HennyPenny's random thoughts. New set of goals!

[Blackbird]

Haha, I can just see you doing that too Henny! Quite a story.

 

[hennypenny9]

BBH- Actually most of the reason I decided to make Charlie an indoor cat is because of cars, dogs, and people. And my general fear that living in such a populated area he'd disappear one day and I'd never know why. But we've known many people who have lost their cats to coons. Yeah, they CAN be nice, but the one's I've seen have hissed at me, and not been afraid of humans. This particular one looked jumpy, which is why I drove it off. And we've lost many a chicken to them, so I kinda... Well... I guess you could say that I HATE THEM. *cough* Sorry. But when you seen the bloody remains of a hen pulled bit by bit through chicken wire, you lose that warm and fuzzy "they're so cute!" feeling. I'd rather open the door to an ugly possum, because at least they leave the chickens alone. And our cats at home could chase them off, they never bothered the cats. If your mom hasn't had a problem, good for her, but that could change.

The possum stew was tasty. It was slow cooked, so most anything is good that way. And hey, free is good!

And $25.00 per QUART?! Jeeze, I thought $4.25 for a half gallon was bad.

 

[Blackbird]

I most definitely agree Henny, we've had coon, skunk, weasel, and possum kill smaller cats, and we've had the above as well as foxes, coyotes, mink, hawk, owls, etc etc, kill our chickens before. And possoms don't always go for the eggs, and glad the guy you trapped up only wanted eggs.

 

[big brown horse]

I'm sorry about the chickens... yeah, I've heard some horror stories about coons doing just that. It happened to my sister and she will never own chickens again because it was too gruesome.

I always kept my kitty indoors when we lived in suburbia. Now we live down a dead end dirt road with a few other 5-10 acre farmettes, so not very many people come and go. I do worry about coyotes, so we fenced in our yard area with 5 foot high field fencing and added two St. Bernards for protection. We see coyotes out in the pasture, but not in the yard. If anything ever happened to the "prince" we would be so bummed.

Well, $25.00 per quart for raw was with the price of the ferry added. I would pay $4-5 for it though...lucky you!

 

[Aidenbaby]

Henny, you better believe I'd be right there with you with a broom in my hand and my dog at my heels. Last racoon I met was IN MY HOUSE!!! When I lived North of Denver in Northglenn, I would leave the kitchen window open so that the cats could come and go as they pleased. One night, I heard my dog growling his death growl. If you have ever owned a dog, it's the growl where you have no doubt left in your mind that your little snookums would kill. Anyway, I try to get DH up but he's dead to the world so it's just me, the dog and whatever is in the kitchen. I turn on the living room light to a HUGE racoon sitting on our deep freezer in the kitchen eating cat food. The dog immediately starts barking and snapping at it and it DOESN'T MOVE!!! I get closer, grab the broom, start swinging and that thing was out the window and gone like greased lightning. Just the month before my barn manager had been "hunting" them out of the attic of his barn because he had lost 15-20 barn kittens. At the same time, he lost 1/2 his adult kitties to foxes. You should have seen the barn swallow/house finch/pigeon population swell during that time. I'm not going to go out and look for critters to kill but if any got caught marauding my coop or in the act of attacking my cats, they'll not be living for long. Just because you live in the city, do not doubt that the same wild critters aren't here. Last year they had serious issues with coyotes attacking dogs while their owners were walking them in off-leash areas here in Denver. In broad daylight!! These animals aren't leaving, they're adapting.

 

[hennypenny9]

When I lived at home we had two outdoor/indoor cats. They're old, but still alive. We lived in the middle of nowhere, but have a dog to protect them. So Charlie is the first cat I've had that is totally inside. It's strange, and if I moved I wonder if I could gradually introduce him to the outside... Ours always followed us around, not closely, but if you looked, there they would be!

Could they look any happier?

So here's my gardener's soap. Had a slight misshap... I forgot to prepare the mold, and the soap would not come out. But I let it dry for a couple more days and managed to get most of them out. I have 8 usable pieces, 2 destroyed. I used tangerine EO, so the soap is yellowish orange.

I want my next batch to be cucumber. I will eventually get to the seaweed colored soap, I just feel like the cucumber one right now. And I can get them from the farmer's market, and use pureed cucumber for the liquid, and finely grated to make green flecks.

Spider alert! It made me unhappy. I grew up in a log cabin, so spiders don't bother me a LOT, but still.

 

[Blackbird]

The soap still looks really good! We never got to ours yet.. as usual.

Now where can I get chairs like that?

 

[hennypenny9]

Aidenbaby- Sometimes humans mess up the ecosystem pretty badly. Like the deer. In Gig Harbor they are (or were when I moved) so overpopulated that they started getting diseases and being sickly and gross. Because man has created huge amounts of food, and not enough natural predators. (I think) Same with coons.

Amos- Those chairs are made of cement! Surprisingly comfortable, and no wood to rot. I have no idea where my step-dad got them. And kitties are extra.

 

[Blackbird]

Exactly, thats why I asked! We have two wire chairs we found in the junk, they look uncomfortable but they are so nice! I can easily fall asleep in them. Every afternoon before goat chores and after chicken chores my mom and I will sit down and watch the chickens peck the ground and play with the kittens or something. Anyway, moral of the story, a good chair can make all the differece. Chickens and cats help tho.

 

[hennypenny9]

'Kay, leaving soon! Won't be back until Saturday night. Hoping everything goes okay, between the drive, ferry ride, and other issues, I'm a bit nervous. Friend we're meeting in Coupeville is running late and I detest people who inconvenience others in that way. But I have a feeling it's medical problems so I can't be too irritated. ARG.