Over the Fence Chat -- March 10th - 16th, 2002

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Time to start a new one. Another week gone! Mine was spent mostly on nursing a cold, which still persists. But I at least FEEL better, if not 100%.

It is a very sunny but cold day here. The dog will probably get her first really long walk in several days. Hope the wind doesn't pick up. Yesterday was awful -- gloomy, windy, and cold.

I wish winter were OVER, though I can't say that I have 'Spring fever'. I have no itch to go out and grub in the dirt. I just realized that I usually don't get "fired up" ahead of season -- which probably explains why I'm always behind! I'm not ready to "seize the moment". Hmmmmm.

I'm going away for two weeks at the beginning of April, so I definitely am not starting any seeds until I'm back. It would be nice to get my container greens going. Right now, having nowhere to grow them, I have to buy the birds greens from the store. I've tried them on sprouts, but they don't like them. Contrary critters!

I saw Easter egg dyes in the store yesterday. I LOVE to dye Easter eggs, but then I never have anything to do with them. I don't like hard-boiled eggs, so they just go to waste. I never have met anyone who'd like to have someone dye their eggs for them . . . .

Do you dye eggs? Do you make PLAID eggs? As far as I know, my mother invented this, but maybe she got the idea from a magazine or something. You dip each "end" and "side" into different colors, and where they overlap makes yet another color. You can vary the intensity of the color too to make it more complicated. Those were always our favorites as kids. We always got the Paas dissolving tablets, until we discovered that food color really works better.

We used to have Easter egg hunts in our family. We would start with an empty basket and hunt for the eggs. It was a competition (of course) to see who could find the most. Dad made some wooden eggs and later we acquired some plastic eggs to swell the number of eggs to hunt (I guess there was a limit on how many eggs they were willing to eat too!). Our goal was to have the hunt out in the yard, but I think the weather only cooperated two years for that, so we'd end up hunting them in the house. I distinctly remember a year with about 2 feet of snow piled up on the French doors.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

Answers

Gee Joy, I thought I invented plaid eggs!!! LOL I love to dye eggs and really miss it when there is no real reason to do it, as in no grandkids coming these days. I have photographs taken at Easter time and there was snow on the ground.

We had a real windstorm yesterday and Polly's neighbor's garbage can hit out house I think. I had a period of time where I was really rather frightened and so was the dog. We ended up climbing in to bed, dog and I and laying there shuttering while the wind howled outside. Power was out for us only twelve hours, but I guess it will be Monday or Tuesday before some get theirs back. After the ice storm less than a month ago and now the wind, it certainly doesn't seem like there should be a single dead tree standing.

We actually found we liked the cozy feeling of lantern light last night and ended up leaving a couple of the lanterns inside to use on some evenings. We are so fortunate to be of the self-sufficiency bent when things like this happen. Our neighbors, except for the Amish, are all miserable and huddled or heading into the city and we just hunker down and enjoy. My goats hate it though cause they like their night light. At least in the winter I don't have to lay there and listen to them belly ache over it. (Sherri knows of what I speak!!!)

I think this week I will start some of my flowers and celery and maybe some early slaw type stuff. We plan a much more modest garden than last year since we ended up wasting far too much. Beside that, I have a rather ambitious new "kitchen and herb" garden planned up at the walk way outside the kitchen door.

Well, hope everyone has a pleasant week. :>)

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002


The wind is making me crazy! It is just howling, especially through the remodelling project since the windows aren't in and the tarps are flapping. The windows arrive tomorrow and I can't wait.

Went to the discount store, Big Lots, and bought 2 standard pear (moonglow and orient), 2 standard apple (cortland and mcintosh) and 2 dwarf peach (elberta and belle of georgia). The trees look great and for $12 are hard to beat. The have always done well when I've bought there before. Now where to put them- thats always fun to decide.

When the wind dies down (or if) I will put in some peas. I picked up some 'Alaska' to plant until the 'Knight' arrive.

We love to dye eggs here. The bantie eggs, blown, make for lovely little decorations on the forsythia or dogwood branches we bring in.

