The Front Porch Swing

[perchie.girl]

OK duck fashions.... this is pretty much what that duck was wearing along with a special duck leash

http://www.flightquarters.com/bird-diapers/product/duck-skirt-collar-bow.html

Not advocating just love to look at the things that other people have come up with to make money

deb

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Nope...it's called common sense and it ain't so common anymore.  I'd cull too.   My birds would be out of those clothes in about 2 seconds flat, can't even imagine a bird that would keep on clothing. 

I was surprised she never got out of it. She didn't like it much at first.

I was really torn about using it. If it had been any other bird I wouldn't have.

I made it myself ... Part of a leg of Dad's old jeans. A little flat elastic. Scissors. Thread & needle. It only took a few minutes.

There is no reason to cull for this type of mating wound unless it won't heal. One could argue it is a feather quality issue and maybe is an indication you shouldn't breed that bird because the issue might be inherited ... but at this stage in this breeding project there aren't a lot of choices. I've only got the three birds.

 

[Beekissed]

I was surprised she never got out of it. She didn't like it much at first.

I was really torn about using it. If it had been any other bird I wouldn't have.

I made it myself ... Part of a leg of Dad's old jeans. A little flat elastic. Scissors. Thread & needle. It only took a few minutes.

There is no reason to cull for this type of mating wound unless it won't heal. One could argue it is a feather quality issue and maybe is an indication you shouldn't breed that bird because the issue might be inherited ... but at this stage in this breeding project there aren't a lot of choices. I've only got the three birds.

We were talking about culling for a pendulous crop, not a wound. I wouldn't have culled your girl either and would probably have done something to protect her wound for breeding also....that's a little different from dressing a chicken to compensate for bad genetics and poor flock management.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

We were talking about culling for a pendulous crop, not a wound.  I wouldn't have culled your girl either and would probably have done something to protect her wound for breeding also....that's a little different from dressing a chicken to compensate for bad genetics and poor flock management. 

Oh, I know exactly what you meant. No worries. I was just discussing.

I had the bird segregated for a few days and a all three of them were distraught. So I made the apron and was pleased she liked that better than isolation. And that it worked.

Generally speaking I don't think pets or toilets need clothes. Clothes on either kinda creep me out.

If anyone ever needs an apron/saddle, the blue jean homemade one seems to be a good choice.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

That's our little tuxedo chick from the front on the left.

 

[Oldmomma]

Seems like you can never be sad reading this thread. Someone can always brighten your day here.

 

[Beekissed]

That's our little tuxedo chick from the front on the left.

I love this pic! The red of the hen against the colors of the chicks is a dramatic scene....love the peeking of chicks through feathers, that always gets me.

Seems like you can never be sad reading this thread. Someone can always brighten your day here.

We do have our fair share of wonderful, sharing and joyful people here and for that I am so eternally grateful...forums are not an easy thing to navigate due to argumentative, forceful people intent on spoiling one's day just because they feel like it, so this haven is a precious thing.

 

[rrrmamma]

This will be a crazy week for us. We need to start building out the interior of the new coop. Get my granddaughter, Madi's room ready. I have 24 quail eggs that are due to hatch today or tomorrow and no place ready to put them.. and it will not stop raining everyday in Ohio. I wish I could send some of it to those of you that need it. I haven't been able to get a garden in because it has been too wet to plow. I am sick of mud. Doug and I went to the monthly "Chef's Dinner" at our local winery last night. The food is always amazing. We have reserved a table for the entire year. Last nights dinner started with an appetizer plate of homemade fresh mozzarella drizzled with a balsamic vinegar glaze, a take on pepperoni rolls that was so light and delicate and mushrooms marinated in a Seyval wine. A salad of grilled romaine with taziki sauce, a chicken thigh with a teriyaki glaze and crusted beef tenderloin. Dessert was individual angelfood cakes with fresh berries and a flaming chocolate sauce. We probably brought half of the dinner home. I am not even hungry this morning. Glad this is only once a month. The winery is a beautiful place with a view of the rolling hills here. You can see for miles. Guess I had better get moving this morning. Doug said the cows are out. Somehow they got the gate open. I think they will go back in as soon as he feeds them. We are running a little late this morning so they thought they would help themselves to the grass across the driveway. It must be better than their pasture.LOL Time to go out and get dirty and accomplish something. I know what you mean Bee, it is a blessing to be able to go out and make the best of what we are given.

