Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ladies-Eight]

Hello X Batts I am so sorry. We have lost a few I clipped everyone's wing.
Hurts none the less.
Tax. View attachment 3537954

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Sky Dancer
View attachment 3538275

He is beautiful!

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Well, it's just not the done thing in refined circles. I've had this discussion with my eldest and ended up looking like a snob with a poor grasp of physics. The snob bit I can live with; the poor grasp of physics was too much for me to deal with so I let people boil their tea as they please.

My mother always fixed her tea in a small pan on the stove.

I heat my water for tea in the microwave and add my tea after I take it out.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

Temperature is in the 80s.

I try to use pallets when I want to build outside.

I get my pallets from a business in Palatka foe free.

Have a great day!

 

[bruceha2000]

gov't cannot tax self-sufficiency, so....

Well they kinda can!!!!! The state Public Utility Commission decided 2 years ago that every kilowatt used by the "utility customer" is subject to the Energy Efficiency fee. Prior to that it was only those kilowatts that were delivered to the meter above what was sent to the grid by the solar panels.

Now I pay the fee on every kilowatt that goes from my solar panels directly to the house or the batteries as well as every one that is used from the grid. Thus on a sunny day when I can take nothing from the grid, my EE fee is the same as it would be if I had no solar installation.

BTW, the EE fee was originally designed to be used to help pay for more energy efficient appliances to replace older inefficient ones, a rebate arrangement, which would lower your actual electric costs as well as the EE fee you would pay in a given month. But now with the push to get rid of fossil fuels and use things like heat pumps instead, the electric bill goes up and so does the amount you pay in EE fees.

Some people have buildings that may be better described as sheds, or outhouses.

I am hoping that in claiming people use outhouses as coops there is a different meaning there than here. Hopefully equivalent to an out building.

Here an outhouse is a small generally square "building" with a knee height shelf having a toilet seat size hole in it, mounted over a deep hole in the ground. I would not want to house my chickens in such a structure

Uneven heating in microwave

Probably not an issue when boiling water as the temperature will even out as it is poured into the vessel holding the tea bag or strainer

I boil mine in a refined way with a electric tea kettle. Though I wonder, how refined is it if it is just the cheap one from Amazon?

We have had 2 (not cheap) electric kettles from said retailer. Same model with buttons for specific temperatures for various types of tea. Sadly, the electronics crapped out after about 2 years of use and we were twice left with a functional, but now useless, heating base and a pot that won't heat water. DW has taken to heating her tea water in the microwave rather than buy yet another short life span device.

My bedroom furniture is made from aspen pine that are dead.

My wood bed frame was used by my aunt and mother roughly 100 years ago. No reason to think it doesn't have another 100 years of life left.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Up bright and early here day to till 10 year old chicken, poo and shavings.
Tax was shot yesterday from the gate in to new coop.

 

[no fly zone]

Well they kinda can!!!!! The state Public Utility Commission decided 2 years ago that every kilowatt used by the "utility customer" is subject to the Energy Efficiency fee. Prior to that it was only those kilowatts that were delivered to the meter above what was sent to the grid by the solar panels.

Now I pay the fee on every kilowatt that goes from my solar panels directly to the house or the batteries as well as every one that is used from the grid. Thus on a sunny day when I can take nothing from the grid, my EE fee is the same as it would be if I had no solar installation.

BTW, the EE fee was originally designed to be used to help pay for more energy efficient appliances to replace older inefficient ones, a rebate arrangement, which would lower your actual electric costs as well as the EE fee you would pay in a given month. But now with the push to get rid of fossil fuels and use things like heat pumps instead, the electric bill goes up and so does the amount you pay in EE fees.

That is terrible.

 

[notabitail]

Well they kinda can!!!!! The state Public Utility Commission decided 2 years ago that every kilowatt used by the "utility customer" is subject to the Energy Efficiency fee. Prior to that it was only those kilowatts that were delivered to the meter above what was sent to the grid by the solar panels.

Now I pay the fee on every kilowatt that goes from my solar panels directly to the house or the batteries as well as every one that is used from the grid. Thus on a sunny day when I can take nothing from the grid, my EE fee is the same as it would be if I had no solar installation.

BTW, the EE fee was originally designed to be used to help pay for more energy efficient appliances to replace older inefficient ones, a rebate arrangement, which would lower your actual electric costs as well as the EE fee you would pay in a given month. But now with the push to get rid of fossil fuels and use things like heat pumps instead, the electric bill goes up and so does the amount you pay in EE fees.


