~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~

[ChickensAreSweet]

Linda we built our deck out of that plastic wood and it has held up great over more than 10 years, with no maintenance other than scrubbing off periodically.

I hope you will consider using the plastic wood- they should sell it at Home Depot/Lowe's and such places. I have a family member who built a deck out of real wood and has had to put sealers/paint on it numerous times in 10 years. I have another family member who tore his wood deck out and replaced it with plastic wood.

 

[gryeyes]

He's gonna miss you when all the work is done...

Well, back in July, when John and I were walking the property and Joe the well pump guy and his wife were working on laying the PVC conduit, John said, "He's only 75. I'll be there in 15 years..." pause ....."Still working on your house."

And this I do not doubt. He has recently mentioned he can't offer me weed-whacking services, because the flock takes care of that task - preventing weed growth. But the apple and peach tree need pruning. Annually. He's going to reset a concrete step from one section of the side yard to the driveway because it's unsafe.

After the deck is done, the next Big Project is replacing the roof. (He's already planning for that job.) Eventually, all the single-pane, double hung windows will need to be replaced. I will probably acquiesce to peer pressure and screen the porch (ut ONLY because the deck will be open), and it will need a screen door at each end, too. He showed me a really cute pump house structure in a magazine some months ago, which I really liked.

Eldon was adorable. There SHOULD have been a hook-up there! That's all I'm gonna say about that subject.

Whenever possible, I spend my lunch hour watching the free range chickens on Oak Street in West Sacramento. (I also share some of my lunch with them.) This gives me my daylight chicken fix. I missed yesterday; I don't even recall why. Today one of the hens was escorting TWELVE little fluff-ball chicks!!

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[Buugette]

That is so cool you can spend your lunch with the local neighborhood chickens.

When we went to Bermuda a few years back, I had just started with my chickens. I was fascinated with all the chickens on the island. They were all over the place. They had their little families, all the babies trailed behind, it was just amazing to me that chickens could live free like that.

I am so envious of your retirement setup... I so hope to someday have something similar. I love my current house, and have always said I will die in it, but I think my way of looking at retirement is changing a bit (especially after the whole hubby brain surgery trauma last October). I would love to have a small farm"ette" where I could have all my girls, be allowed to have some roosters, and I really want a tea cup pig, and a couple tiny goats. My secret ambition is have an emu or two. Can't get better security than that.

I'm only 44 and my hubby is 45... so we have some time to make it happen. We really having nothing holding us here once our youngest (12) goes to college. My parents are still relatively young and would follow us where ever we decided to move, as will my in-laws if they are still capable... so basically nothing holding us down once we get to that age.

It will be nice to see what the future brings.

Enjoy this time with your "family"... and your handy man. Perhaps 15 years from now... well, who knows what may be 15 years from now.

 

[OvertheHenHouse]

I love the free range chicken photos! That rooster is gorgeous, and the fluff balls are soooo cute. Between your hatches and those fluff balls, I have a bad case of chick envy...

 

[gryeyes]

I think my body was telling me something last night when I fell asleep on my drive home from work. Just ten seconds or less, I'm sure. The way I know I fell asleep is because I woke up. Waking up whilst driving is considerably disconcerting. Luckily it was on an upgrade after I had turned off the cruise control - because I knew I was heading into Plymouth from the wider, speedier part of the highway - so the car was decelerating. Anyway, pretty scary. I stopped in Plymouth (literally less than a quarter mile from that Whoa! spot) at the grocery store to get supplies and refresh myself.

Anyway, I did not go to work today because I've been fighting off a cold not very successfully and I knew I needed more sleep when the alarm sounded at 5 a.m. (I have to hit the road no later than 6 a.m. to get to work on time at 7:30.)

Slept until 10 a.m. With the groceries still out in the back of the car..... Goodness.

But today, ahhhhh, to be home today, even with a weepy nose and puffy eyes! Hello my chickens! And ducks, and geese! Here's some dry oatmeal for y'all - come take it from my hand!

