Pink Fox: its Raining...IN MY HOUSE! :/

[pinkfox]

today is not a good day, everything hurts, from my insides to my outsides, from my skin to the blood in my veins..it all hurts...
and then nature ecided more snow was needed so I spent my morning shoveling before I could do chores, which means a nice additional spaaming back to the everything hurts plate...and all added together either triggered the SAD or the bipolar drop ive been feeling coming on and put me into a "cry at everything" frame of mind...
it hurts to move, it hurts to breath and it hurts to think...so blanket couch and Netflix is on my wishlist for today, though sister wants to go out this afternoon...I don't think my body is going to let that happen...but we'll see.
im ready for my dream vacation in Hawaii now...thanks...

looks like the necropsied frost bitten flesh on bluebells ear is starting to die and fall off, shes going to have a hefty chunk missing but I think shell be otherwise ok, going to send some pics over to the lady that wanted to buy her and see if she still wants her...if not ill probably send her to freezer camp, shes got bad teeth after damaging her jaw on the cage bars (she got hooked badly) shes missing half her tail, and now a chunk out of her ear...I mean realy?! that poor ilr deserves a quiet retirement but she doesn't want to be a pet either...
either way, at least shes eating and otherwise normal despite how nasty the ear looked.

in good news however I think I figured my rcket mass heater questions out...
THIS may be my answer
http://www.permsteading.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8

weve got an old stock tank that got dragged down the hill for a fire pit, its already been burnt in so shouldn't be an issue with fumes or paint, and I think with some basic odifications, I can make that idea work well for what I want.
ill use a heavy pearlite and sand mix for the insulation, stovepipe for much of everything ele and some ind of steel tub or small barrel for the burn chamber...the thermal pipe will get twisted and turned inside the barrel to get as much pipe in as small an area as possible...im thinking mabe making a spiral and using only elbows...and then chimney will come out the back at the bottom (I figure ll spiral down instead of up) the flue then will come out the back (with clean out acess point too) and can go out of the tent at ground level (ill build a little extra chimney stack out fsome from the tent for venting out of block to make sure it doesn't get knocked or anything) I THINK this could work.
set the tub on a couple of blocks to get it off the gorund...

 

[hqueen13]

Just an FYI from what we've learned about our silly pellet stove, the more bends and horizontal pipe that you have the harder it is to clean, and the harder it is to keep clean. So if that bendy pipe is the pipe that carries the smoke out, it will be annoying to clean. If its just an air vent, then that should work really well.
Hope you're feeling better, take it easy on yourself and do what you need to do to take care!!

 

[pinkfox]

one of the bonuses of the rocket mass heaters is SUPPOSEDLY due to the double combustion chamber theres SUPPOSED to be very little ash.
ive got an aquaintence with one in his cabin, a MUCH larger one, and he fills a 5 gallon bucket with ash or the entire heating season lol, but yeah would definatly be something to think about, itll have an ash clean out at some point, but mabe ill add 2, just to be Safe lol.

we got more snow...and ice (and more snow coming) last night...dad cleared a path to the barn for me but I then had to shovel out a path to the boys goat house and to the back of the barn to open the door for the girls, and one for the piggy house...
my back is mad at me...but then...my whole body is mad at me so what difference does a back make?! lol

otherwise not much going on, total lazy day today,

finally seem to be getting my 55 gal tank on track, added 3 rosie barbs yesterday, so far they seem ok.
gonna give then till the weekend and if they continue to do ok ill think about what to add next, ive got algea so im thinking ottos and mabe a couple of mystery snails or a bristle nose pleco should come next.
im going back to an angel tank with this one since ive had no luck with the goldies in this tank.
so the plan is an angel community tank.
this is definatly going to be a slow and steady kind of thing though...

And yeah...think its ime for lunch.

 

[hqueen13]

Take care of yourself! I can't believe how much snow yall have gotten this year. We got nasty wet slush out of that which is just gross!

 

[pinkfox]

weve had worse...but I still hate it...and its sill way too much lol, and more coming weve got 50% chance for tomorrow...then pretty much certain chance of more coming in sunday and hanging round or the entire week...yuck!

the good news though, lady still wants bluebell despite her frostbitten ear, and my lop/rex buck is sold (paid in full and some extra caue they cant pick him up until the end of the month...
and the little angora baby boy is pending too (frineds of the people who bought my chinchilla angora doe poppy) I love repeat customers...

and I did more work with the fishtank...
folks keep suggesting more plants to fix the nitrate issue...we cant figure out WHY im still high...but I am so lets fix he issue kind of situation, water changes don't seem to be assisting enough so "more plants"
so...today I hit petsmart and got ome anacharis to float on the surface, supposedly a heavy feeder and great for nitrate removal, and some water wisteria planted in the back, also supposedly a heavy feeder and hardy and good for nitrate control.
I also hit up lowes plant clearance rack, ive pretty much decided all or nothing on the riparium on bertha, it seems to be working nicely on my 10 gallon...so 2 $1 peace lilies and a huge pot of golden pothos later....everythings now roots in.
the pothos was clearance for 2.50 and I ended up with over 10 individual plants form that 1 group...people don't ealize that those big pots of pothos and philodendron are actulally MULTIPLE small plants in 1 pot. once I got the dirt off I could divide it easily into lots of youngsters.
the peace lilly should have been $5 a piece but they were on clearance for $1...I took both sad sorry loking little things, who...just needed a drink, they are already looking perkier!
even if this tank never sustains fish life...it LOOKS cool LOL!.

im realy hoping to get this tank stable and life sustaining soon, I found ome angelfish on ebay I realy want...

not much else going on though, tomorrow starts the prep for this weekends bunny run, need to gather (and clean out and dry off) carriers, clean out cages and prep everything....
I also NEED to clean my room...

but now...now its time to go put the critters to bed....

