RLAZ
Power Conserver
I'll be following this journal. 
FarmerDenise's journal - full on harvest time = busy, busy, busy
- Thread starter FarmerDenise
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #182
FarmerDenise
Out to pasture
Heck if I am getting geese, I might as well get a few goats with horns. The neighbors goats make good watch dogs too.
I can see the headlines, "Gang bangers, would be thieves attacked by farm animals, flee the scene! found by police and identified by animal marks and poo"
I went back to the fair today and picked up 2 hay bales for $1 each. That'll take care of nest box material and bedding for the chickens til next year some time.
I can see the headlines, "Gang bangers, would be thieves attacked by farm animals, flee the scene! found by police and identified by animal marks and poo"
I went back to the fair today and picked up 2 hay bales for $1 each. That'll take care of nest box material and bedding for the chickens til next year some time.
Dace
Revolution in Progress
I am sorry to hear about your early morning wake up call....that is not good.
I hope that it was a fluke and they will not be back!
I hope that it was a fluke and they will not be back!
Farmfresh
City Biddy
My daughter used to have a big male African goose named Clark.
His favorite thing to do was to wait by the front porch when the pizza delivery guy would come by. He would always wait until the pizza was delivered - then when the pizza guy tries to leave ... Clark would block the way!
He would spread his wings and come running and hissing at the poor pizza man, who would run back to the porch. There was no getting by! My daughter would always have to come out and walk the pizza guy to the car. Too funny! 
His favorite thing to do was to wait by the front porch when the pizza delivery guy would come by. He would always wait until the pizza was delivered - then when the pizza guy tries to leave ... Clark would block the way!
He would spread his wings and come running and hissing at the poor pizza man, who would run back to the porch. There was no getting by! My daughter would always have to come out and walk the pizza guy to the car. Too funny!
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
Eletric poultry netting draped all over everything!!! ZAP the h-e-double-hockey sticks out of em!!!
big brown horse
Hoof In Mouth
Donkeys hate intruders too...I'm just sayin...
My sister's donkey hee hawed during her neighbor's daughter's outdoor wedding the whole time! They were not home so her neighbor tried to catch him and put him in a stall. The donkey kicked the guy square in the knees. (Thankfully her neighbors had a big laugh at the whole thing or they might have ended up on Judge Judy.)
My sister's donkey hee hawed during her neighbor's daughter's outdoor wedding the whole time! They were not home so her neighbor tried to catch him and put him in a stall. The donkey kicked the guy square in the knees. (Thankfully her neighbors had a big laugh at the whole thing or they might have ended up on Judge Judy.)
- Thread starter
- #187
FarmerDenise
Out to pasture
that is pretty funnybig brown horse said:Donkeys hate intruders too...I'm just sayin...
My sister's donkey hee hawed during her neighbor's daughter's outdoor wedding the whole time! They were not home so her neighbor tried to catch him and put him in a stall. The donkey kicked the guy square in the knees. (Thankfully her neighbors had a big laugh at the whole thing or they might have ended up on Judge Judy.)
I like all the ideas. We will definitely be using some of these.
Unfortunately this is not the first time this has happened. We fortify the place more every time, but there is one critical point that has been breached on a regular basis and the only solution appears to be a razor concertina fence on top of the 8 foot chain link fence between us and the neighbor. We like this neighbor and really did not want something so ugly on the mutual fence. But she agrees, that it is time. We also plan on installing motion sensor lights.
We just heard that other neighbors are getting their eggs stolen from the chicken's nests, so we have one more thing to worry about. We worry that our chickens might even get stolen or just killed, because these people are just not nice people in the first place.
I spent most of the day vacuum sealing stuff I had in the freezer and dehydrated stuff. I made enough room in the freezer for our two meat birds that are waiting to be butchered. I also emptied out a few canning jars that had dehydrated food in them, by vaccum sealing the contents. So I have plenty more jars to can more tomatoes and apples.
