We got 3 live ones! The third was a good 10 hours behind the second, but I was happily surprised when a Welsh harlequin popped out. Now hoping it is female. You're supposed to be able to sex them visually by the bill color but I'm not confident at what I'm seeing.
I had 3 eggs that were good, and they all hatched. I started with 18. 5 were fertilized, after a week the bummers were removed after candling. 1 of the 5 was a quitter (stops development after a very short time, this one had a blood ring), and another was hard to tell so I let it go longer but it became clear later that it was also a quitter. I would like to add 1-4 females to my flock so they I can keep my flock young and start deciding on who to cull, or re-home. 6 hens is really more than enough for our family. I started with way more eggs than I wanted to keep, and I'm glad I did, because so many were infertile. I would also like to keep a mix of my mixed black ducks and the WHs so I initially incubated more t help my odds.
Not sure if this is the best place or in the home repair thread, or elsewhere, but solar panels and companies installing them...what should I look out for? pitfalls, issues and must have hardware and items in the contract? Trying to do research on the topic and almost all I find is the "sales pitch" or opinions.
I’d start by researching your local building and fire code requirements. There can be some specific things required like external cutoff switches, etc. If you educate yourself before talking to sales guys you might get a whiff of the bullshit when it arises. There’s an Aussie YouTuber named Dave who does the EEVblog that does some interesting stuff around solar. https://youtube.com/c/EevblogDave You may find it interesting to look at his solar episodes as he does a bit of a “my last 3 years with solar panels and electric cars” bit every now and then. He’s an Electrical Engineer with an interest, and I’ve found it interesting. There are probably better more focused youtube channels out there but I don’t know of any of them.
I'm glad you asked @AFHokie , I just talked to a guy about installation. It'll be better going in with intelligent questions when the design aspect comes up. Right now we are just in the initial questions stage.
My electric co-op has a pretty good page about new solar installation. Might check out yours to see if they have published info.
Well, it finally happened.... I found a mouse in the compost. It jumped out when I was adding something about a week or two ago. So, I put out the ol' bucket with some water and oil and a rolling log with peanut butter dabbed on. I dumped 3 mice this morning. I guess the bucket trap is a permanent fixture of the garden now. It was only a matter of time til they found my compost.
There's not quite enough sun on our house, but I'd love to get some solar panels on our barn and sell the energy back to NYSEG. However we have our money tied up in the geothermal right now. For now we subscribe to the company that has the solar arrays here in our town and our electric bills aren't quite as bad as many have complained about. Actually, they're pretty damn cheap according to my wife, who has called several times to make sure we're not going to get stuck with a huge bill at some point.
We love it. And we’ll love it even more when it’s paid off. For heating, they projected an additional $100 on our electric bill. I don’t think we ever hit that for heating. And even if we did, it’s cheaper than buying firewood or any fossil fuels. As for cooling, I just looked and if I’m putting in the correct electric rate, it only cost $16 in additional electric costs. And it does the job just as well as the central AC we had prior. What’s nice about this system is it constantly adjusts to meet the needs of the room. There’s no wild fluctuations in the temperature. You want it to be 68, the unit makes sure it stays there by adjusting the fan speed accordingly. It’s a huge investment, although arguably no more than buying a damn car, but well worth it and far better than loading an outdoor boiler in the freezing cold.
The only downside I would say was dealing with Dandelion Energy, who we first saw on an episode of This Old House. Had we known about the company that actually does the work in our area, we’d have gone with them instead. Turns out, Dandelion pulled up stakes in our part of the state already, and why? They couldn’t compete with the quality experience and workmanship of the very company that they subbed the work out to.
This winter I slipped on some ice in our goat pen and fell. I hit the ground hard, and for a moment thought for sure I'd broken my shoulder which would have rendered me useless at work as well as my other endeavors. Between that, and the rising cost of feed and hay, I decided that if I ever found a good home for them, I'd rehome them. But not just anyone. It had to be someone with experience, established with a vet, and promise they wouldn't butcher them. These things are tame as our dog and have loads of personality. Six plus months later, someone texted me and said they'd be interested in taking them from me. They'd recently lost their last horse and missed having animals. These people had all the qualifications and a beautiful barn. The goats would be loved and cared for the rest of their lives. But as we texted back and forth, I started getting upset. I've had these little shits since they were six weeks old and realized there is no way I can give them away. My wife said she didn't give a damn how much it cost to keep and feed them, so keep them. I felt like I was being flaky, but no, the people understood 100%. The wife said she'd only ever sold one horse years ago and regretted it ever since. So now I have to hunt for better quality hay since the stuff we buy from the breeder isn't great. And your average goat will waste a lot of hay to begin with, even more so if they don't like it. I'm hoping this drought we're in breaks because otherwise the price of second cut hay is gonna go through the roof.
In a terrible accident, our dog killed 2 of the 3 ducklings. We have the survivor set up with a mirror and a stuffed animal which has calmed it down at least. The adult ducks clearly would like to kill the baby too. I am desperately searching for at least 1 duckling near the 2 week age. This super super sucks.
That sucks. Sorry to hear you lost some animals. Hopefully the little duck makes a comeback and the flock doesn't reject them.
Thanks. Flock integration has been a long process in the past and it'll be so much more difficult with a single new duck. It's been very warm here so I was planning on moving the babies to the coop this past weekend, but I took pity on the survivor and kept it inside overnight again. I didn't see it eat or drink yesterday at all after the event. Hubs watched TV with it in his hands and it's stuffed animal last night, and it seemed to enjoy that. It's pitiful. One of the things that makes me saddest is that my kid keeps asking about the yellow one.