Michigan

[Olive Hill]

HAHAHA so true. It doesn't matter what one I'm considering since I haven't even made a payment on my camera yet ($650), that starts next month. Then I need a better zoom (better than the 18-55 I have) first and then a macro. The zoom is cheaper than a macro any day!!

Canon, then? Good girl! LOL!

You know... I have a 24-70 f/2.8 that I've been thinking about selling (haven't put the old girl on my camera in over a year, she's being neglected. lol!) Tell Aric to sell a couple more Chicken coops and I'll make you a deal. LOL!

 

[RBahmer]

Random recipe, For you zuccini/green tomato eaters: (Or fish, which is what i tried it on first)

Fry Batter, for use in 1/2 inch of oil: (Any excuse for me to whip out the cast iron, lol)
1 cup flour
1/2-3/4 cup milk
1/2-3/4 cup water
2 Tb baking powder
1 ts salt

Been meaning to post this, tried it the other week and thought the texture was much better than some of the other home recipes i've tried. If i remember correct i used the higher amounts of liquids, and it turned out Thin enough to puff instead of the weird gloppy-ness, and the baking powder gives it lightness, like a tempura batter.... but i thought it needed a tad more salt perhaps and the fish should've been dipped in flour first, to help the batter stick. This is the best i can describe it..........

This is making me super hungry to cook up the zuccini i picked!

ohhhhh I like green tomato's. mmmmmmm

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Me too, have to be heirloom so they aren't watery though! DH hooked me on them years ago. I grow certain tomatoes JUST for them! Our store don't sell them. A couple years ago we bought some plants labeled "supersteak" from the flea market, those were perfection! So huge a slice could cover a piece of bread, and so meaty that the only juice was from the ridges, so when you sliced them they looked like a meaty flower.......... But alas, i haven't been able to find that specific plant again. I have seeds from the original, but they crossed a bit and though they are meaty and have ridges, they still have a bit more juice than i would like.

My first attempts were with some inferior wet store tomatoes, and the dang things literally blew up in the pan on account of all the juice they released!

 

[keyt1969]

Canon, then? Good girl! LOL!

You know... I have a 24-70 f/2.8 that I've been thinking about selling (haven't put the old girl on my camera in over a year, she's being neglected. lol!) Tell Aric to sell a couple more Chicken coops and I'll make you a deal. LOL!

I wish it was that easy. Those coops pay bills, fix cars and houses and whatever else. I can't sell one to save my life right now anyway.

No not a Canon. It's a Nikon D3100. Sometimes I wish I had a Canon because some of them do more than mine does and mine isn't very old.

A friend of mine was selling a Nikkor 55-300 telephoto lens for $150. I offered to clean her coops and babysit her kids for however long she agreed to just to get that lens. Then I felt stupid when she reminded me it would cost me more in gas to get there...since she lives in Cincinnati

Not that I'm desperate or anything lol I figure by the time I get this camera paid off, I'll have to forget the zoom and/or a macro lens because it'll be time for a new camera LOL

 

[RBahmer]

Me too, have to be heirloom so they aren't watery though! DH hooked me on them years ago. I grow certain tomatoes JUST for them! Our store don't sell them. A couple years ago we bought some plants labeled "supersteak" from the flea market, those were perfection! So huge a slice could cover a piece of bread, and so meaty that the only juice was from the ridges, so when you sliced them they looked like a meaty flower.......... But alas, i haven't been able to find that specific plant again. I have seeds from the original, but they crossed a bit and though they are meaty and have ridges, they still have a bit more juice than i would like.

My first attempts were with some inferior wet store tomatoes, and the dang things literally blew up in the pan on account of all the juice they released!

My Grandma was from Tennessee and she fixed all kids of things while we were growing up. One of my mom's, sister's, and brother's things were Okra and green fried tomato's. I could never do the okra but I do love green fried tomato's. Yum.

 

[Farmerboy16]

Boy, what a busy week for me, I ache allover. A co-worker and I had to spray round-up (Hate round-up, but I was told to use it anyway) under the wire fencing in the heifer pasture. Its like over 200 acre pasture, plus many, many trips to get the backpack sprayer refilled. I am serious, I must have walked at least 10 miles. I am wiped out. Tomorrow, I have to weed wrack all the weeds around all the buildings.

Thanks everyone for the consolations regarding Pork Chop.

Bella is clear of Mastitis!! My new boss told me to give her 20 cc of penicillin, and gave me a BIG needle for her, she clear up a day or two after the treatment. Now, I can start drinking her milk again!!