Still working on the bamboo eradication project. One of the roofers asked for some since it grows all around his do-jo (karate school). The bamboo we grow won't grow in a jar like the 'lucky' bamboo. Must be a different variety. I've seen those too and tried it.

Oh, and wildman, I believe it is year 1719 in the Coptic cycle, or year 5762 in the Jewish calendar. I think it is really interesting to measure time. Never did catch on to celsius or liters though. How about "gas mark 5" instead of 350 degrees when cooking? Some of the cookbooks from other countries almost need a translator!

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002


I thought that Gas Mark 4 was 350 F....but it's been a while since I had a British range to cook with, so maybe I'm wrong.

We had horrendous winds here last night, but I struggled out to the barn anway. The horses were all cozy and warm, despite it being 6 F out (what gas mark is that?) and up to 50 mph winds. Closing the doors for a change will do that. The buckets barely had a skin of ice on them, but they were happy to have their buckets warmed up anyway. Today it has died off, but is bright and cold outside. No spring plans yet, other than starting some garden cress in pots. I've a hankering for some English tea sandwiches! Cucumber and cress sandwiches. Yesterday it was a hankering after mass quantities of orange juice -- I've probably expended all my body's Vit. C by this time, which would account for it. I felt much better after downing a quart or so.

Other fun Easter Egg projects, for those who like hardboiled eggs (darn, now I'm thinking about deviled eggs and egg salad sandwiches with garden cress!) are tie-dyed ones, a blast from the past. You wrap the still warm boiled eggs up in rumpled up moistened paper towels, and drop food colour onto the paper. Let it sit a while, then unwrap and dry the eggs on a rack. It's very messy, but a lot of fun.

Another attractive and organic one I did one year was to save up all the yellow and red dry onion skins over the winter (and ended up raiding the vegetable bins at the supermarket to get enough. They didn't charge me for them.). You wrap the dry skins around raw eggs, then wrap that in an old cotton rag and tie the ends off with twist- ties, then boil them in water in which you added a cup of white vinegar. When the eggs are cooked, let them cool enough to handle, then unwrap, and dry on a rack as well. They look like they are made out of marble or something -- very pretty, but not bright colours.

Both the tie-dyed and the onion-skin varieties look better if you wipe them with a cloth moistened with cooking oil after they are cool, it intensifies the colours, and helps keep them from bleeding if they get damp in the refrigerator.

Joy missed mentioning those egg hunts out in the woods with my cousin's old mutt, Shorty, accompanying us. He'd come back chewing something bright blue...gee, wonder what THAT was?! or orange. We never did find all the eggs we'd dyed. Our old Beagle went too, but I don't remember Dash ever having eaten any of them -- he was too busy looking for rabbits. Or maybe I just misremember.

In honour of it being Sunday, I clipped guinea pig nails and gave half of them baths. They didn't care for it much -- again. Did you know that guinea pigs can actually LEAP in the air and grab your shirt front when they want to? (or don't want to be washed?) The good ones just sat there and rolled their eyes. Maybe I should get them all little ears to wear for Easter. Wow, am I getting mid- winter shack-wacky, or what?

I also remember some easter egg hunts when we were adults and did the egg hiding. One of the ones I hid I did a marvelous job on -- it rolled right down that hole in the ground and completely out of sight! Some chipmunk got quite a surprise delivered that day. I also recall that there was one roosting in a tree with some tailfeathers attached to it's 'butt'.

Anne -- that stuff they sell as 'lucky bamboo' isn't a bamboo at all. I think that it is either a draceana, or else a Ti plant, can't remember which it is that they're selling, maybe both, whichever they've got. I saw it for sale at a florists a couple weeks ago, and they were getting some ferocious prices for it, like $3-5 per stem, depending on the length and how twisted it was. Seems like that is the latest novelty sale item, following in the footsteps of the likes of Pet Rocks, Water Weenies, Mood Rings, and Lava Lamps... oh wait, I've still got my Lava Lamp, I thought I saw a Mood Ring in my jewelry box at the back, and I've got a whole pail full of wild- caught Pet Rocks....does this mean that I'm fated to fall for Lucky Bamboo too? I did have some golden bamboo in a pot, but I think it gave up the ghost this winter.

