The Old Folks Home

[chickisoup]

dsgard, congratulations on your degree

A SINCERE X2 AND A HUG!!!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Let me add mine: Congratulations on that degree!

I too have cousins and odd family members I haven't seen since 1978! Good heavens! I see some of their pictures on facebook and I'm amazed at how much they've changed. Some don't even look the tiniest bit like they did when we were kids!

I checked out that new thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/904081/does-every-flock-have-a-complainer/40#post_13791560
and some of the things that people have shared about their chickens had me rolling! Almost spit out my coffee a couple of times! Y'all should check it out... it's pretty funny!

 

[Peep_Show]

I would love to have some for my DW!

Hey there, JW12!

Just PM me your address and I'll get an envelope out to you.

 

[ronott1]

wOW!!! posters/posts disappearing in front of my eyes! Till I saw this I thought someone had slipped a "funny" something in my morning coffee!

BTW-I totally agree with you Diva. They have a tough job and are just working hard to keep this forum the kind of place that drew us all to join in the first place.
Sorry Bama

Thank God this thread was not closed for review!

 

[ronott1]

Let me add mine: Congratulations on that degree!

I too have cousins and odd family members I haven't seen since 1978! Good heavens! I see some of their pictures on facebook and I'm amazed at how much they've changed. Some don't even look the tiniest bit like they did when we were kids!

I checked out that new thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/904081/does-every-flock-have-a-complainer/40#post_13791560
and some of the things that people have shared about their chickens had me rolling! Almost spit out my coffee a couple of times! Y'all should check it out... it's pretty funny!

I had a Cousin of mine show up at work last year. I did not know who he was since the last time I had seen him was 1995!

It was not a good thing since he was off his Meds and was hearing voices.....

 

[Cynthia12]

DiDi, Congratulations! It must be a relief. Hope you enjoy the time in Wendover. Sounds like you are going to be busy again. Weddings, and one is your daughters? How fun.

So, we are cooler now..wait..Sunday, it is supposed to be 100 again. You will be a happy camper again DiDi.

I guess SCG won't be so much, or anyone living where that vortex is coming down. Means cooler weather for you all, but hot hot for us for a while.

Who showed photos of Hollie Hocks..love those things! Brings back child hood memories. Haven't had any in a yard since I moved out here.

 

[Cynthia12]

Oh ron, that's just sad.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Watering seems to be the chore of the moment,

Row of plants with the Day lilies in full bloom in the orchard


Saskatoons


Pin cherries


Wild strawberries in the grass still fruiting - see the Clover flower for size comparison?

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So many plants setting fruit, water is a good thing to be providing!

Never seems enough time/energy for all the watering of plants and then there is the changing of bathing ponds.

Patience is not something swans are made of...

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Pearl will sit and wait for it to fill whilst IN pond.


There...much better...that did not take too long or did it???

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Feeling the affects of the fires to the North of us. There is a red cast to outside for the past three days and as always, it is quite unnerving to say the least. Makes taking photos strange...

Drive home yesterday evening from town - erry sun glowing


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Extremes...always seem to count on extremes...white winter to pile up, deluge of rains in June, now July will be dry; so why not threaten to burn us out like last year (scene from M*A*S*H with three water bomber helis on the quarter over in May) and in the years past? Feast or famine....never moderation.


Girl chooks, the Chants are making short work of the grass outside their coop...flattened it mostly down.

Love those chicken legs scratching and beaky beaks gobbling...busy busy!​

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Got the ruminants on grass duties too...at least if the pasture grasses start to dry up...the tinder amount will be lessened, course might be more condensed...thinking don't some places use by products from ruminants as tinder. Hee hee hee...

Lots of greens trimmers besides the ruminants in the background.​

Yesterday was cooler but ramping back to the 30's this week and next. Lovely drive to town to see road tractors cutting grass along the highways and many having cut their hay fields which have long ago started to seed out. Some baling, some just getting to cutting. Love the smell of clover and fresh cut grasses on the wind. This crop of 1st cut should put up well and fine. Ample feed might drop the price of beef steaks from $15 a piece, eh...or not!

Been enjoying the boys in the yard. My yard chicken BockARoos...

"Hey Dude," says the bantam Buff Brahma..."if we start scratching right here at the base, see if we can topple this pile of straw and make more work for her!"

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BockARoos drinking spilt water​

Why is it that you bother to provide fresh water when they would all rather scrounge up the dregs? I mean the dogs prefer tarp water over any fresh in a bowl we insist on providing for them...so why should I be surprised that some water I slopped on the rubber pan (upturned for the bantam ducks to pop into the pond) should not attract such interest...why would that not be considered sweet nectar of the gods then?

On Wednesday...as I sat in the shade between pen cleanings...it was more like an AIRPORT than a bird yard here...

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First there was an equipment check...

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Yeh, the wings work...

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Then the fly thru...aka bowling for bantam bird bodies...anyone caught napping was shocked awake...keep them keen to keep an eye out for wing a ding predators.

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Then the wing back to the hanger...

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Hmmm...seems I would rather do more of this tranquil like observations and skip the runway demonstrations...

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This is after all, a retirement home for the older birds too...old ducks...old decrepit things that keep on going like MOI--past due date but not expired...not quite!

Some of the ducker residents here are 15+ years old...dozing like any good OLD FOLKs should...

