What's everybody doing today?

[UrbanHunter]

This morning I did some work in the garden before getting ready for church. After Church, I did a half dozen loads of laundry so now we are ready for the week ahead. I BBQed some chicken legs for snacks, wife hates it but I can eat them in 2s and 3s for the rest of the week. I was able to clean and adjust the wife's sewing machine, she had bumped the tension setting and it was making a mess... she is happy it is now stitching properly, but she has to remove a number of poorly sewn lines.... This afternoon I blanched and shocked about 5 gallons of spinach leaves, by the time it was all done I barely got even 2 pounds of spinach in the freezer. After it cooled off I went out an finished running some cabling for a planned solar panel upgrade, it is run through 1 1/2 PVC and I had to un-do about 20 feet to make the new connections, it is all now reconnected and ready for the additional panels.

Tomorrow we are going to the doctor, the wife's first appointment is at 08:00 so we will need to leave by a quarter of 7. I have some briefing material that I will need to share with the team before I leave for the doctors...

Right now I think I will test some of the chicken I made....

 

[backlash]

We went shopping for a new travel trailer.
We are in the process of buying a 2023 Grand Design XLE 23LDE.
It has all the features we wanted and more.
The main requirement was I need to be able to pull it with my half ton ford and this one is within the weight rating.
Here is a link if anyone want to see it.

Imagine XLS | 23LDE

 

[Bacpacker]

Very nice, Great weight for the size as well

 

[Neb]

We went shopping for a new travel trailer.
We are in the process of buying a 2023 Grand Design XLE 23LDE.
It has all the features we wanted and more.
The main requirement was I need to be able to pull it with my half ton ford and this one is within the weight rating.
Here is a link if anyone want to see it.

Imagine XLS | 23LDE

Very nice!

The Princess and I have entertained an excursion of rediscovering our youthful adventures. That would be an excellent way to do it.

Ben

 

[backlash]

We are wanting to take some road trips and see the country.
We'll be looking for places to move to like AZ, NM, MO, and who knows where else.
Right now we are both still pretty healthy but who knows how long that will last so we figure we better do it now while we can.

 

[zannej]

@zannej hope the kid gets better quick. What about the other one, the one that didn't get taken to the hospital? Feeling better I hope.
I finally applied something to flat surfaces. definitely needs another coat. the plan is to move by next year.

Apparently over here they don't do emergency surgeries very quickly. They are waiting until tomorrow and keeping her overnight, but they transferred her to a hospital with more competent doctors. The other kid was already feeling better when I stopped by to drop off food. He's over 2-1/2" and still can't really speak so he was pointing at something he wanted and sort of grunting and babbling nonsense. He usually wants me to pick him up but he saw I was holding stuff so he backed off a little.

Since there's another delay in getting stuff done on my bathroom, I'm going to see how much I can get done on my own. I did a 2nd coat of primer on the PVC and will see if I can find the satin finish paint again. It's somewhere in my bathroom. Not sure where. I think under the shower seat. I'll look for it in a bit. If I can't find it I can always use different paint or buy new paint. After I get those boards panted and moved out of the way I'll work on the outside corner trim.

 

[sonya123]

So ...daughter woke me up with a text at 6 am and said she went back to work and they told her she had leave until end of June...HUH?? How can she/them not know when her leave is up?? LOL

Yesterday we finally did something about the rats in the chicken coop. Nasty things. We caught all the hens and put them in a different building , a room we have used in the past to quarantine new goats or house extra bucks. Then we cleaned it out and I put an entire paper plate full of poison geen bate chunks in it, and husband put out all the traps we have. So 2 hours later ALL the poison is gone and half the traps went off but no rats in the traps. I added some more poison . I wonder how long it takes for them to die so we can move the chickens back. They are usually outside during the day and go in the coop at night, but now they are just in because we can't catch them outside and I am afraid some rat will drop a chunk of poison outside, so we want to check that first.

How do you get rid of rats, if you have any ?

 

[Amish Heart]

Before the poison, if you had some cats, I would of locked them in there overnight. It sounds like what you did should do the trick The rats who ate the green block should be dying near some water somewhere. I have to let our barncats in the coops every night for at least five minutes because they love to hunt. A few nights ago, one got a small bullsnake. Mostly mice, but they have on occasion brought a rat and some birds up to our front porch.

 

[snappy1]

who knows how long that will last so we figure we better do it now while we can.

That's the truth! I'm so glad we did our snowbird years when we were 45 - 55. With DH's health now, there would be no way. We were full timers and worked as we traveled. 6 months here and there.