Winter IS starting to get to me a bit...I'm starting chicory in pots indoors, and maybe some mustard greens, as well as that garden cress, and making up more flats for growing more oats. Not only do the animals love it when I 'mow' the grass with the scissors, but it also smells like fresh-cut grass does.

Wow, it's not supposed to get much more than around freezing as a high temperature all week!

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002


I am very proud of myself. I changed a lightswitch all by myself. Being very non-electrically inclined, I usually avoid the stuff, but I didn't want to call an electrician for just one stupid switch!

I called my brother and, amazingly, we were able to communicate well enough, just by description, for me to figure it out. Maybe you're thinking, "What's so hard, just duplicate what was there!" Well, the old defunct switch was some sort of fancy electronic gizmo that was supposed to turn on from a little box upstairs (never did work right and finally quit working at all), and I was using just a plain old light switch replace it. Not the same at all. So it was a little confusing at first. But I did it, it works fine, and I neither fried myself nor blew up/burned down the house. Hope I can remember this five years from now when I next have to replace one!

Diane, Mom is (very nearly) 79, so I guess she beat you to the "plaid" eggs! I KNOW you're not THAT old! ;-) She certainly was the first one to do it in our little podunk village.

Then there was the year of the "olive green" egg. It was near the end of the dyeing session, and I put this egg into too many different colors to see what would happen. Olive green. Not attractive. So Julie got out her acrylic paints and painted the whole thing to look like a frog. She even glued felt feet onto it. I was surprised to receive a gift of a frog egg.

That frog egg stayed with me for at least two decades, making about 11 different moves (though the feet fell off and disappeared, one by one). It didn't rot -- just sort of dried up and became very light!

She also painted one to look like the Schlitz Malt Liquor bull -- that was some joke with the friend who got the egg, don't remember how that went. But if you turned it over, there were the bottoms of his cloven hooves. She also made one for the teacher in our Horse Science class (we were in college, can you tell?) -- painted like an appaloosa, and if you turned that one over, there were the soles of it's hooves, complete with little horse shoes. We sneaked that one up onto the teacher's podium. He was really flummoxed by that thing, turned it over, and looked really disconcerted. Ah well, he was kind of an odd guy. It was really cute! Ah, the joys of college life! :- D

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002


I have a very exciting start to my day. As I sat at the computer drinking my cup of tea in my jammies, I looked out the windowand noticed the horses were on the wrong side of the fence. I ran to get warm clothes on and boots. We got about a foot of snow yesterday. When I got outside the horses erer gone. Crap!!! I call and call, usually they come. Well then it occured to me to follow the hoof prints in the fresh snow. Remember I hadn't had a chance to finish my cup of tea. Well the horses decided to go for a romp in the woods. The were charging towards me from me calling them. I dove out of the way as they thundered by, obviously enjoying their adventure. The llama was still in the enclosure and the goat and geese were standing at their door watching. I swear the goat had a smile on her face. I opened the gate and the horses just ran right by. So I went to the grainery and got a scoop of good and put it into a metal bucket. Thankfully my guys are chow hounds and came happily to me. I discovered that they found out if they put their head through the wooden gate and lift they can get it off its hindges.

Later in the day I had to go to the local ski area to do a spinning demo for Pioneer days. My youngest son and his friend went skiing while I sat and spun up some shetland wool I had. Most of the skiers had no interest in what I was doing but I had fun anyway.

When I got home at about 5:30 the guy had come to deliver the hay, it was dumped at the garage, and the horses were out again. No problem getting them back in this time. Then, I found a chain and I chained the other end of the fence. If they are out in the morning then I will assume they have grown thumbs and learned how to maniputate chains and hooks.

I can't wait to see what the rest of my week will be like.

Easter eggs I love the colors. When my oldest son was at a Waldorf School they used to wrap damp tissue paper around the eggs and let it dry. It gave a tie dye effect too, some looked almost like stained glass. Reading all of the egg stuff makes me want to go make mushed egg sandwiches for lunch. Homemade mayo, pinch of terragon, lots of pepper on honey wholewheat bread. Yummmmmmmm!

