Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Stumpfarmer]

Also, though you're less likely to get holes punched in you, or otherwise suffer bloody injury, it was a recently despurred RIR rooster that gave me my permanent black-hornet-sting adhesion and nerve injury thirty years ago last March. So aggressive roosters who go after people need to be considered very, very carefully.

You can glue ping pong balls on the aggressive guys....  Mighta helped !

Wasn't my rooster; belonged to a licensed Master Falconer who lived in the cabin, and raised chickens to feed his Prairie Falcons. The rooster was a right (editorial comment withheld) and finally met his end after he took to waking up when friends drove in at night and the porch light came on, and ambushing them from the plum trees. It was early on in his reign of terror when he got me, and pretty much my fault; I had been making lists in my mind on the bus, heading over to weed my garden, and had, in my deep concentration, walked right through the flock while they were eating some scratch the falconer had thrown down.

ON the other hand: thirty-one years ago, it's a long time to be punished for a moment's inattention.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

One more post about rats then I'm done for now. 

Yesterday, after I posted the photo of the dead rat that I had found in the big run and disposed of it, I left for work.  When I returned home at 6:30 PM, DH says to me, [COLOR=0000CD]"Nice picture on the computer. Way to clean up your mess"![/COLOR]  I said, [COLOR=800080]"What mess"?[/COLOR] 

[COLOR=0000CD]"The dead rat - way to get rid of it.  Thanks a lot".[/COLOR]
[COLOR=800080]"What do you mean?  I tossed it in the garbage.  Where was I supposed to put it"?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000CD]"No you didn't".[/COLOR]
[COLOR=800080]"I didn't what"?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000CD]"Toss it in the garbage.  I had to do it".[/COLOR]
[COLOR=800080]"I'm pretty sure I know if I tossed a rat in the garbage or not.  It's pretty indelibly marked in my memory".[/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000CD]"No, you left it in the garage where I found it and *I* had to throw it away".[/COLOR]
[COLOR=800080]"You found one in the garage?  A dead rat?  In a trap"?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000CD]"Yeah, where YOU left it"![/COLOR]
[COLOR=800080]"NO, I did not leave a dead rat in the garage.  I opened the trap and threw the rat in the trash".[/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000CD]"No, you didn't".[/COLOR]
[COLOR=800080]"Yes, I did"[/COLOR].
[COLOR=0000CD]"No, I had to throw away your dead rat because you had left it the garage.  You took it outside, took a picture of it and then put it back in garage"![/COLOR]
[COLOR=800080]"Okay. I'm getting it now. You remember we had set two traps, right"?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000CD]"Yeah"[/COLOR].
[COLOR=800080]"Well I found a dead rat in the run and I DID throw it in the trash.  The one YOU found hadn't been caught yet when I left the house this morning".[/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000CD]"Huh"?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=800080]"I'm telling you that TWO rats were caught and killed today.  One in the run and the other in the garage.  I tossed the first and you tossed the second.  Are we all caught up now"?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000CD]"Oh, two rats were killed today".[/COLOR]
[COLOR=800080]"Yeah.  Yay for us.  Can we move on to a different topic now"?[/COLOR]

Oy.  Just in case it wasn't enough fun to deal with already, it's another entertaining source for potential miscommunication.  You can't tell me that even after 22 years of marriage we don't know how to amuse each other!
So, traps are being reset.  We continue the war, hopefully on the same team.

This sounds way, way, way too familiar. As in: various items of contention, not excluding rats, at least once a week for thirty years.

 

[DeesHens]

We have been searching and searching for pvc black coated hex wire 1" holes 20 g.wire 6 ft. tall in a 150 ft. roll. So far the best deal I have found is at Wireman online. But we hate paying the shipping! So we have been on the phone calling all the farm stores we can think of that may carry it. No one on the North Olympic Peninsula stocks it. We also called Cenex in Kitsap county. Nope!
Does anyone here have any ideas where we could find it? Thanks in advance for any tips.
BTW Fencing materials & electric fencer plus my future BA chicks

are my Christmas present.

DH will be fencing in a safe chicken padlock. ZAP!

Watch out raccoons!

~Dee~

 

[FlyRobinFly]

So, traps are being reset. We continue the war, hopefully on the same team.

Yay, two down! And I could totally hear the conversation between you and DH. Glad that misunderstanding got cleared up!

 

[FlyRobinFly]

I just received a flyer from Coastal Farm in Auburn about a ladies' night this Thursday. Anyone in the area want to do a meetup and shop at the same time?

 

[Sudsy Chick]

Hi everyone!

a little off topic...does anyone need a free, older computer?

black dell - think it's about 5 years old - smaller hard drive (around 30 to 60 GB - really don't recall).

was very recently rebuilt with Windows XP.

