The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[stonykill]

glad to hear it! my hens are just barely starting to act normal after last week's owl attack.

how long did they go without eating?

 

[Rachel'sFlock]

These thoughts of emergency preparedness on this (and the OT) thread have actually helped me decide on something that has really been bothering me. Too small a coop.
Having been reminded that needing more space for a long-term "bug-in" brought me to the idea of cooping in the garage.
The landlord has a bunch of Hoarder-starter-kit in there, now, and it is where we keep the garbage until we take it to the dump once a month.
This building is bigger than my coop and could easily be swapped for the coop, purpose-wise, in a heartbeat.
Because we only coop them at night, the too-small coop is fine, for every day. There is more than enough roost, and they get along fine in tight quarters (except Everybody-Hates-Penelope) until 7am when I let them out. But the garage suits the need if having to coop them for long term becomes an issue, and one I can implement in about 10 minutes from deciding to, to finished, and cooped.
Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[Bulldogma]

Beautiful photos of a beautiful place, Bee!

 

[Bulldogma]

Hey, Bee - one of our blog readers and FaceBook fans wants to know:
"What's the best way to provide FF when leaving for the weekend, or planning to be away from home for a few days?"

 

[nyanamia]

Here in North TX there aren't a lot of disaster-type situations that happen frequently. When it freezes here, it's only for a night or two, and when it snows, it's no more than a few inches and gone by the next day. I grew up in central TX and absolutely NOTHING ever happened there. I was not raised with any of this knowledge, so it is interesting to read. It would be great to learn how to be more prepared. We do have the occasional tornado since we're in the tail end of Tornado Alley, and lately with all this fracking going on, we have actually had a few mild earthquakes!

I have no idea how we would begin to implement any preparedness ideas here in our city apartment... we have zero space, and zero know-how, but I'm willing to learn some things.

 

[jockeyeba]

Bee I went out to open the coops this morning

If you go to the thread pic gallery, you can page down until you see those specific post pics and the diagram there, click on one of those pics and it will get larger...at the top of that pic it will show you the post link to where that pic was first posted. LOVE that gallery..has helped me so very much!

I've heard good things about Scovy meat. Is it really as good as they say? I really want to let my girl raise some of her own kind, and try a few for meat.

Yep...it's good. It's compact in the muscle fibers, not quite as stringy as some breeds, and flavorful...but then most duck raised at home is. Lots of dark meat, which I love...

Thanks! found what I was looking for the gallery too. I couldn't get my husband to do the job so don't know why she died. How do you tell the age of WR's-Can you tell by comb size?

 

[Miss Lydia]

I found ginger beer at one of the local health food stores! Appreciate the recipe also!

I've seen people mentioning the picture gallery before, but I don't see it. Could be because I have the advertisements turned off?

I have the ads turned off and it's up in the right hand corner of my screen.

 

[off-grid hen]

Well, since I lived at my place without electricity for over a year, I am fine. I still have all the oil lamps and keep them full with fuel on hand for refilling. The well is the old style you drop a bucket down. The outhouse still functions if need be. Think there's even a bag of Lyme still in it... Could use stove ashes anyway if we didn't have it. My driveway is nearly a mile long and we have atvs. But what if no fuel for those? I have cross country skis and a sled. :lol. In fact, my mother-in-law lived here without a plow. She would park at the end of the trail and load the groceries onto the sled. She attached the rope to her belt and skied in. I have enough dry goods to last a while.

Now that its winter, I watch the extended forecast and will stock up on chicken feed and fuel if we are expecting a storm.

Auto*in*correct is really breaking my butt tonight.

 

[lalaland]

I really hate to disappoint, but the ol' Bat doesn't even own a recipe box.  All her old recipes reside in her head and don't have much to do with measurements..handful of that, pinch of this, dash of that.  The Bat isn't a woman woman, no more than I am.  I have a total of about 9-10 recipes in my box and they are all basic things to eat, nothing fancy or that requires a lot of ingredients.

I have one recipe that the Bat used when she had a restaurant in the 70s~a recipe for Coney Island hot dog sauce~that will make you remember how hotdogs used to taste.  I've made it many times over the years and it is always licked clean...people actually standing over their plates just eating hot dog sauce and nothing else.   

It's only one of the few from back then that I could snag...the rest are in her head.  I've only gotten a few of them out...her recipe for homemade bread that comes out each and every time to perfection.  Her crock pot recipe for brown beans, the recipe for grits that made me finally like them...scratch that...LOVE them and crave them, her recipe for hot pepper butter..that isn't a butter but a sandwich spread that I cannot eat any sandwich without.  I've even been known to bring it with me to eateries so that I can actually enjoy the sandwiches there. 

I have her no fail banana nut bread recipe and one for oat burgers(she has been a vegan for many years and is just now coming back to eating animal proteins again) that is to die for~truly~and will make you content with not eating meat.  Her long grain brown rice recipe that will make you actually love it above all other renditions of brown rice. And my grandma's pickled beans recipe....and that's all we have written down.  The rest is passed down in the kitchen and into our heads. 

Oh..and the recipe for laundry detergent.  That's it...10 recipes for life, I guess.    She and I have many more in our heads for canning, basic one dish meals that require no measurements, etc.  That's how us country women roll, I'm afraid. 

lol, Bee, not sure what you mean by a "woman woman" - I'm picturing you referring to a woman who puts her makeup on before anything else, maybe? Anyway, I got hungry just reading. Hot pepper butter sounds great - wonder if it is like a relish that my Italian neighbor used to make years ago - I've never been able to replicate it. And grits, I just got my order of grits for the winter, they don't sell them up here in the North . all of the recipes sound like they would be great. I know it would take time to send them, but count me as one of the bunch here that would enjoy them.
My aunt taught me how to pick greens in the fields and yard, and saute them up with bacon grease and a sweet dressing. It is a spring ritual for me, when you are just craving green. Makes some folks a little uneasy, heck a lot uneasy - they are more comfortable with greens from the supermarket.

 

[off-grid hen]

I think "woman woman" means girly-girl.