The Front Porch Swing

[wyoDreamer]

Happy Birthday, Bee!

Congrats on the knee sitter, Blooie! Your run is looking very nice, they are going to be very happy and safe in there. I got the map emailed, hope you got it.

Good luck with the computer, Perchie.

I recently (about 5 months ago) got a new laptop, my old one ran Vista and was dyeing very fast. The battery is shot and won't hold a charge so I have to keep it plugged in while I use it. This new one is a Lenovo Yoga and runs Microsoft 8.1 Getting used to 8 is taking a while, and this computer wont run all the software that I would like it to, but it is serving its purpose for now. I like the small size and the ability to fold the monitor back and change it to a tablet for some uses. It is very portable.

Yay on the pip!

 

[rrrmamma]

Bee, I truly believe his is an opportunity from God for both of them. Doug needs to pass on his knowledge and his son has other interests.
I hope your son is the answer to my prayers. I feel it will help Doug focus again on what he really loves and is so good at and at the same time give Eli a chance to learn a trade that will carry him through many years. Gunsmithing and not just "parts changing " is a dying craft and one that may become more necessary as time goes by and rules and regulations change. We will be available when he has the time to come.

 

[Triple Willow]

@Blooie- Careful with those chickens on your shoulder. You can lose an eye.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/877118/a-warning-about-shoulder-chickens#post_13336150

 

[LBejaran]

Haven't been on much today. We finally figured out how to secure the run door with hardware cloth, so we were working on that and now that the girls (and Charlie) are used to going in and out via the chicken tunnel we closed off the top of it. Even the combination of chicken wire topped with hardware cloth seemed to easily defeated. Ken put a heavy cover on it, secured it with screws, and the chickens acted like it had always been like that - no problem with something new at all.

Then I had a town council meeting tonight, so we ran down to Powell, had a pizza, came home and I got ready to go. But I have to tell you something really exciting(well, maybe just exciting to me) that happened while we were working on the run. The pop door was open so the girls (and Charlie) could continue going in and out of the coop, and they behaved very well. Some came over a few times to check out what we were doing, but they didn't get in the way at all. We were "sewing" the hardware cloth to the fencing, passing the wire back and forth to get it really nice and tight. I was sitting on a little 3 legged stool inside the run and Ken was on a step stool outside.

Ken cleared his throat and said, "Diane, you have a chicken eyeing your backside." Oh,oh.....has Jane the Evil returned to renew her attack? I asked him, with a bit of panic in my voice, "Uh, what color is it?"
He replied very quietly, "It's red and white."
Oh, good - that narrows it down to 4! Suddenly she emerged from behind me to stand between me and the fence, eyed me for a minute, then jumped up on my knee! No kidding! None of the chickens has ever approached me before - it's always been me grabbing them! I put my hand under her - I was going to gently "help" her off me, but she settled down as if she was going to roost there for the afternoon! I told Ken to get his phone and snap a picture, especially since it was Rose - one of the original nasty three! By the time he got his phone out of his pocket she was no longer on my knee, had moved to my hand and she was walking up my arm! She lost her balance once and I got a wing in the face, but she recovered and situated herself quite comfortably on my shoulder for just a few seconds before she flew off. It was really something! Imagine that! Rose, asking for forgiveness! And she got it, too!

I know that those of you with lots more chicken experience are probably thinking, "Yeah, and so?" but to me this really was a big deal! I see pictures on BYC all the time of chickens who want to sit on peoples' laps, who watch TV, and who interact with their caretakers quite often. But I've been working my butt off for these girls (and Charlie) since mid-February, before I even picked up the package of chicks at the post office, and this was the first time any of them ever instigated any contact. And it wasn't just that once! After she figured out that she got a few pets, she became a regular knee sitter until we were finished!

I love my shoulder chicken! Well, I miss him now that I'm not home with the flock anymore, but when I was, my little shoulder rooster was one of my favorites. He learned early on to jump on me but I taught him to only jump when my arm was out for him to perch on. He'd then just rest himself on my forearm and let me pet his wattles. It was awfully sweet of him, especially considering his mother and father weren't particularly friendly. Of course, sometimes I'd have to watch out because he ate one of my earrings (I wasn't about to go lookin' through chicken poop for it either), so he was no longer allowed on my shoulder. I miss my chickens. Austin seems like a cool place, but I've only been in this house and the children are everywhere! I get ridiculously tired when around them, but this family is full of extroverts. They don't realize that as an introvert, I need time to recharge. I took a nap yesterday (a two hour nap)! Then the kids wanted to paint an I was like, "Dang, okay, now I need to share my paints." Bad idea! I am going to need to replace a couple bottles of paint later because they just squirted some hefty globs of it on plates and went to town. I was going to give a little of each color these kids, I swear, we're trying to make me scramble. The older kids eventually got them to relax a little, but my paint collection will never be the same, haha! The only choice I have is to find an art store and repurchase some paints. Most of my greens are nearly empty now. I might pick up some simple, kid-friendly art pallets from the store while I'm at it. I think they need small watercolor pallets instead. Or crayons. Or pencils. I don't even want to give them paints anymore. Scary.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I love my shoulder chicken! Well, I miss him now that I'm not home with the flock anymore, but when I was, my little shoulder rooster was one of my favorites.

