Chicken and dumplings may be the best way to use our unfaithful hens

Its back to the ol’ drawin board with our chickens. They are still eating nearly all of their eggs, in spite of the new nests we built, golf balls place around the floor, and everything else we have done. Today we built more nests and covered the places on the floor where they have been laying eggs. I have no idea if it will work or not. I am losing hope for ever getting these crazy chickens to stop eating their own eggs. I think they would look very nice in some dumplings, or maybe chicken soup. Its discouraging to say the least. We have many hours and probably more than $1000 invested in them now. We still get a few eggs but we get only 2 or 3 per day on the average, instead of the 20 or 30 we should be getting. I am tired of buying food for the unfaithful chickens. I told my wife lets let them eat eggs and nothing else until they are sick of eggs. It might just work, Hmmmmm. Well at least the weather is good. We have a super weekend here. Its hot and humid, but at least better than the flash flooding we have been experiencing lately. Ok, gonna go check the henhouse for eggs. Everyone have a wonderful weekend!

A lot of today’s music sucks

I remember when I was a teen I thought my music was so cool and the music my parents listened to was pretty terrible. Back then it seemed that my music would be cool forever, but of course it wasn’t. I grew up in the days of Elton John, Grand Funk Railroad, BTO, and all the other bands of the 70’s and 80’s. I still think a lot of that music is cool, plus it just seems to have better arranged music and higher quality lyrics than most today’s music. I joke a lot that most of today’s songs sound like something a kid would write. It is no joke however. Even so, sometimes I can’t help but laugh at some of the lyrics I hear, especially on today’s so called country music. I think most of the “country” singers probably don’t know which end of the cow the horn is on. The exaggerated country accents and fake gravely voices (imitating the old Kenny Rogers sound no doubt) make me sick and I usually turn the radio off or to another station when one of those comes on. Its sad but music has come down to the same principles that nearly everything in our society has fallen too; make money any way possible, but don’t worry too much about quality or longevity. Maybe I am biased but I think a lot of the older music, yes from my parents day, but also from my day, will live for many years. I just can’t see very many of todays songs being remembered for any length of time. Of course there is little talent involved in the music industry now. Its more sexual or shock orientated. Oh well, I can’t change it, but I can certainly hold onto my old music albums.

Being older means less energy and longer recovery times

Its sad but true; when we get older we get tired more easily but it takes longer to get our energy back afterward. I have been working 6 days per week and I am so tired that my mind is starting to wander. It seems that even if I sleep long enough that I should be rested, I'm not. I get more tired every day. Surprisingly though its not only me. Even the young guys at work are dragging and slowing down. I am sure that part of it is the weather but part of it is also that we are getting older every day. Oh for the good ol' days when a few hours of sleep would make me good as new. When I was in my twenties I would often not sleep for 2 or 3 days and then I would sleep 12 to 15 hours and catch up on my rest. Now I think I could sleep 20 out of every 24 hours and still be tired.

Maybe we just need some good vitamins, or perhaps I should stay at home and let my young wife work lol. She would probably love it, but being a man I feel that I should be the bread winner. However, I know that the day is coming when I won't be able to do it and by then my wife will be used our culture. Then it may be her turn to work while I take care of the house, and hopefully some kids by then too. That is our plans; I will work as long as I can and then my wife may have to take over that department. I think we will be fine because I can get social security benefits and with my wife working too, we should have enough. Its not really our desire to ever be rich. Not in money anyway, just rich in love and caring like we are already.

Everyone have a great coming weekend!

Kubota should build motors for cars and trucks

We have a small Kubota diesel tractor. Its amazing how long it will run on a gallon of fuel. It only holds about 8 1/2 gallons and I only have to fill the tank once or twice a year. Yes you read that right, once or twice a year is all. We use that tractor quite a bit. What I don't understand is that if Kubota can achieve such good fuel mileage, why can't others? Our tractor is only 32 horsepower and I know that is too small to pull a car, but it seems to me that an engine with 2 or 3 times that much power would pull a small car nicely. So take that to the next level and say that it uses 2 or 3 times as much fuel as our tractor engine. Thats still really good fuel mileage. I remember reading many years ago that some college students put a Kubota tractor engine in a small car and it got well over 100 miles per gallon.

So why do the cars we drive now get such terrible mileage? We do expect too much in size, power, and comforts. I'm sure that has an affect on mileage, but is there another reason? I really don't know. Cars now get slightly better mileage than comparable sized cars of 30 years ago, but with all of our technology I don't think the improvement is enough. The way our modern day cars get better mileage is by using computer controlled everything, along with many expensive valves, solenoids, sensors, etc. Kubota on the other hand is still building relatively simple straight forward diesel engines with cast iron blocks and heavy parts.

I think our automobile manufacturers need to take some lessons from Kubota, and maybe some of the other diesel engine manufacturers as well. Maybe there are others that are as efficient as Kubota, but as far as I know Kubota is tops in fuel savings. We are spending billions of dollars researching and experimenting with this and that, trying to find a better way to conserve fuel, or make cars run on a different kind of fuel, and all the while, Kubota is calmly doing what they have been doing for many years; making tractors that run forever on a gallon of diesel..

New design for our chicken nests to boost egg production

My wife and I have had a hard time with our chickens lately. They are laying a lot of eggs now but unfortunately they like the taste of their eggs even more than we do. We made some mistakes when we built their nests and I guess an egg broke and they got a taste. I had no idea that chickens would eat their own eggs like that. We have tried a couple of different nesting techniques since then, but to no avail. Today we built some new nests and if the hens will use them I think they will work great. What we are not sure of yet is if the hens will actually use the nests. We removed the old nests to try to force them to lay in the new ones. We will know soon whether we are back in the egg business or not. We were pretty aggravated about it all because we have so much time, money, and hard work invested in our chickens and chicken houses. On the bright side, the eggs that we got before they started eating them all tasted sooooooo good! They are about 10 times better tasting than eggs bought in the store. Why? Because our chickens eat more natural food, and that translates to better eggs. Well, we will see soon and I will write another post later and tell you how our new nests are working. Until then, have a great week!!!!