The 'Burbs

Tom Tuttle Got Clobbered!

feeds@yuku.com (hornfrog) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:30:45 GMT

As I have mentioned, I broke my hip after having knee surgery this summer and the whole summer has been an experience "non parallel!" Stuck mostly in the house for three months is a first for my entire life! And feeling completely useless the whole time, I might add. All the while I was recuperating, my poor wife has had to take care of our chickens without much help from me. I kept watching the chickens from my back porch rocker while she fed and watered them, gathering eggs, etc....

what the local officials are expecting this fall

feeds@yuku.com (southern utah) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:32:11 GMT

I had a Search and Rescure meeting last night 8/5/2009 and we had the secratary of the local FEMA/Civil Defence there to talk to us. They are looking for a flu outbreak this fall worse than there has been in the last 80 years. She said she didn't want to start a panic just wanted us to be aware and prepare for the possibility. Flu is expected to start as the weather becomes colder and more people are indoors and not out in the heat of summer...

Making More Room for Your Supplies

feeds@yuku.com (plodder) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:37:29 GMT

About three days after Katrina we began making the big decision about just what we wanted to do when the immediate crisis would end -- should we do whatever we would have to do to continue living in New Orleans or should we move to another town? We were living in an undamaged, unflooded house in the 20% of town that is above sea level. While we had 13 months left on the lease, we knew that rents and utilities were going to really take off. Rents in our neighborhood have almost tripled since...

Tom Tuttle of Tarzan, Texas

feeds@yuku.com (hornfrog) — Mon, 25 May 2009 20:32:57 GMT

The chickens are almost 2 months old. My wife has named several of the flock. The single rooster I ordered, a Barred Rock, she named Tom Tuttle of Tarzan, Texas. How did she come up with that name you ask? A character that John Candy played in a movie with Tom Hanks, Candy's character was named Tom Tuttle of Tacoma, Washington. For aliteration's sake all those "Ts" make a silly name to laugh at. She has named a handful of the 20 hens, also. A Houdan hen is named Hoodoo,...

Chicks came last Monday!

feeds@yuku.com (hornfrog) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:00:52 GMT

The chicks that I preordered way back in January came on the 30th of March. I ordered 25 chicks from MacMurray Poultry. They give you a free "exotic" to make it a total of 26. However, one small chick, a bantam, was smothered and dead when I opened the box. Three more have died since the 30th. All of these were bantams. I have learned now not to mix an order with standard size chicks and bantams because the banties are just too little to compete with the larger standard chicks. I...

Chickens Ordered For Spring

feeds@yuku.com (hornfrog) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:04:44 GMT

Thought I'd add something to the old Burb section. I've preordered my 25 baby chicks from MacMurray Hatchery to come at the end of March. Then, my 30 guineas are to come at the first of June since they need warmer temps to start out. I am building a chicken wire fence to give the birds a bigger yard than the old coop includes and it will connect with the goat yard. I can let them into the goat yard so they can take advantage of left...

WaterBOB - New Urban Survival Item

feeds@yuku.com (silverstate51) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 08:51:41 GMT

Here's a nifty and useful item. The WaterBOB is a liner for your bathtub, turning it into a giant canteen. Many times I've heard people say they would fill their bathtub and use the water from it during an emergency. But I would always wonder about chemical residue from cleaning the tub (my wife likes a clean house), or "ring around the bathtub/drinking water" . This seems to eliminate those worries.
The "Bathtub Oblong Bladder" will hold as much as 100...

Yes. I Survived Ike.

feeds@yuku.com (Lucas The Tucas) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:38:13 GMT

I live on the Texas Gulf Coast.

I live about 50 miles from the water. So, no tidal surge here. Just 120 plus mph winds and 9.75" of rain. With hurricane force winds for about 8-9 hours.

I had the eye of Ike pass over my house early Saturday morning. And it knocked out power. For only 3.5 days here.
And Internet 4 days also. My old generator is broke and my parents live close by and I used theirs to charge up my freezer.
Now before next hurricane season,...

