gone to the dogs

how to give a dog a pill

Or at least, how to give my dog a pill.

1. Put some plain live yogurt in her dog dish, make sure she sees this.  Maybe give her a lick the first time, so that she knows what it is.
2. Chop up some beefstick or other meat.  Make sure she sees this.  
3. Get out the pill -- antibiotic in our case, hence the yogurt.
4. Set out the yogurt, treats, and pill where she can see it all.
5. With a helper, open her mouth and push the pill down her gullet. 
6. Give her lots of treats, by hand, into her mouth -- you want her to associate your hand in her mouth with good things.
7. Give her the bowl of yogurt. 

The first time we did this, it took both adults and lots of dog-wrastling.  After 5 doses, I can do it alone and she doesn't resist at all.  She has figured out the the pill is the necessary preliminary to the beefstick and the yogurt.

Poppyseed

Introducing Poppyseed Chandler b. 4.13.12 adopted 8.7.12

She's a first generation YorkiPoo and she'll be the kids' dog, as Nutmeg only has eyes for me.

DIY Chicken Coop or Chicken Tractor Plans

Several springs ago, as some of you recall, my kids and I built a chicken coop using these plans.

It worked really well for us as the building plans included step-by-step instructions and we were really proud of the outcome.

Then our chickies grew and grew and outgrew their coop. This was my fault as I kept buying new baby chickies. So we retro-fitted the creamery and moved the hens into it. As winter storms blew in (well just one, back in November, but it was a doozy), we were glad that the hens weren't in the Catawaba Coop as it would not have sustained them during the arctic out-flows that we endure here. So, cautionary note #1: don't build this if you get significant windchill in your winters and if you are in an exposed area or open country. The plans are much more suited for urban use.

I spent the winter thinking that the coop was built for naught (though we had a great time and learned a lot about building). Then last week I bought off of Craigslist three grown hens and the Coop became useful again. I don't know what I would have done without it as it provides perfect housing for new birds. They spent several days inside of it and all the hens had henny sqaubbles through the fenced sides. When that died down, I let them out and they are slowly starting to integrate with the flock.

We also have 5 baby chicks in the chickery right now, and they too will use the Catawaba Coop when they are ready to move outside. I'll raise it up a bit on one end so that they can scoot in and out but the big bully hens cannot. This will allow the pullets the joy of yard-grazing and provide a safe haven.

If you are looking to build chicken housing, and if you can keep yourself from buying more than 4 chickies (good luck with that), you can't go wrong with the Catawaba Coop plans, with these caveats:

• buy 1 more length of 1x4 than called for.
• skip the whole angle iron business and simple get some 1x1 from the trim department.
• skip the difficult-to-cut and easily-split shims and find something to substitute in the trim department.
• if you live in the Pacific Northwest, make sure that any part that will touch the ground is cedar

I did notice that the current plans have been updated from when I bought them. These concerns may have been addressed in the update.

Nutmeg's First Grooming

Here is Nutmeg before her first grooming.  This was an indoor shot.  

And here she is after. She is super-fluffed due to the blow-drying, but it has settled down into ringlets.  This was her professional grooming right before Christmas.  

 

A couple of weeks later, I redid everything -- it was way easier than I thought.  I recommend, if you are new to dog grooming, to get it done the first time by someone who has a clue, and then start doing touch-ups right away, while you can still see the lines of the first trimmings.

pics

rooster smack-down

Rooster has been posturing and posing at me through the kitchen windows.  He gets me in his sights and puffs out at me and crows in a that way he has -- you know, that "Come out here and do my bidding way", but I just ignore him and tend to my business.

Today, however, I was in the yard when he started doing this.  I was dressed for it -- chore boots, barn coat etc., so I stood my ground.  He jumped up; I deflected him.  Okay, I kicked him if you really want to know.  But he kept coming back! 

This is not good.  In the World of Rooster, whoever walks away from a fight is a big weeny and will be chased down and spurred in the back of the legs.  No matter how I puffed at him (spread my coat wide and flapped it) or kicked him, he wouldn't back off.  I couldn't walk away, nor could I persuade him to. 

What to do . . .

Oh right! My rooster was working in the barn. Oh Jamie . . . .

Three good deflections and a small and humble rooster slunk off to the far corner of the yard where he got very interested in a small blade of grass.

I just saw him through the kitchen window.  We caught each other's eyes and he humbly turned aside, no longer interested in expanding his territory to include the house-hens, as he sees us. 

