The Hobbit Hole III - Journey to the Cross-roads!

[HairOfTheDog]

Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!

Journey to the Cross-roads
The Two Towers Edition

Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)

Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.

[HairOfTheDog]

Hullo Mrs. G'nad! - They say it is an American Bullfrog, and that they commonly get a lot bigger than mine was! - I am just amazed that I haven't seen one before... I spent a lot of my youth in lakes and ponds catching newts and polywogs and stuff.

The website I looked them up on did say that the big ones will pull baby ducks under! eeeek!

[JenB]

Corin, you sully the Gondorian's reputation!

Went shopping for my dad... finally found the new Stephen Lawhead book. He always likes those, but it was expensive! Now we're grilling burgers. Yum!

[HairOfTheDog]

The painted coop looks great! Reject piles of paint are a good thing!

[Corin Stormhands]

I'm tired of hacking weeds!

I got the front yard mowed and baled, set out a couple of hydrangeas that my m-i-l bought in case the ones she brought cuttings from don't make it, and set out a few of the lillies she brought. Got more, but wife has to go to work.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Yeah, we got some heavy rain, AND hail. Sun is shining now.

Your tractor looks great. You all are so clever.

Not to nag or anything:), but how is your friend (Lisa, Linda???) doing with the incubator? I've been wondering about her.

Becky

[Overtaxed]

Need to go out and dust some plants. Wonder if Sevin dust keeps deer away. :)

[Corin Stormhands]

Hey there! Nice to see you here!

[HairOfTheDog]

Yes, how is the incubator? (piling on)

:~D

[Corin Stormhands]

Corin, you sully the Gondorian's reputation!

They'd be a lot less sullyin' if'n he'd put on some skivvies.

[Overtaxed]

I still have weeds to whack. I did the squash, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes, beans (whatever the deer left :() and the corn. Pooped out before I made it to the sunflowers. Now I have to go out and kill some potato beetles that are eating my tomatoes.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Hey, I planted some sunflowers for the first time this year. I didn't like the way they were looking where I planted them, and moved them today. They went realy limp, will they stand back up, or are they gonners? They were about 4ft. tall when I moved them.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

Heh.... I was picturing my whole pasture burning, even though it is so overgrazed right now there is little to burn.... but that fire was SO hot I couldn't get near it to put out the grass, so I let it burn a patch, if the wind would have picked up, it would have gotten away from me.

Burning my horses up would be a bad thing.

[HairOfTheDog]

Do you get straw to put in for a nest now or what? - Do you just fill the nest box or let them build it? - Did you answer this before?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I have always just put hay in the nesting boxes, and the hens shape the nest. Is that what the book says to do???? I have 5 boxes, but they only use 1. If I did something different would they use the others? What will happen when I have more hens laying, will they stand in line to use the 1 box or use the others?

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

You mean right now they all lay eggs in the same place? - All mixed together? - Do they all sit them?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

I burn my feed sacks right out side the feed room. It never seems to fail as soon as I get a pile of them burning the wind comes up and blows hot ashes all over the place. Our place is so mowed or grazed I don't worry, but I worry about the property ("A Boy Named Sue" just came on the radio, smiling big:), next door. Luckly no one has built there yet.

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Yeah, everyday I've got 5-6 eggs in a box. Since I pick them up the hens don't sit on them, but you have to have a hen with the brood instinct in them to sit. All of them don't have it. Especially the ones that come out of an incubator don't have the brood instinct.But I do have a few hens that were hatched by a brood hen. They will sometimes go off and hide their nest and wait till they get enough eggs (a clutch) and then sit. Eggs that are fertile will stay good for 10 days, gives the hen enough time to build a clutch. But they will sit on another hens eggs.

Becky

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

Oh, BTW, hens usually lay 1 egg a day. That's why it takes a few days to build a clutch.

Becky

[HairOfTheDog]

I use a burn barrel with a screen on it for those! (Or I use them to start piles of sticks on fire!) Last year I spent the whole spring burning sticks and I only really cleared the area where I work the horses. When I moved here the place was 10 foot tall with scotch broom, and I had it brush hogged, but the sticks remain...

This example photo shows little scotch broom, some of the trunks on mine were a couple inches in diameter. Nasty stuff.... do you have it there? - Ours was actually brought in by the dept of transportation as a roadside shrub and it is incredibly invasive (and *everyone* is allergic to it). It now has invaded everywhere within 5 miles of the freeway. The guy who made that decision should be tortured.

[Overtaxed]

I think they'll be okay if you keep them watered....but then I've never transplanted them that big before. :)