Michigan

[NovaAman]

Morning. We had a storm stay just on the verge... Lot of lightning. Yup. No water. I guess that 50% did not include Holland. I think it is time to find the rain stick, delve into some of my roots, and beg the spirits for rain. Potawatomi.

ugh... Need a nap... Then up to let out the birds, then nap, then work... Again, UGH!

 

[Mom 2em All]

Good Morning everyone!

I had such a wonderful time with my daughter yesterday- made some really good memories. Those are precious.
We started out by me telling her to go ahead and get on the freeway/ I just finished telling her that the freeway will be her way to travel all over and to anywhere she wants to go, so she has to make sure she is comfortable driving it. (my mom has some freeway phobia and has never been able to drive it- thereby severely limiting where she has been able to go). We werent on 275 very long when we had a blow-out, rear tire. I said, "what the heck was that?" "she said I dont know but I cant control the truck good, I have to pull over" She was so calm. She navigated very well and got us to the side of the road without incident.

My husband and all his brothers were on a charter fishing trip. So, she then got a lesson on how to survive "without a man". The two of us figuring out how to get that spare tire down from under the truck and then finding the hidden jack and jack handle...whoo hooo...

it was very comical but we did it. Just when I was putting the jack under the truck, courtesy patrol pulled up and finished it for us. Thank you MDOT.
When we went to drive away, she asked me, "are you going to drive now?" UImmm nope. You didnt do anything wrong- no reason for you not to continue driving.
We went to the Trenton and the Wyandotte street fair, then got our nails done, ate sushi, and ended up buying her a computer for her room.
I wanted to get her a cheap one for her school work so I wouldnt have to share mine between her and Kayla, its too hard for me to get any computer time. lol. I got her a refurbished one- pretty good deal.

She navigated the crowded fair traffic, ambulance coming up behind her, and jerks cutting her off very well. I am just about ready to let her take her road test. Not quite- I want to see her drive at night first, then I guess I will set her free.

 

[1muttsfan]

Good morning Michigan, a little cloudy this morning but supposed to clear off and be beautiful today. Had some storms in the night with a deluge of much-needed rain. it smells so good this morning, I have all the windows open to the fresh air and bird song (including a really excessive number of little roosters).

Mom, sounds like a great mom-daughter day.

 

[Brethren49619]

There was lightening last night, and clouds. No rain, and no northern lights.

Anyone see the northern lights??
There was supposed to be a good chance of seeing them because of all the sun flares that are occurring.

 

[taprock]

Last night we had some decent rain and again this morning. Momma turkey is out with her babies in the back field. We hadn't seen them for a while, the field was cut and baled and is now clear.

I have a friend who keeps pointing out emu for sale. Tempting but I am not sure about buying an adult not a chick.

Today is off to camp again. DH gets to take care of the chickens for the week.

Hopefully there are no injuries or anyone picked on because he will not notice. The one lone silkie will be going with us in the old guinea pig cage. There have been too many situations she has wandered off and not come in at night and DH wouldn't know the difference. My yard may protect from hawk but I wouldn't put it up against a hungry coon.

I hope everyone gets their needed rain today.

 

[Opa]

Coffee is good to the last drop; or so the old commercial went. All I know with any certainty is that it sure wouldn't seem like a good morning without it.

Yesterday I baited the traps with fish flavored cat food instead of the usual sardines. This morning there weren't any coons being held to await their fate. So until I check the traps I won't know if they didn't like the change of bait or if there just wasn't any coons visiting the area. Regardless I don't intend to lessen my vigil.

I'm having mixed results with my garden this year. The tomato plants are absolutely huge and loaded with both blossoms and small fruit. The onions are doing well. The vines from the squash are reaching record growth, yet the pole beans are meager at best and the cucumbers are only adequate at best. I planted 4 different varieties of sweet corn. A lot failed to germinate so I replanted and still had fewer plants come up than I had expected. Most have now tasseled out and ears are forming but the stalks appear a little stunted.

Today will be another good day. Starting off vertical is always a good indicator that it will be so.

 

[gladahmae]

Darn bunnies!!! So much for us having green beans this year.

They have methodically mowed off my entire row of beans, and left EVERYTHING else alone so far. I tried to get DH to help me set the fence a MONTH ago, but had no luck. Well, I think today he's going to help me whether he wants to or not!

We DID get a larger (uncovered) run put in the the chicks yesterday. It's going to be temporary for sure, but they seem to enjoy having 4x the area to run around in. Putting it up was a lesson in "don't trust people on craigslist" though. We bought "85+ ft of fence" and some posts and a gate. It's more like 50-60 ft of fence. That's a BIG difference. Lesson learned, and if/when we buy more to make the BIG run, we will take a measuring tape and unroll it all to check.

