Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[FrenchToast]

Morning all!!!

So so sorry for all of the losses.

I had a few losses in my new shipment from Ideal yesterday. But not as bad as last time. I lost all of the feathered leg cuckoo marans (4) one Naked Neck that were all dead on arrival and then thru the night lost a snowy mallard and a Buff Orp. Have to call Ideal and see what they want to do about it.

You guys would be so pround, we went to Aldis yesterday and I didn't buy one thing that had wheat or gluten in it. We had naked shrimp (unbattered) sauted in butter (don't say a word) with a baked potato and some green beans on the side !!!! Simple but Yummy. Not bad for a quick meal that we ate at 10:30pm !!

Bought some veggies for the garden. The only heritage tomatoes I got were Mortgage Lifter and Old German.
Do I have to plant them far away from the other hybrid tomatoes?

Now we just need to find some brussel sprouts. Next year the peafowl are going to be kicked out of the greenhouse so I can start my own.

Oh yeah, Psycho.... Loved the part of you kicking your husband out of the way. But still sorry for your loss.

Cind, Mosses was your cat right? So sorry!!

Oh and the woman who has the puppys (cockadoodleshitapoo's) called and left me another message. She said someone she knows with the cocker/doxie might be having pups and wanted to know if I would be interested !!!! Just exactly what I was afraid of....... These dogs and their offspring are going to be taking over Crandon in no time. I don't think one of the pups from her last litter are fixed. Now she is going to keep the only girl (TG there is only one female) from this litter so she will have mama, daughter and daddy !!! Last I heard she was rehoming Mom again.. I ever say I HATE SOME people SOMETIMES ???

I need a puppy like I need a hole in my head but to get it out of the breeding circle was a good excuse to get one.

Oh and Bigz, We found that apple orchard yesterday. It is called Grandview Orchard, W8088 County F, Antigo Wi (4 1/2 East of Hospital in Antigo)
They weren't sold and are still in business. That is where I get my apple cider (frozen $6 gallon to make the apple pie shots)

Their number is 715 627-7727 They are open daily 8-8 and Sundays 10-6
I picked up an extra catalog for you if you want to PM me your address I'll send it out.
Just an example of their prices for their fruit trees $16.50 bare root, $20.50 for potted. They have tons of other stuff too, but sold out of strawberries.
No website Three little old gray haired ladies working there yesterday, and yes older then us..... made me feel real lazy watching them repotting the trees. They have a insulated garage witht he bareroot trees but they are in the process of potting them all. You can call in an order and they will tag it for you, not sure how long they will hold it for you though.

 

[Terri O]

Good morning. Lots of good stuff to read today...and some not so goody! Sorry for the losses...I hate that when you beat yourself up with the "shoulda-coulda-woulda's!" That can drive you right to insanity's door for sure. (try not to do it!)
Cind that is why all my cats ended up inside. When we first moved here I was very excited to be able to let mine outside...until I saw how that road was. We did lose 2 that lived in the basement(at night) and one feral that was outside...then they all stayed IN. I have one feral right now that is pretty old...she is still alive cause I think she doesnt leave the milk house much--plenty to hunt right in there.

Yes those are the chicks I was telling you about Cuties...Can anyone enlighten me about feather legged genetics? (or a link?) I was kind of hoping it is recessive cause then it would be very easy to tell the OEs from the Cuckoo Marans! Not so easy if they all could end up with feathered legs. I also need to hear/learn about beards and muffs in Ameraucana genetics for the OEs that are the opposite combo. (This is for my project birdies!)

THe kids were supposed to leave at 9:45 last night...at 10 she sent me a text saying that she would have to get them at 11:30...they were still up so he could put them to bed easily...then I had them lay down and they were asleep immediately...only to wake up with bad dreams within the hour....so I sat here and rocked kids and told them stories until Mom got here. No computer time for me last night!

Got most of the garden finished in the misty rain yesterday. Just need to add the squash and cucumbers. I have to clear out a patch of weeds to get them in...I heard about the Sweet Potato slips too...pick up is next weekend I believe. I am going to till up a new patch for them adjacent to my regular garden. I have to read again about growing them too....because it has been so chilly they moved the delivery back a few weeks. I hope we will end up getting a harvest!

Frenchie! Great job on the shopping efforts! It is easy to eat GF if you just get it all out of the house. Luckily I do not have a sweet tooth so I dont miss cakes, cookies etc. Gf baking isnt hard either if you want that stuff...it's just different. With the flour mixes you can almost duplicate things 1:1 too. Once you lose your taste for wheat you wont even taste the difference either. (Unfortunately the smell still drives me nuts...the worst part about shopping is going past the deli with the fried chicken!)

Better head out...DD is already working on chores.
Have a great day everyone--TerriO

 

[vickiw]

HI FRENCHIE!
Is that the same lady? Wow, every small dog in Crandon is going to be inbred. I took the master gardeners course with the sweet lady that owns Grandview a lot of years ago. In full disclosure, they don't raise the trees they sell. We bought some Apple trees there a few years ago. Not a one survived. Trees we bought from Jamie Conway in Crandon that same year are still going. Maybe they are using a different supplier now. It's too late to plant bare root now anyway.

