NoobieChickenLady's Journal - SS Score and Mah Kitteh is HOME!! Yay!

[noobiechickenlady]

Eeeewwww, wanna hear something gross?
We had a small leak in the window to the coop that I just noticed this weekend. It was in the far back corner by the water container, so I didn't notice it until the bottom dropped out this week. I wondered why the coop was smelling funny, and had planned to check it thoroughly this weekend anyways, normally there is no smell other than a whiff of pine. I stepped inside and sank about an inch in muck that was hiding under nice fresh, clean dry shavings.Turns out DH wasn't stirring the shavings up when he added new, add that to the 6" of rain we got in one morning
So we shoveled the whole coop out, tossed the shavings on the compost (luckily we placed the coop right beside the compost heap) and put in fresh shavings to dry out the area.
Did you know that none of the feed stores around here carry stall dry or an equivalent? I'm thinking I might dig a trench around the coop to help the water drain off. I did have a tube of caulk on hand, so the leak is now fixed.

I expect to get an egg any day now. My EE has the biggest, brightest red comb, even though she is the youngest besides Staley, followed by several of the RIR ladies who are also sporting bold red head accessories. My rooster seems to be fully integrated into the flock now, as he runs along with them to the "Hangout" instead of staying in the coop for a few hours before joining them.

And apparently, Beekissed is contagious with her re-decorating. I had a beautiful light lavender color chosen for DD's room, had the paint mixed and then got totally side-tracked. She sat down in my lap this weekend, wrapped her arms around my neck and said "Mama, are we ever going to paint my room?" Naturally, I got up, got a rag & a pan of soapy water and we went to town washing her walls. I spotted a couple of more places that were damaged, so I'm picking up some drywall tape to fix those today. All in all, we (yes, I let her paint a little too ) got 1 wall almost completely painted (2 sections of drywall) and around the door & closet painted. I stupidly left the camera at work instead of taking it home with me, but I'll get pics of the paint job soon. It really is a beautiful soothing color. Her room will be finished in shades of purple, as its not a baby color and can grow with her. I have a very light tie-dyed purple curtain panel that will be bracketed with 2 deep, rich royal-purple panels. Purple was her fave color less than 2 months ago, then it was blue, now its green... Kids...

 

[2dream]

I had that same thing happen in one of my coops. We built an A-Frame for the bantys because I saw one on BYC that was all pretty and painted. Ha, mine looks like junk and leaks like crazy. Of course the one on BYC was made out of wood. We used tin with the intent of painting it. (Tin was what we had on hand and did not want to go purchase expensive stuff) It leaks so bad around the windows no amount of caulking apparently will fix it. Everytime we think we have all the leaks fixed I find wet. In the beginning it was a shock to find all that muck and mess. Now after every rain I go digging for wet muck that is fresh instead of waiting until its awful.

Sounds like you and your DD had some good quality time together. I think letting her help with the painting was a great idea. I use to let my children help with stuff like that when they were little. Seemed to give them a sense of pride and they sure took much better care of their rooms when they put all that work into it.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Well, I have sneaky, sneaky hens! Not only were they laying already, but the hussies were hiding them! I found 3 pullet eggs this weekend, off in some high grass at the edge of the yard. Now I'm paranoid about letting them out in the mornings!!
I have no idea how old they are, so we gazed lovingly at them for a moment and put pink hilighter marks on them. I spruced up the nest box, added a little more straw and put the 3 marked eggs I found in the nest. I then filled the feeder & the waterer and locked them inside! They get to stay in at least for today. Now to do some research on breaking that habit...

I've got labor lined up to move my 'rents shed, thankfully. Pizza & beer again. I'm waiting on mom & dad to finish figuring out what they want out of it. A lot of it is junk that will be left and my free labor will cart it off. Its made of cypress, and the walls are in excellent condition. Only some of the boards under the roof edge are a bit moldy, but still solid. We're going to dismantle it and move it rather than dragging it. We'll reassemble in place and add new roofing. Now I gotta figure out where I want it.

Also, I found out this weekend that we're being given a porch!! SWEET! My mother is buying a house for granny to put on mom's land. Don't remember if I've mentioned it or not, but granny is moving to our place. Really glad about that, she was too far out in the boonies for anyone's mental peace. Anyways, mom got the house locked in and it comes with 2 big porches, 12x12 & 12x14. Granny doesn't want either of them, but mom's making her keep at least one, just because they are nice to have. We get the other

Not too much going on the SS front, except some canning & drying. The farmer's market had blackeyed peas, green beans & lima beans on sale, so I grabbed a bunch of them and took them home. I got the green beans & the blackeyed peas canned, the limas are in the fridge waiting on some more energy to can them and I dried a bunch of basil that was heading toward seed.

