cats and hens

The neighbor is on the road again and when I open the door in the morning here comes the cats wanting food. I went to look for eggs this after noon and one of my red headed ladies flew out the door . I was able to get her back to the safety of the pen when she wanted to go on the roost.

Sammy and me had our Halloween scare last night, It was 9 o'clock at night and all at once someone hit our door and shook it in the frame. We had the dead bolt on and as I watched the lock began to turn. I told Sammy "you had better get off your butt someone is breaking in." Daughter had got off work early and she gave us a scare.

hen nest

I had Sammy build me a new hen nest since when all the hens start laying I will have 33 hens laying and the nest I have were built for my bantams and are sort of small for the big hens. The big hens have never laid in my small nest and I think it is because it the nest are too small. i have the metal nest that I got last year but the big hens have not took to them either so I took this tote that I kept feed in and since the lid was cracked and leaked I had SAM cut a opening in it and with the lid on it makes a nice big nest for the pullets if they decide to lay. They have been looking the nest over for a few days so I think they are looking for a nest.

trick or treat

on sale $895. do your own embalming kit $5.95.

lots of red combs

can eggs be far behind?

yard work

midnight run

Obama goes to air base as slain people return from Afghanistan,. I wonder if it bothered him watching the flag draped coffin coming off the plane? He is on the brink of sending more young people to die on foreign soil and this war can no longer be blames on George W. Bush, this is Obama's war and it is time for him to live up to his campaign promise and bring our troops home.
No more shilly shalling and studying the situations just stop this madness and bring our people home, now.
I wonder if he was able to sleep after his midnight trip or did he lay awake thinking about the families who had lost their love ones? I hope he didn't get any sleep after that trip.

necktie

men are vain and their neckties prove the fact.

History of the NecktieRegardless of the fact that the definition of the necktie in most dictionaries states "a large band of fabric worn around the neck under the collar and tied in front with the ends hanging down as a decoration", its history says a lot more. Men have always found it necessary to tie something around their necks. The earliest historical example is in ancient Egypt. The rectangular piece of cloth that was tied and hung down till the shoulders was a very important part of an Egyptian’s clothing because it was showing his social status. In China, all the statues around the grave of Emperor Shi Huang Ti bear a piece of cloth around their necks, which is considered an ancestor of the modern necktie. In art from the Roman Empire, men are also depicted bearing neckwear that much resembles the contemporary necktie.In 1827, Honore de Balzac introduced for a first time the necktie into the literature with the treatise The Art to Bear a Necktie. Balzac described in it the aesthetical principles of bearing a necktie. Until the 19th century, European men were wearing neckties with various sizes and styles of tying according to the traditions of their native countries. They would probably look very strange today. The popular models of that time were wearing the sign of their country of origin, such as Russian, American, Irish and Italian neckties. In addition, they were tying styles that were symbolising interesting themes as Diplomacy, Loyalty, Travel, etc. The neckties were representing the individuality as well as the social status of the wearer through the different shapes and styles of tying. This still applies with the same force today.

grandmothers

Sister sent her granddaughter to school Monday and when she came home she told Helen she didn't have any friends. I laughed at Helen and she said it was really important that she had friends so Helen is going to have a party for her so she can have friends. I just laughed some more. sister thinks it is her job to make sure that everything is PERFECT for the grand girl.

some day the girl will come up against something sister wont be able to fix, then what?

rain again

One old hen said to the other, " did you see that young chick strutting around with that puny egg?" one pullet egg was in the pen this morning. I guess it took her by surprise and she just dropped it where she stood. I have a full tank of propane so I can have heat for a few days now.
I can't find any news on the net except Joe Lieberman says he will filibuster with the GOP. that isn't news, is it?

molting hens

moulting hen getting new feathers. I don't think I ever saw hens molt as hard as the red headed ladies. they are a shaggy bunch. Rained again we must have got a least an inch.

sister's grandchildren

My sister has the most grandchildren in our family and it is good that she does. She loves her grandchildren. She wants them near her all the time. Her granddaughter Kinsey flew in to Phoenix on the 24th to stay with her. Helen calls her "the girl" she is 10 and1/2 years old and Helen has done a good job spoiling her just like all the rest of her grandchildren.

