Michigan

[sarah92480]

LOL! It's not as awkward as it sounds. Most of our gilts and sows are well trained to lay down for belly rubs by the time they reach farrowing age so it's just a matter of walking up, rubbing their side and waiting for them to lay down. As odd as it sounds, I do regularly "milk" the pigs as it's the most accurate indication of when they will farrow. Once we're able to express milk (which at that point is actually colostrum) we'll have pigs on the ground from that sow within 12 hours. So... at the risk of sounding even weirder than I actually am, I try to milk the gilts and sows twice a day when they start getting close to their due date.

That is interesting....and if it works, great! Never heard of that but it does make sense.

Oh man rabbit is sooo good! I don't desciminate...I eat my pets LOL (ok, not my dogs or cats...they'd go last)

Anything you can do with chicken you can do with rabbit. ShakeNbunny, shredded bunny sandwich, sloppy loppys, bunny and noodles, bunny tacos....the list goes on and on

All the sudden I feel like Bubba on Forrest Gump!

Haha that's great!! shakeNbunny...love it.

Argh! Not the super creepy chewing thing! I am NOT going to quote that thing, Opa

 

[Chickmate]

Just came in and felt something crawling up my neck - a tick, of course.

Stripped the kids down and looked them and their clothing over, and they were clear. Started on myself, and found another tick on the inside of my shirt!

That makes 4 ticks in as many days! Sat down for the evening yesterday and felt one crawling up my neck, and just the previous night I woke up at 3am and foggily felt something crawling on me, pulled my arm out of the blankets and there was a tick crawling up it.

I'm getting ticked off, and probably a nervous tic to boot! Sure are a lot of them this year! And can I just say, one more time,

!!!!!

Great, that means they're going to be bad this year. I have them on me many times after mowing the lawn. I usually pick them off the dogs several times each summer as well. The dogs are on Frontline which will kill them after they bite the dog, but I pull them off as soon as I see them. I sometimes find them crawling on the wall in my bedroom or the bathroom. They come in also on the cats and then the cats sleep on the bed with me. I hate the little buggers. The first time I ever found one on ME was when I first moved over here. I had mowed the lawn and then jumped in the shower. Drying off I happened to glance in the mirror and see a tick on my back. It wasn't crawling, it was already attached. OMG!! I live alone, no one to run to and scream "GET IF OFF ME!!" Don't know how I did it, but I contorted myself enough to get it off. Just couldn't bring myself to call my neighbor and ask her to come over to help me. Where there's a will there's a way. Now I'm used to them and it's no big deal but I still hate them. Opa would know that something else they have in Missouri but we thankfully don't have here are chiggers. Those drive you crazy!

 

[Juise]

Quote:

Juise - M.S.U. needs the swab sampled overnight so I don't know if it is a good idea to send it to them on Friday to arrive on Saturday - I don't know that the lab is open on Saturday. There is a phone number on the form I emailed you. Perhaps you can call and ask before you spend the money to test and mail.

Omg, duh. I didn't think about that at all. "Weekends" are relatively meaningless to me, so I always forget about them. >.> Ugh, that means I won't be able to send anything in until Monday, though. I will call and ask just in case, but I bet you're right, I doubt they have the lab open Saturday.


Chickmate - I had one attach itself once while I was camping, on my earlobe, ack! At least that is easier to get to than your own back, though!

The cats have been shut out of the bedroom at night since shortly after our first kid was born... DH said he was being woken up enough by the baby, he didn't need a cat waking him up even once, lol. Now I am shutting them out of the room during the day, too, since finding the tick on me at 3am. Not the worst way I've woken up, but definitely not a favourite. I'm sure it hitch-hiked there on one of them. They have plenty other comfy places to sleep, so I don't feel too guilty.

 

[Juise]

Oh, I got to be a horse today. We have an old horse cart that was just out behind the barns and covered with a tarp. I got it out to get put away more thoroughly, and the kids were on it before I finished sweeping it out. So.. they climbed onto the bench and I miraculously was transformed into a horse by my 4 y/o. I pulled them around the house a few times, then she wanted to got on the road, we have a circle drive so I took them around that, out onto the road, and back. I am kind of hoping none of the neighbors noticed.

 

[Olive Hill]

Opa would know that something else they have in Missouri but we thankfully don't have here are chiggers. Those drive you crazy!

Oh yes, yes we do. Nasty things! There's a lake not too far from here that's infamous for it.

 

[shoomy]

alaska yep really.

 

[Opa]

I actually slept in this morning and the coffee is just finishing up. The cups are in the cupboard just to the right of the sink so grab one and help yourself to a cup of morning motivator.

While we do have ticks in Michigan, and I do spend many hours afield, I have never encountered one. However, in the south it has been a different story. When my sons were small and we were visiting family in Arkansas and Missouri, each night I would check them thoroughly to make sure a tick hadn't affixed itself. Basically you look for what resembles a small freckle. Unfortunately you will not know when one attaches as their bite is painless. Many folk remedies abound as to the best method to remove them. Spray deodorant, mouth wash, petroleum jelly, and just a few but most doctors recommend using tweezers with an angled tip or blunt forceps. Grasp tick body with slow steady pressure till it releases. Avoid crushing the body. After removing wipe bite site with rubbing alcohol.
Ticks can be quite small, about the size of a pin head and unless they are moving you won't see the legs.

Removing a tick with slow upward motion

Stained area on pictured skin is not from tick but is an antiseptic

 

[hickchick55]

Quote:
I would be careful about that unless you are sure your soil can take it. I have killed things with too much wood ash. Just a warning.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Good morning Michigan

 

[sarah92480]

Morning. What an ungodly hour to be at work, ugh. And pictures of ticks are not what I wanted to see this morning lol!! Well I have my job interview today at 130, wish me luck!! Because if I get that job then I wont have to be at this stupid place at 7 am anymore.

So my chickens are approaching 5 weeks old, and they are pretty much fully feathered now. Do you think I could move them out to their coop yet, with no electricity out there? I plan to put some shavings and some straw down in there for insulation for them, and I haven't had a light on them since they were 2 weeks old anyway. I was thinking if I could get all that done then I'd put them out there this weekend. Any opinions?