***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[artsyrobin]

I'm cleaning out the root cellar and garage. Had to evict this happy little family.



This is a really, really large wolf spider. You can see not only is she carrying her egg sac, but they are currently in the process of hatching. See all the little teeny spiders on the ground by her? There was a male, this female and another female with an egg sac, but by the time I got all three of them carried out and transferred to a safer location I was sick of running back into the house for the camera. Edit: Okay, to be perfectly honest, my husband was sick of running back into the house to get the camera for me.

that is a cool shot!! wow! i am always finding things to take pics of and usually forget the camera!



Here is the fun for the day, this morning the hatch began- and i came up with an idea- bring staypuff in with her box and see what she does with an egg that had just pipped- well, she stood there and listened, looked at the bator with 3 babes cheeping and then back and...
the egg and settled down, i put a couple more eggs, no problem, but she kept looking at the peeping babes- ok, so i tried one, she scooped him under, so now she has 4 babes and 3 in hatching mode on the coffee table in the living room in a dog carrier- to make sure since she is a first time mom, she doesn't hurt one- gotta love silkie mamas...now she is uber protective! not as bad as licorice, but a good sting to her beak

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o155/rgortonart/2012 chickens/staypuffbaby.jpg

still can't get byc to upload images....

 

[MacGuyver]

that is a cool shot!! wow! i am always finding things to take pics of and usually forget the camera!



Here is the fun for the day, this morning the hatch began- and i came up with an idea- bring staypuff in with her box and see what she does with an egg that had just pipped- well, she stood there and listened, looked at the bator with 3 babes cheeping and then back and...
the egg and settled down, i put a couple more eggs, no problem, but she kept looking at the peeping babes- ok, so i tried one, she scooped him under, so now she has 4 babes and 3 in hatching mode on the coffee table in the living room in a dog carrier- to make sure since she is a first time mom, she doesn't hurt one- gotta love silkie mamas...now she is uber protective! not as bad as licorice, but a good sting to her beak

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o155/rgortonart/2012 chickens/staypuffbaby.jpg

still can't get byc to upload images....

Thank you! I actually stood there holding the spider in a cup with a paper plate over it until my beloved got back with the camera. There was NO WAY I was going to miss that shot. And the first time, he brought it out with no CF card in it, so I had to catch the spider again (male) and send him back inside for the card!

That is one gorgeous mama with her baby!

 

[nnbreeder]

Not sure if our birds can smell the smoke or what but they've all been jumpy the last couple of days. The turkeys keep getting in the trees and on top of their house. And we only got 4 eggs yesterday instead of the normal 14. It did rain here last night, about 1/3 inch but I guess that's more than nothing and it helped cool things off at least for a little while. Didn't save my Hopi squash though. It's gone.

Anyone ever grown sorghum? We planted some this year just to see how it would do and it has grown great but it's weird. It put up one seed head per stalk like it's supposed to do but just as that head ripened and we were set to harvest, all of the stalks put up a second head. I've researched the net trying to find out something about it but I can't find anything. Anyone know why it might do this?

My roosters started crowing the other night about 1:30am and a few minutes later I could smell smoke. When the wind layed down they calmed down and went back to sleep.

Those are called sucker heads and will usually pop up when the plant is heat or drought stressed. I have seen wheat do it in dry years but it is usually when the first tiller gets damaged or dies back from stress. And with wheat I have seen them put on empty heads when it's dry and then if we get good rains before the plant dies off it will put out sucker heads but normally they don't have nearly as many berries per head.

 

[Tony O]

The Mannford fire is between 10-15 miles from us, but there is lake between us unless wind shifts change the direction drastically. Was so glad to learn that all the people in Mannford, Drumright and Jennings were allowed to go back and there was no fire damage within city limits.

Our phone rang almost constantantly last nigh from friends worried about us and even one who wanted to come evacuate our flock because of smoke inhalation worries. We did have a lot of smoke, but not to that extent. Our skylights are all heavily spotted with ashes. We are so fortunate, but if a fire started in our area, we'd be in real trouble because, as some of you know firsthand, there is only one way in and one way out of our area.

Wow Betsy, I didn't even think about that. One way in and one way out would be scary

to be trapped there by fire. So glad y'all and your birds were safe and okay.
Take care.

 

[Elbert Garrett]

I don't think I've ever even seen an American Game in person although Silver Duckwing in all the breeds is one of my favorite colors for males and females both. That little guy in your avatar looks like he's quite quite the personality

My Bantam breeds are fast becoming every bit as much my favorites as my LF's.

He and she both were a pleasure to handle and I miss them!

This little Stag is one of their`s.

