The Old Folks Home

[Cynthia12]

First hike done today. It wasn't as exciting as we hoped but it was nice to get out of the car and hike for a while. More to follow tomorrow. Today was Water Canyon

These are beautiful...and..the cactus are blooming! Love it. I really like that water fall..and the..well, all of them.

 

[ozexpat]

You're welcome. Told you she had a lot! And you should see these babies now! Wow. Some of the nicest I've hatched with the nice beards and tops.

She wrote me and asked if it was me that sent you, and she said thanks a lot. Glad you got some.

Apart from the marketing side, I really want a good team of broodies. I hope hatch a decent amount then build up to 24 girls.

I had given up on Silkies but a local supplier (She works in LA so I can get them locally!!!!) from high altitude should make hatching a zero feet above sea level and 50% humidity much easier.

Thanks for the referral.

 

[Wisher1000]

Wecome, Hellbender! Pull up a rocking chair and a cup of your favorite beverage and make yourself at home.

Sorry about the "side sprigs" comment. I wasn't thinking of other breeds, it is a DQ in my chosen breed.

I love Billy Joel................... and Phil Collins.

 

[getaclue]

Welcome Hellbender! Glad you came. I think you will enjoy it here.

 

[Cynthia12]

You have a 'Jason' too, huh?




PS...I was invited here a while back. I hope no one objects to my visit.

 

[hellbender]

Thanks to all for the welcome!

 

[CanuckBock]

I really dont mind Canadians - they are alot like Aussies but with really pale skin and a funny accent


Originally Posted by ChickenCanoe
And polite.

Oz Are you implying we need minding by someone....that we are sickly (pale skinned--watchit or I'll show you my REDNECK side

), that we talk funny AND have an accent, eh? I don't have an accent, everyone else sure does though!

CC Are you implying whilst those of us from the Great White North are "polite," that maybe the ones from Down Under are not?

Since this is the Old Folks Home, I thought I'd share what a friend sent me this morning.

I remember each one of these.

Older than dirt.
Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him. 'All the food was slow.'
'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'
'It was a place called 'at home,' I explained. ! 'Mum cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'
By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.
Here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it :
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card..
My parents never drove me to school. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow).
We didn't have a television in our house until I was 10. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God. It came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people...
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.
Pizzas were not delivered to our home.... But milk was.
All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers --my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. He had to get up at 6AM every morning. Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.
If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing. Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES: My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it.. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?
Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz : Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about - Ratings at the bottom.

1.Candy cigarettes
2.Coffee shops with tableside juke boxes
3.Home milk delivery in glass bottles
4. Party lines on the telephone
5.Newsreels before the movie
6.TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels [if you were fortunate])
7.Peashooters
8. Howdy Doody
9. 45 RPM records
10.Hi-fi's
11. Metal ice trays with lever
12. Blue flashbulb
13.Cork popguns
14. Studebakers
15. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-3 = You're still young If you remembered 3-6 = You are getting older If you remembered 7-10 = Don't tell your age, If you remembered 11-15 =You're older than dirt! I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life. Don't forget to pass this along!! Especially to all your really OLD friends.

I've seen these lists before. Wouldn't you know it, got a 15.

All good ones but some gooder than others...

Older than dirt. - That's MY name...dirt...mud...terra! Mud slinger and crap disturber...call me MUD...my name is mud...

'We didn't have fast food
...
'It was a place called 'at home,' I explained. !

I grew up my teenage years on the Northern End of Vancouver Island...way away...so away we had a Northern Living Allowance... We once had a Mr. Mikes' move in and it had to shut down...nobody cared for it. Last I heard where I grew up, Subway moved in. There was this thing that when you went "down island" you were expected to bring back Big Macs and McChickens fer yer friends! No Mickey D's where we were and it was neat to have something that was "fast food!" as a sorta treat.

Laugh and laugh. One time a friend of Rick's was doing just that, had zipped thru Campbell River and stopped at McDonalds...he had the back seat loaded up with various items for everyone...well if he did not get pulled over for speeding just before the Nimpkish started. The police officer comes up and asks him for his driver's license, and the officer can't help but notice all the fast food on the back seat...smells waifing about. Cop merely looks at Rick's friend, and grins--on the license he can see the address Rick's friend is from and knows he lives way up at the Northern end of the Island...Officer keeps on grinning and says to him, "Trying to get them up there HOT?"