Of course, one of the BRs squeezed out in the space around the gate this morning WHILE THE DOGS WERE OUT (in the backyard, thank goodness) and couldn't figure out how to get back in. Nothing like chasing chicks around before 8am!

I think DH is getting bitten by the chicken bug as well now. Yesterday I finally decided to call about the marans chicks, and he volunteered to go pick them up since I had to work last night. BIL went with them, and DH attempted to buy more than just the 3 I sent him for, but the owner was unsure about it. (Ameraucanas really caught his eye, so if I can find more locally, I may be able to talk him into more this summer!

) SO, now I have my 10 original ladies, and 3 new ones. We got a Black Copper (4wks), a Cuckoo (2wks), and a Blue splash (couple of days old). DH re-set the brooder in the basement and they seem to be pretty happy.

 

[ladyrsanti]

My garden is hit and miss also. The tomatoes seem unscathed by the drought and are setting really well. Zucchini is great, ate it for a week. The pumpkins and winter squash and melon are baked and dead, despite how much I watered it. I fought the squash bugs for days, only to have the plants succumb to the heat and drought. The moles tunneled beneath them too and disturbed the roots, I think. My potatoes are good and done and the onions are too. My popcorn didn't come up at all this year, I think two plants is all and they haven't grown more than six inches. Planted green beans in their wake and they are sparse and small too. The shell beans are doing fine though. Sorghum is good, sunflowers fine, dent corn is okay. Not too bad considering we haven't had measurable rain since mid June. Yesterday's rain missed us except for a trace amount overnight. I brushed the soil with my fingers this morning and found it dry about 1/8" down.

My first ever roo (BO) is currently showing off his brand new talent of crowing. I can barely hear it through the open window but its sounds wonderful.

 

[snowflake]

Good Morning everyone!.
I wanted to get her a cheap one for her school work so I wouldnt have to share mine between her and Kayla, its too hard for me to get any computer time. lol. I got her a refurbished one- pretty good deal.

She navigated the crowded fair traffic, ambulance coming up behind her, and jerks cutting her off very well. I am just about ready to let her take her road test. Not quite- I want to see her drive at night first, then I guess I will set her free.

sounds like a very nice day, treasure those they are rare they become rare until the girls become adults with family of their own We had to force our younger daughter to drive. she is blind in one eye, so it was more difficult, but my DH had 3 sisters and mother, none of them drove, and he carted them all over the place every week, drove me nuts. we couldn't plan any thing over the week end cause he had to take his mom to sisters and church. (not their weren't other driving people in the fam.)any how I told my DD she had better learn to drive cause her brother and sister were NOT going to cart her around. she is now glad she did and laughs about how hard we had to push.can't imagine life with out driving

My garden is hit and miss also. The tomatoes seem unscathed by the drought and are setting really well. Zucchini is great, ate it for a week. The pumpkins and winter squash and melon are baked and dead, despite how much I watered it. I fought the squash bugs for days, only to have the plants succumb to the heat and drought. The moles tunneled beneath them too and disturbed the roots, I think.
just went out to water and ground hog or rabbits have chewed the tops off my sweet potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes, fence is going up for sure SOON

Have a great day all,,,,no rain here either, farmers are really hurting

 

[fuzzybutt love]

Had a leghorn get injured sometime today. My daughter called me at work and said she found the leghorn in the yard all beat up. I checked her over when I got home, but I haven't a clue what happened to her. No obvious wounds, bite/claw marks, blood or anything. She was very dirty and one side of her face was swollen w/ eye shut. The other side the eye was wide open, but it was dilating/un-dilating over and over very fast and she seemed to be having a problem keeping her head upright as if something was wrong with her neck. My first thought is she got hit very hard by something and had a concussion. Stupid question, do they get concussions? I told DH and he thought the same thing. Or maybe she had a fight with another chicken perhaps? We've got her crated right now. Her swollen eye is open a tiny bit now and the other eye appears to have stopped dilating and her head is still kind of lolling a bit so hopefully she gets better, but I have some concerns about it.

You don't have an overly dominant hen or roo, do you? They can head peck enough to do that kind of damage. (Or if she got stuck somehow?) The flock could have tried to peck her to death. Look around to see if you see where the scuffle was, to see if there was a cause? Feed her by hand if possible, and keep her seperate, with a gentle friend until she's recovered. Opa had a hen pecked like that and he was able to get her a bit better, but it took a lot of time.