Surviving Minnesota!

[duluthralphie]

Ralphie, I don't mean to pile on, but I must advise you that should you take the test to be admitted to the "Mensa Society" you will learn that we very much discourage pointing out the mental or educational inadequacies of others.

Layers, I do not understand how the primary heat source for your home is cost effective if it is wood fired. The cost to transport firewood to North Dakota would be very expensive I would think?

I feel compelled to relate that my understanding is the Finlanders who ventured into North Dakota soon returned to Minnesota because they wanted to be in a place which had ready availability of wood for their saunas.

By the way, the weather here near the big lake is beautiful today. It is in the twenties with strong wind and a wind chill factor of only minus 2 degrees. A great day to be out taking advantage of really fresh air and getting work projects accomplished.

As a Mensa Member I would think you would know they gather and burn "cow chips" in a wood stove in North Dakota. They should call it a Manure Burner and did in the old days but the younger generation thought that sounded backwards and hick like. Once they learned the difference between sunrise and sunset, they were like a Norwegian that learned to walk on two legs,,,,Plum nearly worthless......

 

[jerryse]

 

[holm25]

As a Mensa Member I would think you would know they gather and burn "cow chips"  in a wood stove in North Dakota.  They should call it a Manure Burner and did in the old days but the younger generation thought that sounded backwards and hick like.   Once they learned the difference between sunrise and sunset, they were like a Norwegian that learned to walk on two legs,,,,Plum nearly worthless......

Hey hey hey Ralphie. We burn cow parties all the time in the winter! Not in a wood stove but just because it's easier to walk around with a sled and get dried cow crap than it is to carry around a saw and axe!

My Great Grandpa had a very heavy Norwegian accent. North was Nort, South was Sout and so on. Couldn't say his th's lol. I would give anything to have gotten his accent... I miss listening to him tell stories and having to wonder "what did he just say?" Lol

 

[ejb3810]

Ralphie, I find it difficult that those Dakotan's are still burning those chips. Do they know nothing of air pollution and man induced global warming?

This thing about a Norwegian walking on two legs I find quite distasteful and would remind you that you are living and sleeping in the same room with a woman of Norwegian decent. If she were to be made aware of what you have written you may have a difficult time moving around at all!!

I suspect that you are still upset related to learning that in fact the Swedes could not pass the IQ test to enter Norway, and that is why they were condemned to life in Sweden.

 

[ejb3810]

Ralphie, on a completely different subject I wonder if you have ever viewed the posts title "Fred On Everything"? His most recent post title "Hawglegs And Hawgwash" is quite interesting and perhaps especially so given your personal history?

Fred is of superior intellect and of Norwegian decent I believe.

 

[I Love Layers]

Ralphie, I don't mean to pile on, but I must advise you that should you take the test to be admitted to the "Mensa Society" you will learn that we very much discourage pointing out the mental or educational inadequacies of others.

Layers, I do not understand how the primary heat source for your home is cost effective if it is wood fired. The cost to transport firewood to North Dakota would be very expensive I would think?

I feel compelled to relate that my understanding is the Finlanders who ventured into North Dakota soon returned to Minnesota because they wanted to be in a place which had ready availability of wood for their saunas.

By the way, the weather here near the big lake is beautiful today. It is in the twenties with strong wind and a wind chill factor of only minus 2 degrees. A great day to be out taking advantage of really fresh air and getting work projects accomplished.

Um no

We cut all of our own wood, from ash trees that have died along the creek bank on our land. Ash is a good wood that burns well and is plentiful here. It is way cheaper to cut our own wood then to buy. Now you might be thinking its a lot of time, but in reality it doesn't. One day we go out and cut the wood, usually my older sister, dad and I. We can get a whole pickup box load and a short 8 foot trailer in about 2 hours. We then go home and stack and split. My dad and sister stack, and hand me anything that needs to be split, I split it and give it back to them to stack.


We also have lots of gullies that have old ash that we clear out etc.

