Washingtonians

[Kaneke]

Quote:
Speaking of food grade DE, pick it up at the Grange or some other place. I just saw it at ACE; a 5 ounce container was $10.99!!!!!!!! I don't think I paid much more than that for 50 pounds!


.... and speaking of pregnancy, I think you will soon be required to post baby belly shots as well

Me either, 50# sack food grade DE was $23 at my feed store.

since I don't use THAT much DE -- was glad that Yelm Farm & Pet repackaged their food grade DE into 10# kraft paper bags for $5

yes, it's more "per pound", but that meant I didn't have to find storage space for 50# bag, didn't have to haul it around, with the ever present danger of the bag splitting open as I hefted it

still have used less than a third of it in three months since I got the chicks

 

[Ogress]

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Probably not! Just the word naked would embarrass him!

I just got an e-mail from his teacher that he is supposed to be writing his autobiography and the only thing he written is about playing video games, riding his bicycle and doing homework! He can't remember doing anything else! I asked him about some pretty memorable occasions like at a public Easter Egg hunt last year when he was walking without looking and fell into a pool with his basket of eggs! He remembers NOTHING! Not even when I showed him photos! "why am I all wet? Really? I don't remember!" I noticed when we did a road trip a few years ago, 20 states in 2 weeks, that he could remember nothing beyond 2 days. I don't understand how this kid works! In frist grade his teacher called me in and yelled at me to socialize the kid as his weeken activites book had the same thing every week - (went for a walk with the family, swam in my pool). He simply copied the first 2 entries so he would not have to think nor correct new spelling errors! She was so MAD at me "There are parks, there are clubs, there sports teams, there are churches...." At the time he was on a soccer team, the jump-rope team, unicycle team, YMCA Guides, the school play, plus he went to speech therapy, occupational therapy, vision therapy, and social skills group all in Issaquah or further each once a week. It was simply impossible to do anymore! What a Royal B---- for assuming we neglect him! She is the one who kept him in every single recess for nearly the entire school year because he fidgets! He even had a note from the occupational therapist stating he must be given recess! The school would not make exceptions to the rules without a diagnosis and note from an MD, so we got one. The MD (UW autism center) ripped the teacher and the school in his report.

We stopped almost all therapies within the last 2 years because all they seem to do is drain the bank account and nothing has improved the kids memory. At odd times he'll suddenly remember wierd facts of his life, and any of the topics he was ever obsessed with.

 

[Kaneke]

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A guy that bought one of our rooster said he used diesel fuel, said he sprays the inside of the barn down.

Let's hope he doesn't smoke.

diesel fuel is much more difficult to ignite, than gasoline (thank goodness)

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
East of the Mountains? Pretty much all of summer and into early fall, although up in Okanogan and Omak where RFF and 4312 live fall comes earlier; West of the Mountains it may get hot enough for AC a week or two every summer, if you can't close your blinds before the sun hits the windows. It was over 100 degrees on the wetside five days in a row in... 2009? 2008? and that was *half* the triple digit weather for my whole life. And last summer it only got over 90 once. On the wetside.

East of the Mountains there's places that are true deserts.

HA!!! I wish I didn't hit 100 degrees every summer... But every year that I have lived here, "so 4 years now," my backyard has gotten up to 115... Now keep in mind that I have 0 shade except for the AM hours and at dusk... During the hottest days we will hit 117 no problem, normal days we are sitting at over 95 degrees... I have figured out though, that if I spray the rocks around my back porch, it cools my yard off by about 15 degrees... Kinda like a swamp cooler. My chickens are lucky, they have the only shady spot through the entire day.

If I put the thermometer against the house on the paved patio, it gets over 100 pretty regularly: the Weather Service doesn't consider that an official temperature and good thing too, or I'd be planning my life around 85 degree temps every time it clears off in January. I was using USWS temps when I wrote the original bit, which are always taken in the shade to measure air temperature rather than radiant heating of the thermometer itself.