He learned early on to jump on me but I taught him to only jump when my arm was out for him to perch on. He'd then just rest himself on my forearm and let me pet his wattles. It was awfully sweet of him, especially considering his mother and father weren't particularly friendly.

Of course, sometimes I'd have to watch out because he ate one of my earrings (I wasn't about to go lookin' through chicken poop for it either), so he was no longer allowed on my shoulder.

I miss my chickens. Austin seems like a cool place, but I've only been in this house and the children are everywhere! I get ridiculously tired when around them, but this family is full of extroverts. They don't realize that as an introvert, I need time to recharge. I took a nap yesterday (a two hour nap)!

Then the kids wanted to paint an I was like, "Dang, okay, now I need to share my paints."

Bad idea! I am going to need to replace a couple bottles of paint later because they just squirted some hefty globs of it on plates and went to town. I was going to give a little of each color these kids, I swear, we're trying to make me scramble.

The older kids eventually got them to relax a little, but my paint collection will never be the same, haha! The only choice I have is to find an art store and repurchase some paints. Most of my greens are nearly empty now. I might pick up some simple, kid-friendly art pallets from the store while I'm at it. I think they need small watercolor pallets instead. Or crayons. Or pencils. I don't even want to give them paints anymore. Scary.

Chalk it up to experience. Setting limits so the children learn to be respectful of other people and other people's things will be a huge benefit to the kids and to you, too. Understanding limits and respect is a life skill (from both sides of the situation). School aged children are old enough to respect art supplies ... but they do follow the teachers' lead on that.

I'd ask the parents what kinds of art supplies they want their kids to have access to ... on their property, without smocks, etc.

I'm not sure I'd buy stuff for anyone else's kids with my own money. I think that could get out of hand very quickly.

 

[LBejaran]

Chalk it up to experience. Setting limits so the children learn to be respectful of other people and other people's things will be a huge benefit to the kids and to you, too. Understanding limits and respect is a life skill (from both sides of the situation). School aged children are old enough to respect art supplies ... but they do follow the teachers' lead on that. 

I'd ask the parents what kinds of art supplies they want their kids to have access to ... on their property, without smocks, etc.

I'm not sure I'd buy stuff for anyone else's kids with my own money. I think that could get out of hand very quickly. 

To be fair, I'm living with them, rent-free and they pay for food. They are being pretty kid to me and I can try and pay them back. However, you're right. I don't know that buying them their own paints is a great idea. Seriously, the mess was horrendous. I had to scrub that table so hard. The good thing was that I gave them carpenter's paper to paint on, so it covered most of the table anyway.

I'm gonna try to explain to the kiddos that if we paint again, I control the paints. There was too much waste going on and paints are not always as cheap as mine are. But you've seen the eggs I paint with them. I need them to continue my hobby.

That being said, the older kids were sorry for using up so much paint. They had fun and their parents were able to go out last night and relax. But remember, I'm new to this. The last time I babysat someone, they we're able to watch movies and television. These kids are not and since they are homeschooled, they are taught about listening a little differently.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

To be fair, I'm living with them, rent-free and they pay for food. They are being pretty kid to me and I can try and pay them back. However, you're right. I don't know that buying them their own paints is a great idea. Seriously, the mess was horrendous. I had to scrub that table so hard. The good thing was that I gave them carpenter's paper to paint on, so it covered most of the table anyway.

I'm gonna try to explain to the kiddos that if we paint again, I control the paints. There was too much waste going on and paints are not always as cheap as mine are. But you've seen the eggs I paint with them. I need them to continue my hobby.

That being said, the older kids were sorry for using up so much paint. They had fun and their parents were able to go out last night and relax. But remember, I'm new to this. The last time I babysat someone, they we're able to watch movies and television. These kids are not and since they are homeschooled, they are taught about listening a little differently.

