posted on December 18, 2000 06:16:23 AM new
Just plain nasty down here today. Saturday it was in the mid-70s and I was sweating in a T-shirt and jeans. Then that lovely cold front moved in and we had a frost last night. The cats, who usually sleep on the sleeping porch, bunked in the bathroom and had a grand old time, and Ramona spent the whole night in the bedroom buried in a pile of blankets and regularly attempting to sneak ours off the bed to add to her pile. (Pigs whispering to themselves sure are funny.) We got this neat gadget about as big as a Frisbee, same hard plastic except 2-sided, that's full of nontoxic microwave gel. You nuke it for 5 minutes and it stays at 125 degrees for 12 hours. The cats love it.
Our only problem is the chickens. We got them the same time as the ducks, who of course wear down jackets and sit on the hay in the poultry yard, covering their feet rather than nesting in the coop. I guess since they all hang out together the chickens decided coops are for egg-laying only, and they too refuse to roost in the coop and perch on the fenceposts in the middle of the yard even during a hurricane. Not surprisingly, a night of balancing on a fencepost in windy, freezing weather has them looking pretty ragged. I've doubled their feed ration but they're too cold to eat until about 10AM. Stupid damned hens - and we may actually get a few snowflakes tomorrow! I am wearing THREE layers of thermies and intend to spend the day tucked in with a heating pad doing applique.
Just a thank-you to all you folks up north for reminding me how miserable a Massachusetts winter can be. I'm reminded, and grateful I'm here where this weather is an anomaly.
You can take your cold front back now, please.
[ edited by HartCottageQuilts on Dec 18, 2000 06:18 AM ]
posted on December 18, 2000 07:49:20 AM new
I am presently analyzing the pattern. Preliminary research does not, as yet, reveal a conspiracy. The truth may be far more complex than was originally suspected.
posted on December 18, 2000 08:36:10 AM new
HCQ...
Maybe we swapped weather. Yesterday, here in Mass., it was in the 60's, pouring rain, thunder and lightening, with 60 mph wind gusts. And, of course, several power outages. So much for Christmas in New England and all the snow covered country church cards...
Had to laugh at your animal problems!!! I don't know what to tell you about the chickens except that chickens just aren't too bright.
We have been having lots of snow here in Central Illinois for the first time in a long time and wind chills have been well below 0 several times. We're supposed to get 3-5 inches od new snow today. I love it. Our inside cats haven't wanted to go out and Sat. night the outside cats didn't even show up on the pourch to eat. They were hunkered down in the hay loft. At least we aren't expecting any kittens. Too cold.
I hope your weather improves for you down there but you have to admit it adds some excitement in the air.
posted on December 18, 2000 09:17:13 AM new
It's suppose to be around 70 degrees here today. Unusual for this time of year. I don't like it. Too warm for Christmas. I don't do too many flea markets until after the 1st so it can rain all it wants too right now. With my luck the rain will come just when I'm getting back to work.
posted on December 18, 2000 09:48:47 AM new
HartCottageQuilts-this is probably a really stupid question, but since you live in a warm climate, do they have heat in all homes
(I know, thats a duh huh? )but I seriously don't know, and should, since my father spends winter in Florida, and I've never asked him!
Up here in the bitter cold north, if anyone sees an airconditioner, its a joke
About the chickens, at one time, we had too many! When it did drop below zero, and even though they were used to it, we would round them all up, and put them inside the barn, and leave a couple sets of those big work lights on all night for them. Seemed to really help.
posted on December 18, 2000 10:43:42 AM new
Saturday, it was beautiful and warm here in Northern Alabama. I had been down hard with a nasty cold, and this was my first chance to Christmas shop in almost 2 weeks, so even though I still sound like a fog signal, I was up for it.
We went to the mall which is 1 hr from our rural home. No jackets, just Christmas sweaters, which are more for looks than warmth.
1PM, Got there just in time for the 1st of the tornado (watches? warnings?) during which they herded us all to the 1st floor and forbid us to escape to our cars.
After the storm passed, we were allowed to shop again.
We readied to leave at 4PM. It was jet black outside and starting to drizzle. Because of all the shoppers, we had to park at the farthest reaches of the parking lot. My husband though we should run for it, only my daughter had an umbrella. We were 15 ft from the door (still running) when we got hit by straight line rains, a freaking ice cold deluge. It was so hard we couldn't see any cars, let alone ours. My husband admitted he wasn't exactly sure where our car was, as we tried to avoid being stuck by other cars racing through the darkness. My daughter and I huddled next to a car while he searched for the next few minutes.
