Friday, January 25, 2008
Silly chickens...
Yesterday morning, it was -4 degrees out, and I needed to leave for a show. Luckily, we have some basic know-how (we are 'hands people' :) so we tried everything we knew to get it started in the bitter cold. And what should be out and about while we trudged around in out winter gear? Those silly chickens. Running around in the snow like it didn't hurt to breathe. They are doing just fine... we think they came out because, well, they are chickens. :) That'll have to be a good enough reason, 'cause it's the only one we have. :) 7 eggs today, 5 the day before. And the best thing... no more splatter eggs!!! Maybe we embarrassed her on the blog...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
No eggs this morning...
we were really bummed to find ZERO eggs this morning. Well, at least there was no 'splatter egg' today. :) Oh, no moping--this afternoon, Eric went to check on them, and found 7 eggs. No cracks, no splatter eggs---seven beautiful eggies!!!
The goats are hanging out in the shed with their hay, mineral block, and their heated (above freezing) water. They seem to be quite content. They are getting bigger!!
We were looking through pictures, and the dogs actually look a lot healthier this year than they did last year. Hm. That may not look well for us... they have been staying inside with these cold-cold temperatures. As should everyone in my opinion.
Inside, things have taken a turn. Not really, I'm kamikaze-ing the cats now. :) Squeak needs one food, or he can't pee. This food has Oz puking everywhere. The food Oz can handle has Squeak's insides protesting in a truly smelly way. I know, but I didn't want to be that person that had to feed the cats separately. Plus, they will kill us when we get the stairs in. They trip us now, and have access to their food 24/7. So that should be interesting.
That's it for here. Everyone is alive, has fresh, melted water, and sufficient fat to get us through this winter. :) So we're good.
I do need to note that since Eric has been home, he gets up and has been doing most of the chores. *YEA, ERIC!!!!* I do help him, but come on, -8 degrees??? He's a saint, and I had to shout his wonderful-ness to both of you. ;)
The goats are hanging out in the shed with their hay, mineral block, and their heated (above freezing) water. They seem to be quite content. They are getting bigger!!
We were looking through pictures, and the dogs actually look a lot healthier this year than they did last year. Hm. That may not look well for us... they have been staying inside with these cold-cold temperatures. As should everyone in my opinion.
Inside, things have taken a turn. Not really, I'm kamikaze-ing the cats now. :) Squeak needs one food, or he can't pee. This food has Oz puking everywhere. The food Oz can handle has Squeak's insides protesting in a truly smelly way. I know, but I didn't want to be that person that had to feed the cats separately. Plus, they will kill us when we get the stairs in. They trip us now, and have access to their food 24/7. So that should be interesting.
That's it for here. Everyone is alive, has fresh, melted water, and sufficient fat to get us through this winter. :) So we're good.
I do need to note that since Eric has been home, he gets up and has been doing most of the chores. *YEA, ERIC!!!!* I do help him, but come on, -8 degrees??? He's a saint, and I had to shout his wonderful-ness to both of you. ;)
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Well, howdy.
A lot has happened. The most exciting is that we are consistently getting 4 eggs a day from our girls. With this bitter cold, we do not have long to find said eggs before they crack. The dogs, however LOVE when we find the cracked ones. :)
The warm weather earlier this month had the chickens laying their eggs in the doghouse. We wondered why the production went down when the temperature went up!
The goats are doing very well. They mostly hang out in their shed, and we have been giving them hay everyday for a while now. We also put in a bucket warmer, so they have access to water all the time, not just the three times a day we brought it down to them before. :) Also, we no longer have to haul 5 gallon buckets of water three times a day. :) (We didn't, really--in the morning, and then 'refreshed' it with hot water twice more.--we have some nice new muscles. :)
Our dogs are cold. Poor Kodiak--she is our Doberman, and has short hair. We have been giving them as much fat as we can, and are feeding them twice a day, but they just don't seem to bulk up very well. Gunner seems to be doing just fine, although he is a bit on the thin side as well. They LOVE that we have the heater down with the goat's water. Now they don't have to wait for us to get their water, either!
Oh, speaking of, we decided to get a pet-water-er for the chickens. It's just a blue bowl that you plug in, and it keeps the water from freezing. Then everyday, you take an empty bucket and a fresh gallon of water down. The gunky water goes into the empty bucket, and then fill it back up. One gallon seems to last them just fine. We take an extra gallon down with us in the afternoon, but usually it just goes into the dog's dish.
The fish have passed on. This was entirely my fault. I was talking on the phone while changing their water. This is two days after they survived the ice storm. Well, I wasn't paying attention to the water temperature. They had been in 56 degree water, so I put them into a quart jar with some room temperature water in it. And by room temperature, I mean in the kitchen. Which was a surprising 65 degrees. Then I filled up the tank, and put in the water treatment stuff, and waited for the 20 minutes. When I went to put the fish back in the tank, they were acting funny. 10 minutes of being in the tank killed all but one of them. He died about 10 minutes later. Weird. So I looked at the temperature thing on the side of the tank, and it said that the water was at 72 degrees. I fried them. Not fried-fried, but the poor things couldn't handle my intensive 'warm-up' program. :) Now I have to put a disclaimer on it "Not for the cold-blooded." :)
Cats, good
People, staying warm.
The warm weather earlier this month had the chickens laying their eggs in the doghouse. We wondered why the production went down when the temperature went up!
The goats are doing very well. They mostly hang out in their shed, and we have been giving them hay everyday for a while now. We also put in a bucket warmer, so they have access to water all the time, not just the three times a day we brought it down to them before. :) Also, we no longer have to haul 5 gallon buckets of water three times a day. :) (We didn't, really--in the morning, and then 'refreshed' it with hot water twice more.--we have some nice new muscles. :)
Our dogs are cold. Poor Kodiak--she is our Doberman, and has short hair. We have been giving them as much fat as we can, and are feeding them twice a day, but they just don't seem to bulk up very well. Gunner seems to be doing just fine, although he is a bit on the thin side as well. They LOVE that we have the heater down with the goat's water. Now they don't have to wait for us to get their water, either!
Oh, speaking of, we decided to get a pet-water-er for the chickens. It's just a blue bowl that you plug in, and it keeps the water from freezing. Then everyday, you take an empty bucket and a fresh gallon of water down. The gunky water goes into the empty bucket, and then fill it back up. One gallon seems to last them just fine. We take an extra gallon down with us in the afternoon, but usually it just goes into the dog's dish.
The fish have passed on. This was entirely my fault. I was talking on the phone while changing their water. This is two days after they survived the ice storm. Well, I wasn't paying attention to the water temperature. They had been in 56 degree water, so I put them into a quart jar with some room temperature water in it. And by room temperature, I mean in the kitchen. Which was a surprising 65 degrees. Then I filled up the tank, and put in the water treatment stuff, and waited for the 20 minutes. When I went to put the fish back in the tank, they were acting funny. 10 minutes of being in the tank killed all but one of them. He died about 10 minutes later. Weird. So I looked at the temperature thing on the side of the tank, and it said that the water was at 72 degrees. I fried them. Not fried-fried, but the poor things couldn't handle my intensive 'warm-up' program. :) Now I have to put a disclaimer on it "Not for the cold-blooded." :)
Cats, good
People, staying warm.
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