I am hoping that in claiming people use outhouses as coops there is a different meaning there than here. Hopefully equivalent to an out building.

Here an outhouse is a small generally square "building" with a knee height shelf having a toilet seat size hole in it, mounted over a deep hole in the ground. I would not want to house my chickens in such a structure


Probably not an issue when boiling water as the temperature will even out as it is poured into the vessel holding the tea bag or strainer


We have had 2 (not cheap) electric kettles from said retailer. Same model with buttons for specific temperatures for various types of tea. Sadly, the electronics crapped out after about 2 years of use and we were twice left with a functional, but now useless, heating base and a pot that won't heat water. DW has taken to heating her tea water in the microwave rather than buy yet another short life span device.


My wood bed frame was used by my aunt and mother roughly 100 years ago. No reason to think it doesn't have another 100 years of life left.

Mine just has on, off, and open. And it was $20.

 

[BDutch]

Indeed. My partner and I have planted thousands of trees on deforested land (originally rainforest) here in Ecuador, and live completely off grid. We harvest rainwater, grow food, and have a very small solar system. Most of the trees we've planted are in agroforestry systems -- the trees also produce food, fertilizer, building materials, and crops for income. We don't have everything we want, but we have many things we need. At the end of the day, we've gotta understand that our choices and preferences and wants and desires are different from needs. And this world built on wants and preferences isn't going all that great. Yes, the big corporations are doing most of the actual damage, but also they are fulfilling consumer demand. It all starts there.

All of this seems off-topic, but what I'm saying here is quite related to what Shadrach is trying to show people about chickens. Chickens, like all natural creatures, and like the Earth's ecosystems, operate according to very complex and internally ordered systems that we humans don't really understand. To quote a popular novel, "Ecology is the understanding of consequences." Everything we have done to chickens in the name of production and utility (the logical outcome of wants and preferences) has consequences. Everything we have done to the earth for the same ends has consequences. Now we are seeing those consequences, but not seeing -- or unwilling to see -- the connection to our own wants and preferences.

Unfortunately, those exerting the most pressure on the Earth and the resources -- including the chickens -- are also in considerably more sheltered places from the consequences. They live in countries where governments will build walls to keep out climate refugees and use all sorts of World Economic Forum/Davos/IMF chicanery to keep the rest of the world as their colonies. The East India Company has simply been reincarnated into these institutions.

Only a dozen countries -- the US, Canada, Japan, most of Western Europe -- are responsible for 85% of all natural resource extraction every year. 58 countries (58!), all in the Global South, share zero responsibility for this overshoot. But it's the people in those places who will suffer the gravest consequences for the wants and preferences of those more comfortably couched in the first world.

Until it all goes to hell. Until then, I'm going to plant as many forests as I can.
View attachment 3537639
View attachment 3537644
^These are shots of our land in 2016

View attachment 3537643
View attachment 3537650
Here's some recent shots^

Amazing.
What a splendid job. ❤

 

[BDutch]

I have some sad news. Lost my EE yesterday. I had earlier this year nursed her back after a few bouts of soft-shelled eggs. Once I realized she would eat only the veggie scraps I put out in the morning and ignore the oyster shell, I got her back on track & deliver scraps in the afternoon.

Yesterday hub & I went to run some errands and left the kids (teenage + ages) in charge at home. Well, somehow my EE flew over the gate (which she has never done). We have a second gate as a backup just in case anyone ever flew over. My kids let the dogs out with them to play in the yard. The chickens have a regular covered run, plus two huge fenced in areas to range. (The benefits of large property)…We only let them out of the fencing when the dogs are safely inside. When we got home the kids were on the front porch and I heard the chickens yelling. Turns out my poor hen flew over the first gate, and my dog got through the backup gate (which hadn’t been secured). The dog got to her. The only thing I am thankful for is there was no blood…I think her neck just broke. My kids feel terrible for not keeping a better eye out. Today hub & I are working on raising the 5 ft gate up to the 8 feet of the rest of the fence, even if it means a temporary flexible plastic enclosure over the top. Lesson learned the hard way by everyone.

I’ll pay some tax later when I get outside to work on the gate. We are down to 8 hens…so glad my chicks will be ready before the end of the month.