The Old Folks Home

[Wisher1000]

Deb, I have been thinking of ways to get some extra exercise in during the day. One of the thoughts is to take any normal, daily activity, that I struggle to do, and do several reps of it. For example, I have noticed that sitting on the floor and getting back up, is starting to become "less graceful" than it used to be, for me. I need to do that at least 10 times a day, just to stay used to it. For you, or someone else, it might be sitting down on and getting up from the sofa, or getting in and out of bed, picking up coins off the floor, or even just good long stretches (yawwwwwwwn.) I have been thinking that if I take these activities and do reps of them, at least I will maintain the ability to do them much longer. Another thing that is not what it used to be is my balance. I think I will make it a point to walk on a 2x4 on the ground, or along the top of a curb whenever I get a chance. I believe that is an indication of decline of core strength, as well.

 

[ronott1]

Deb, I have been thinking of ways to get some extra exercise in during the day. One of the thoughts is to take any normal, daily activity, that I struggle to do, and do several reps of it. For example, I have noticed that sitting on the floor and getting back up, is starting to become "less graceful" than it used to be, for me. I need to do that at least 10 times a day, just to stay used to it. For you, or someone else, it might be sitting down on and getting up from the sofa, or getting in and out of bed, picking up coins off the floor, or even just good long stretches (yawwwwwwwn.) I have been thinking that if I take these activities and do reps of them, at least I will maintain the ability to do them much longer. Another thing that is not what it used to be is my balance. I think I will make it a point to walk on a 2x4 on the ground, or along the top of a curb whenever I get a chance. I believe that is an indication of decline of core strength, as well.

You do not need work as hard as some think to help push off the ravages of time.

Add a couple of miles of walking a day and come up with some light core exercises and stretches three times a week.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

I been pricing them just not ready to jump right now. I have seen the age and quality I want for about 1700. Only need it to make it sixty miles to my house. It only needs to have a working kitchen and bathroom. Travelling in an RV takes two. that I will never have.

deb

When we bought here in 1998, we also purchased a vintage in great condition holiday trailer. Same thoughts as Deb, we don't have it for travelling though we did make one trip in it and having a working shower and kitchen, bed and all that you haul about, it did make us think how luxurious that was, but we don't need to travel. Live in pear-a-dice and don't want to go anywhere else (well OK, I will visit this home on occasion).

\
Shasta trailer, 1972 model...got air, bathroom, beds (sleeps six persons or one couple and dogs), kitchen...​

We wanted to NEVER EVER again not have a place to lay our heads...so many natural type disasters have happened here like the forest fires and "supposedly" 150 year floods that we want to be able to be mobile in two shakes of a lambs tail (literally...the Father's Day flood of 2003 had me moving three day old lambs to higher ground).

The biggest bonus Deb...when you have company come to stay, it is absolutely divine to have them stay in the trailer. People LOVE it...the bedroom windows look out on to the Ram Pasture...for people not from this area, there is nothing more surreal than to have them wake up to Rick's wild birds chirping above in the spruce trees, the comforting view of peaceful heaven here on Earth...yeh. And the bestest part...when the company is a tad tired from the visit, they can retire to their own quarters. We don't get alot of company (can count the visitors we had in 2015 on the fingers of one hand), but when your company is not tripping over you and themselves and have a private space...visiting is wonderful. So after you are done renovating your home, this could become your welcome mat spot for company.

Quote:

I need more chick keeping space

Our solution for brooding chicks is to use metal waterers...had one given to us, horse waterer with a wee hole in it...great brooder. Then we upgraded to Stanley the Stainless.

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He's a therapeutic tub from a sports injury clinic that went bust and all their chattels were distributed. Bound for the dump, he was too nice to see put in a landfill.

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He broods my chicks wonderfully.

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Other brooders, pre made and ready to go...

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Sheep waterer...

Whilst the one above is a water garden, it can double as a chick brooder...kiddy pools, as long as you line them heavily with oat straw so the chicks do not develop leg issues from slippery footings...voila, easy peasy brooder options.

