Good Morning! <=2017

Post by **Killerbunny** » Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:11 am

Anyone seen Game of Thrones? Thinkin about getting the first season on DVD for the winter.

Maximus · Post by **Maximus** » Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:12 am

Morning everyone.

Got the veggie garden beds and area under control yesterday. Phew. Long time coming for that. Who has time to be ill? The backlog is astounding and will take me some time to get caught back up. But I'm getting there. Was upsetting to toss all those Brussel sprouts and all my onions. Peppers from BVF are doing great, kale, carrots, potatoes and all my herbs are doing well still, so it's not a complete right off. Going to get some seed to sow for lettuce to carry me into fall, late fall and some spinach. Might as well fill up the empty areas.

New duckling is doing wonderfully. My female Muscovy has him covered. Just how I like it, nature raising nature.

Got a few discounted flowers to put in my pots at the front that all died, to at least make it look a little bit colourful until the end of the season so I'll be getting to that today. Hopefully.

Well I'm off to take crazy Ava for a long haul so I can get some work done. Hope everyone has a great day!!

Maximus · Post by **Maximus** » Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:13 am

Killerbunny wrote:QR_BBPOST Anyone seen Game of Thrones? Thinkin about getting the first season on DVD for the winter.

I've heard great things about that show. My daughter manages a HMV store and she has it all on DVDs and has watched a few times.

Post by **WLLady** » Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:30 am

game of thrones was okay.....up to about season 5 and then it went downhill REALLY fast. the first season was the best.....but i'm not a big tv watcher, so....

looks like another hot stinky one today!
not much new....moved all the girls to the loft, and some of the "keeper" boys for the next generation. setting another custom hatch for some people, BVF if you want those guineas thrown into the sportsman, we'll just have to figure out how to get them here.

it's up and running as of yesterday.
lost my summer squash to those darned squash borers. will pull the plants when i get the chance. usually i get the bases wrapped early enough, but not this year. sigh. stupid bugs. only found two tobacco hornworms this year. but the squash bettles, holy crap they're everywhere. sweet corn is ready and indian corn is coming! my baking beans are almost finished! it's been so hot and dry.....and my lettuce just flaked away into nothing, so i need to start some more. have cauliflower coming up soon! yay!

still puttering away....still amazed at how different it looks with the old barn and driveshed gone. all the boys that are leftover are free ranging now and doing a great job of churning through the sand and pulling the nails up, just a daily sweep with the magnet and now we aren't finding too many at all! chickens are good for something! LOL.
my horses last night managed to pull their big bale of hay out of the hay feeder. LOL. that will be one royally big mess in a day or two...maybe i'll zip out with the tractor and see if i can't get it back into the holder before they fluff it all over the acreage. reorganized the barn shelving and stuff on the weekend so storage is closer to stalls/birds etc, much easier to work in there now. got some more trolleys for under feed buckets

so the invalid can get the food into the pens easier. every little bit helps. have a couple of birds that are constantly breaking their eggs. argh! already have a roll out nesting box, but....gotta think of something else. hm....interesting puzzle. i know she's fertilized and the eggs are good - those that aren't cracked.
next project will be a raised herb bed...with divided plots so the herbs don't take over, like the mint and the oregano in the garden are doing right now. i have to cut those back and get them dried! i'm almost out of oregano in the house. mmmm
made up about 20 liters of marinara sauce from the tomatoes from the garden and put that into the freezer last night.

don't forget-if you get the chance-the perseid showers are this week! We've already seen some nice shooting stars the last few nights! peak is thursday night-friday morning!!!
hope everyone stays cool and has a great day!

Maximus · Post by **Maximus** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 8:18 am

Morning y'all

It rained last night.... Everything is wet, but not drenched. Would likely have to rain for 2 days straight, hard, for things to get drenched because everything is so dry. But it's a start and I'm not complaining. Wait, here's my complaint, it's soooooo humid and hot and now all the mosquitos are out again. It's so hot already that I can't take Ava for a good long walk. Look out! Going to be a long day with energergizer pup.

It got so hot again yesterday and the thought of it being even warmer today I worry about the flock and this prolonged heat.

Hey, anyone else have algae grow in their waterers? Every other day they are getting a scrub down with bleach. Not my favourite thing to do to plastic, but algae is thriving if you leave them for too long. Each waterer gets fresh water each day but the algae still will develop. This did not happen last summer. Any suggestions??

The bees are driving me bonkers with the waterers. BONKERS!! At any given time there is 10-12 bees around the waterers.

