Quick and Painless Paper Shredding

I have OsteoArthritis in my hands and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in my wrists so I have limitations to what and how much intricate work I can do with my hands.  Cutting with scissors is one of the things that I especially have to limit or I will be in pain for days afterwards.  This makes my job as a dog groomer difficult.  It also makes shredding papers for my compost extremely difficult without risking causing so much pain in my hands & wrists that I can't work the next day.

So I came up with this hack to help me make great use of those super long rolls of paper that get stuffed into my mail order packages.  This one was at least 50 feet long.

If I were to take my scissors to this length of paper or attempt to hand shred it I would not be able to function for at least a few days afterwards.  So I used this old paper cutter that I bought at a yard sale for about $2 and I flattened out the paper strip, worked it through the cutter and quickly had it sliced up into nice narrow strips in approximately 17 minutes!

The finished product is a huge box (about 3' x 2.5') half filled with paper strips ready for my compost bin.  My worms will love some of this as well.  It makes great covering for the top of the worm bin that will get eaten up by the worms as they work away at the kitchen waste.

Even if you don't have OA or Carpal Tunnel this hack will make quick work of that LONG roll of brown paper that you receive with your next mail order package.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope this post is helpful to you!

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Incubation: Day 7

Seven days ago I sat 24 eggs in my incubator.  They are a variety of surprises, I have no idea what breeds are included in this batch.  I just ask the lady who sells eggs locally if she could give me two dozen eggs, a mix of colors and sizes so I get a nice variety.  She knew that some of her hens were laying fertile eggs but she couldn't guarantee how many.  I was willing to take the risk.

Today is day 7 so I candled my 24 eggs and found that 19 of them have active little baby chick embryos inside! Yay!  One green egg was so dark that I couldn't see anything inside other then the air pocket so I marked the outline with a pencil and I will check it for any changes at day 10 and 14 if needed.

Later this week I will try to share the brooder I'm building from an old portable crib that, due to a change in federal laws several years ago, isn't legal for human use any more. I am hoping it will be a portable home for my chicks until they are feathered out enough to go outdoors...to the new coop that we haven't built yet.  Can you tell we work best under pressure? Ha ha!

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We are setting down new roots

We've moved from the high desert to the tall pines of Arizona.  I gave away my flock and sold my coop because I didn't know for sure where we were going to land or how long we might be there.  It took us over a year, but we are now settled in on 5 acres and I'm ready to start a new flock.

I'm getting two doz hopefully-fertile eggs tomorrow that I will set in my incubator to start my new flock.   While they are growing-out indoors the hubby will build me a new coop.

I'm already planning my garden area for this spring and a green house to help us continue to grow throughout the cold winters we have here in our new home.  After living in the high desert, learning how to keep my hens from overheating in the summer, now I get to learn to keep them from becoming pop cycles in the winter.  I'm looking forward to my new journey!

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My Egg Customers Are the Sweetest of Peeps

My egg customers are the sweetest of peeps.  Just look at the sweet gifts I have been given recently when folks came to purchase their fresh eggs from me & my 'girls'.

This beautiful ceramic tile with a colorful Rooster designed with a cowboy & bandana theme and the words "Western Omlete" came from Louise, a sweet lady who always slips me an extra dollar when she pays me for my eggs.   I keep telling her that she gave me too much money, but she refuses to take the money back, saying that the eggs are so delicious that its worth that much and more.  Last time she picked up her eggs she gave me this lovely gift.

Another super sweet lady, named Helen, always returns her empty cartons, but they are never empty...she always puts jelly beans in the carton.  Today she handed me the carton but there was no familiar rattling noise, and I noticed the carton was not completely closed.  Inside I discovered this cute little Chicken...that was hand made my someone from clay, then hand painted.  It is so cute, and because it is a cone shape I am calling it my 'ChickCone' and I'm proudly displaying it with my other fun Chicken knick-knacks.

When you have chickens...you meet the sweetest peeps!

Keeper of 1 husband, 3 dogs,

3 cats, and 16 Chickens!

 

 .

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Agressive Javelina's Charging At My Dogs Through the Fence -Video

Here in Arizona you are familiar with the nasty critters to watch out for and avoid such as rattle snakes and scorpions.  Another critter that we try to avoid is the Javelina, but in all my years of living here I didn't really consider them an extreme threat.  I have had them come right up to us to get a treat like a tossed strawberry (or stale cheerios in the case of my grandkids). I watch them each morning and evening as they make their way west then east in their daily travels.

Credit: Photo courtesy of the Arizona Daily Star

When I go out to my chicken run I sometimes find a group of Javelina's hanging out in the yard between the back door and the chicken run, but they will usually scatter as soon as they see and hear me coming.  The only time I hesitate approaching them is when they have new babies in their group.  They get very protective when they have little ones with them.  But even then, I have never had them get really aggressive with me, they just tend to stand their ground and expect me to give them extra time to disperse with their babies.

However this morning I was caught off guard by their aggression.  I looked through the window of the door before letting my dogs out into the fenced back patio and saw the Javelina's wondering around the backyard outside the fenced in area.  I opened the door and let the dogs out.  As is usual, the small dogs run to the fence barking frantically at the Javelina's and typically the Javelina's will scatter.  But today they did not.  They took a few steps away, then turned right around and came back towards the fence.  My puppy (8 mo old Rottweiler/SharPei) ran towards them but didn't bark, she wanted to play with them.  She jumped towards them and lowered her upper body like she does to instigate the dogs or cat to romp and play with her.  The Javelina's jumped towards her with their hock hair standing erect, huffing and snorting, clacking their sharp tusks in chomping motion as a threat to her.  Miss Hollywood was oblivious to any threat.

This was totally unusual behavior from what I have seen by Javelina's in my nearly 2 decades living here in Arizona.  I grabbed my video camera to record this because no one was home and I figured no one would believe they were acting so hostile this morning.  There were no babies in this group.  They all appeared to be full grown adults, perhaps they were all males so that sparked it. 

Watch (and listen to) the video below to see how they not only charged at Miss Hollywood, but also at my Boston Terrier Pickle as well.  One even tried to nip at Pickle through the fence (3/4 of the way through the video).  Note, Pickle only has one eye, so she has issues with depth perception...I don't think she thought the Javelina was that close.  There were about 5 or 6 of them circling around the fenced area.  They did not even seem to notice me, a human, standing right there video taping them.  -Scary!