After trying to get to the poultry houses for the last week, we finally got to it around 8 pm last night. It has been too hot on the days we could do it and then we were doing errands on the days it was cooler for the most part. But in about an hour both the turkeys and the chickens had new clean made houses. They were not that bad to do as I always put a bale of pine shavings down first and then a bale or two of straw in.I put the truckload of cleanings into the garden in a pile so it can be tilled into the soil when Fall comes. I was going to wait until this morning to unload, but I had the funny feeling it was going to rain and boy did it rain. I was very glad I did not have wet heavy manure in my truck when I woke up this morning.
All of us were out playing with the pigs again when my bf went up to feed them. They are sure getting big. One of them is getting tame enough that when she was laying down, she let me open her mouth so I could look inside. I guess it is the vet tech in me who wanted to see how the mouth was put together and how many teeth they had.One of them is still making that "squeaking" noise with her mouth. I have heard another one do it since. My bf thinks they are grinding their teeth. I am pretty sure it is not teeth grinding, which in animals is usually a sign of pain. It is almost a 'squish-squish-squeak' noise. It is almost, but not really like a horse who windsucks. Anyone else ever hear of this before? How do they do it? I think they are doing it when they are happy.
I need to check on birthdates for my Californian rabbit does. I think I can breed them soon, which means in November we can have rabbit meat for the table. I am not sure I REALLY want to do the next following butchering in February though. To me it is still strange to butcher out around the season as compared to when I lived in Oregon. I somehow REALLY do not want to milk or butcher January-early March.
OK.. this is the strangest phone call from my mom yet. She came up and visited me for the first time in 5 years and stayed 9 days earlier in July.
She calls last night and the first thing she says to me, is she is not sure how to say something without insulting me. Fearing the worst.. I am thinking it is probably something to do about our house or something I did. I was totally thrown for a loop when she told me to quit bleaching my teeth. "WHAT?!?!?!?!" I say to myself? I say 'WHAT' again to her.
I do not bleach my teeth I tell her and I thought they needed to be cleaned again actually (I clean my own - I am a dental hygienist for many species - including root canals after all- albeit not for humans, but it is pretty much the same thing). She was amazed I have not been bleaching them with something. I have always had comments on my nice white teeth and maybe it is just not mom seeing me for 18 months or something.
The other thing I commented it may be, is that we have calcium in our water, which may also explain why more people are commenting on my 'pretty white teeth'.. or it is due to the brands of toothpastes I use or my homemade stuff. I 'promised' her I would drink more tea or start smoking. (NOT). But I think it may be her not being used to seeing me as often as I used to get compliments on them all the time when I lived in the States.
I need to get nestboxes ready for my hens. They ought to start laying soon. I pulled the 4 hole one out and set it to get some sunlight to disinfect (sun is a very good disinfectant for animal equipment if you did not know that. Always use it for at least 24 hours after you clean with whatever you clean with - I prefer 15% solution of Clorox bleach unscented, NEVER use Lysol.. it kills rabbits).
I may also start working on my gate sign for "Eggs for Sale". This one has to be 2 sided and I am not sure if I am going to put a Barred Rock on one side and a Dark Brahma on the other, if I am going to go with 'generic chicken' on both sides. It is kinda a Tole Painting thing I am doing, though I have actually never taken a Tole Painting class or know the adzact definition for Tole Painting. Maybe I will just call it 'tenzicut style'. but I anticipate that we will be getting close to 50 dozen eggs a month when they are in full laying mode and even the "Teenager" cannot possibly chow all those down.
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