 

[hqueen13]

Nice on the plants!! That's a steal of a deal! I have never had success with peace lillies in pots, they are such dramatic plants that I can't figure them out. And you're right, pathos, and spider plants too, often have lots of single plants in one pot. And pathos will almost grow in a dark closet, LOL
Good luck with the weather. Our high today was the low last night And the low tonight is like 9. I'm not thrilled... And its windy today. yuck!

 

[pinkfox]

ive ound peace lilly need water...LOTS of water, ive got one large one in a pot and ive found if I let it go even the least little bit dry it just keals over on me...yet the ones with no dirt just hanging out in my tanks are quite content to just sit there and do their thing, makes me wonder if they are actually a bog/water ways plant
ive also found they realy like soft slightly acidic water, something in the 6.0 ph range...they don't do well with hard mineral.

your right on the pothos though, I swear that stuff could grow in a cave. and it LOVES being suspended in the tanks, the root development on the bunch I planed in the filter in the very beginning is impressive.

this is the 10 gallon

and then THIS is problem child bertha...still fighting her to get those nitrates under control!

did a 50% water change again this morning, will just keep doing that every day until I get her under control. hoping the live plants will realy get a hold and help me out on this one.

other plans for today include finishing my cup of tea, cleaning my room, rebidding the brooder, an then cleaning the rabbitry, ive got a bunch of buns coming this weekend so gotta get that clean prepped, everyone moved that needs moving ect so I can fit everyone else in...
theres a couple of cages I want to move around a little, see if a bit of a reconfigure helps make the space more efficient too...itll be march before I can get the new rabbitry up and anchored as I need to wait for the ground to thaw...so itll be the barn for now. and theres 8, mabe 10 new buns coming in.

and yes...you heard me right.
Brooder!
we got 5 narraggansett turkey poults last weekend they are so cute!

 

[pinkfox]

well, the weekend whent pretty well, got home late Saturday after the rabbit show with a car full, got everyone unloaded and caged and hit the sack, sunday I pent building the 2 new cages, and then had to run out for errands.
today the weather is nasty, got up this morning and rearranged the barn...
its not where I want it to be quite yet...but im still unsure about leaving them in the barn or moving them to the cover all...
what I DO know is I want to make stacking frames for some of the cages rather then suspending them or trying to use the t-posts again.

at the show I picked up 3 French lops...a broken chestnut a chinchilla and a fawn...gonna see how this trio do with plans to eventually sell the 2 current does and replace with 2 tri-color does, but I couldn't afford tris yet...lol.
ive got them currently stacked in a makesift tower with makeshift trays...
I want to build a more solid frame for them (they are HEAVY buns with no max weight who im expecting to en up in the 12-14 lbs range, right ow they are only 4 and 5 months so...not even close to grown.
im thinking of building a wooden frame, cross braces in the back and sides open on the front and adding slide in trays.

I also got a trio of chinchilla Satins, they are in 30x24s 2 of which are the brand new cages, they have trays built in, so id just need a frame of some kind to hold them and a tray for the 30x24 I already have that didn't have a tray...I have the slide kits for the tray for that one...
id like another trio of satins either in red...so would like to design something I can set 6 cages on.

I also picked up 4 new rex, a broken red buck, a broken red doe, a castor doe and a red doe...(all unrelated form 3 different breeders lol).

sister found her own little buddy a pretty little Siamese sable Netherland dwarf boy she named titan.

nothing else much going on, getting cages done this morning was rough so im kinda taking it easy right now...should be doing stuff though.
need to get up to the barn later and try and get my rabit carriers up into the loft...
and move some stuff out of the other stall.
currently our male pig (despite my advice) is in the house still, hes now a young male rather than a baby and this doing what intact BORED male pigs do, smelling bad, causing mischief moving his cage about the place ect...
so I need to move him...ASAP (because somehow this is now MY problem...)
anywho.
the barn has power, and I can easily set up a heat lamp for him in the spare stall, butt hat is currently home to about 50 thousand lbs of bunny bedding in trashags, dads concrete mixer and sawdust bags (and a huge mound of rocks and gravel form whatever has been tunneling under the gravel floor again (im pretty certain its a combination of wild rabbits, groundhogs and rats...)
cant just put bedding down on the gravel floor (pain to clean out) so now I need stal mats and shavings and straw bales...and its icey and gross and not drivable out there today...and yet...yeah.
gonna get it all planned out figure out exactly what we need to get this done and then pick it up and get it sorted tomorrow or weds.
my eventual plan...move mr/b in with the male goats and the girls in with the female goats the girls will go in the spare stall, mr b will share the boys house.

move the buns out of the barn and ill have that area for setting up kid pens.

I think moving her just made my "things that I need to do" list more compolicated.

 

[hqueen13]

It's so tough to be busy in the winter because everything tales 10x the effort to accomplish. I can't wait for spring!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Congrats on the new bunnies! Can't wait to see some pics, lol!