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Love the eyes closed whilst yer friends keep an eye on the situation for you. I totally LIVE to see sleeping birds on the lawns in the shade. Now that is happiness at its finest!

Not just old ducks but old dogs can nap on the lawns too...

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Foamers and Fixins received a good ol' belly bath to relieve the heat and that calls for a celebration - ​

Drop and have the naps just about everywhere!
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But all good things must pass...sleeping on the job...

Hear the croak of a raven and one thing I adore about the Aus Cattle Dog...they have indeed functioning OFF and ON switches (unlike some breeds in the herding class that seem never to have an OFF switch).

Looking to the skies and beware!​

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ALERT! BAD BIRDY ALERT! Away, away my pretties whilst I check it out!​

It is a working relationship for sure...see dog on instant guard ready for anything brought her way...and the bevy of ducks is on the move AWAY from the danger as directed by the Stock Dog's orders. Such good dogs...


So I decided for some increased peace and tranquility (more so for the bantam entities here than the bigger ones who just bowl things outta the way when or if it pleases them) that I would move the one pair of swans to the goose area for the rest of the summer. This is the one pair yesterday, moved to their summer vacation site.

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Tis time and wondered why I had not got round to it sooner (maybe I should give up some sleeping or eating hours, eh? be way more productive then...or NOT!) ... increase the carefree dog daze of summer for the bantam birds not having the swans do airport like things in the bird yard. Oh well, moved and Smoke and Ember are happy and so are the rest of the fowl.

Seems like only yesterday I planted the herb garden (end of June) and the Cress is up,

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Sunflowers in the veg garden have made an appearance...nothing funnier than seeing wild birds hanging off seed heads in the winter, eating from the land of plenty!

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AND gonna see if I can get some seed potatoes started up.

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These baby potatoes were grown in Edmonton, so see if I can manage in the bit of a season we have left to get some more seed started up for next year. I use to have all sorts of colours and shapes in potatoes but let them go a few years back. Now the place that use to provide all the interesting varieties (like a Russian blue potato and ones like bananas--I know...bananas in the Great White North eh!) has gone outta biz...so see if these ones wanna entertain my village idiot gardening experiments. Were on sale for three bucks, so not a HUGE investment to indulge insanity on! They well could be treated with an anti-sprouting coating too...only one sure way to find out.

And Oh yah...before too many posts go on by...potato salad was divine...added some garlic sausage to the BQ for variety and we had a good dinner...on...it was the nineth so, Wednesday.

July 9th - Potato and Greek salad, beans, steak and garlic sausage plus a glass of fruit juice
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Man I miss some things back in a gentler time, when I was a kid. My Dad use to take me to a sausage factory in Van...there was a little office on the front where you could buy product. Best dang garlic sausage my memory recalls. It was bright red and white (fat) and the taste was outta this world. We'd sit in the vehicle and dig right into what we had bought. Not much money around but you got a great discount going, factory direct! Hee hee..such a modern term, eh?

Now I am thinking the bright colours would have been Salt Peter for sure...back in the day when, well if it worked and tasted good, nobody cared if it was good or bad for you much. Live a well preserved existence back in the day. Second hand smoke was unheard of as a term, bicycle helmets were for sissies, no school would have considered banning kids playing with rubber balls in the school yards (yeh, really, REALLY...you might hurt yourself, you think perhaps?), a broken arm meant you could whoop everyone at tether ball, and that good ol' what didn't kill you, made you strong.

I miss many foods of the past and hope now that the things that have changed are for the best but that is a lie with all the research into foods that don't satisfy us with the feeling of fullness but trigger the human pursuit of salt, fat, &/or sweet cravings (ah yes, think of maple flavoured BACON...the perfect crowd pleaser--more please!).

I was sure shocked when I read about putting those flavour packets (ever wonder what that slime is on the grocery store birds in the bags?) in mush meat chicken because they sure don't want the expense it takes to grow it out long enough to have any flavours...47 day old (or is it even less now?) chicken served up with no bones and flavour coatings because it would taste no better than Tofu. Anyone here recall "chicken and dumplings" made from spent hens or old roos? There was a reason it tasted SO good and was cooked all day for that melted in your mouth fer goodness sakes! Nobody missed a Sunday dinner when you saw Mom making preps that morning for that night's fare of happy meats! Even teenagers made a presence for that family meal.

Things have not always changed for the better, seen to be an improvement. But then again, we know things that cause cancer and make us ill should not be eaten... But man alive, that garlic sausage has never been topped...hee hee...so now we cook the crap outta it on the BQ and hope some of the bads are removed and reminisce back to simpler and more stupid time...ha ha ha...does the not knowing make it better, perhaps...we old folks don't reach a great age without a few preservatives assisting us along the way, eh? Get the last laugh and give the worms a challenge!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

Edit - added a missed pic...imagine that!

 

[ronott1]

Oh ron, that's just sad.

I know!

He made it home to Elko Nevada and his Parents got him back into treatment. The last report I had was that he was doing much better.

My Co workers were very worried and I put my house onto lock down until he was out of the area. My Aunt said he is not dangerous but I was still being cautious.

 

[ronott1]

I posted this today on a thread this morning:



and heard



The egg with a pip is one of the rarest chickens in the US and one of the most under appreciated, Partridge Penedesenca. Heat tolerant and very sweet birds!