Because the internet was invented for the posting of pictures of one's pets

 

I have a friend that lost both her kitties last summer (so sad! so unfair!) and then got a puppy and is now considering getting kittens.  Obviously, I say "Do it!"

the beaky report: not really scissor beak after all

If you know us in RL, you know that we are trying to rehome our hen Beaky, cleverly named for her malformed beak.  We took her to the vet where we rendezvoused with her prospective new mama and learned that she had lice (the hen, not the new mama), which was a deal-postponer for the new (maybe) mama, and quite understandably.  We did learn that she had broken her beak and that there is nothing to be done for her other than some trimming.  I got tutored in trimming and we got some good feeding ideas.


On the way home we bought some poultry dusting powder (Prozap Garden & Poultry Dust) and then caught, dangled upside down, and powdered all 17 birds, which is no small task.  That was two days ago.  Today we inspected, and saw no lice. 

To feed her, we add some water to the regular chicken feed to make a thin mash. (I know my regular readers are probably not interested, but I am posting the details for the hen care-giver who may be reading and needs to know. I know I would have appreciated some info.)  We then lure her into the abandoned chicken ark and serve her her mash.  She can eat it, as she can lap it up with her tongue; her beak has no pinching abilities whatsoever.  We close her in there so that the big girls cannot pester her.  After about an hour, we let her out, if we are home.  If we aren't, so be it. It's a nice ark and being confined in it beats starving.

We are still hoping that the prospective new mama will be able to take her.  We'll do a lice check in a few weeks and we'll know more then.

And just so you know, lice are species specific.  These lice eat feathers.  As none of us have feathers, we are not in danger of infestations.  Still, the minute the vet mentioned lice, my skin started to crawl.  I felt really negligient that she even had lice.  For some reason I thought that by sprinkling Diatomaceous Earth around their hen-house I was parasite-proofing them.  Apparently not.

chicken roost or coop plans

You know that chickens are the new black, right? Everyone who is anyone has urban poultry these days. Apparently chicken coop plans are the #1 reason people visit my blog, according to the new blogger statistics. So, you chicken coop builder wanna-bes, here is what you want to order if you are planning on 3-4 hens:

And if you want more hens than that (and you probably will) you want this book, Building Chicken Coops For Dummies:

R.I.P. Holly

April 9, 1996 to July 9, 2010

Parsley

Was lost.  But she is home now.  I'll just leave her picture up because she's so pretty.

We got home at 3 am from a family reunion.  Pictures some other time.  Must nap.

a mish-mash: mother's day, scissor beak, pullets (teenage chickens) roosting on goats, garden report

We had a great Mother's Day. First my children made this lovely meal for me.  Then we went to church (where our pastor incorporated LOST into the sermon -- he's very cool) and then to my Mom's for the day.  We brunched and weed-eated and pruned and hedged and raked and swept and roasted hot dogs and came home tired.  This was much better than our previous holiday (Easter) where we swept and cleaned and cooked and ate and ran off to ER to hang out with Dad and Mom.  Dad had driven his van into the house and broken  his van, his chair, his femur, his ankle, the screendoor and his renter's shiny new BBQ.

Our pullets are growing and have discovered a new roost.  The near pullet is sound asleep and doesn't wake up as Alex wanders about.  Alas one of our pullets has scissor beak.  We are still checking, but we doubt that much can be done for her.  When she starts to starve we'll have to put her down.  Just exactly how this works I don't want to think about.  And speaking of impending sorrow, our beloved Joy (13 year-old house-rabbit) has a rapidly growing lump.

On to good news: the asparagus we planted has come up. We have nine raised vegetable beds, all full. Andy is having a great time with baseball; he hits almost every game. I am deep-purging the house (every cupboard, every storage bin, every sock drawer, nothing is safe) in preparation for a big garage sale and to raise money for my van; we've outgrown our station wagon.

We are having a beautiful spring with a just the right mix of rainy days (indoor work gets done) and sunny days (outdoor work).  Some days are a mix of both.

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DIY Chicken Coop Plans

Check out these excellent free plans for an A-frame chicken ark.

Of course, if you are looking for a more elegant home for your egg machines, you want these plans: 

firsts

Two big firsts in our lives today.

1) My Dad drove himself out to our house and drove himself home.  The last time he did this was Dec. 13, 2006.  He used to come out a couple times a week and hang out with the kids and give me a little break.  Oh how I have missed this. 

He has his learner's permit again and a good vehicle with all the adaptations.  If all goes well he will pass his driving test and will once again be a frequent mid-day visitor at our house.

2) Our chickies spent the afternoon outside.  They loved it.  When we brought them in they all fell over in little heaps of sleepy fluff.  I think we wore them out.  The two in the foreground are Americunas, the one behind them is a Golden-Laced Wyanndotte.

And as a bonus, here are two of my three new Gold-Penciled Hamburgs.  Aren't they pretty?

femivore

One of my students called me a femivore in his final essay.  A what?  I only eat females?  I am a female who eats?  I am a feminist (ha!) that eats? What does he mean? 

