Homesteading IT guy running a plant nursery in central Texas. I like dogs and cats better than people, but some people are okay, too.
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Published at
2024-05-04 05:36:33 Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog GrapheneOS does have wifi calling, but whether it works or not depends on the mobile carrier. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog That's pretty slick if you have the right situation for it! npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog When your body is trying to heal from trauma or disease, isn't one of the most important things that you get plenty of protein so your body can build and repair tissues? I would expect this kind of food during recovery would result in poorer outcomes for patients. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I've been pretty disappointed by the lack of Nostr content focused on moving liquids from one container to another, so let's talk about "jiggle siphons". The name says it all, a jiggle siphon (aka safety siphon) is a magnificently simple invention that lets you get a siphon started by just jiggling it up and down a few times in the container you're trying to extract liquid from. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Me, too! A couple of years ago I left the front door open while I went out to tend the chickens and came back to a much bigger one hanging out on the umbrella stand in the entryway. Few things will get your heart pumping like an unexpected indoor snake... 😆 npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog 😁 No kids here, and the petals really are attached to the flower. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog OK, I've never seen this before. Some kind of weird mutation or something caused this flower to grow petals in the wrong place. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I'd thin them, and transplant the ones you remove into other containers. They're likely going to crowd each other and not produce many blooms unless you go wild with the fertilizer. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Homemade salsa, in two simple steps. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Interesting... So what's the idea here, you mix the salt and Vaseline together, or do you sprinkle the salt onto the Vaseline? Do you have to reapply when it gets rained on or watered? npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog This beauty is a Texas Star hibiscus. We plant them everywhere we can, because they're one of the few things that will bloom in the summer heat here. The photo doesn't really capture the richness of the color, though. That red is incredibly intense in person. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog https://image.nostr.build/6e065a9f7a8a7f1f6a8a828b3f11705e8479d0327b7003df61f176cf7ff521fe.jpg npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Somehow I doubt that sticking a tiny yellow pepper into an egg will cause the pepper to grow 4x in size and turn red... But I bet it would fill your house with the aroma of rotten egg incredibly well! npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog We've got lots more of those creatures, too. My theory is because we had such a hot, dry summer last year (I think you're somewhere near me), it killed a lot of the coyotes and hawks, so more prey animal babies survived this spring. I definitely didn't hear as much coyote singing this past winter as I usually do. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog You gotta appreciate machinery that has the entire operator's manual printed right on it like that. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog OK, that is a damn cute baby! npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I kinda like aggressive vines. They feel more alive than static little shrubberies that don't grow much from day to day. You turn your back on melon or cucumber or squash plants, and they'll grow a foot or two before you turn back around. There's a slow-motion sea monster vibe to coming out to the garden every day and seeing where they've sent new tendrils and what they've latched onto. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Wee little watermelons and cantaloupe have begun to appear in the #garden! These are probably my favorite things to grow in the summer... npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I kinda like that. My wife has been calling her "Minnie" (as in "Minnie The Moocher", since she just showed up and expected to be fed and catered to), but I'm not in love with that name. I think I'll give your suggestion a spin and see how it fits! npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Absolutely! If you do it right, two or three chickens can be just a few minutes of your time each day in exchange for lots of eggs and garden fertility. And the eggs are *way* better than anything you can buy in a store. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog It's amazing how productive they can be! We just have one 3'x6' bed with these cucumbers in it, and I'm harvesting five pounds of them every couple of days. That's from maybe 12 vines planted around two circular cages for them to climb. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog It's a pretty simple recipe. For the brine, the ratios are: npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Seeds + soil + time = garlic dill pickles! npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog You're exactly right about the Stihl saw. Mine is the only 2-stroke engine I've ever had that starts up reliably every single time. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog If you live near a Northern Tool store in the US and are looking for some raised garden beds, they've got 3x6 raised bed kits on sale for $35 now (that's half price): npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog #flowers #bees #bloomscroll #garden #grownostr npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog If it were me, I'd try avocado, loquat, peaches, figs, papaya, and mango. Look for more cold-tolerant varieties, because you probably still get the occasional frosty night there. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Found this on a new computer for one of my clients. Who is this label for? How large is the population of people that are smart enough to disassemble a laptop but stupid enough to eat the battery they find inside it? npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Pixel 7 Pro with GrapheneOS on it. Nice hardware, it's too bad it comes with tons of Google spyware from the factory. But Graphene fixes that! npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog My new phone's camera has a slow-motion mode, so I've been playing with that today. My dog is basically a Muppet, so he's a great slo-mo subject. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Lots of mentally ill people everywhere, and their numbers are growing by the day. Modern society ain't good for much, but it's incredibly efficient at manufacturing psychos and nut jobs. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog https://image.nostr.build/5395b5a8fba8ea503cd4df739f11ab8da1bfdf96829f147ebc92ae6487634fe1.gif npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I'm not sure how practical it is, but Bluesky is definitely a joke. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog My wife just finished her last round of chemotherapy for breast cancer this week. We've been going to the same treatment center just about every week since December. The number of people going through that place is astonishing. Hundreds of patients a week; it's always busy. You kind of expect to see the older folks there, but every time we've been there, there have been at least a few under-30s getting treatment, which is always kind of startling to see. Way more women than men getting treatment, too. I was expecting a roughly 50/50 mix, but it seemed more like 65/35 if I were to make a guesstimate. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog At our house in town, I built a bunch of nice raised garden beds along the sidewalk, where we grow vegetables and flowers. The whole front yard is pretty much flowers and gardens, very little grass. It's a busy street, and we get lots of complementary comments from people in the neighborhood. One year we had a huge trombocino squash hanging on the trellis and people were stopping to photograph their babies next to it... npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Picked peaches in the orchard yesterday. Probably should have done it last week, some were overripe and serving as a buffet for the local insect population. I was surrounded by butterflies the whole time. Wonderful experience. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog No, you use the post pounder as a fulcrum. Lean it against the post, snagged under a tooth, then pull the top of the post toward the pounder. That forces the post upward. Repeat as needed on subsequent teeth to ratchet the post up out of the ground. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Dang, Alaska and Texas could not be much more different, climate-wise! I'll be harvesting potatoes in a week or two, and the tomatoes are just starting to produce. It will all be dead by the end of June, though, murdered by my old nemesis The Sun... npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Can't do either of those - I know humans with those names! npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I kinda like that name... She's a weird little cat, but very friendly now that she has decided that the guy putting food out for her isn't a trap. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Okay, gang. Time to quit screwing around chit-chatting about Bitcoins and protocols and art and homesteads and whatever other frivolity ya'll engage in around here. Focus that nostr brainpower on this cat for a minute. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I 3D printed a soil block maker over the weekend, and I'm giving it a try now. Seems to work pretty well once you dial in the moisture content of your soil mix. Time will tell how durable it is (I only used 40% infill to save time and materials on this one), but it's basically just an experiment for us to see if we can incorporate soil blocks into our growing. If it works out, I can invest in a larger/more durable one. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog College. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Have you ever had horsemint honey? If there's a lot of horsemint in the flower mix, the honey actually has enough thymol in it to give you that cooling, minty feeling on your tongue. Not my favorite honey, but it is good for sweetening herbal teas. Some people absolutely love it. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I've lived here in #Texas for almost three decades, and this year is the first time I've ever seen this particular native wildflower. It's called Blue Curls (Phacelia congesta). Sometimes called Caterpillars or Fiddleneck for the way the flowers grow in neat little curls that unfurl over time as the flowers bloom in sequence. Bees seem to love it, so I'm planning on collecting some seeds from this roadside patch I found and establishing it in my pasture somewhere. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Love the surprise appearance of the cat! npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog As much as it sucks, Facebook and Nextdoor are your best options. I hate using both of them, but we get a lot of traffic from both when we have our plant sales. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Don't get me wrong, lettuce has its place. But on a sandwich with fresh tomatoes? It's basil, hands down.. Every. Damn. Time. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Step 1: Grow "lettuce leaf" basil in your #garden. This basil makes huge, crinkly, crisp, delicious leaves (see photo below). npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Chickens are immune to uroshiol, the oil in poison ivy that causes allergic reactions. So they can eat that stuff with no ill effects. They're generally smart and tough enough to avoid getting hurt on thorny plants, so the raspberries are not much of a danger to them. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog The gardens of the guys who built Stonehenge must have looked like this... npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog If you have a backpack sprayer, you can use a diluted soap mixture (3-4 Tbs liquid soap per gallon of water) and hose down the entire tree, concentrating on the underside of the leaves. That will help knock down the aphid population and let the ladybugs catch up to them quicker. You can also try just hosing the tree down with a sharp stream from a hose, to try to knock as many of the aphids off the leaves as you can. Be careful with that method, though, because you could knock the fruit off the tree if the stream is too strong. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Jam or syrup. Sometimes if we don't have time to preserve them properly, we'll just freeze them for future use. The best way is to freeze them individually on a baking sheet, then package them up, so they're not frozen together into a big block. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I usually let the chickens out of the mobile coop for a couple of hours each day to let them stretch their wings and get some exploration time, if I'm going to be working near enough to keep an eye on them (hawks are plentiful here). Today, with 15 acres of freedom to choose from, they did this. You'd think they'd be sick of each other being stuck together all day, but this is how they choose to use their liberty... npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog #carrotbooty npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog What I really don't understand is, who's buying that? Even the newest of newbie gardeners is going to look at that sad display and keep walking, aren't they? And yet, you see it every year, so they must be selling at least a few of them. I suppose that's why the prices are so high - for every plant they do manage to sell, two or three end up in the dumpster behind the store. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog This is just disgraceful. A few barely sprouted okra seedlings in a cup of sterile potting soil for five bucks. Remember, folks, friends don't let friends buy Bonnie plants. Find a local grower to buy plants from, or start your own from seed. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I just poke them whole down into the soil at different spots around the roots of the plant. Some people dissolve them in water and then apply it that way. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog It definitely works to help the plants resist blight. It's not bulletproof, but it's a great cheap method to give your plants some protection. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I just signed up the other day and had the same experience, not much activity in my area, and most of it was months ago. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog There's a great smartphone app called PlantNet. You can take a few pictures of a plant and it will try to identify it for you. I've had pretty good success using it, especially if you take pictures of different parts of the plant, like leaves, flowers, etc. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog A couple of years ago, while splitting firewood, I found this piece of barbed wire embedded in a log. Now I keep it on my front porch as a daily reminder of three things: npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Cool device! npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Individual kernels may contain different genetic information, but the ripening of the kernels (and other physical aspects of the cob) are mostly controlled by the mother plant. Think of it in animal terms - each kitten in a litter may contain different genetics from its siblings, but they're all born at the same time. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Yes, it's pretty amazing what you can do these days with a cheap $200 3D printer! npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog A rat decided to chew into our chicken feeder and crawl up into the feed. Quite a surprise to open it and find a rat trapped in there on top of the feed! Our cats are not doing their job... npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Just went out to the barn to get some more firewood to feed the greenhouse stove and discovered a skunk sheltering under the floorboards where the woodpile is. He must have chased away the possum that was under there during the last cold snap. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Thanks! We mix up our own potting soil with live compost, which I think gives the plants a better start. Most nurseries use a sterile mix and liquid fertilizer. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog For reference, this is what a remorseless rabbit-killing machine looks like. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog If you're in need of a small generator to run a few small appliances, lights, etc, Tractor Supply has these little 800-watt ones on sale for $170. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog That looks nice! Personally, I think I'd paint that side wall the lighter color, leaving that one panel of wood you've already done as an eye-catching accent. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Does anyone have any recommendations for good quality 18650 batteries? I have a number of devices that use them, and a mix of batteries that are reaching the end of their life. I'd like to find some quality batteries in the sea of cheap Chinese junk that's on the market. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog That Thanksgiving dinner hits hard, ya'll... npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog One thing you're probably aware of, but I'll mention anyway, is the use of lavender in calming livestock. We use lavender essential oil with our donkeys to ease their stress and calm them for visits from the farrier to trim hooves. It doesn't work with every animal, but for the ones it does work on, it's incredible how well it can work. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog For those who doubt that true, pure evil exists in the universe, allow me to present a 3" long, fine-thread, flathead screw. The existence of this object is incontrovertible proof that there are vicious, sadistic demons among us. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog On YouTube, the channel is called "ElectroBOOM". npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Jewels Of Opar (aka fameflower). It's basically a weed here, and once you have it on your property, it pops up everywhere. It's also a pretty ornamental, so it's nice to be able to throw some leaves in a salad, too. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog You can't really go wrong with the Fisher Space Pen. The "bullet" model is pretty compact when capped (just under 4" long), but with the cap flipped around on the other end, it's a standard length pen. It'll write just about anywhere, and the refills seem to last a very long time. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog If you're in the central Texas area this weekend, we're having our fall plant sale at our farm in McMahan (near Lockhart) this Saturday (9/30) and Sunday (10/1) from 10 AM until 5 PM both days. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog This relentless heat has caused our chickens to stop laying eggs, so we had to buy some at the store. They were on sale, so we thought we'd supplement our dwindling supply. Holy crap, these things are flavorless junk compared to the fresh homegrown ones! When we first started raising chickens, I didn't notice that ours were that much better than the store-bought ones, but going the other direction really highlights the massive quality difference. (We also use much higher quality feed now than we did in the beginning, so that is probably part of the difference, too.) npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog If I were a gambler, I'd bet they escaped. They look to be in very good condition. In my experience, usually people don't dump livestock until they've neglected or abused them long enough for it to be evident. They look clean and well-fed, hooves in good shape. And as you say, dumping one with a brand that can be traced back to you is pretty dumb... npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog You know those plastic spikes they put on top of signs and buildings to keep birds from perching there? Well, it seems that magpies are now ripping them off and building nests out of them. Be like the magpie! Become ungovernable, and use the tools of the system against it... npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I've noticed that at my place, too. Rabbits everywhere, and they have almost no fear of people. It's weird. I'll walk through the orchard and they'll just casually stroll right across in front of me. I wonder if the excessively hot and dry weather this summer took out some of the predators that would normally keep them in check, or if the nice spring weather we had meant more babies. Either way, lots of rabbits. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog What I did was to look at the dry food I was previously feeding that had kept him at a fairly stable weight. The bag usually says how many calories per cup, so you can figure out how many calories you had been feeding your dogs, and figure out how much chicken that equates to. I think I figured that a whole chicken with skin worked out to around 50-60 calories per ounce. That should give a good starting point, then you watch their weight for a while to see if they're gaining or losing and adjust accordingly. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Found this a teeny little gray tree frog sitting in the birdbath last night, eyeballing a potential snack... npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Six weeks ago, Duke got mauled by another dog. He ended up with 40 staples and who knows how many internal stitches. We thought the little turd was gonna die. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog Thanks! I've built myself several workbenches over the years, each one gets a little nicer than the last one. The first was just an old door with legs... It doesn't matter much what it looks like, as long as it's sturdy and flat. If you can manage that, you're doing pretty well. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I need to get one of those electric canners. I have a big Presto pressure canner, so I tend to end up doing huge batches to justify the energy and time investment of using the thing. It would be nice to be able to pick up a smaller package of meat when it's on sale and just knock out a half dozen jars, instead of chopping up a whole brisket or doing up 20 pounds of chicken at a time. I kind of enjoy the job of processing and canning food, but sometimes the scale is overwhelming if you're trying to do a lot at once. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I was lucky growing up, my dad was really handy and had all kinds of tools I could use. Lots of kids nowadays have no access at all to anything like that, and parents who couldn't figure out how to hang a picture on the wall, never mind actually build anything. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog My neighbors have a kid who just turned 5 yesterday. He likes to come over to my house and "help" with projects. He really likes to work with woodworking tools, though at 5, there's still a lot of supervision necessary. He has a two-year-old little brother, so I think he really likes having something he can do that the little guy can't. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog This is Duke and his best cat friend, Bob. Bob is being comforting and Duke is wearing a toddler's shirt because exactly one week ago, Duke was attacked by a much bigger dog. We got him to the emergency vet as quickly as possible (a nerve-wracking 45 minute drive), but even so, the poor little guy spent several hours with some of his insides on the outside. He was a mess. Fortunately, the surgeon was able to reassemble him with all the parts put back in place (minus an inch or so of intestine). npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog The cell being built at the bottom of the frame like that suggests that they planned it, either to replace an old queen that's wearing out, or to make a new one to swarm (emergency queen cells to replace a dead queen will be on the comb anywhere they can find brood of the right age to groom into a queen). If the colony was running out of room, then they are likely to have been planning to split the hive. Both of those together (crowded hive and pre-planned queen cell) tend to suggest swarming activity, especially in spring. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog In a previous note, I referred to this cat as the least helpful helper I've ever had. I would like to submit additional evidence to reinforce this claim: npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog If you live near a Northern Tool store and are looking for some raised garden beds, they've got 3x6 raised bed kits on sale for $42 now: npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog If you're in the Austin or San Antonio areas and are looking for somewhere to buy bulk livestock feed, try Freewing Farms in Gonzales. I picked up 400 lbs of NON-GMO, soy-free #chicken feed from them last week for 53¢ per pound, and the chickens love it. You have to bring your own containers, but I store the feed in barrels anyway, so it's no problem to just take the barrels down and fill them up. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog This little idiot is the least helpful helper I've ever had. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog If you find yourself needing to remove saplings and small trees, you need a Pullerbear. This thing is a beast. Look at the ridiculous taproot on that hackberry stump. Yoinked it right out of the ground like pulling a weed in the garden. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog In case the geometry isn't clear, here's an overall shot of the wheel assembly. It pivots on the bolt at the back, so when the front is pushed down and locked, the wheel contacts the ground and the frame of the coop lifts up about an inch or so. The wheel is attached to the pivoting arm with a carriage bolt. npub1wsxc86a5lhe4zxkddhfjjrff7em900uez4h9lcr6vl3uh3ehtwlqca6gk5 Squeaky Frog I put a couple of wheels on my #chicken tractor that work pretty good. Step down on the 2x4 and latch the wheels down, lift and pull the front end. Unlatch and the tractor sits flat on the ground again with no mouse- or snake-accessible gap. Works great, but I would recommend larger wheels than I used. A small bike wheel or hi-wheel lawnmower rear wheel would probably roll over obstacles better.
