less of it than the others that caught in in the family. The key is to start using it as soon as you have symptoms., otherwise it don't do much. You can either dose a pop with it or put it under your tongue; not much use for chickens though. I used to use it on my parakeets if they had sniffles, and put it in their water and they got better, but chickens no luck.

 

[uchytil]

54 today and still a ToysRusKid (as one of my friends put it).

 

[preciouskitty]

54 today and still a ToysRusKid (as one of my friends put it). 

Lol!

I am 47 today & certainly feel like a kid when I am out with the silly chickens!!

 

[RaZ]

I had not thought to use my coop shavings to mulch...so instead of just tossing it you are using it to mulch...does it keep the weeds down? I can imagine that it fertilizes well. How deep did you have to make it to be effective?

Coop shaving mulch...if you are using the pine flakes then you can make some good "mulch" paths between rows in the garden. Or when used with newspaper can be an excellent weed suppressor.

As far as usable fertilizer, it is not going to be effective as is, you are likely to see a negative affect as the carbon of the wood shaving will uptake the nitrogen quicker than the plants can get the N. "One part green and two parts brown, Makes the compost turn to ground. Add some water and some soil. Turning is the only toil."

Even though chicken poo is high in N (green) it doesn't quite get to the proper ratio within the coop as fertilizer mix. And because the pine shavings are in big pieces they take a longer time to break down so you might need even more "green" for composting. The ratios in the poem are a general rule of thumb and one needs to adjust the mixture from time to time. Also, finely shredded material composts quicker. Horse manure in a compost pile should "cook" for at least a year as the seeds that horses ingest pass through relatively intact and often sprout if horse poo is not well aged.

A lot of composting is science based but there is also a good deal of PFM (Pure Freaking Magick).
There are also a lot of misconceptions just as there are about chicken keeping that people hold as "facts".

 

[RaZ]

54 today and still a ToysRusKid (as one of my friends put it).

Ha! You are an old man. I'm a mere 53.
That is until next week.