I've been on this place long enough that I have deciduous shrubs and small trees that shade the worst parts of the summer sun exposure, except the west-facing bathroom window. Somewhere by the end of the summer I will finally have moved the lawnmower garage to a less annoying position and plant Clematis tanguitica over that window, so next summer will be less tricky, I hope. The east end of the house has shade from big old oak trees and smaller flowering trees and only gets direct sun from 10am until about 12:49 this time of the year; I use it as a cool air reserve and open window on that end while setting a big box fan to exhaust hot air from the other end of the house. It works well as long as the in the shade temps stay below about 85, but above 90 we sweat. There's more summers whiere it works fine than ones where we sweat.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
store collected eggs in an egg carton, paper is best, in a 55 degree enviroment, large end (air cell) UP.
A warmish (55 degree refrig is best in summer) in winter I keep mine in a cooler outdoors.
They should be tipped back & forth several times daily until shipped.
I do not keep eggs longer than 6 days, and then ship priority mail.
I always either date the carton or the eggs of the day of collection, to ensure there is no stale (old) ones.

I keep meaning to ask: is the Postal Service the only way to ship eggs or can you use Fed-Ex or UPS?

 

[hallerlake]

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/grd/2423216560.html

Why would I spend $5 on straight run, mutt chicks?

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Have you planted trees? What kind?

No we havnt planted tree's. My landlady doesnt want trees planted on that section of the property, unless they are fruit trees... I tried growing peas and beans along my fenceline, but the chickens thought they were for them. lol This year I will be hanging heavy curtains around the sun porch. Im hoping that will help a bit. And when it really starts warming up, I will just hose them down for the swamp cooler affect.

If I can remember to do this, I really should keep track of the temperatures in my fenced yard this year. I have 3 thermometers placed throughout my back yard. One up on the porch, one in the shade, and one in direct sunlight. My sun deck is ALWAYS the hotest spot, the difference between direct sun and shade is about 10 degrees.

Oh, renting: not an easy thing to cope with.

The whole Indian Island/Marrowstone Island/Port Townsend/Sequim/ Port Angeles triangle (plus the San Juans and the Canadian Gulf Islands) gets the hottest summer temps in Western Washington because of the rain shadow and getting a lot of interior hot air flowing down the Fraser. Not as hot as, say Quincy in July or Prosser in late August, but hotter than the rest of the Sound or, as CL and Illia will probably attest, Raymond and Forks and everywhere west of the Willapa Hills and the Olympic massif.

 

[RedReiner]

this thing is probably already gone but just in case. and if I had a 100 bucks I would go get it myself!

http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/grd/2424876828.html

 

[pettec63]

Quote:
that's amazing!! That's the kind of weather we get here, but, the Tricities is where it can get really hot!! thats not far from Bangor right? I was stationed there in the 80s it never got that hot there as far as I can remember?? That's interesting!

Every year it gets HOT hot hot! Im about 15-20 miles north east of Bangor. And Im not kidding about having NO shade. I have morning shade from the 70 foot Locust trees, but that only lasts until around 10 AM, then my fenced in yard, pasture, gardens, most of the driveway, is all being baked in sun, until the sun drops behind the trees. But nextdoor at my Mothers place, she is lucky and has trees. So her place will get up to 95 when my place is 115+.

I'd be planting me some trees!! lol! like the aussie trees that grow real fast!! lol!

 

[Chickielady]

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Are you going to set them ?
If so, I recommend you collect eggs for 6 or 7 days, then set them.
If they are dirty, you can gently scrub dirt/poop off with a dry scothc brite scubby.
Setting eggs every 6 or 7 days gives you time in between batches.
I have 3 brooders, new babies are to the right, the center is middle babies and the left is older babies with a door so they can go outside.
One they are a month or more old (started birds) they are sold, or go to the coops with the big birds.
Then each batch is moved to the left.
I have 2 hatching incubators and one big cabinet incubator.
I can set eggs every 7 days, and when lockdown comes on a set, it is removed from the big cabinet, candled, and good eggs go into lockdown in one of the 2 lockdown incubators.
So consider how you are going to work this all out.
Even with 1 incubator, 6 or 7 days works.
But you cannot keep opening your incubator to set eggs if any prior sets are in lockdown.
It would be very confusing after a while (it is confusing) that is why I have 2 just for lockdowns.