Helen said if she wants to go home she would put her on a plane and send her home. I said are you kidding? why would she want to go home? she will eat out every day and have all the new cloths her heart desires! any way if you wonder where sister is she is with the girl.

Helen's grandchildren will have stories to tell about grandma See when they are old.

She has this red headed grandson named Austin, he is 5 years old going on 100.

This is what happened at her house last week.

Helen is a cleaning freak. She has a problem in passing out with no warning, twice she has been up on her furniture cleaning her 12 foot ceiling and fell hurting her self . You would think that would be enough to stop her from climbing on furniture but not so.

On this day she decided she needed to clean the ceiling fan Austin was there and she told him we are going to clean that fan and sometime grandma falls asleep when she climbs on chairs so if I fall down and don't get up your job is to take this phone and call 911 if grandma falls.

Austin is ready his fingers are poised above the Numbers on the phone and grandma climbs on the chair. He stand ready to do his job . When sister finishes the cleaning she climbs down and said OK, Austin you can go put the phone back on the wall.

Austin said you mean I don't get to call 911? Helen says no not today maybe tomorrow. in a 5 year old hope blooms eternal.

pullet egg

another pullet egg.

I might loose another red headed lady one of the 5 is looking sort of off. On a happy note the feathers are coming back in on their bare backs.

Hello

A reporter ask Senator John McCain about his 97 year old mother's health he said 5 years ago mom took up walking 5 miles a day and we didn't know where in the hell she was and then we get this call from LISBON, Portugal .....

mama bantam

This is my bantam hen with her chicks she raised and she is trying to set again but I am not going to set her. I set a hen and she hatched in December last year and I said I would never do that again.

mama where are you?

John McCain has let his 97 year old mother go to Portugal on vacation alone. Where is his brain?
LISBON, Portugal - The 97-year-old mother of U.S. Senator John McCain spent the night in a Lisbon hospital after a fall, Portuguese health said she checked into a hotel alone.

I finally got a pullet egg today.

horsefly

Does anyone remember the dreaded horsefly and how they would bite? This one looks like he is wearing some kind of bikers glasses.

Helen's sheriff

PHOENIX – Despite losing the authority to enforce federal immigration laws, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio vowed again to continue his fight against illegal immigration. "We will continue to do what we always do," Arpaio said. During a news conference Thursday, Arpaio had his deputies walk by one-by-one and place federal credentials into a bowl of ice. "This is not a dog and pony show," Arpaio said. "It's a symbolic type of thing." The display comes in response to a move made by federal officials from Immigration Customs and Enforcement, or ICE, earlier this month to pull MCSO's certification under the 287 (g) program.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ' Tent City Jail':
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.
He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails.
Took away their weights Cut off all but 'G' movies.
He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.
Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He Wouldn't Get Sued For Discrimination.
He took away cable TV Until he found out there was A Federal Court Order that Required Cable TV For Jails So He Hooked Up The Cable TV Again Only Let In The Disney Channel And The Weather Channel.
When asked why the weather channel He Replied, So They Will Know How Hot It's Gonna Be While They Are Working ON My Chain Gangs.
He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero Nutritional Value.
When the inmates complained, he told them, 'This Isn't The Ritz/Carlton. . . . . If You Don't Like It, Don't Come Back.'
He bought Newt Gingrich's lecture series on videotape that he pipes into the jails.
When asked by a reporter if he had any lecture series by a Democrat, he replied that a democratic lecture series might explain why a lot of the inmates were in his jails in the first place

23 weeks old

The hatchery chicks will be 23 weeks old Monday and the 4 pullets the bantam raised will be 26 weeks old. surely I will get some eggs soon.

fall is here

blown' in the wind

Joe Biden is one of my favorite people in DC I just got an email from him wanting me to send 5 bucks so they can get the health care bill past. Sure Joe, it will be in the mail.
Obama hits the wealthy for money and Biden ask me for 5 dollars.

rain

Rain fell most of the night but there is no mud in the chickens pens thanks to the hay. I have no eggs the last two days but should not be much longer the pullets are looking like it wont be long before they start laying.

Winnie's leaves

I went by to see Winnie's blog and stole her beautiful photo.

no service

I have been without Internet service for 34 hours and have just got back on. This has been a really long time. Sister called last night and I decided I would call and we are back on line as long as it last. They kept trying to get me to do this and do that which I didn't want to do so I told them sister would call again when she got off work. I suppose they didn't want sister to call again so we are back on the net.

hey,hay!

