Washingtonians

[RustyHen]

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Along with chainsaws I also have a special deal on hen defense skillets !!!!!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/23104_hen_skillet.jpg

WoW! nice work. but I don't think I want to get that close to a bear!

 

[Ogress]

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I sent Don a "MotherEarth" article on Javas, he thinks they are so cool and wants some now, so he will help me divide the yard. Hopefully we won't hit any more utilities!

MAKE THE ONE CALL !!!! They will locate up to the meter and may or may not go beyond. If not then get somebody who is REALLY GOOD (like me

) to witch them out. I know there are nay sayers but I can use welding rod or most any stiff wire and find water and power. Phone is kind of iffy and have never tried gas. But get thos lines located. the cost of repair can be huge not to mention if ya hit a line and get injured or worse.
MAKE THE ONE CALL its free and they will be there within 48 hours.

These are waterlines and a power line that I had a friend put in (they are not to code as they are bundled together since the darn soil here is too rocky for the ditch witch). They had been a foot into my flowerbeds, but each time I mow, I widen the lawn, so they were no longer under the flower beds. My fault, I should have measured from the house, not the edge of the flower bed. Thankfully he went through the water line and not the power! (Though the power was disconnected at the time).

My grandfather used to witch out water with a willow stick and I heard he was quite good at it! Witching would be a problem here. We have geothermal heat, and everywhere the builder could dig up, we sunk the coiles, miles and miles of them. They are supposed to be 4-6 feet down, but we busted one at just 30 inches. There are no coils under the coop area, as the ground there is full of huge rocks.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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WOW CR!! thats awesome!! that's serious chainsaw action!! lol!

Made in 1956 it is a 6' bar and I have the owners manual. It actually ran when I got it but havent tried it in a while it is too hard on the ears.

Dad hated those big old 6' bar McCullochs; he said they "ate up men" because using them was so hard on the body (and he started pulling a misery whip when he was 15). He pretty much hated logging, now that I think of it, but it was always a job he would go back to when everything else was dead.

 

[hallerlake]

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I think CL summed it up best...

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I've also settled on my breeding project. I want to fool around and create a super alien chicken. But I'll settle with a bird that looks a bit like a laced wyandotte that has a beard and lays blue/green eggs.

Dave

How about a bird with spangles, beard, and crest? I will have some spitz and brabanter cockerels as soon as I figure out who is who.

 

[herbandteas]

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You have my sympathy. Migraines are no, especially when they last for days instead of hours.

You may find they will change with your pregnancies. Hopefully this will be your last one!

Before I had Alex, I'd get maybe 3 migranes a year. When I was pregnant with him they were intense and frequent (I tried tigan my last trimester, but I did not feel comfortable taking it while pregnant, especially since it offered little relief. After he was born, I had them monthly like clockwork and so intense that I'd be oblivious to everything around me. I was shopping at Top Foods one afternoon when Alex was about a year old and I started seeing those sparky things and swimmy brain feeling that I get just before a really bad migraine. I grabbed Alex out of the cart, left the cart full in the aisle and went out to my car to try and make it home before it hit, but I only made it less than half a mile before I had to pull over on the side of the road as the pain ad sparks became so intense that I could not see nor concentrate on anything but the pain. I sat there with my head on the steering wheel for 3 hours with Alex screaming in the back seat. I tried to call for help, but I could not even read the numbers on my cell phone, nor concentrate enough to figure it out by touch or use the speed dial.

The good news is that at the end of my first trimester, I got another really intense migraine (happened to be in the hospital at the time), and then no more. In the 10 years since, I have had maybe 1 or 2 a year at the most, many years none, and none anywhere near as debilatating as what I used to experience.

May this be your last migraine.

If the weather would stop being bi polar I would be able to have them less but crap yesterday we a nice day and today it is cloudy and I feel like hurling.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I keep thinking "next year I'll have a sheep and no tall blooming grass" but that doesn't keep my nose from running this year.

 

[cheryl98117]

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There are bear and cougar sightings in our neighborhood multiple times per week, and so far they have left people alone. this bear is becoming a nuisance though and we were asked last night to wait until the last minute to take our garbage cans out, so I am sitting in here listening for the truck!

Someone left the familyroom door wide open last night, I came into the kitchen and found things knocked over and spilled on the floor. I think it was our feral cat. I've found him in the house before!

Oh man!

Be more careful!
Feral cat may have followed your poofy white cat in the house.
Glad he didn't spray all over your house!!
Gawd, getting cat spray all over everything is such a lasting pain...and cats keep on spraying over the other cats' spray.yuck!!
Bobcats spray really really STRONG almost gag you spray.
And they spray everywhere.
Very territorial cats.
I am not sure if cougars do that, have to ask Stumpfarmer or Cheryl, they have cougars about.

Ive almost always lived in Cougar teritory, and have never smelled any kind of spray from them. Bears on the other hand, at least around here, tend to stink to high heaven! Mainly of rotted fish, and other putrid smells...

I always smell the bear before I actually lay eyes on it, even when its on the far side of my property...

Now Im wondering how the bears will react to all my blackberries being gone... There is still the apples and cherries for them though, but they sure did love the large grove of balckberries.

I keep all the horse feed in metal garbage cans in the shop, and the chicken feed in also in metal cans, but on my back deck, inside my fenced yard. Ive never had any wild critters even think about coming into my fenced yard. I think having the smells from 3 dogs, and 4 horses around kinda keeps them at bay.