 

[FrenchToast]

HI FRENCHIE!
Is that the same lady? Wow, every small dog in Crandon is going to be inbred. I took the master gardeners course with the sweet lady that owns Grandview a lot of years ago. In full disclosure, they don't raise the trees they sell. We bought some Apple trees there a few years ago. Not a one survived. Trees we bought from Jamie Conway in Crandon that same year are still going. Maybe they are using a different supplier now. It's too late to plant bare root now anyway.

Hey Vickyw
Yep, same lady with the cocker/doxie/shitzu/poodle..... she is going to keep the chocolate girl that I picked out (I had first pick too) because the only other girl died. She said this one is so small, they want to keep it with the mother. The mother is the cock/dox that they were going to rehome, then not, then they were etc.
When I called last week and talked to her son I asked how big the little girl was compared to the other 5 pups. He said she was in the middle size wise.... There were 6 pups. That's when I found out the other female had died. She was the same color as the 6 month old boy that they were looking to rehome. He was from the first litter that they were going to keep until it didn't get along with daddy !!! Dahhhh ! To unaltered males. Now two unaltered females......
I'm sorry but some people just really really really really Tiss me off with a Capital PPPPPP !!! Stupid ignorance.... no excuse !! Now she says someone else's dog might be PG, doxie/cocker, not sure if it's a pup from first litter or the mama's mother again !!!
She doesn't know what the father would be !! Some people ought to be shot !!!! Plan and simple !!!

That's to bad about the trees from the nursery. I know she said she gets them from MN. Forgot to mention that.

She does include quite a few instructions, fertilizer etc with the plants and trees.
So you are a MGr? Hate to admitt it but I am too !!! I took the course in Racine a few months after my parents were murdered in memory of my Mom. She loved gardening. That year I planted impaient and geraniums from seeds and they all did great. Never had that luck again. Mom was gardening with me I think. We even took the MGrs in Racine and planted at the cemetary that year. Really made me mad when they wouldn't take on the cemetary the next year because they said it was a private cemetary !!! It is open to the public so why the frick not???? Then I met ET (whose username originally was going to be mine but had problems logging in so I created Frenchtoast instead) just FYI. We always called FrenchToast EggToast when we were kids... thus the name, but I do like Eggs N Toast. Maybe I'll choose that one for my third personality !!! lol
Met him at a shooting range and he was my skeet coach !!! Bought a Citori SS Skeet 30" barrel in honor of my Dad.
Then got my first horse and ..... well, no time for gardening and no money for shooting !!!! Then got chickens...... Need I say more??? No time or money !!! LOL

Ok, have no idea why I just babbled on.....Oh yeah, VickyW's fault, she had to mention Master Gardeners.... I was thinking about joining up here but wouldn't you have to have a nice garden and yard at home first ??? LOL
There was one MGr in Racine that had the most beautiful garden, and to top it off she had a miniature train running threw it. Amazing. Only in my dreams !!

Ok, back to drinking coffee. I got a Keurig coffee maker at GoodWill yesterday... $11.99. Just the cheapest one but works great. Bought two boxes of coffee and cost more then the maker. So I bought the little adapter thingy so I can do my own refills just like reloading shotshells (which we used to do) .......... Now I want to go skeet shooting and have a beautiful garden again !!!!

Oh and I"m the one with the fake/peg leg btw, and who was your ex father in law?
Got my knee unit put back in yesterday, what a difference, now I know the loaner one was broke, it was real hard to walk with, they slowly breakdown so you don't really notice.... I have to start paying more attention to these minute things....

 

[FrenchToast]

HI FRENCHIE!
Is that the same lady? Wow, every small dog in Crandon is going to be inbred. I took the master gardeners course with the sweet lady that owns Grandview a lot of years ago. In full disclosure, they don't raise the trees they sell. We bought some Apple trees there a few years ago. Not a one survived. Trees we bought from Jamie Conway in Crandon that same year are still going. Maybe they are using a different supplier now. It's too late to plant bare root now anyway.

Hmmm, I saw all of the trees that they have in the garage, some had some blooms but were not fully leafed out. So you don't think they would make it?
She said you need to paint the trunks all the way from the bottom up to the where the branch's start with white latex paint.
The trees aren't real big but I think fairly priced for the size. One woman there said they wouldn't guarantee any trees if you plant it with manure....

I'll tell you what, the best trees I've ever planted was a cherry tree that I got out of the dumpter (well actually sitting next to it) at Steins Garden Center in Racine.
It must have been brought back as dead from a customer and it is a full size cherry tree. HUGE I sure hope when I sell the house that the new owners don't chop it down. WAY WAY WAY to big to dig out or believe me I'd try !!! lol
Wonder if they'd tell me where they get the trees from in MN? Wonder where Jamie Conway gets his? Never really looked at his stuff, just Schaefers, which is where ET got most of the tomato plants.
Oh and I got a Cherokee heirloom tomato plant too besides my Old German and Mortgage Lifter.