Susan

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002



"Exciting start to the day" -- avoid avoid! Repeat after me: BORING IS GOOD!! ;-)

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

Well, I'm wishing for a boring day soon too- baby ducks,pigs,rabbits,and chickens on what was supposed to be our lazy sunday. Yep,spring is here! Daryll

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2002

Julie, I'm sure you're right about the gas mark4. I can never remember and always have to check for the 'translation' to degrees. Madhur Jaffrey often uses gas mark #s in her books.

The high winds (some were clocked at 70 mph) have ceased and peace is returning. Though we are fighting colds.

I want to start those stevia seeds Daryll sent me, but I put them somewhere safe. Oh no!

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2002


I spent the day out with my hubby yesterday without the kids. :) :) That sure was fun. We went to the flea market and then to a little town nearby with a bunch of antique stores. I bought some vacuum cleaner bags to start with. Then I bought a couple of those suction cup hangers for my suncatchers. Finally I found some boyd chick salts. I really like those and this guy had some which had other animals on top besides the hens. So I got a couple of lambs and some bunnies for my kid's baskets. I found one for myself which is a duck on a basket which has lovely handpainted highlights. It's so cute. OBTW, I didn't buy any "lucky" bamboo! After that we went over to the town I spoke of and walked around. I didn't buy anything there as a one of the decorator pillows I liked cost almost 400.00. It looked like a rooster tapestry with a fringe around it. The fringe was made out of what looked like real barred rock feathers! Very unique but not worth 400.00! My grand total of money spent for the day was about 25.00. Most of the stuff there is very shi shi, but you can get some great DIY ideas. Believe it or not my construction type husband really loves to decorate! I guess I'll have to get sewing! I really do think I'll save the feathers the next time I dress a chicken and see if I can reproduce the look of that pillow. Oh I almost forgot to tell you about the medicine stick I ALMOST bought. It was a coyote leg with the coyote's paw at one end and snapping turtle claw at the other end. Then the whole was covered with an otter pelt and wrapped with very attractive leather bindings and had some beaded feather tassels. Very sharp! It spoke to me but I couldn't quite go for it. I sort of had an apprehension about these animals giving their lives unduly for a medicine stick but on the other hand it is helping a Cherokee make a living. What do you think? If I'm still thinking about it next weekend I may go back for it. If it's not there then it wasn't for me.

Nothing out of the ordinary at the homefront. No escapees here! My dog developed a limp and that has me concerned but it seems like it's getting better. I got a welcome email from Susun Weed. I'm looking forward to receiving my beginning materials for her course. I'm getting my ideas ready for the equinox. It's going to be fun!

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2002


We are having fun around here!! Over the weekend we went looking at mobile homes. We found the right one and praying the credit goes through!!!! It's very nice and built very solid. never did get the garden in! just trying to do last minute things to get the trailer in.

We always had big easter egg hunts at my parents home growing up. I have always liked to dye the eggs and still do even though I don't have any children. I have two or three plastic bags full of plastic eggs that we fill with candy or coins or gum etc.My nephew has gotten to hunt by himself until this year when my step children will help, that should be fun since he's had a hard time adjusting to "sharing"(the only grandchil for 7 years!)!! Have a wonderful week....

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2002



Hubs and Pop are threatening to call the men in the white jackets on me again...this time because I come home from work every morning and talk to my new baby 'mater plants and tell them how beautiful and strong and what a pretty green they are. For some reason, they think this isn't normal behavior?! I'm going to start some brassicas on the 17th; and need to check my moon sign books for the best time to start some flowers - I had only done the dates for veggies so far. I've got a pink/white/purple salvia mix to start, plus some purple monarda (bee balm) to replace the red that I am going to dig up and give away; plus several other pink flowers - sweet william, phlox, forget me nots; and hollyhocks, batchelor buttons, African daisies..."Oh Honey, I think I need another seed growing shelf..."