Coffee can fulla granite No. 1 grit...baby ducks and turks like to POP upwards and can lead to scurrying escape artists...

There are the green bin grocery containers, cheap and easy to put hardware cloth top on.

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There are the classic on sale plastic storage bins that make fabulous brooders...cheep cheap cheep...and cleanable plus portable.

Tie wrap hinges...these are deep ones so the turk poults and ducklings are less likely to leap up high enough to end up out of the brooder.

In my Hatch House that Rick built for me in 2014...there is also room in there for brooding babes tho I have not done this quite yet in thar ​

We breed for Marek's resistance here and I feel that brooding young stocks with my old stocks in the Duece Coop ensures maximum exposure to the disease and allows immunity to develop tout sweet. If something is gonna kick to Mareks, it needs to simply up and go--the sooner the better OR get over it already and LIVE onwards and upwards. hat be me and my tough love syndrome...strong, viable stocks with natural immunity to contagious diseases (like that old saying, if a chicken breathes, its been exposed to Mareks)...make more of the same and repeat.

Feed and water containers for deep brooder bins...
dollar store score filled fulla marbles so the babes cannot down self
and shinies encourage them to peck and bill foods and the water and get on the GROW, eh
Heat lamps...always, always double secure...these can and DO cause fires...treat with extreme respect and caution!

Maybe this year I will bother to brood in the Hatch House...depends on if I need the extra space or not. Best is to have always several empty pens about...you never know when you might need an area for extras. Bwa ha ha...like that never EVER happens, eh.

I too love compost wire panels...bought some on sale for like thirty bucks for stakes and think it was four panels (long while ago it seems) and put hardware cloth on them...used rabbit hutch C couplers to do the joints...worked out FAB--got about three that I can set up. We do our main hatching for the year so that the birds bust out and can go day one outside to enjoy nipping grass, play chasing dandelion tackle football escapades and gentle summer temps. With three, I can have waterfowl, landfowl, bantam and standards all out safe and happy.

We have an amazing array of winged predatory birds that we live in harmony with here...from ravens, magpies, owls, gulls, eagles, hawks, crows, etc...
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I would not or could not put out day olds like I do if there was not some sorta TOP on the outdoor play area for the babes.

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See the bins, great transport carriers, to and from brood area to outdoor fun on the lawn space. Note, deep oat straw lined...always, always sure footing for birds...slippy = ruined legs and feet...and no foot = no creature!

Blue desk organizer container lined with cupboard rubber mat...great tiny transport container
--puppy stainless feed pan works awesome for yolk holder for new hatchers food container​

Provide shade with a scrap of tenplast--out in the sun if fun but not if you can't move if you want some time out in the shade, eh. Note the thermometer to ensure it is warm for babes...you can see the chicks spread out and not huddled together. Water, starter and hard boiled egg yolk (any species of egg will do yah). Off in the shade (because I don't need to be roasting at 37C/98F...is my chair in the shade with my faithful stock guardian dog Princes Warrior Fixins. Jest add a sweet tea and I'm in virtual heaven...what a VIEW!

Bestest part, now that the panels have hardware cloth on them...it takes me all of ten minutes including plunking babes in pens to get this setup going now.

There are a million and one REpurposing items us cluckers can use for birds. Just have to expand yer perimeters and think outside the BOX of normality (no, really, us creature keepers are a tad skewed are weeze?).

I've used downspout plastic troughs for making a grand puppy slides...totally hilarious not meant for it use but works like a hot ding, eh! Ding ding...

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Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[scottcaddy]

On the theme of weight loss and general fitness improvement, Karin started doing workouts aided by youtube videos about three weeks ago, and two weeks ago she managed to guilt me into doing them with her. Now after about ten workouts I'm starting to notice an improvement in my fitness level, I'm actually able to go through the whole workouts with the videos. I feel a bit emasculated by the "Good job, ladies!" shouts in between, but if I keep this up I'm going to look quite good in a bikini come summer. At least that's what the instructors in the videos say. The fat burning stuff is a bit tough to get through, but I have to say, the Pilates stuff is actually pretty great. The intensity level is nice and low, and you're improving your core muscles and becoming more limber without even noticing it. Worth looking into for all of you with back issues.