 

[Dace]

Funny about the eggs! My girls do not really lay in the morning. I think some lay around 10-11 and some lay after 1 ...so I am out checking a few times a day. We found one under a tree the other day but since I am out in the run so often I was confident that it was a new egg, so I put it in the fridge.

Good luck in breaking the habit....I think you are off to a good start.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Thanks, Dace! I'm glad I was checking for overlooked anti-mower stuff while I was mowing or I never would have spotted them! They are almost all doing the squat now when I reach a hand out to them.

 

[dragonlaurel]

There have been studies about the bad stuff that TV does to kids brain chemistry.

Just unplug the stinking thing! lol, there was a movement on one of the Family radio networks around here called "Toss your TV" and they had people really tossing their TVs, as in the trash. I don't think I'd go that far, prob use it as a planter first :lol



The ADHD thing is likely to be true but please dont toss the TV' s in the trash! They have lots of nasty toxic stuff that we don't need leaking into the environment later. Not much good for a planter either unless it's ornamental plants.

There are organizations that recycle them. They get the usable parts out then process it so the really bad stuff wont make as big a landfill.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Good point, dragonlaurel. Same with cell phones, CFLs & computers.

We try to just avoid the thing. But we have lapses like everyone I suppose. Its been on with something when I got home everyday last week. I got sucked in for a little while before it hit me that I needed to check the garden. Video games, gah.

The lady who is laying eggs has now decided that the corner of the coop would be better than the nest box. I let them out when I got home, since surely she would have laid her egg by then. She had and I almost stepped on it when I ducked inside the coop.
I'm pretty sure its the Easter Egger pullet I bought as a day old rooster. She's a few weeks younger than my RIR, but her comb is bigger & brighter red than theirs too.

Mornings around the house are wickedly hectic. I ran off and left the camera again! I took a few more pics of the ladies, the coop & 3 baby coons living in an old oak tree in the front yard. I also took a pic of a plant I'm trying to get identified on TEG. Its got berries on it, and I really want to know what it is.

I'm almost done with DD's room. Got to finish the trim, add a wall guard for the door handle & put her curtains up. Then I can start on DS's room. Its so funny, he wasn't interested at all in painting his room until I actually started on DDs. Then it was every 15 minutes "When to paint MY room?" hehe
We'll do his in a deep but bright blue, with dark blue & red accents, ala Spiderman, his absolute favorite superhero

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Like many others across the country, I've had a horrible harvest. We did get a good quantity of eggplants, which is nice, because we like them. But the tomatoes, nope, only a few so far. I do hope for more, but it doesn't seem likely. Small bit of corn, tiny amount of okra, no beans, no radishes, no beets. Heck, something even ate my dill At least I can blame it on the weather and not my inexperience at gardening

Did 2 more raised beds this weekend. Finished painting & trimming DD's room. Worked on convincing DH that we can actually handle building a ferrocement tank. I know we can, he's doubtful about the whole endeavor. That we can build it, that it will hold water, that it will stand up period. Bleh. How to convince a reluctant DH to go research it himself? I print off stuff, and if I don't put it in my notebook, it ends up in the classroom stuff. If I put it in my notebook (which is NOT sacrosanct! I WANT him to read it!) he'll never even glance at it. God love him and so do I but gah!

The Gallus Domesticus (hehe) are still reluctant to use the nest box, prefering the wide open but sheltered spaces under my waves of amber grass. I found one on the ground by the pool last night. Crazy hens.

I'm really looking forward to the class free is continuing tonight. Tonight will be the first night I actually get to participate without muting myself out. What I've listened to thus far is very exciting and instructive.

 

[Blackbird]

I've got labor lined up to move my 'rents shed, thankfully. Pizza & beer again. I'm waiting on mom & dad to finish figuring out what they want out of it. A lot of it is junk that will be left and my free labor will cart it off. Its made of cypress, and the walls are in excellent condition. Only some of the boards under the roof edge are a bit moldy, but still solid. We're going to dismantle it and move it rather than dragging it. We'll reassemble in place and add new roofing. Now I gotta figure out where I want it.

You know, its wierd. The phrase 'goat shed' just popped into my head. I wonder how many it could hold.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

Probably a few! Its roughly 12x14. Goats are a maybe at this point though, Merle. If I did, it would prob be a meat breed, maybe minis. My SIL has a breeding pair of myotonic goats.

We'll most likely reduce the inside dimensions to 12x8 to give an overhang, feeder & stall for a Dexter. Then across the 12' we'll put rabbit cages with outdoor access. I've got it all in my head, just gotta work it out on paper. Rents are almost finished clearing out what they want.

Oh Yeah! I got invited to come out to another lady's farm & check out her Dexters. She's a little over 5 miles from me, so I wanna go see & learn what I can from her before I get started. She's had a perpetual herd for 20 years or so. She's also got a month old heifer she's going to sell this fall. She seems more friendly than the other set of Dexter folks I've met with.