COLD

[Boondox]

Kevin -- I work at a coffee roaster that's heavily into Fair Trade Organics. Every year we fly some of the farmers up here to northern VT to show them what we do with their crop. Last winter half a dozen flew in from Guatemala in the middle of a snowstorm. They'd never seen snow before and had a blast chasing flakes...for about one minute. Then they realized how cold they were and had to borrow about three jackets apiece!

Pete

 

[RichZ]

Re: REALLY COLD

Stew them???!!!/w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif I would have a hard enough time killing any critter I've raised, but one that I've had for TWO YEARS???

Nope, not for us!! When our chickens stop laying, we've got little tiny chaise lounges for them to retire to. I know we'll have LOTS of unproductive chickens, but we get attached to them. I try to stop my wife from naming them!!/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[Wingnut]

Kevin .... my wife is from Texas - worse yet, the gulf coast .... lived 99.9% of her life there before I moved her to Edmonton and then Michigan ....
you can just imagine the amount of whining I hear (and not from the vehicles trying to start)

For some reason, when I brought up snowmobiling last night, she didn't seem overly anxious to go with me this weekend ....

pete

 

[Wingnut]

Re: REALLY COLD

Rich
[blueI try to stop my wife from naming them!! </font color=blue>
don't! Well, as long as she gives them names like "tasty", "lunch", "kfc", etc.

Sorry ... couldn't resist ... my wife is the same .... fortunately, she hasn't caught onto the facts that all chickens are small as she goes ga-ga over anything "miniature" ... I'm now fightling a losing battle over miniature llamas.
(I will get a phone call any minute to tell me how the horses were this morning when she did the morining chores ... like it'll be any different than any other cold morning)

 

[RichZ]

Re: REALLY COLD

Pete, I have a friend who named a rabbit "Stew", so she could say..."Here's my rabbit Stew"!/w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

We also almost got into Llamas, but I didn't know there were minature llamas. Only alpacas, which are unbelievably expensive!!

We were considering getting into llamas to sell their fiber, but found the market is very limited, and extremely difficult to make a profit on alone.

 

[Wingnut]

Re: REALLY COLD

I was assured by others, Rich, that miniature llames were called alpacas .... in other words, there was no such thing .... so, <font color=blue>of course</font color=blue> my wife opens my latest issue of Farm Show up to a page wherein a Texas guy is profiled. He raises miniature llames. Made miniature, of course, just like our horses ... breeding down. He was/is 5'2" and wanted llames but the "regular" ones are too tall. The article mentions an association for these critters. There aren't a lot of them yet ... and - just like the ostrich fad - the breeding stock is quite expensive ... he just sold a pregnant female for $3300 ... and that's the lowest price he's gotten.
Carolyn used the same "we can sell the wool" argument .. but I have heard all that before with ostriches ... so I told her that after she shows me a signed long term contract, I'll consider it ... /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif.
I've got nothing against llamas .. but I am not running a pack train so I see even less use for them than the horses we now have .... you work to feed them, you work to clean away the "processed food" and, in between, you look out the window occassionally to see what they're up to.
At least chickens give you eggs ... and ... ammunition for your deep fryer (unless you name them)

 

[Boondox]

Re: REALLY COLD

Rich -- I married an accountant, so when the hens stop laying (but keep eating) she does the quarterly cost benefit analysis and the unproductive birds go into the freezer (which, by the way, is warmer than the outside air right now!).

Names tell me a lot. The wife is in charge of naming things. If it has a cute name (like Tuppence), I know it will have a long life. Likewise if it has a name related to a function (like the goats named Briggs and Stratton), it will have a long -- if not pampered -- life. But if a chicken has a name like Stew, or Fricassie...there is no doubt how it will end up.

When considering breeds of sheep, we went with Icelandics. Big time browsers that do well on brush and meadow grass. No culinary fussiness to drive up the food bill. A primitive breed less susceptible to diseases. Decent wool and excellent meat. But my bet is they'll have cute names...

Pete

 

[rancar]

Re: REALLY COLD

Thanks Pete! I'm going to look into this for sections of PVC water lines I have running in the crawlspace to my kitchen and laundry.

....Bob

 

[Boondox]

Re: REALLY COLD

Bob -- Another thing. It takes a special tool to install the stuff. Wicked expensive! My advice is to negotiate with the place you buy PEX to borrow/rent their tool.

Pete

 

[RichZ]

Re: REALLY COLD

Well, Pete, I'm not so sure that you can easily sell llama wool. We were considering getting llamas two years ago. All the breeders told us that you could get $10/ounce for the wool. Yeah, right. I asked them where, and they all just started to mumble. We checked all kinds of markets, spinner clubs, farmer markets, wool markets, we checked with the cooperative extension. You name it we checked it. We just couldn't find a market. Llamas are neat animals, we may eventually get a pair as pets, but the only way to make money is to sell the crias (babies) to other people, and that market has to eventually bottom out.