Infinite are the arguments of chicken keepers
It’s that time of year again: the time when hippie chicken keepers claim that pumpkin is a natural chicken de-wormer. According to this bomb thrown into the Keeping Poultry at Home forum, probably not. Though, having read the article, I think the most you can say is not proven. Still, everyone’s chickens love pumpkins, so why not?
Except mine. My flock has an irrational fear of large, frightening vegetables. I hung a cabbage in their run once (a thing you’re supposed to do to keep them amused) and they didn’t come out of the henhouse for three days. Until I made the horrible thing go away.
A big orange beachball puking seeds would probably give them avian PTSD.
October 11, 2016 — 6:42 pm
Comments: 8
it’s all relative
My Sweet America is a Belgian shop that offers American delicacies (the picture is a capture of their FaceBook page header).
A new shop, My Sweet America, hopes to take away all of that angst by adding a new ingredient: American-style customer service.
“By living in the USA, I really learned what customer service means,” explained James, the shop owner, in a recent interview. A native of France, the owner and his (Belgian) wife have lived in New York City and Los Angeles for the past several years…
You got that? They learned the true meaning of customer service by living in Los Angeles and New York City. Oh, my sides! That gives you a glimpse what it’s like in France and Belgium.
Unfortunately, while the FaceBook link above works, their shop seems to be down, and the site I found it on doesn’t want to let me link directly to the article. Hell’s yes it matters — they do mail order! I’d kill for a proper PopTart (our local supermarket has them, but it only carries the gross flavors like Chocolate and S’Mores).
On a related note, I ordered some Benadryl off eBay this week. Did you know you can’t buy Benadryl as an antihistamine any more, just as a sleep aid? Fun fact. Anyways, I ordered some in bulk from a seller called uksleep expecting them to ship from the UK (duh), only to find they shipped from Texas.
Second class, three days, free shipping. I ordered Sunday, got the notice it had shipped on Monday and got my order today. The world of international shipping is a confusing but sometimes gratifying place these days.
October 6, 2016 — 8:01 pm
Comments: 15
Okay, *now* they’ve lost me
Well. So. They’ve spent the past year or so taking pictures of themselves with kittens to soften their image and attract new recruits(!). Now senior clerics have issued a fatwa against cats.
Raising cats indoors, anyhow. They’ve been going door to door in Mosul confiscating kittens.
“ISIS have issued a fatwa against cats because they say the animals are against a jihadist’s ‘vision, ideology and beliefs’.”
THEY’VE COME FOR THE KITTENS! ULULULULU!
October 5, 2016 — 8:07 pm
Comments: 11
The lean season is upon us
The old girls have stopped laying completely. The young ones have banked it down. Six chickens, one egg a day.
To be fair, head chicken is molting, headcase chicken never lays more than a dozen a year and I don’t know what’s wrong with Vita. I switched from pellets to crumb and that didn’t work out so good, so I’ve switched back.
The cold is upon us and there are feathers everywhere.
Here’s a nice little article from Modern Farmer on the Inner Lives of Chickens.
Do Chickens Have Feelings?
Yes, says British researcher Jo Edgar, who determined that hens, at least, experience empathy. He designed an experiment that simulated chick stress and found that the mother hens behaved as if they themselves were experiencing the pain—a classic sign of empathy. Chickens are also known to display mourning behavior when another chicken in the flock dies, and they will show signs of depression if they are removed from the flock and placed in solitary quarters.
Also hens are notoriously promiscuous, typically mating with several roosters at a time. They have the unique ability to eject the sperm of inferior roosters after copulation[!], however, ensuring that their genes will be coupled only with the most studly cock around.
And A surprising number of people suffer from fear of chickens, a condition known as alektorophobia. My mother-in-law is a chickenphobe. Also my nephew, which was fun — Mapp had a fine time chasing him all over the garden.
And
Recent research has shown that chickens can distinguish between more than 100 faces of their own species and of humans, so they know who you are and will remember you if you treat them badly. They’ve demonstrated complex problem-solving skills and have super-sensory powers, such as telescopic eyesight (like birds of prey) and nearly 360-degree vision (like owls). Chickens are the closest living relatives of the Tyrannosaurus rex (researchers determined this in 2007 by testing proteins from a particularly well-preserved T-rex leg bone), and they outnumber human beings on the planet 3 to 1.