Daron, I'm so sorry.  It never matters what the intent for them, it is tough to lose any, ever.  I know your grief is fresh, but please take this as a learning experience.  Try to never leave a pig who is soon to farrow alone without supervision for even 24 hours, but definitely not 48.  And in instances like this it's VERY important you treat ASAP.  I know life is busy and all that, but you have to drop everything to get the treatment in there -- it is one of those very inconvenient but necessary parts of being a livestock farmer.  She was fighting an extreme uphill battle on Sunday night when we first talked, waiting that additional 24 hours until Monday night to treat was very likely the difference between life and death for her.  Sometimes lessons come the hard way, give the other pigs a good scratch and know that you tried.  

I did not want to leave Pork Chop the way she was, but had to obey my parents.
Here is the timeline of those few days-

Friday- We left about 8 am to take the Ferry to Wisconsin. I check Pork Chop's udder before leaving, no milk came out.

Saturday- Pork Chop must have farrowed on that day or even late Friday for when one of my sisters went to bury the first two piglets, one of them was smellier and had fly eggs on it, while the 2nd one seems fresher and was three feet away from the 1st one.

Sunday- We got home at about 11:30 pm, checked the pigs, found Pork Chop about 10 feet from the shed where her first 2 piglets are. She was sitting on the ground not moving. Ran to the house to turn on the computer to get your number off the PMs. Called you, got the med info. Checked the cows found that Bella have mastitis in one quarter. I did not go to bed until 1 am, got up at 5:50, checked Pork Chop, fed all other critters, left for the 2nd day of my new job at 6:45. Called my mom at 12:40 during my lunch break to see if she got the meds for the animals. She was on her way to get them, and wanted to wait for me to get home to treat them. I got home at 6:15, my mom and I went to the neighbor's to get needles, and fed and watered their goats for they were on vacation too. We looked allover for the dosage for Pork Chop and Bella, can't find it, posted here for help, got the info from all you wonderful ever willing to help others in need. ,treated them. My two youngest sister helped me with Pork Chop, and my oldest sister gave her the shots as she went to school for nursing, so she knew how to do the proper way to give shots. My young sisters were brave and stuck their small hands in Pork Chop's vaginal and could feel the piglets, but could not reach it right to grab a hold of it. We tried it for close to 2 hours, and our parents called us in for bed for it was pass midnight. We were going to ask a younger neighbor boy in the morning who have smaller hands than my sisters to help us out, but found Pork Chop dead at 6 am. Quite a day was it?
Thank YOU for all your time and help, Olive! You are the best! I mean it! Even though people may call you nasty names for they say that you are not a nice person, but having met you and your family in person, I can't see why they would say spiteful things to you. As the token of my appreciation, I will give you my first hatch of my Uggo project, that I will be hatching in the Spring.

Do you have to do a C section or make an incision or just pull on whatever part of the piglet appears? Sounds like there were 3 in there that were STUCK. And why did the two who were born die? 
I never had pigs so I honestly don't know.

Sorry, I edited for clarity but looks like we were typing at the same time.  In extreme cases, yes, you can do a C-Section if it's needed.  You would exhaust the vaginal route first and move to the surgical if there were not another option. 

No one was home when Pork Chop farrowed so everything that happened is not known, but I will give an educated guess based on the sow in question and what Daron told me about what he found when he got home.  Pork Chop is not a normal case in any way shape or form.  She is only, right now, 8 mo.  Which means she was bred at just over 4mo -- based on the timeline she was bred when I dropped her off.  Which just boggles the mind.  To give some perspective pigs do not usually reach sexual maturity until 6-8 months old.  And AGH tend to be towards the tail end of that IME.  IOW, he sisters would just be beginning their first pregnancy or being bred for the first time when she gave birth.  Why she went into heat so early I do not know.  I know it has never happened in my lines before and I have had many clients take their pigs home and keep them together full time and it has not happened to any of them.  With that in mind I'd chalk that part of it up to a fluke.  

Now, my understanding of what Daron found is that the piglets that she passed were quite large as well, so her young age plus large pigs probably resulted in the ones that did pass being in the birth canal for too long even though they were able to pass on their own. (Another option is that they were born alive but because of her distress with the complications she did not care for them/nurse and they died and/or they were so stressed by their long birth they did not try to nurse and died.)  Those that were retained were likely stuck behind a very large pig and couldn't get out.  It may have been anatomical, but probably a combo of it being anatomical and the exhaustion from passing two large pigs already.  There is only so much the body can take, as any woman who has given birth knows.  If someone had been there they would have been able to see the labor not progressing properly, gone in and manually pulled the pigs -- or in a worse case scenario done a C-Section which may not have saved all the pigs but would have given the sow a very good prognosis and probably saved at least some of them. 

