The NFC B-Day Chat Thread

[ronott1]

I went down to my bird shed this morning to hear that male quail going nutty, then I heard a baby peeping! Sure enough there was one in there being protected by the older hen. I whipped the baby out to get it out of harms way, popped it with the other three, then went back and got this hen, whose name is Spicey, and took her in to the babies in the hopes that she'd adopt them. Not sure what I was worried about as she's been helping to raise babies since she was still a baby herself. She's such a honey and went right to teaching them how to find food and letting them snuggle under her. Phew! Less work for me and no heat lamp required.

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Yesterday was good. I'd had a terrible nights sleep as those 3 baby quail kept losing each other and peeping loudly, so at 1am I got up and moved them into the laundry. After that I just dozed and had weird dreams. Anyway, we decided that, for what we want to do especially, there just wasn't good enough site access for a truck with a house on it to get in. And it's south facing, which for us in the Southern Hemisphere isn't good. It's just so lovely seeing all the birds - there was a hawk circling, kingfisher and fantail flitting about.

We got a tour of two other blocks that still have pine trees on them yet to be cleared but they will be up for sale at some point. They are much bigger (3 and almost 4 times as big so it was a good walk) and we really don't need that much land, they would still have the stumps all over them, don't have power to them, so not sure they are for us. A neighbour who has been there 20 years showed us around. He was a real character but so nice. We saw wild turkey and there are even peacocks living wild there - we could hear them and we saw one as it dashed off into the bush. We saw Paradise ducklings too with their Mum. It was beautiful under the trees and one property gets a gorgeous view out to the estuary from one point. There are a couple of other properties we can look at but after our big walk we were parched - it was a really hot day, and it was getting late for getting back to the kids. So we shall see.

Auckland traffic is terrible no matter what time of day and public transport is useless unless you are moving around the inner city. I'm very glad we went up yesterday as it's Labour weekend here which means everyone will be coming back from their long weekend away today. The traffic will be shocking today.

They are so little!

 

[perchie.girl]

Sacramento has bad traffic all year long. I-5, I-80 and Hhw 50 all come together. Hwy 99 From Sac to Modesto has the highest number of Fatalities

its usually the ones that handle only commuters and have alot of switch backs.... We have 94 same deal....
deb

 

[sharron]

I went down to my bird shed this morning to hear that male quail going nutty, then I heard a baby peeping! Sure enough there was one in there being protected by the older hen. I whipped the baby out to get it out of harms way, popped it with the other three, then went back and got this hen, whose name is Spicey, and took her in to the babies in the hopes that she'd adopt them. Not sure what I was worried about as she's been helping to raise babies since she was still a baby herself. She's such a honey and went right to teaching them how to find food and letting them snuggle under her. Phew! Less work for me and no heat lamp required.

View attachment 1567217 View attachment 1567215 View attachment 1567216

Yesterday was good. I'd had a terrible nights sleep as those 3 baby quail kept losing each other and peeping loudly, so at 1am I got up and moved them into the laundry. After that I just dozed and had weird dreams. Anyway, we decided that, for what we want to do especially, there just wasn't good enough site access for a truck with a house on it to get in. And it's south facing, which for us in the Southern Hemisphere isn't good. It's just so lovely seeing all the birds - there was a hawk circling, kingfisher and fantail flitting about.

We got a tour of two other blocks that still have pine trees on them yet to be cleared but they will be up for sale at some point. They are much bigger (3 and almost 4 times as big so it was a good walk) and we really don't need that much land, they would still have the stumps all over them, don't have power to them, so not sure they are for us. A neighbour who has been there 20 years showed us around. He was a real character but so nice. We saw wild turkey and there are even peacocks living wild there - we could hear them and we saw one as it dashed off into the bush. We saw Paradise ducklings too with their Mum. It was beautiful under the trees and one property gets a gorgeous view out to the estuary from one point. There are a couple of other properties we can look at but after our big walk we were parched - it was a really hot day, and it was getting late for getting back to the kids. So we shall see.