 

[FrenchToast]

Hey To, Angibuds or anyone else who knows about Gluten Free Labeling.

I shop at Aldi's a lot and they have a lot of products the are labeled "Gluten Free" which is very nice, ie salad dressing etc. Then I go and look at their yogurt, of course it doesn't say "Gluten Free" but at the end of the ingredient list it says... Contains : MILK
On other products you will see Contains: nuts, wheat, soy, milk...... etc.

So my question is......... When you see the "Contains:" list do they have to by law list everything that can cause reactions (hard to explain !!)
or if it is hidden in and ingredient but they didn't actually add say the gluten or wheat do they still list it?
So in other words because the yogurt didn't say it contains "wheat or Gluten" or say it was "Gluten free" could it still have it in some of the ingredients.

I know, clear as mud !!!! Must be all this coffee I'm drinking... reminds me to check the creamer ingredients.

 

[RBerryChicks]

Rberry..they should be fine in there with mom for a week provided they have food and water. I have sectioned mine off from free ranging when the littles are really little! have I mentioned I love that setup... it looks awesome.

kristip: Thanks for the comment on the set up - we will be working on sectioning off part of the current run so mom can take babies out for dust bathes and scratching. I am so anxious for the new coop and run - I have about 30 people coming over on the 22nd and would like the mobile coop moved down to the pasture for the meaties so we can clean up the parking area where it currently sits. I don't think people will want to park and walk through chicken poo.

gold fish are harder to keep alive

It looks like poor Michelle isn't going to make it.

She still drinks a little but she doesn't move much at all and sleeps a lot. I think she'll go into a deep sleep soon - she doesn't seem to be in any pain.

The rest of the scalawags have been playing in "traffic" lately. They're finding something intriguing about the blacktop road and they're determined to check out every inch of it. I called them back several times and the neighbor shooshed them back once. (Then they tried to follow her back home again!). Their free ranging circle just keeps getting wider and wider. These chickens are taking crossing the road to a whole new level.

irishrovr: I'm so sorry to here about you Michelle

and our girls expanded their free range too . . . we figured out why the chicken crossed the road (in our case anyway since we live across from a sustainable golf course) to get to 8th whole . . . grass must be greener

Spending the night just outside the park, spent some time today driving through and we saw a lot of bison, some pronghorn, and a few elk. The youngest is just itching to see some bears..... I would prefer to see them from the rv myself.

These roads stink. No shoulder, VERY narrow, no guardrails at times..... I am having mini strokes every five minutes. Does not help that the DH is giving me grief about it either. I hope I get used to it since someone thinks we are driving through the Tetons..... I will be missing for a few days since cell phone reception is spotty at best in the park.

Lovely evening again tonight. I hope you all see the sun soon. I'll be in touch when I can. ( Amy, my camera has a different way of tellung me the quality of pics I am takibg, I have to look it up in the book).

BL4: Hubby wants to go out west but he is VERY uncomfortable with heights - and I'm not too sure I could drive it. He and two buddies went out to Yellowstone after they graduated but keeping in mind we could drink at 18 back then - they probably got him good and drunk before the drive up into the mountains. Hang "in there" - definitely not "out there" !!

#8 has passed away. It was the little Speckled Sussex I was so excited about b/c I got it to start drinking. Eyes are cloudy and dried out, still pliable, so it recently passed, but it's gone. I'm so sorry little birdie-doo! I could just kick myself in the arse!

I called down to the feedmill where I got those last NN's from and they sold them all already. I could totally order more, they're at a reasonable enough price, but I just feel so down right now...

PsycoPeep: I'm so sorry this happened, but agree with everyone else - don't be too hard on yourself, we lost some of our meatie chicks last summer with the extreme heat by leaving the heat lamp on too long. **** it was such a hot summer your barely needed the heat lamp. In face we were drilling holes in the sides of the brooder walls to try and keep air moving and cool them down. Wetting down their food helped, which I have now found is basically what we will be doing for FF. I also agree w/CC and Angiebubs, now is a good time to get better established. In the last year we have built two brooding pens, a broody box, chicken tractor, mobile coop, small coop for bantams, and now the layers permanent coop. In every case we underestimated the cost and how long it would take - while stressing over not getting the birds into their proper homes when needed. Now I'm stressing over getting mom and chicks where they need to be. This is how we learn - and those hard lessons do suck, these little ones you have left will receive extra special love

.

 

[RBerryChicks]

We are at 8 or 12 chicks - lunch break is about over, but I just had to share my pics . . .

 

[Angiebubs]

Terri O: WIsh I had your lack of a sweet tooth! I love my sweets!!

And one of Meghanns quick standby cookie recipes that are delish:
1 cup Peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
You can dip fork in sugar and create criss crosses to make tops fancy
350 for 12 mins

 

[JustJohn]

PsycoPeep- sorry about your losses.

Some people say Murphy(of Murphy's law fame) was an optimist.