RIP...Lulu

Well...my last Barred Rock chicken passed away today. She was about 6 years old or so. Probably 'or so'. I can't remember when we got her and her sisters. 6 years is pretty old for a chicken. Especially since most people eat theirs after about 2 years of laying. I have 4 hens and 1 roo left. These will live their last days in retirement. I have one still laying. I think it's my Salmon Leghorn. She's looking a bit sluggish, too. I haven't gotten an egg in a while, so it may be her who's laying.

At this time, mine are just layers. I'm considering raising the next batch for the freezer. I'd be doing the 'chicken tractor' thing to make it worthwhile to raise for meat. I need to get in touch with the abattoir to see what they charge to 'do them in' and prep for the freezer as I'm too much of a softie.

Now, if we're talking rats...that's a different story. I CAN 'do in' rats. ; )  Speaking of that, I haven't seen any rats for most of the summer. I haven't heard them in the coop nor seen them in the yard nor smelled them peeing anywhere nor seen them in the compost heap. I consider that a pretty good summer!

So long, Lulu. R.I.P.

Take care.

Stuff Around The House

Today was an eclectic day for us on our little homestead. First thing, we went to Tractor Supply for chicken feed and such. Next, we went to WalMart for some plastic containers. Then, we went to Lowe's for a valve. Then, we went to the flea market to buy veggies and fruits. Then, we stopped for a lottery ticket (can't hurt once in a while). Then, we went home.Woo Hoo! Home!

After lunch, we went outside to feed the chickens. They were pretty hungry by now. And we built a worm farm. Yes! I did it! A worm farm. That's what the plastic containers were for. We put a valve on the bottom one for the wee wee to come out of. We drilled holes in the bottom of another which fits inside the bottom one. Then we drilled some holes in the top for ventilation. Then, we built a stand and put it out of the way in a cool dry place. Now, we have to go worm shopping! They say Red Wigglers are a good variety to buy. The ones from the ground are not. Otherwise, we could use the ones in the compost heap. That should be fun to explain to people. Mr. Store Owner: Why do you need so many worms? Are you going to throw them in the lake and wait for the fish to come up so you can scoop them out? Har! Har!  Me: Well. If you must know...(pregnant pause)...I'm going to farm worms for compost and fertilizer. This way I won't have to come back to your fine establishment for fertilizer and fishing worms. Ha! Ha! (ka-ching!...saving money)

I fixed some soup with potatoes, ham, cabbage and dumplings for dinner tonight. It turned out pretty good considering I've never had anything like it before. Yes. I like to make up dinners. I also baked a pound cake from scratch. It goes well with the next item.

We went outside and picked about a pint of strawberries. I had some left over from last night's picking. We pick them just as they've turned red and they ripen over night. I sliced last night's up and put some sweetener to them. It's just about time for STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE!

Then, we went outside to pick off some rats. Missed them tonight. I guess I'm not that good today.

I hope you had a great day.

Take care.

RIP Mr. Rat

Since it's getting warm, the rats are coming back to the chicken coop for food. Actually, they've been hanging around all winter, since the weather was pretty mild. As I mentioned before, they're too smart for the traps. So Hubby sited in his air rifle this past weekend. He got it pretty accurate. He's the great white hunter in the house. I changed that today. I'm sorry to say that I shot my first four-legged furry mammal. It is not a good thing to kill, but I've been killing with the aid of a rat trap for years. I've reasoned that since I didn't watch the thing die, that it was OK to use a trap. Pretty lame, ain't it? What is really bad is it is faster to use a gun than it is to use a trap. I'm pretty accurate. I've always been pretty accurate since I was a kid. I really didn't expect to hit the little thing, but I did. I am sorry I did it, but I am also glad I did it. This was our second kill recently. There are babies coming in with them to feed. There are two babies which are a pretty good size right now. They're not at big as the parent, but almost there. We really need to keep these things under control this time. I tell you, we had about 30 of them when we had the chickens in the barn. I won't let it happen again.

Now, I'll be moping until tomorrow evening when we have to go after the younger ones.

Take care.

Another 'Not Much' Kind of Day

After our Sunday morning HGTV and DIY shows and our morning cuppa, we made our plans for the day.
"Agenda", as Hubby calls it. He was cutting and splitting firewood from the trees he cut down yesterday.

I did 'grenade brigade' and chucked that into the clean side of the compost bin. Then I raked up around the bin and tossed those leaves and twigs into the bin. Then I raked up pinestraw and put that on our dogs' graves. Then I turned the compost heap and limed it. Then I sifted compost from our black compost barrel. That was only about a 5 gallon bucket full.

Then we picked a handful of strawberries. We got two eggs.

THEN I told Hubby to get the pellet gun and get the rat in the chicken yard. He brought my BB gun and stung its little butt a couple of times before he ran off. I went across the ditch into the neighbor's yard to see where he went. He was alive and running in the pinestraw. Then he jumped and continued running. Hmmm. Stupid thing! Why did he jump? Hmmmm. Snake! There was a rat snake in his path and he didn't want to get eaten. Smart rat, eh?! THEN I got the brush axe and tried to chop Mr. Snake. Too much pinestraw and peat moss between the trees to do any damage. Oh, well. Maybe I got him. Maybe I didn't. Mr. Snake sunk under all of the pinestraw and never came back out.

Then I went to the neighbor's house to tell her what I did and to watch out if she goes into her flower gardens. She is deathly afraid of snakes, so I don't expect her to go out tomorrow. If she does, she'll be packin' heat. I need to get a small cap gun in case of a rattler. I wonder if Hubby would agree?

