Surviving Minnesota!

[Bogtown Chick]

They are really out this year for us. When you turn off the highway on to the dirt road it is a ditch full here. Amazing. Pinks will be next.

Just heard from jerry. He's dealing with BYC notifications and so spammed everything. Digging dirt clay tomorrow. Exciting for him!!

 

[Member 482121]

I lived in Kodiak 29 years before moving to Alabama, and huge Kodiak bears were often spotted in town, raiding dumpsters at night. I had bears around my house several times. Once I had to fire a gun in the air to scare away a bear that had come close to my house because he had smelled the deer that I was butchering in my yard. I also had close encounters with them while hunting or fishing. I did not have any poultry then, but other people's ducks, geese and chickens were often taken. The only thing able to keep a bear from raiding a chicken coop is a three-strand electric fence, with the lowest strand as close to the ground as possible. They'll even knock down garage doors if there is anything inside that smells like food. A bear in a chicken coop, by the way, gets blood-lusty and will kill every bird inside, besides demolishing the coop.
There was a time when, after a few bear sightings where I lived, I had to sit on the porch with a large rifle in my lap watching over my daughter and her little friends playing in the yard. PETA "community organizers" don't have an easy time harassing people in Alaska as they do in the Snowflake states... Besides, there it's legal to kill bears "in defense of life and property" (yes, even ONE chicken is property one can defend with lethal means) and there is a well-regulated hunting season on bears. And now, thanks to the present administration in Washington, D.C., control of wildlife and the issuance of laws and regulations concerning wildlife has been returned to the State of Alaska and taken away from federal bureaucrats who couldn't tell a grizzly from a wolverine.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

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[lvie]

Good Morning Chickeners . . . . Just spent an hour catching up when I should have been doing house work . . . you are worth it. Across the highway biking/walking paths have been laid and a nice curb and gutter - it sure looks nice over there. Cept that the curb and gutter is one-inch too high. I wonder if they will rip it out and try again. Anyways I took my two little dogs for a walk on Saturday to test out the new path. It travels out the Lion's Park about 1/2 mile down the road. When I was walking another dog walker came over to warn me about the two wolves that lay in wait for dogs in a certain area. They have gotten one dog for sure and he called his dog back (thankfully it obeyed) one day as he noticed that the wolves and by the time he noticed them they were in an attack crouched position. Additionally we have had bear come through our yard. There is suppose to be a den, which the DNR said has been there for years, of brown bear out on the St. Francis near Orrock. Have you heard that news Ralphie?

Congrats on the outcome of the puffy cheeks Ralphie. So what is happening with that bird now?

Two grandkids come this week for a sleep over on Wed - Thurs - Friday. Finally got one whole garden area up-to-date. Did not plant the vege garden. That is the first time in twenty years. Have a disaster garden that must be done as it is in full view of those passing by on the highway. Anyway - I am retired and I do understand not having the time to get er all done. I do not remember doing a garden while I raised kids and worked full time plus the extra 10 to 15 hours a week that it took to get that 'career' job done. And ran for three different traveling hockey teams. Those were the days. Good memories and would do it all over again but glad they are done and that I do not have that choice of repeating it. You parents are totally awesome!

 

[BantyChooks]

They are really out this year for us. When you turn off the highway on to the dirt road it is a ditch full here. Amazing. Pinks will be next.

Just heard from jerry. He's dealing with BYC notifications and so spammed everything. Digging dirt clay tomorrow. Exciting for him!!

They're such lovely flowers, aren't they? Too bad the bugs are so bad; I'd be out there clicking away with my camera otherwise.

 

[duluthralphie]

I like lady slippers I should venture into the holy land and get a few pictures..Of course venturing into the Holy land is highly forbidden this time of year. When we were kids, before the land became "Holy" we would walk out to the island and see tons of lady slippers.

The little turkey is in recoup mode right now. If he/she recoups she will just join the flock, If not she/he goes to the crematory.

I need to finish Sidekick today. It takes a lot to get an adult turkey to turn into ashes.

We were just out clearing trees off the runs and coops. I think I am good to go again, was less work that I thought. The nice thing is that front dropped the temps from high 80's to 63! I love it.

@herman 48 I for one am not a snowflake, many of us are not..Thank You.

We also can kill any animal doing damage. Many chose not to, I am not one of those many. It is simply easier to SSS than make a big deal of it and tell people you did it. PETA people have a way of questioning our motives.

@lvie Judy got a picture of the bear just north of Orrock on 5 last year. We really do not have many here. I kind of doubt the wolves lying in wait story. Maybe coyotes, more than likely stray dogs. Wolves are very reclusive and While we might have some in the swamp and river bottom between us I doubt they would leave it to go anywhere except the few of us with farms/livestock. It just does not play into their nature. I can hear the howling at night south/southwest of me, but I think that is coyotes..

That said I could be wrong I know there was a pack near Milaca and that is not that far away.

I put a motion detector light up as my first step in bear damage prevention. Also it will give me a good clean shot if he/she does not take the hint and leave...

 

[Member 482121]

I did not imply that you yourself (and many others) are a Snowflake. Just that there are states where unfortunately Snowflakes and do-gooders influence the state legislature and make it hard for people to defend themselves, their animals and their property from marauding varmints of all sizes. Try and shoot a cougar that's about to kill and eat your collie in California and see what happens to you... And--even more unfortunately--bureaucrats and lobbyists in Washington, D.C., who know nothing about the environment and animals dictate their Disneyan views to the whole country.

 

[duluthralphie]

I did not imply that you yourself (and many others) are a Snowflake. Just that there are states where unfortunately Snowflakes and do-gooders influence the state legislature and make it hard for people to defend themselves, their animals and their property from marauding varmints of all sizes. Try and shoot a cougar that's about to kill and eat your collie in California and see what happens to you... And--even more unfortunately--bureaucrats and lobbyists in Washington, D.C., who know nothing about the environment and animals dictate their Disneyan views to the whole country.

You mean like Senator Lisa Murkowski?

 

[Member 482121]

You mean like Senator Lisa Murkowski?

That's the one who inherited her senate seat from her Daddy. We need to call her Princess Murkowski, not Senator Murkowski. Seriously, I did not like her dad (I'd better not say why) and I don't like her. She is a typical RINO.

 

[I Love Layers]

Doing lots of thinking for my egg laying flock for this year. I am deciding on the 4 breeds I will be ordering each year, I am thinking Leghorns and Naked Necks in January. They tolerate the heat well, so they will handle the heat laying well when they first start. In August I am thinking of Black and red sexlinks. They are a really good hardy breed, and the bonus of being sexlinks!
All roosters from the January chicks would be butchered. And after the January hens turn a year I would have chicks coming in of the same breed to replace them. By time the new chicks would start laying it would be the New Salem sale so all the hens would be taken there, they go super high in the spring.
For the fall birds since no one wants laying hens in the fall I am thinking maybe just butchering them. I would maybe try to sell some but no one wants to pay the same price you get in the spring. Same thing goes for the sex links in terms of replacing, order so the new chicks come at one year and are ready by a year and a half.
Right now I am working on cutting back on layer roosters, I have got my Chantecler, and my SLWxChantecler. Those are the only two I really want to keep, but my younger sister disagrees she has a silkie, who is an absolute idiot also my most aggressive rooster, and a Svart HonaxIsbar who I wouldn't mind keeping but it is just one more rooster.

Also have any of you ever showed at the Red River Valley Fair? I am thinking about maybe showing but would like some opinions on it.