Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[Dr HaHa]

Good Morning All! Sorry to hear about your friend Annarie! And hope your Dad has a speedy recovery! H&R only got about a 45 min nap and slept till 5:45 this morning, need another good night. Got my dishes done this morning in prep for a phone call saying that the meaties are back from butchering. Getting set up for cut up in the kitchen. I see this morning that the beans need picking again and the cuc's will ready for relish tomorrow. Think this winter I'll be spinning circles in the house after all the busy time this summer. If the rain holds off I might just get the lawn mowed today. Noticed the squitos were back this morning a deffinite result of higher grass for them to hide in. Gotta go! Cooler weather ahead

 

[babylady4]

First day of school tomorrow!!!!

My favorite commercial of all time for back to school shopping was for either Staples or OfficeMax/Depot where the kids are walking dragging their feet and suddenly the parents show up behind them dancing behind the shopping cart, the music in the background is "It's the most, wonderful time, of the year...."

Have to clip some wings today, those quackers are getting a bit too flighty for their own good!

Off to the local coffee shop for some java and to hear the local news. Later everyone!

 

[Terri O]

Hey! That was my favorite commercial too! My kids were always mad when I laughed about it!

Good morning all! Welcome V&B! There DrH--I name 'em for ya!

Where is SE WI are you and what is that link you have on the bottom of your page? I have to go to work so I dont have time to register etc....maybe later!

Tragedy seems to be everywhere! I went to (another) funeral yesterday down the road from my house. The man (Brian Krull) was a friend of mine. I bought hay from him and our kids were in FFA together. THe really sad part is that there was another death last fall right across the street from him...another FFA member turned the tractor over in a ditch. He was a junior I believe and working on Brian's farm. Brian was only 44 and a dumb accident claimed his life....please be careful on your farms guys! I would hate to have tragedy strike our little group! Prayers to everyone and their families and friends that are hurting....

OK--I really need to go now--full day and then there is another load of hay to get into the barn...it never ends! Terri O

 

[Sweetfolly]

The bad news and tragedies are still coming....

Woke up this morning and I'd lost my favorite Runner drake from this year's hatch - the only one I'd held back in that color! My little "Boomer". He's always been a little runty, and he was in with some of his older sisters...from the looks of things, they got spooked at some point during the night and trampled him. It was his 8-week-birthday today.

I haven't worked up the courage to go bury him yet. I think I need some coffee or some ice cream or something first!

EDIT: I just fed the other 4 Runners that were living with him, and now they're struggling too! I just opened a new bag of feed yesterday - maybe the feed is bad? It doesn't look good - they were fine this morning when I let them out, and now they're all having trouble walking! I'm trying to get some Poly-vi-sol in them, but I don't think any of them are going to make it! One of them collapsed a few minutes ago, and you could just see how hard it was for her to get back up.

The ducks in all the other pens that had that same food last night are all fine.

Maybe a certain bacteria just got in that pen? Botulism, maybe? Botulism is a quick killer (24-48 hours), so it fits. And it's been so hot and damp outside, as hard as I try to keep the pens clean, I can see how something like this could happen.

Why my baby Runners though? All of them!

I'll update on how they're doing later today. I'm not optimistic.

 

[fordmommy]

Oh Annarie!

So sorry. When it rains, it pours.

I did in my Lavender Ameraucana today. He was not nice. What a waste though.

He's been in a cage by himself for 3 days because he doesn't "play well will others." And before that, he was running free for 3 or so days. Wouldn't go in the run. This morning he did his "nuts-so" thing and escaped from his cage. Then he was running around the coop and stuff. I had my dog "round-um-up" and I took care of the problem. That was it. I had enough. My whole flock is so much more calm when he isn't with them. It's so much better now.



Happy note now. Tomorrow school starts for my oldest too! I was singing to him. "Tomorrow. Tomorrow. School starts...tomorrow. It's only ..a day......a.....way........!!!!! "

(for those who don't know, that's from Annie, the movie, kinda.

My own words.

Well-if I'm ever going to get anything done today, I better go.

 

[raimnel]

kids go to school tomorrow! 1 more at home!

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

Back to the bus tomorrow, ya, and my kids are back to school. for some reason this summer I've been looking forward back to school all summer. Quite time

 

[Dr HaHa]

WOW Annarie that's terrible! That kind of thing is always there in the back of our minds and all you can do is your best but sadly sometimes it's just not enough. I'm sorry! Boy all you mommy's out there sure seem to be in a good mood lately.

Well the meaties are cut up vacuum sealed and in the freezer. WOW sure was a lot easier just cutting them up, a very little cleaning and done. Picked a big bag O beans again and more than enough cuc's to make relish tomorrow. Have to dig out the processor and get them chopped up to soak overnight. Better get to it.

 

[friskebluegills]

Sorry Annarie to hear of all of your bad news. I hope your new calls are still doing good though.

My oldest Daughter starts Kindergarten tomorrow, so she's all excited. We did the school shopping and spent way to much money

she's definantly going to be a shoe-aholic, but it's her first year so I have to spoil her, right

My quail eggs go into lock down tomorrow. I couldn't resist and ordered some from rebel roo. I think I have 55. started out with 60, but some have broken along the way. I'm worried about them though, because yesturday the humidity went up to 75% and I can't seem to get it down. I know it's a gamble doing things with shipped eggs but I really hope they work out

They are to speckled to candle so I've been kept clueless the whole time, which is really wearing on my nerves. Saturdays the hatch date though, so it's coming up quick. If they don't hatch I think I may try a different kind, because I really want some quial. Someone is selling half grown peacocks for $20 and I would love to get a couple, but what would I do with them in the winter? My DH says I'm way to into this whole poultry thing. He might be right

Well I have to go feed the chickens and ducks their afternoon meals. have a good rest of the day

 

[Sweetfolly]

Thanks everyone.

My sisters both go back to school tomorrow too (the two youngest ones - the 17-year-old dropped out of school and moved in with her boyfriend. With her 18th birthday just a few months away, there's not much to do about it

.) - since I'm their full-time babysitter during the summer, I'm really looking forward to the school-year!

So, the Runner babies are all still alive (besides the one I lost overnight - that was the worst thing to wake up to, just so unexpected). I've been treating it as botulism, so I've been giving them fresh water with epsom salts throughout the day to try to flush the toxin out of their system. It's definately flushing their systems out

- I'm putting those rabbit hutches that I still haven't converted to duck and chicken pens to good use, switching them into a clean section of the pen every few hours, to get them away from any infected droppings. I just had my mom run to Farm and Fleet to get some BounceBack electrolytes - I don't know how long I can keep them on the epsom salts without risking dehydration. They're in good spirits, they ate a little, and they actually have better control of their legs than they did this morning. I figure that, since botulism causes mortality in 24-48 hours, if I can get them through tonight, we're pretty much out of the woods, and just have a long recovery, regaining muscular strength. I'm praying hard.

They're brave little angels - here are the two girls, Heather & Hazel, having a nap:


And I will get a picture of those Calls that shows how big they are once all this turmoil is over, BL4. The Whites and Butterscotches are actually all bigger than the Calls we got from AplineRanch. With Calls, I guess the shape matters more than the size. They should be really wide and really round. I was reading the other day that it's a lot easier to breed down in size than it is to breed the proper round shape from two "streamlined" birds.

I just like the rounder ones because they're so darned cute!