Friend Cheryl and I made 300 MORE paper seedling pots the other night - I measured and cut the paper and she formed the pots. I told her that she was putting a lot of pressure on me by expecting me to fill 600 pots! I got back at her though - I sent the pot maker home with her for the week; along with some seeds that I had duplicates of, plus some "bonus" seeds that were for things I don't grow. AND some of my home-saved cleome seed. Hah! That'll teach her! I'm helping her work out a planting diagram for a square foot garden down one side of her garage - she'll be using concrete blocks to make the retaining wall for the soil. How come it's more fun to figure out HER garden than it is MINE?! (Of course, fun is a relative term at 3 am as you're fighting to stay awake..) I still don't have my own planting diagram done for spring; if I could just remember where I hid those big sheets of graph paper...

It's still chilly and gloomy and windy here - oh, BTW Diane, the neighbors will be by to pick up their trash can one of these days soon! Not surprised that it made it clear up there, the way the wind was blowing! BRRR! Neighbor Mike stopped by the other day to return a stethoscope I'd left at his brother's house, we got to talking about ducks and he said if I'd buy a liner that he'd bring his backhoe over and dig me a little duck pond! Hubs said "Y'know, I USED to like that guy..." Hmmm, where to put a duck pond???

I don't think I'll be making the move with CS either - forum's just gone to heck in a handbasket since we all pulled stakes, though I did see a post from Hendo today! I just don't like the attitude of a lot of the new folks - name calling, mean and hateful...reminds me of middle school playground arguments! I am enjoying that new Country Homesteading forum that Phil and Cheryl started up on Lusenet tho; and Jay's gone and got me all interested in worms again with his threads on worm ranching over at Singletree. Things are getting a bit weird over at Families with the multiple posting troll and Mitch blaming Stan and everyone calling on the lord to cast out the demons and so on. (and on and on and on....) My oh my...

Well, I need to pull on my sneakers and venture out to the shed and forage in the freezer to find something for supper; then I'll go on an expedition to find that darn graph paper and sit myself down and make myself work on the garden plan. You folks have a good week - try to stay warm and dry! (Except Alan - you can have my rain, okay?!)

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2002


You folks have a good week - try to stay warm and dry! (Except Alan - you can have my rain, okay?!)

What? Everyone else gets to be warm and dry but I get to be cold and wet? Well, that's fine. I have a good felt hat and warm clothing I'll take all the rain you want to send me! : )

BTW, *I* don't think talking to your plants is abnormal. I thought all gardeners did this - maybe not when others can overhear but we all do it. I talk to my chickens and dog too.

It was a pretty fair weekend at DunHagan. Spent part of Saturday running around doing errands like buying tube feeders for the new birds, more feed, investigating new feed possibilities and buying bedding plants - tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. The last two hard freezes killed my doggone *broccoli* dead as a wedge and nipped my collards and kale! So much for being frost hardy. Didn't lose any more leaves on the new fruit plantings.

Still haven't gotten the new poultry colony house finished so I'll be up late tonight, tomorrow and maybe the next night until it's done. Those birds are getting to be too big to be in the brooder much longer. Naturally, since the pressure is one the critical need detector started ringing it's fool head off so we may have to pack up and go to Georgia midweek. One of my great aunt's has effectively suffered brain death and I expect they'll unplug her ventilator tonight or maybe tomorrow. She's my grandmother's twin sister which compounds the grief she was already feeling from their younger brother dying a couple of months ago when we were up for Christmas. Waiting to hear from my dad about whether our going up to the farm will be a comfort or a burden to her. Who was it that said, "life is what happens while you're making other plans?"

Rain has petered out again so I did a fair amount of watering on Sunday while I was working in the shop. Now that it's had a few weeks to settle I'll deepen the mulch around the stuff I covered already. I've decided to keep the garden fairly small this year and expand it next year when I don't have *quite* so many irons in the fire. It's taken years but I'm slowly learning a lesson about not starting too many projects at one time.

Weather went to 82 Sunday but it was in the forties Monday morning and probably won't top 80 again before the end of the week. I think winter is over here in North Florida and Spring will soon be fading into Summer.