Best tent?

feeds@yuku.com (Pantalaimon1) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:26:00 GMT

Last time when Tara was in England with us, she bought a super tent from Blacks. But I was wondering what other good alternatives there are, because there's such good technology going into tent making now and really - they're quite cheap, some of them.

How do you keep cool when there's no power?

feeds@yuku.com (silverstate51) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 09:29:46 GMT

Asking for your input... What are some practical methods of keeping the house cool when the power is out? Picture a situation where a disaster has forced you to move to a location without electrical power or A/C. This is no previously prepared bug-out location, so no easy "I'd use my solar powered/wind turbine system that I had so smartly prepositioned" replies please. Use of water would need to be limited, and would either be scarce or polluted (figure a desert or a post...

Home canning and freezing

feeds@yuku.com (Kev Mullins) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:42:48 GMT

Who's doing both and how much are you putting up?

I've canned 52 quarts of beans thus far and have been working on corn tonight. Pickles and apples are next....

Goats & Snakes!

feeds@yuku.com (hornfrog) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:13:36 GMT

I have not written anything about the developments at my small place in the country lately. So, just a little update for anyone interested: I did get two pygmy goats Monday afternoon. They are definately charming and have won us over. We want to get a couple more and maybe a small mini-burro for coyote protection to put in with the goats.

Someone ran over a grown rattlesnake on the paving in front of our place a week or so ago. That sent a bit of a chill through us, though we knew...

Clever solar cooker

feeds@yuku.com (PoppiBear) — Wed, 28 May 2008 12:14:31 GMT

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/nature/solar-cooker.shtml

Just had an earthquake

feeds@yuku.com (Pantalaimon1) — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:02:20 GMT

It's always disconcerting when one's chair begins to move of its own accord. Mumboo said if an earthquake goes on for more than 5 seconds - hoof it! But the tremor though lasting 3 seconds was enough to make me want to go home.

Lyra

Growing Our Own Food!

feeds@yuku.com (hornfrog) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:59:01 GMT

I have watched the news with some degree of alarm because of the recession and the food shortages (food shortages mostly overseas but speculatively possible here, too).

With this news in mind, not only are we planting a typical garden of things we usually have when we do a vegetable garden but we are also planting items that store well. That includes acorn squash to store in a cool area of the barn and some of the corn to be dried and then ground into meal. In the last several...

Our Wee Bonnie Croft

feeds@yuku.com (hornfrog) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:33:51 GMT

Its been a while since I have posted but I must confess that my little place in the country (my wife calls it "our wee bonnie croft") has needed so much work that I just seem not to have time for much except working around here. It is fun, though! Just keeping up with the mowing this spring has been a big deal. I need a full fledged tractor with a mower attachment (we call them brushhogs). I just tilled up the garden with a garden tiller and planted thornless blackberries,...

cover vs concealment

feeds@yuku.com (Vlad) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:33:59 GMT

http://tinyurl.com/36ahnc

Pls scroll down to the video
Cover vs concealment

Wheat Grinder for MixMaster

feeds@yuku.com (silverstate51) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 09:12:57 GMT

I'm considering getting my good wife an electric wheat/grain grinder, and I'd appreciate suggestions. I currently have an excellent hand powered grinder, but my better half would like to be able to grind some flour without having to wait for me.
With that in mind, Mix Master make an attachment for their mixer (which we have) that I was considering. This would be smaller than the dedicated grinders I've been looking at, but I wonder how well it would work. Anyone?

Leaf blowers

feeds@yuku.com (TaraBallerina) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 14:45:59 GMT

Best leaf blower is a dead leaf blower.

Theys make a deffening noise. Speshully whne I want a lie in as I remmber once in where I livved before our neighbour had hers going full pelt, and hwne nowt, she had a strimmer.

Strimmer. No words best des cribe them things. But nun better than putting quiet with a sly teas spoon of sugar in its petrol...

How to Hotwire a car

feeds@yuku.com (Pantalaimon1) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:01:27 GMT

Hotwiring is an illegal activity even here in Kalymnos but when youve lost your ignition keys, its pouring with rain even and you want to get home then heres my way of getting mobile again. Im merely writing this for Education purposes: all part of my home schooling activity.

First and foremost, hotwiring a car can be considered a serious crime....