When we got in, only my daughter still had a dry shirt, from the waist down she was a drenched as we were all over. We always keep blankets in the car, so we stripped her wet clothes off and wrapped her up. I was already wheezing and I stripped off my sweater and put the jacket I keep in the trunk on (our car has one of the hatches from the backseat to the trunk). Hubby had to just stay wet. We tuned into the weather channel and saw that the storm was between us and home, and a tornado had already hit a neighboring town, so we decided to go buy dry clothes and wait for the storm to move on before we went home.
Our town was not hit by tornados, just heavy winds and rain followed the next day by snow. Let me tell you, Alabamians (I'm not a native) are freaked out by any snow at all. School was delayed by 2 hours today, and the roads were perfectly safe.
Seems like a lot, but it's the ONLY pet heater I've found that doesn't need an electrical outlet. And f you register at coolsavings.com, you get $10 off your first purchase, and I think I also got free shipping.
nearthesea, your question isn't dumb at all. Newer (post-1955) houses down here generally have central heat/air, but the older ones don't, and many get along pretty well with a gas wall furnace situated in a central area, or a gas wall heater (those things can really put out heat). However, that isn't the most even heat in the world. Fortunately this weather doesn't last more than a week or two; think of it as the inverse of having central AC in northern Maine. It sure is nice, but you can survive (albeit uncomfortably) without it as long as you're healthy and the cold snap doesn't last long. Hart Cottage is one of the few houses in our neighborhood with central heat OR air, and I personally at least a handful of poor folks who have NO heat whatsoever. Our biggest problem is chilly floors. There's no subfloor - just thick heart-pine planks - and you can see daylight through some of the gaps underneath the living room carpet; but the house is set on pilings only a foot off the ground, so we'd have to dig a trench to crawl under it to insulate. No thanks.
posted on December 18, 2000 01:07:54 PM new
HCQ - Yea, they are pretty dumb. Your best bet is to just get them inside and keep them there with free choice feed and water available.
Chickens on the most fundamental level will consume feed to satisfy their energy requirements to survive and keep warm. (Doubling their chow may not be enough) They don't usually have much problems with overeating. Once they get the energy intake that they need, they pretty much will stop eating until a recharge is needed.
If they are out of the wind and in a snug place, they should take the cold without too much trouble. Don't use a light bulb to provide warmth during the nights. Chickens are very VERY photosensitive and if you give them more than 14 hours of light out of 24 for several days - you can stimulate them to begin a new laying cycle which stresses their bodies too much in a outdoor group in the winter.
As far as perching on the fenceposts - Chickens are morons - they are now bred to be placid and calm and to produce tons of eggs. Survival skills are not part of the mix -
And while frozen solid "fencepost" hens make for striking hood ornaments when taped to the car - They are impractical for use at higher speeds. GRIN
Get them inside until the weather lightens up a bit.
posted on December 18, 2000 01:46:35 PM new
Well, phooey, HCQ, I came in here expecting you to have found an absolutely scrumptious recipe for frozen chicken and I was looking forward to serving it tonight along with frozen peas. Guess I'll have to cook, afterall...
Once upon a time I took care of various fowl and while it's true that chickens are the dimwits of the dell I found guinea hens to be the idiot-savants of the feathered kingdom. There were two in my charge: Stanley and Livingston -- most inappropriately named as neither could find its way back to the coop at dusk and every evening I'd be out beating trees to roust them. This activity was invariably attended by the large flock of Toulouse geese who refused to enter THEIR domicile 'til everyone else was safely tucked away. We'd find the guineas sitting dumbly thirty feet up in some fir tree, their bald heads wagging rhythmically to the indignant scolds of the geese. My inclination to holler them down from their limb was never successful -- the only thing that worked was waiting 'til dark, then pretending to walk away. As soon as the geese and I sauntered off, Stanley and Livingston would swoop clumsily to earth and follow us home. heh, come to think of it, maybe *I* was the idiot-savant of the barnyard...
Have you got a pic of Ramona?
"fowl" not "foul" -- crikey.
