Surviving Minnesota!

[KlopKlop]

I go one step further and believe fully in:

Real Men never read instructions

to me that is like stopping and asking for directions every time the DW says you should. We would never get where we are going if I did that!

I knew you were going to say that! i have the thing all assembled but had to come in to let feeling return to my finger tips before i try to add gas and fluids. it went together pretty well except that all the hydraulic hoses are hard as rocks from the cold so it took some creative twisting to get everything to line up with the hoses. ones i use it a bit and the fluid warms up they will soften and i can readjust them.

it is darn cold out there!

 

[duluthralphie]

I have a dumb question.

I put leg bands on my older birds so I know who is what year.

Is there any type of band to put on chicks or poults when they hatch to identify which egg or who there parents are?

I try to mark the eggs and hatch so all hatching on one day come from the same parent. I would like to be able to mark them so I could keep other records of them.

The reason is I have been playing with the turkey color calculator on Porter's. I knew JJ was special, I did not realize how special. I also have a Tom I believe is a lilac ( JJ and Ethel's son), if I mate him with my lone "blue red bronze" ( a daughter of JJ and Ethel) I have a 25% chance of getting Lilac offspring. That would be fantastic.

Looking at porters I can identify some of the poults at "birth" but they lose those identifying marks somewhat as they grown and will have them back at adulthood. If I read everything correctly. Turkey genetics is baffling to my little brain.

I do not want to have lilacs hatched and sell them as self blues as Juvvies.

Hence the question.

Anyone here in need of a Tom? I am thinking of sending Sidekick to camp. I do not need his genetics any longer and he is a proven breeder.

 

[KlopKlop]

Check it out! everything is working! splitting a maple round from the tree i cut up last weekend. Finished up just in time for the lunch whistle (aka my dogs getting hungry ) now i just need to get my tools put away and then work on reorganizing my shed so i can put my new toy in the corn crib

PS see that sweet crate i the back? of course i was looking at that thinging... this thing could be the start of a chicken shelter. I am a chicken addict through and through. Or maybe a turkey shelter, eh ralphie? haha

Edited to add a final photo:

 

[duluthralphie]

Nice Splitter Kloppers!

I see you risked operating it without the advantages of a proper safety school. I suggest you count your fingers after each log you split...

 

[Cluckies]

ROFLMAO...


Woman's Directions:

Go that way until you go by 4 large trees, then just before you get to the 3rd Burma shave sign turn left until you get to the catholic church if you get to the Methodist church you have went too far. Turn towards the red house, go past the yellow house with the brown pick up in the yard, it will be the 4 place.


Men's directions:

Continue on county road 45 about 6 miles turn left on Twp road 16. it will be 5th place on left.


I can never understand my wife's directions when she gives them to me..


* while this is all said tongue in cheek, I remember reading many years ago the difference in how men and women give directions has to do with the way we perceive things differently. I do not remember the whole article but it had to do with men evolving to hunt and women were evolving into better gatherers. Again could be bunk, but I did read it. I know my wife and I have had many "heated" discussion over directions over the years. She has yet to admit I am right, no matter how many times I prove I am..

This is true for some women, once a friend told me, (and this is the truth) "Turn left at the billboard with the cow on it..." wait, what?

And when I tell my friends "Turn north on Armstrong" cricket, cricket... "right FCS, at the Coborns!" then they get it... lol

Nice Splitter Kloppers!

x2!

 

[lvie]

BOSS is Black oil sunflower seeds.

BOSS is Black oil sunflower seeds.

Ahhhhhh thank you so much! Hopefully I will retain that information. Yesterday I put the seasoned herb croutons that I bought somewhere. I wanted to stuff the turkey while my DH makes a side stuffing that gets cooked in a bowl. He does the toast and all that. Could not find those croutons! We both looked for them. Found them before we ate dinner just where we each had looked a couple of times. THEN came the bread crumbs I had made to be mixed with the fried onion rings for the top of the bean casserole. Finally found them in the refrig. It just does not work like it used to. There are good days where everything is clear as a bell. Look on the second shelf on the right side and you will find it. I prefer those days. LOL

 

[destiny_56085]

I have a dumb question.

I put leg bands on my older birds so I know who is what year.

Is there any type of band to put on chicks or poults when they hatch to identify which egg or who there parents are?

I try to mark the eggs and hatch so all hatching on one day come from the same parent. I would like to be able to mark them so I could keep other records of them.

The reason is I have been playing with the turkey color calculator on Porter's. I knew JJ was special, I did not realize how special. I also have a Tom I believe is a lilac ( JJ and Ethel's son), if I mate him with my lone "blue red bronze" ( a daughter of JJ and Ethel) I have a 25% chance of getting Lilac offspring. That would be fantastic.

Looking at porters I can identify some of the poults at "birth" but they lose those identifying marks somewhat as they grown and will have them back at adulthood. If I read everything correctly. Turkey genetics is baffling to my little brain.

I do not want to have lilacs hatched and sell them as self blues as Juvvies.

Hence the question.

Anyone here in need of a Tom? I am thinking of sending Sidekick to camp. I do not need his genetics any longer and he is a proven breeder.

The easiest way is to use wingbands. I can put them on even my bantam chicks by a week of age. If you don't want to use separate brooders til even that point, its super easy to just swipe a foot with old fingernail polish too. Darn stuff doesn't even come off the ducklings despite them being in water all the time. With the wingbands, all I have to do is keep a notebook then and write down the hatch date, band number, and any other pertinent info. They are a permanent form of ID and don't fall off like legbands do. They are also hidden once the bird feathers out. The birds that go back in my breeder pens at the end of the year also get a colored legband on too. I use a different color every year, then all I have to do is look down to know how old a bird is. That same notebook also includes color, sex, faults, show records, etc. The cheapest place to get just regular numbered wingbands would probably be Smith Poultry Supply. I've had a problem with people with sticky fingers in the past, so I buy the more expensive ones from Randall Burkey that also have our farm name on them as well. As far as ease of use, they slide in like butter on those babies and you clamp them shut with the pliers. Just go in that fold of skin in front of the wing joint... I can generally do a whole tub full of babies in under 5 minutes. On older birds, skin is tougher and you sometimes have to use a nail or something to make a hole first (otherwise the bands just bend and you ruin most of them before you get them in).

 

[destiny_56085]

You can also use the toe punch method....I can never come up with enough combinations of holes to keep things straight though....

 

[destiny_56085]

My mom drives exactly like your wife! After almost 40 years, I've learned to just go ask dad. He used to do road construction in the Twin Cities.... I have GPS in both my truck and the Navigator on my phone, but they still tend to be wonky sometimes.

 

[KlopKlop]

Coming in to thaw! i have had the most productive day! plus with the sun shining, it isnt really that bad out. I winterized our lawnmowers and stored them, got my motorcycles moved to the shed (riding on snowy grass, even really slow, is quite an adventure), shelled an entire wagon (36"x48"x18") of field corn i picked this fall (the mice were getting into it, so i had to get it out of the wagon), hauled 2 cruddy old arm chairs from the shed out the burn pile! I only have a little more work to do and i should be able to park my truck in the garage by the end of the weekend!

Oh and of course i split a huge pile of logs i had a decent sized pile of just knots and crotch pieces that i couldnt split by hand that were like butter in the maw of my new splitter. once you get that thing going, you can really get carried away haha

The chickens are having a good time scratching through all the corn husks looking for missed bits of corn. it is nice to see them out and about enjoying the sun after a couple wet and crappy days.