Already walked this morning.
Going to pick up friend in a few minutes and do some shopping and then lunch.
Pick up sticks this afternoon, maybe.

 

[Patchouli]

@sonya123 You could get yourself a little terrier or two or look in your general area for rat-eradication businesses. There was a guy who used to post his videos here of his dogs at work, on the hunt, but I guess it was seen as advertising so he left the forum. There’s a crew of people in NYC that take their dogs out late at night for rat hunting.
There are several different guys on youtube who have posted their dogs hunting rats videos. A couple of them have minks or ferrets they use as well.
Once the dogs get ahold of a rat one dog will shake it, it breaks the rat’s neck. Happens fast. The first video I linked is at a pig farm in UK.


One video showed smoking the rats out, dogs wait at one of the escape holes.
Good luck.

 

[joel]

Check the water in DW car.
Woke my son up.
Potting plant the rest of the day.

 

[TeeJ]

@sonya123 - I had issues with rats/mice in my coop until I switched to a "port" style feeder hung off the ground. With that all of the feed stays in the feeder, and doesn't go all over the ground attracting critters. After switching feeders, the snakes & cats could keep up with the population and it hasn't been a problem since. I have even stopped having to keep my feed storage in steel drums, I just stack up the bags in a side shed and (fingers crossed) haven't had anything get into them in over a year.

My feeder looks like this:

I 3D printed the ports, but I've seen people use PVC fittings as well. A screw-on lid makes refilling way easier!

 

[Wingnut]

Slow day again... too many tequila shots last night, lol. Yesterday afternoon I watched 'SAHARA' with Humphrey Bogart, then 'CROSS OF IRON' with James Coburn. Gonna chillax today and put up some decor in the bathrooms, maybe read a library book later... I already watered the new plantings, I may have to relocate some of those plantings soon, as some dirt "holes" have too many plants and others have none. We'll see once everything is a little larger, but it looks like I'm gonna have plenty of watermelons & squash this season, lol. Hot peppers too, should be no shortage of those. The weed seedlings are hanging in there, but they're not growing very fast... hopefully they get bigger soon, so they'll be more likely to withstand grasshoppers & crickets.

Speaking of bugs, I saw a new one the other day in my yard... new to me, I mean, it was a 'Whiptail Scorpion' with a funky fat body & needle-like whip for a tail. I looked 'em up on the web, and they are also called "vinegaroons" because they can discharge some substance that smells like vinegar... maybe I should put 'em to work in the kitchen, lol. Little Black Diamond took a close look at the whiptail scorpion, but she didn't mess with it, it looked pretty nasty even if the tail is smaller than usual. The thing reared up the way scorpions do when the cat threatened it, and it brought its tail up too... dunno if the critter can sting, I suppose so, I couldn't see any actual barb or stinger on the tail but it sure brandished it as if it had the power to deliver a sting. Nasty-looking critter, just downright ugly...

On a more positive note, here are some flowers that are going off in my yard, it's a riot of color out there, lol...

 

[sonya123]

Before the poison, if you had some cats, I would of locked them in there overnight. It sounds like what you did should do the trick The rats who ate the green block should be dying near some water somewhere. I have to let our barncats in the coops every night for at least five minutes because they love to hunt. A few nights ago, one got a small bullsnake. Mostly mice, but they have on occasion brought a rat and some birds up to our front porch.

Our dogs hate cats, so no cats. Plus I think the size of these rats would probably intimidate the average cat. We would need a small tiger or something

They ate another plate full of poison chunks, my bucket is almost empty . 2 dead ones in traps also

 

[sonya123]

@sonya123 - I had issues with rats/mice in my coop until I switched to a "port" style feeder hung off the ground. With that all of the feed stays in the feeder, and doesn't go all over the ground attracting critters. After switching feeders, the snakes & cats could keep up with the population and it hasn't been a problem since. I have even stopped having to keep my feed storage in steel drums, I just stack up the bags in a side shed and (fingers crossed) haven't had anything get into them in over a year.

My feeder looks like this:
View attachment 108854
I 3D printed the ports, but I've seen people use PVC fittings as well. A screw-on lid makes refilling way easier!

That's a great iidea! We have a regular metal chicken feeder and some does end up on the ground. It is hanging up. We don't have a 3 d printer. Oh we do have all the feed in metal trash cans. They eat through plastic.

 

[ABR]

Went into the big town to the Home Depot to get a few more materials for my coop build. Went by the library to return some dvds and get a few more. Got fuel then headed across to the smaller town to go by the feed store and walmart. A/C in the truck stopped again and I finally made it to the shop when it wasn't so they could see what I was talking about. Hopefully be a fast easy fix. Pretty sure it's an actuator. May swing by a friends house for a bit on the way back. See how much will and energy I have when I get home, may or may not do some work on the coop. Had another bad night so I'm exhausted this afternoon.

