Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Lame

I didn't do anything I had planned this summer. I wanted to plant a garden..it snowed untill mid June. It is already freezing in August. That is a SHORT growing season. A garden wasn't going to happen.
I wanted to really get out there with my books of edible and medicinal plants that grow naturally in my area. Again, with the weather, most of them never really came up this year. Plus it was too cold to do much.
We went on a diet and most of the stuff in our food storage were things we were not alowed to eat. Food storage got ignored and never expanded on.
This summer has just flat out been lame.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Chicken issues

Well, our rooster has been having a few problems.
The first one is his early morning crowing. I think I have this one solved though. He was crowing every morning at 4 AM!! One morning I had enough, I slipped on my robe and slippers and went stoping out to the chicken yard. Slash was half way through the cat door we installed for them and was crowing at the top of his lungs. Right in the middle of his Cock-a-doodle-doo, I swatted him on the rear. He let out a screech and landed about 10 ft away. The next morning he got it again. Now he doesn't crow before six. I am pretty satisfied with the results.
The second issue is a little harder to solve. The hens have been picking the top of his head bald. He was like that when I got him but my hens are just making the problem worse. I have tried putting hit pepper mixed with neosporin on him but that seemed to make it worse. Last night I used black salve and sat down to watch him to make sure they werent going to hurt him more. I watched three seperate hens come up to him and attempt to pluck a feather. They got close enough to strike and caught a whiff of that nasty stuff and walked away. Hopefully this is our cure! I also put vinegar in their water as I have heard this could be caused by a mineral deficency that vinegar will take care of. If anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them!!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Quote of the day

Phone conversation between Maggy and I:

Maggy: I have to call you back, I am at the boys soccer practice.
Me: Ohhhh, thats right! You are a soccer mom now!
Maggy: Shut up.
click.