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 10. It was, of course, black and white

Yeh, all the TV things mentioned apply (national anthem & TV test patterns - don't mind me but are TV test patterns now gone off the TV...I never pay much attention to that sort to thing? Now I feel dumb and un-observant!).

So TV...my father had such a rough go at trying to find a job when I was young...there was no $ for a TV let alone money for rent. Kid Brothers Honey...I will NEVER forget their kindness to my family. Dad was trying anything and everything to get a job to make money...longshoreman (he was allergic to sulphur and he was in massive pain on the docks of Vancouver...huge piles of the bright yellow), fishermen (he sucked at it), stock broker (again he sucked)...he kept trying and failing and the rent came due more than a few times until we were months behind! Kid Brother's never kicked our sorry butts out in the street though in my opinion, they had every right to. Tracked them down a year ago, I sent off an e-mail to thank them...the man in charge of the rental house has long passed on but he was just that kind of fellow...generous and kind and I shall never forget that break they gave my family when my father could not get it together.

The TV...well my father's parents came to visit...we did not have very much and they knew that. They brought us a TV...yes, a black & white of course but what a luxury item to have. For eons...we had three channels if the rabbit ears were catching the signal good. Even when others got cable...no way...my parents would not get cable...did get a colour TV and laugh...ONE TV...my sister and I moved out and went to college and university and hear back my parents have TWO TVs and cable...LOL I mean man alive...a wet dreary dark West Coast winter's eve and in the house after chores and one TV that was always switched to some sports event. I am NOT a sports fan...only a sports player. Not a fan, but a participant so I don't like watching sports...only playing in one! LOL



All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers

My father never delivered newspapers but he wanted a camera really badly...so he worked doing something a little bit different than delivering newspapers, more on that in a bit. Here's his camera he worked to get...now mine.

Yup, that's real leather on it...not plastic.​

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.

Yeh...are these items located on any other places now? Jest joking...

Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Sure but really...I can beat this...two 1928 Chev one tons and the six units in the 1936 Chev Maple Leafs...turn signals don't exist on them. On the 1936's, there is a single taillight that shows when you brake AND NO SEAT BELTS--and it is legal for this vehicle because they were issued with NO SEATBELTS! Sure you could just use your arm to signal (like when riding a bike) or you could installed a wigwag. What's a wigwag? It is a signal arm like this one you use to signal with. See it, on the green box side and it is white with three amber glass inserts. At a vintage vehicle swap sale a few years back...I aced two sets of these lenses for some idiot price like fifty cents each. All rolled up and taped together...the vender had no idea what they were for and I instantly recognized them and snapped them up! Beauty score!





1.Candy cigarettes

Oh man...Popeye cigarettes...whatever that recipe they used for it then...they changed it now. BLAH...I bought a whole case of them at a store thinking, "Wow...haven't had these in decades!" and grossed me right out. Maybe that is the plan...we'll make a CANDY version so gross the kids will NEVER try the real McCoy because the candy version is majorly disgusting. Now that plan or the ingredient(s) that made them so good when I had them long time ago...has now been proven to be a carcinogenesis so my expiry date has been ramped up by more than just a few years!

Candy...remember penny candy...yeh...all that a distant memory. Candy at the local corner store was so good...not just because you were a kid and craved it (and ran it off in endless energy running and doing so much) but there seemed to be a ton more of selection! My mother was super strict about us kids having candy. So bad we revolted on her...ha ha ha...stubborn wicked blighters us kids were...my sis and I. We use to go collect pop bottles (glass ones of course!) and cash them in at the local store for candy. Not allowed to chew GUM at all--ever--period! Well we were wicked I say and we would buy gum and blow the biggest bubbles imaginable...being a kid, doing what kids did. Well my sister was younger and she fudged up one time...real bad. We both had long hair and she flubbed up a bubble and got GUM IN HER HAIR! Yuppers...we both freaked...we were dead in the water...Mom was gonna KNOW we had gum because the evidence was in her hair! So that day we became even more evil. My sister lied...freaked me right out and shocked me to no end. She walked into the house and told Mom..."Some BAD BOYS put gum in my hair!" and bloomin' heck, if my mother did not believe her...agh... Come to think of it, it was all down hill from there for my lil' sis...she stole some of Dad's Player's Plain cigarettes and smoked them. When I started up...I confided in her I was smoking and she said, "Thank heavens...I've been smoking for two years already!" Kid sisters, eh...trouble...both in trouble brats!