Can we see that Pic.?

Deb, I have been thinking of ways to get some extra exercise in during the day. One of the thoughts is to take any normal, daily activity, that I struggle to do, and do several reps of it. For example, I have noticed that sitting on the floor and getting back up, is starting to become "less graceful" than it used to be, for me. I need to do that at least 10 times a day, just to stay used to it. For you, or someone else, it might be sitting down on and getting up from the sofa, or getting in and out of bed, picking up coins off the floor, or even just good long stretches (yawwwwwwwn.) I have been thinking that if I take these activities and do reps of them, at least I will maintain the ability to do them much longer. Another thing that is not what it used to be is my balance. I think I will make it a point to walk on a 2x4 on the ground, or along the top of a curb whenever I get a chance. I believe that is an indication of decline of core strength, as well.

Do you mean to say that your not a half of a bubble off kilter?

Scott

 

[vehve]

Wisher does seem a bit unbalanced at times...

Scott, I'm sure you can find something similar online with the right search terms. Even if I were to pose for such a picture, you wouldn't see anything because my natural skin color reflects light from the sun or a flash so well that you can't make out anything in the picture. A certain Procol Harum song describes me well...

 

[chickisoup]

A drivers llicense is all you need in CA. so the only people you have to face are the DMV.

All you need here too but you are required to be a "legal" resident (and citizen) to get one. The state ID card used to be accepted but were too easily faked and require renewal just like the driver's license. Under the new law the Voter ID replaces the old state ID card and expired ID cards will not be accepted. Get the picture? (pun intended

)

 

[chickisoup]

Hummm, good ideas, yours and @superchemicalgirl

I will have to look through my junk pile, no way I am gonna pay money for anything.

AWESOME idea about putting it in the greenhouse.

she beat me to it. That's where I put my brooder. My babies spend their first couple weeks in the house then the big girls get kicked out of the greenhouse and in go the babies. DH and I made a break down cage out of scrap wood and hardware cloth that will fit in either the coop or the greenhouse in a corner so we only needed to construct 2 sides and a door.

 

[perchie.girl]

Heel low:

Quote:
My thoughts exactly. Use it for myself for when they work on the house then retire it for company or mom.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

@Wisher1000

I can touch the floor still. Sitting on the floor is a dangerous proposition. the only way I can get up is to go on hands and knees straighten my leggs out and walk backwards with my hands. till my feet are flat on the floor one last shove gets my balance over my feet and I am up.

Standing on one foot with my leg up I cant do. Both ways. Walking heel toe and rollover the ball of the foot to let myself down a step.... cant do. The only way I can walk down a step is to stand on one foot and bend my knee and step back wards to let myself down a curb. I can only do this with my left knee. The reconstructed one.

Right now my balance is off so I cant do any of it well

Getting up and down out of a hard backed and armed chair is good. Couch is nearly impossible. Ours is any way. The furniture in this house is geared for someone who is five foot nothing. I am 5'7" so I have to over bend my knees to sit down. I can lean forward and rock onto myfeet to shift my weight up... but its arthritis painful to my knees. what I can do to get off the couch is a variation of getting off the floor. Lay down straighten out my legs and walk up with my hands.

I dont go into the living room often.

Walking even with my walker is limited to about 1500 steps. smooth ground no "downhill" slopes.

Yet even with my limitations I am good for unloading about six bales of hay....

with the help of rope and a place to sit in my walker and bracing for my feet.... Horse gives me a back rub while i do it too.

deb

 

[chickadoodles]

Deb I cannot sit on a couch or chair hardly. Most of the time I sit in my computer chair. I can adjust the height and it's more comfortable for my hip.
It is very painful for me to ride in Dh's truck. His seat has that high spot in the middle and then goes low around the edges. It makes my right leg come out of the socket every time I get out of the truck.
I cannot bend all the way to the floor or sit on the floor and get up very easily. It takes a huge amount of effort.