Nevadans?

[aubreynoramarie]

Eeeeeeew!!!!

 

[Lacy Blues]

 

[aubreynoramarie]

well geeze, went outside to check on mama and babies and one of the babies, Pickle, has died. I have no clue how, he was fine this morning. Two guesses- he had a vaulted skull, perhaps he accidentally got hit in the head- or maybe caught the bug everyone else had. I dont know but its pretty sad :/ That vaulted skull was really nice considering.

 

[chicharomirinda]

This site is not letting me post, but here goes. Raccoons are very aggressive. Geez the Bay Area was full of them. You can drive through Oakland and San Leandro in the evening and watch them slide through the drainage systems. I was in Emeryville a few years ago at my mom's and he laundryroom was where her back door was. There was just a sidewalk and at the time a cyclone fence. The man next door was a sheriff and his hobby was race cars. He had several in his huge backyard. There was a family of raccoons that would walk the streets at night and visit all the yards. They'd destroy my mom's plants if thy were bulbs. My mom lived in a 4-plex and the lady next door feed every cat in a 20 mile radius. Usually at 2:30 am after the bar closed. The raccoons looked forward to the cat feeding and no one could get rid of them, because she just wouldn't stop. So I'm washing laundry and I hear this deep growl. I knew what it was, those grumbly masked creatures! I looked out the door and it was dark, but I could see the momma under one of the race cars. She was so mad that I was in that room, cause her babies were having a play date and she was letting me know I had no business being around. Thank GOD for security doors! Anyway, after a couple of minutes, she had gotten on my last nerve, so I looked at her and yelled "B****, I'm on a break from my own kids, why the H*** do you think I want anything to do with yours?!!!" I heard my mom yelling "Kim, what's going on??" and Bill went running in to find out who I was yelling at. I pointed to the eyes shinning from under the car and said "She started it!" We also took Dakotah and Khamaria trick or treating there one year and there were people running scared, cause a momma and her babies were walking onto porches and into yards. They did have nice costumes, but man did they screw up my plains for getting a supply of chocolate. Dakotah eats an occassional KitKat and other than that, he hate the stuff. Chances are if you heard a growl, those were her babies making the other noises. OH and I once saw one in Berkeley on 66th that was the size of the GSD I had at the time. Never had seen one that big and haven't since, but I was amazed. It was so grey and slow, I often wonder how old it was and how it lived to be that big and that old in BERKELEY!

you sure told her!

Our experiences with coons has been camping. We were camping in February about 12-13 years ago in samuel p taylor state park (near point reyes). It was rainy and cold and we had managed to get a fire going to cook our hot dogs. then we looked up and were surrounded by all these eyes. they kept moving closer and closer. so we kept shining flashlights in their eyes so they would keep back. the next day one jumped right up on our picnic table and tried to take food but I scared it away. then another camping trip one grabbed a whole grocery bag full of bread off our picnic table but I grabbed it back. I was not donating all our bread to them! we have not seen them around our yard but our neighbors saw one.

Thanks everyone. I just got home from work and of course went outside to check on everyone. The raccoons was here again and tried to get into the coop but no luck for them so far. It seemed like they were much more aggressive. I believe they started coming around on the Sept 30th because my egg count went down the next day from 6 eggs a day to 2. I'm back up to 4 a day again so perhaps the chickens are feeling safer. I was wondering why Amanda has been sleeping on the rafter above the run. She matches the color of the board and if you didn't know she was there you wouldn't see her. She started that on the 1st. I noticed they are trying to bend the hardware cloth but still haven't gotten past anything. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. The ducks are staying away from the sides of the coop and even Bridgette is staying inside of the coop instead of the run with the ducks. Leroy is standing guard at the door. I noticed he doesn't sleep much at night now always on guard.

Aubrey, I was thinking of asking Gadsden to bring his timberwolf hybrid dog over because I heard, once they smell the urine of a timberwolf they high tail it out and don't come back. I know others use coyote urine as well. Elvis would be good though but if that huge one comes back then Elvis would be a goner it was just so big. When my older son was here in March he told me the raccoons roam so much and feed and then they circle back. It takes them months to do so. I guess he was right on this one.

hope your chickens and ducks stay safe!