I think it would be terribly, terribly easy for that to be the "excuse" used by both sides to allow for bad behavior, taking advantage of each other and each other's stuff, and ultimately mutual unhappiness. That's fine for adults to choose that for themselves, but kids are involved. The kids are learning something from the arrangement, and it could be something really good. Or not.

Babysitting is a skill. I couldn't do it.

 

[LBejaran]

I think it would be terribly, terribly easy for that to be the "excuse" used by both sides to allow for bad behavior, taking advantage of each other and each other's stuff, and ultimately mutual unhappiness. That's fine for adults to choose that for themselves, but kids are involved. The kids are learning something from the arrangement, and it could be something really good. Or not.

Babysitting is a skill. I couldn't do it. 

I'm not taking this so seriously. The kids are mostly great and the issues I'm dealing with are mostly my own. The paints will e replaced and the kids are just gonna have to keep using their colored pencils. We probably won't paint for quite some time. It was stressful, messy, and only the bigger kids are responsible enough to handle the "Ask and I'll help" portion of it. They understand that.

It didn't help that yesterday, I was super tired and unable to handle much. It was a long day. Today is going by much more quickly because I have work to do. Yesterday, there was nothing.

Either way, I'm just gonna focus on my work. No use in crying over spilled paint. I have some graphics to make.

 

[bruceha2000]

Don't get Windows 8. It is horrible!

Windows? What is this Windoze?

Everyone in my family runs Macs, except my younger daughter, now finishing her first year of college. She wanted a machine that had a finger swipe entry rather than password so she got a ThinkPad a year ago. She was ADAMANT that it have Windows 7 and NOT 8.

I suffered through many years of Windows at work, XP mostly once it came out. They shifted to Win 7 a couple of years ago. That was bad enough (and I ALWAYS hated getting new computers, guaranteed 2 weeks of no productivity while everything was installed and configured. Those that just ran mail and maybe a spread sheet were OK but as a software developer, I had big problems). Never had to deal with Win 8 but I guess my daughter had given her requirement that it not be on her laptop.

Bruce

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I forgot to type this up the other day. Right after the day that a small-looking coyote came right up to the front door of the house and snagged a hen that was out free-ranging one of our employees had his own interesting coyote encounter.

We have a landscape maintenance business. One of our guys was at a home where chickens range in the yard. The employee was using a leaf blower, which you know would probably freak out the chickens. But instead of running away from our employee, the chicken got right between his legs and stayed there, no matter how the employee danced around trying to "let her get away" so he wouldn't step on her. Then the employee looked up, and there was a coyote just a few yards away, watching the chicken. The employee was really impressed that the chicken would know to come to him, a "stranger" human, for protection from the coyote.

I'm thinking it is peek coyote season here right now. I'm impressed (and horrified, of course) at the smarts the coyote showed in "hunting" the chicken right from our front yard. We have a long driveway with two large circles. One of the circles comes past the front door of the house, and is only used by visitors (so isn't used much). Inside that circle is where my First Favorite Tree lives. It is a large grassy circle with a tall boxwood all the way around it except for two openings in direct alignment with the front door, so it looks like a path. The coyote waited for the free-ranging chickens to venture from the back yard of the house (where their coop is) around to the front yard, then waited for the chickens to come across the driveway at the front door and into one of the openings so they could forage in grassy area inside the circle of hedge. The coyote came in through the other opening (closer to the fields) and when the chickens panicked and tried to find their way back out, he was able to pick one off. He did this at least twice in this same spot before I decided it wasn't a fluke and realized I can't free-range the flock until we have more fencing.

Two nights ago I took Gust out at about 9:30, and there was a raccoon on the back deck. It reminded me of the rounder of my two gray tabby cats (the one with the big bottom), so it must be young. Gust ran to it, and it jumped off the high side of the deck to the patio below and disappeared into the night. Now Gust goes looking for it whenever we let him out, but we can't let him run around the yard right now because there are traps set.

"We" called in the professional trappers, and I have been told they set up 4 baited traps at least a week ago, but "we" have not caught a single raccoon. If I know how things work around here, the traps that are set on our property are the most dangerous and least effective kind. The kind that is more likely to kill a food-motivated Golden Lab than catch a raccoon. When I asked about this, I got evasive eye maneuvers and unintelligible double-speak. I think we're paying a general "service fee" for having the traps maintained. I suggested perhaps we could negotiate a trapping contract that paid more on numbers of predators caught than on numbers of traps and numbers of days those traps are in place.

On the bright side, maybe one of the raccoon traps will catch a young coyote.