What's everybody doing today?

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Weedygarden said:
You will appreciate those chickens in days to come, and the eggs they produce as well.

It looks like you are using chicken wire on your coop. I just read a comment in my area that someone said chicken wire is to keep the chickens in, but you need hardware cloth on the outside to keep the raccoons out.
Click to expand...
We used hardware cloth on the coop and 6 foot chicken wire around exercise yard. Coons can climb into yard but cannot get in coop at night. All feeders are locked up in coop at night too.
 
zannej said:
Are there any critters that will eat blackberry bushes (weeds and all)?
Click to expand...

Our goats absolutely love them. I have to fence off some areas of blackberries or they will destroy them completely

I am exhausted. Sometimes I don't want to do this anymore :(
First , the dogs got out. The livestock guardians. They got over the fence somehow which is weird since the boy doesn't jump. So we had to chase them down to the neighbors several farms down the road, and their dogs attacked them. They are much smaller dogs and I was very worried that ours would kill those dogs, but we got a hold of them ( I know not a good idea, but I didn't want them to hurt those dogs) , put them in the back of the Ranger and took them back. We locked the girl up the rest of the day and put him in a different pasture with the sheep and electric on top.
We do have electric tape on the bottom of the one they got out of , but it was down in some areas and we haven't had a battery on it in while. I guess they figured out it's no longer hot. Well it will be hot tomorrow. I walked the whole fence and fixed the tape.

Then one of our goats went into labor all the way at the bottom of the pasture ( it's steep) and we had to drag her up to the barn because it looked like it was about to storm. This is a first timer and she had a hard time getting the first one out. I had to pull it. It was very hard getting him out and she cried a lot. He was fine, despite me pulling on his legs, and she popped out a much smaller girl after. Then , she just sat down and didn't want to deal with them. I gave her some electrolyte and food and we got her to stand up and got the babies to nurse but it was hard. We also discovered she has fish nipples on one side and the babies couldn't get milk out that one. Usually those go to the auction but we missed this one

We had to separate and tag sheep going to the auction tomorrow plus I baked cup cakes to take over to some friends we are supposed to visit after dropping off the sheep . Oh and I gave all the babies bo-Se and vitamin B shots.

I think I would like a 2 week vacation sitting on a nice beach doing nothing ( NOT Florida either)

We have 5 more goats to go, hopefully they will be ok while we are gone tomorrow. We are leaving them all in the barn just in case
 
Backpacker, any recommendation on best ways to cut down the thicker parts of the blackberry bushes? I was going to rake them away and drag them to a burn pile once they are all cut, but the cutting is the issue. Wish we could have goats to take care of them.

We have coons in the area but they never bothered our chickens. Been a very long time since we had any though. TSC has some bitties that I was cooing over. So adorable. We never killed or cooked any of ours. Had them for eggs and cuddles. We had a 22lb rooster named Foghorn who liked to sit on my lap and be petted. Some of the hens liked that too. Of course, we also had lap goats. One really sweet goat named Jessie was particularly cuddly.

Got more toys for the puppies and they are happy, but they whined about being put back in the front room. I put them up at night so they won't crap in the rest of the house. Not house trained yet. The cats in that room are not happy about it, but the puppies don't bother them.

I showed pics to a friend who works at Walmart and he said they should get adopted easily with how pretty they are. I just worry that someone who only wants dogs for hunting who likes to starve them and set them loose in the woods will try to get them. I hate when I see those poor starving dogs running in the forest with those antenna collars. I always stop to give them food. It's illegal for hunters to do it but they keep doing it. Doubly illegal bc its a wildlife reservation.
 
Weedygarden said:
I'm lost. Shells as in pasta shells? Black squid spaghetti? Is this a real thing?

Edit: It looks like black squid stained spaghetti is a real thing!
Click to expand...
taco shells.
 
Zanni I was just using a chain saw. I had blackberries growing in with other woody plants and just ran it along at ground level or just above and cut it all down. Then drag out to a pile to burn later. That crap is a mess that I have let get ahead of me. Trying to get it all cut out so I can run the tractor over and keep it mowed now.

But I still have other places that are just as bad scattered around. Guess I'll try and knock out 1 or 2 each winter. Always try and bush hog what I can get to
 
I use a chainsaw too. I actually like to have black berries growing on certain fences. I treat it a pruning. Even vines that have gone wild will produce a few berries.

Also, thick vines are useful when you have cattle. If a cow can't see through something they usually won't try to go through it. It might as well be a solid wall to them. Examp... There has always been a week spot in my corral. I trained honey suckle to grow in that low area. Not once in 20 years did a cow try to escape there even though they could. Free fencing, smells great when it blooms.

Me, nothing today but feed the critters, been dragging all week.
 
Last edited:
Today ended the way it started, with medical stuff going south. The wife's IV infusion machine died... Had to call the nurse, then the pharmacist, then the on-call nurse, and then the pharmacist; they were able to send us a replacement. We have a backup but you need to have a second on hand in case one fails and they have to be programmed by the pharmacist. And the Pharmacist is a 4 hour drive away from here.... Just finished the exchange with the courier, I feel sorry for that guy, he will not get home for another 5 hours. I bushed, Night all.
 
