The Front Porch Swing

[LindaB220]

Laura! I just checked out your painted eggs! You do a really great job! I love to paint, but I'm not sure I could paint on a small egg like that. Good Job!

x2 Laura, why not get some ducks. Give you a greater canvas.

 

[Blooie]

Got a busy day today so I'll be popping in and out, and likely be "mostly out". Every year Cowley does a town wide cleanup for a week. That's when we can all set stuff out on the town right of way and our town crew picks it up and hauls it off for free. They take everything but tires, batteries, paint and bricks, and refrigerators must be freon-free. Other than that the sky's the limit - and believe me sky high is how big some people's stacks of junk are! All the town wants the homeowners to do is separate the stuff in the piles...metal, windows, wood, trash...for the recycle truck. Lots of people use this time to go searching through stuff that others have discarded too, so that helps get some of it recycled too. It's a fun time here despite the work. Then on Saturday we all meet at the Log Gym, don our orange vests, and divide the town into quadrants.

Each group takes a quadrant, works it by cutting tall weeds that have sprung up with the warmer weather, trash, trimming tree branches for our older folks, checking for broken sprinkler heads on Main Street's "green belt", and just generally cleaning up Cowley from winter's messes. We all meet back at the Log Gym and check in, and those who were out cleaning get their tickets for the free barbecue. And we give away trees too. Lilac bushes, cottonless cottonwoods, etc. for anyone who wants them. This year we also ordered some aspens, so I'm gonna grab one or two of those myself. This year will be odd for me. It's the first year I haven't been physically able to wear the vest and walk a quadrant, but I'll be helping with the barbecue instead.

We'll be cleaning out the garage, getting rid of stuff that's accumulated around it, and the junk that's tucked into the corner of our fence line out to to curb today. The garage will be the worst because Ken is such a pack- rat. And I can get rid of our old stove, a hopelessly trashed lawn mower, some of the kids' outdoor toys that have been played to death and can't be fixed one more time, and boxes of old junk that wouldn't bring a dime at a yard sale. Jenny already did theirs, and right now her place looks terrible with all that junk out in front! LOL Tammy didn't have much this year, but hers is already out too. We're the late ones in the family so I need to get on my cleanup clothes and get busy.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Got a busy day today so I'll be popping in and out, and likely be "mostly out". Every year Cowley does a town wide cleanup for a week. That's when we can all set stuff out on the town right of way and our town crew picks it up and hauls it off for free. They take everything but tires, batteries, paint and bricks, and refrigerators must be freon-free. Other than that the sky's the limit - and believe me sky high is how big some people's stacks of junk are! All the town wants the homeowners to do is separate the stuff in the piles...metal, windows, wood, trash...for the recycle truck. Lots of people use this time to go searching through stuff that others have discarded too, so that helps get some of it recycled too. It's a fun time here despite the work. Then on Saturday we all meet at the Log Gym, don our orange vests, and divide the town into quadrants.

Each group takes a quadrant, works it by cutting tall weeds that have sprung up with the warmer weather, trash, trimming tree branches for our older folks, checking for broken sprinkler heads on Main Street's "green belt", and just generally cleaning up Cowley from winter's messes. We all meet back at the Log Gym and check in, and those who were out cleaning get their tickets for the free barbecue. And we give away trees too. Lilac bushes, cottonless cottonwoods, etc. for anyone who wants them. This year we also ordered some aspens, so I'm gonna grab one or two of those myself. This year will be odd for me. It's the first year I haven't been physically able to wear the vest and walk a quadrant, but I'll be helping with the barbecue instead.

We'll be cleaning out the garage, getting rid of stuff that's accumulated around it, and the junk that's tucked into the corner of our fence line out to to curb today. The garage will be the worst because Ken is such a pack- rat. And I can get rid of our old stove, a hopelessly trashed lawn mower, some of the kids' outdoor toys that have been played to death and can't be fixed one more time, and boxes of old junk that wouldn't bring a dime at a yard sale. Jenny already did theirs, and right now her place looks terrible with all that junk out in front! LOL Tammy didn't have much this year, but hers is already out too. We're the late ones in the family so I need to get on my cleanup clothes and get busy.

