Nevadans?

[chicharomirinda]

I'm still loving all the pictures again! I'll get some wedding photos up later on.

Elizabeth, your gunda is very cute, she's not laying yet though by the looks of her. Her comb & waddles will get bigger and a more bright red.

Your egg #3 and #4 looks like my SLW ones but I don't know what your other ones will look like since I don't have any of those. The BR's usually have a slight pinkish/purple tint to them and the SLW's will have the all tan eggs.

Gotta get back to baking now. I usually bake all day on Saturdays and this is just like a normal Saturday.

I received a phone call yesterday from work telling me to get back upstairs in Marketing right now. It's a great friend of mine and I guess everyone is having a lot of issues up there since they eliminated all the lower executives and kept all the higher ones. I haven't decided yet if I want to go back up there. I'm not having anymore stress and the Hotel has given me my hours and days I enjoy having. Of course going back upstairs will be a lot more money again but really is money everything, not to me? Peace is more important and I'm having peace more than not. John says I really need to get back up there before the new owners take over or I'll be stuck in the Hotel but really again, am I really stuck or happy? There's a concert coming up next month and they must have someone there who knows what they are doing.

that's a tough decision, sheryl. there's a lot to be said for having less stress and a schedule you like. good luck deciding.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Hey Sunny. Any idea when the wearherman is gonna be good to you?

All the pics are great. Not making my usual long comments due to technical difficulty.

Ugh! We get nothing for ages, then when I need to go over the pass... Actually it didn't do much of anything here today but the pass is the big concern. Another storm is coming in late tomorrow so we will be moving the departure time up to get home before it catches up to us. We'll leave at dawn tomorrow to head straight to Karen's. Hoping to be there between 10:30 and 11:30.


Congrats on the eggs Daniel and Elizabeth!

 

[wolftracks]

Ugh! We get nothing for ages, then when I need to go over the pass... Actually it didn't do much of anything here today but the pass is the big concern. Another storm is coming in late tomorrow so we will be moving the departure time up to get home before it catches up to us. We'll leave at dawn tomorrow to head straight to Karen's. Hoping to be there between 10:30 and 11:30.


Congrats on the eggs Daniel and Elizabeth!

Oh ok. For some reason I thought you were going to come on another day. Guess I'll see you tomorrow then

 

[wolftracks]

Cross posting

Mahonri has another Easter hatch! Let's get as many as we can to join in!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/625456/mahonris-3rd-annual-byc-easter-hatch-a-long/0_20

 

[SagebrushMama]

Wow, really enjoyed every ones pictures! You all have great looking families.

This was taken sever years ago, I'm in the striped shirt. My sister Heidi is holding my daughter Cassidy, her son is the little guy standing behind her and the little guy sitting in the striped sweater vest is Chris (4 then) my sister Rachael is in the other white sweater and my brother Robert in the red.

 

[SagebrushMama]

Chris is 11, Mary is 5 and Cassidy is 7 (the baby she's holding is my youngest nephew Bobby)

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
LOL Nope you are being invaded tomorrow (or rather Karen is).

Thanks for the pics Sierra! Your kiddos are adorable. I like the relaxed poses in the 1st photo.

 

[chicharomirinda]

Today ended up being my first 2-egg day. Laila just stepped on an egg out in the run

The remains of the shell I could find looked slightly speckled, so maybe it was a welsummer. I told her to be careful where she walked when we went in the coop. Well, she left the coop and went into the run by herself. oh well, I will get more eggs but I was very disappointed to lose one.

Chris is 11, Mary is 5 and Cassidy is 7 (the baby she's holding is my youngest nephew Bobby)

cute kids!

 

[SagebrushMama]

Thanks! Cassie was only a few weeks old when we took it, I'm not sure if we'll ever get everyone together again for another pic. My brother moved to Arizona and now has his own young family, and there is always something that keeps my sister's and I from meeting up all together in one place. Busy, busy...

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Pam and SagebrushMama... you're all so beautiful! We have great-looking families on this board.

