Sitting with a cup of coffee. (coffee lovers)

[ronott1]

Has anyone ever made homemade donuts?

Yes!

I have made yeast raised donuts--sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. We made twists instead of round with a hole in it.

I have made pretzels too.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Cool!

 

[vehve]

The munkki is also yeast based, basically made with bun dough. Cardamom gives it it's flavor.

 

[Bunnylady]

A few years ago, I watched a guy plowing a small field behind my mother's house. The weather had been rainy, the soil was saturated and heavy, and when he got up close to the trees on the farther side of the field, he got stuck. He kept trying to get the tractor out, and by the time he went for help, he had buried it up to the frame, A half-hour or so later, another guy with a tractor shows up, they hook a chain to the first tractor, and promptly get the second tractor stuck. A little bit later, a third tractor comes in, hooks to the second tractor, and gets stuck as well. As I said, it was a small field, and they were getting pretty close to the paved road on one side, but there was just room to get a fourth tractor stuck, and they did. Finally a fella shows up with one of those really big tractors that has the large wheels in both the front and the back; this thing had a big folding disk cultivator attached to it. By now, the line of stuck tractors stretched right to the edge of the road, so the big tractor was actually on the road as he pulled the first two tractors out of the mud. As big as this tractor was, they apparently still didn't trust it in the muck, because they hooked a long chain to the back of the disk and pulled the last two tractors out together, with the big tractor still on the road. As small as that field was, I doubt the farmer made enough from the soybeans he raised on it that year to pay for all the fuel and labor involved in that little fiasco.

 

[vehve]

A few years ago, I watched a guy plowing a small field behind my mother's house. The weather had been rainy, the soil was saturated and heavy, and when he got up close to the trees on the farther side of the field, he got stuck. He kept trying to get the tractor out, and by the time he went for help, he had buried it up to the frame, A half-hour or so later, another guy with a tractor shows up, they hook a chain to the first tractor, and promptly get the second tractor stuck. A little bit later, a third tractor comes in, hooks to the second tractor, and gets stuck as well. As I said, it was a small field, and they were getting pretty close to the paved road on one side, but there was just room to get a fourth tractor stuck, and they did. Finally a fella shows up with one of those really big tractors that has the large wheels in both the front and the back; this thing had a big folding disk cultivator attached to it. By now, the line of stuck tractors stretched right to the edge of the road, so the big tractor was actually on the road as he pulled the first two tractors out of the mud. As big as this tractor was, they apparently still didn't trust it in the muck, because they hooked a long chain to the back of the disk and pulled the last two tractors out together, with the big tractor still on the road. As small as that field was, I doubt the farmer made enough from the soybeans he raised on it that year to pay for all the fuel and labor involved in that little fiasco.

I had a colleague who drove his car off the road in the winter, the road was covered in super slippery black ice. The first tow truck also went into the ditch. Same went for the second one. Finally, the third tow truck managed to get the two previous ones, and the original car out of the ditch.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Has anyone ever made homemade donuts?

Yes!

I have made yeast raised donuts--sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. We made twists instead of round with a hole in it.

I have made pretzels too.

Yummy!

 

[TeaChick]

Everything has been super slow...... And this perpetual rain is terrorizing my outdoor plans.

Hope things dry up for you!

 

[sumatrass]

Its almos 3pm here in sunny southern California and this made me want to drink coffee right now

 

[TeaChick]

Well, my Chrome is working fine but then it's not showing up with the "new" URL yet, so maybe that's why

There's a new URL? Should I search for BYC and then save this new URL on my toolbar?

@vehve -

on the egg count. Have fun with the poop scooping

Had a beautiful day here today.


Started with a complete coop cleanout and removal of the littles brooder pen. I kicked the big girls out into the larger garden/yard area and let the littles have the run to themselves for the first time. They spent the morning exploring everywhere and checking out their new sleeping arrangements in the coop and staring at those strange nestbox things

. LOL I just put my NH Reds in their future coop at one week old on Monday; they had a ball!!! It's cute to see them run around like they think they're big. =D

As long as they were locked out of the run anyway, the big girls decided to "help" me paint the main gate to their run. After completing their inspection and satisfied my work met their standards they wandered off to catch a nap and a dust bath under the Nanking Cherry bush. The only problem was they decided to wander back later to check my progress. That was ok, but they decided to create their own chicken "Haboob" when they shook off a dust cloud right next to my fresh paint job!

