Washingtonians

[lovinchickypoos]

Have a great day everyone. I've got a lot to do today. The big project... a brooder to work on.

Yesterday we had our driveway sealed. It's nice and pretty and black again. Makes me want to get the front yard greened up. I've been watering the back yard this past week and it has greened up pretty well. The chickens love it. They're eating a lot of grass, 'cuz most their poo is grass now. Eeeew.

TMI? LOL!

We got our oldest's MSP scores. We're pretty proud of the kiddo. He scored high in the "Advanced" level of Math and Writing. He got 100% in the Advance Writing section the second year in a row. When he aced his writing pre-test last year, his teacher told us that was "never done". I don't know if that is true or not, but we're pretty proud of him. I told my husband I'm going to have to be careful and not come to expect him to get high marks in the Advanced level. We're so used to him achieving high marks, and it seems to come pretty easy to him, so I know we'll have to keep our expectations in check. There may come a day it might not be quite so easy for him. Some days that boy leaves me wondering how I should parent him - there are days he begs me to play math games online, and I have to tell him to go outside and play. I'm never sure if that is the right thing to do. I know many parents who would love it if their kid wanted to play math games, and I'm having to tell my kid that he can't.

I haven't candled any eggs lately, but nothing stinks, so I'm hoping that means we're good. At this point, I just don't want to touch them. I don't need the clutz in me to come out and accidentally drop an egg.

I can't believe in less than a week we may have new chicks to watch.

I hope so, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high since this is my first time going through this, and I'm not sure if I did everything right.

Soo happy for your son!!! That is just an awesome thing for you!
Beware of the eggs that don't hatch! I tapped one that didn't hatch under my broody and it EXPLODED and I stupidly did it in my kitchen! Someone here gave a genious idea of putting them in a sandwich bag before cracking open!

Not sure if you have thought of this scenario with the poison so thought I'd throw it out there for you to mull over. When a rat eats the poison it may wander out into the yard or nearby to die. If a dog or other animals finds it and eats it the poison may kill the animal and/or severely injure its internal organs. Recently this happened to a dog breeder I know. Her AKC champion got off her property when a breach in the fencing occurred from a tree falling on it in the wooded section of her property. She didn't know it until she went hunting for her missing dog. Tragically the dog found and ate something... vet said probably via poisoned mouse or rat. After agonizing weeks she had to have her best dog & friend put down. Since this story is still vivid in my mind and broke my heart for her I needed to warn you about this possibility. Anyway, just some food for thought.
~Dee~

It is my understanding that most poisons do not cause residual poisoning. Maybe it had dragged some bait out that it had not eaten and the dog ate that along with the creature? Either way that is a horrible thing to go thru. I will NEVER have DeCon or anything like it on my property. I have had to force Toxi-Ban (activated charcoal) down too many poor dogs throats and keep fingers crossed checking blood work too many times when I was working and certainly don't want it to be my pets in that situation!!!

If anyone's looking for Sebbies, I have a few for sale...along with a pair of Giant Africans. And an extra gander that is pet-quality and I'd trade him for a Thanksgiving turkey... Oh and a gorgeous lavender/blue Muscovy drake...

I LOOOOOVVVVVEEEE THEM!!!! I doubt I could get DH on board with geese and ducks though! I used to think that geese were just plain mean but I keep hearing from people who love them. A neighbor used to have some enormous white geese that wandered around everywhere and they were a little intimidating. I love the ones in your pictures! Maybe I need to look into what kind of housing I could keep them in and find a "use" for them to make an excuse to have them!!!! Generally how much do they cost? Do they eat enormous amounts of feed?

