Because our previous brooder was punctured by Dia, (inflatable wading pool) I built a new one out of plywood. It's 27in x 48in and 18in high.
And some pics, and a video.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
New babies!
Our new box of chicks came in!
Because our previous brooder was punctured by Dia, (inflatable wading pool) I built a new one out of plywood. It's 27in x 48in and 18in high.
And some pics, and a video.
Because our previous brooder was punctured by Dia, (inflatable wading pool) I built a new one out of plywood. It's 27in x 48in and 18in high.
And some pics, and a video.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Bathroom remodeling part 1
One of our planned winter projects was to remodel the guest bathroom. It has blue and pink pastel TEXTURED wallpaper, and gold accessories (towel rack, toilet paper holder, facet, etc). It also has MOLD destroying a a piece of drywall next to the shower, where the shower used to leak and instead of fixing it, the previous owners just caulked the shower (shoddily) and wallpapered over the mold.
So here is part one of the work. And let me take this moment to BEG any homeowners out there... please please please do not ever wallpaper anything. Seriously. Anyone who wallpapers should have to remove it themselves.
Before:
Ripping down wallpaper: We used hot water, a smidge of fabric softener, and a sponge.
Scrapping off glue. The WORST part by far. Same thing... hot water and a sponge, and a putty knife.
So here is part one of the work. And let me take this moment to BEG any homeowners out there... please please please do not ever wallpaper anything. Seriously. Anyone who wallpapers should have to remove it themselves.
Before:
Ripping down wallpaper: We used hot water, a smidge of fabric softener, and a sponge.
Scrapping off glue. The WORST part by far. Same thing... hot water and a sponge, and a putty knife.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Animal fostering
So, in the poll, one of the most requested topics was fostering! So here's the rundown on fostering:
The animal shelter here has application where you fill out what kind of animal you'd be willing to foster, and any stipulations you may have. Cat or dog, momma with babies, pregnant momma, would you foster a sick animal, be willing to do behavioral training, nurse an orphan, etc etc.
We said that we would take small dogs, heartworm dogs, and cats and kittens.
Dogs that have heartworm are treated with shots of poison. The poison kills the worms, which break off from the heart and enter the blood stream. Exercise will cause the heart to pump faster and bigger pieces to break off, causing clots. The clots can cause heart attacks and strokes. Therefor, dogs being treated for heartworm need to be kept calm, and mostly crated. They need to be leash walked and crated for about two weeks. Dogs can't catch heartworm from each other because it is mosquito borne only.
Our first fosters were a pair of adult male cats who had gone on a hunger strike in the shelter. One of them was near death, and in my opinion was just waiting to die. He didn't eat or drink anything for three days... no using the litter box, not even moving. I held him down and squirted food in his mouth via a syringe. After day three I took him back to the shelter where they put him on an IV and gave him shots of vitamins and iron. He bounced back quickly after that. They were both covered in scabs from fleas. They also had nasty respiratory viruses. Most cats at my local shelter get respiratory viruses when they come in. It's hard to contain them because there are so many cats squeezed into such a small area.
After however long it takes to get the animal ready to be adopted, the animal goes back to the shelter to try to find it's forever home! I am pleased to report that my foster babies both found homes in less than a month!
So you want to foster a cat from the shelter and have other cats at home? This is what you need:
A room you can isolate the foster in. We use the guest bedroom, but any room is fine. Somewhere without wall to wall carpeting is best in case they have an accident. Many cats will have a bacterial infection, and it can make them pee outside the box. Cover porous furniture in the room with towels for the same reason.
A litter box with unscented clumping litter for adults or NON-clumping litter for kittens. Kittens will eat litter and you don't want them to eat the clumping litter. Bad news.
For cats that refuse to eat... heat up wet cat food. If the smelly wet cat food won't even get it, try meat baby food.
If they have nasty congestion, rub a warm wet towel on their nose to try to open it up. They're more likely to eat if they can smell the food.
If you have another cat in the house, wash your hands like a crazy person. Change your shirt after holding the foster.
Give the foster lots of attention. Find something to do in the room you're keeping it in. Attention will help sick cats eat and socialize kittens.
The animal shelter here has application where you fill out what kind of animal you'd be willing to foster, and any stipulations you may have. Cat or dog, momma with babies, pregnant momma, would you foster a sick animal, be willing to do behavioral training, nurse an orphan, etc etc.
We said that we would take small dogs, heartworm dogs, and cats and kittens.
Dogs that have heartworm are treated with shots of poison. The poison kills the worms, which break off from the heart and enter the blood stream. Exercise will cause the heart to pump faster and bigger pieces to break off, causing clots. The clots can cause heart attacks and strokes. Therefor, dogs being treated for heartworm need to be kept calm, and mostly crated. They need to be leash walked and crated for about two weeks. Dogs can't catch heartworm from each other because it is mosquito borne only.