Just the computer tower.

Kenmore/Kirkland/Woodinville area.

Let me know if you want to pick it up =)

 

[Greg Richardson]

Quote: CL. You have something else going on besides the roof?

To the one that mentioned electric fence. If you have bears that is the best defense. The blue berry farm near me said that was what saved them was that fence.

 

[CarolynF]

Also, I need tips on planting:
1) The dahlia "Bhuella Ruth" tubers..................do I bust them up ?
Points up ?
Sideways ?

2) The Crocosmia::: Is it as invasive as I have read ?
Should they go into a container rather than in the ground ?
And, do I bust up all the rings, or does growth only occur on the "new" ends ??????????
So each "ring" would not necessarilly grow ???

I am a vegie gardener...not a flower gardener !!

Hi CL, that particular dahlia is pretty hardy meaning I haven't been able to kill it by means of neglect or ignorance, so don't worry. If I remember correctly I left 2 or 3 tubers attached. If that's true, I did it because it was a good group to re-plant as-is. Hopefully you can see the remnants of a stalk that once grew above ground. If so lay them in the hole with that stub pointing up. If it's gone see if you can make out where it might have been. It's not really critical as long as the tubers are laying flat on the soil. For other people that took the other dahlia tubers.... I usually put 2 tubers in each hole with the "eye" ends in the center of the hole (not touching). That way the stalks will grow up alongside each other and be easy to tie to a stake that's in the middle. If you can't tell where the "eyes" are, don't sweat it.

I leave them in the ground over the winter which many people don't. At most I put some leaves on top to protect from freezing. I also plant them a bit deeper than most people do, about 7"-8" deep, also to protect from freezing. I have a devil of a time over-wintering bulbs indoors. They like to mold or dry up or just die. Doing it my way I've only had minimal damage in the past 20 years. And it's only been lately that I've even bothered to mulch them. Colder climates would be a different story. So dig a hole about 8" deep, toss in some fertilizer, add a stake now so you don't stab the tubers later, then fill in the hole and mulch. In the spring get the slug bait out REALLY early. The slugs will eat the tops of the new growth before you even see it! Every 2 years I try to remember to dig them up and divide them in the spring. If you don't they will start getting smaller and smaller flowers and eventually just die out.

The crocosmia does spread via the seeds that form after they finish blooming (which look really cool) and as the bulb multiply. As long as you trim the seed heads and dig up bulbs you don't want they won't be a problem -- just like asters or glads or siberian iris or any number of other plants. It's not like they send out wild stringers or broadcast a million seeds. Invasive is a big over statement. The clumps that are left untendded for 3 or 4 years will become very solid and don't like to be divided. But they are shallow rooted so a shovel will go under them pretty easily.

Busting up the rings... I don't know. When I replanted my tubers I left some stuck together and some I broke apart. I had the idea the large clusters would produce a heavier plant with good blooms and the smaller bulbs would be "young" plants. But I don't actually know if it's true. I know they will survive and bloom -- if not this year then next. They are "Lucifer" and will grow to about 40" to 48". They'll stand up tall better in the sun than shade. They'll "reach" for the sun and fall over if they don't get the sun they want.

 

[Chefswifey]

Still air incubator idea HELP

I am aquiring a 12 volt CPU fan today and am wanting to install it in a Little giant 9200 incubator.... I've read that too much air is bad and that the CPU fan is to fast... I'm powering the fan with a 9 volt old cell charger(has a transformer... I'm thinking this will slow the fan down significantly... on top of this I wanted to have the capability to adjust the fan speed even lower for lockdown to help with humidity level...To accomplish this I found a Rheostat at radio shack that should allow me to turn the voltage down even further, thus decreasing fan speed....

Am I on the right track? forgeting anything?... I cant seem to find anyone who's done a side by side comparison of still air vs forced air set up... I'm curious on hatch success rate... issues that arrose...grrr!! lol

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Still air incubator idea HELP

I am aquiring a 12 volt CPU fan today and am wanting to install it in a Little giant 9200 incubator.... I've read that too much air is bad and that the CPU fan is to fast... I'm powering the fan with a 9 volt old cell charger(has a transformer... I'm thinking this will slow the fan down significantly... on top of this I wanted to have the capability to adjust the fan speed even lower for lockdown to help with humidity level...To accomplish this I found a Rheostat at radio shack that should allow me to turn the voltage down even further, thus decreasing fan speed....

Am I on the right track? forgeting anything?... I cant seem to find anyone who's done a side by side comparison of still air vs forced air set up... I'm curious on hatch success rate... issues that arrose...grrr!! lol

You should be able to wire in a dimmer into it between the transformer and the fan. I am only a hobby electrician, but that seems the logical way to wire it.