Well, the Building Inspector just left.
he is a super nice guy !!!
Very educational, and spent alot of time explaining what we need to do & where, what types of Hurricane ties we need, etc.
he was very impressed with our framing job, and said we have done alot that was not necessary, extra blocking & extra large headers, etc.
So, we passed with flying colors !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have new babies this morning. 4 of my Cream Legbar eggs hatched overnight. I have 2 boys and 2 girls. 2 more eggs have pipped. So exciting! My girls have apparently stopped laying for the winter so unless I put a light out there, these will be my only fall babies.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

One week and 5 days after Blanche's injury, and she finally laid an egg. She had been laying 5 a week before her injury. It is small, and has white raised bumps on it. Her leg looks good.

Hope healing continues and she can go back to normal!

 

[Stumpfarmer]

 to stumpfarmer...it is bed time & putting the stock in to bed...as she knows it is~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was actually posted three hours before DH came home from work, which is the foundation of my long-term sleep deprivation; he's currently asleep in a chair in the living room, after an hour or so of telecommuting. It's arguable he never really comes home from work, some nights I wander out to fill my water glass at 3am and he's doing remote diagnostics on his servers, or deep in the middle of product research on new memory storage. He works until he hurts too much to think, takes his painkillers and nods off for a half hour or three, gets up, remembers a problem, and goes to work again... eats at weird hours, sometimes forgets to eat at all and gets mean and stupid and takes more painkillers and goes back to sleep.

Getting out to do chores in the morning is a complicated process; I have to fight my way to the bathroom through a phalanx of hungry cats and slow old dogs and then may find myself blocked because he's fallen asleep on the toilet again.

Oh, well, I guess I was overly optimistic when I thought marrying a man four years younger than me would keep me from being the one who did all the physical and demanding chores.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I remember  Lash La Rue, and John Sheldon with Rex the wonder horse,  The Cisco Kid,et all.    . All you could get on tv  seemed to be cowboys and indians -  when I was a little bitty skinny thing, that's all the kids did when they played.  We'd be good guys or bad guys and somebody would always rob the stagecoach (red wagon). Nobody wanted to be a girl  - the cowboys kissed their horses - the women just stood around doing nothing. I had quite a collection of plastic horses and riders. A few years ago I was able to find(and buy)  the same horse & rider I had as a child.  Cost me 29cents at the toy store.  On ebay more than 50 years later I paid $ 15.00  luckily no one bid against me.  Sure wish I had my herd in present day, I could have been rich - yeah right!!

Sunday morning we ended up watching three Dobie Gillis episodes on MeTV; I remember watching it after school when I was in third and fourth grade and loving it then and was surprised at how well it held up, because with very few exceptions I loathe sitcoms.

 

[lovinchickypoos]

So yesterday I had another endoscope of my upper GI system. They put some device called a BRAVO that measures acid in the esophagus. So I have a little device I carry around and push buttons on when I feel heartburn, reflux, etc. There is also a diary I have to keep telling what times I eat, what I eat, when I lie down, etc. It's kinda weird and I can feel the device when I swallow and is a tiny bit sore when eating. Apparently it will detach in 3 days and pass thru my system and then I turn in my diary and the small walky-talky type thing and they investigate what causes my problems and tells if, when I report heartburn, there is actually acid coming up or if it is just my retarded nerves lying to me. I'll be interested to see what the Celiac B.W. and biopsy say since I've been eating gluten for 2yrs. Strange what science can come up with!!!!

 

[Nikki99]

Quote:
That's a good idea. I've been thinking about doing this, now I want to do it even more.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I have a couple questions. I'm thinking about feeding my chickens hay during the winter months. What kind do you feed chickens? Is there any one local who sells it? I'm looking for someone in south Snohomish county or King county.

I feed/amuse my chooks with orchard grass in the winter; they get the fine stuff out of the hay bag after I feed the sheep (and to answer CR's "why:" because it gives them something to scratch through for amusement, since I don't free-range, and they eat the greenest bits and therefore get trace minerals, vitamin A and D, and some small Carb intake). You could feed any fine-stemmed grass- timothy would be good if it wasn't one of my known respiratory enemies- but not Alfalafa, as the stems are too big and woody and could cause crop impaction.

