Michigan

[Opa]

3 cups of coffee and I still feel like going back to bed. Cold as it is, that sound better than just about anything else. One of the few advantages of being old is that you decide when you start and stop your day.

 

[Olive Hill]

All this talk of fruit trees. My tart cherry trees thrive in a full sun and moderately moist soil. They do not like wet feet! All were planted like RAZ was talking about except I did dig below the root ball level and mix a bag of peat in the holes and then compact. All the trees are at full maturity size and produce more fruit than I can handle. They are very suseptible to fruit flies and must be sprayed, and or, trapped (unless you want more than a stone in the fruit). If you plant any tree with a graft, as with most common fruit trees, make sure the graft is above grade afer planting. The only thing that wrecks my trees is: Deer, frost, and deer. My newest plum trees are looking very good. They will be a welcome addition to the canning department.

Good to hear your trees are doing well. The area where these will be is enclosed with electric fence and, miraculously, the deer don't seem to mess with too much here. I have peach trees that aren't fenced and they don't mess with them. Frost is certainly another ball game though. We covered the peach trees as well as we could last night as they're already all blossomed out. We'll see...

I was looking at cherry varieties online last night and came across Apricots rated for this area. I didn't know you could grow them up here. Now I'm definitely thinking just six cherry trees to save room for a few apricots, too.

 

[Elliemae 77]

Raz,
"No cure for stupid"
True......so true

 

[Mom 2em All]

I have 2 dozen undertaker duck eggs if any one is interested.

those would scare me...

3 cups of coffee and I still feel like going back to bed. Cold as it is, that sound better than just about anything else. One of the few advantages of being old is that you decide when you start and stop your day.

Morning Sam!

I am doing pretty well, considering. I saw the surgeon yesterday and asked for the rest of this week off. If I had to start back today, I would die. And told him so- my job is very high-physical stress and running around. Just give me this week..that gives me fourteen days since surgery.

It sure is gonna hurt with the no-pay, but I will survive.

Thank you all for the well-wishes and thoughts. My daughter is sick, I was in two emergency rooms until 3 a.m on Monday morning, then had the surgeon appt and then I ran two department meetings, then the fam. doctor at 6..all on two hours of sleep- kicked my rear end yesterday. BIG kick. My kid has an ultrasound scheduled tomorrow morning at 8. then a colonoscopy either Thursday or Friday- waiting for his call- at either Providence Hosp or Beaumont...both far away.
My youngest teens birthday was yesterday. I didnt even see her but for just a bit in the morning before school and then right before bed (for me)...not a very nice Mom, but she did have her birthday party on Saturday, so it wasnt too bad.
Today I will put her drawing desk together that I got her. Had it hid under her sisters bed for over a week..heh heh heh.

I refuse to acknowledge that it is freezing outside. I just hope my trumpet vines and honeysuckle survive it. They cover my one fence and part of another and I love them. I will be very sad if their leaves die now.

Today, I have to find a place to donate my husbands hair to. He had my mother cut fourteen inches off on Saturday. I told him I refuse to look at him directly until it grows back, but he did cut it for a good cause.

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

ETA-

Flemish giant bunnies are soooooo cool. I had them before. Love them...I may be able to be persuaded...NO..just say NO..and dont let Jen know that I feel the big bunny void...nononononono....

 

[Elliemae 77]

Muttsfan, who is Aveca? Place where you got your eggs or another BYC member?

Nova, panties? Lol.(sorry, just couldn't let that one pass by)

Everybody, where do you get all those different smiley guys?

 

[SillyChicken]

Hah! I knew somebody would catch my misspell before I could fix it. Silly phone keyboards are so small.

Shouldn't that be sippy keyboards? LOL!

Actually you were pretty close on the sippy part, it was the weekend after all!

Opa, I think I was about 10 days into incubation.


Ell, you can get smiles when you enter a post, along the top with all the different text options etc is a smiley face, click on that and you can pick on from there, or there's sites on line where you can find smileys... smiley central and a few other places. Just google smiley icons.. there's a ton out there.

Please wish my DH luck today, he's going for a job interview in Mason.

Stay warm!

 

[Elliemae 77]

Teeville,
So sorry to hear that your daughter is having problems, I will keep her and your family in prayer.

UN, sorry about your Drake.