 

[Heartbroken]

Urban that's a beautiful tree skirt. Your wife does nice work.
Hugs, ABR. All you can do right now is put one foot in front of the other even though you don't know where you're going.
Amish I'm glad you caught a bit of a break to get a good night's sleep.
Patch, I hear ya with dealing with the fine print and greedy folks. Hope you can get things worked out.
More I wanted to respond too but it's been 60 seconds and I can't remember....I only have two brain cells left and they don't talk to each other much.
Dentist appt this week to get a tooth yanked.
More probate issues, both with my Husband's accounts and my Dad's; looks like my brother is going to lose the house he shared with Dad due to some double-crossing lawyer crap. Who said "first, kill all the lawyers"?
Been giving away tons of plants and need to get mine in the ground, and find more people who can use the extras. They really need to get planted but we're going to be in the 30s for a few nights yet.

 

[Amish Heart]

Did get 6 butternut squash and 6 acorn squash in the ground. I had the garden tilled, but I'm having to turn the dirt again because the weeds came back in, hot and heavy. So that takes more time than the planting. Found five more volunteer tomatoes, so marked them. Set up for morning butchering on the big porch. Just need to find my cutting gloves, and change blades on my knives, and we'll be good to go after I do animal chores and husband's stuff in the morning. Made a casserole and a big fruit salad to have ready for lunch tomorrow after butchering.

 

[LadyLocust]

Urban that's a beautiful tree skirt. Your wife does nice work.
Hugs, ABR. All you can do right now is put one foot in front of the other even though you don't know where you're going.
Amish I'm glad you caught a bit of a break to get a good night's sleep.
Patch, I hear ya with dealing with the fine print and greedy folks. Hope you can get things worked out.
More I wanted to respond too but it's been 60 seconds and I can't remember....I only have two brain cells left and they don't talk to each other much.
Dentist appt this week to get a tooth yanked.
More probate issues, both with my Husband's accounts and my Dad's; looks like my brother is going to lose the house he shared with Dad due to some double-crossing lawyer crap. Who said "first, kill all the lawyers"?
Been giving away tons of plants and need to get mine in the ground, and find more people who can use the extras. They really need to get planted but we're going to be in the 30s for a few nights yet.

 

[Spikedriver]

I'm tired.

After 7 straight days of 3AM starts at work, my internal clock is missing a few springs. I cant sleep more than a couple hours at a time. I could've left colorado after we got done at work at noon, but I kept my hotel room in an effort to sleep before leaving. I slept an hour and a half. I hope I can get another hour and a half, and then I'm going to drive 13 1/2 hours home and go to a funeral visitation, and spend time with that family.

It's going to be a rough night tonight, and tomorrow night. I just might get drunk...

 

[Wingnut]

Well, I slacked off today and did NOT start decorating those bathrooms... dunno why, it should actually be fun. Maybe the thought of painting the kitchen once I'm done decorating the bathrooms is stalling me out, lol... man, will I ever be GLAD to finish all of this painting. Otherwise, I knocked out routine household chores and watered all the plants, so no big deal, I'll tackle the decorating manana. Having a stack of library books & DVDs is NOT helping my home rehab efforts, lol. But they're good books & good movies, think I'll watch 'THE IRISHMAN' here in a few moments, lol... has to be the only Martin Scorcese film I've never seen. As usual, it's some sort of crime saga, I don't think Scorcese does any other kind of movie. He's an odd duck, makes me wonder if he has connections to the mob, lol...

P.S. If I get 'hit' later tonight, y'all will know what happened... don't forget to put desert wildflowers on my grave, lol.

 

[viking]

Our dogs hate cats, so no cats. Plus I think the size of these rats would probably intimidate the average cat. We'd need a small tiger or something

They ate another plate full of poison chunks, my bucket is almost empty . 2 dead ones in traps also

We had a black and white cat called sweet lips, she was a ratter, she'd bring rats to our front door and eat them. She got sick, perhaps from eating poisoned rats or some kind of bug they were infested with, sad to say, what ever it was killed her.

