Marie Tedei

" That lesson cost me a melted flat and a few days of wondering if I was smart enough to be using electricity unsupervised."

LOL well, I've melted flats out in the sun, myself. ;)  

Now granted I do a LOT of flats b/c I grow for a CSA and market, but another farmer gave me a tip I use every year. Buy an air mattress, you can get them pretty cheap at a sporting goods store. Put a waterbed heater under it. fill halfway with water, and you have a nice BIG heating mat.

I'm starting outside in an unheated small greenhouse, on a table made with plywood. I created a frame that stands about a foot tall to cover with frost cloth in the event it really gets cold at night, too. Even heat till seeds are up is best in general.

That is super cool! And don't think I've not considered covering my 100 year old drafty farm house in plastic! LOL

I see this is a three year old thread - but wondering if you all ever did your yurt in Texas? I've got one and keeping it cool is a challenge! The young couple who built it had one "room" insulated with a small window unit but all it did was keep it dry/not humid and about 85F.  I've since moved the room away from the window and made it the bathroom.

I'm trying to figure out how to erect some sort of a shade structure that can be raised and lowered like a sail/flag to shade the house during the hot months, not cover the solar panels, and not blow over or take off up to OK.

Shade cloth perhaps is my best bet, but the poles would need to be so tall, they'd need to be dug super deep and cemented in I would think.

so just wondering if you all ever did this and how you managed to shade it if you didn't have the luck of old oak trees nearby.

For as many times as my net searches have taken me to various threads on this site, and a farm volunteer friend has shown me links to things here, I guess I thought I was already a member.

But when I went to ask a question this AM (on the guinea fowl section), I had no ID/password in my saver so - I guess not. But NOW I am here officially and not just lurking. ;)

I hope to offer experiences as much or more than I ask of yours.

I may not be able to change the whole world, but I think together we can all make our own corners of the world a better place and maybe, just maybe, enough corners will be made better and we'll save the whole planet together!

Do any of you have experience with the females squawking at night?

I adopted 2 flocks of 3 - 1 flock of 1 male and 2 females, and another flock of three, with 2 males and 1 female.

the first flock I got came with a "couple" (I understand they may mate for life, so I do everything I can to keep those two together). But the matchmaking hasn't been going so well with the remaining of what could be happy couples.

So at night, in their coop, when I can manage to lure them all in there - I wake up at various times of the night and hear the females "calling". Are the males deaf or just being picky?

I've also had to take to splitting the coop into two sections b/c one of the males is dominate over the one who is coupled.

He's light colored (beautiful light grey), so I can always tell them apart. So they've gone into the coop more willingly the past 2 nights since he knows he's not going to get chased around the coop at daybreak till I get out to free them. but it hasn't seemed to stop the night time chatter. And it's just the ladies - the males are not joining in so I'm guessing it's not predator related.

Anyone? Thanks!

I love my birds but it sounds like they're not happy and I'd just like to find the solution so we all get a better night's sleep. :)