8. Howdy Doody

Laugh...you know you are old when you make a joke and you get the dull stunned l00k of utter "HUH?" Rick use to play this game with a friend of his...his friend would see him and yell, "HOWDY!" and Rick would simply reply, "DOODY!" and it became SO conditioned in him. Anyone that would greet either of us with a friendly "Howdy!" instantly got the Doody treatment back only over the years, you get more often than not...this "HUH?" absolutely clueless look and blank confused response. Sucks getting old.



12. Blue flashbulb - Phht....way older than just those (had an Uncle that worked for Kodak)...

Try this...on the lower left of the light meter....That's the Flash for my Dad's camera (and it l00ks like an LED light...doncha think??).

​

Yeh, and the cases are all leather with metal snaps. My father worked as a courier as a kid on his bike. After school, he would RUSH home and get on his bike. His job was to run film from the reporters to be developed and then take the photos to the newspapers for printing. He worked his buns off for a VERY VERY long time and finally...his reward I now own is that Pentax camera.

​

15. Wash tub wringers

Aren't these usually referred to as "wringer washers" or is this to reference the "wringer attachment" on the top...the one that eats fingers, breaks arms, grabs dangly jewellery and tries to kill you and such?

Uh yeh...turn my head to the far right, look up on the book shelf...yeh...up thar with the Squirrel peanut butter tin and my jingle bells...dingle dingle dingbat!


Gran's wringer washer attachment...so love she gave it to me...family treasure!

What else do I got...got this one out under the porch of my old hay shed...yeh...laundry...sure...



Bought this unit in Nov 2009...had my Gran's wringer attachment and wanted the tub part too...so I bought this one although it came with a wringer attachment included...guess I got a spare.

Chris Farley aka Matt Foley:

I'm ready...BRING IT ON! At least Mom can be proud 'cause my underwear will be pristine and clean...washing my bloomers...the dogs, Rick and I, living in a van, down by the river eating government cheese washing our clothes using my wringer washer! So set to succeed in life, eh?

Now Rick is old...old as dirt too...he remembers using a visible gas pump to fuel his vehicle...so much so and fond of it, we bought this one below. Just like the one he remembers. Plan to restore it to working order and USE IT!

​

Yeh, gonna look purdy snazzy in the yard eh? Probably don't have to worry too much about whipper snappers getting fuel from it...they won't know what the heck it is and even better; how to use it! Fuel pump...you PUMP it? What??????????

So the only one I did not get was the "newsreels" at the movies...we had the cartoons but I guess either I never noticed this, not old enough or these just never were played where and when we went to the movies. We had two movie theatres in the town of 5,000 people...yeh, funny to have two in a small town and Rick played some of the films at both when the one fellow bought out the other theatre and owned both. Rick ended up putting himself into the hospital back them. He would work a 12 hour shift at the mine and then go play the films late into the night...and he did this steady. This was before my time with him but he worked himself into exhaustion and ended up in the hospital. Funny thing he says, all that extra money he was working so hard to make...he lost it all when he had to take time off BOTH jobs to get recovered and rested back up again. Bwa ha ha...so much for working your fingers to the bones, eh?

Hoyt Axton – Boney Fingers:

OK Wise OLD Persons...Saturday night, some fun...guessing game fer yah. Got you five questions to figure out...not too many, don't want us all napping cause we tired out...

Mystery items I own...I know what they are...but DO you's?


Item No. 1:

​

Item No. 2:

​

Because you cannot pick this item up to examine it as a photo...the left side on it is very much like "chain mail"...so flexible rings of metal.


Item No. 3:

​

My mother owns one of these too but it is much bigger and has a side handle on it...a really business like model! LOL


Item No. 4:

​

Item No. 5:

​

So there...some mystery items for yah to guess on.

What brain cells we have left after abusing ourselves all dees many odd years...

So what are items 1 to 5 then?

Doggone & Chicken UP!

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

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Quote: #1] Bottle top sprinkle for the ironing board. Mom and grandma used 'em.


#2} Rug/carpet beater...I think.

#3} Laundry tub plunger.

#4} not sure why the spoon was bent..?

#5} Looks like a milk bottle...wrong color though.

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

Just a quick check in....my broody hen hatched 9 babies this past week. Her first broody hatch. She hatched 7 Barred Rocks and 2 of hers.....not sure what they'll look like. She is Game/EE cross.....and is housed in the Plymouth Rock flock.
No pics yet.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

First hike done today. It wasn't as exciting as we hoped but it was nice to get out of the car and hike for a while. More to follow tomorrow. Today was Water Canyon

very nice. is this in Utah?