Spicy or Mild?

God it's hot. Here's what we are dealing with and I swear its even hotter than 102 degrees. That lovely red exclamation mark isn't a thunderstorm advisory. That my friends is a heat advisory saying to stay your ass indoors. I can't do it anymore, I just can't. I live outside when I'm not rotting in the box(work) and this weather just makes me grumpy. 


Not only that, it's like a full time job trying to keep these ladies from frying. I read on the Poultry Forum that a few people have lost chickens yesterday and today from the heat. I go to great lengths to keep mine alive. The following are tips you can do to keep your ladies healthy in this heat. 


*A box fan on high in the shade with a bag or block of ice in front of it. It acts like a swamp cooler in some ways and cools the air significantly around that area, sometimes even ten-fifteen degrees. The girls even like to stand on the ice and cool their feet while the fan blows on them. I do this when it's deadly hot like today, over a hundred degrees. And I happened to find a nice man who sells ice for 99 cents. What what. 
Exhibit A: I think Bridget even has goose bumps. 

*Electrolytes in their water(any feed store should have these for poultry)

*Lots of Shade!

*I have a mister that is set on a timer. It goes off twice a day. I put the box fan by it and the girls love it. It also cools the area around and when the mister is off, the ground is still wet. They like to put their little bellies on the moist ground and that cools them as well. 

Here's the set up I use. It's high tech I tell ya. 

*Cold frozen treats. Stick a cucumber or tomato in the freezer and let it freeze. Give it to them and they will be your best friend. 

*Ice in their waterer

I have yet to lose one so far. Last year was ridiculously hot and this year is looking like it's going to be the same. Grrrrr.

How to Plant Grass Seed

The past two days I have been busy planting grass seed in the back. To plant seed, follow these easy steps:

 

Cheap

About a week ago, I was in the front yard and I heard a crazy sound coming from the backyard. It was a bit windy that day and the sound was like walking up creaky stairs in an old fixer upper. I walked in the back yard to check it out and much to my surprise it was a slightly leaning tree making that horrific noise. It was so loud and had a huge crack in it that I knew with the next rain(ha ha good one, it never rains here) that tree was coming down right on the coop fence. Ugh. I called the tree surgeon and unfortunately they like to charge a specialist kind of copay if you know what I am saying. 

Excuse the wobbly footage, I tried to be fancy and tilt and well, the iPhone doesn't tilt. 

So, we procrastinated on actually having it removed last week.  Ok, Ok, we were cheap and didn't want to spend the money. Remember, we are saving up for something big in October (more on that later) and wouldn't you know, yesterday it rained hard in this overheated drought-ridden city. 

I wasn't home when it fell, I was actually at therapy discussing much smaller problems. Had I known this disaster was brewing in my backyard, I may have spent that hour bitching about this tree and how much I hate it. When I left therapy, I knew it had fallen. I think even during the session I said "this rain is giving me anxiety, I have a creaky tree." I should have been a psychic. I got home, slowly peered in the back and wham....... in my face.....Son of a cheap ass. 

Hackberry Horror

Something or Someone must have been looking out for us. Seriously, this tree could not have landed in a more perfect spot. It grazed the the coop and missed the fence by less than a tenth of an inch. Lessoned learned Mr. Hackberry, lesson learned. 

3 weeks..................

Girls are getting big, 3 weeks old today. I moved them outside a few days ago with a light to keep them warm at night. I moved them out a lot earlier this time because I came home one day at lunch to check on them and Mutt was having a field day in the laundry room. She's an early bloomer with a super high vertical jump and while on parole decided to poop everywhere. I realized it was time to give the new coop a run for it's money and I must admit it's sooooo much easier having them outside. They love the new digs and love to scratch around finding new bugs and taking dust baths. All of them are feathering out nicely and I think, hopefully, all of them are female. 

So I may have been on the news today......

And I may need a chin implant..................


Me and the Girls are Famous! (Click on this)

You Lik-a my Melon.

Watermelon......... silly 

Yeah, I grew it. What? 

All You can Eat Tomato Buffet

So I'm kicking some ass at growing tomatoes right. I mean Killin' it. The tomato plants are huge and flowering and the tomatoes are just now starting to turn a fresh kissed hue. I came home yesterday and WTF. What the hell is this?

Something is chowing down on these tomatoes like an all you can eat buffet. Uh Uh. I really thought it was a mama bird taking snacks back for her brood of young baby birds that have moved into our siding directly above this tomato plant, but then I noticed something Funk-ay on the concrete. 

This. is. Poop(that ok Mom). 
Weird shit I have never seen before and directly below the tomato plant. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was responsible for this. I fumbled around the plant looking for more tomatoes that had been mutilated and couldn't find anything. Stumped, I got up and turned away from the plant and saw something that hasn't made me jump and scream like a little girl since I called 911 on that humongous rat snake in the yard. Seriously, not much can scare me other than snakes and taking a shower alone in the house since watching Psycho and seeing Janet Leigh killed, but this thing, this mutant I witnessed going to town on my tomato did it.  It was bigger than my hand I swear. Exhibit A:

Look at the teeth on this thing and it trying to stealthily blend in with the plant is so sly.  

Anyway, I did a little research and found out it is a Tomato Hornworm. Seriously, no one warned me about these things. Anyway, I need to figure out a way to get rid of it humanely before I snap it in half with a shovel like my mom and dad used to do with snakes in the yard when we were younger. Yowser.