George Aday brought me a mountain of hay and I think this will last all winter. Go head rain come on I am ready for your downpours.

I have a cold and I am having trouble breathing. Fleta said my chickens were fat. They should be they are consuming 300 pounds a month now. No eggs yet but should be seeing production soon, the rooster was covering one of the red pullets this morning.

hush puppies

Once upon a time my son and his wife went to eat at long john silver's.
Kyle my 5 year old grandson especially liked the hush puppies and when his mother ask him what he was eating he replied , Shut up dogs

it hay !

Sammy got the hay and I hurried and threw a bale in the pen. The chickens were afraid of it. Some of the pullets went through the house to the other pen which I was never able to get them to go before and the rest of the flock went on the roosts in the pen and refused to come down!

I got some bread and threw in , they really like bread and I thought they would come down for it but no way. they set on the roost and craned their neck, they really wanted the bread but wouldn't come down.

I got in the pen and forced them to fly down and I got covered with mud but they did go down and started eating the bread then they discovered that they could eat the hay so now they are out of the mud and I feel better and I think they do also.

Helen told me the pictured I posted the chickens didn't look to bad but I didn't take a photo of them in the mud. I was afraid of the ASPCA.

chickens

Sammy is going tomorrow to get me some hay my chickens are living in mud. I don't remember having so much rain as we have had of late. some of the pullets have started going in the hen house to roost at night.

summer sun on winter days.

Red berries on bushes in the fall provide food in the gloomy winter days for our feathered friends.

rained again

Rain has made a mud hole in my chicken pen.

14- 14-14

How my cousin winnie jo learned how to mind her own business.

How I learned to mind my own business I was walking past the mental hospital the other day, and all the patients were shouting, '13....13....13.'The fence was too high to see over, but I saw a little gap in the planks, so I looked through to see what was going on.....Some body
poked me in the eye with a stick! Then they all started shouting '14....14....14'...

times are a changing

I watched Peter Paul and Mary on PBS this day and here is the words to one of their songs they sang long ago and I thought it was fitting for this day and time.

Come gather 'round people where ever you roam And admit that the waters around you have grown And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone If your time to you is worth savin'Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone,For the times they are a' changin'! Come writers and critics who prophesy with your pen And keep your eyes wide the chance won't come again And don't speak too soon for the wheel's still in spinAnd there's no tellin' who that it's namin'For the loser now will be later to win For the times they are a' changin'! Come senators, congressmen please heed the call Don't stand in the doorway don't block up the hall For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled There's a battle outside and it's ragin' it'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls For the times they are a' changin'! Come mothers and fathers through out the land And don't criticize what you can't understand Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin' Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand For the times they are a' changin'! The line it is drawn the curse it is cast The slow one now will later be fastAs the present now will later be pastThe order is rapidly fadin'And the first one now will later be lastFor the times they are a' changin'

cool weather

The weather is cool and the chickens are glad to see me and the food in the morning. Hatchery chicks are 21 on weeks old today and they are showing more signs of eggs soon to come.

Richard

Richard Powell October 10, 1939/ may, 2008
My earliest memory of my brother was at Carrollton Arkansas . I invented this game, the game went like this I gave Richard orders and he had to do what I said. I would say Richard run to that tree and he had to do what I said. I loved the game but Richard soon decided that this game wasn't to his liking.
another memory was we were walking beside the road and we found this large saucer sized sea shell. Someone must have thrown it from a car. I thought the pearl coating was very pretty.
I remember we took sticks and played that they were horses. we rode our stick horses for hours.
most of my memories of Richard were at Denver. we played all day long and lived the good life.
when we moved to the farm I remember the first time we saw fox fire we were amazed and some what frighten but the first time we encountered seed tick we were both covered and I was sure we would both die.
I remember standing on the ground and begging Richard to throw me black hulls and persimmons. Richard could climb any tree and I was never able to get my feet off the ground.
If Richard were alive today I would call and say happy birthday and we would argue about his age. Richard would shave a year or so off just to get me going about how old he was then he would tell me how many of his kids were there to help him celebrate his day.

