Fifth Avenue Forum

I ripped out two Japanese barberry plants last fall.... No sign of re-emergence as of yet, but we'll see. The plan is a butterfly flower garden in that area. Much prettier than stupid spikey bushes.

That was the first thing we did when we moved in. They were all along the front. Those are painful to take out.

I snapped a shovel in half trying to get the second one out.

To be fair, it was a cheap-o shovel from lowes.

I used a 6’ digging bar with a wedge end, to pry mine out the ground. I dropped a lot of f bombs while removing it too.

Too late to prune rose bushes?

Depending on where you are, it might be too early. You want to prune after the last frost, but before the leaf buds swell. Forsythia blooming is a good indicator.

https://www.post-gazette.com/life/garde ... 2004030027

forsythia bloomed in the neighborhood but already have a fairamount of growth starting to leaf out

I drove by Elmers last week for the first time in 15 years. It looked so small. In my mind I remembered it as this huge space because I liked it so much.

I went by maybe 3 weekends ago and there was a line around the store. I assume they're doing the social distancing thing but it was just an odd sight to see at a fish and aquatics store. Lol

I ripped out two Japanese barberry plants last fall.... No sign of re-emergence as of yet, but we'll see. The plan is a butterfly flower garden in that area. Much prettier than stupid spikey bushes.

That was the first thing we did when we moved in. They were all along the front. Those are painful to take out.

Along the same lines, I killed over 25 tree of heaven last year and just cut them down last weekend. What a mess. I'm debating renting a mini excavator to rip out all of the stumps. The chickens are enjoying the extra sunlight though.

They were freshwater. I had a thing for dwarf puffers and they were hard to get locally for a while.

If I were to do a tank again, I think I'd go for a brackish puffer tank. They're like aquatic puppies.

Too late to prune rose bushes?

Depending on where you are, it might be too early. You want to prune after the last frost, but before the leaf buds swell. Forsythia blooming is a good indicator.

https://www.post-gazette.com/life/garde ... 2004030027

forsythia bloomed in the neighborhood but already have a fairamount of growth starting to leaf out

Not sure, but probably still be OK. I only grow old fashioned climbing roses and one 50+ year old Peace rose that came with the house, no real personal experience with anything else. I've seen new spring growth like that frozen and killed many times, I've pruned them multiple times per season, but they always put out good new growth and blooms.

Received Twenty new Imperial Broiler chicks in the mail this morning.

https://www.moyerschicks.com/catalog/br ... l-broiler/

So are you doing the butchering? Or are you sending them out to get processed?

I wouldn't even know where to begin with prepping a chicken.

I'll be doing the butchering myself. Built a little contraption from an old road cone to do the head chopping with a hatchet.

Basically you stuff the chicken down into the cone pulled it's head through and leave it there for about 10 seconds. The blood rushing to the head basically knocks it out and then you just cut and let it bleed out. The cone helps protect the chicken from the "running around" which can damage the meat.

Then I have this tool to defeather.



You basically c-clamp the drill to a table. Then after you dunk the dead, headless, chicken into a 140 degree bath about four or five times (enough to open the pores) you then put it in an ice bath for about 5 seconds to tighten the skin. Then you turn the drill on and let the rubber fingers do the work of pulling off the feathers.

After all that then you just disembowel and butcher, or just leave it whole and put it in a freezer wrap for later usage.

Here's a video of what the process looks like.

That's interesting. Not as bad as I thought.

It's not super complicated. I plan on doing twenty to twenty-five birds twice a year.

Takes about 8-10 weeks to grow them up to harvest size (6-8lbs cleaned).

I'm thinking about getting a bat box for help with the insects. Anyone have one of these?

I'm thinking about getting a bat box for help with the insects. Anyone have one of these?

I've had one for about a year. No bats though.

I've read it takes a year or two for bat's to make their home in it.

**** dandelions

Yeah my yard is full of them.. I just fertilized/reseeded the front too.. so I don't want to cut the grass for another week or so.

Same. Cut my lawn for the first time today and my yard is littered with them and some other yellow flower.

I have a flower garden filled with flowers for bees. Dandelions are getting got.

I hate dandelion season, but I love running them down with the mower.

My battery powered weed whacker has a broken string casing (or whatever that part is called that holds the actual string line). I could probably get a replacement but I'd rather use this opportunity to get a gas powered weed whacker. Any suggestions?

I just gave one away yesterday. Figures.

My battery powered weed whacker has a broken string casing (or whatever that part is called that holds the actual string line). I could probably get a replacement but I'd rather use this opportunity to get a gas powered weed whacker. Any suggestions?

Why gas powered? I went away from gas - mainly because I'm too much of a doofus to remember to winterize it every year.