When I smell a bale fed to the cattle that's got sweetgrass in it, I scrounge that for extra bedding/playtoys. The chickens like the texture and any seed heads a lot, and will pull their nest bedding out and replace it with sweetgrass. Not something anyone not feeding round bales to a beef cow herd is likely to do, but there you go.

Hay is going to be ruionously expensive this winter due to the drought in the midwest, so if you have dry storage for it I'd buy four bales or so for the winter. Although on second thought, that's me, and I buy good hay for my sheep, who eats something like a bale every ten weeks, even with the chickens getting some of it. One bale, properly stored, should do it for up to 40 chickens, but the "properly stored" part is key: it needs kept dry and the twine retied tight to keep it from oxidising.

 

[lovinchickypoos]

All the talk about all the good 'ol TV shows make me think of being a kid in the summer staying up late watching NickAtNight!!! I was too young to have watched them when they first ran, but I think they are awesome!!! My childhood shows were Banana Splits, Sesame St, Smurfs, Pinwheel, and most of the 80s sitcoms. As I got older, summers were full of MTV when it was still "music television". It's pretty ridiculous now and I HATE the Nick and Disney teen shows!!!!!

 

[lovinchickypoos]

Man, the chicken food goes fast these days! Last year I only had 7 birds and now I'm up to 15 in the big coop and 3 Silkie chicks. I've been buying Flock Raiser the last couple times due to the different ages I have.This last bag I bought is already pretty far gone and don't think it will last more than 2wks! It is probably time to decide what to do with the extra cockerals I ended up with!

Last week I rediscovered the library and ended up checking out 6 books on various poultry, self-sustainability, goats, llamas, and backyard farming. Oh boy! Big ideas and very little energy don't mix!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Stumpfarmer]

A few years ago, my mom adopted an insane terrier that looks like it hails from Chernobyl.  We realized that he has taken care of our rat problem when we found some eggs under the chicken house.  They were only there for a few days and had not been touched.  In years past, we've noticed rats moving around under their house and I'd find them poking around in the pen after dark.  One summer, I was having such fun sitting at an open window with my .22, plugging rats as they popped out of their hole in the back garden.  Haven't seen a single one back there.  Haven't seen any scrounging around for seed under the bird feeders.  That was another good sniping spot.  While I despise the dog, I'm pleased that we don't have rats any more.

Thats great that it took care of the rat problem.  That is what those dogs are bred for.  I am sure it is much happier killing rats than being some overly groomed purse dog. 

Dogs are better for rat control than cats when you're in a coyote zone (ie basically all of this state; I've seen photos of 'yotes in Pioneer Square at 4am) because they come when called and are easier to fence in. I'll be looking for a good terrier pup of some sort (one that doesn't have coat care issues, preferably) when my old dogs (nearly 16, and 15 in February) go to their reward and will also, somehow, be putting smaller mesh wire around the perimeter of the yard to keep the dog in since my long-ago hired help laid all the pasture fence upside down.

I have a friend who calls his Jack Russell the "Jack Russell terrorist."

 

[Nikki99]

I have new babies this morning. 4 of my Cream Legbar eggs hatched overnight. I have 2 boys and 2 girls. 2 more eggs have pipped. So exciting! My girls have apparently stopped laying for the winter so unless I put a light out there, these will be my only fall babies.

Congrats on the new babies! Pics please!!

I have a question for you regarding your comment about your girls not laying anymore for the winter. Is this common, for them to completely stop? I thought they just slowed down. We got our 5 girls in the spring, 2-3 of them barely started laying the end of summer/beginning of fall and now all of a sudden, nothin for the last 2 days. I wasn't sure if something was stealing the eggs or if they just aren't laying anymore. I'm really bummed though. This is our 1st flock, 1st time eating home grown eggs, they are soooo good we do not want to go back to buying store eggs but we are getting nothin here!