It's glitter!!! ;-)

I later opened the gate to the run, let the big girls in on the same side of the fence with the littles for the first time and held my breath, promising myself not to interfere short of attempted homicide. I spent the rest of the afternoon painting gates and fences nearby as I kept a close eye on the goings on. Thankfully none of my fears came to pass. Except for "second in command" more than once making sure the littles understood they were lower on the pecking order and, STAYING THERE, it was relatively quiet, whew! Not really anticipating problems at bedtime as the older girls always go in first anyway and I plan on letting the littles go in when they're ready. I'm thinking the later the better. I am going to do my best to get outside and open the popholes right at daylight since the littles will be roosting on a bar that's under the roost board where their brooder cage was leaving them vulnerable to being cornered. Glad things went well. =) Hope things go well in the AM.

We got the call a little while ago that Emil's brother made it thru the brain tumor surgery fine and was awake and talking. His wife Loretta said his face is horribly swollen but I was able to assure her that was normal and not to worry. They weren't able to remove all the tumor so he will have to go thru radiation but for now he seems to be doing really well. If he has lost any motion or other functions, it's too soon to tell. He's still with us. Super thankful that things went so smoothly!!! Hope all goes well with radiation and he doesn't have to do it long. =)

One final blessing. Our puppy is completely back to normal harassing the kitty and making up things to bark at

Thankful for normal puppy harrassing the kitty and barking. =)

Another great day.


update
went out to lock up the coop. I waited until I was certain everyone was in and started quietly closing the popholes (my coop has two) and I could hear a very distinct, heavy, thump, thump, thump inside. Oh crap. I took a deep breath, and opened the door convinced I was going to see my poor littles trapped in a corner. I peered into the fading light and quickly shut the door again. My roost forms an "L" shape as it runs the length of the East wall and half way along the south under the main window mounted to a catch board. when i looked in I saw stuffed literally into a pile on one end of the roost at the top of the ramp was my 4 grown hens as tight together against that wall as they could get. The "thumping" I heard was my 3 Aussie pullets launching themselves up onto the roost at the far end. By the time I opened the door they had arranged themselves in a similar "pile" at the other end literally as far as they could get from the hens without falling off.

Boy, that was the last thing I was prepared t see!

Yay! Glad it was just the girls, even though they were separating. =)

We just had our chickens attacked for the third time today. First it was a small hawk, then it was our neighbors wild dog that misbehaves if the old lady isn't around, and then a golden eagle. Scary times.

Oh, no!

I hope things settle down!!!
Hopefully egg production doesn't suffer too much!

 

[TeaChick]

@chickisoup I loved the update! And yes, I also REALLY need to paint! It stops raining every so often, but not long enough for things to dry out. I am starting to worry, that unless I bring all of the paintable items inside my house, it simply isn't going to get done.

But if I did that....I would no longer be married. -sigh-



My updates:

I have four one year old hens that look HORRID. Four hens had lost feathers from the rooster mounting them (that rooster is now gone), but after the feathers were lost, the new feathers could never grown in, because my chickens learned that it was fun to eat them.

I bought clothes for my chickens.... and one of them regrew all feathers very nicely...three others have NOT. Even the feathers that are completely covered by the chicken clothes have NOT grown back...I don't get it.

I have picked them up and checked and checked for bugs....but nope.

Anyway, today I took one group of young chickens out of their green tractor, and tossed them into the big coop, and put my three sad looking ladies into the green tractor. I am hoping that the constant green grass in the tractor will distract them from feather eating, and I will finally have pretty chickens again.

For those who were paying attention...you might say, but that is only 3 horrid looking chickens. Two leghorns, and one Golden Comet.

Well yes, three look terrible due to feather picking/eating.

I have one other hen that is going through the worst molt I have ever seen! I have been keeping a close eye on her, worried that one of the others might start eating her giant clumps of pinfeathers. Luckily, I can see no sign of feather eating, and her GIANT pinfeather clumps are growing in undisturbed. But WOW does she look bad! She is a Marans.