Being well-trained, he kindly provided a definition along with his specialty jargon. 

Orenstein defines femivores as women who have renounced the consumer culture and have made the home a self-sustaining center of labor and livelihood.  These women typically grew their own vegetables, kept chickens, canned their fruit and stuffed sausages. A majority home-schooled their kids and derived their income by working on-line (Lisiecki).

Ah, yes, that is me.  But who is Orenstein?

Peggy Orenstein is the author of (among other things) a March 14, 2010 article in the New York Times, The Femivore's Dilemma, giving attention-- and a new name -- to those of us that in a previous generation would have been called home-makers. Ree Drummond over at Pioneer Woman is a classic example of a femivore, complete with the Black Heels to Tractor Wheels story line.

It's a great article; you should read it.  It's also a great life-style; you should try it.

My prediction?  All the County Extension courses are going to have record enrollments this year.  If I weren't so busy growing my own vegetables, keeping chickens, canning fruit, home-schooling my kids, and earning my living on-line, I'd apply to the County Extension office for a teaching position.  I actually know where my Master Food Preserver badge is. 

mean nasty rooster

As we have a rooster who can be quite aggressive, I've been reviewing my rooster lore.  And just in case you also need this info, here is my top pick: The Easy Chicken for Beginners teaches us all we need to know about being an Alpha rooster.

Happy Birthday to Joy and Bliss, our geriatric house-bunnies

On March 9, 1997, these two were born and came to live at our house a few weeks later.  They turn 13 today and we will be enjoying a carrot cake in their honor.

They enjoy a small private room with a window and a view inside, and a gated netted bunny palace outside on pleasant days.  Apparently this suits them as they have far exceeded the expected life-span of house-rabbits.

Catawaba Chicken Coop Plans

Last spring, as some of you recall, my kids and I built a chicken coop using these plans.

It worked really well for us as the building plans included step-by-step instructions and we were really proud of the outcome.


Then our chickies grew and grew and outgrew their coop. This was my fault as I kept buying new baby chickies. So we retro-fitted the creamery and moved the hens into it. As winter storms blew in (well just one, back in November, but it was a doozy), we were glad that the hens weren't in the Catawaba Coop as it would not have sustained them during the arctic out-flows that we endure here. So, cautionary note #1: don't build this if you get significant windchill in your winters and if you are in an exposed area or open country. The plans are much more suited for urban use.

I spent the winter thinking that the coop was built for naught (though we had a great time and learned a lot about building). Then last week I bought off of Craigslist three grown hens and the Coop became useful again. I don't know what I would have done without it as it provides perfect housing for new birds. They spent several days inside of it and all the hens had henny sqaubbles through the fenced sides. When that died down, I let them out and they are slowly starting to integrate with the flock.

We also have 5 baby chicks in the chickery right now, and they too will use the Catawaba Coop when they are ready to move outside. I'll raise it up a bit on one end so that they can scoot in and out but the big bully hens cannot. This will allow the pullets the joy of yard-grazing and provide a safe haven.

If you are looking to build chicken housing, and if you can keep yourself from buying more than 4 chickies (good luck with that), you can't go wrong with the Catawaba Coop plans, with these caveats:

• buy 1 more length of 1x4 than called for.
• skip the whole angle iron business and simple get some 1x1 from the trim department.
• skip the difficult-to-cut and easily-split shims and find something to substitute in the trim department.
• if you live in the Pacific Northwest, make sure that any part that will touch the ground is cedar

I did notice that the current plans have been updated from when I bought them. These concerns may have been addressed in the update.

chickie season is upon us

So brace yourself for non-stop chickie posts.

Tonight we picked up three little day-old ameraucanas are peeping under the heat lamp.Note the pretty egg colors.




Tomorrow, I am picking up some Gold Penciled Hamburgs, full-grown and laying.

Next Wednesday, we'll fetch up 2-3 Golden Wyanndotes. That will bring us to 5-6 in our first of two rounds of chickies.














Then we have to wait until the end of March for the second round. I found some Lakenvelders available on March 24. I'm hoping to find some of these by then, to put them in the nursery with the Lakenvelders:

Barnvelders
Black Australorps
Buff Catalanas
Cream Brahanter
Spangled Russian Orloff
Sicilian Buttercup
Silver-Penciled Egyptian Fayoumi
Silver-Spangled Spitzhauben
Welsummers
White Faced Black Spanish


I can mail-order them from specialty hatcheries, but I can't meet the minimums. Want to go in on some with me?


Here is what we have, in case you are curious:

• Black Polish Crested (1 hen, 1 roo)
• Gold SexLink (1 hen)
• Rhode Island Reds (2 hens)
• California Grey (2 hens)
• Barred Rocks (2 hens)