Great Idea!!! I really need something like that!!! We are in a rural area, so we have to haul stuff away. The closest place is about 40 mi from here. We have so much stuff around our barn. We keep saying we are going to have a great big yard sale, but time is the enemy! My DH is in construction, so stuff left over from jobs get brought home. We also are ones who try to reuse things that can be recycled, old windows, wood, metal, etc. Our chicken coops have old windows from leftover jobs, and some of the left over metal roofing is used on temporary pens as covering. So if you look in our barn, as our BIL says, "Man, you are a hoarder!!! " he isn't far off he mark!!

 

[Oldmomma]

Talking about rain barrels and run off reminded me of something my son in law told me one year. We have a large covered patio on the back of the house and its gutters run down one side into pvc tubes that were to drain back into the soil being buried about a foot down and preforated. We are very sandy in most parts of Colorado plains and lucky if you dont have benonite. Its worse than clay. Anyways I had a bunch of bees build a hive down one pipe and they were always clogged with leaves so I pulled the pipe up to ground level. Well one year it was raining cats and dogs and we had water restrictions past 3 yrs. So I got a barrel and old milk jugs and started storing water for my plants. My sil came by and I ran out to start bottling some water and he told me, "dont let the city see you doing that, they will fine you for taking city water!" Yep the water that drsins off our lawns goes to a canal system and to our storage sites folks call lakes. So check you just might get into trouble catching rain water off your own house! I told him tough, it fell on my house, my land its mine. But after that I kept my jugs of water outta sight. By doing so I had 2 to 3 months of water for plants. Now I save water off my cooler to water plants, most places here do the same. I can fill a barrel a night with the humidity levels here. And most homes have rooftop collection bins.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Yay! I think I finally got a feed recipe from my feed mill that will work as an All Purpose Feed for all the birds in our flock. It's got extra amounts of some nutrients to cover the ducks and the younger birds and the breeders, and less calcium (we'll continue to offer oyster shell on the side).

It will be custom milled by a small local independent mill and locally sourced as much as possible. It is GMO-Free, it is Corn-Free, it is Soy-Free, it is Canola-Free, it is Camolina-Free. Some of those "free" requests come from my customer base, some come from my own personal preferences. It is pelleted for minimal waste and maximum nutrition. It is really just what I wanted. Yay!

But I have a decision to make. She gave me two options, one for a formula with 2x as much fish meal as the other (but more expensive), and the other with just a hint of fish meal (but a little less expensive). We know the birds do better with more animal protein, and neither recipe has enough of the fish meal to show up as a taste in the eggs or meat.

The less-expensive formula is comparable to what we've been paying per bag, the other is about $1 more per bag, but will probably save me sneaking cat kibble into my FF.

Which would you choose?

 

[OHhappychicks]

Talking about rain barrels and run off reminded me of something my son in law told me one year. We have a large covered patio on the back of the house and its gutters run down one side into pvc tubes that were to drain back into the soil being buried about a foot down and preforated. We are very sandy in most parts of Colorado plains and lucky if you dont have benonite. Its worse than clay. Anyways I had a bunch of bees build a hive down one pipe and they were always clogged with leaves so I pulled the pipe up to ground level. Well one year it was raining cats and dogs and we had water restrictions past 3 yrs. So I got a barrel and old milk jugs and started storing water for my plants. My sil came by and I ran out to start bottling some water and he told me, "dont let the city see you doing that, they will fine you for taking city water!" Yep the water that drsins off our lawns goes to a canal system and to our storage sites folks call lakes. So check you just might get into trouble catching rain water off your own house! I told him tough, it fell on my house, my land its mine. But after that I kept my jugs of water outta sight. By doing so I had 2 to 3 months of water for plants. Now I save water off my cooler to water plants, most places here do the same. I can fill a barrel a night with the humidity levels here. And most homes have rooftop collection bins.

Oh my goodness! I would have done the same. Who would've thought! We live out of city, in the country and we have a well. So no such restrictions here. Praise the Lord!!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: Dang a chip on the coffin bone is a big deal. What breed is he? Katee is a Percheron and an itchy soul herself. She decided she didnt want a mane any more a few years back. Went from 18 inches long to semi roached looking in about six months.... sigh.

She just turned twenty.

deb

 

[LindaB220]

Yay! I think I finally got a feed recipe from my feed mill that will work as an All Purpose Feed for all the birds in our flock. It's got extra amounts of some nutrients to cover the ducks and the younger birds and the breeders, and less calcium (we'll continue to offer oyster shell on the side).