I checked our popcorn and it looks great. Most have some corn worm damage, but not enough to be a real problem. It will be fun to gift the popcorn this year, since we have 3 different kinds and 3 different colors. Red strawberry, white japanese hulless and yellow regular popcorn.
I also filled a wheelbarrow with sunflower heads for next years seed and the chickens.
I have been letting the chickens out in the evenings for about an hour or so, it is so much fun to watch them. They followed me to the corn patch and eagerly ate the bugs that fell out of the corn as I was checking the ears.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Denise, I finally got to read about your break in! I'm so sorry! This type of thing makes me pretty mad....I've always been a little territorial. I think that comes from my Dad, the paranoid schizophrenic!
Here's a thought: Why not get a Great Pyr? They are large and their bark is very deep and intimidating. They are dual purpose as LGDs and they do well staying outdoors in all weathers. Their instinct is to bark a warning until intruders~animal or human~are out of their territory. They don't usually bite, though, which could keep you from a law suit.
Anatolians are another great breed for this...they are large and intimidating and do not like strangers.
They have great rescue sites for these breeds, if cost is an issue.
My two dogs are lab mixes and folks seem initimidated by them anyway, because they are outside at all times, they are unchained and they bark a warning at any strange human. Folks don't know that the only threat they pose is "death by tail wagging".....
One is a GP mix and her bark is deep and she is a little larger. She looks and sounds intimidating. The younger is brown, sneaky and hardly ever barks....this is intimidating also, as they never know where he is, in the dark, and just what he will do. They make a great pair!
Here's a thought: Why not get a Great Pyr? They are large and their bark is very deep and intimidating. They are dual purpose as LGDs and they do well staying outdoors in all weathers. Their instinct is to bark a warning until intruders~animal or human~are out of their territory. They don't usually bite, though, which could keep you from a law suit.
Anatolians are another great breed for this...they are large and intimidating and do not like strangers.
They have great rescue sites for these breeds, if cost is an issue.
My two dogs are lab mixes and folks seem initimidated by them anyway, because they are outside at all times, they are unchained and they bark a warning at any strange human. Folks don't know that the only threat they pose is "death by tail wagging".....
One is a GP mix and her bark is deep and she is a little larger. She looks and sounds intimidating. The younger is brown, sneaky and hardly ever barks....this is intimidating also, as they never know where he is, in the dark, and just what he will do. They make a great pair!
- Thread starter
- #189
FarmerDenise
Out to pasture
Bee, we considered larger dogs, but then there is the regular vet care to consider. I think, if we get our Spike a buddy, that will make her braver and safer.
We also realized that her collor is giving her away at night, so we will be removing it in the evenings. That way she can sneak up on people as well as critters. The only real danger from her is same as with your dog; death by tailwagging or licking
My DD had the perfect dog, loud deep bark, mean looking big googley eyes and big. He was also male and peed on everything, not good when you are growing vegies.
We have numerous animal shelters in the area and I volunteer at the humane society. They occasionally get dogs, that have not been socialized too well and need a large enclosed yard. I am going to talk with the staff and see what they can do for me.
I mostly want a scary looking dog. But, I won't mind one that is actually going to corner a tresspasser!
Up until now, we had been thinking of fostering dogs anyway. So now we'll see about fostering to adopt.
It is a beautifull day today. The temperature is in the 70's. The air smells like fall. Most of our sunflowers are done, but they are still blooming. We have rows and rows of them, since we sell them. They are so nice to look at. The broomcorn is also just about ready to harvest. The long grainfilled tassles bending over and swaying in the wind. They are different colors of red, gold and black. I picked baskets of tomatoes, and peppers this morning. Our two white cornish crosses are still in their own smaller pen. They seem to prefer being seperated from the rest of the flock. They don't get pecked at anymore. I cannot believe how big and heavy they are.
I had picked a small bag of figs from the neighbors yard and finally got around to putting them in the dehydrator. I hope they dry well this way. We'll see.
I cleaned the pepper and tomato seeds I had sitting on the counter and put them in envelopes. I use the return envelopes you get with stuff in the mail.
