Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

I moved one cage of quail tonight. Still need to get the tarp backing up where I'm planning to stack the cages, but otherwise they can be brought over. Goal is to move the rest of the quail and the non-water resistant items tomorrow night after work.

Found a fresh pee spot next to the cat litter box. Took away the charitable thoughts I had been thinking about the dog after she and the cat got along decently around dinner. They got within nose sniffing distance before the cat freaked out and scared the dog. Took care of the spot and started getting ready for bed, and there's a pee spot right next to my side of the bed, dry. Had to have happened this morning or yesterday. Took care of that too before I could get in bed. Hopefully tomorrow is better. I don't think she's telling us she has to go, I think she's just finding a spot and going.

 

[Baymule]

Crate her in the house and take her outside to potty. Or let her out and see if she goes somewhere in the house. Then you can catch her in the act, pop her with a newspaper and hustle her outside. For some reason, little dogs seem to to potty in the house more than big dogs. My sister has a herd of aging little dogs, at one time she had 9, they all peed in the house, right in the entry way. Tile floors, easy to clean and mop, but still. I think she has 5 or 6 now.

This is a new home to her, she may be out of sorts. Try the crate, work with her and help her adjust. Then it may be that she has that little dog thing that she sneaks off to go potty somewhere.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

She's never been crate trained though. That's why I've been locking her in the laundry room when we aren't home, it's vinyl so easy to clean. I got some puppy pads when I did the animals last night and put one out. She's been trained on puppy pads. Hopefully today will be better.

 

[thistlebloom]

A pair of oversized overalls, or even coveralls would be super handy to just put on over your work clothes. I have insulated overalls that have side zippers so they can be put on and off without taking my boots off. I use them for work during messy spring and fall cleanups, and also at home in the winter. Best cold weather clothing I've ever bought for staying warm and relatively clean.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

We moved the rest of the quail tonight; they were freaked out by the move but they all got their water and feed topped off, and fresh dust bath sand. They made it super dusty in the quail container.

I need to make name plates for the cages, so I don't get them mixed up; I had them memorized by location before. There's three groups of adult Celadons, but I think they are mostly males. I think I was only planning to keep 2 males, so I need to go through them all and pick the lucky pair, the rest will go to freezer camp. Of the total (15), I've only ever received 2 eggs max in a day, so I think camp will be well attended.

Rabbits and plants are next, but I'm hoping we can do those on Saturday or Sunday in the daylight.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Spent the first part of the morning running errands and buying fence posts and fencing. Husband doesn't want the rabbits and plants by the quail in the center of the driveway circle because he doesn't want a wonky fence, so we had to figure out a different place to put them.

Finally chose behind the shed and small storage container, but there were several trees he downed last week we still needed to chop up and move out of the way. There's a few more we still need to fall too. So instead of installing a fence and prepping for rabbits we spent the rest of the day chainsawing and disassembling the trees. We will have lots of firewood once it is seasoned; the stack on the right is about 4' tall. We finally stopped when it got dark, still have more to finish tomorrow. I'm tired.

 

[Mike CHS]

It's usually a good idea to get rid of trees you want down before you build the fence. I have done it in reverse and wound up rebuilding fence.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

It's usually a good idea to get rid of trees you want down before you build the fence. I have done it in reverse and wound up rebuilding fence.

Yep, that's why we focused on the trees today. There's still one more close to the storage container that husband is worried about falling because it's close to the container and has a curve to it? I guess curved trees fall different. There's talk between husband and my brother about attaching a chain to the tree and to a truck to pull as it's cut to force it to fall where he wants it.

I think there's 3-4 more that we need to remove before we start on the fence tomorrow. I'm hoping we can get it done so we can start moving the rabbits before dark.

 

[Baymule]

When pulling a tree the direction you want it to fall, it is safer to run the rope around a tree in the way you want it to fall, then off to the side where the tractor or truck won't get struck by the fatting tree.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

When pulling a tree the direction you want it to fall, it is safer to run the rope around a tree in the way you want it to fall, then off to the side where the tractor or truck won't get struck by the fatting tree.

I think if we can find a pulley, we can pull it towards another tree (that needs to fall) so the truck isn't directly in the way the tree is going to fall. That's husband's department, I'm just there to help disassemble the tree. I need to find my lopers, so I can cut up some more of the branches, there's a few he didn't get with the chainsaw that are big enough to be good kindling/fire start.

He wants to do a burn pile to get rid of the really small stuff, I'd prefer to chop it a bit and then mix with the rabbit manure or poultry manure to make compost. I think it's going to depend on the next rain and who gets to the pile first.