 

[Elliemae 77]

Thank you Silly, I'll have to check out the smiley thing. Hope his interview goes well. Pretty tough out there

 

[Living the Simple Life]

hope your daughter gets answers. when I was about 15-16, I ended up seeing a neurologist for my head. I had a head ache that lasted 18 days, some days so bad i could not sleep/see/eat/function. I forget what the meds were that i got for them, but they worked so nice. knocked me out so soundly that my mom and sister were in the room making fun of me cuz i couldn't defend myself. lol. now i just use excedrin and coffee and some days that doens't help much. i am thinking that is my problem with the puking yesterday. i always have a head ache it seems. most day its just a minor inconvenience and i don't bother with it. some days so much worse and i chug coffee and excedrin, and if bad enough will take the narco. i'd like to think i have a doberman problem, and my brain is just too big for my skull, causing pressure and one day i will just foam at the mouth and go completely nuts. (i think thats a myth...) but anyway. hope you and she finds answers. try a heating pad across the forehead. the heat will cause dialation of the capilaries and may provide a little relief. works for me when it gets bad.

I second the heating pad. I use a rice bag for my migraines. I also use one in the small of my back, don't know what the connection is, but it seems to help relieve the pain in my head. When I get hit with a bad one, I sequester myself in a dark room (light makes me nauseous) with Excedrin migraine, the rice bags and cold Coke. About the only time I drink soft drinks. Normally I am a coffee drinker, but have found that the Coke helps to alleviate the migraine where coffee doesn't work for me. The worse migraine I ever suffered I really thought I was having a stroke....I swear I could feel the individual platelets of blood rushing through the veins in my head...the one time that I prayed for Jesus to take me home! For anyone who has never suffered with migraines, you cannot imagine how awful it is. I hope that your daughter gets answer and relief!!

 

[1muttsfan]

Aveca posted a piece on handling shipped eggs during incubation -



Hi All,

Aveca sent me her notes for hatching shipped eggs. If this works and a lot of us use it with our shipped eggs, the hatch ratio contest will be out of bounds this time

Here it is--Remember, these instructions are for shipped eggs:

it says allow eggs to sit 12 - 24 hrs in a place where if they are cool , they can warm up slowly. leave them after carefully unwrapped upright inside cartons and close lid so they will not warm up too quickly. eggs that warm too quickly , or cool too quickly are shocked . causes lower hatch rate.one of the reasons shipped eggs do not fare well..slow cooling and heateing give better success. cool eggs can remain in cool area, remember warm very slowly, do not ever shock shipped eggs or any egg by throwing it in the incubator , this causes condensation on the inside of the cool egg and bactieria begin to grow and kill the egg. always warm eggs slow;ly,.... try to keep already warm eggs stable, do not allow those to take sudden chill. never be inpatient to get eggs in incubator.warm eggs that take a sudden drop in temps will kill the developing germ. even in late development.

you should have your incubator up and running days befor they arrive and be stabalized.

place eggs upright carefully in turner trays or cartons if hand turning.

allow shipped hatching eggs to sit upright position in incubator with egg turner off for 7 - 10 days , this allows air cell to stabalize and give the germ time to organise and get a healthy start without constantly being moved disturbing delicate vessels and cell formation. shipped eggs most likley suffered some damage, constantly disturbing this formation will give lower hatchs.

depending on damage, turn your egg turner on day 7 and allow eggs to be turned for the last part of incubation. this excercises the embryo and prevents the embryo from laying in an area where waste product inside the eggs collects, helps circulation and proper development.

Run your humidity lower than recomended to help air cells to dry down and helps in healing.unless eggs are coming from very arid regions where the cells start out larger due to rapid evaporation.

do NOT lay shipped eggs down on thier sides in most cases during lockdown. it is best to sit these in slightly cut down paper cartons... do not use styro cartons as they heat and release chemicals that can be toxic. cutting the side of the carton down just a little ensures pipping can occur without running into carton wall.

sometimes befor or during shipment conditions are right for the germ to begin to develope, this is the most delicate time for a hatching egg. and the time when most are damaged ..tiny blood vessels are beginning to form, and cells are deviding and organizing , and being shocked with sudden temp changes and shaking .so dont beat yourself up if all of your shipped eggs do not hatch, more than air cell damage , the germ itself became disorganized and cannot re build itself. that is why the freshest shipped eggs are most desirable. you will get a larger percentage to hatch using this method and conditions in your incubator are correct. it is so worth it to buy from a good breeder. often it just isnt possible to drive across the country just to pick up some eggs or birds so try this method and happy hatching,

remember post office personel are not trained in handeling these products , thier job is just to move item place to place..hopefully there was not a drastic temp change or prolonged air flights in sub freezing cargo in low 02, 30 thousand ft plane ride

Thanks to aveca! Send her a pm