rachels.haven's Journal

[Latestarter]

Oh... being unemployed is no problem at all for medical issues... obamacare fixed all of that so that everyone can get medical care and medications virtually free of charge. If you can't, it's probably because you have some income and insurance. If you don't have income or insurance, then you're gonna owe the govt a fine (tax) for not buying their policy.

 

[Bruce]

The requirement/fine for not having insurance no longer exists.

 

[Latestarter]

The govt/VA sent me my "insurance coverage" notification and proof to "retain for my records" for 2017 tax season...

 

[Bruce]

The new tax law pushed through at the very end of last year so no one would be able to plan ahead takes effect for the 2018 tax year. You would still need to keep all tax records for the prior 5 (or is it 7??) years in case you get audited for one of those years.

 

[rachels.haven]

Not much more going on now. I had to de-rabbit due to my immune issues. Even outdoors they were problematic for me. A bit of a bummer, but my mother got to sell them. Plus, she was short on does before, and now she has some nice ones. Lots of musocvy duckings growing into juevie ducks. Not so many chicks. We had a five day power outage starting with an ice storm on hatch day because our power and infrastructure is done by Detroit's energy company and they're over extended at all times and they don't maintain anything other than the minimum so power goes out at the drop of a hat like just a little ice storm. I'm a little annoyed. I'm a little annoyed every time it does this (and it does this multiple times a year), although this time it was above freezing during the day and we had a place to go that wasn't freezing, and we drained and turned off our plumbing just in case. Nothing burst, so it could be worse, I guess.

My amazing husband built a goat shed...and the children claimed it. I guess we'll be building another one behind it. The kids want their's painted orange. Lol. Not happening. I'm thinking blue like the house, or dark green.

On Saturday I cleared a whole bunch of trees of heaven unintentionally. I meant to only cut down three that were in the way while DH was working on the shed, but they were all connected with buckthorn vines all the way up so three, which I could have handled, became five then became twelve so we didn't have any already cut trees partially suspended above the ground and waiting like traps. Unfortunately when I was done making the trees lay down my joints were done for the day (and the next day), so processing the trees is waiting for this Saturday.

Then DH took a look at one of the shorter trees (still two or three times taller than him), grabbed one of the more robust vines, and pulled the tree half way over. I'm starting to wonder if there may be a better way to do this for the shorter trees. I forget that for all their height, these trees really have no root system apart from the rhizome they clone themselves with. Plus, if we pull them, there are no stumps. I think later this week DH going to go pull more of them down. Right now it's a little humid and hot for him to do it after riding 16 miles to work, then 16 home on his bike like he likes to, and I don't want him to get tired and make stupid mistakes. That's what saturdays are for. We'll be back out there in a few days, cutting and pulling and processing and burning.

On a different note, does anyone know if Wintercreeper is okay for goats? So far I've found mixed opinions. I've found documentation of people using goats to control it, but other species in the genus are toxic, so I'm not sure what to decide. I have a bunch to roundup if it's bad. I know kids shouldn't eat it in quantity, but it's kind of tough and brushy so I'm not sure why they would.

Pictures later. My acre is a mess right now because of me and quite frankly I am embarrassed.

 

[RollingAcres]

Hello @rachels.haven! I just started reading your journal and your pictures are very nice!
We currently have 2 hens and 2 cows. I'm thinking about adding a couple of ducks but maybe not this year.

 

[rachels.haven]

Well, if you want meat, muscovy are my favorite so far. Pekins grow faster (twice as fast in fact), but muscovy is like beef and they don't get as messy, reproduce better, eat less, are quieter, and have more personality in the breeders. For just eggs, Metzer's hybrids can't be beat or khaki campbells like I have now lay much better than any of my chickens and for some reason they go broody for me and reproduce just fine. Most of the hatcheries just drop ship Metzer's birds, so that's the main reason I mention them.

I love my ducks, and definitely endorse your plan. The only drawback is the sloppy factor. Also that for the mallard types you basically only need one drake for between 6 and 12 ducks unless you wind up with a really low key guy.
But overall, they're nice, intelligent, sloppy, hedonistic birds that are beautiful and just fun to watch.

 

[RollingAcres]

I think I'd want them for eggs. I don't want a drake because I don't plan on having ducklings (although they are so cute!) so not point having one.
We have room to add on and can have more animals but everything comes down to the mighty dollar. With DH not having a job right now, we have to focus on what we have now.

 

[Bruce]

Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is known by a number of names - stinking sumac, Chinese sumac, varnishtree and stinktree.

Seems to be something you WANT to get rid of.

https://www.nature.org/ourinitiativ...ndiana/journeywithnature/tree-of-heaven-1.xml

 

[rachels.haven]

You totally don't want this to grow anywhere near your property-or any of your neighbors' properties for miles. It's really kind of evil. Round up works on it when it's short enough to spray, but the rhizomes cause poisonous mushrooms to come up for a few years after. I do not like them.