 

[sonya123]

We had a black and white cat called sweet lips, she was a ratter, she'd bring rats to our front door and eat them. She got sick, perhaps from eating poisoned rats or some kind of bug they were infested with, sad to say, what ever it was killed her.

so sorry about your cat.....I worry that a rat will die in the coop after we put the chickens back and they will eat it and die, but chickens are not really vultures, might not eat a dead thing or will they? I am surprised the cat would eat a dead one also, but maybe it was still alive when she ate it
All the rat poison we put out today is gone also, I think they must be taking it back to their nest or something and storing it ( hahaha, survivalist rats! )

 

[Mountain trapper]

Our dogs hate cats, so no cats. Plus I think the size of these rats would probably intimidate the average cat. We would need a small tiger or something

They ate another plate full of poison chunks, my bucket is almost empty . 2 dead ones in traps also

I hate cats worse than I hate mice. We don't have rats here but we do have chipmunks, mice and voles. I use poison bait and traps.
For traps, I mostly use the same setup as I use for ermine, only I bait it with peanut butter. In one week I caught 9 chipmunks and as many mice on our front porch.

 

[sonya123]

Did get 6 butternut squash and 6 acorn squash in the ground. I had the garden tilled, but I'm having to turn the dirt again because the weeds came back in, hot and heavy. So that takes more time than the planting. Found five more volunteer tomatoes, so marked them. Set up for morning butchering on the big porch. Just need to find my cutting gloves, and change blades on my knives, and we'll be good to go after I do animal chores and husband's stuff in the morning. Made a casserole and a big fruit salad to have ready for lunch tomorrow after butchering.

our meat chickens are getting too big also, but no time to butcher them this week
Not my favorite thing to do but needs doing
And same here with the weeds, we just got done weeding one of the gardens. I ordered these weeding gloves with little claws on it online, and tried them out today. They actually work pretty good

 

[Neb]

So ...daughter woke me up with a text at 6 am and said she went back to work and they told her she had leave until end of June...HUH?? How can she/them not know when her leave is up?? LOL

Yesterday we finally did something about the rats in the chicken coop. Nasty things. We caught all the hens and put them in a different building , a room we have used in the past to quarantine new goats or house extra bucks. Then we cleaned it out and I put an entire paper plate full of poison geen bate chunks in it, and husband put out all the traps we have. So 2 hours later ALL the poison is gone and half the traps went off but no rats in the traps. I added some more poison . I wonder how long it takes for them to die so we can move the chickens back. They are usually outside during the day and go in the coop at night, but now they are just in because we can't catch them outside and I am afraid some rat will drop a chunk of poison outside, so we want to check that first.

How do you get rid of rats, if you have any ?

Rats are eogh because they are smart and learn fast. I subscribe to Shawn Woods that collects traps and features them in videos.



The rats will smell what a dead rat ate and avoid it. A trap may get one but the others will learn to avoid traps. NYC uses resetting traps but they run $5000 each. Eliminating the food source is the ideal answer but that is hard around livestock that are messy eaters. A good ratter dog is a good idea.

This trap look good but I don't know what it costs.




Ben

 

[Peanut]

Quiet day then went to a county commissioner meeting. 6 districts in my county, deal with infrastructure and road issues. They’ve been holding meetings out in the rural districts, this at a nearby church. Started with the pledge of allegiance, then all veterans were asked to stand and be recognized (only 5 of us). About 30 folks attended.

The county probate judge moderates the meetings. The county sheriff was in attendance also. The new state EMS guy for our county was there, talked with him for a bit after the meeting, (and the sheriff).

They took over an hour in the meeting and explained the budget process. Even had the $$ totals down to the penny for various projects. One surprise to me… ordered 3 dump trucks and 2 road graders – in 2017. Still waiting for the orders to be delivered. All our current equipment is pre 1997 and falling apart. Living in a rural area has many advantages, multi-million dollar road budgets isn't one of them.

It was informative, glad I attended, got to see my old football coach from high school. I didn’t even recognize him! If I hadn’t heard someone say his name I wouldn’t have known.

 

[LadyLocust]

Where’s @Pearl ?

 

[Magpie]

This morning I fed the animals and watered the poly. Made two meatloaves for dinner, and prepped veg. Made a pepperoni & potato pie for lunches. Yesterday I accidentally spent the day cleaning upstairs, all because husband put together a new bookcase for me started to rearrange books, realised how many spiders and dust bunnies live here. I hade made some fresh cleaners (vinegar and citrus peel) so emptied everything and got cleaning. This led to furniture arranging and stuffed being dumped in my work room, which now needs a tidy up too! On the good side I've a box for the charity shop. Planning to plant out some turnip seedlings also, and maybe a bit of mowing.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Took the tracks off the side by side yesterday and put the tires on. Two of the tires were flat. Aired them up. Changed oil and greased all fittings.
The wife has been planting in the garden. I'm starting to replace some of my corner posts with railroad ties, before the ground gets too hard to dig.