The Old Folks Home

[Wisher1000]

I'm sorry, Dragonfly! Make yourself a jamb-up, professional resume and start getting it out there! I wouldn't wait too long, though. If you start looking while it is not urgent that you get a job, you can afford to be more selective. Also, prospective employers don't like extended leave from employment on a resume. They think it means you really don't want to work. Good luck!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

http://www.endlesssimmer.com/2011/01/25/top-10-foods-only-australia-could-have-invented/

I want that burger. How does one get that in their mouth though?

Happy Early Birthday ChickenCanoe! I have to say it now because I'm afraid with a weekend behind me, I'll not remember Monday when it is actually your birthday

Thanks.
I'm teaching another chicken class at StLCC tomorrow.
Then my wife leaves to meet my daughter in Thailand Sunday.

how do you water through that? drip or soaker hose?

do you leave it on all season?

I could use bamboo hoops

Rain will go through. I also use drip and soakers.
I use the lightest one and you don't even need to support it for sturdy things like cabbage, broccoli or celery. For leaf lettuce, arugula or cilantro, I'd support it.
People use the heavier ones for frost protection. I think the thinnest gives 2 degrees of frost protection.
http://www.hummert.com/product-details/31761/dewitt-crop-protection-fabrics

...

I have 4 cubic yards of compost cooking so i will have another hundred linear feet of garden in june in time for the wet season. I am amending the soil with six inches of compost and will repeat with every new planting season.

I wish I had access to about 100 railway ties. I love the look of raised beds with railway ties. I dont want to kill trees for such a whim. When I am there I search for alternatives. I have 8 yards of large river rock coming in ten days.

I need to find some granite

I have four 4'X40' raised beds from used ties. A few years ago my local Lowe's got a big shipment of them but they didn't sell very many and they marked them down to $10. I said, how much if I take them all? I got 53 of them for $150.

Granite is more permanent.

which variety do u want? Or do u want me to ask my neighbor what would be best? Surely seed peanuts would be fine to ship. I would love to help. I stay bored

Don't be bored, you can come up and help me garden.

...

The lows.......well a month or so ago, the owner of the business I have worked for, for almost a decade, got a letter saying they owed back rent and needed to pay....so much. Well he decided to ignore that, so now he owes so much, he isn't going to try to come up with it. So now my manager and I have no job. Well, at least it is closing down, and we can draw unemployment. We have both worked for a long time, he for this particular company, for twice as long as I. So I'm thinking, I'll draw unemployment for awhile, get my chickens good and going, get my garden going, and then go look for another job. I think this may end up being a good thing. Maybe I will actually end up with a decent job with real benefits! I could really use some prayers or good vibes, or whatever it is you believe in!

Good vibes coming your way. I've been there more times than I care to remember. I'm still alive.

Dang it. We have to be good at something down here. Lol. Maybe wishful thinking caused me to believe these few little counties could lead the world in peanut production. Im pretty sure we lead north america.

You and your neighbors of MS, LA and AR also used to lead in catfish production. Now most comes from the Mekong river.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-10-20-catfish20_ST_N.htm

 

[ChickenCanoe]

GOTCHA

However a little time to enjoy spring can't be all bad.

also prayers to all you in the path of these storms. Please stay safe!!!

Fox news is showing right now a poultry farm in Greenville Texas that got hit hard and it's a mess. the owner says he lost probably half his birds and the rest are running everywhere because all his coops are just gone. The house survived but his vehicles are trashed and everything's a mess.

A friend in our local chicken group got hit by a tornado a couple years ago and completely took his coop and garage away.
The storms are past for now but now we just have mega winds.

... Also, prospective employers don't like extended leave from employment on a resume....

X2
The voice of experience here.

 

[CanuckBock]

I'llI want to warn fellow Old Timers that I believe CanuckBock may very well be trying to slowly, but surely, confirm our addiction to her very own, the ownership of many, many baby ducklings! They appear to me to be armor penetrating, laser-guided ducklings, they may very well have homing devices. I would not trust those painted webbed feet!
...
The lows........ Maybe I will actually end up with a decent job with real benefits! I could really use some prayers or good vibes, or whatever it is you believe in!

Avert your eyes...I am not just working y'all over on BABY ducks... the ducks get EVEN cuter with age...just like us humans do...

Ah, just like a scene at the old folks home...AFTER Lunch...for the pudgy ducks...It's NAP time!



Thanksgiving - 2008
The Butterscotch pair just off on the right of the center of the pic...the drake is so tired he is resting his bill on his wife...
"Hold up my head...just too tired to hold up my heavy head!"

And because they are adult ducks, they are into all sorts of SEASONAL trouble too...

​

Snowy Calls under the Birch tree in the yard...in the, uh, rare occurrence of SNOW.
​

This photo I took for an article that is on poultry keeper dot com (UK site)...search for the site but also add the title of my article "Winter Care of Your Bantam Ducks" to read up on how to keep duck ducks well, not just in snowy winters but all year round.

Then, when it warms up (finally), it is the spring run off under that birch tree that is the magnet to bantam ducks!



Now dat's a real bevy of PUDDLE Ducks.

Unusual duck breed...Darwin mentions them. A real favorite of mine!

​

Dutch Hookbills - Dusky pair on left, White hen on right.


Largest of our Duck breeds...a Frosted Girl...

​

Feb 2010 - Silver Appleyard Duck Hen Gala.


We also have this breed in a crested variety!

​

Two more pics to torment...

EMPTY!