Also where we used to live was even more barren, but we would clear out peoples tree rows, and around the church we lived by, since we were the caretakers, there was 40 acres all owned by the church surrounded by tree rows. We actually cleared a path 15 feet wide through the whole area.







I just got in from chores, within the first 15 minutes, I had to stick my arm up to my elbow in a water tank, took off my coat and sweatshirt and stuck it in, never been so cold!
My dad finally got a late calf in, she's now chilling with our jersey heifer calf, we also opened up what we call the metal barn for the bulls and jersey cow

My dad said this late calf was a bichacho. When he got her in the corrals she was ramming against rail road ties, even though he was 75 feet away from her. When he finally got her in the barn she actually tried charging him

.

 

[Cluckies]

Ralphie, I find it difficult that those Dakotan's are still burning those chips. Do they know nothing of air pollution and man induced global warming?

This thing about a Norwegian walking on two legs I find quite distasteful and would remind you that you are living and sleeping in the same room with a woman of Norwegian decent. If she were to be made aware of what you have written you may have a difficult time moving around at all!!

I suspect that you are still upset related to learning that in fact the Swedes could not pass the IQ test to enter Norway, and that is why they were condemned to life in Sweden.

Funny that. So a guy in my lab went into a Swedish store in Nodak, the lady at the counter says, "Your're not Swedish!... Your're Norwegian, I can tell by your sloping forehead" Hahaha, Just kidding, she just said "I can tell by your forehead," but me and another Swede in the shop added to it a bit,

 

[Cluckies]

I went to visit the chickens this morning. I was pleasantly surprised the water was not froze up. (We have insulated coop with no heat....other than their body heat.) I was surprised because during the day yesterday I had the exhaust fan running which really cooled things down inside and then froze the waters...not solid but around the edges. So now I am back to the drawing board with winter air circulation. The exhaust fan is just a simple 4 speed exhaust fan. I may toy with putting the exhaust fan on a timer....and only have it run for a couple of hours during the day.

Seasoned Chicken Veterans any thoughts about air circulation?

PS the coop is inside a section of the shed and only the coop is insulated the rest of the shed is uninsulated?

Ok, I would think you do not want enough circulation to lower the temp if that is what you are asking? You do not want a breeze blowing over them, you want passive venting. Was it on the lowest setting? I would think it would barely need to move at all and that would be plenty. Or are you asking how to keep your water liquid in winter? Only way to do that is to add a heated waterer, insulation alone will not keep the water liquid no matter how many hens you have in there to "warm" up the area.

 

[KlopKlop]

your lumber mill went that well, eh?

 

[I Love Layers]

My moms trying to convince me to go to SD for a few days for a Christmas with my 2 younger cousins and aunt and uncle. I keep telling her no, mainly cause of chores, and they got a black lab in August or so, my uncle hauls for Swift so he's only home every 2 weeks or so so I know the dogs had no reprimanding. And I don't tolerate untrained dogs it usually ends up with me holding a dogs mouth shut or giving it a slap on the snout after it jumps up on me, or bites me while trying to play. And then angry owners because I was 'to harsh' on the dog.
If they ever bring there dog out here though, there will be hll to pay with me though. No more dogs out here after my grandma brought her spaniel and it killed 4 pullets, she then blamed it on my sister who was 9 at the time, even though she knew she wasn't supposed to let the dog off the leash or unattended. Only dogs allowed is the guy I go hunting with since she's well trained and doesn't care, and my aunt and uncles 2 dogs, since they're accustomed to chickens.

I mean hey I don't know anything about training big dogs though.

When my cousin from Bismarck and her mom came to get ducklings they brought their lab out to see if he would tolerate them, he grabbed one, my cousin and I both got to him I gave him a sharp slap on the bridge of nose. My cousins mom sort of raised her voice at us and said we just have to tell him no, but do you really think that's going to stop a dog from eating a duckling! He's never touched a bird since.