 

[pettec63]

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We were all saddened with that tragic accident that took Rocky's life

Rocky was a wonderful guy. In our neighborhood we all knew him (we are up against the Seattle Watershed, so we get lots of wildlife) Rocky was tracking several cougars in the neighborhood. I had a neighbor fro NYC a mile down the hill from me raising chickens in a beautiful sturdy coop. The bear ripped the coop apart to get to her chickens! They tried trapping the bear, but the bear got the food without setting it off, so her hubby who's deaf bought a gun. I have no clue how this happened, but it did. Margaret was walking down her driveway with her 2 dogs (very long driveway on 20 acres) when a bear came out of the woods and headed straight for her. She screamed, hubby must hear high pitches because he ran outside and from right by the house shot that bear square in the forehead and killed it! Rocky came out then and he told her, BTW, she also had a den on her property with 3 cougars! (momma and babies I assume). She put her house on the market and moved! Rocky also came out when a different neighbor was having dinner on her deck with her nephew who coincidentally was studying to be a game officer in Wisconsin. They were watching a mother deer with her to newborn fawns when a cougar came out of the woods and hid behind a stump. in one leap it went over the giant old stump and killed one of the babies, and then got spooked and ran off. Rocky baited a trap with the fawn, but they caught a bear instead. I think I may have pictures of that one. I thankfully was not around when he released it, but he was standing on top of the cage, and when he opened it, instead of running off, the bear first turned and took a swipe at Rocky (missed), and then ran.

I heard he died a little differently - the hellicopter had set him down, and as it was about to take off, Rocky noticed a rope across a skid and went to move it. The pilot had also noticed it and turned the helicopter to get out from under it not knowing Rocky was there. Rocky was killed by the tail rotor. The pilot was his friend, they worked together frequently.

Either way, how tragic, and horrible for the pilot.

I'm going by the story that was in the Daily Zero: it may or may not have reflected reality.

North Bend is smack up against wild land, but short of the middle of one of the farming counties there's nowhere in this state where a bear or cougar might not show up(there have been both in Seattle, with cougars a little more likely, over the years), and the people who work on ways to keep those encounters from getting tragic are heros.

Not that it's just this state; John McPhee has a long article about bears in suburban New Jersey, including a mama bear who habitually denned up under the porch of somebody's weekend place.

I guess my feeling is, when you live on the edge of the wild you should know the dangers associated with it, in the end, it's not the wild animals fault for preying on food that may be easily accessible, especially if their own food is threatened. I certainly understand why people would want to live in such a beautiful place, but I don't think some people really understand the impact humans make on wild habitat and what it takes to live in a place like that. I commend those who try to live in as harmonious association as possible with the wild but, in the end WE humans are the encroachers. I didn't know anything about Rocky, he sounded like a very caring and wonderful person! It's very sad what happened!

 

[cheryl98117]

Quote:
Along with chainsaws I also have a special deal on hen defense skillets !!!!!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/23104_hen_skillet.jpg

I Love it! I could just see it - a parade of 2 banging on pots as we walk out to the bus stop!

My siblings and I would do just that when we lived on the north end of Bainbridge Island. Every spring we had a big sow/bear with twins, so we always had iether an air horn or pans to bang on. all of us kids have had to quikly get away from the bear at one point in time or another. The thing is, we knew she was there, and were very respectful of her space. We knew where her spring birthing den was, and we stayed far away from it. It never stopped us kids from playing in the woods though! maby we were just stupid fearless kids, lucky perhaps? Or maby a little bit of both.

Honestly I think the worst run in with any wildlife I have personally had was with a white tail buck in rut! Darn things get MEAN MEAN MEAN!!! Then coons would be second in line. I learned to shoot by taking out racoons in my backyard, with a .22. But yeah, Rutting season was/is the worst.

 

[SadieSue]

This is some really interesting news and chat from everyone this morning! Cougars and coyotes and bears, oh my! 4312, glad your hen in better. I've finally caught up with all the posts from the past couple of days. Feel like I'm being pulled in many different directions this week, but it's all positive stuff. DD and I went to one of our local theater stages last night to see a wonderful production of Sweeny Todd, Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The lead was played by a professional gentleman who has played leads in opera all over the NW. Great music, costumes, etc. If you're in this area I'd highly recommend it - it's onstage at Lakewood Playhouse. It's getting rave reviews.

Took the 4 week old chicks off their heat. They're pretty much fully feathered, still living in the computer room and the house is warm. They are very sweet, but I can see myself getting to the point soon where I'm looking forward to them being outside. Next move may be to a small coop in the garage until I can get them vaccinated.

We're heading to Leavenworth tomorrow for a one day quick trip for nephew's graduation. DH's sister has a beautiful home on the river there.

Since the barnie and ameraucana started laying last weekend we have gotten eggs from them almost every day! I thought the laying would be sporadic at first but they are really producing. Such pretty eggs the are. Terra cotta from the barnie and beautiful green/blue from Harper.

PPP - Are you going to share your news with us after your test? We know we've got one baby girl on it's way from RFF - what else might we be expecting?

Okay, off to work - I'm expecting 15 women this afternoon for a wine tasting so I've got to get the shop gussied up a bit.
Hope we see more sun!