Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

That's good. I was going to buy one once-until I saw all the caffeine in it! I'd be on the floor!
 
Well, the vacuuming didn't get done yesterday, and today doesn't look good either. I spent some time weeding the garden and watering again during the cooler time of the day and I have some laundry to fold and put away.
I'm trying to gird my loins and clean out the brooder pen and get it out of my utility room so I can move some of my buckets of grain back in there; they've been jammed into the dining room since May. But it's so hot outside... thermometer is reading 104 (87 inside). At least the laundry will dry quickly.

This morning when I opened the duck coop the babies came out on their own, following the adults instead of me having to chase them out. And they spent all of about 3 minutes as one cohesive group before they split into 2 groups again. I am hesitating letting everyone out to free range until I'm confidant the babies will follow the adults back into the yard at the end of the day.

DH is doing better. A lot of the road rash has healed, and swelling around his knee has gone down. The pain he is feeling is largely limited to the ankle and the wrist now. I finally got him to lie down long enough that the abrasions on his heel have dried; it will heal faster now. His poor heel looked like someone had taken a grinder to it- all the way down to the meat.

I'm trying to come up with something fast and easy for tonight... maybe hot dogs and home-canned chili beans and a salad of sliced tomato and basil. DS bought us each a pint of Ben and Jerry's before he left to housesit- Chunky Monkey for DH and Coffee Toffee Crunch for me; we've been enjoying it in small amounts each night.
 
What I've done when ever I have chicks is train them to come when I call. When I put my birds away, I put down some scratch grains. So, from the time the chicks are little, I'll throw in just a little bit when I call all the others in. And, normally the all come running. So, by the time my chicks are ready to go out, they know that they're getting a treat. So far, it's worked well.
 
Ducklings are a pain to train to go in. They will get it right in their brains when they get older, but we had some about five years ago that about done us in. This Muscovy hatched 17 out of 18 eggs and when she took them out the first time she left them alone. We had one run through the creek and swim like it was on drugs. Then the other 16 scattered it took forever to gather them back up. Needless to say they stayed in for a long time after that.
 
We still have 2 flocks instead of one. But they babies are getting a little better easier to get into the coop at night. I make a sort of funnel using a loose panel I have; I herd them into the wide end and they can't get out the narrow end, but won't run past the great big spooky human. Then I can just grab one and put it in front of the door and they will run inside..... except for one Cayuga last night who chose instead to do a kamikazi dive off the end of the ramp. I got all the others inside and then had to chase him/her down and she wasn't going into the funnel again- nuh-uh!

DH finally has his surgery date; not until August 4th. That means he won't be back to work until November at the earliest. His road rash is almost all healed and the scabs flaked off- just the deepest stuff is still there. I keep catching him NOT using his finger splint and his walking boot- grrr! Last night he started complaining how his foot was hurting again and I told him if he wanted sympathy he could find it in the dictionary between s**t and syph***s. I don't begrudge the time it takes to nurse him, but when he deliberately ignores the doctor's orders I lose all patience with him.
I had forgotten that we have disability insurance with Colonial Life- they will pay a monthly stipend as long as he is off work, for up to a year. And I found out he had a similar coverage on the motorcycle. So I have started claims for both. Maybe we can get through this without losing money after all.

This morning I harvested our first yellow squash, and a 5 gallon bucket of fava beans. I'm taking a short break in shelling them out to read the forum, and then I'll get back to it. Favas have a lot of waste, so my final product will probably only be a couple of quarts at best. I still have peas to harvest as well, but I'll wait until the favas are all processed and in the freezer.

I made some banana walnut bread last night using the very ripe bananas we had and a white cake mix. It went together quickly and turned out very tasty. We had some for dessert after the Taco Salad I made.

For dinner tonight, I think Bahama Mama Pork Chops, with the squash and some of the favas.
 
I got my first yellow squashes today too. We had them fried for lunch! They were good too....
 
SO glad he's beginning to heal up and you're making progress with payments and surgery dates! The BF's brother took a fall on his bike Monday 2 weeks ago as well and he's quite a bit more banged up. Someone turned in front of him, and he couldn't avoid them.
Gotta keep plugging away!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Sister Sites

BackYardChickens.com
BackYardHerds.com
TheEasyGarden.com
Back
Top