The Front Porch Swing

[Blooie]

Ibejaran, a move like that is never easy - but it sure will be an adventure! I think you're going to do great, and enjoy yourself immensely in the process! There's a poem by Edgar A. Guest that I learned a long time ago...I can't remember all of it now but one part of it sticks with me -

"Can't is the father of feeble endeavor,
The parent of terror and half-hearted work.
It weakens the efforts of artisans clever,
And makes of the toiler an indolent shirk."

So go get 'em!!

Red, your family is beautiful!

I guess I qualified as a "single parent" for most of our marriage....he was often gone for a year at a time, and all we have were letters back then - no email, no Skype or Facetime, or Facebook, and very rare phone calls. We'd get no mail for weeks, and then the mailman would bring us a big stack all at once. Ken and I used to number our letters on the back so that we each read them in the order they were written.

We have to drive over to Sheridan in this rotten weather tomorrow, so I'll be off and on tonight and Sunday. So anybody in the mood for a story or should I save it?

 

[theawesomechick]

Leave for a day and you're in a real pickle trying to catch up! I had 14 pages to catch up on!

Every time I'm prepared to post I have to refresh the page first to make sure no one posted anything new!

I'm in awe of all you independent, hardworking and skilled people who manage to do so many amazing things. I'm a spoiled Californian with too much stuff stuck in a suburb with a pile of scrap wood for a chicken coop.

Haven't done anything amazing yet...

Blooie, PLEASE give us a story!

Feeling like a toddler at bedtime lol

 

[LindaB220]

Well, we tried to beat the weather...didn't make it. We still have 3 "arches" to cover with chicken wire and all of the hardware cloth to get done. Then we want to put up "baseboards" (1 x 12s all around the inner perimeter) to help keep at least some of the sand in the run! But it was getting so cold and windy we just couldn't work anymore. We had no sooner put all the tools and rolls of wire away when we saw the first snowflakes - and the wind picked up so much that we were dodging tree branches running back into the house. But I think it's looking pretty good! The girls (and Charlie) won't know what to do with so much space!


!
In their temporary pen while we worked on the new one.


I think it's going to work out nicely!


Walking back to the front....there's an entire mountain range hiding behind those snow clouds, and check out the lantern - it's a wrought iron lantern with sand in it - we always fill them with sand in the winter so they don't pack with snow and blow around so badly. I know, we could just take them down and store them until summer, but they make a fun wind gauge!

Deb, the news about your goat is fantastic! I got chills! Nice job on the turkey, Leslie! I have never in my life even learned to properly cut up a chicken! If you were to take the pieces I cut off and try to put them back together to form a whole chicken, you'd be pulling your hair out! Nothing would fit back together!

Blooie, the run is going to be outstanding. I was thinking the same thing but I was going to hammer in rebar. (Read it on another site) But your fence posts look so good I may just do that. Can't wait.

 

[Blooie]

It's time for another long winded Diane Story! LOL Now, if you aren’t someone who approves of hunting, it might be a good time to wander over to another thread for a little while. Last thing I want to do is offend anyone on the porch.

Ken and I went pheasant hunting in Yellowtail, which is an open hunting area here. Hens happen to be legal there but we usually leave them alone. We always hunt separately, he and the dog in his truck and I in my Suzuki Samuri. Then we'd meet up at the end of the hunt and head for home. Well, I stupidly shot this hen, and ran out to get her. She sure looked dead to me.

(This part may not be for the faint of heart) I spun her around a few times to wring her neck and tossed her into the spare cooler in back of the Zuki and went to meet Ken. (We never field dress our birds when hunting Yellowtail, because it’s only about 8 miles from our house and I’d rather do the cleaning when I can wash up right afterwards!) While I was driving, she escaped from the cooler and was flapping around in the backseat, so I pulled over and gave her another spin. I told Ken about it and he looked in the cooler, he said, "Well, she sure is dead now." But he gave her another E-ride spin just to make sure.

Ken got back to the house a few minutes before I did and was already getting ready to clean the 2 birds he'd bagged. I walked in with the cooler and set it on the floor. Jamie asked how I did.

