Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[JennS]

Quote: When I read what justbugged said, I thought she meant it was hard for him to kill the bunny mentally, emotionally, whatever. Not necessarily technically difficult.

Ah, that makes sense. Rabbits are very cute. But wild rabbits aren't that hard.

Jennifer

 

[Totalcolour]

Quote: oh, I never thought of that. Probably because it all looks like meat to me.

 

[mikeyb]

rabbits stink much worse then chickens, but are so easy to clean. skinning a freshly killed rabbit on a scale of 1 - 10 is a......10. easy-peasy.
fried rabbit, yum.

 

[JennS]

What a beautiful day! It's a lot easier to enjoy since I didn't have to drive my husband to work.

I usually drive him the 20-30 minutes down I-5 to downtown Seattle, but this morning a commuter bus caught fire and the express lanes were blocked. It would have taken us over an hour to get in, so he is working from home and dialing in to meetings. I went out to feed the chickens and we all soaked up the sun for a bit. The girls are still skittish out of the pen and around me, but I've been buying their trust with mealworms so they were comfortable hanging around me while I checked their food and stood around the patio. Jerk is such a talker! She clucks almost constantly. Is she sounding an alarm call since I'm there, or do some hens just like to keep a running commentary? We chat, too. I say bawk bawk bawk at her and she responds. None of them are squatting for me yet. I'm not even getting eggs from the year old Polish because she's been molting since I got her.

I think it's funny to hear how much other people's hens like to free range. This is how far mine come out. Why yes, my patio is a total mess. I need to spread out the hay in the bags, pick up the pots, and carry the lumber back to the garage. I might get it done this week since it'll be dry!


I looked for my snowdrops, but they aren't very far along. I have 3 clusters of them, planted around my plum tree. None of my hellebores are blooming yet, either.


I've been enjoying my hardy cyclamen. I love this stuff! I planted it I think 4 years ago? Pretty flowers in the summer and pretty leaves in the winter. My euphorbia keeps trying to swallow it. I'm going to have to rip a bunch more out this spring.


Jennifer

 

[hallerlake]

What a beautiful day! It's a lot easier to enjoy since I didn't have to drive my husband to work.

I usually drive him the 20-30 minutes down I-5 to downtown Seattle, but this morning a commuter bus caught fire and the express lanes were blocked. It would have taken us over an hour to get in, so he is working from home and dialing in to meetings. I went out to feed the chickens and we all soaked up the sun for a bit. The girls are still skittish out of the pen and around me, but I've been buying their trust with mealworms so they were comfortable hanging around me while I checked their food and stood around the patio. Jerk is such a talker! She clucks almost constantly. Is she sounding an alarm call since I'm there, or do some hens just like to keep a running commentary? We chat, too. I say bawk bawk bawk at her and she responds. None of them are squatting for me yet. I'm not even getting eggs from the year old Polish because she's been molting since I got her.

I think it's funny to hear how much other people's hens like to free range. This is how far mine come out. Why yes, my patio is a total mess. I need to spread out the hay in the bags, pick up the pots, and carry the lumber back to the garage. I might get it done this week since it'll be dry!


I looked for my snowdrops, but they aren't very far along. I have 3 clusters of them, planted around my plum tree. None of my hellebores are blooming yet, either.


I've been enjoying my hardy cyclamen. I love this stuff! I planted it I think 4 years ago? Pretty flowers in the summer and pretty leaves in the winter. My euphorbia keeps trying to swallow it. I'm going to have to rip a bunch more out this spring.


Jennifer

My hellebores have buds down at ground level. It will be a while before they bloom. I have the H. orientalis, not the H. niger which blooms earlier. I've never had any luck with the H. niger.
I have the fall blooming cyclamen and the winter blooming C. coum. They're just starting to bloom now. They're running late this year.

 

[Slinglings]

What a beautiful day! It's a lot easier to enjoy since I didn't have to drive my husband to work.

I usually drive him the 20-30 minutes down I-5 to downtown Seattle, but this morning a commuter bus caught fire and the express lanes were blocked. It would have taken us over an hour to get in, so he is working from home and dialing in to meetings. I went out to feed the chickens and we all soaked up the sun for a bit. The girls are still skittish out of the pen and around me, but I've been buying their trust with mealworms so they were comfortable hanging around me while I checked their food and stood around the patio. Jerk is such a talker! She clucks almost constantly. Is she sounding an alarm call since I'm there, or do some hens just like to keep a running commentary? We chat, too. I say bawk bawk bawk at her and she responds. None of them are squatting for me yet. I'm not even getting eggs from the year old Polish because she's been molting since I got her.


Jennifer

My husband was on a bus downtown before we knew about the accident. I dropped him off at the bus stop at 8:15 and called him at 9:05, the bus had only gotten down to 83rd st (we live at 135th).

 

[WhiskiRanch]

I'm hoping to have flowers growing as well as a veggie garden this year. When Elmer and I got together, I moved in with him and this place was a bachelor pad. Clean and tidy but no color or personality. Apparently, that's my job ;-) gonna start simple with some roses and couple wine barrel planters along the deck with good hardy flowers. My veggie garden will be a decent size though. Probably 24x24ft. We want corn, tomatoes, pumpkins, radishes, peppers, and whaever else we can think of. And all the scraps will be going to Whiski and his girls for them to munch on. Very soon, I will be planting a sugar peas. They go into their pot on the deck on Washington's birthday (something my Gramma taught me)

 

[Hinotori]

I need to get the tiller out and run it in the garden after this cold snap passes to till in the old chicken litter and weeds.

I have some old straw bales that DH was using as a backdrop for archery practice that will be put out there for a straw bale gardening test. The peas will go straight in the ground since they did well last year. I'm going to do a couple big rows since we like peas and I know those will grow. I'm going to try the lima beans in the ground and in the bale to see how well it does.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Woohoo!!! We get to sign papers for our refi on our mortgage(been trying to get it done for almost 8 months now) next week. Gonna lower our interest rate by 2+%, saving $500 a month. This is a straight across refi(just the balance of our loan, no extra).

Peep, the hawk attack survivor, has an impacted gizzard I think. She is inside and pooping just urate(no firm stuff). I got about a teaspoon of EVOO into her crop and massaged it, gonna do it again later tonight. If she is not getting better in a few days I may have to cull her out.

These birds can be soo stressful

 

[WhiskiRanch]

Once I'm feeling better (had oral surgery this morning) I'm gonna have my man help me get the veggie garden started. Never had one here so we will be planting ours out back and move all the old steer manuer over to the veggie spot and till it in. And then line the garden with railroad ties to slightly raise it. Does anyone have any ideas on keeping my chickens out of it this summer? I can see them tearing it up and eating everything...lol my chickens can go over tall fences. I don't clip their wings because I want them to be able to get up high in case of danger. They use to roost in my trees by the horse arena before we built their coop nd run last fall. If they are getting enough to eat, will they stay away from the garden if I put a simple fence around it?