Elizabeth... congratulations on two eggs, even if one got broken. When I started getting eggs, I didn't eat any of them until about 7 eggs later. The first three went to our friend Mark, who is from Brooklyn and had never had homegrown food until he came to live in Reno. So he got those eggs plus a storebought one, to show him the difference in value. I really don't think he realized what an honor it was to eat our first eggs.

Sheryl... I vote for happy as well. Unless your #1 cause of stress is money. I have worked so many jobs where I was SO miserable! When I started having work nightmares, it was time to reconsider my position. Now that I'm in this line of work, my #1 cause of stress is money... but that's ok because it's pretty much my only stress. I can parent my children, raise the food my husband needs to survive, and be calm enough at the end of the day to nurture my family relationships.

Sunny... travel safe! Of all the weekends to actually get notable weather!

Well, we didn't get nearly as much of the coop done as I wanted, but I we accomplished almost all I need my husband's help for. He's going to help me again next Saturday, but after that he ships out for Manila on the next Friday so anything else is all up to me. But after next Saturday, it will be completely comfortable for the chickens. Just really, really ugly.

This is what we have so far. Russ calls it the best-looking chicken shanty in the yard. And it's going to be much MUCH more attractive as soon as I sand everything down and get some artwork on it.

Everything in these pictures, except for the bolts and screws, is recycled.

The main framework consists of two industrual metal racks, without using the sidebars. The legs go down a foot into the soil, and the bottom horizontal brace is dug into the dirt. A piece of 3/4" plywood, leftover from a friend's house renovation, is attached with strong bolts.



The nesting box is made from part of an old bed. It originally had three shelves, and a section of drawers on the end. We knocked out the metal tracks for the drawers. Here Russ is cutting into the wall of the drawer area, and we used that wood to make a lip for the bottom boxes. Then we sectioned out the top section and put a hinged lid on it.




This is everything we got done today, from the back end. The back end consists of the headboard and footboards of the bed, bolted to the running boards (which are bolted to the metal racks.) The gray things on bottom are part of a pressboard shelving system.

The bottom area beneath that lower horizontal brace is going to be boarded up except for a chicken door, which is going to consist of another 4'x4' industrial rack, enclosed with hardware cloth, with a sturdy door at the end. That way, in the winter, I can put clear plastic over the hardware cloth and it can serve as an air-warming chamber. That top section is going to be hardware cloth all the way down to the top horizontal brace, with a hinged cover to reduce drafts in the winter. Then the area with the diagonal brace is going to be completely covered with plywood. The gaps in those footboards are going to be wired in with hardware cloth.



Here's the front. Ugly, isn't it? The photo is a bit blurry because it was getting dark pretty fast, and my old camera was struggling. This is a recycled door, cut to size, and the running boards of another old bed. I'm going to cut up the last couple of running boards so I can cover in the end of the nexting boxes (you can see one board at the bottom, just set beside it so I can picture what I'm doing.) That way it can also cover up that ugly piece of gray metal that's sticking out. I also have a few gaps that I need to close up with 1" pieces, then cover with some trim so I can paint it up all pretty.



So Russ is going to help put the rest of the plywood up. I can wire everything in by myself. The doors for the nexting boxes will be painted, all artistic-like, during this week so we can install them next Saturday. Everything plywood or pressboard is going to be painted to look like a stone wall, Old World style, to match the pond and stone walls around the yard. Everything made of good wood is going to be distressed and sanded a bit, then stained, with a little artwork to make it look a bit more rustic. For instance, that cheap door is going to be painted like an old barn door, with a fake diagonal brace.

The inside is going to have several tiers of roosts, with a ladder going up to the second ones and a platform coming out of the wall. The ceiling is going to have a fluorescent light

The plywood roof will stay covered with plastic until Russ gets back. Then we'll buy some rolls of asphalt shingles to cover it. The run is going to extend from about 6 feet out from the left side, then all the way up to the fence on the back and right side, so the chickens can climb on the rock walls. Then we'll stretch netting over the top.