"Well, I got one. She's in the cooler."

He lifted the lid, slammed it down again, looked at me and said, "Um, Gramma, it's looking at me."

"What are you talking about?"

He just repeated, "It's looking at me." So I went over, lifted the lid and she was OFF!!!

Out of that cooler she flew and the race was on. Into the bathroom.....couldn't get the door shut fast enough to trap her in there. She made one short circuit and flew over my head on her way back out. All over the kitchen, leaving a nice deposit on my counter top. Dumb Golden Retriever we had was just running around frantically with a dufous look on her face - she knew what to do out in the field but hunting in the house was all new territory to her. The pheasant made a couple of runs at the grandfather clock, slammed into the ceiling fan cracking one blade, then hit the floor running straight down the hall, into our room and under the bed!

So picture Ken and me - the mighty hunters! I had a mop, he had a broom, and we were using them to try to force her out from under there. Finally she burst out right between us and headed straight for the computer desk. There she sat, waiting for the inevitable.

The whole time this was going on Jamie was sitting on the kitchen floor totally immobilized with laughter - and therefore totally worthless! Ken and I were laughing so hard we kept stopping the hunt to catch our breath, and Dufus the Worthless Wonder Dog was just spinning and leaping into the air barking. I finally swooped in and picked her up, and she just looked at me as if to say, "Geez, lady, you people are CRAZY!"

Ken snapped a couple of pictures and then checked her over. If she wasn't hurt, he was just going to release her by the canal. But he found enough blood on her to worry that she might not survive, and we didn't want to release a wounded bird to die a slow, miserable death. So he took her outside and gave her a mighty swing, and that finished her.

While he cleaned her, I cleaned up the feathers, bird doo-doo, and over-excited dog slobber. I heard him say a bad word...then another. He was upset because after all of that commotion, all she had was one pellet barely lodged in her neck. He just looked at me sadly and said, "**** it, if I'd known that was all she had, I'd have pulled the pellet out and let her go. She fought so hard."

Well, eventually she made it into the freezer. I made sure that Ken's birds and the ones I'd shot were in the exact same kind of milk carton so we'd never know which pheasant was gracing our table. And eventually we ate her. The End.

 

[Blooie]

Blooie, the run is going to be outstanding. I was thinking the same thing but I was going to hammer in rebar. (Read it on another site) But your fence posts look so good I may just do that. Can't wait.

Thanks, Linda. I'm going to run white vinyl lattice between the fence posts and hang potted plants on it. The run is right where it can be seen from the street, so I figured I could either leave it like that and have it look kinda out of place, or I could make it match the rest of the yard.

 

[lindz8504]

It's time for another long winded Diane Story! LOL Now, if you aren’t someone who approves of hunting, it might be a good time to wander over to another thread for a little while. Last thing I want to do is offend anyone on the porch.

Ken and I went pheasant hunting in Yellowtail, which is an open hunting area here. Hens happen to be legal there but we usually leave them alone. We always hunt separately, he and the dog in his truck and I in my Suzuki Samuri. Then we'd meet up at the end of the hunt and head for home. Well, I stupidly shot this hen, and ran out to get her. She sure looked dead to me.

(This part may not be for the faint of heart) I spun her around a few times to wring her neck and tossed her into the spare cooler in back of the Zuki and went to meet Ken. (We never field dress our birds when hunting Yellowtail, because it’s only about 8 miles from our house and I’d rather do the cleaning when I can wash up right afterwards!) While I was driving, she escaped from the cooler and was flapping around in the backseat, so I pulled over and gave her another spin. I told Ken about it and he looked in the cooler, he said, "Well, she sure is dead now." But he gave her another E-ride spin just to make sure.

Ken got back to the house a few minutes before I did and was already getting ready to clean the 2 birds he'd bagged. I walked in with the cooler and set it on the floor. Jamie asked how I did.

"Well, I got one. She's in the cooler."

He lifted the lid, slammed it down again, looked at me and said, "Um, Gramma, it's looking at me."