Zoo Doo! re: mountain lion urine... It reminds me of my neighbors when I had the ranch up near Auburn. They had a deer problem that even 6-foot high fences couldn't keep 'em out of their ornate veggie garden. And so they went to the zoo and got some lion excretions and scattered it about. The deer vanished, but my neighbors couldn't figure out where their sheep went. It turns out that the lion scent was very effective at keeping the deer away, BUT it attracted mountain lions to the property who by far enjoyed the easier-to-catch sheep. (Something about scent marking territories, etc.) Oh, well.... One lion was actually shot INSIDE another neighbor's barn where it decided to lounge atop the hay bales....not something I'd like to encounter first thing in one's morning chores.

re: Zombies.... We've got the Zombie Apocalypse Store down here in Las Vegas that caters to everything zombie and the preparation for the invasion. My nephew is big into the craze and nearly every T-shirt is something zombie-fied. I don't have cable, so cannot tune in to The Walking Dead. Is the first season out on DVD yet? I catch a fair share of zombie movies, though. "Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies" is pretty forgettable, that is, unless you're a fan of Savannah, GA, and Fort Pulaski and you don't mind a REAL BIG dose of revisionist history.

Sorry not to have contributed lately, but I've been lurking when I've been able to catch a moment. Been very bizzy as Mom's Parkinsons took an extreme turn for the worst and we're having to deal with multiple falls and hospital visits, moving to assisted living, etc. She's got a monstrous house to downsize out of and an equally huge amount of paperwork to reckon with. The logistics of it all are a giant energy-and-time-sucking black hole. Someday I hope to get my life back!

Hey, I wanna see some flamingo pictures. That sounds fab! Any chance little flamingos will wend their way onto a wedding cake? It'd be cool to find some flamingos-in-formal-wear figurines as a cake topper.

hope everything goes okay with your mom's move, etc. I'm sure you are worn out from all of that stress.

well geeze, went outside to check on mama and babies and one of the babies, Pickle, has died. I have no clue how, he was fine this morning. Two guesses- he had a vaulted skull, perhaps he accidentally got hit in the head- or maybe caught the bug everyone else had. I dont know but its pretty sad :/ That vaulted skull was really nice considering.

so sorry about your chick.

 

[Lacy Blues]

"I'm going to Jacksonville, Florida October 31st and will return November 9th. I'll be more than happy to take eggs or bring eggs back with me. Just let me know."

sherylreno, I keep seeing that post by you in the egg chain thread...

and I keep getting excited...

and then I read the date posted!

You'd think I'd figure it out!

I mean... how many times is it gonna take before it actually sinks in?


Just out of curiosity, will you be making that trip again any time soon?

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Elizabeth, if your tomatoes have any amount of color on them at all, you can pick them tonight and bring them in, and they'll ripen the rest of the way in the house. Our low is supposed to be 39, so we're good for at least another week here. I was looking at the garden today, though, and everything is ready for it to be fall. I picked a few pounds of tomatoes yesterday, the last big bowl full for the year. We'll get a couple more. The winter squash are all sitting on the vine, waiting until the first actual frost. At that point I'll get my husband and say, "Honey, it's time! We have to go!" and he'll roll the wheel barrow over there and bring back a big squash delivery.

I'm ready for fall, too. As much as I love gardening, I'm excited about having a little bit of a break. I have a couple of paintings planned, and I want to do NaNoWriMo next month.

Aubrey, I'm sorry about your chickie. If he wasn't showing any symptoms this morning, I don't think it's the respiratory crud you've got there. My new babies all showed symptoms long before they even came down seriously ill. Well, "long before" = compared to the lifespan of a little baby chick.

 

[RulerOfTheSkies]

Do you guys know each other? If so how can i join you. I feel left out.

 

[sherylreno]

Do you guys know each other? If so how can i join you. I feel left out.

Oh please never feel left out from us. This is a place you jump in. We always read what you post we just may not respond to it. I'm sorry you're feeling this way.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

Do you guys know each other? If so how can i join you. I feel left out.

Just stay on here, and you'll eventually meet us. We're not an exclusive group or anything. It just kind of happens.

Isn't the Reno chicken swap going to be next month? I'd love to have a set meeting time so anyone who feels like a stranger can meet the rest of the group and still feel secure about it.

 

[sherylreno]

Aubrey, your poor little chickie. It does sound like it could have bumped it's head.

Oh Lacy, I'm not sure when I'm going there again. My son is moving to Virginia so I most likely will be going there more. I usually go to the East Coast about twice a year but I now have a son on the West Coast, he moved to Seattle last year, I splint my times between the 2 boys.