Our first fosters were a pair of adult male cats who had gone on a hunger strike in the shelter. One of them was near death, and in my opinion was just waiting to die. He didn't eat or drink anything for three days... no using the litter box, not even moving. I held him down and squirted food in his mouth via a syringe. After day three I took him back to the shelter where they put him on an IV and gave him shots of vitamins and iron. He bounced back quickly after that. They were both covered in scabs from fleas. They also had nasty respiratory viruses. Most cats at my local shelter get respiratory viruses when they come in. It's hard to contain them because there are so many cats squeezed into such a small area.
After however long it takes to get the animal ready to be adopted, the animal goes back to the shelter to try to find it's forever home! I am pleased to report that my foster babies both found homes in less than a month!
So you want to foster a cat from the shelter and have other cats at home? This is what you need:
A room you can isolate the foster in. We use the guest bedroom, but any room is fine. Somewhere without wall to wall carpeting is best in case they have an accident. Many cats will have a bacterial infection, and it can make them pee outside the box. Cover porous furniture in the room with towels for the same reason.
A litter box with unscented clumping litter for adults or NON-clumping litter for kittens. Kittens will eat litter and you don't want them to eat the clumping litter. Bad news.
For cats that refuse to eat... heat up wet cat food. If the smelly wet cat food won't even get it, try meat baby food.
If they have nasty congestion, rub a warm wet towel on their nose to try to open it up. They're more likely to eat if they can smell the food.
If you have another cat in the house, wash your hands like a crazy person. Change your shirt after holding the foster.
Give the foster lots of attention. Find something to do in the room you're keeping it in. Attention will help sick cats eat and socialize kittens.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Incubation!
Sorry again for the delayed update... life at The Gnome has become very much day-job oriented around here. We haven't started building the coop yet because we have a friend who has a mess of wood at his place that he's giving us, but right now it's not accessible because it's on a steep hill, and right now it's so muddy from the massive snow and then the melt we can't get the truck up the hill. After the next big freeze we'll go up there. I'm thinking about making it considerably larger since the wood is so long... considering putting the chicks in the kiddie pool again in the basement and making a separate, very large coop outside. We'll see what happens when we get the wood here.
Another friend of ours has Cuckoo Marans that he hatches and gave us about 15 hatching eggs. They look very much like Barred Rocks but a bit blurrier and lay very dark chocolate colored eggs. Wikipedia Article Here
We warmed up the incubator and are trying them out. He thinks we'll be lucky to get half of them to hatch because it was so cold when they were laid some of them were half frozen by the time he collected them.
The eggs are incubated at 99-101 degrees for 21 days or so.
Another friend of ours has Cuckoo Marans that he hatches and gave us about 15 hatching eggs. They look very much like Barred Rocks but a bit blurrier and lay very dark chocolate colored eggs. Wikipedia Article Here
We warmed up the incubator and are trying them out. He thinks we'll be lucky to get half of them to hatch because it was so cold when they were laid some of them were half frozen by the time he collected them.
The eggs are incubated at 99-101 degrees for 21 days or so.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Snow
First big snow of the season... roads are horrific.
And a new wonderful dog chew... the cow trachea.
And a new wonderful dog chew... the cow trachea.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
New Truck
Roger's car died. The transmission has been giving him troubles, and he was planning on trading in his car soon, but the transmission just gave out on a busy state road on his way home from work last week. He was lucky enough that a work friend of his was behind him and stopped to give him a ride back to the house where he called a tow truck.
A few days later, we were on our way to the car dealerships and he started the car and it was running! So he figured he'd try to drive it to the dealer instead of having it towed. I followed him and every time he stopped he stalled. Finally he wasn't able to get it moving for several minutes (while I'm cursing that I'm going to have to help him push it out of the road). He got it moving and pulled into Sam's Club, where we left it and drove to the dealer in my car. We didn't call for a tow because we felt that showing up with a towed car would make us look desperate.
At the Ford dealer we had picked out a truck the day before... a 2008 Ranger. As we pulled into the lot someone was pulling out to test drive it!! So, we didn't get the Ranger. We test drove two 2006 Ford F150s, and settled on the one that was more expensive but had far less miles. It's a manual, and I can't drive a manual, but Rog said he'd teach me.
They bought the neon SIGHT UNSEEN for $1500, even after we told them that they would need to have it towed. We brought lots of pictures, but we never thought we'd get that much, especially without them even inspecting the car.
Here's the Ford:
A few days later, we were on our way to the car dealerships and he started the car and it was running! So he figured he'd try to drive it to the dealer instead of having it towed. I followed him and every time he stopped he stalled. Finally he wasn't able to get it moving for several minutes (while I'm cursing that I'm going to have to help him push it out of the road). He got it moving and pulled into Sam's Club, where we left it and drove to the dealer in my car. We didn't call for a tow because we felt that showing up with a towed car would make us look desperate.
At the Ford dealer we had picked out a truck the day before... a 2008 Ranger. As we pulled into the lot someone was pulling out to test drive it!! So, we didn't get the Ranger. We test drove two 2006 Ford F150s, and settled on the one that was more expensive but had far less miles. It's a manual, and I can't drive a manual, but Rog said he'd teach me.
They bought the neon SIGHT UNSEEN for $1500, even after we told them that they would need to have it towed. We brought lots of pictures, but we never thought we'd get that much, especially without them even inspecting the car.
Here's the Ford:
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