I guess I did a bit more than I thought I did. However, the house is not tidy, but some laundry got done.

Take care.

Night Walk

Tonight I asked Hubby to go on a night walk with me. I just finished baking a batch of double chocolate cookies and felt like taking a walk. It is hot inside and cool and windy outside. The temperature is about 75 degrees F, so it is really nice out. We took small flashlights and the dogs came too. We visited our back garden with the strawberry plants in it and our side garden with all of our tomatoes in it. We checked our driveway solar lights and replaced a couple that had fallen over. It is really neat to see how different everything looks at night. Our 'Eywa' is beautiful and swaying in the breeze. I wish I could get a good picture of it to show you! We checked our peach trees and oak trees that we transplanted a couple of months ago. The peach trees are in bloom. The oak trees are blooming and coming to leaf. We checked the chicken yard for rats...none there tonight. The chickens heard us talking and a couple of them gave out a little coo.

It sure is nice to live in the country. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else! If I HAD to live in the city, I'd make sure I had the whole yard in gardens and bird feeders. Luckily I don't HAVE to live in the city. No offense intended to anyone. I just don't see myself living in the city any more. I'm a country girl and love it!

Take care.

My Whole Other Rat Post - Or, Having Fun in The Dark

OK. I promise, for a while after this post, that I will not post anything more on rats. That is, until something interesting comes up. ; )

As I mentioned a few posts back, it is not all that easy to shoot rats. I don't mean with a shotgun or a rifle. That would be way too much firepower for these little things. I'm meaning with BB guns and pellet guns.

Now for the story...

Last year, hubby and I decided we'd had enough of the rats running rampant in our barn. First rule for building a barn: Do NOT insulate the walls. If you do, you're inviting rats to burrow into them and make nests. THEN you have millions of the little creatures running around everywhere.

A little about me. Way back, when I was very young, I was really good at shooting BB guns. I practiced with my brother's gun for a long time. Then, when I started dating, sometimes I'd go to an arcade with a boyfriend. I'd knock down a bunch of stuff at the shooting gallery and the BF always said someone else must've been doing that.

Fast forward 30-some years...Hubby and I went to a local farm store and bought me a BB gun. Brand-spanking-new! Just for me! He and I were going to shoot the rats in the barn and we were going to get rid of the buggers! Yeah! So, what did hubby and I decide to do? We decided to set up shop for nightly shoots.

Picture this: We set up our chairs and our supply of pellets and BBs beside us. We went out after dinner and took up our places. We had the lights out because we didn't want them to get spooked. So we waited in the dark and raised our guns. Ka-ting! Missed. Thwak! Missed. Ka-ting-ting-ting! Missed (ricochet). Thwak! Missed. Ka-ting! BB came back at me. Thwak! Pellet missed again. Ka-ting-ting! Thwak! Ka-ting! Thwak. All misses. We spent a couple of hours a night trying to shoot these moving targets, and didn't get a single one! It's pretty poor when you have a couple of seasoned small gun shooting senior citizens sitting in the dark, shooting at bunches of little moving targets that shouldn't be missed.

Who says you can't have fun in the dark?!

Why I Kill Rats

Awww! They ARE so cute. I love to watch them run around and play. However, here are my reasons for wanting them out of the coop.

1.  Once they establish, you will be overrun with them. All it takes is one litter to make a mess of your property.

2.  They chew holes through just about anything.

3.  They BM everywhere! You clean it, more BM shows up.

4.  They tinkle everywhere! You can't get the smell out of whatever they tinkle on.

5.  They shred insulation and carry it everywhere.

6.  They are fast! You can't shoot them easily. (This is a whole other post...maybe.)

7.  They eat everything except rat poison.

8.  They carry diseases, including rabies.

Yeah. I used to be a no-kill person until the day those 15 ran the rafters over my head. It would've been OK, but the roof was 6 foot high. The rafters were pretty low. The good thing is they are more afraid of me than I was of them and they ran like blue blazes. Now, if one would've fallen on my head, I'd probably have been institutionalized out of fright.

I hope you don't think bad of me for snapping them in a trap. They are REALLY a nuisance.

Take care.

P.S.  All bait suggestions are welcome. ; )

Drat that Rat! (Not for queasy stomachs.)

We have chickens. Therefore, we have rats! Yeah. The big buggers!

We don't have just any ol' rats. We have smart wood rats. We bought this to humanely catch and release them.

Humane Small Animal Trap

We baited with yummy peanut butter. We tried yummy bacon. We mixed peanut butter and seeds. We sprinkled a light trail to the trap. We did everything we could think of, baited with everything we thought a rat would find yummy, and the rats are way too smart to take the bait.

Then, we tried the rat poison blocks. I'm not keen on them because if your pet gets a hold of them, the Coumadin in the blocks could kill your babies. Now, if you have 15 rats climbing the rafters a few inches from your head when you walk into the coop, this sounds like a pretty good solution, right? Guess again. They wouldn't touch it.

Then, we tried the spring-loaded traps. We caught a few with these traps. This was our best weapon, but it wasn't foolproof. Yeah. They snapped the traps without getting caught and ate the bait. I even attached the bait with dental floss so they couldn't take the bait without snapping the trap. The rats wouldn't touch it so the fire ants ate all of that bait.

When's the best time to catch rats? In the winter when the fire ants aren't so active. Otherwise, you'll lose your bait to the ants by morning.

Sorry for the bad post, but such is the life on the little farmstead.

Take care.