"What are you talking about?"

He just repeated, "It's looking at me." So I went over, lifted the lid and she was OFF!!!

Out of that cooler she flew and the race was on. Into the bathroom.....couldn't get the door shut fast enough to trap her in there. She made one short circuit and flew over my head on her way back out. All over the kitchen, leaving a nice deposit on my counter top. Dumb Golden Retriever we had was just running around frantically with a dufous look on her face - she knew what to do out in the field but hunting in the house was all new territory to her. The pheasant made a couple of runs at the grandfather clock, slammed into the ceiling fan cracking one blade, then hit the floor running straight down the hall, into our room and under the bed!

So picture Ken and me - the mighty hunters! I had a mop, he had a broom, and we were using them to try to force her out from under there. Finally she burst out right between us and headed straight for the computer desk. There she sat, waiting for the inevitable.

The whole time this was going on Jamie was sitting on the kitchen floor totally immobilized with laughter - and therefore totally worthless! Ken and I were laughing so hard we kept stopping the hunt to catch our breath, and Dufus the Worthless Wonder Dog was just spinning and leaping into the air barking. I finally swooped in and picked her up, and she just looked at me as if to say, "Geez, lady, you people are CRAZY!"

Ken snapped a couple of pictures and then checked her over. If she wasn't hurt, he was just going to release her by the canal. But he found enough blood on her to worry that she might not survive, and we didn't want to release a wounded bird to die a slow, miserable death. So he took her outside and gave her a mighty swing, and that finished her.

While he cleaned her, I cleaned up the feathers, bird doo-doo, and over-excited dog slobber. I heard him say a bad word...then another. He was upset because after all of that commotion, all she had was one pellet barely lodged in her neck. He just looked at me sadly and said, "**** it, if I'd known that was all she had, I'd have pulled the pellet out and let her go. She fought so hard."

Well, eventually she made it into the freezer. I made sure that Ken's birds and the ones I'd shot were in the exact same kind of milk carton so we'd never know which pheasant was gracing our table. And eventually we ate her. The End.

That was great!!!!! I had to read it to my Hubby after I started laughing! He laughed too, and shook his head!

 

[TexasLisa]

Blooie, you are a character! I loved your story and I laughed so hard I was crying. That is a nice picture of you!

I like your pen. Very nice!

Lisa

 

[Blooie]

Blooie, you are a character! I loved your story and I laughed so hard I was crying. That is a nice picture of you!

I like your pen. Very nice!

Lisa

Thank you, Lisa... I don't normally go pheasant hunting with makeup and hair curled, but I had to work half a day that morning and Ken and I met up at Yellowtail after I got off. I am excited about the pen - I think it's going to work out very well once we get it predator protected! Looks like we won't be able to finish it for a few more days - gonna be fighting this storm heading for Sheridan tomorrow, halfway decent weather on Monday, a little shakier on Tuesday, and snow again on Wednesday. <sigh>

 

[TexasLisa]

Thank you, Lisa... I don't normally go pheasant hunting with makeup and hair curled, but I had to work half a day that morning and Ken and I met up at Yellowtail after I got off. I am excited about the pen - I think it's going to work out very well once we get it predator protected! Looks like we won't be able to finish it for a few more days - gonna be fighting this storm heading for Sheridan tomorrow, halfway decent weather on Monday, a little shakier on Tuesday, and snow again on Wednesday. <sigh>

Nothing like going hunting with a classy lady!!

Blooie, how long do you all get snow? Is this the norm?

Lisa

 

[lindz8504]

They were so sleepy, but I loved how this one looked like it was praying!

9 little chickies, all in a pile!

So tired!

Peek-a-boo

Hi!

What is this?!?

These guys were hatch-mates! Black copper maran cockerel, and Bantam Buff Cochin pullet: 31 weeks

Dust bath

She wanted to know what I was doing on my phone! It surprised me when she jumped up on my shoulder!

This was about 5 minutes before! I think I may still have chick food in my hair....

Brought them a bunch of weeds/greens from my grandma's today.