George, the obnoxious Silver Sebright roo, has been walking around with his legs almost hobbled by a long string for almost a week now. Not TOO hobbled, but the string is wrapped around both ankles and spurs and connected with a loose tether. I couldn't catch him on Sunday. He has enough status to sleep high on the roost bars; not gonna spend precious time trying to catch him BEFORE work and too tired after work to try to snatch him off the roost at night when I get home from work. Plus, that would create a real fracas in the coop when they all should be allowed to rest. So.... I'm a bad person.

I got him today. He was up on the porch railing and I snatched him as I strolled by that spot where he was fixin' to crow. If I walk real naturally the skittish ones don't move out of my reach, sometimes not even out of my way. He was indignant and flappy for all of a few seconds. Once I had him tucked under my right arm with his wings against his body, he stopped struggling. And calmed down even further when I began to unwrap the string from his ankles. He flew away once I released him.

A few minutes later I observed George high-stepping around on the driveway. What the heck is he doing that for?? Then, as I watched more closely, I realized he was just extending his feet as far out with each step as he could, and lifting his legs separately, almost as if he was testing the ability he'd lost 6 days ago! He even kicked out to the side a few times. Struttin' his stuff, but with an awareness of each mechanical motion.

Molly's back has re-feathered with very new but fully unsheathed feathers. That is, feathers which have lost their sheaths. She's just around a year old, so perhaps some of her feather loss might have been due to molting, instead of merely being a hussy.

Buffy's two young progeny are still trying to stay pretty close to her. She doesn't freak out when they wander off any more nor does she go looking for them or calling them. But she does bring them up onto the porch like escorting two kids into a business, one little pullet on either side of her. She pecks at them if they act up. Cracks me up. "If you're going to be on the porch with The Big Birds you have to behave!"

Checking e-mails, I finally determined when I set the silkie eggs. Doh! I forgot to mark the calendar. Dang! They go into lock-down tomorrow night! Woo hoo! But it does mean I have to get the Brooder Chicks into the Chicken Kindergarten this weekend!! Oh.. umm... wait..... I can put them in the cage I freed up when I put my tardy NYD Hatch chicks into the brooder...

The goal is to move the older chicks out unless I happen to find the second EcoGlow20 AND its power supply... Best to move the youngsters to their new digs where the EcoGlow50 will better cover all of them. The 20 is working fine for inside the house, but the colder coop temperatures will require the larger EcoGlow. I didn't get to setting up a power strip so I can run the auto-door, the baby monitor camera AND the EcoGlow50 in the ginormous brooder at the same time.

I'm kinda excited about an appointment I made for tomorrow morning with a lady referred to me by Amy at Bradshaw Feed. She's a local person who wants to keep chickens, bought a coop and nesting boxes, pine shavings, waterers, feeders, etc., and wants to see how I'm managing my flock. She'll probably be here when John shows up to begin his work.

This is three days' worth of eggs.

 

[gryeyes]

John finished an electrical job earlier than expected, so he called me and asked if I was ready for him to come cut out the window (around 9 a.m. or so). I was. (Surprisingly.)

As he walked from the end of the porch to the front door, he passed Carl standing on the railing. Just like that, he snatched Carl off his feet and held him against his chest, wings tucked appropriately, talking softly to him and stroking his back. Carl calmed right down but I swear he had a look of "WTH?" in his eyes. After a couple minutes of this, John put Carl back on the railing. "I've embarrassed him in front of his girls."

The next time he passed Carl, he reached a hand in his direction; Carl just looked at him and didn't move. "I think Carl likes me."

We discussed materials for the deck, where the ledger board was going to be placed to support it against the wall, how John was going to arrange to keep the current access spot under the house clear enough for someone ("Probably me," he commented) to be able to get under the house if necessary. He began to gather his tools from the truck. About then I got the call from the local lady who is planning to get chickens and wanted to see how I managed my flock. She was about 10 minutes away, she supposed. Still okay to come over? Sure! Three people arrived, two women and a man. I opened the drive gate and we walked up the driveway towards the coop, discussing the chickens we saw nearby.