I then decided to use up the tomatoes I picked a few days ago and put them through the blender to make another batch of tomato sauce. I added a lot of the ones I picked today too.
These weren't my easy peel ones so I just quarter and core them and put them in the blender. I don't like the noisy aspect of it, but it does go quick.
Now I am getting ready to make apple sauce. I have a few apples from our tree left, then I have apples from my friend's tree and a few more that another friend bartered for tomatoes. I figure we'll have some fresh apple sauce for dinner tonight and I'll can the rest of it.
Oh, I got a big surprise this morning, when I was checking the nests. I got one huge blue egg. I think it may have been my very dark ameraucana's first egg. She had been straining for days. Since this makes the third blue egg, it is either her first or her second. The other blue egg is slightly different color. The poor thing rested all day.
BTW, I had uploaded this picture to BYC forum and pasted it in here. Pretty cool.
We also realized that her collor is giving her away at night, so we will be removing it in the evenings. That way she can sneak up on people as well as critters. The only real danger from her is same as with your dog; death by tailwagging or licking
My DD had the perfect dog, loud deep bark, mean looking big googley eyes and big. He was also male and peed on everything, not good when you are growing vegies.
We have numerous animal shelters in the area and I volunteer at the humane society. They occasionally get dogs, that have not been socialized too well and need a large enclosed yard. I am going to talk with the staff and see what they can do for me.
I mostly want a scary looking dog. But, I won't mind one that is actually going to corner a tresspasser!
Up until now, we had been thinking of fostering dogs anyway. So now we'll see about fostering to adopt.
It is a beautifull day today. The temperature is in the 70's. The air smells like fall. Most of our sunflowers are done, but they are still blooming. We have rows and rows of them, since we sell them. They are so nice to look at. The broomcorn is also just about ready to harvest. The long grainfilled tassles bending over and swaying in the wind. They are different colors of red, gold and black. I picked baskets of tomatoes, and peppers this morning. Our two white cornish crosses are still in their own smaller pen. They seem to prefer being seperated from the rest of the flock. They don't get pecked at anymore. I cannot believe how big and heavy they are.
I had picked a small bag of figs from the neighbors yard and finally got around to putting them in the dehydrator. I hope they dry well this way. We'll see.
I cleaned the pepper and tomato seeds I had sitting on the counter and put them in envelopes. I use the return envelopes you get with stuff in the mail.
I then decided to use up the tomatoes I picked a few days ago and put them through the blender to make another batch of tomato sauce. I added a lot of the ones I picked today too.
These weren't my easy peel ones so I just quarter and core them and put them in the blender. I don't like the noisy aspect of it, but it does go quick.
Now I am getting ready to make apple sauce. I have a few apples from our tree left, then I have apples from my friend's tree and a few more that another friend bartered for tomatoes. I figure we'll have some fresh apple sauce for dinner tonight and I'll can the rest of it.
Oh, I got a big surprise this morning, when I was checking the nests. I got one huge blue egg. I think it may have been my very dark ameraucana's first egg. She had been straining for days. Since this makes the third blue egg, it is either her first or her second. The other blue egg is slightly different color. The poor thing rested all day.
BTW, I had uploaded this picture to BYC forum and pasted it in here. Pretty cool.
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
That should be a pic of the week....very pretty with the figs and eggs!
Fostering those dogs will be like trying them on for size...if one works, you keep it, if it doesn't, you eventually return it! How cool!
We have a patient who has a Scottish Terrier, cutest little dog ever! They had approached me about giving her a home once the patient can no longer take care of her. I would love to have the dog and hope I can train her on chickens. She has a very deep bark and very large teeth for such a little dog!
Maybe a small female with a deep bark is the solution?
Fostering those dogs will be like trying them on for size...if one works, you keep it, if it doesn't, you eventually return it! How cool!
We have a patient who has a Scottish Terrier, cutest little dog ever! They had approached me about giving her a home once the patient can no longer take care of her. I would love to have the dog and hope I can train her on chickens. She has a very deep bark and very large teeth for such a little dog!
Maybe a small female with a deep bark is the solution?