 

[dpenning]

My two Aussie broodies are sitting on 14 eggs each. Broodies are just really amazing to me. If humans had to work that hard to have kids there wouldn't be any! I believe Black Australorps have to be my favorite breed so far - great layers, quiet and haven't had a layer with a bad personality. Really sweet layers but my rooster is an entirely different story. He's lucky to still be living.

LOL! No argument that broodies are amazing and I've never had kids so I can't speak from experience but I can't imagine sitting on eggs for 3 weeks compares to being a human petrie dish for 9 months and popping out a bowling ball..... just sayin.

 

[bruceha2000]

I feel closer to ever to them now, but I do still catch myself about to call my Grandma on the phone to tell her about things.

That is the hardest thing. I did the same for months and months after my mother died in 2003. Moved some of her furniture from CA to VT 4 months later. My cat was in 'her' dresser (now used by my wife) drawer some time later. She loved cats, I was a second from the phone to 'share' before I caught myself. It was not the first or last time.

Hey, BRUCE - you out there somewhere? Remember a few weeks ago I posted a photo of a chicken that was SUPPOSED to be a Red Sex Link hen, but I thought maybe I'd gotten a Production Red Roo instead? You were the only one who said you thought Florabelle looked more roo to you and suggested that I post again in a couple of weeks. Well, here ya go...looking more and more like you wuz right!

Look at that tail. He looks like a beauty.

Quick note.... I am getting a new Computer on or after Wednesday.... I placed the order in today and they will build it for me.

For anyone who cares.... LOL. Its got SSD memeory instead of a harddrive Heh Heh Heh Bruce....

deb

Don't let all that power go to your head

You'll love the 'no hard drive' startup speed. Glad you can work from home again.

By the way, 1955 was a very good year--I was born in September.

Lisa

Naw, '56 was a GOOD year

Just wanted to share 15" of snow. ...

This is out our patio doors in the basement - can't open the doors yet, still have 2 feet of snow there.

I had that too, but fortunately it was back in Feb, not last week!

OK, rethinking my dream of moving to Wyoming.

. Flash flood warnings for much of Wisconsin today but the real severe weather is south of us.

There were still patches of snow on the dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan in the U.P. Wednesday even though it was ~45F! NO hint of leaves on the deciduous trees. Found leaves farther south in WI and in eastern Ontario and Vermont.

She was stopped for a traffic stop and was found with drugs and stolen property, both belonging to her boyfriend. The detective knows the boyfriend and wants to cut her a break. If she comes here and gets her diploma ( only 15 hours to get It) then he will not file the charges against her. Since she is 18 he is cutting her a huge break because none of this will go on her permanent record. Hubby says if BF shows up he will be looking down a gun barrel. Since he is a gunsmith, we have a few to look down! Lol.

The situation looks rough but the fact that she WANTS to come to you suggests she is looking for a way to get out and I don't mean just the charges on a permanent record. I think she figured out this guy (and probably other 'friends') are bad, bad, bad. Yeah, it will be hard for her to be out in the country instead of the city but as another porch sitter mentioned, teens text 99% and talk only when they have to. Plus, cell service depends on the company, MAYBE the carrier she uses has a better signal in the hollow (maybe not). We use TracFone 'cause it is cheap and we don't use the phones much. In this area TracFone uses Verizon and there is one corner of the house where you MAYBE get 1 bar of signal, have to drive a couple of miles to the other side of the interstate to use the phones. Some people with ATT can do OK. The tower 3/4 mile down the road? T-Mobile.

And you have internet, lots of TV shows can be found on the internet. And friends, like here on the porch! My older daughter has friends in many countries she knows only through the internet. If she isn't hooked on drugs, my money is she will come out OK as long as the the 'old' 'friends' stay away both physically and on the phone/text/email. Not sure how you help her ignore those contacts which I'm sure will come though not necessarily the ones in person. Don't answer calls from those numbers, don't read texts or emails either. Letting go of them probably won't be easy for her until she has local 'replacement' friends.

Also, just thought I'd share the Mother's Day video I made for Mom. She really liked it.

That was beautiful Laura.


