The Old Folks Home

[superchemicalgirl]

I would not buy in a homeowners association, either. My mom is in one currently and they've had a lot of problems. It's my land and my house. If I want to not mow, weed or otherwise maintain something, that's up to me. If I want to paint my house hot pink or black, that's my prerogative. My neighbors can do whatever they like as long as it is on their property and is legal.


Spent the day doing some stenciling of Portland Head Lighthouse. The class goes next weekend too, to finish it up with rocks and the little things like the top of the lighthouse, the windows and doors, fence, etc.

 

[Alaskan]

SCG, I really like the painting! Watercolor? Or what?


And I am with you.. Rules drive me crazy.

We bought the house we live in now, and a couple of years AFTER we bought it it got stuck in a watershed district that comes with a giant fat book of rules.

It has rules about everything! I am surprised it didn't include a $1000 fine for spitting outside.

Tells how big the garden can be, how big the lawn, how many dogs I may own, as well as the maximum combined weight of my dogs (not kidding).

 

[drumstick diva]

Good grief Alaskan, maybe you should move back to the contiguous USA. I never heard of such ridiculous rules. I guess that means you can't keep a kennel full of sled dogs.

 

[vehve]

Well, I won't catch up on everything I've missed, but hey everyone!

Just spent a week up in Lapland again, a bit of skiing down the slopes, but they were either slushy or frozen solid all the time, so that wasn't as fun as usually. I set a goal of doing 100km cross country skiing (60 miles), but due to the weather conditions I came about 10km short. Had to do a bit of trekking to reach my total instead.

A view from Isokuru, Pyhätunturi, Finland.


A Kuukkeli, a local bird that always shows up around campfires to get his share of any edibles.


Me and the dogs crossing a ski slope that has just closed 5 minutes ago.

 

[Latestarter]

Welcome back Felix. The picture of the bird reminds me of what we here call camp robber jays. They are a rather large gray colored bird that like yours, hangs around camp during meal times hoping for cast offs or something they can steal. They are quite friendly really and not afraid at all. Though some dislike them, I enjoy their company in camp. They are only found at higher altitudes near forests. Looks like you had a good vacation with the hounds.

 

[vehve]

Late, could be a relative of these, they behave exactly like that. This one stole the last of Karin's sandwich.

Yeah, the dogs liked it. We did about 30 miles of skiing with them.

 

[vehve]

Picture time!

The chicks were out enjoying the sun in the run. I didn't get any pictures, but Hilma the bunnny who's preggers again was in the run digging a burrow while we cleaned the bunny pen.

Here are all the birds we have at the moment:



The chicks:


The bigger ones are 13 days and the two hybrid pullets are 9 days. They were outside for about 2 hours in 30F temps, and showed no signs of freezing. Mommy tucked them in under her wings a couple of times, but mostly they just dug around in the run.

This was pretty amazing for 9-day-old birds in my opinion.










So, no worrying about the chicks being stuck in the run either. One of them didn't understand that he was supposed to return inside, so mommy-Töyhtis came out and coaxed him into climbing the steps. Once again, broodies beat brooders 100-0 in my book. No worrying about keeping the chicks at 90 F (which seems really high anyway), and no issues with integrating adolescents at a later age. I haven't seen the big ones peck the chicks a single time. When we had our first chicks, we put up a separator in the coop, but when we took it down, we had some issues with pecking, this has really been the best way for us the last few times.

Also, looks like the chicks are about ready to go on the same grain mix that our grown ups use, at least they're happy to eat it. And no loose poops have been spotted anywhere. I really like the yeast stuff we add to our feed, it seems to work wonders. I'm sure there is cocci in our coop and run, at least when we had fecal tests done on the bunnies that was the case. But they don't seem to have any symptoms either, the batch we butchered a week ago had completely clear livers.

 

[vehve]

Late, I looked up the Camp Robber Jay, seems like that term covers 4 different birds, but the Gray jay (Perisoreus canadensis) is a close relative of our Kuukkeli, or the Siberian jay, P. infaustus. Nice and friendly birds.

*Edit* I really like latin names of birds and other critters. Whoever says they're redundant has never compared animals across the planet. The same animals can have such different names on different sides of our globe, that a standardized way to compare them is really helpful.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

SCG, I really like the painting! Watercolor? Or what?

It's oil on fabric and will likely be finished as part of a row by row quilt. The other option is to finish it as a table runner, but I already have plans for a Maine coast quilt and this will go nicely with it.

This is what the teachers looks like done and she also used it as part of a quilt:


She's been doing this 30 years, hers looks great.

Picture time!

So, no worrying about the chicks being stuck in the run either. One of them didn't understand that he was supposed to return inside, so mommy-Töyhtis came out and coaxed him into climbing the steps. Once again, broodies beat brooders 100-0 in my book. No worrying about keeping the chicks at 90 F (which seems really high anyway), and no issues with integrating adolescents at a later age. I haven't seen the big ones peck the chicks a single time. When we had our first chicks, we put up a separator in the coop, but when we took it down, we had some issues with pecking, this has really been the best way for us the last few times.

I loved the pictures. Thanks for sharing. I used to also freak out a bit about chicks in the house - until one of my girls went broody in the dead of winter and successfully raised chicks. It was eye opening for me to see the little buggers running around in sub-zero temperatures with frozen waters. That's actually helped me be much more laid back in my brooder chick rearing style, and now they get heat for about 10-14 days around the clock, then only as needed. It works. They're outside by 6 weeks regardless of temperature.

 

[perchie.girl]

Picture time!

The chicks were out enjoying the sun in the run. I didn't get any pictures, but Hilma the bunnny who's preggers again was in the run digging a burrow while we cleaned the bunny pen.

Here are all the birds we have at the moment:



The chicks:


The bigger ones are 13 days and the two hybrid pullets are 9 days. They were outside for about 2 hours in 30F temps, and showed no signs of freezing. Mommy tucked them in under her wings a couple of times, but mostly they just dug around in the run.

This was pretty amazing for 9-day-old birds in my opinion.










So, no worrying about the chicks being stuck in the run either. One of them didn't understand that he was supposed to return inside, so mommy-Töyhtis came out and coaxed him into climbing the steps. Once again, broodies beat brooders 100-0 in my book. No worrying about keeping the chicks at 90 F (which seems really high anyway), and no issues with integrating adolescents at a later age. I haven't seen the big ones peck the chicks a single time. When we had our first chicks, we put up a separator in the coop, but when we took it down, we had some issues with pecking, this has really been the best way for us the last few times.

Also, looks like the chicks are about ready to go on the same grain mix that our grown ups use, at least they're happy to eat it. And no loose poops have been spotted anywhere. I really like the yeast stuff we add to our feed, it seems to work wonders. I'm sure there is cocci in our coop and run, at least when we had fecal tests done on the bunnies that was the case. But they don't seem to have any symptoms either, the batch we butchered a week ago had completely clear livers.

so freaking cute..... glad your back Felix

deb