Auckland traffic is terrible no matter what time of day and public transport is useless unless you are moving around the inner city. I'm very glad we went up yesterday as it's Labour weekend here which means everyone will be coming back from their long weekend away today. The traffic will be shocking today.

 

[JaeG]

They are so little!

They are like bumblebees. But very lively - they are so active they are hard to keep a hold of, and already this morning they were getting a bit nervous of my hand. Wild little things, so it's much easier for Spicey to look after them.

 

[007Sean]

But you also have the luxury of having people around you who usually know how to drive and like you stay in....

I have seen some of your snow in pictures...

Awesomely pretty and scary at the same time. Most we get is about a foot between my house and San Diego...


deb

In North Texas, north of Dallas were I grew up, we usually got 2 or 3 snow/ice storms a year. Usually only around 2 to 2.5 ft at most. Ice storms were the worse but had to drive in it anyway.
As the old saying goes, if God had wanted Texans to ski, he would have made BS white!

 

[bruceha2000]

I have seen some of your snow in pictures...

Even a small amount of that is scary. At some point the vehicle gets on the interstate and all that starts flying off and smacking the vehicles behind, blinding the driver. Accident waiting to happen.

They are much bigger (3 and almost 4 times as big so it was a good walk) and we really don't need that much land, they would still have the stumps all over them, don't have power to them, so not sure they are for us.

See beyond the "now" Jae. Stumps can be removed. Or ignored other than at the house site, let the goats wander among them. If no power the price will be less. Someone has to pay to bring it in. How far is it from the power lines to where you would put a house? Get a general estimate of the cost to bring power in, usually done by the foot or other measurement. Maybe by the meter there. A view of an estuary would be very nice. All the wildlife that you would see!

 

[perchie.girl]

Maybe you could do one of those bus tours? And I didn't realize Chicago was big for tourism.

I prefer not to be on a bus with a bunch of gripy pushy old people.... LOL... Generalizing here. seriously getting up and down the stairs is not a choice for me... and having a wheel chair attendant would be just as annoying... But yeah I would love to see those places Would love to see the BIG BALL of STRING... somewhere...

The whole tourisim thing for me Is me observing the tourists and chatting with people new to town I am a San Diego buff... Love this place even with its warts. I know alot of the history surrounding the San Diego area.... From the wooden road that crossed the desert to get here back in the twenties, The butterfield Stage route... Wyatt Earps Card parlors.... Buffalo soldiers... Spanish American War Battles.... Otay Mesa, San Pasqual, The missions ... the first mission in California was in San Diego... Mission De Alcala....

Balboa park in of itself is part of history.... https://www.sdhpr.org/historyBP.html

 

[007Sean]

They are like bumblebees. But very lively - they are so active they are hard to keep a hold of, and already this morning they were getting a bit nervous of my hand. Wild little things, so it's much easier for Spicey to look after them.

Mine go broody but won't sit on a clutch long enough to hatch. Wish they would, I would probably raise more of the "bumblebees"! ....never thought of them as bumblebees, I'm stealing your "term" for them...they do act like them though, huh!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Not necessarily. Some cities have mass transit that goes out a ways. You could drive to the terminal parking area and take the public transit in to the city.

Very true, I know we have a T innto the city but I have to drive 20 mins to get to it and we have a train/commuter rail too only a few mins from my house. Idk if Pittsburgh does. I've read they don't have much public transit or npt good ones but would need to read more.

 

[perchie.girl]

In North Texas, north of Dallas were I grew up, we usually got 2 or 3 snow/ice storms a year. Usually only around 2 to 2.5 ft at most. Ice storms were the worse but had to drive in it anyway.
As the old saying goes, if God had wanted Texans to ski, he would have made BS white!

Yep My dad was born in Texas.... He could BS with the best of em....