.......Alan.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2002


ALan, sorry to hear of your sick great-aunt. Hope that you get to spend the time you wish with your extended family. Peace to you.

Chickens wait for no man-- or woman, so get that new place built for them! I am looking forward to some new birds myself. Now if I could only decide!

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2002


Well, they pulled the plug yesterday morning, funeral is Wednesday. After making eleventyone phone calls across Georgia and Florida it's been decided that we won't be going up after all as several of the other grandchildren are going there. My grandmother will be coming down in April to stay with an aunt and we'll be taking time off then to take her sight seeing.

Got a fair bit of work done on the colony house last night. I started to make the chicken door round like a hobbit hole door but ultimately decided against since it would complicate hinging it. I did round the corners though so now it looks a lot like the hatchways one sees in ships. Discovered a major planning booboo as well but came up with a work around so I can get the job done. I won't have the outside painted yet but I'm hoping to have the birds in their house by Wednesday night if it doesn't rain too hard tonight. The workshop is roofed but the colony house is in the open bay and it gets pretty damp there when the wind really blows.

Got to thinking about ways to keep the birds occupied so they wouldn't get the idea that eating each other was an acceptable past time. It's an old, old trick to hang a head of cabbage to give them some green feed and something to peck at so that's what I did. Took a small square of plywood, drove a three inch nail through it and spiked a small head of cabbage onto it then put it in the box. It too them about two hours but they'd eaten that head down to a hemisphere. Looked like a slow motion film of a pirahanna attack. Whatever works!

.......Alan.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002


What Alan?! You expected me to tell you to stay warm and wet?! Sounds pornographic to me!! And you know this is a family forum! How about I just send you the rain; you can work on the temperature at your end!?

I'm thinking healing thoughts for your Granny, it's very hard to lose your family members so close together. I lost my Granny in December, then my Mama in March; 12 years ago. Seems like I was just a numb ball of grief for a while. We moved back out to the farm and started building a house in May of that same year, so the being so busy is probably what shook me out of it. If you don't go see her now; maybe a visit a bit later, or letters? I remember how much it meant to me to know that other people missed Mama as well, in the weeks and months past the funeral. Healing thoughts to you and the rest of your family as well.

As to Easter Eggs and hunts - I used to dye eggs with Jessie and friends, but now she thinks she's too old! I'll just wait for the grandbabys! Of course, you'd use a crayon to write your name on the egg before you dyed it, so that your name would be white on the colored egg. Never tried a plaid egg. I do remember the deviled eggs at Easter dinner having weird pink and yellow and blue blotches on them! There were so many of us back then, that we didn't have much trouble eating up all the eggs. Do any of you make "Eggs ala Goldenrod"? You put chopped hard boiled egg whites into hot medium white sauce (2 T butter, 2 T flour, 2 C Milk), ladle it out over toast (kind of like SOS), then crumble the hard cooked yolks over the top. Good food when you don't feel well.

Nowadays, we just use plastic eggs for the hunt. The kids get a sack with their name on it and can hunt til the sack is full. They have to dump their booty in the sack after the hunt, and give the eggs back to cousin Julie - who counts them and then makes us go out and look for any missing ones! I still have 4 yellow plastic eggs from last year, that the dogs brought me after Easter was long over. Wonder why the yellow ones were hard to find? We put candy and change in the eggs. We used to make special ones with their name on it for each of the kids with a nice surprize in them, but we stopped that after we forgot a couple of kids once. Ooops.

I'm looking forward to Easter dinner - too much to eat, too many people, too much mud - Gosh, it'll be great!! Wal-Mart has some cute plastic deviled egg trays in the shape of bunnies and eggs that I almost bought; but I have a beautiful hand painted ceramic one that I bought last year and forgot to put out - I'd like to use it at least once!! Got to get together with the cousins and figure out who's going to bring what, here soon! Maybe I'll just call Aunt 'Retta today and get her started marshalling the troops up her way, then I can work on the ones down this way.