​

OCCUPIED!

​

One of the best things that happened to me was the waitress job I had part time had its hours zeroed out...that left me able to go to college and then on to university FULL time instead of part time--sped up my graduation by years! See if you can get any assistance from the reason you are out of work is by way of a lay off! Might get your courses covered while you continue to collect unemployment--then that is really doable! I don't know the US system but here in Canuckville, they let you collect AND attend school to make yourself more hireable at a higher wage category. Young folk can always use a bit more cash for the time away from the happiness of your hobbies at home!

Good thoughts and prayers your way...

Yes, when life gives you lemons, you go Girl and make that lemonade stand!

"Kick, kick, kick" - Nothing keeps a good person down! I know you're gonna come outta this rip roaring bigger and better!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[bamadude]

I wouldnt knowingly eat catfish from the mekong river. I have a fully stocked spring fed pond with bass, catfish, bluegill, shell cracker, war mouth, and crappie. I have eaten catfish from the pea river that were delicious

 

[CanuckBock]

Then my wife leaves to meet my daughter in Thailand Sunday.

Alone...alone on your hatch day...well really--some nerve!

Does that mean you get to eat just cake all day long and as much as you wanna? <<I have visions of the toddler in the highchair with icing all over the place.>>

I expect the celebrations will be when your daughter and wife arrive back. Double celebrations, Welcome Back Home and Happy B Day!

BTW, you are a YOUNG PUP...Rick is older dan you's...bwa ha ha...

Tara (who is not sure why I am laughing...like being older WINS the...the race to what...the grave...EEEP!)

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Daughter just posted.

"Listen here Sapa, I love you, but I'm going to need you to clear up your fog a bit tomorrow so I can appreciate all you have to offer. Thanks in advance." — at Sapa, Vietnam.







Gardening.
It's supposed to be 33 here tonight. At night, it usually drops about 3 degrees lower at my house than at the airport (about 8 miles away) where they take the temperature.
Fingers crossed for the apricot tree in full bloom, and the other fruit buds swelling as we speak.

 

[bamadude]

158 days.

that should be plenty of time for any variety u choose. My neighbor plants dixie runners. I can get alot of other varieties from my feed and seed store. Let me know what u want. Im happy to help

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I wouldnt knowingly eat catfish from the mekong river. I have a fully stocked spring fed pond with bass, catfish, bluegill, shell cracker, war mouth, and crappie. I have eaten catfish from the pea river that were delicious

I wouldn't knowingly eat it either. That's why I don't buy catfish.

The pond sounds great.
Growing up, we had a 3 acre pond with an island fed by a seasonal stream. It was long and narrow, gradually deepening from where the stream entered to 20' at the deep end situated in a steep Ozark valley, wooded on both sides and we stocked it.
I mean loaded it with largemouth, bluegill, redear, crappie, chain pickerel, yellow perch, white bass, channel cat, yellow and brown bullhead, several species of minnows, snails, crawfish, clams, bullfrogs, salamanders, daphnia and several types of aquatic plants. It took a few years to get it to all work together by timing the age and numbers of stockings. The plants minnows, crawfish, amphibians, fingerling bass and perch went in first. The next year most of the rest went in. It was an awesome place to fish. We set up areas for nurseries with paces for plankton and insects to grow for newly stocked fry and fingerlings sized fish so the bigger ones couldn't wipe them all out before they had a chance to grow.
We got most of the stuff shipped from Zett's hatchery in Pennsylvania. http://www.zettsfishhatchery.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/CompleteCatalog.pdf
Before it filled we even landscaped the bottom with boulders and gravel bars to give a lot of different habitats.
I was only about 12 at the time but I managed the whole stocking program from research I did thanks to a couple amazing books determining sexual maturity, feeding and spawning habits of all the species.

Alone...alone on your hatch day...well really--some nerve!

Does that mean you get to eat just cake all day long and as much as you wanna? <<I have visions of the toddler in the highchair with icing all over the place.>>

I expect the celebrations will be when your daughter and wife arrive back. Double celebrations, Welcome Back Home and Happy B Day!

BTW, you are a YOUNG PUP...Rick is older dan you's...bwa ha ha...

Tara (who is not sure why I am laughing...like being older WINS the...the race to what...the grave...EEEP!)

How old is he?
I don't eat cake.
Beer is my one vice that crosses my lips. Well maybe the soy sauce on the sushi - too much sodium - only because I eat so much of it. Kinda defeats the purpose of sushi.
I kid my wife that she planned her trip to be gone before my Bday. Really we planned it together so she could have 2 full weeks there and still be on the same flights and my daughter's return.
The night before she leaves, the wife and I are meeting my son and his girlfriend where they both work for some http://www.katiespizzacafe.com/ famous pizza.
He just started cooking there after he quit an airport Mariott hotel where he wasn't getting enough hours. He had been kitchen manager at http://www.llywelynspub.com/ busiest store.
When he got a scholarship a few weeks ago to Maryville U for an actuarial science program starting in the fall, he said his plan was that he had exactly one more year to be a cook.
He and I are spending my birthday at the newly opened http://www.stlballparkvillage.com/ to celebrate Bday and the home opener of the 2014 world series champion Cardinals.

Oz, you might want to check this place out
http://www.hummert.com/export-services
Their world headquarters is real close to me and that's where I shop most of my growing needs, seed and plants.

 

[Bunnylady]

Apropos to absolutely nothing, I've had this song playing in my head all day. Could certainly be worse!!