Amy has sure talked me up good! I had to admit I do not vaccinate my chicks myself (nor do I get them vaccinated by somebody else). Yes, I might be convinced to sell some chicks and maybe a couple of POL pullets at some point. They got the 25 cent tour. Little obnoxious George Silver Sebright enthralled them.

He is JUST so darned cute. Thankfully, he didn't attempt to flog anybody's ankles. And then they saw his brother Alex, and Alice the little Silver Sebright hen. Did I have any BOs? Yes, one hen right now and a few chicks about a week old. I also pointed out the blue Orpington gals. They loved the Buckeyes and the look of the Cinnamon Queens, and had questions about the Cayuga ducks. No, I don't raise chickens to eat them. I really don't raise chickens for the eggs, but they do lay 'em for me. Well, I sell some to co-workers, I eat a lot of them, and I scramble some more and feed them back to the chickens, too. We discussed feed, oyster shell - and feeding the eggshells back to the flock in their "oyster shell" dish.

The one woman who called me had a copy of Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens with her. She did know about BYC, but it didn't sound like she was a member.

When John came outside to get something - saying - "I've lost my helper," I introduced them to him. Hand-shaking all around. But they decided they shouldn't take up any more of my time while there were renovations to finish. She'll keep in touch and come back next weekend, perhaps, to look at the chicks because I'll have them in the Chicken Kindergarten by then. (I actually got them relocated shortly after John departed.)

But as John attacked the wall below the window he's going to remove, the sound of the Saws-All kept scaring the heck out of Simba, so I rolled the rabbit's metal hutch into my bedroom. I hadn't gotten the daybed moved into its final place yet, but it was far enough out of the way for John to do his work. The trundle bed portion under the bed frame stuck out handily enough for John to use as a place to sit whilst he contemplated Construction Things. This put his head at the perfect level for Dooley to jump on the daybed and sneak over to sniff John's left ear. I was standing at the end of the daybed to his left, so I hastened to tell him it was DOOLEY sniffing his ear, NOT ME.

Because he did turn around with a very odd expression on his face.

Dooley sniffed his face. When John turned back to face the wall, Dooley snorfled his ear again.

I moved the daybed a bit further away and John brought in his short, work stool.



Here he is at work.

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Luckily, there was nothing odd in the wall, nor any electrical conduit he might have had to move. He was quite happy with each step he completed. The door measurements were perfect for the location. However, he needs four 2X4s to frame in the opening - once it is cut completely through the wall - and there are only two left over from the Chicken Kindergarten project.

The exterior wall has three layers: wood, asbestos siding, wood siding over the asbestos. He didn't want to cut all the way through the wall without being able to put the door in place. A trip to pick up the necessary lumber would cut into the day and make that problematic, so he will resume work tomorrow morning. "Around 9?" Sure.

My homework is to ensure the four batteries for his tools get fully charged tonight. After which I should unplug the charger, too. I've completed those tasks. Smudge came in to investigate the pile of wood and drywall.

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Before he departed, John helped me move a kit coop from where HHandbasket and Farmer Lew had "staged" it to where I've decided I want to keep it near the coop. It wasn't all that heavy, but it IS awkward to move. He admired its construction plan, but wasn't all that thrilled with its sturdiness. Or lack, thereof. It will serve as a good breeding Condo if I ever get around to trying to breed pure ... anythings .... If I have a pair or duo of the same breed. (Like, perhaps, George, Alex and Alice, for more Silver Sebright chicks.) It's too small to use for breeding any Brahmas, though.



Tonight I have to lock-down the two MiniAdvance incubators with the silkie eggs. And get that daybed moved over to the other wall.

 

[coloradochick]

Linda I can't wait to see all the Silkie babies running around

 

[gryeyes]

The guest room French door is in!



