~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

Quote:
Absolutely.
droolin.gif
I have processed a couple of my own extra roos and they made excellent roasted chicken.
 
Buncha pictures for your viewing pleasure:

I put two fans in the coop, each one at a window, because it's been SO hot lately. I am SO glad the contractor put three double-outlets for power in the coop!

Right side of the coop.
41679_rightsidecoopfan.jpg


Left side of the coop.
41679_leftsidecoopfan.jpg


Blondie in one of the nests, thinking about going broody. (She didn't.)
41679_henonnest.jpg


Molly singing The Egg Song.
41679_singsingsong.jpg


Barbie dressing up after laying her egg.
41679_layerdressup.jpg


My Toulouse pair, Kate and Angus - with minions at their sides.
41679_geeseminions.jpg


Kate and Angus ambling off the end of the veranda after a visit with me ON the veranda.
41679_geeseleavingveranda.jpg


Albert and Fiona visiting me on the veranda.
41679_albert-fiona.jpg


A collection of young pullets perched all over the poultry fencing I use to TRY to keep the chickens away from the grape vine I want to grow up the legs of the pergola.
41679_pulletsongrapeprotector.jpg


And the oddest thing - Carl getting INSIDE some broken down cardboard boxes I've got stacked at the other end of my veranda.
41679_carlinbox.jpg


He went completely inside the cardboard pile and called to Rebecca, his favorite hen, to join him there. She did, but I didn't have my camera handy at that point.
41679_carlinbox1.jpg


Here are his tailfeathers hanging out of that cardboard box.
41679_carlfeathers-box.jpg


And here he is, exiting the box.
41679_carlinbox2.jpg


Carl is fascinated by the stack of cardboard there. Several times a day he will push his way into the stuff and call hens. I don't know why he thinks that's such a good place for them to lay eggs, and they agree with me that it's kind of a dicey place for laying. But Rebecca will join him and they'll talk lovingly to each other, out of sight, tucked away in their hide-away, for several minutes.
 
Last few dais have been very .... Interesting.... And the major change is that I am not going to use a moving company after all. My great friends have kindly offered to assist me with a DIY U-Haul move. Some time ago, that was suggested to me, and I didn't want to have to impose on anyone. Well, after some issues have cropped up with the land-lady, my friends TOLD me they would handle the lifting and rolling, and they move my stuff for me. I just book the truck, Farmer Lew will drive it, this is the day they are able to do it, it will save a TON o' money, put some funds in the Big Brawny Fellas's pockets, and then the rest will just be the yard stuff and clean-up later.

I do like the idea of not having to inflate the leaky AeroBed every night and once during the middle of the night... In order not to wake up on the floor.

We plotted the locations where each piece of furniture will go. I requested and received permission to take Wedsnesday off.

Managed, with Hhandbasket's assistance, to capture two more of the remaining chickens this past Saurday night. 9 left, plus the six ducks. With a couple more people, we might be more successful on Wednesday.

The third and last Josie (Trader Joe's eggs I hatched on New Year's Day) is now with her two sister Josies and TJ the rooster. A young pullet obviously hatched from a blue Orpington's egg (either Sister One or Sister Two) and some feather-legged roo was the other girl we captured. <*glacing askance at Charlie, Nugget and Frick*>

First Carl, then TJ squired Josie 3 around, making sure she came up onto the veranda to drink out of the cascading fountain. She dust-
bathed like a mad-woman with several other former flock-mates. She's a little skinnier than her sisters... I felt bad about that but she'll fill out soon enough.

The six ducklings I've been brooding in the utility room have been moved out to the Infirmary Coop on my side patio. The little goober girls....... Really Cayuga girls.... But they are such goobers at two weeks of age! Anyway, right now I am calling them The Plieaides, for the constellation of the same name. It's a cluster of 7 stars, but only six are now visible. They'll all get their own names when they name themselves with whatever personalities develop.

No forward motion on the Code Enforcement issue as of yet. Suffice to say I won't be able to puchase any portion of one of the two back-side neighbors' properties. Owned by a couple; the man of the house was considering it, but the lady of the house put the kibosh on the very idea. In no uncertain terms. I've saved the voicemail message telling me so. Any time I wanna feel like crap for even imagining such an idea, I can play the message and listen to the indignation in her voice. ".......so you can keep CHICKENs?!?! "

I wonder if a better reason to ask if someone would be interested in selling half an acre would be to build a nuclear reactor? What would be a good reason to PAY someone for something they are not using and have not used for the ten years they've owned it?

