DH thinks he may have figured out the problem with the lawn tractor. He fiddled some more with it yesterday and said it worked great and had more power now too (just what he needed haha). He did have me order a replacement part, but it was only $6 on Amazon.
When I called my mom about 11:30 yesterday she was in her usual slow morning. She said she hadn't even gotten dressed yet. And again, she supposedly wrote down what time her doctor appointment is tomorrow. Then she called me about 4pm and said she just got back from doing an "exercise class" downstairs. Yay! Like DD said - she's done more in the past week (2 activities, haha) at this new place than she did in almost 8 months are her previous place. I think I'm going to get her a desk calendar and see if she can write down upcoming things on it, to help her remember, rather than all these little slips of paper. Maybe if she could just look on her calendar and see that she has a dr. appt on Thurs 6/25 at 2pm or that such and such day is her day to be able to eat in the dining room, it would help her. Hard to say.
My friend who lives in town (the one I got the chickens from) texted me last night that she's getting in a bunch of produce boxes, bacon and pork spare ribs and to come today between 10am and 1pm and she'll load me up with some. I'm not going to pass that up, so I'll take a lunch break today and go get me some. I'm not sure what the story is on how/why she is getting all this (where she works) but I'm sure I'll get the story when I see her, and it will be interesting to see what I get. I really needed to make a trip to town anyway. We're out of milk, bananas and with the hot weather now, I want to put some ice creams bars and popsicles in the freezer.
My half sister lives on a ranch/farm (though her boyfriend, of many years, is self employed with a different profession, he does also have the ranch). Anyhow, he wants to be more self sufficient and stock up on foods, etc, so they got a whole bunch more chickens this past spring. She's starting to get eggs now and said when they all start laying she'll probably get about 40 eggs a day, which she will sell this summer. Then this fall they are taking all but 10 to a poultry processing place and filling up their freezer for the year with chicken. She'll let the chickens hatch eggs next spring and repeat. Smart, especially since they have the space to do it. She finally was able to quit working and is loving being home all the time now, taking care of her animals and such.
My uncle called last night. He's asked me this before and I've told him before I can't find any, but he wants to see if my mom has any really old photos of when they were little. He's trying to figure out what house they lived in. Mom keeps telling him she doesn't have any photo albums now (she does) so I told him I'll look thru them again to see. I asked him about his skin cancer and what is now going on and he said he goes in tomorrow to have it removed. His blood work all came back good and the dr. told him it all should be able to be removed. As I kind of thought, when he found out that day last week and called me, I think he just over reacted a bit and thought he had just received a death sentence. I'll give him a call in a few days and see how he's doing.
Your half sister certainly has it figured out doesn't she. I think I would love to keep hens but I know I couldn't send them off to slaughter so I guess that's me scuppered!
ReplyDeleteshe's going to have a hard time sending off to slaughter too! But she's trying to be logical about it, LOL.
DeleteFor years we raised meat chickens. I would usually do around 50 at a time. We butchered them ourselves. I wanted nothing to do with the killing of them for obvious reasons, but it didn’t bother me that Dh and the boys were outside doing it lol. Meat birds don’t have the personality that layers do. It was always kinda sad though when I’d go out to their barn to clean it up and it was empty. The last time I had them we were 3 days from butchering them and I went out to the barn to find a massacre. A neighbors dogs had ripped the wire off the window and killed all but 3 of them. It was a horrible site. The 3 remaining birds were so terrified when I found them. Those dogs also killed 3 4H lambs down the road from me the same day. We have never butchered a layer. They just stay here til they die. They are more like pets.
ReplyDeleteYa, I'm a bit confused with hers because it sounds like they will be layers, but then butchered for meat. Like you said, I thought they were kind of kept differently. I'll have to ask her about that.
DeleteThey classify some as dual purpose, but it seems strange to butcher them just as they start laying and their eggs get big.There’s also the age thing. Layers grow more slowly than meat birds but still you’d think you’d want to butcher before they are mature. I don’t know though. When we raised chickens for meat we did it to have excellent quality because store bought chicken is pretty gross. We let ours go longer than they recommend, waiting until they were 12-14 weeks usually. They suggest 8-10 weeks I think, but I wanted them a little bigger. It’s so much work, and it’s not cheap. Those days are over for us. I wouldn’t have a place to put them now even if I wanted to raise some. We tore down one chicken shed, and the other one got remodeled and is now dh’s storage for 4 wheelers and stuff like that.
ReplyDeletethey got the extra chickens specifically for the purpose of butchering them this fall, to have meat in their freezer. She doesn't need 40 eggs a day, LOL.
DeleteI think you get a certain kind of chicken breed if you just want layers such as Leghorns. If you want them eventually for meat then White Rocks or some other heavier bird is better.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to ask her if she got meat ones.
DeleteYour husband is so handy! What was the problem with the lawn mower? My mother's old john deere has been acting similarly, no one seems to know what the problem is,it's driving me crazy.
ReplyDeleteI'm not exactly sure, most of what he said went in one ear and out the other since I'm not a engine person, LOL. Something to do with the fuel shut off valve (that's the $6 part he had me order).
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