Bruce's Journal

[Bruce]

I suppose I should put in a Zeus update. This is from mid October when he was 5.5 months old. He has decided he should be randy even though only one girl is still laying. Short stutter step dance then run around back. He is getting chased off by the bigger hens but I'm a bit nervous about Mint. She is small, an Exchequer Leghorn with really bad hips. She can walk straight OK but turning or walking backwards is difficult and slow. I am afraid he'll jump her and do in her hips entirely.

 

[farmerjan]

Scrolling through some of the posts, it has been 3 months since you updated... glad they got the furnace situation fixed for you... both money and wear and tear and aggravation saved now.
How did the potatoes turn out? Quantities? The pictures of them in the tires were great...
Ice on the pond with 17 degree temps... BRRRR.
Kinda glad I no longer live up north for the temps....

 

[farmerjan]

Zeus has turned in to a real attractive rooster...

 

[Bruce]

Yep ice on the pond.
Had 2 white "tire" potatoes go bad in storage, I was afraid they would all go but the rest are fine. Those 2 must have had some "preexisting condition".

Onions and garlic in a box on the basement floor

 

[Ridgetop]

It unexplainably ran for them even though I had tried it a couple of times in the year prior.

That always happens for me. Once you finally get a repair date set up the darn thing works fine for them until they leave, then . . . ****!

 

[farmerjan]

@Bruce ..... Your potatoes did real good for only one "tire planted" for each color.... yeah, I had some already get a "soft spot" ... not quite going bad, or getting mushy smelly... and sometimes it is just a bruise when digging but often is from where they just had a problem from when you dug them. And the ones that got "damaged" I took to Tenn to @Mike CHS when I "ran down" to meet @Baymule in person, and Mike and his wife Teresa; gave them lots of different varieties to try, and knew they were smart enough to "get it" about small nicks and gouges from digging and could use them; and to do some "taste testing" on different varieties, and some to share with their neighbor raising their "great grand children".... rather than have some of them go bad here because who can eat all those potatoes I grew? Lots of the quarter to ping pong ball sized ones that are great in a soup or stew... halve or quarter and pop them in to cook skin and all... I have several bags here of them too... going to be alot of chicken stock and potatoes, instead of noodles, made this year out of the chicken carcasses left from the roast chickens....

 

[Baymule]

Those were some potatoes I’d never heard of! @farmerjan really planted a lot of different varieties! The yellow potatoes with blue skin were real pretty. I made a beef roast earlier this week in the crock pot and used a lot of them with carrots. Then I made a stew with the leftovers. Yummy!

 

[Ridgetop]

Can you feed potatoes that are getting soft or starting to spoil to sheep? I used to throw everything to the chickens but don't have chickens anymore. I used to cough for 2 months after cleaning the coop. Finally figured out I was allergic to bird dander. Probably genetic since my mother raised cage birds and developed bird lung!

 

[Baymule]

I’ve never given raw potatoes to sheep.

 

[Mini Horses]

I only give cooked potatoes,....