John locked both locks and set the keys aside, telling me "Don't use this door. I mean it -- don't step on that threshold, it needs the deck under it first or it will bend." It wasn't like "Oh, that would be a big first step" or anything, but it was just as silly funny. Probably because every time he was walking away from the door, he'd say "Don't step on that." So the final admonition was just reiterating something silly, with a rational reason for the warning.

When there was a big hole in the wall, two different hens jumped up into the opening to investigate the guest room. I discovered each of them only a foot inside the room and shooed them out.

The day started at 9 a.m. I managed to get the daybed moved into its proper location before John arrived. And all the batteries charged. John got the window out of the wall in short order and began to work on the asbestos siding under the exterior wood siding.

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Right around noon, the retired next door neighbor walked up the driveway with a bag full of empty egg cartons. He said his wife had recently bought eggs, so they didn't need any "right now." Then we had a discussion about my roosters. There really are far too many of them and neighbors aren't at all happy about it. I realized this day had to come eventually, so I honestly said I would work on reducing the number of roosters. We chatted some more - I totally appreciated his coming to talk to me about it, and certainly before filing any complaints!

John came out of the house and they said howdy to each other, shaking hands and exchanging gruff, masculine things to each other. John apparently knows the member of the Board of Supervisors better than does my next door neighbor. I perceived a slight bit of competition, or wrangling of some sort going on. After my neighbor left, John said, "He wants you to get rid of the roosters, doesn't he." Yup. "I thought this was all over." Nope, this is a NUISANCE situation, not a code enforcement thing. And we do know my roosters have a whole lot to crow about.

"Not Carl, though?" John asked, looked across the yard where Carl was holding court. "Look at him - he's beautiful. I've never seen a rooster like him before. Like those tailfeathers were transplanted onto him." We watched the flock for a few quiet minutes. "Carl could take care of the flock by himself, couldn't he?"

Yes, I allowed grudgingly, he could.

"I bet George is a lot of the problem." I allowed that, as well.

"Well, we've been distracted enough by that guy not liking roosters, so let's get back to work and back on schedule."

The door and its frame went into place like butter. I did have to hold it in place whilst John shimmed and screwed the frame in place.

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John will return tomorrow for his tools and ladders, and to go over exactly what will be done for the deck. In the afternoon, I'm going to Placerville to put a deposit down on the new propane heater and sign the paperwork so the company will order the model I want.

It's this one, with a seafoam green ceramic finish and the grey soapstone inserts.
http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/gas-stoves/stove-details?product_id=5

And I am contemplating what to do with particular cockerels and roosters. Selected bantams will be advertised for sale on Craigslist. Dual purpose breed boys will be humanely processed by Farmer Lew. Compiling those two lists will be heartbreaking. I will try to be reasonable but they're not ALL going away.

Anybody have a need for a cute but loud Silver Sebright rooster? I have two of them.

 

[wolftracks]

Cute stove Linda. I try and come in to catch up when I can. I love to read your posts as the work is done. You always make me feel like I'm there and know everyone. Silly huh? I envy you being able to make that place Your place.

So cute that Carl has found an friend and protector.

 

[dsqard]

Linda, the door looks wonderful. It will add more light into the room. Sorry you have to make those hard decisions on the roosters. I had to cut down my numbers as well, more for a lack of egg laying (poor girls were way too busy trying to get away from the hormonal teenagers). I had to reduce the number by four and a few of the picks were somewhat easy since I didn't need the son of my main roo and I had a lav AM that didn't have the beard or muffs but the other two were not so easy. I do have to say that the volume of the crowfest in the daylight hours is lower now that I am down to four boys and the egg laying is starting to pick up again. I might have to reduce some more and I am watching who is behaving nice with the ladies. My beautiful black AM cock is really starting to understand that wooing is much better than grabbing the hens and it doesn't get Mr. Cogburn running after you. The lav AM I have left has yet to learn this lesson and we will have to see if he "gets" it. Right now he is "getting it" from Mr. Cogburn for being a bully with the girls.