Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[Celtic Chick]

I have snowberries growing along the north side of my barn. They are very shade tolerant. Spireas are too, as are most species of viburnum.
Cotoneasters are supposed to be shade tolerant, but I've never had any of those.

 

[Bigfamily4me]

Plant talk is like a foreign language to me... Are you all talking Yiddish right now???

 

[zeke]

Oh my gosh it's snowing still.

My chickies are all nice and warm though, but mad they can't go outside. My plans failed me, well my friend failed me. He now want 20 chickens!!! and he wants it to be at least 64 sq. ft. Just have to make some minor changes. Getting a supply list started: shingles (free, dad is carpenter), wood-small stuff free (dad work) , big wood dad can get what I don't get at habitat for humanity. Don't need windows(have already) screen (have), latches and other tiny things will have to be bought. Most of my expensises will be from wood and latches and thins of that sort. No run, they will free range they said, Big thing off my mind. Hoping this covers it all, if I miss anything important please comment. Always want to impress a friend and his family!

hey Colton, there are lots of plans on the b.y.c web, several good Ideas. You look like you ve got a pretty good handle on things to start with. I saw a plan that allowed you take eggs from outside the coop, I thought that was a good idea. I also thought If you had the nest boxes outside the coop that if the bottom was hinged it would make for really easy cleaning.You may not want to take on that much work; as it is not for you. Still its worth looking at from an education standpoint.........GOOD LUCK!!!!!!! nice to have a Dad as a carpenter!!!

 

[Hurley]

Welcome to the new people. Colton, I can only hope my boys handle themselves half as well on the internet as you have. Impressed. Lovely lovely family. I've got two boys of my own, toddlers, 14 months apart, both were such cute little peanuts and remind me a lot of the photos you shared. Thanks for sharing. Jealous of you having a carpenter in the family. My brother-in-law was very handy to have around when I lived in Iowa. Sad to not have connections out here! I know enough to be dangerous, but not really useful.

Sorry I've been scarce lately, just got my new computer, haven't worked up the enthusiasm yet for reinstalling everything. Blegh. Esp. when we have upgrades or upgrades of upgrades and I don't want to buy whole versions new. Grumble. At least all my files are safely moved over, but have to start from scratch with the programs/downloaded apps.

Man, did I miss chicken get togethers? Darn it.


I just got in, chilled to the bone. Evil wind chill out there right now. Spent all day yesterday stripping down the garage, compiling and organizing tools so that I can find things to do projects (I am a "resetter"...husband is not...in the least...more of a drop it half finished and never get back to it kind of guy). Sooooooo, garage is reset, tools are found and stored.

Spent today finishing reinforcing my little breeding coop/run, fixed doors in the juvenile building, cleaned out all the brooders, juvie building, and main coops and rebedded everything. Wing tagged all the birds except the oldies that will be moved out this year and moved the new silver penciled Iowa Blue trio up to the breeding coop to finish maturing out (very pleased with them), moved 3 new nicely laced birchen Iowa Blue pullets to the main coop, leaving just the Silkie pair in the Juvie barn to tend the next group. Moved out two brooders of chicks to the juvie building. NO CHICKENS IN THE HOUSE for the first time in a while. Well...eggs due to hatch soon, but still! Brooders are all fresh and clean, just waiting on the waterers/feeders to finish sterilizing and weill be all set.

Took the dogs for 3 miles on the bike, they're now a little less wild. This weather is Aussie crack for energy levels.

Just so pleased with my chooks and making some headway this weekend. Wish it was going to be nice tomorrow. I need to reconfigure the roof on my other coop project. Thinking of using metal siding on that one, but have never worked with it, so I've got some reading to do.

Just wanted to pop in and say Hey!

 

[delisha]

Hi Hurley..you are missed!! hope to see you around more!!

 

[delisha]

TO- here is a pic of your one quail




The splash Orps are huge!! I have one BCM out

 

[Celtic Chick]

I'll bring her her own wheelie chair to the bash CC...... gotta be nice to the elderly.

Only if they deserve being nice to.

Yes, she is elderly, isn't she? Can't seem to get past that 39th birthday either. That or her memory is going. Her nephew does seem to get her mixed up with "grammy" an awful lot.

As everyone else has said, you have a beautiful family, Colton. And you seem to be very well educated for your years. Very mature and respectful. You must have some really good parents. I'm sure they are very proud of you too. Good luck on your hatches and the coop. I agree that it should be tall enough for a person to stand comfortably in, and having a door wide enough to at least fit a wheelbarrow through would be a plus. And as I tell everyone, go as big as you can on the coop size because chickens are addicting.

Thank you, Del! I am very glad you had a good time and that you could come. It was fun getting to chicken chat in person. We'll have to do it again sometime when the weather is warmer (and drier)

so I can give you a tour of the yard. Wow, a cookout by you would be nice. I would love to come if you'd have the room for one or 2 more?

Judge, TSC has 2 packs of heat bulbs for $9. That is a good deal on those infrareds, Dan. They have them on Amazon too, but I've never tried them. They don't put off any light, though, do they? One nice thing about heat bulbs is you know when they aren't working.

I better post this before I lose it, AGAIN!

 

[Bigfamily4me]

I seem to have forgotten how close you are to 50 Robin. I know it's easy to be jealous of the young vibrant folks like myself...

 

[irishrovr]

WOW How cool to see the white deer. I ve been an advide outdoorsman my entire life and never seen one in person. I drive through that way every day to work. I might have to try to get a look at the deer. What kind of birds do you raise? I may have already asked this but theres just to many of you to keep up with.

There is a whole BIG herd of white deer up in the Finger Lakes area of NY. They are on a piece of government property that is fenced in so they just keep procreating in white. It's amazing.

 

[Colton]

Really? That's awesome. I hunt deer gun and bow but have yet to see an albino. That is really, really cool.