peace prize

There is some thing ironic that the leader, and commander in chief of a nation that is involved in two wars and is talking about expanding the war in Afghanistan, would receive the Nobel peace prize.
I have studied as to why they gave the award to President Obama and the only thing I can see is that the award is because he is not George W.Bush.
I would like to see our President earn this award by stopping the two wars that we are currently involved and become a man of peace in deed.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Sister's sheriff is hot on the trail of spray paint criminals and I am sure if he finds who did this they will be in his tent jail wearing pink shorts!
Vandals spray-paint 'Kill Obama' on Cave Creek signs
by Alex Bloom - Oct. 8, 2009 05:37 PMThe Arizona Republic
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is looking into vandalism to two Cave Creek election signs on which vandals spray-painted "Kill Obama" in purple.
The message appeared on two signs, one supporting the renewal of Cave Creek Unified School District's K-3 override and one supporting the K-3 measure and two ballot measures on whether to allow a local Walmart store to be built.
The Sheriff's Office confiscated the two signs, which were at two locations: at Cartwright's Sonoran Ranch House and west of Galloway Dr)
"This is a complete disgrace and gross act towards our president. My deputies are looking into all avenues of the incident, as it is a top priority," Sheriff Joe Arpaio said in a statement.

Kyle's girl friend

Elizabeth Booth was crowned 2009 football Homecoming Queen Friday at Green Forest and got a kiss from Matt Snyder, left, and Abel Reyes during pre-game ceremonies in Tiger gym.

This is my grandson Kyle's girl friend even if these boys are stealing a kiss.

I want

one of my sisters has helped the other with her I WANT list. The trouble with a I want list is the "I". We need to learn that some of the things I want is not necessary what we should do The human condition is such that the "I" gets in the way of the "WE" in other words some of the things I want is not the things that will benefit all concerned.
When I was a baby I might see something I wanted but my parents had to decide if what I wanted was the best for me. When we grow up we should be able to decide for our selves if the thing I want is the thing that I need or perhaps what I want soon will be the thing I don't want.

working on the machine.

Google has gone crazy. I always use their search engine today they don't have a search button! I have noticed when I do a search google always says hit the return button to save time. My key board doesn't have a return button but I was able to search with a search in my top tool bar. I ask what is the return button, guess what? it is the enter key. so if google doesn't give me a search button I can just hit the enter button.
I told sister I was glad to learn this because sometimes of late our mouse has been freezing up, she said take the bottom off of the mouse so I took the bottom off and blew it out with canned air. I saw one piece of lint go flying so maybe my problem is fixed. We will see.

chickens

The temperature is 45 degrees and cool this morning. The chickens are ready for breakfast when I arrive . The sun is shining bold and bright.

OH O

I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. "Do you need some help?" I asked. She replied, "I knew I should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?" "Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an alarm, too?" I asked. "No, just this remote thingy," she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, "Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk."

Monday

The hatchery chicks are 20 weeks old now but this rooster and the two pullets are 23 weeks old and are from my bantam hen's hatch. The red hen in the middle is

about ready to start laying note the red comb. The rooster and the black/grey pullet are the off springs of my Rhode island red bantam and the big rooster I had last year. I find it interesting that they have inherited the bantam gene and will be no bigger than their mother.

Did you ever wonder?

About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and the countries that do are mostly old British colonies. This strange quirk perplexes the rest of the world; however, there is a perfectly good reason. Up to the late 1700s, everybody traveled on the left side of the road because it's the sensible option for feudal, violent societies of mostly right handed people. jousting Knights with their lances under their right arm naturally passed on each other's right, and if you passed a stranger on the road you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between yourself and him. Revolutionary France, however, overturned this practice as part of its sweeping social rethink. A change was carried out all over continental Europe by Napoleon. The reason it changed under Napoleon was because he was left handed; his armies had to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and any opponent. From then on, any part colonized by the French was right hand. In America, the French colonized the southern states (Louisiana for instance) and the Canadian east coast (Quebec also the Martismens -formerly known as Arcadia). The Dutch colonized New York (or New Amsterdam). The Spanish and Portuguese colonies the southern Americas. So the British were a minority in shaping the "traffic". USA adopted the drive-on-the-right policy, which was anxious to cast off all remaining links with its British colonial past. Once America drove on the right, left-side driving was ultimately doomed. If you wanted a good reliable vehicle, you bought American; for a period they only manufactured right-hand-drive cars. From then on many countries changed out of necessity.

red headed ladies are molting

The red headed ladies are molting and I am only getting a couple of eggs a day. Molting is the process that all chickens go thro' every fall where they shed their old feathers and grow new. I think these sexling hens are about the hardest molting chickens I have ever known.