So, you know. Watch yourself. The Time of Chooks may be at hand.
October 4, 2016 — 5:53 pm
Comments: 10
Hm. Something’s missing.
I don’t usually bring work home with me, but I did this weekend. I set aside Saturday night, so my Sunday would be clear for loafing, sat down, cracked my knuckles and…Windows update!
If you haven’t had this one yet, it’s a ball-buster. It took two hours and forty-five on my machine, though I’m pretty sure it locked up halfway through. Sure enough that I did a hard reset and crossed my fingers that it wouldn’t mess up the whole business.
It didn’t, I don’t think. Most of the things it has updated are (apparently) things I don’t give a shit about — like touchscreen issues. But it did move everything around my start menu (um, thanks?) and look at my clock. JUST LOOK AT IT!!!
Black type on dark gray. Yes, it’s a known issue. Yes, easy fix. But isn’t that just Windows Update all over?
Budget time carefully before you let this one start.
October 3, 2016 — 7:10 pm
Comments: 15
Well, that was quick
How many dicks does this make, Catnip? Or is it impolite to ask?
Anyway, y’all know what this means. Back here Friday,
6WBT. Dead Pool Round 88!
October 2, 2016 — 9:23 pm
Comments: 7
G’night, my imaginary internet friends!
Oof. Terribly sorry, you guys. I can’t even muster the energy for a cat or chicken post. This bug has really taken it out of me.
I’m for my bath (with eucalyptus oil!) and my bed. But I won’t forget…
Be here. 6WBT. Dead Pool!
September 29, 2016 — 9:00 pm
Comments: 7
Beta test!
CD Projekt RED, the Polish company who made the Witcher games, is hoping to break out the in-game card game Gwent into a standalone tournament game. I signed up for the beta, because of course I did. I love beta testing, with a special emphasis on breaking shit.
I’ve broken this one a couple of times, but I don’t see any place to brag about it. Perhaps because this isn’t even the beta — that’s scheduled for late October. This is a pre-beta effort to punish the servers and see what they’ll take. It’s not even keeping score. It’s no fun if they don’t keep score.
I’d say they have a ways to go to compete with Hearthstone — which I have also played since the closed beta. Though, to be honest, I’ve kind of dropped out of Hearthstone at the moment. One too many expansion packs have overwhelmed my limited ability to do sums in my head.
Oh, they said it was okay to post screenshots, but to bear in mind that a lot will change.
Me? Better by the day. Went in to work this morning. Still not fully myself, though.
September 27, 2016 — 8:29 pm
Comments: 1
Green Man in SPAAAAACE
From the New Cathedral in Salamanca, Spain. The New Cathedral was built between the 16th and 18th Centuries. The Old Cathedral is late 12th C. So, old.
The astronaut was added, along with some other figures, in a renovation in the 1990s. I was going to slam the artist for the clumsiness of the carving but, after an images search, this appears to be its unfinished state. It gets better. And then, at one point, looks damaged and old. I dunno what that’s about.
I like his “demon eating an icecream cone” better. They call it a faun, but it has prehensile clawed back legs, so nuh-uh.
All of which puts me in mind of Darth Vader at the National Cathedral in Washington.
I am getting steadily better, thanks. Went in to work for a few minutes today and managed not to bump into anyone (but sent out lots of emails from the work account so everyone knew I’d been in.
They don’t call me ‘weasel’ for my excess facial hair).
Looking forward to a weekend of glorious loafing. Hope you are too!
September 23, 2016 — 9:01 pm
Comments: 5
Happy Equinox! It just gets darker and colder from here!
There. I’m out of my nightly lavender-and-eucalyptus soak and feeling somewhat less like The Dearly Departed.
Classic FM played three interesting songs while I was in the bath. In 1875, a St Petersburg music magazine commissioned Tchaikovsky to write twelve little piano pieces, one for each month of the year, then published one each month to their readership.
That’s right. Tchaikovsky was once a magazine giveaway, like spoons or model train bits or Franklin Collectibles.
Nothing new under the sun. Except the part about Tchaikovsky.
September 22, 2016 — 9:43 pm
Comments: 5