The Old Folks Home

[hennible]

Oh so cute!

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: I cant start fresh with another till I move back home. Right now I am Caregiver for my 98 year old grandmother.... She is not a dog person... Rosie Wormed her way into Grandmas heart though.... The process of training a puppy or even bringing in a fully trained adult would be something I could not undertake right now. I cant risk Grandma accidentially being knocked down or tripped.

If I get a puppy it will be through careful consideration and thought full research. I want a livestock guardian dog... I know a breeder that is breeding a cross between two different guardians Short coat is what I need and a little bit more trainable. this would be the ONLY Purposefully bred dog I will buy. The rest will either come from rescue organizations, Straight adoption from a family, or the Humane society.

When I get back home I want to rebuild my poultry house, Get a companion for Katee either more goats (mountain lion got my last ones).... Or a Mammoth Donkey.... I am leaning toward Mammoth... I would love to get a Poitou... not going to happen

then for my poultry I want Guineas mostly for all the same reasons to have chickens.. But Also they are in demand here for tick control.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:

Do y'all think this should be posted in "Emergencies/Diseases/Injuries and Cures"?

Just kidding, folks, I thought this was funny........ don't get mad.

OH MY goodness I laughed so hard when I saw this on a Raw foods for dogs diet on a Vegitarian website.... Its sooo wrong and sooo hilarious in many ways.....

 

[perchie.girl]

I actually do have a problem, and I would like some suggestions on ways to solve it. I have moles tunneling under my coop. I don't know what they are finding there, but they are undermining the dirt floor and making it difficult to clean and causing my carefully leveled dirt floor to have pits. My coop is covered, has a dirt floor, and I clean it by raking and shoveling what is picked up (no litter as they only stay in there at night and free range all day.) I assume the moles are finding something - worms, grubs, etc. - to eat, but why are there more of those things under the coop than in the grassy or wooded areas just a few feet away? Last year, I added salt to the soil in an effort to break the reproductive cycle of the cecal worm. I then realized that I would be unable to compost the droppings and opted not to do that again. I added a layer of fresh sand in the coop and leveled it again. Then, the mole issue. It is so bad that when walking in the coop, sometimes my foot will sink into the floor to a depth of about four inches! This was a hard packed floor just last year. I don't want to poison them. Any experience or thoughts would be appreciated.

The only thing I can think of is burying hardware cloth around the outside of the coop down to a depth that they would not dig under.... This is something that HAS to be done here in the desert for any kind of garden.... Let me look up Vole "lifestyles"....

Ok the following website was very helpful and informative

http://www.ianrpubs.unl.edu/pages/publicationD.jsp?publicationId=100

Here is an excerpt from that website....

Exclusion

Exclusion can be used to protect highly valued flower beds, gardens, shrubs, and trees from vole damage. Install woven-wire or hardware cloth fences (¼-inch or smaller mesh) around small flower beds or gardens to reduce the access of voles to such areas. The fence should be about 12 inches high and the bottom should be buried 2 to 3 inches in the ground. Where pine voles are a problem, the fence should extend about 6 inches belowground as well. Rabbits and ground squirrels also will be excluded if you make the fence 18 inches tall and bury it in the soil a few inches.

Figure 4. A plastic cylinder (above) or cylinder of hardware cloth or other wire mesh will protect trees and shrubs from vole damage. Photo by Stephen M. Vantassel.​

Use ¼-inch hardware cloth or plastic cylinders to protect individual trees and shrubs (Figure 4). Again, the cylinder should be tight to the ground or buried slightly and should extend higher than the maximum depth of snow in winter, including drifts. The height of the cylinder should be at least 18 inches above the snow depth, if possible, where rabbits are a potential problem also. When making the cylinder, overlap the edges at least 1 inch and fasten securely so gaps do not form that could enable voles to enter. Cylinders of galvanized hardware cloth should last about five years, so make them large enough in diameter to accommodate expected trunk growth if they remain in place during the growing season. Cover the tops of the tubes to prevent the entrapment of cavity-nesting birds.

deb

 

[bamadude]

Is anyone else planting a fall garden? If so what are u planting?

 

[dsqard]

Is anyone else planting a fall garden? If so what are u planting?

Seeing how they are predicting snow this Saturday above 9000', I am planning on icicles. Figure I should have an excellent crop by December.

 

[perchie.girl]

I replaced my floor covering in one coop with a thin sheet of HDPE. You can plastic weld it. I covered the nests with it too.




This was the original waterproof cover but it wasn't tough.


And the chickens' scratching destroyed it.



Before the change


After cleaning and installing the plastic.


Eventually, I'll be covering all the coop floors and nest boxes with it. It's really easy to clean.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/High-Densit...830?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20d6d194de

It comes in other colors.
http://stores.ebay.com/Online-Metal...105129012&_sid=20606632&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

I love HDPE..... This is the same material that is used on food grade storage containers like 55 gallon drums. Its sterilizeable.... and that is a very good price..... But I have one question That stuff is pretty slick in Sheet form... How do you keep your chickens from Skiing on it?

deb

 

[drumstick diva]

Wisher those chicken feet have beautifully manicured nails. You should have the dog sit outside on Halloween with those sticking out of his mouth. Then you could keep all the candy you bought for yourself. You know it is Trick or treat. Kids eat too much candy nowadays. I think a good trick(scary) is much better for them. Besides running away is great exercise.

 

[hennible]

Seeing how they are predicting snow this Saturday above 9000', I am planning on icicles. Figure I should have an excellent crop by December.

Sadly no fall garden for me either just to cold already.... But my icicles should be pretty big in November.
I'd like to build a grow room, used to have one, then I filled it with a baby and now my lights are just in storage...
A grow room was great! I could get a head start planting squash and such in February and by mid May move them into the greenhouse for nice big crops in September.... Any way the kids will be gone someday and I'll say " it's a plant room now, but it used too have some boys in it and they where more fun..."

 

[ozexpat]

Sorry guys. You know me..,

I got a little emotional at things close to my heart.

edited by staff