The Old Folks Home

[bamadude]

our checkout time was 11:00. We are already in dothan. It would have been nice to get together with yall tho.

 

[dsqard]

Wisher and bamadude I used to live in Navarre about 1/2 east of Pensacola. Beautiful area. Went to a concert at Pensacola beach and watched people catch baby sharks off Navarre pier. That convinced me to only swim in the pool for our housing development. It didn't help that the first week we lived in Florida a boy was attacked by a bull shark at Pensacola beach.

 

[bamadude]

this is how it looked right before we headed home. I got waaayyyy too much sun yesterday. I have some sunblock for u guys to avoid. When we unpack i will post what brand name it is. My chickens havnt been out of their coop since sunday. I was worried about em.

 

[CanuckBock]

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I do believe I "could" harvest a multiplier onion perhaps? That one thar looks awful tempting!

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Cherries and crabapples have finished blossoming...the cherries look not too bad, so will see if we can beat the birds to a few sweet reds later in the season. I could net them I suppose but half the fun is seeing what comes calling to get at the fruit.

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Lilacs filling the air with "bus load of old lady" smells & lots of colour to jazz up my shade garden and concrete 'yotes!​

Small water garden flowers are blossoming in white--stuff is alive and giving it all its worth!​

The Man Porch plants are doing fab...luscious greens and lots of flowers to admire and soak up.

Rick picked up two hanging baskets at an excellent reduced price and there are promising flowers on the tomatoes...yee haw!​

What a gorgeous show the Dolgo crabapple tree put on...got my pic of the dogs under it.

Foamy & Fixins​

This year the rains were kind and timed themselves well...we have had years where the rain BEAT the blossoms off the trees...I hate that!


Doing a lot of silly frivolous fun stuff...summer silliness abounds. Thank heavens it lasts only for a few months, eh? Could be dangerous if the ice and snow did not freeze up the stupidness about here.

Got five walls of wood done up from the wood that was in the way of the construction of the parking building. It no longer beckons me to move it, so shucky darn and slop the chickens...she's walls of privacy back up and glorious!

Now let the summer warmth and winds dry these into wonderful burning firewood.

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Hand balmed in yet more gravel for the perimeter around the Taj...the rains help stabilize and wash it in nicely. Can't imagine doing a lot of this work if it was truly summerish hot out. Make hay when the sun shines...haul loads when it don't. LOL

I changed socks THREE times just for this back side bit of gravel relocating.​

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Did up what I thought was enough for the backside and Rick says maybe one more tractor bucket for the low spot...

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I put on one cart load of some limerock to reaffirm that we like the effect of the colored rock as a perimeter around the Mandarin Duck's Taj Mahal building.

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While I was doing limerock, decided to resurface the front of the Duck Barn too. Can't really pour concrete as sidewalks and the limerock seems a great compromise for pathways and building well travelled areas. Any concrete sidewalks I have seen here are split and heaved. Not too nice looking...so the limerock seems a good choice.

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Redid the Pear A Dice signs on the two goose houses.

Sure they looked nice...some years back!​

They are now looking pretty trashed (parts on the left side of photo below--sun and cold split the two yeller pears...looked like something nibbled them and the "bronzed" chains rusted up and the wooden dice all cracked and the dots sloughed off the surfaces) and so would I hanging around outside all year for the past, oh thinking 12 years perhaps?

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Pretty TACKY eh? Had Rick laughing...gaudy, tacky...oh purdy out thar...shabby chic?

Inspector and quality control; Fixins the Critical Dog!​

So I hung off the step ladder and proudly hung up the new replacement signs. Let the silliness continue!

Got a few stencils I wanna do up on some terra cotta pots. Do you think I could find someone to show me what a "stencil" brush was...not done any stencils as in painty up ones, so am new to this crafty artsy fartsy fandangle method. Next time in town, will grab me a stencil brush and maybe a few more little bottles of acrylic. Laughed as Rick knew what a stencil brush was but he was not in the store to assist but out in the truck...patiently waiting!

Ricky Skaggs - Patiently Waiting:

Well that Hatch house is done like dinner!

Higgins Brooder I'm​

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Room is all painted, new metal screen over the window...laid down paper on the floor to try and keep it nice and clean...and she is completed! Rick upgraded the power source and I moved Buster the Incubator into the building.

Even took out the big old Moose Rick bought me some years back and set him up on the Brooder porch...

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Buster seems happy in his new digs--filled up on Monday and rip roaring.

Brimith over Buster!​

Scares me every year...the running of the bator is a gentle hum even with its high velocity fan...the quietness of the pending CHEEPS and PEEPS... I guess I'll never get over the marvelous wonderment of the egg--such an innocent whole lotta pending trouble. Ha ha ha...bring on the fuzz butts!