It will be custom milled by a small local independent mill and locally sourced as much as possible. It is GMO-Free, it is Corn-Free, it is Soy-Free, it is Canola-Free, it is Camolina-Free. Some of those "free" requests come from my customer base, some come from my own personal preferences. It is pelleted for minimal waste and maximum nutrition. It is really just what I wanted. Yay!

But I have a decision to make. She gave me two options, one for a formula with 2x as much fish meal as the other (but more expensive), and the other with just a hint of fish meal (but a little less expensive). We know the birds do better with more animal protein, and neither recipe has enough of the fish meal to show up as a taste in the eggs or meat.

The less-expensive formula is comparable to what we've been paying per bag, the other is about $1 more per bag, but will probably save me sneaking cat kibble into my FF.

Which would you choose?

Get the better one. In the long run, it will save you money. If only to pick up new customers at your new tasty eggs.

At least try it first. If no improvement switch to the other. It's not written in stone.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Get the better one. In the long run, it will save you money. If only to pick up new customers at your new tasty eggs.

At least try it first. If no improvement switch to the other. It's not written in stone.

This is true. We'll need to order in batches of "one ton," but that much doesn't really last all that long here.

I think our eggs already taste great on "regular" feed. We have gotten reports from picky customers that some of the boutique feeds other people use make funky tasting eggs ... but who knows what else is going on there. I'm pretty careful about treats and also about how I handle and store the eggs so they don't pick up extra flavors.

I wanted to start my birds on GMO-Free feeds, but the price of those at the farm store blew my mind. Until now I've been using big-brand feeds, and that can mean anything goes into them, they don't need to specify ... on top of that, the Purina plant in my area was responsible for a big recall ... and I haven't ever gotten anyone at Purina to give me their complete product list, either. A while back I switched to a different brand, and am getting better results, but their feed recipes are mysterious at best.

My customer base here is pretty darn demanding when it comes to "what kind of feed" people use for their farm animals, and have started drifting to farms that offer "organic" eggs, or "soy-free" or whatever. So I wanted to do this for a LONG time, but couldn't find a source for feeds that I trusted. There is a LOT of funky double-speak out there in the Livestock Feed Industry. Oh my. It's almost as bad as Whole Foods!

Even with this feed formula, the heritage livestock conservancy would consider the feed to be deficient in protein by nearly 10%. I tried to get them to explain to me how they came up with their protein recommendations, and didn't get much more than anecdotal evidence ... I gather that one farm using a high-protein diet (mystery formula for proprietary reasons) is out-performing other breeders. I didn't find that info terribly helpful.

 

[MistyMountain]

Dang a chip on the coffin bone is a big deal. What breed is he? Katee is a Percheron and an itchy soul herself. She decided she didnt want a mane any more a few years back. Went from 18 inches long to semi roached looking in about six months.... sigh.

She just turned twenty.

deb

Yup, just my luck. Mom bought him for me when I was 13. Hind sight is 20/20, but she paid too much for him and did not get a vet check done. Of course I was oblivious to all of that back then too. I would have been so upset if I knew she wanted to get him for me and did not. She surprised me. I had rode him a couple times for lessons. He was a good lesson horse, not because he had been through the ropes a gazillion times, but because he actually made you work, think, and was a great example that not all horses are alike. I went to my lesson the next week and was all ready to get him, but he was not in his stall waiting for me. My instructor gave me a lead rope and walked with me out to the pasture (mom waited in the barn, not an outdoors person). I asked who we were catching today and she pointed to Valentine and said he's yours, go get him. One of the best days of my youth. He's tall and slender built. Makes you wonder if someone jumped the fence as he looks nothing like his dam or sire. Not possible because he was born at that farm and they only specialize in Quarter horses. There was a time when I was working (I did chores all summer long at the farm to offset board) and someone came in looking at a horse for sale. He was in his stall because I would always ride after chores were done. The people walked through and came back asking about "the saddlebred in the last stall". Heh heh heh. The looks on their faces when I would correct them.

It does kill me when he rubs his mane. It used to be so long and pretty. It's flaxen and contrasted nicely against his dark sorrel coat.

Valentine turned 23 this past Valentine's day. I have some baby pics of him somewhere. If I can find them I will share the one where he really looks like a little saddlebred colt!