Friday, January 11







Good morning from Cluckin A Critter Farm.

I guess if I have anything to do outside today I better get it done before noon, because around noon it is supposed to start raining. According to what Vick said, we should have rain for the next couple of days. One good thing…if it rained for a couple of days, the snow should all melt and go downstream. I won’t really miss the snow, because we’ve had more than enough for the entire year in the two snowstorms that we’ve had already. I would just assume it would melt and then stay cold until spring without any snow on the ground.

Yesterday I received my Dragon voice recognition software that I will use to dictate my books. In fact, I’m using the software right now to do this morning’s blog. It’s extremely neat because you don’t have to do any typing…just simply sit back and think about what you want to say, say it and the program types it for you. It is so much quicker than the old conventional use of the keyboard. There is a slight learning curve though because you must set up a profile of yourself so the software can recognize your voice and what you’re saying. Sometimes it does not recognize the word you say, but types something which sounds similar. Therefore, you end up with a sentence that doesn’t make any sense and looks funny until you back and make the correction.

On a new note…it looks like we have got the upper hand on the problem in the chicken Coop. As of last evening when we put the birds away for the night, we found only two that had eyes swollen shut. All the rest were back to normal, so we will continue to use the medication in the water for another day or so and pull the eggs and throw them out. We would not sell them to customers until four days passed the time we remove the medication from the water. At that time the medication should be out of the chickens system and the eggs will then be suitable to sell customers again.

Oddly enough, the ducks never seem to get sick or are affected by anything. They can dig through the most miserable muck and slop or muddy water with no worries about becoming sick.

The turkeys are doing well, because we keep them separated from everything and everyone else. We have found long ago…that if you allow the turkeys and chickens to mingle together, the turkeys will always become sick from the chicken droppings. We therefore have a separate pasture pen for the turkeys to come out and peck around all day long without mingling with chickens.

This is the time of year that all we have to do is feed the animals and clean the barns, while waiting for spring to arrive.

Once spring arrives, we planned to build the farm store, which we’ve already planned. For now it’s a waiting game.

While we’re waiting, Vick and I are going to do our exercise and weight reduction program in the basement on the treadmill and elliptical runner. I suppose we could even do a program on the bow flex. If nothing else I can do knee and leg strengthening exercises on the bow flex in the sitting position. At least we have the machines in the basement and we don’t have to go anywhere to do it, so we can plan a program for the same time every day. When the weather’s nice, Vick and I plan to walk on the road, stretching our time and distance to more and more every day. This is what we’ll do during the winter until spring arrives when we can get out and be busy doing other things on the farm again.


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053030 Cluckin' "A" Critter Farm, LLC

2 comments:

  1. Hi guys, Just wanted to drop by and say hello. I'm happy to hear that the chickens are under control, it sounds like you've worked hard to care for them and you've done a good job. Good luck with the exercise and weight reduction program. It is good that you have each other to keep up your motivation. With love, M

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    1. Hi Margaret, I think we do finally have the chicken problem under control. I think it was a respiratory cold type problem. Unfortunately we won't be able to use the eggs for about four days once we quit using the antibiotic, but that's better than losing chickens. As far as the weight loss thing, that will remain to be seen… Thanks for your comment, Skip and Vick

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