The Old Folks Home

[tnspursfan09]

They look like twins..two times. Soo cute. I love the OE and EE's. And..of course, the Ameraucanas.

I love chipmunk babies

 

[chickadoodles]

They look like twins..two times. Soo cute. I love the OE and EE's. And..of course, the Ameraucanas.

They are so adorable.

 

[dsqard]

Cynthia, it's like my aunt says. We may be older but we aren't dead!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I had a thoroughly enjoyable day. I really don't mean to be rubbing it in that we are having lovely weather, if it's any consolation, it is going down to the 20's tomorrow night.

Today, I worked a couple of flower beds, digging the spring weeds in and turning the soil to about 15". Then DH brought a (tractor) bucket load of compost and added it to the turned beds. I mixed it in well and raked it smooth. Those two are ready for planting! Next, I edged the sidewalk by the back door, as it is the one we use all the time. Finally, I moved three large granite boulders (about the size of a into the bed right next to the back door and then filled in around them with smaller river rocks. It looks pretty and will look even better when I get some type of plants growing around and over them.

I am tired and sore from digging, and lifting rocks, and sweeping the drive, and bending, and raking, and boy, am I going to enjoy my hot shower as soon as the water warms back up.

It was a good day.

No pictures? Our ground is still frozen solid, not to mention covered in that snow-ice mixture we have everywhere. So post some pictures, I need to live through you.

 

[dsqard]

Arielle, I tried to find out what kind of birds I got pictures of yesterday and I am not sure. I think they are some kind of sparrow or finch.

 

[Arielle]

We had a busy day here.

BF built me a new chicken table (does double duty as a poo board and a feeder holder/protector). Our big turkeys caused too much stress on our old table and it started falling over.



I enjoy seeing how clean it is - although you can see it is sitting at the exact height the old table was due to the fecal spray on the walls.

Maybe this summer we'll take down the inner plywood and replace it.

And I didn't finish my quilt top, but I came close. You'll have to imagine the top and bottom borders.



I figured out what backing and binding I want, so hopefully that will arrive this week and I can work on finishing the top and bottom strips and then get it basted. I might take it to my sewing teachers shop next weekend and try to quilt it using her long arm versus trying to free motion stipple something this big on my home machine. The colors are supposed to be the sea, the designs are starfish and seaweed, the khaki represents sand. My friend lives on the beach and just got married on a beach yesterday.

On the wall, you might just take a sander to it, then apply a poly to make washing easier in that area.

ANd the quilt looks very professional!! Your friend will cherish that quilt, assumming it is for her.

Arielle, I tried to find out what kind of birds I got pictures of yesterday and I am not sure. I think they are some kind of sparrow or finch.

WIth that long bill it looks like a shrike, but their mainstay is frogs and such and I can't imagine too many of those around right now. Certainly a big bill though--

I didn't mentin the loon-- very serene and so like a loon to be the only one around.

 

[Wisher1000]

Sorry, SCG, I'll try to get some today. The only problem is we had a cold front come through last night. It rained and the temp is dropping as I type, currently it's 45* and will be in the upper 30's this afternoon. I will have to see how much they settled/washed and if they still look as good as they did when I went to bed last night. I transplanted a clump of Snow Drops (at least that's what I think they are, they came from my grandmother's house and she always called them Choral Bells but I don't think that's right.) I put them in the corner of the bed and filled in around with the rocks. I hope they live, they are always the first thing to show up in the late winter/really early spring. I bet the rain beat them down.

I appreciate the weekend we had, I know today's weather is more indicative of this time of year.

I think I found it in Wiki - We were both wrong, they are called Spring Snowflake, if this is the plant I have. It looks like this, anyway.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I thoroughly enjoy teasing goats with cookies. Both these goats are Hoovers. I especially love how Caramel's face is contorted, smashed up next to Pippy's.



They act like I've never fed them.

Hope everyone's okay with the crazy weather going on.

Nice goat pic.
We just destroyed the old record cold for today. The old record was 15, officially at the airport it's 4. I think its about 0 here. I have a remote thermometer in the brooder house which is the tightest building and has 2 roosters, 18 two month pullets, a 150watt ceramic emitter and the reading is 10 degrees.

I din't think there was a wasy to design a house to withstant a tornado-- earthquake yes, as we used some basics in our house-- but how to beat a tornado-- naught. Though I do know of one house in VT that is made of concrete! 100% concrete!

I saw a special on the weather channel about tornado proofing. Their research showed that preventing the roof from coming off is key. Once the roof comes off everything else goes. Interlocking steel shingles over a deck with sealed reinforced seams work up to 150 mph. Reinforced concrete walls resist the flying debris that goes through most walls.

Weather is horrible again at cocobeach .

Its going to be 84 each day forv te

Daughter just wrote that Battambang will be an unseasonably high 104 today.

We have not been having too bad a winter this year so I am getting cabin fever really bad because the weather is fairly warm for Utah for March. I went out today to take some photos and the nearby canyons are all still closed for winter.

Not fair. Just went to a couple small ponds instead.

...

