Surviving Minnesota!

[duluthralphie]

Siggie- Sending my condolences.

As for the 2x4 lawsuit....this is the laughing stalk of all the construction trades right now. I am daughter of a Construction Contractor and my husband is a Tinner (sheetmetal installation), they roasted this lawsuit like you wouldn't believe. I could only imagine a bunch of construction workers on break discussing this topic.

As for the measurements... a wise father once told me. "You will loose 1/2inch on all lumber unless I am installing it then you better account for closer to a 9/16 or even a 3/4 inch loss as I will drive those nails and screws in so far they will never come out."

Cement was a success for everyone except my hands. Either we ordered too much cement or the plant sent out an extra yard of cement, so we quickly dug and formed an extension on the front garage pad. So I grabbed the cement screed and started pulling with my brother in law and I had to much so I reached in bare handed and moved the wet cement. Fast forward 2 hours and my fingers and hand was twice the size. Popped a couple of benedryl and all was well.

T minus one month and it is fair time.....eek my hens need to quickly regrow some saddle feathers in a hurry. They were picking and 2 stupid roosters overstayed their welcome. I have been doing some testing lately and now my schedule is filling with these little 4H kids....one family calls me to test their 3 buff orpingtons. Their 6 year old son is carrying one of the pullets. Of course it escapes and a chase ensues. The father is just about ready to give up, when the mother opens the back door. Back door squeeks enough that all the birds run up to the door for a treat. 6 year old says..."I bet they think I'm coming with my bread crusts. I give them all my bread crusts and some of my vegatables....but they don't like vegatables either."

Ralphie~ If you hear any screams coming from Ann Lake near Zimmerman....just ignore them and do NOT I repeat DO NOT give the camp counselers my contact info. I am trying to enjoy 51 hours without my son.

He is in camp here!!!


I suppose I could put my soon to be prize winning Doms on a leash and walk through the camp!

That is one old camp. We use to have lots of 4h stuff there when I was a kid. I think my Dad had church camp there.

and it is in Orrock, not Zimmerman!


I was think it is time to pull the show hens out of the flock and get them looking pretty...

I need to get to work on Cuddles too. I have not even decided on which PC's I am taking.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Thanks BC! I just got to spend a couple days with Nate who is 14 now! He is my grandson. He takes care of himself completely - well, I don't know if he inserts the new sites yet. I asked how often he goes in to have his A1C checked and it is every three months. He goes to the clinic in St. Louis Park and they are pretty in tune with changes in that diagnosis. I did text the info you provided before to his DM, my x-ddil. SHE is the one that kept telling the ER dr. to please ck Nate for diabetes and they wouldn't do it when he was 22 months old. Strange. You would think that an intelligent, calm mother would be able to get some credit in the ER just because of the fact that she observes her child. Anyway, point is, she is a very present mother and keeps pretty close tabs on the disease so I hesitate to bring it up again. It is type 1 - he is very brittle - so maybe it makes no difference in his case. IDK.

I hope she pushes along asking for the tests. My friend has found she has had to take the lead almost with the Dr. she is a pediatric endocrinologist too. It's just weird that they are so cautious to try a test like this. I know they don't want to get hopes up. But still. To me 22 months sounds like this particular form. That's very young. But certainly can just be the old fashioned type 1. If he's skinny and has high blood sugars in the morning they should pursue testing.

Anyways. I want to put the littles in the coop tonight but I know they'll sleep in nesting boxes. I hate poopy eggs!

 

[jerryse]

Hey Ralphie guess what these are .

 

[BantyChooks]

View attachment 1056173 View attachment 1056174
Hey Ralphie guess what these are .

Ooh, ooh, pick me, I know!

Well, just a wild guess.... But....

Are they chickens?

 

[jerryse]

Ooh, ooh, pick me, I know!

Well, just a wild guess.... But....

Are they chickens?

Why yes they are . Also my first attempt at creating Rose Comb Legbars .

 

[BantyChooks]

Why yes they are . Also my first attempt at creating Rose Comb Legbars .

