Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[GothChick]

Hi again everyone,


I can't wait to get outside and start planting stuff. This is our first full summer in our own home so I can have complete planting freedom. I have a bunch of fruit trees on order.

I have been SO sick again. I was fine for a few weeks and then right when I hit the 12 week mark my morning/all day sickness started back up again.

I'm getting pretty fed up with my chickens. They have no rhyme or reason with their eggs laying. They were all starting to lay as soon as the hours got longer and were laying up a storm and now I haven't gotten a single egg in over a month. I'm so mad because I have at least 20 chickens all of laying age and with Easter coming up I have tons of people that were planning to buy their eggs from me. So I'm losing out on the eggs money and the food costs are beginning to eat me out of house and home. I don't know what their deal is. They squat down as soon as I go in my them and I know they have laid eggs before but now nothing. They have constant food, water, and oyster shell. I also give them healthy treats on a regular basis. My husband is getting sick of paying for food without getting anything back. I just don't know what to do.

 

[Amyable]

All Cheeseheads accounted for? Man, what a storm. The lightning was just like a strobe light, no pauses. We had very bad wind, some hail, lots of rain, and some tornados not too far away

The crick is flooded over the bridge ramps again, second time this year already. Some stuff got blown around the yard. The only damage is a loose piece of flashing on the eave, right next to our bedroom of course, so it was banging around like a drum. Not wanting to sleep in the basement, we opened the window and got a hold of the flashing with a broom, then closed the window on the edge of it to hold it still, until we can get up there to fix it. DH tried, but the roof is too steep, he can't even crawl on it. It's gonna be a hairy adventure, the tip of the roof is probably 30' up.

On the bright side, everything is 2 shades greener today.

Keedoke, yes those shoes are weird! They look like toe socks, I can't stand anything between my toes.

Love seeing and hearing about all the chicks and hatches...keep bringin' 'em.

Anybody ever render lard? I've got 10 lbs of it, my first batch I burned on the stovetop (2 lbs lard + 1/2 cup water, on low-med heat). Is there a better way? I NEED it to make DrH's pie crust!!!

 

[bigzio]

Amy here is a link.... Didn't think one needed to add water? But you do. Learned something new today.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4687381_render-lard-kitchen.html

~ bigzio

 

[WIChookchick]

Afternoon/evening all!!

You would not believe what I had to do last night... in the midst of this storm, we are watching it on the t.v....
I notice the tail end of the MAJOR storm, the one with all the tornado warnings, 70 mph winds... hail...
I have to call some friends of ours to tell them to turn on the t.v. to a news station to find when it is going to hit them.
Our good friend, pays no attention to anything NOT on his computer,.. OR when his roommate tells him he needs to drive her some where..
AND she is in front of her t.v. OR computer.. they have cable so never watch local news...

YEEESH!!.

There are times, I wish they would pay attention!!!

Have a great evening, soup beckons.
Carol

 

[Terri O]

I've done it Amy...piece of cake. Just heat very slowly and when you get to the end be sure to fry up all those good Cracklin's for salad seasoning and stuff. (I always have to eat a bit too!) They are YUMMY!
Keedokes--DONT wash the eggs~! The hen puts a protective antibacterial coating on them....if you wash it off stuff can get in and hurt the embryos. You can rub off any debris with a towel but no water please!
Hey Gothchick--what kind of light do those hens have? Arent they in your basement? Dont forget they need at least 16 hours of light to lay consistently. I assume you are feeding laying mash with a high enough protein? Maybe it is the breed otherwise...although you did say you were getting them regularly before right? HMMM....
THe hen in the ceiling is down! She had 13 chicks alive but one must have perished sometime in the last few days. Here they are!

And another one:

I am going to wait a few days and then let them out of the cage so they can go outside. I love to watch a Mama Hen parading around with her chicks.
The calls have a nest with 3 eggs now. Not sitting on it yet though....maybe? The extra duck and guinea eggs I put in a dresser drawer under the workbench now have a nice magpie muskovy sitting and keeping them warm. Since no one collected eggs all weekend I set 4 hens on what I had and fed the rest of the eggs back to the girls this afternoon...they though that was grand! I checked my sitting turkey while I was up in the ceiling getting the chicks down...most of her eggs feel pretty light to be hatching in just a week or so. THere were two that were definitely bad so I tossed them. I had to "remind" her that the eggs were still up there. She got startled and flew off the nest when I was crawling around up there!
Next week should be baby central here...ducks and geese are nearly ready I believe. I did have a bad goose nest...several eggs were rotten and broke and my neighbor couldnt even stay in the barn with me!

Well--back to work for me; got an evening client today...speaking of work...DH got a job!!!! YEah! It is at Damage Control Inc. I guess doing fixing on stuff that gets wrecked. He is going to be doing some consultation of damages too. He is excited (me too!) Terri O

 

[babylady4]

Amyable, that is the second time today I have had somebody ask about rendering lard....... I use it in place of palm oil for the soap, but since I have ordered palm oil now.....

Anyway, there is a method to render it using your slow cooker.... try the links found on this site; it looks like a good place to find info.
http://www.welltellme.com/discuss/index.php?topic=19747.0

Keep us posted on what works!



BCC I completely forgot you were in the path of the storms!

glad to hear everyone is ok!!!!

Oldest DS is all bandaged up with green vet wrap. I swear that kid is trying to lose that right hand of his.........

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

I render lard all the time, it just a slow fire (as granma says) low heat, and watch it, no water necessary, stur alot, when your cracklin's are crispy your done, strain when cool enough not to melt anything, or cheesecloth. I freeze it in blocks small bread pans lined with parchment, works great, if used for frying try 1/2 lard and 1/2 peanut kicks the burn temp up on the oil, and ohhh so good

 

[ParkfieldFarm]

Terri, too late.

I do a light, quick scrubbing underwater then a quick dip in a bleach solution (1tsp bleach to a quart of warm water), then into sanitized egg cartons and into the incubator. Nothing will touch the eggs until they hatch, now, except when they're candled. When I go to the school to do that I'll likely use rubber gloves or that sanitation soap stuff before and after. I prop up one entire side of the incubator to turn the eggs...and the only reason it's opened is to add new water soaked paper towels to the plastic cup in there for humidity.

 

[raimnel]

10 pages!

yak yak yak!
and I just jumped on here to say, I got chicks!

lol more chicks darn chicken math lol. silkie/mixes this time around, tomorrow a.m. in 21 days. temps were perfect! tomorrow night will be day 21 for the other bator. EE's RIRs leghorn........ all mixes. 4 weeks olds are getting big, getting combs, roosting. DH says they look yummy

lol he's always tells me to quit playing with my food

BL4 I'll take some calls, I forget what ones you said you have and are breeding but they're all cute

5-6 or so will do us!

later, before I started reading I had 8 chicks..... wonder how many I have NOW! lol

later
OH and another thing, DrH how big is nakoosa? theres a purple grand am for sale there! I love purple

to bad it's higher miles. and what is with all the grand am's on CL? IDK what my point is.

 

[bigzio]

Evening All... back from the DNR spring voting. Time they get the vote on line for folks.

Kinda funny about the lard render...we never used water....Amy said she did, and the receipe I posted did, making me think I was doing it wrong all along...what the heck! It does make great pie crusts.

Nice mama and peeps Terri. Oh My, your shoes keedokes....thanks for sharing! Made my day!

Later.... ~ bigzio