Marley Kelly

paul wheaton wrote:First, due to reasons, the site formerly known as "the shandolier" is now renamed to "the AmayZheng Dog Star".  It will be a dog friendly plot.  

Further, the boots in the bootcamp have moved the cottage rocket to the AmayZheng Dog Star and it will probably be fully online in the next week or so.  

Here you can see the old stove and the new cottage rocket coming in

That weird little stove was a bit scary.  We needed to clean the chimney a LOT!

The AmayZheng Dog Star has a bunk bed, with a full size bunk on the bottom and a twin on top.  

Thanks, Paul!  That's very cool, and I was looking forward to seeing a rocket mass stove in action.  We are going to replace our wonky little wood stove, and we're shopping around for the best replacement, and experiencing a RMS built by those who know how would've been very instructive!

Unfortunately, I'm still concerned about not having some electricity at some point to recharge my little insulin fridge and/or the power banks.  And possibly a greater downside for my partner might be lack of internet around the Lab.  He wouldn't enjoy his stay without some way to get some news and to research topics of interest.  It's his portable library.

If you have this Master Gardener program next year, definitely count me in.  Now that I know about it, I'll have a bit more time to get clever about getting there and finding accommodations!

I'd like to check out whatever hotel/airbnb/vrbo/other might be available that you're talking about that's 10 mins away. We definitely would not want to commute an hour to Missoula and back every day.

I understand being protective of Wheaton Lab's location.  But, I assume you have some method for communicating which are the closest places to stay?  I'm a little confused at this point, how you normally work this... Can you not, say, tell me the name of a hotel, or pick a random intersection in the right vicinity so I know where to look for lodging?

The references to PMing Coco are in this thread from a couple years ago.  https://permies.com/wiki/rentals

I know what you mean but I haven't found winter to be that helpful in the past.  It can't get too cold either.

I want to be sure I can find lodging before I purchase a ticket.  Can you tell me what side of town I should be looking on?

Thank you!

P.S. I'll look for the references to PMing Coco and send you a link.  Not sure which of the many pages I saw it on now!

Thanks for the speedy reply!

The Shandolier could be fine.  Or the king size bed in Cooper Cabin?  In town options might be fine too, but not as fun as being able to wake up and walk outside at base camp.  We'd be driving from Gig Harbor, WA, so will have a 4WD vehicle.  How long does it take to commute to town?

Two major considerations for me/us.  We have a dog who qualifies according to your "rules" on all counts, but if we were to bring her I thought non-common area overnight accommodations might be better for those who didn't want a dog for a roommate no matter how nice or affectionate or easy-going.  (We don't have to bring the dog of course, but it'd be easier for us and she's a good hiking partner.)

The second consideration is I have a small vial of medicine that needs refrigeration, but I only need access to it every couple days.  I also have a small portable fridge for it, but the fridge batteries won't last more than a day or two without recharging.

If we sound like too much trouble (perfectly understandable!), maybe I could get a ballpark location for the Lab, and look for other places to stay?

Is this the best forum to ask these kinds of questions?  You can reach me directly if that's easier at w r kelly 10 AT yahoo . com (remove spaces).

Thanks again!  It'd be fun if we could get this to work!  Missoula in January!  

Hi!  I'd LOVE to attend this, but I have some questions, that after 1.5 hour of looking around, I haven't been able to answer.  I'm not even sure where/how to ask.  Can someone help?

I want to take the course, and my partner just wants to explore, hike, and conceivably build you your Dog Village.

The accommodations that are included in the registration fee are in the Fisher Price house, I guess?  How do I find out if any of the other rentals are available for the nights of Jan 9-Jan 15?  My partner and I would like to stay in our own area, not the bunkhouse.  (I see how to *pay* for one, but not how to specify any dates!)

I found a suggestion to PM Coco, but I'm not sure which Coco is meant.  There are quite a few.

Thank you!!!  Hope to hear from someone in time to get one of the 4 remaining MG tickets!

Has anyone found anything that helped?  We just brought our two hens (who have always had roosters around before) to a new town where they are now "urban chickens".  Roosters are not allowed here.  One, Dot, has slowly started crowing.  She's gotten better and better at it, and now she's starting to develop male traits like pointed neck and saddle feathers and a few longer iridescent tail feathers.  She has spur nubs that are growing.  She's four years old and laid everyday when she was younger.  (She's been a free range chicken without supervision for the last year and a half, so we don't know what her laying has been like more recently.)

So far, we have tried a No Crow collar.  We've tried separating her from the other hen.  We've tried putting her in a very low-ceilinged cage so she can't stand up fully.  In the short cage, she still crows by stretching her neck horizontally.  My husband thinks the collar and the short cage reduce her volume somewhat but I don't really notice a difference.  We now put her in the garage at night which is dark so she usually doesn't start crowing until we take her out again in the morning.

It's been cold and neither of our hens are laying yet.  We found one egg, that looked like Dot's a few weeks ago, but no more.

Some anonymous neighbor has already complained to Animal Control.  Animal Control has asked us to take her to an avian vet to see if they will certify that she is indeed a she.  We have an appointment on Saturday.

Depending on expense and chances of success we might a) ask about an oophorectomy of the offending right ovary (ovotestis now?), b) try to find a farm with roosters to board her for several months to try to change her back, c) look into hormone treatment??, d) re-home her.  I'm really hoping to avoid option d.

Does anyone have any stories about whether they succeeded or failed at turning their HOOSTER back into a hen?