Mother's Day for me (even though *I* am not a mother) was, well, something else. Since my wife and I were leaving (presumably noon) for Wisconsin to pick up the younger daughter at Beloit, we moved the older daughter and 3 cats on Saturday up to the 'farm' where she is SUPPOSED to be living (if I ever get through the ALWAYS changing list of "must have" projects) so she could take care of the chickens. I was finishing up a temporary sink for the upstairs bathroom when about 11:30 my daughter came to tell me "Mom said she needs you, now" though the now didn't have a huge ring of urgency. But I know my wife wouldn't have sent her if it wasn't NOW! She'd been washing dishes and heard water in the basement. Water going down the drain was coming out the trap for the water heater condensate pump in the main drain. Figured out *I* couldn't do anything, called a plumber who told me to call a septic service. So I did and went back to the sink work waiting for them to call back. Got that call, guy said he would be there in 45 min or so. I finished the sink since it was almost done and daughter didn't want to go downstairs in the middle of the night. As I'm connecting the plumbing, wife pipes up with "or she could have just used the tub to wash her hands". Any of the 3 of us could have thought of THAT out a few days before!

The guy showed up just as we were leaving so I showed him out back where the tank is, and I had NO IDEA other than where the pipe comes out of the basement. He poked around some but wasn't having a lot of luck in the ~15' to 20' MAX it should be by code. If it were closer to the house it would be under the deck. Well, we HAD to go so we left daughter and her checkbook in charge and drove the 5.5 hours to Pembroke, ON. Called before we got to Cornwall, ON because we don't have service in Canada. The guy had been ABOUT to give up and call someone else from the company that 'finds' tanks when he took a flyer and went farther out in the yard and angled off some where the grass (just starting to grow a week earlier) and dirt 'looked different', found the tank cover. We had talked about the leach field being out that way and how the grass on the house side of the little garden space didn't grow as well as it did on the far side so maybe that gave him an inkling. He jetted the line and had her flush the toilets a couple of time to make sure it wasn't some old, unused, tank given the location then pumped it since it was about time anyway. He said they sometimes 'grandfather' and put new tank where old ones were when they need to be replaced rather than force a new dig to meet current code. So daughter got to write her FIRST check (for $600! because it was weekend OT). Had a nice dinner at Santa Fe in Pembroke, then continued the drive on Monday.

Rest of the week was: Mon 9 hour drive to Sault Ste Marie, ON; Tue 9 hour drive to Beloit; Wed back to Sault Ste Marie, Thur back to Pembroke, Fri home to VT - where I find out older daughter doesn't want to be at the farm because I don't have the washer and dryer set up yet (whole other story) and it will be too loud when I work on the house, etc, etc even though this is where she WANTS to live (women!). Wife and younger daughter were going to the other house anyway so my wife could do the laundry and younger daughter wants to be. She wants nothing to do with the 'farm' house, it isn't "home". She will have no choice once I get the other one fixed up and rented but at this rate, she'll be back in Wisconsin by then. So they all leave and I go try to finish fixing the rear tire on the garden tractor mower so I can mow the grass that should have been mowed days earlier (ending in yet another failure which you don't need to read about). Helped the neighbor across the street for awhile then put the girls (chickens) up for the night and went in to eat, about 7. Call from older daughter - no hot water and the tank is leaking.

Like I need MORE problems! To be fair, I knew it was going and turned the cold water to it off on Sat since with no one in the house for a week, it could be a REAL mess. But I was hoping it would hold off until we weren't living there so I could replace it (need to do some plumbing work on the 'new' tank - pulled from the 'farm' house) without impacting anyone. Day late and a dollar short, again. So wife went to her parent's to do a little laundry and take a shower since she had to work today. Leaving soon to go replace the water tank.


1941 sink that was in the house when we bought it on Q&D 'vanity' made from left over pieces of hard maple floor and first floor ceiling boards which are also the subfloor for the second floor.


Temporary support for temporary part of the hand rail.



Finished upstairs 'balcony' handrail with 'extended gooseneck' fitting allowing both min railing height on the second floor (42"), max railing height on the stairs (38") and continuous railing usable without taking one's had off. A standard gooseneck is vertical at the post, minimally usable going up and not useable at all going down. IF there were space upstairs AND there was something to anchor the post to, the 'proper' way would have been to move the post and railing back about a foot so the rising railing would meet the quarter turn on the post with only a small amount of the over easing fitting. But, not the case.







Bruce