Last weekend in Las Vegas left me stressed (I hate Vegas and the traffic) and I was feeling lousy all week. All week my BP was high at bedtime and I had a hard time sleeping so I was tired all week and didn't do much and wasn't on the computer much. Evident by 13 pages of this thread being unread tonight. I gave up reading and just skipped to the end to post this. Last night I decided to take my BP meds 8 hours early to help me relax and get some sleep. It helped a bunch. Because I was at work tonight I was occupied and that kept my brain from over thinking things and stressing me out. Took my meds again tonight and feel good and should be able to sleep well tonight.
A few days ago I replaced the long overdue fuel filter on my truck. Yesterday I helped a guy in the neighborhood cut some wood from an old orchard a guy is replacing with new. I didn't know the neighbor but he asked on our Nextdoor page for someone with a chainsaw and I needed a get away so I offered to help. Worked up a good sweat but had a relaxing day. Today I slept in but then tended to my fish pond, cut some tree branches around the yard to thin things out, used the neighbors tractor to clear the horse manure out of the coral, prepared for todays delivery of feed pellets for the horse, had a good night at work and will be going to bed in a bit shortly after the GF leaves for her 3 day work trip in about an hour.
Tomorrow, flush the cooling system on my truck, replace the thermostat on the truck, change the oil on the truck, and probably look into what I need to drain and flush the transmission on the truck for a future weekend.
I am hoping the night time dosing of the BP meds will help me be more productive around here. I have plenty of far too much to get done. Sweet dreams everyone. catch ya tomorrow.
 
Sleeping. been up all night with my ulcers and decided it was movie marathon time.
Needless to say, I was watching long after I could have slept.
Hi-Ho. see you tonight.
 
This morning I woke up and was dressed before the alarm went off. I have completed the grocery shopping for the week, paid a visit to Home Depot to pick up gardening and plumbing supplies, unloaded them. Stopped by Mickey D's for a breakfast sandwich and now I am catching up on the stuff here and feeding my face. I need to do a lot of work outdoors this morning as they have thunder storms forecast for this afternoon.
 
It's moving day for mom today. Nephew and his wife made it in last night, and the twins made it back from Branson. So now it's have a cup of coffee time, wake everyone up, and get breakfast rolling before we go. I talked with mom last night and she had forgot about moving, so I'm sure she will not remember this morning either. Glad I have her apartment key.
Urban, you never sleep.
 
Amish Heart said:
It's moving day for mom today. Nephew and his wife made it in last night, and the twins made it back from Branson. So now it's have a cup of coffee time, wake everyone up, and get breakfast rolling before we go. I talked with mom last night and she had forgot about moving, so I'm sure she will not remember this morning either. Glad I have her apartment key.
Urban, you never sleep.
Click to expand...
Many thoughts and prayers for you today, you have your hands full!! Hope all goes as smoothly as it can!!
 
Amish Heart said:
Thanks, Pearl. I expect a meltdown at some point from mom. We'll try to keep it interesting, though, and give her some things to be "in charge" of, and I'm hoping that will help her. Another cousin called to help, and she can't do any moving but said she'd get the pizza at lunchtime and bring it.
Click to expand...
That's one less thing to worry about! Every little bit helps!
 
Wife's gone to a baby shower.
I'm sitting here looking at a gloomy cold cloudy day outside .
Looking at the utility room ...needs drywall joints sanded, last mud coat put on. Just can't get into it .

Feeling mighty sluggish today.

Hope wife brings some leftover sammiches , goodies, from the shower.

Watching Wagon Train.

Gonna watch Michigan vs Tennessee game later.
Tonight gotta watch Murray State vs St Peters.

Play with Eli , get his exercise . He's a riot.

Jim
 
Sorry Urban about the IV pump. A 5 hour drive is a long drive, but, at least it's their job and they're paid to do it. Hopefully he's the type of person who really likes driving.

@zannej - Do the blackberry bushes produce blackberries? We've got tons of black caps bushes around our place and we make blackcap jam pretty much every year. I stopped doing it because I can't eat it anymore -- too acidic, but it really is delicious! There's a patch that I wanted to remove so I dug them up rather than cutting them back. I mean. . .I cut them back so I didn't get scratched up in the process and then I dug up the roots. Haven't finished the job yet, but digging them up is working pretty good.

Today it rained. It's a sleepy Sabbath day. Just doing bible studies Isaiah 11-20 right now (needed a small break cause my brain's derping-out) Gonna get back to staring at ancient maps; listen to a pre-Passover sermon. Take notes; rewrite notes. And then. . .see where my brain stands from there. Lol.
 
Change of plans for today, found some flooring on sale so we're going to tackle refloring the bathroom we replaced the shower in. Unfortunately, as I removed the last bits of tile found that the mould and rot had spread further than I had thought, so it'll be cutting out the subfloor & replacing before the new floor goes in. It'll be good to have this project finally all buttoned up!

@zannej - I just use loppers for our blackberry vines. I chop them at the base and use the loppers or a rake to drag them all away. I've got these fancy high tech ones that let me cut through way thicker vines than I ought to be able to: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004SD74/ - Good luck with them, they can be quite the chore!
 
I'm awake.
Joe Biden is still president, we're on the edge of WW3 and gas is 5$ a gallon.
Why can't I wake up? this is a bad dream right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top