[ edited by plsmith on Dec 18, 2000 01:50 PM ]
posted on December 18, 2000 02:40:42 PM new
Well, we actually started out with turkeys too (3), all of which were literally too dumb to come in out of the spring rain. Two of our ducks are the big white Pekin ducks. Never again. They make the chickens look like geniuses. The third, a drake, is a mallard, and he's pretty smart, although when he's randy he has - and will, and somewhere I have pictures - romance everything from the chrome truck fenders to a tennis ball. I miss our Barred Rocks, which were really gregarious...too much so, since when a couple stray dogs dug into the yard they just walked over to say "howdy" - and that was the end. The three we have now are Rhode Island Reds.
victoria, what a hellish weekend for you - and just think, you're the lucky ones. We're so close to the AL border we feel more Alabaman than Floridian, so have been worried for all of you. And listen, given that car insurance isn't required in AL, it's probably just as well everybody gets a bit spooked by a few flakes.
plsmith, here's a baby pic of our Ramona, before she acquired a 48" waist I'll have to do another pic of her soon.
posted on December 18, 2000 05:20:43 PM new
Nearthesea: I giggled when I read your questin (not because it was silly, but because it reminded me of when I asked the same question about air conditioning!!
Living in New Mexico there is *NO* way a house wouldn't have *some* kind of cooling system (even the old *old* houses ususally put something in....usually swamp coolers....which are *horrible* come August). So, I was visiting some friends back east and asked them where their cooler was. They pointed to the windows, "When it gets *that* hot we just open up the window for the breeze".
Someone *always* tells that story when we get together! LOL
posted on December 18, 2000 10:58:17 PM new My gal's a porker, she's a...
Great pic, HCQ. Thanks! So... have you tried peacocks yet? Let me know when you do -- Flannery O'Connor wrote one of the funniest essays of all time about the joys of raising them.
posted on December 19, 2000 03:30:33 AM new
Irene - A neighbor across the street from us (in San Jose) have a pig just like HCQs, except she is about 4 times Ramonas size - remember that is a baby picture. She, too, is an inside pig, very smart and goes to the door and snorts when she needs to 'go out'. When someone comes to their door, she makes this loud snorting noice to announce visitors. They don't need a door bell. When she'd misbehave they'd tell her to go to her room, and she would.
Our neighbors got her when she was a baby, and we always knew when they were leaving their house, without even looking. You could hear the pig squealing when they picked her up. As soon as she was on her feet again....all was well. She finally got too heavy for them to lift and our son made a wooden ramp so she could walk herself to get into their SUV. They take her everywhere, just like a dog.
Now before that, the only pigs I'd ever been around where the ones on my grandfathers farm. And they weren't clean nor trained.
posted on December 19, 2000 05:29:58 AM new
Yep, piggers are educable. Note I don't say "trainable," because unlike dogs, they're not desperate to please, so you have to show they [i]why[i/] they should do something. It's a bit like dealing with a very intelligent 4-year-old: she may be able to read Dickens, but don't expect her to understand why she can't have an entire box of Cheez-its.
Mona has decided three tricks are enough: spin (on her own axis), "beauty sit" (had to add the "beauty" because "sit" sounds too much like "spin", and "jump" (just the front end, about 4", shakes the house). She has a "clubhouse" in the backyard with an old duvet and a couple bales of hay, which she regularly "redecorates" with assorted branches from the wild section of our property (she particularly likes one weed that when dry smells like licorice, her favorite treat). When Val cleans up that part of the yard or replaces the hay, Mona goes nuts squealing something that sounds like "Don't MESS with it! JEEEEEZ!" which, surprisingly (not), is pretty much the sounds *I* make when she decides to take all the books off the bottom bookshelf and page through them or rummage through my sewing room trash can. Favorite game is "find the dog kibble underneath the pot lids all over the kitchen floor," a/k/a Wake the Dead. Right now she's "helping" Val load the dishwasher (she likes to close the door).
She's shy but very polite and enjoys visitors, particularly the pizza delivery woman. About 4PM she knocks the galvanized bucket off the back steps to let me know it's suppertime. The rest of the day she spends making our backyard look like Sarajevo (she can dig an 18" deep hole in half a minute), then comes in about dark to do some tricks, have a peanut butter sandwich (the oil's good for her dry skin), and to be groomed, during which she usually falls asleep in my lap. I wake her up and she staggers to bed, snurfeling my nose and making smacking noises as I tuck her in.
posted on December 19, 2000 11:17:38 AM new
Actually, HCQ, your pig sounds a lot more intelligent than my 13-year old dog who has never tried to communicate that he "needs" to go outside and has never been able to quite grasp the concept of the game of "fetch." On the plus side, Oscar has never dug holes in my garden, has always obeyed without training and is blindingly loyal.
I'll use it every chance I get, from now till the cows come home.