Took a few pictures of my White Dove Bantam Chantecler F4 project birds...I am seeing these winter natural hatched chooks growing up pretty nicely. Very pleased with the shape and function.

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Both are very young and will be nice to see them as two year olds.
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Staying little...the whole point of making the bantam lines! LOL

The female is a classic block shape as Jeffrey's describes the Bantam Chantecler to be...get the miscoloured leaky phaemelanin covered over--lose the buff and off white colourations--and not too shabby. Temperament on both is sweet and I can see me owning a whole lot more of the same. Keep plugging away at it, year nine now.

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Wore my Road Kill Grillin' apron to a bus meeting...

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Told the other drivers was going to start up a new summer job...

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Now if any of you's believe that story...I got me a bridge I'd like to sell yah too....heh heh heh....

Why be normal when one can be way out thar...???



Quote:
Originally Posted by bamadude

I just watched a guy catch a 47 inch long shark in the same spot we were swimming all day. Kinda spooky

Fish gotta eat too...I am betting the sharks on vacation beaches taste the bestest ... sorta like "you are what you eat" and cannibals say, "humans ARE delicious!"

Two more kinds of toadstool mushrooms for you CC...

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First one is a Boletus (that be spongy under the cap) and I could eat that in a heart beat...the second one, well I'm thinking sure...eat this one with its "cape" or frilly hood on the stem and I'll take a trip and never leave the farm...tee hee--jest to quote Jim Stafford and the Wildwood Flower...old AND bold...or just stoopid?

I read with horror about CC's run in with the weasels...horrid things. My BIL lived for years with weasels under his pheasant house...I guess there were enough mice to keep them from looking at his birds as a source of food. Course that being said...takes an instant for them to turn to yer lovely birds...agh!

About the worst things we face are the numerous varmit like predators here...mink, martin, the weasels, there are bobcats too...and the usual coyotes, and then there is grizzly bears and the cougars. These are the two extremes (tiny as in weasel and large as in bears) past the usually winged birds of prey, skunks, neighbour's dogs/cats, etc. Zero predation since Earth Day 2007 and that one was my fault...let an old yard hen stay out instead of doing the head count...back to head counts, no one left out over night.

One of the last buildings Rick built is probably the most secure in regards to a good deterrent to weasels (like such a thing exists even?). This is the Swan & Ruddy Shel building.

We are surrounded in trees so all the runs are roofed to keep the "drop ins" out!

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I swore as an adult, no more mucky icky runs...if one can control the moisture that gets into a bird run, you can actually have wonderful sandy runs for the birds to enjoy--year round. Not to mention how I abhor the thought of predators making meals out of any of MY numerous critters...how dare they breach my sense of sanctuary!

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Run walls are placed on 3x12 planks (sacrificial as they will rot out before the run walls ever do) with drywall screws with a washer on the head to securely fasten the hardware cloth.

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Not saying no weasel could not chomp its way thru the tenplast used to add light inside but so far, touch wood (me head), no losses and no breaches INSIDE!​

The under eaves are all filled in...in the two goose runs, there are weasel entry gaps for sure.

I do walkabouts to make sure there is no digging around the perimeters...I doubt there is a weasel proof design that is practical, so I guess traps are the only solution once you have rogue weasels coming calling. Argh... I would expect this in the dead of winter when the snow was so high and mice were hard to harvest...but now...really...really...REALLY? Just simply sucks.

Well dat be dat for now...not sure when my next visit will be here to post but well, we all know...tis summer and whee hee hee...off we go again. Let the fun times continue...

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[bamadude]

Canuck: it looks nice there this time of year. And that is 1 full big bator. Good luck with ur hatching

 

[bamadude]

avoid this sunblock. It says its for kids but didnt work. This is the 1st aerosol sunblock we have ever used and the last. Me, my 5yr old ds, and my dwi are all burned up.

 

[Cynthia12]

@superchemicalgirl

Golf could be played quite badly:

http://msnvideo.msn.com/?channelind...d#/video/bd790011-760b-4232-a6bc-0f1ecbe28e68

Ha, I saw this this morning. He hit that tree pretty hard, and then he looks at the guy laughing like..what .. is... so ... funny? Like he didn't quite realize what had just happened. lol..

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I admit I'm not that bad!


Guinea is gone, again. This is getting frustrating.

 

[JW12]

avoid this sunblock. It says its for kids but didnt work. This is the 1st aerosol sunblock we have ever used and the last. Me, my 5yr old ds, and my dwi are all burned up.

Hey bama... We are in Daytona this week and right before we came my DW seen on dr oz that the spray cans of sunscreen didn't work because it wasn't an even coat going on. We ditched all our cans that we have used ( and burnt up with ) and went back to the regular lotion and so far no one has burnt like they have in past.

 

[bamadude]

Jw12: i should start watching dr oz more often... but it comes on at the same time as ellen show lol.