Can't believe I did it.
Was a toss-up between chicken and goose....


Seriously, though, gorgeous birds.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Jerry seriously.

First you mill logs in the buff on a bog spitting out swarms of the Minnesota state bird (skeeters) and then you create a leg bar that can take some Midwest winters without freezing their combs off.

 

[BantyChooks]

Jerry seriously.

First you mill logs in the buff on a bog spitting out swarms of the Minnesota state bird (skeeters) and then you create a leg bar that can take some Midwest winters without freezing their combs off.

All in a week's work for the amazing Mr. Segler...

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Tonight I put the littles in the big chicken coop. They are actually getting pretty good sized themselves. I will just have to deal with pulling out some old straw and such in the morning. I have an egg eater. It is Sylvia. Too many boring hours hiding in the coop.
Shite. When it rains it pours.
The writing is on the wall for this old gal. And I just don't want to read it!

 

[Momof3plustwins]

Sleepyowl - that's interesting, I had never heard that. Both my parents are 100% Finnish, but having been to Scandinavia, they have a different idea of nationality than we do. We visited a family that lived in a border town in Sweden. The parents were both from Finland, and they barely lived in Sweden, but they called themselves Swedes. Also, with the borders of different countries changing significantly throughout history, or people not wanting to acknowledge their true heritage due to various political reasons, I can see why test results could come out different even if you "know" what you are.

Siggie, sorry to hear about your FIL.

Does anyone want to talk to me about outdoor dogs? If you live on a farm, or hobby farm, do you have a working dog? Does it sleep inside or outside? Any good/bad experiences with outdoor dogs to share? We currently have 2 older pet dogs, and will likely get a new one soon. I never thought I would consider having an outdoor only dog, but moving to our mini-farm has me thinking about dogs in a new way. I anticipate having poultry, some goats or sheep, and potentially a small qty of pigs or mini cattle if we can save our barn. I've been reading about LGDs and thinking maybe a great pyrenees mix would be a good option - I was presuming it could sleep in a doghouse if it preferred outside, but would be open to it sleeping inside. I was reading that someone else prefers smaller farm dogs, and they sleep in the barn with the other animals. It's just different to think about having a dog being outdoors in out winters, but then I realized I'll be expecting the other animals to handle it too... I just haven't known anyone with an outdoor dog since I was little, so I figured I should try to gather some location specific input.

Yes we have a 1.5 year old male Pyrenees. He is fixed. Not fixing a male will cause the running too. He does not run though. We own the sections of land all around us with in my husbands family so he has acres to wander if he wants but he is always in the yard. He will go out into the fields if he catches wind of something that shouldn't be there. He does bark an awful lot at night. Some nights we bring him into the garage just so we can sleep better. But you get used to it and it no longer wakes you up too. Regarding the hair. Yes, you HAVE to brush them through out the winter and definately in the spring to get out the winter hair. Our 5 dear children neglected this duty this winter/spring and so Today we completed Yeti's first Spring shave. Good thing it is already summer, too! He looks so FUNNY! It may just be borderline "dog abuse". LOL he doesn't seem bothered by it. He just doesn't know what to think of his tail because he has never seen it before!! Great dog though. Biggest teddy bear in the world and doesn't harm kittens or chickens. His best friend outside of Kepler our half lab/half Pyr elder dog is a cat. Kepler on the other hand with all that lab in him likes to run. We have the Petsafe wireless collar. Gives a 90' radius circle and all you do is plug it in and put the collar on. He hasn't ran since we put the collar on. He too guards the yard.

My grandpa has a friend with sheep and pastured poultry up by mom of many and he raises LGDs and he said they never leave the herd. If cars drive by the farm the dogs will be in between the cars and the sheep. They are really neat dogs. Over here we don't need them. The cows do a good enough job of protecting calves. My birds could probably use one lol. I am down to two Guineas which really stinks...

Can you PM their names? I have someone looking to replace their Pyr as both their girls are getting old and want a puppy to train in with the old gals.