The one hen in the photo has lost a few feathers right behind her tail but the other hen with the white feathers showing is in full molt. I suspect but have not been able to get any information about this that the molt being heavy is tied to how many eggs the hen lay in a year in other words the heavier the molt the better layer the hen is.

I base this on my experince with the bantam chickens they didn't lay as well as the red headed ladies and their molt was not as heavy. I also think the heavy molt is connected to the fact that the red headed ladies don't set or go thro' a brooding process. The heavy egg producing chicken has had the brooding trait breed out and therefore lay more eggs but I think the molt and brooding is connected I mean if a hen is prone to be broody she will not have a heavy molt.

I see photos on the net of chickens that are kept in pens for commercial egg laying and they are nearly naked when they molt some think this is because of their living conditions but I suspect that it is because they are breed for heavy production.

Some people believe that the commerical houses starve the hens to make them all molt at the same time but my hens have all the feed and water that will take and they have molted all at the same time.

saturday

This is one of the 4 pullets that the bantam hen raised for me and as I was out feeding this morning the rooster covered her so she should start laying soon. They are 22 weeks old.

Janet is going to take me to the library today. I am out of any books to read.

news story

sometimes the cable news shows just make me want to scream. I was watching msnbc news cause daughter had the computer and these two really slick, good looking news persons were discussing the Letterman SCANDAL, saying what would the fall out be for Letterman? would he be sued? would he lose his job? They were trying to make some big thing about nothing, with all the important things going on this was the BIG story today. The news persons were young women and they didn't have a 1/2 of a brain between the two of them.
If Letterman was watching he was thinking HMMM wonder if I would have a shot with either of these gals?

Letterman

I read that David Letterman had been hit with an attempt of black mail. A person told him he had proof Letterman had had sex with some young women that worked for him and if he didn't pay 2 million dollars he would tell the world.
Letterman is 62 years old and the thing the blackmailer didn't under stand was that 62 year old men don't want to keep the fact hidden that they can have sex, they want everyone to know about it. If the blackmailer had said he had proof that Letterman had sex and for 2 million he would release the fact Letterman would have said do you want cash or check? Letterman refused to pay for silence as most 62 year old men would have and Letterman told the world!

Latisse

Have you seen the advertisement on television for the product, Latisse, this product will make your eyelashes grow. I can't imagine anyone would use this on their eyes. It can cause eye irritation, may turn blue eyes brown and no telling what else. How can anyone gamble with their eyes? No one is so blind as those who will not see!

grandchildren

I am counting our grandchildren.
I have 4.
Richard has 5.
Fleta has 4.
Helen has 9.which is as it should be since she is so crazy about grand children or maybe she is just crazy.
Betty has 4.
Clayton has ? I think Clayton has 3 maybe more.
Gilbert has 3.
I have 3 great grand children .
Richard has ? I know he has 1.
Clayton might have great grand children. I don't know
no one else has great grand children

stinging nettles

In the home where I grew up just over the fence going to the pond there used to be a weed we called stinging nettles.

Many of times I have found myself walking thro' the patch and if I was bare foot which I usually was I would have red bumps and rash on my feet and ankles.

I found on the net where people eat this weed but I never would because I remember how bad my feet burned when I came into contact with this weed.

I don't know if it still grows on the land where I grew up but it probably does.

The weed wasn't very tall and if you had shoes on your feet you didn't have a problem but in my childhood I usually went bare foot in the summer time and I had to remember to go around the nettles or suffer the pain of their sting.

wind

the wind is blowing this morning and the air is warm but thunderstorms are in the forecast .I went to feed and filled the water containers since they were getting low.

I have been reading all the extremist views on the net. From calling for a military over throw of Obama to placing adds on the net to kill our president.

It seems to me the the yelling extremist is the worst I have ever seen.

I think if you advocate the over throw of the government there is a good case to be made for treason.