Other than that... My two Mama ducks that were sharing a box, are now sharing the babies very cutely. When we rescued the rest of the eggs, there were none that I had to incubate. I still am not sure how many ducklings there are. They move way too fast! In one photo, I know I counted 20.

I have one other mama Duck, Toffee, who is sitting tightly on her eggs. I wonder how she will do, she isn't even a full year yet, and this is her first time setting. I think that she is due in two weeks, but I really am not sure.

My fourth duck, has shown no interest in setting again, and I very much hope that she does NOT. Fall is clearly in the air, and I have no interest in having ducks in my greenhouse again this winter. This year, the chickens will desperately need the space, since I truly have too many chickens per square foot. -sigh-

And, the fancy breeder people have convinced me that I really should NOT eat any cockerels until the spring, since they change so much as they grow.

Protein helps feather growth; ou probably know that there are special feeds for replenishing feathers after molt.
My Leghorn and Golden Comets all look awful too; they're 17 months old and they've been molting all summer (and that starts in April here). I got rid of all the extra roosters over a month ago (when I did all that butchering); they're feathers are just beginning to grow back a little bit. One of them (the one that ALL the roosters liked) is just barely beginning to get a few pin feathers on her back, but it's still really bare.
IOW, I feel your pain!

Wow! 20 ducklings!

for Toffee's first hatch!

Fall in the air; your air is far, far away from here. We're in the dog days of summer. The only indication of "fall" is that the sun is coming up at 7 instead of at 6:30 or earlier. Sigh about your chicks to square footage ratio.

Huh? We try to eat them when they start crowing; although, there were extenuating circumstances this year such that we didn't eat them until a couple of months afterward. Even so they were good after a good brine.

Wonderful updates all.

My computer has crashed, due to a teen aged son, not BYC, so all my work this week has been on tablet or phone and so far, so good. Howeve, I qlways have some glitches with BYC on these devices so I hope whatever they are doing clears them up.

Hope there are no more attacks on chickens and that all stay safe and get along.

I only have two things to do at work today, but they will fill my day: a funeral (an hour and a half away), and the dentist (I work at a nursing home). At least there is nothing on the schedule for after work except chickies and llamas.

I greatly prefer BYC-ing on my computer rather than my phone.
Yay for chickie and llama play time after work!!!

Morning. COFFEE!!! I NEED COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF COFFEE! I'M FREEZING!!!

I don't believe it. Another year with no month without frost.

Got up to everything a nice "crispy" white. Looks like we'll be having fried green tomatoes for supper if I can find any that didn't freeze.

Oh well, don't have to worry about doing any of that horrible canning this year unless I go to the big farmer market to our south on Saturday and buy tomatoes.

No bloodshed in the coop this morning,

The big girls came charging out but the littles waited till the coast was clear, or they were just smarter. It is cold!

Alaskan - try giving your poor "naked" ladies a little can catfood if you have it. The Taurine in the catfood will really help with their overall health as well as feather growth and there is just all kinds of stuff, like protein, in there that will help as well. My girls always get it during the molt and my "youngins" too to help them get nice and big. They really need the Taurine, unfortunately, not all poultry feeds have it.

I can't fathom no month w/o frost.

Native Floridian all my life.
Yay for no bloodshed in the coop!!! My "little girls" are pretending to be big; although only one of them is laying. Two of them slept in the coop last night, but one of them can get out in the morning; I've got to get that hole covered soon.

Puddin fluff,
I had son overload problems in the beginning. (Game plaque build up) but now he is my tech person and we depend on him to get us out of our own problems.

And he is not allowed to roll his eyes. He mutters things like," If you don't try to figure this out on your own you will never learn."
I then roll my eyes and ask him where he heard that.

Yup, that's what I see in my future with my girls; they're teenagers....

Oh, lost two quail again.

Quail are way too blasted small!!!


Also, I finally got a quote as to how much it would cost to bring up a coop (i have a coop 10 miles away that I want to move to my house). Wow!

Around 2K!!!!!

i was hoping 300.

what do I know. It is insulated, and big, I think 10x16.

Sorry about your quails (I couldn't not put the s.)

The coop sounds good. Is there a way you could build one yourself?

I'm thinking you could jack it up and place long logs suspended on bricks under to keep it in the air, and then back a car trailer under it.

That sounds like a good idea. *nods wisely*