Well, my eggs arrived in the mail yesterday. I've had the incubator up and running for 48 hrs prior to get the temp lined out and dialed in. Checked this morning and were humming along right where it oughta be.

The eggs were really cold when I unpacked 'em. I hope Mr. Postman didn't leave 'em in his car all night. I'll candle in 10 days and see where were at. (Crossing fingers here).

My sister in law and her 6 kids are at the house visiting. Wow. Really raises the volume level around here. I'm going to wake up the boys (my youngest and her 2 oldest)in a few and take 'em over to the refuge this morning and check out what kinds critters we can see. They all (and me) enjoy going over there, and it's become a regular thing when they come down to visit.

Found some concrete block for the new garden beds. Hope to get them later this morning. Plan on enlisting 2 of those boys to help in carrying them. Building a new garden from scratch is frustrating after having such a big, productive garden at the other place. Soil and drainage is so bad here, building up seems to be the best way to go. I had great soil before and still liked the raised beds for the neatness factor. Need 'em for drainage now.

Went dumpster diving last night and got a bunch of chicken goodys. They'll be happy this morning. I've got 3 more roosters to butcher yet.

Sent off an order for some chicks also yesterday. 1-just in case the hatch rate in the incubator is low and 2- for a little genetic diversity. Same kind of birds, just wanted to ensure a good mix. My older brother has the same breed and I'll probably be able to trage him a few later on. I don't want a bunch of in-bred mongrels like what I've got now. I've got a couple of seriously "special" chickens! My wife won't let me kill the worst one of the bunch. "She's so cute" to which I say, "And she doesn't lay eggs". Oh well. The current flock will be down to 1 rooster and 3 hens (not counting chickenstein) next week. Will probably give the whole bunch away to the nieces a nephews later when the Javas get going.

Well, the sun is beginning to brighten things up. Time to wake the boys. Hope you all have a good day.

-- John in S. IN (jdoofus@hotmail.com), March 01, 2002

Answers

Nothin' like 6 kids to raise the volume! It sounds like you are having fun, tho';).

Yesterday my first doe gave birth to triplets! Yipeee! Two bucklings and a doe. Also a hen went broody, a rabbit kindled. So the animal population is increasing at a rapid rate. I had to move the hen into a small nest as she had decided to try to set on top of my pantry where I store wood and stuff. Not a speck of bedding. Silly hen. I sure hope she stays on the nest when I open the door for her. I really could use some fresh hens, too. I have one that I really like, but her name is Frankenhen. She just isn't the prettiest chicken, but she does lay eggs!

I lost a bunch of plants in this last blast from the arctic. The heater just couldn't keep up and the wind didn't do a thing to help. But thankfully most of the plants did live!

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), March 01, 2002.

I made paper seed pots and planted 41 of them to tomatos. They are in my homemade greenhouse in front of the little space heater. It won't heat the geenhouse more than 8 degrees or so, but I am hoping it will keep the area right in front of them warm enough without cooking them. A local greengrocer wants grape tomatos, and I thought I would offer green striped ones to him also, once the plants start to bear. I may take the tray in tomorrow, though: they are predicting below 0 weather this weekend. It was 70 degrees and sunny last weekend, too!

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), March 01, 2002.

hey, Terri, that sounds like our weather. You're not in Colorado, are you? We've managed to have everybody well for some time now, but this last drop in temperature, 72 to -8 in a couple of days time, has made all the boys sick.

John, what breed of chickens are you starting?

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), March 01, 2002.

Not Colorado; Kansas! This time of year we alternate between cold air from up north and warm air from down south. We are getting enough great weather to give me spring fever big time, but it isn't safe enough to plant or dry enough to till!!!!!!!!!!!

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), March 01, 2002.

Ah, we're practically next door neighbors, then. Hubby goes to Kansas quite frequently with his work. He was sure glad he wasn't there a few weeks ago when y'all had that ice storm.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), March 01, 2002.

BRRRRRRRRR!!! Sounds nasty. But think positve, it won't last for long. A few cold spells and we're into spring. Cool and wet here this morning. The drive home from work took a little longer.

The chickens are Black Javas. My brother has had a flock for 3-4 years now and I really like 'em. There was an article in the recent MEN about 'em. Brother Jeff got his from Pete Malmberg when he worked at Garfield Farm in LaFox (?) Illinois. He's out in Iowa now.

There are lots of old breeds out there that need more people raising them. Check out the Poultry connection or Feathersite for links and info. I'd go find info on the SPPA - Society for the Preservation of Poultry Antiquities but I'm of to the sack now. I do reccomend them as a good jumping off point. Their geared more for the small, non- commercial type folks.

Email me if you wish and I'll get back w/ some info for any who are interested. Gotta go make zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

-- John in S. IN (jdoofus@hotmail.com), March 02, 2002.

Actually, Mary, the first 2 days without powere weren't that bad. On day 3 we all got pretty tired of it, my youngest started taking off his coat and complaining about the cold, his birthday was the next day and I wasn't ready for the family party yet, (at barely 8 years old parties are important), and a power company employee said it would be 3 more days!!!!!!!! It wasn't, though, the power was on again the next morning before the sun came up. My husband microwaved some tea and brought it out to the guys: some people had no power for more than a week, we were glad to get ours on! One thing: I found out that running a tub of hot water was much more effective heating a house than the fireplace or kerosene heater: our water heater is purely gas. With all 3 going we were able to raise the temperature to 50 degrees.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), March 02, 2002.