Another bonkers situation is poor Ava is swarmed by deer flies when we go for walks. Drake can be right beside her and he gets none but she is black and they are doing circles around her head, landing on her ears and I swat them away and then she scoots from me thinking what the heck did I do? So I leave them and then she lets out a little whine and when we get home she's got bloody ears. Poor thing. So until the deer flies leave we'll be going in our truck for big walks at the lake. We can walk out back, but it's burr season so that takes time to deal with after our walk. If we could just get down the driveway then the road isn't too bad and our trail we go on there isn't any deer flies but until we get there and on our way back it's a flipping battle.

Anyways ... That's my morning run off. Hope everyone has a good day.

Post by **WLLady** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 9:03 am

sandy, i spray my dogs down with deet or bronco horse fly spray. i just make sure to be very careful around the face-ie i spray my hand and then work it into the fur around their ears and on the top of the nose....the dogs learn quickly that it helps and don't try to rub/lick it off. i know you prefer organic natural, so i really wouldn't hesitate to try whatever you would use on you on them, just remember they can smell things 100000x better than we can....you can also generally use horse fly spray on dogs (horses and dogs are really quite similar). bronco will work for a couple of hours. i would stay away from wipe on your dogs though, it's really greasy

i don't know how many of you will understand when i say that i hate this weather because it hurts.....(whimper). i cannot wait for this heat and humidity to give way to fall. and then winter. i like summer, i love the garden, love growing stuff, but fall will be welcome. They're saying the great lakes are warmer than normal this year, with the waters near shore pushing 25C! so much for diving in to cool off LOL.

algae....do you pump from a well sandy? well water always lets algae grow in the waterers i find at this point in the summer. i just wash with bleach...then let the waterer stand filled with water and bleach to get the last little algae bits that i missed so they die....i can go about 2 weeks without needing a rewash afterwards. municipal water has chlorine in it that will retard the algae some....but there's algae everywhere-in the dirt laying dormant and stuff, so no matter really what you do, you'll get it....good think is is most algae won't hurt livestock or pets or whatever. it's really the cyano stuff that is dangerous (algae blooms in the lake), and that stuff has a very bad smell to it...so if it's the "normal" green stuff i wouldn't be too worried, just wash out.

trying to decide on landscaping.....love sitting with the catalogues and going through everything plant-like LOL. tis the season to buy fall planting bulbs....and then in january i start drooling over the garden seed catalogues. driving my husband crazy right now i am sure. certainly not planting or transplanting anything until such time as it starts raining again! soooo dry. been running the sprinkler the last couple of days to at least get a little bit of grass in the lawn where we sit in the evening!

okay.....who knows who builds horse shelters? i don't think i'm going to get around to building one.....just a run in shelter that is dragable....

ross · Post by **ross** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 9:32 am

Kathy I cant remember name or # but at Elginfied north of London , Richmond st # 4 & Elginfield Rd old #7 turn right at lights 1/4 mile down on Left side beside restaurant is a display of different wood sheds . Think out of Lucan . Also Wagler barns Aylmer area menninites i think down your way west of . Luck

goatgal35 · Post by **goatgal35** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 9:45 am

It is so sticky and yucky. I am very thankful for all the produce right now, but I am I little tired of always being steamed. I feel like all I do is blanche, freeze, can, and dehydrate for the entire month of August. I does feel good to see the pantry and freezers filling up though. Time to get back at it. Got jars of peaches to take put of the canner. Keep cool everyone :)

Post by **WLLady** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 10:41 am

Ross, yes, i have seen those! they have a really nice horse shelter that if it was 1.5 times bigger would fit my two fantastically. but alas, i couldn't find any contact information.....Thanks!
I did find some plans online that don't look too horrendously difficult to build....just need to buy the lumber and do it. i want a pullable one so i can move it north of the barn in the winter to stop the wind from blowing into the barn, and then move in the spring/summer to let the wind blow through. I'll check if i find any contact for Lucan...i found another north of stratford, but that's a long way to get delivery...won't fit in the truck, although i may have access to a trailer.....hm.....

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Wed Aug 10, 2016 10:51 am

Good morning all,
I swear my joints actually squeaked and groaned when getting up this morning,know what you mean Kathy, not a pleasant start to a day.
Freezer full of frozen water bottles which fit perfectly in to the water containers so chickens have cool water all day.
Fridge full of overgrown cukes for the chickens and got them couple of watermelons also cooling in the fridge, it appears to me there is no room for people food because of an effort to keep the birds comfortable.
The chicken runs are all burned to crisp and actually crunch underfoot. Think I will have to get couple bales of hay in for the young birds, and spread it in the runs so they have something to pick at.
Keep as cool as possible !