 

[Buster52]

Buster did you head to the ER? Hope you are doing ok. Had a friend that let a recluse bite go & she was down a couple of wks

I went in and glad I did. They gave me shots and meds to control it (like Kass said there is no anti-venom), and we will keep an eye on it. Going in to see my regular doc after I get back from my little trip tomorrow (and I AM going, much to my wife's frustration). I will give you a call as a near Chickasha in case you need anything dropped off.

Thanks to all for your advice.

 

[nnbreeder]

I think we're gonna buy a newer/larger tractor or a small dozer to start getting this mess cleaned up. We've been looking at a new tractor anyways. Ours is only 28hp we really need one about 43hp for our 22 very wooded - well not so wooded anymore acres. Our little tractor is old. It's our first one ever and we bought an older one just so we could get used to using it. But it will in no way be able to do what we need to do to get this stuff cleaned up.

My main tractor is a 641 Ford, about 30hp and probably from the mid-50s and it will do quite a bit of work and the secret is in the rear tires. They are ballasted with calcium water. With the extra weight I pull a 7' back blade or a 5' box blade with no trouble at all. It's geared kinda high to bale heavy windrows with my small square baler but it does a good job in med. windrows.

The previous owners pulled a 14' hydro-swing swather with it that hooked up to the hydrolics of the top cover. The swather didn't hook up to the PTO at all.

If you buy an older tractor I would suggest what they called a 1000 series Ford. The 2000 Ford was about the same as the older 800 and the sizes went up to the 9600 or maybe the 9700 which was around 100hp.

Ford understated their horsepower and we never put a tractor on the dyno that didn't test out greater then the listed PTO horsepower. We once put an 8n on the dyno just to see what it would do and we had that little feller jumping off of the ground and blowing black smoke like crazy. When the dyno finally stalled the engine it peaked out at 45hp. Tough little buggers.

The reason I nearly always recomend Ford is because of parts availability. There are more aftermarket parts for the Fords then any other brand.

Plus let me tell you something that happened back in about '84. I was doing a routine oil change on a 9600 and I found metal shavings around the base of the filter. Now this is not uncommon with older equipment but these shavings were steel which is uncommon. The tractor carried good oil pressure so we nearly ruled out bearing problems at once. The service manager called Ford about it and they told us to drop the pan and inspect the oil pump which we did and a thrust bearing had gone out letting the gear hit the case.

Even though this tractor was 15 years out of warranty they told us it was a "known problem" but not bad enough to do a campaign to replace the pumps on all of the tractors built. Ford stood for replacing all of the rod and main bearings plus the cam bearings and paid half of the labor on it.


But for my money if you are going to buy a new compact there are two that I would highly recommend the Boomer that is made by New Holland and the Kubota. My 17hp Kubota has been used and abused by me to the max for nearly 20 years. The injector pump leaks and sometimes it fires on all three cylinders but most of the time not. In the winter it takes nearly an entire can of ether to get her started as long as it's not too cold outside. And it smokes bad enough that most of the time you can't see the front bucket. But I can still push a round bale anywhere I want it and it will move a lot of dirt in a day's time.

 

[Kassaundra]

I went in and glad I did. They gave me shots and meds to control it (like Kass said there is no anti-venom), and we will keep an eye on it. Going in to see my regular doc after I get back from my little trip tomorrow (and I AM going, much to my wife's frustration). I will give you a call as a near Chickasha in case you need anything dropped off.

Thanks to all for your advice.

Glad you went in! Have fun on your trip, but be careful and not overdo it, keep a close eye at the first sign of infection go immediately to the Dr, you can easily go septic or get a NASTY infection from a bite like that (in addition to the necrosis already going on) Did you ask about nanakat's Dr's suggestion of nitro, it makes sense, that is what nitro does dilate the blood vessels.



Solved the mystery of my missing chickie doo, do not think it was a cat after all (the first ones I still think were) but today I was watering near where Skyfire was found frantically callling her chick and Gary found a hawk feather, it was broken at the body tip end and had dried blood on it, so it may have got the chickie doo, but at least Oreo got in a lick or two defending her. He was a great papa while we had her, always near Skyfire and the chick.

 

[nnbreeder]

He and she both were a pleasure to handle and I miss them!

This little Stag is one of their`s.

Those birds are nice. Does your neighbor down the way still raise any birds. I can't recall his name at the moment but he wasn't too far from you. Do you still have any pics from your beer-in-the-rear chicken? I did finally try it and it made the chicken really good.

 

[nnbreeder]

Lordy that truck/tank/machine is amazing. My daddy was an oilfield/construction equipment mechanic. Some of those monsters had tires as big as a small house. He would have loved this. Thanks for sharing.

The trucks built in the old Soviet Block nations were and are the toughest ever made. They were simply built so they could be easily fixed, high horsepower air-cooled diesel engines and the ability to carry immense loads over the worst terrains.

Tatra, Kamas and Urals are the main three and there are a lot of videos of them on Utube