I was very close to giving Pork Chop a C-section, but my mom talked me out of it. I guess its cuz that she had one for brother number 3, and she almost died from that.

Pork Chop-
About 3 weeks ago.

When we first got her, on the far right-

Something the prosecutor said today... Basically that no one anywhere has a pet chicken.

How many people consider their chickens to be pets?  I'm going to compile a list.

Put me on the list. Once I had over 100 chickens, and guess what? They were all named, and I remembered them all. And please send me a pm about the trial. It is horrible that those neevil stalkers of yours would go after your mother.

 

[Olive Hill]

I wish it was that easy. Those coops pay bills, fix cars and houses and whatever else. I can't sell one to save my life right now anyway.

No not a Canon. It's a Nikon D3100. Sometimes I wish I had a Canon because some of them do more than mine does and mine isn't very old.

A friend of mine was selling a Nikkor 55-300 telephoto lens for $150. I offered to clean her coops and babysit her kids for however long she agreed to just to get that lens. Then I felt stupid when she reminded me it would cost me more in gas to get there...since she lives in Cincinnati

Not that I'm desperate or anything lol I figure by the time I get this camera paid off, I'll have to forget the zoom and/or a macro lens because it'll be time for a new camera LOL

I know quite a few Nikon shooters who turn out INCREDIBLE stuff. Just don't tell them I said so.

They do become obsolete very quickly as far as features go, but the nice thing about it is that once you've bought your first you will always have a backup body throughout your upgrades.

That and when having camera envy I always find it helpful to remind myself of a little story:

A famous photographer was invited to an exclusive dinner at a NY Socialite's home. Upon arriving, the hostess greeted him and immediately started gushing about his work. As she finished telling me how much she loved his photographs she said, "You must have a very expensive camera." He smiled graciously and joined the rest of the party. Later, after dinner had finished he looked to her across the dining room and told her how delicious everything had been. She thanked him profusely and then he added, "You must have a very expensive stove."

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Hmm. i am getting these kinds of flowers on my 3rd generation plants, and they also started out with purple stems? Mabie i'm on to something, but i'll be danged if i know what they crossed with........... The first year DH had all sorts, last year i grew them by the chicken coop to try to keep them pure, but then somehow little cherry tomatoes ended up in the goat pen, so......... THIS year, i am keeping them seperate, no tomatoes in with the goats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

http://jimmycrackedcorn.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/double-triple-sextuple-tomato-blossom/

I absolutely can't afford a Nikon, but after i saw some absolutely fabulous pics on the old BYC format i HAD to know what camera she used, it had such detail and the blues on the chicken had the sort of shimmer that you see in person, but seldom on pictures, and they were all amazingly to-the-pixle clear even though some of the chickens were running........... You could actually see the evil gleam in their eyes while on the run! She said Nikon 400, but after research i found several people who recommended the 350 because you could get the camera and the add-on's for the same price, and something about how shutter speed was actually quicker on the old model, on account of the tiny bit less of pixels or something.?

 

[Olive Hill]

As the token of my appreciation, I will give you my first hatch of my Uggo project, that I will be hatching in the Spring.

DARON!! You little stinker.

I don't think I have laughed so hard at anything on this thread... ever. In the infamous words of Sheldon Cooper, BAZINGA!

What a crazy weekend/week you had. How's Bella doing now?

I can see why your mom would be worried about a C-Section after her experience. It's definitely something that carries risks with both Livestock and Humans.

 

[Olive Hill]

Hmm. i am getting these kinds of flowers on my 3rd generation plants, and they also started out with purple stems? Mabie i'm on to something, but i'll be danged if i know what they crossed with........... The first year DH had all sorts, last year i grew them by the chicken coop to try to keep them pure, but then somehow little cherry tomatoes ended up in the goat pen, so......... THIS year, i am keeping them seperate, no tomatoes in with the goats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

http://jimmycrackedcorn.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/double-triple-sextuple-tomato-blossom/

There's no need to separate tomato plants to keep them pure. They're self-pollinating. Just bag a couple blossoms before they open and then mark the stem with some yarn so you remember the individual tomatoes from which to save your seeds.