Well, I need to go - I'm taking friend Jon out to lunch for his birthday, then have to go cover a 4 hour shift at work. Maybe Hubs and I can get a bit more work done on the garden beds tonight. Still got that old spring fever!!

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002



Sorry about the family difficulties. It gets so hard when a whole generation starts dying off. Just went through it a couple of years ago. What the heck kind of chickens are you raising???? They sound vicious!!!! Never heard of the cabbage thing, but then I have never had chickens that eat each other.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002

Just normal birds like Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds and the like. It's just that circumstances have kept me from working on the colony house as fast as I ought to have been so they're beginning to get a little big for their brooder area. Chickens are like humans in that you crowd too many of them into a small area and they'll start showing signs of stress. One of the ways this can manifest in chickens is cannabilism. I give them stuff to keep them occupied so they don't get into mischief. The cabbage trick does two things at once - it supplies green feed and makes them work at it so that they're busy with it and not getting bored.

This may all be much ado about little but I've always had very low to no losses of chicks in the brooder for whatever reason so I'm particular about keeping it that way.

.......Alan.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002


Alan, I'm sorry to hear about your great aunt. You mentioned that she is your Grandma's twin. Were they especially close because of it? You hear so many stories about twins.

That cabbage is a good idea! I had a bunch that wanted to peck and pull each otheres feathers. They never outgrew it. I was told that mine were too crowded.

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002


Alan, I must apologize for my previous response. When I just read it I kind of went YUCK!! I don't think I conveyed the sympathy that I was feeling. My cousins and I had a reunion last fall because for the first time in almost ten years we had not had multiple funerals per year and we were missing each other. When we looked around we realized WE ARE IT!!! Like the whole generation except for one old aunt are all gone and we are the old ones. It leaves one with a rather strange feeling.

We had crocus blooming today, sunny and almost 50 degrees. I have MAJOR spring fever and forum malaise. Like it just seems time to take a sabbatical again, at least cut way back for a while. I guess I will have to see if I can do that; cut back. I sure hope everyone has a wonderful spring!!!!

-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002


What a week! Both boys are sick with colds, I taught 3 mornings at Vacation Bible School and it was not the horror I fully expected (wow!), hubby had business dinners twice this week so I did bedtime etc all alone and now he's off to Quebec for his Grandpere's funeral tomorrow and we won't see him until late Monday night or Tuesday. then thismornin' I find the lamb twins in the barn. I need a nap..... I have an Enviro Potter too!! I haven't done any pots yet because I hate measuring, cutting and then folding the pots into shape. If I had a Cheryl then I wouldn't mind!! My onions are going gangbusters on the windowsill. Friend Donna who inspired me is most impressed with them! Now, for those who tried the seed method this year from my ramblings know this..remember to water them and then don't trim them until they are pretty much chive thickness and then only down to about 4 inches tall. Mine are about 3 or 4 inches now so they have a ways to go but great root development (pulled one out) and I think its that organic potting mix I used. Its awesome!!! Bought another bag today when I went for feed at the organics store. Thats it for me tonight. I'm wiped!! Big sleepy hugs to all and Alan please accept my sympathies in your time of loss.

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2002

Ali, please tell Richard that our thoughts are with him, with the loss of G'pere. Were you able to see him when you were home at Christmas time? Hugs to you all...

Re: the newspaper potter/Enviro pot maker - don't make yourself nutso measuring. I looked at the directions; then measured the newspaper and just went with close measurments. I got 7 equal size strips per sheet of paper. I think I ended up with strips 3 1/4 inch wide and the width of one sheet of newspaper long - a little over 12". It was pretty hilarious - we were skulking around to all the closed waiting rooms and break rooms on our break, peering in the trash bins, asking the guards to let us know if they saw any lying around and just being generally looney! (Okay - it was REALLY early in the morning!!) We rounded up enough papers to make 292 pots; but Cheryl insisted we had to beat our record of the first night. I finally remembered that the patients had been painting in the craft room and managed to scrounge up one last paint smeary double page to make her happy! And, no; I'm sorry, but I won't share my Cheryl - I've got enough trouble at work with the other nurses trying to steal her away from me!!

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2002


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