The Old Folks Home

[Nomadicus]

Good morning old folks.

 

[sourland]

Good morning, OF.

 

[Nomadicus]

The sun maybe shining here but the feels like is somewhere in the mid 30's and I do not function well outside when the feels like is below 50°. The wind is blowing up a hard freeze again for tonight.

 

[microchick]

Afternoon ladies and gents.

 

[ronott1]

Afternoon old folks! Been spending the past two days decorating. Well, day and a half I guess. Decided this year to scale back. usually takes me three days as I have a lot of Christmas stuff and half the battle is deciding which to rotate on any given year.

Anyhoo. I've been nursing a rooster who turned up with a head wound. Figured he had been pecked by one of the younger cockerels but then saw a bantam hen pecking at him, which is how I found the head wound and huge scab. This little guy is so much a pet. I brought him in, put him in the brooder cage and started nursing him with antibiotics topical and oral.

Then it looked like he came down with a case of fowl pox. With temps hovering around freezing? Really? He's the only one showing the classic bumps coming up around his comb, on his comb and around one eye. Possible to catch it from a carrier wild bird? In winter? I've been checking the rest of the flock every day but no signs of anything suspicious on them.

Leave it to my birds to do something completely off the wall different and do it up right.

That is an odd one! Fowl pox are from Mosquitos.

I hope he recovers!

 

[ronott1]

During the course of the day our forecast has been lowered about 4° to well below freezing. To cold for this time of year. I out foxed the guessers though and have my structure around my banana trees being kept above freezing with a brooder heat lamp. I used some of my redneck engineering and hung it well secured so that its cage that protects the bulb is setting in an old heavy iron skillet that is setting on a cement paver. Tomorrow I'll get the timer installed so I don't have to get up and out when the temp his supposed to be a few above freezing and turn it off. Last night I managed to protect the 3 trees by running a sprinkler under them. Might have a little freeze burn on the edges of a few leaves but they didn't get killed back to the ground like they have every year until now.

It has never gotten that cold here! The record low since they started keeping records is 17F

 

[ronott1]

Our closest possibility of development is to the north. So far, there is nothing close enough for us to see, but that could change at any time. We own about 200', so a bit of a buffer. But not much, compared to the other directions.

Should the farmer ever sell his acreage on both side of the road and it was developed, the character of this place would change. But living out here is NOT for everyone. Especially in the winter when the county doesn't get around to plowing the road right away.

And now that we're both retired and rarely have to go somewhere, I don't care about the plowing. A day or two? Eh, I'll reschedule my chiropractor appointment, and we have enough food on hand to sit tight for awhile.

They keep building sub divisions around us. We used to be at the East end of Woodland now there are a couple of miles of houses north and south of us.

At least we do not get tumbleweeds in the yard anymore!

 

[microchick]

That is an odd one! Fowl pox are from Mosquitos.

I hope he recovers!

Tell me about it. He started eating on his own two nights ago and last night I was able to get the large scab off of his neck/head, and this morning the smaller scabs have fallen off with only 3 remaining. The swelling on his right eye is going down also and he is crowing his little brains out today.

Also, the rest of the flock is clean after over 2 weeks of treating Joker so I don't know what is going on. The original scab could have been a peck injury, but the following raised pimple like areas and scabs around his comb, on his comb and around his eyes matched fowl pox to the letter.

Right now I just am tickled to death that he is doing better, thanks for the well wishes, Ron.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Still letting the hair dry took a hot shower felt great.
Went to DH's Doctor Office this morning meds in hand.
We have a appointment at 7:45 thursday morning.

 

[Nomadicus]

Tonight will be the coldest so far since last winter. Looking at around 8 hours of below freezing temps tonight with 5 of those around 28°. This is way to early in the year for these temps. Maybe it will mean fewer pests in the spring gardens.