Ah well.
I'll posr some more photos tomorrow.
 
Last edited:
Quote:
I think you wanting to have chickens on your property beats what was going on, on the back side of the property before. I am still amazed that some of the neighbors are not being as neighborly as they should be considering you will be a much better neighbor.
roll.png
 
Well, the furniture has left the rental house and some of it is in place where I now live. The rest of it is "staged" along the circular driveway; the 26 foot UHaul truck just couldn't make it all the way up the "best" side of the driveway in reverse. (It couldn't go UP the driveway forward and expect to make it down the other side, as the turn at the top is too sharp for such a long vehicle.) If I get home before dark tonight, I'll take some photos of all that furniture outside. My next door neighbor on that side stopped by last night as I was filling the stock tank with water (in the dark) to comment (positively) on the collection of furniture outside. He's really glad I'm finally settling in with all my stuff. "And that's some nice furniture you've got there!" Yah, but the best pieces are already inside.... my grandmother's antique secretary desk, the gorgeous hall tree, and my ventless fireplace IN MY BEDROOM! <*satisfied smile*>

Y'see, it took ALL day to load the truck; we didn't leave the rental until 8:30 at night, arrived at my home at 10:00 PM and those poor, bone-tired men unloaded the truck until midnight. There was no way they could continue to carry heavy furniture over 150 feet into the house.....

Gotta share a really fun period of time during the loading process. Hottest part of the day. I'd started the siphon process to drain the stock tank in the morning and it was down to just about six inches of very brackish water left. The mosquito fish and rosy minnows living in it were only visible when they came to the surface or swam just under it, rippling the surface of the water. The tank was under some trees so only dappled light was available to see into it. But it was nice and cool there. I was using an aquarium net to try to capture the fish. First, I didn't want to just let them DIE when the tank was emptied, and second, I wanted to restock the tank with them at the new location. Waste not, want not.

I'd asked the men if they would tip the tank up at an angle (once it was light enough for them to do so) - to create less get-away space for the fish. HHandbasket's (adult) son became fixated on catching the tiny fish, which sucked Farmer Lew into the same activity. For the next 45 minutes, those two men FISHED in my stock tank (with the tiny little aquarium net) to catch the "grand-daddy" minnow. When we finally dumped the last of the water out, there were only 3 "flappers" on the ground to snatch up and put into the bucket with the rest of the "school" of skeeter-eating fishies.

Last night, with just some moonlight and the street light (which is at the top of one side of my driveway providing ME with great security illumination), I watched the bucket o' fish after I released them into the stock tank as it filled. They happily swam in clear, clean, artesian water against the stream from the hose.

I wish I was not working today and could see Kate and Angus discover the stock tank full of water, nestled against one of the terraces so they can just walk right into their new, big, deep pool!!! (I should have waited until tonight to fill the thing so I could watch 'em find it Saturday, but I wanted to get something done that I could do by myself.)

Here's a photo of the kiddie pool in use, as Angus looks up at a helicopter flying overhead. Yeah, that stock tank is going to be a really welcome change for the Toulouse! It's 2.5 feet deep and six feet in diameter.
41679_angusseesahelicopter.jpg


My cat, Smudge, is very pleased to have furniture in the house. He's been using a kitchen chair for a place to settle for his pre-nap grooming sessions. Now he's got the fireplace mantel in my bedroom and he is SO happy to be up higher where he can keep an elevated eye on things.

The dogs will be in heaven when the sofa gets situated "for them."
lol.png
Dog beds are all very fine, but SOFAS and BEDS are much better places to snuggle - Mom will be there, too!
 
Luckily, you will be off the next couple of days to help all your animals get settled.
smile.png


It was a long and exhausting day, but we got so much done! Moving from one town to another is a humongous undertaking, and together we are getting it done.

Lewis and Drew are wiped, tho. (BTW, we heard from Drew this morning--he and his fiance & my grandson arrived safely at their hotel just outside of Disneyland at 3:00 this morning.)

I still have boxes with your hen-on-nest dishes in the back of my SUV. I'll bring them over either this evening or in the morning. Kinda sucks now that we don't have any days off together.
sad.png
Well, we have the evenings. We'll get this done.

Group effort.
wee.gif
 
Last edited:

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom