Savingdogs-Saving the chickens

[savingdogs]

You are too cute, all of you! It does seem like we are in the same place, Fancy.

I wanted horses before we moved up here, really, really BAAAAAD. I was one of those kids who pretended to be a horse during recess, had the horse fever to an extreme degree.

When we were living in a city house we had the opportunity to help a neighbor who could no longer ride. She just wanted someone to ride her horses and we would help in the barn afterwards, clean the stalls and feed them, and we could come and go whenever we wished.
But we found in our muddy and rainy climate, the days we could go over there and ride were very few and far between. Meanwhile, she was doing the upkeep and paying the expense 24/7. We decided, in our climate, that horses are just too much work. I still enjoy them but would really rather get a miniature horse and a little cart more than get a full sized horse. But since our piece of land is more suited to goats, I'm happy we have found what fun goats are. They satisfy my childhood urge to need to buy alfalfa.

 

[lalaland]

hope you are convinced now that we're all happy you are here, and no way is there going to be any kicking off!

something I like about this forum is that there are tons of different approaches to SS, and everyone comes from a different place: different income levels, different ideas of what ss means, different stages of life, different experiences, etc - have never seen anyone be mean here.

and....you aren' t the only one who doesn't want to cull - I'm right there with you!

 

[savingdogs]

Well the practical side of me doesn't want to feed animals that are not producing...........until I look them in the face! They seem to look back at me and say, "What do you lay, you look like you've been eating plenty........?"

I see also that eating eggs makes for beautiful bird plummage....we were able to note that every egg eater has better feathers than the "good" group. Perhaps that speaks to a lack of protein in their diet? I had thought my scraggly ones were that way, however, because they are my roo's favorites. He is a rather active one and.....a terrible example of manliness for my teenage boys. Wham, bam, thank you mamn and he is already looking for the next hen while he finishes, crowing to all of them, don't run away, you are next. We watch him mate with two or three hens in the space of five minutes every morning. He seems to hit the scraggly ones more often and I think it is rooster wear. Is there a reason he would not want to mate with egg eaters? I do believe all those eggs they have eaten were fertile!

I think Free gave us really good advice to be patient about selling our Buck and I'm feeling much better about not getting any response on him. Maybe I can take some better pictures.

In the meantime, I see our next project is Opa's egg rolling nest box..........

 

[freemotion]

We haven't culled any laying hens yet, either. Just roosters. When we wanted to change out our old flock, we found an ad on craigslist by a vegetarian who wanted some laying hens for her young teen daughter whose current flock was dying of old age. I contacted them and gave them all our older hens. Win-win. We don't feed them, don't eat them, got our money's worth in eggs from them, and they live out their lives being doted on by a 13-year-old homeschooled girl and everyone is happy. You might find a similar situation if you are so inclined.

I am convinced of the value of pets, though, and there is no rule that says they have to be house cats and dogs to qualify. Keep your hens if you love them. But you may have to have a separate flock for eggs if you have egg eaters in the bunch. I hope the new nest box design works. It sounds like it should. You may need to trap rats, too, though.

 

[valmom]

Mookie went over the weekend and my little dog Harry will be adopted tomorrow. He is a little black-and tan scruffy terrier thing. I fancy Harry and I'm a little teary about him leaving, but a friend is adopting him, so I'm good with it. They want me to babysit him when they go on trips so it won't really be goodbye. I think his new name will probably be "Harley" because they ride and I suspect he will go-with (he only weighs 10 pounds). I'll have to have them send me some pics to share. It is hard giving up dogs over and over but I'm pretty used to it. About one dog in ten however is really hard to give away. I was happy to see the backside of Mookie but Harry, who we pulled from the shelter at the same time, will be missed. I always tell them "see you in heaven" when we part and in my imagination, when I die, they will all be there to greet me, since dogs have short lives. Hopefully I make it to heaven. lol But I know if there is one, dogs will be there, because it would not be heaven to me if they could not. There ia already a whole HERD of dogs there that I have known.
Guess I'm going to have to change my title to say we are official softies of SS.

I could never foster dogs- I'd keep them all! We have a JRT who is Harley (even though she is a girl).

And as for horses- don't do it! They accumulate too.

Welcome to SS where it is OK to be whoever you are because we have a lot in common with each other even through our differences.

 

[savingdogs]

Gosh, I've been sick all week and I haven't kept up.

I'm really sorry to say we lost a duck yesterday! We are not really sure what happened. My son (14) has been handling their care while I've been ill, and noticed the day before yesterday that she didn't want to get out of the pond, or couldn't, when the ducks were going to bed. He thought she looked thin and weak. So they put her in a crate by herself with food and water, but the next morning, she was already dead!

We had just changed the arrangement of food and water about a week ago, we think she may have starved!!!!!!!!!!!!! We shudder to think. We put their food and nests inside this hut-thing that someone gave us. We thought it would be great shelter for them and keep everything dry, like their food. So we cut a wee hole in the side, just big enough for a duck, in case my goats get in there (which is likely). We saw ducks going in and out, but never made sure that EVERY duck was going in and out. There is a little step they have to go up, but it seemed easy for the other five.

We think this one just never figured it out. We feel horrible. We don't pick up the ducks very often, they are friendly but don't like to be picked up, so until the one was doing poorly, we didn't even notice how thin it had become. I normally scatter BOSS as a treat in the mornings and since I didn't go out to visit and feed them I didn't have any idea. Dang, I hate being ill!

We scrubbed out the pond and flushed it in case there was something wrong with the water, and added one cup of bleach, but we think she just didn't go in to eat, it wasn't the water...............

Gosh, lately this journal of mine is full of bad news........

Buck still for sale. He is a cute little guy though and now I like him. He is starting to get to really like us. Nobody wants to touch ANY of the goats though and our other three don't quite understand why we have been so standoffish. They stink so much, when we see them, we run!!!!!!!!!! We really need to get a second shelter built if he is going to be here much longer. The stench floats into our bedroom window! Everyone warned us about bucks stinking, but holy cow!

We decided not to kill the egg-eating chickens and my hubby has his projects for the weekend (or longer) cut out for him, because he has some nest-box-revision work to do. We want to create a roll away egg arrangement in our existing coop. In the meantime, the five egg eaters are in my broody coop, producing no eggs of course. It is a little small for them but its better than freezer camp I imagine, where the space is really tight . They are so lovely, it looks like I'm keeping them up front for show (my broody coop is my only animal pen in the front garden). One of them is the most gorgeous EE and the rest are my most snooty Buff Orpingtons. Maybe I can use them as lawn ornaments. Too bad the bear dog lives in the front yard...I'm sure she would think them great chew toys.

At least we are finally collecting eggs again from our regular coop. I even have a dozen to sell despite my teenage sons. Did I mention they polish off a whole cake every night? And no, they are not fat, they are just bottomless pits.

I'm really enjoying my Kindle, that is about the only positive thing about this week. At least when I'm laying in bed I have something more to do although sometimes I can't read because my vertigo.

Harry the terrier goes to his new home tonight on a sleep-over, wish him luck! I will miss this one. I almost want to whisper to him to poop-in-their-house instead of see-you-in-heaven but I won't.

Wish me luck that I get through the day, I'm goin' to work!

 

[savingdogs]

Gosh, just re-read my journal and it is WAAAAAY too depressing and boring! I need to make this more fun like OFG, right? At least no more literal dead ducks!

We are getting ready for winter here. Hubby brought home a ton of wood and put it up in the woodshed today with the help of my teenagers, had to use a cattle prod to pry them away from their computers. That should keep the house warm awhile. We do have an itty bitty wall heater at the far end of the house that we kick on occasionally, but 80 percent of our winter heat is from the woodstove. This time, we organized the woodshed better with the kindling sorted out and in the front.......obviously we are learning from the school of hard knocks.

They were predicting an inch and a half of rain for us last night. What a surprise, it didn't happen. My husband shakes his fist at the weatherman regularly. He rides a motorcycle to work whenever he can and since it ALWAYS rains here, that isn't often. We do live in a protected valley at the top of this mountain so sometimes our ridge protects us from the foulest weather and winds.

But our trees have all turned beautiful shades this year and we feel blessed to have this land as our very own. Never mind the house needs to be kicked off this hill. All in due time, right? I just hope "due time" arrives during my lifetime. Like one of those potholders with the words "round tuit" embroidered on it.

I've been able to HEAR for the last three days. First I was real sick for three days and then came out of it hearing better. Not complaining! Strange to have it come and go. Everyone was shouting at me Friday and I had to tell them to shush, it was hurting my ears. This may not last so don't get too excited for me. Believe it or not I'm fairly used to my hearing coming and going, but it is so profound a change it makes it hard for me to go from room to room and adjust to noise levels and I can't believe how many people politely shout at me!

But I'm sure the people I drove by yesterday were wondering who is the weird old lady with the windows rolled down, Kelly Clarkson turned up full blast, drums thumping and making the road shake and she is singing at the top of her lungs? Kelly doesn't sing in my key so I'm not exactly a compliment to the vocals, but it is fun to scream "just LEAVE!" And today I was actually able to EAVESDROP, holy cow. How the other half lives.

My little 10-pound friend Harry did not get adopted, they are "thinking it over." I don't mind, but he did poop RIGHT under where my hubby steps in the AM and he wasn't too popular this morning. He managed to step in 1/2 of the turd on the way to the bathroom and then the other 1/2 on the way back. So Harry's name is Harry Mud and he is sleeping in a crate tonight. Normally Harry has been sleeping under the covers with me. And did I ever mention two other larger dogs sleep with us, too? We like to say we are rich in dogs, because there is never a shortage of them here. After Harry gets adopted I want to take a fostering break for awhile and then go to volunteer with a rhodesian ridgeback rescue, as those are our most favorite dogs (mostly I've told all of you about our karelian bear dog). But we started the whole rescue thing with a ridgie...another long story for another day.

 

[Javamama]

Wow! I didn't know your hearing could come and go with your condition. And you aren't depressing

My neighbors across the street have a horse-sized dog that is part ridgeback. It is just enormous. But he's very, very well behaved and calm.

 

[TanksHill]

Sorry about your duck.. Glad your hearing is better. Will it go away again??

Have a great day!!

ps None of us can write like OFG!!!

g

 

[murphysranch]

Maybe its been mentioned before, but are you a candidate for a choclear (sp?) implant? I have a good friend who has two of them (she's a physician) and DH has an aunt who has one (the other ear was never going to work).