What part of the state are you in? I've visited Alta, Snowbird, Solitude, Park City, Deer Valley and my favorite of all, Sundance.

Very cool!! Probably nice and cool actually. THough I did wonder i it could hold up to an earthquake. Regardless I"m sure the heating bill is very reasonable!

The first underground homes I saw in a Mother Earth article claimed they did well in earthquakes, unless the fault was directly under the home. They said traditional homes sit on top of the ground trying to hold on but the earth sheltered home moves with the ground. Don't know how true that is.

We had a busy day here.

BF built me a new chicken table (does double duty as a poo board and a feeder holder/protector). Our big turkeys caused too much stress on our old table and it started falling over.



I enjoy seeing how clean it is - although you can see it is sitting at the exact height the old table was due to the fecal spray on the walls.

Maybe this summer we'll take down the inner plywood and replace it.

And I didn't finish my quilt top, but I came close. You'll have to imagine the top and bottom borders.



I figured out what backing and binding I want, so hopefully that will arrive this week and I can work on finishing the top and bottom strips and then get it basted. I might take it to my sewing teachers shop next weekend and try to quilt it using her long arm versus trying to free motion stipple something this big on my home machine. The colors are supposed to be the sea, the designs are starfish and seaweed, the khaki represents sand. My friend lives on the beach and just got married on a beach yesterday.

Nice job on the shelf. I might suggest that instead of removing and replacing the wood, perhaps cover it with something that will clean easily. I replaced the floor covering in 3 units and covered tops of nest boxes with this stuff.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/High-Densit...830?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20d6d194de
It also comes in white, black and red/orange. I'll probably get some in white for the walls.
Nothing sticks to it. I welded all the sheets together so it makes one continuous sheet. It's very thin and easy to cut.

Here's a picture of the original waterproof floor covering when I was building the breeder building.
I went with the cheapest thing which was actually a cushioned tile underlayment. It did ok for a while but after a couple years the chickens destroyed it.


This is before the chickens did their dirty work.


This is what the chickens did to the floor covering


This is a before and after of the same space with the new HDPE floor cover.




After installation before bedding and with bedding and chicks.

I had a thoroughly enjoyable day. I really don't mean to be rubbing it in that we are having lovely weather, if it's any consolation, it is going down to the 20's tomorrow night.

Today, I worked a couple of flower beds, digging the spring weeds in and turning the soil to about 15". Then DH brought a (tractor) bucket load of compost and added it to the turned beds. I mixed it in well and raked it smooth. Those two are ready for planting! Next, I edged the sidewalk by the back door, as it is the one we use all the time. Finally, I moved three large granite boulders (about the size of a into the bed right next to the back door and then filled in around them with smaller river rocks. It looks pretty and will look even better when I get some type of plants growing around and over them.

I am tired and sore from digging, and lifting rocks, and sweeping the drive, and bending, and raking, and boy, am I going to enjoy my hot shower as soon as the water warms back up.

It was a good day.

I would normally have had lettuce and spinach growing by now.
This is part of the garden now.



Close to zero now, and tonight. 50 Friday but snow and cold next weekend so gardening will be much later this year.

I love that.
We've had robins here since the last snow melted but I don't know what they're doing for food now. Everything's frozen and white so maybe ours are like those in the pic.

Arielle, I tried to find out what kind of birds I got pictures of yesterday and I am not sure. I think they are some kind of sparrow or finch.

The beak looks more like something in the thrasher or shrike family.
We don't have any in the East but it could be a loggerhead shrike.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

.
..

WIth that long bill it looks like a shrike, but their mainstay is frogs and such and I can't imagine too many of those around right now. Certainly a big bill though--

...

Like minds.

You posted while I was composing.
Not a seed eaters beak.

 

[Bunnylady]

Sorry, SCG, I'll try to get some today. The only problem is we had a cold front come through last night. It rained and the temp is dropping as I type, currently it's 45* and will be in the upper 30's this afternoon. I will have to see how much they settled/washed and if they still look as good as they did when I went to bed last night. I transplanted a clump of Snow Drops (at least that's what I think they are, they came from my grandmother's house and she always called them Choral Bells but I don't think that's right.) I put them in the corner of the bed and filled in around with the rocks. I hope they live, they are always the first thing to show up in the late winter/really early spring. I bet the rain beat them down.

I appreciate the weekend we had, I know today's weather is more indicative of this time of year.

I think I found it in Wiki - We were both wrong, they are called Spring Snowflake, if this is the plant I have. It looks like this, anyway.

Leucojum may be "correctly" called "Spring Snowflakes," but I'd be willing to bet that most Southern gardeners call them Snowdrops. I'm not sure that Galanthus (the genus usually called "Snowdrops") can even survive in a Southern garden. But you are right, Coral Bells (Heuchera) is a very different sort of plant.

Quote: I'm afraid I disagree. Not the usual "nutcracker" finch beak, true, but the bird doesn't look big enough to me to be a shrike. It might be something that eats mostly insects, but it looks to be about sparrow sized, and shrikes are bigger than that.