Using Chicken Tractors to Raise Chickens.

I'm interested in raising chickens in my backyard. I'm sure it is harder than I think it is but I just found another way to, perhaps, make it a bit easier.

I shuddered at the thought of letting the chickens "free range" or roam freely about my lavishly green grassed back yard. Then I read about the chicken tractor and felt a little more at ease.

Why? Because with a chicken tractor, the chickens can free range while still being confined to a mobile chicken coop.

Wikipedia says: "Chicken tractors allow a kind of free ranging along with shelter, allowing chickens fresh forage such as grass, weeds and bugs (although these will quickly be stripped away if the tractor stays put for too long), which widens their diet and lowers their feed needs. Unlike fixed coops, chicken tractors do not have floors so there is no need to clean them out. They echo a natural, symbiotic cycle of foraging through which the birds eat down vegetation, deposit fertilizing manure, then go on to a new area."

Storing Cooked, Dehydrated Hamburger

I found an interesting thread on how to cook, then dehydrate meats like hamburger, turkey, pork etc. The original thread is here.

From the thread:

"Recipe:

Fry 5lbs of ground meat. When cooked transfer to colander and rinse meat under hot water to remove fat. Place washed meat back into cleaned skillet. fry again over med/low heat stirring often until you see no more steam. Keep flame low once the rocks are browing up nicely.

Place twice cooked rocks into an oven roasting pan. Turn the oven to 200 degrees F, stirring and turning occaisionally as meat continues to dry. One to two hours should do the job. Remove from oven and check for dryness. Store in Jar or ziplock bag.

If you want to "can" the hamburger rocks for long term storage, preheat canning jars in the oven at 250, simmer lids as usual. Put the rocks into the jars while hot, then seal jars. After 15 minutes or so the jars will cool and you will hear the jar lids "pop" as they seal in place.

I love this method because there is no expensive pressure canner involved. The credit for this recipe goes to Mrs Miles from the End Times Report site. She also has a great recipe for canned butter you might like on her site."

With a dehydrator:

"I just fry line til the fat runs off, then rinse them and stick them into the dehydrator...it seesm to make them more tender that way. I also make pebbles and gravel this way...just cut the meat a bit larger.

Turkey and pork are also good like this."

HOW TO DEAL WITH SOMALI MUSLIM PIRATES

The Russians have the right idea: Seize and Destroy (watch the video).

Daddy...my tummy hurts! Acute Appendicitis

Another unusual CT Scan today (for me anyway). A 10 year old boy came in with his father complaining of RLQ pain (right lower quadrant). This can be a sign of problems with the appendix and normal Emergency Room protocol demands a CT Scan of the Abdomen&Pelvis with Oral and IV contrast.

I've attached the axial (cross-sectional) image of his pelvis. The little worm or snail looking thing (as my wife calls it) in the upper left corner is his highly enlarged appendix.

Little man was transferred out of our facility to a more appropriate children's facility where I'm sure he had it removed by morning.

My ER Physician that evening was also a surgeon and he stated that in all his years in surgery, he'd never seen an appendix look like that one.

Oh Droid Incredible...How I Love Thee.

I must admit, I was one of those dad's you see with an old flip phone just a few short months ago. I had my LG flip and I was VERY comforable with it. It took terrific pictures and video (in my mind) and was light yet durable.

Amid all the buzz that was the iPhone, I started to get curious. Being a fervent Verizon customer, I found that even if I wanted an iPhone...it was out of reach. I'd have to wait until it would be released from the Apple/AT&T contract and show up on Verizon's doorstep.

Then I made one of my frequent visits to my local Walmart Neighborhood Marketplace. When I say frequent, I mean just about daily. My six girls gulp down nearly two gallons of milk daily.

During my visit to the store, an employee was fiddling with his smart phone. A light conversation ensued and he gave me the rundown on why the Android was better than an iPhone. Since my cell phone provider didn't carry the iPhone, I gave in and switched to the Droid Incredible. I mean, I had 30 days to change my mind, right?

I can honestly say my life has changed for the better since acquiring the Incredible. The things it puts at my fingertips are such time savers. Here's a few of my fav's:

CraigsNotifica - if ever I need to buy something of value, I can post the search on this little app and set it to check CL every 5 minutes. This ensures that I'll be notified immediately upon its posting and be one of the first people to respond to the ad. I've saved TONS of money with this little app.

ShopSavvy - I'm browsing a store and see something I like. With SS, I can barcode scan the item and it will check the internet for the best price including both online stores and local stores (thanks to GPS). Another money saver.

Mint - A free online personal software system. If you keep track of your spending at all, this program is king. Having an Android app just makes it all the easier to use.

These are just a few of about 40 apps I have on my Droid Incredible. I can't say enough about how well it works, rarely crashes and picks up signal just about everywhere (and I work in Radiology, behind lead walls).

I still see guys out there with flip phones. I'm not saying I don't understand why you still have it, cause I do. I'm saying...you don't know what you're missing!

Christmas Around The Fire Pit

We're pretty lucky here in Arizona. Our winter weather never REALLY gets that bad. We may complain when the nights dip ALL the way down to 45 degrees but we know how lucky we are.

One of the best additions we've made to our house is the stamped concrete bbq pit. It has two benches about three feet long to sit on. A large circular fire pit which easily stops the wind from blowing out a fledgling kindling fire.

We decorated it with lit candy canes and homemade "glowballs". Add some comfy chairs and a nice, toasty fire and it doesn't get much better on a chilly December evening.

The Dad-blog-dom...or lack thereof.

I just checked with my friend google for a blog related to dads. Blog posts that were updated regularly and offered relate-able content that average dads can use in their day to day lives. Like how to fix stuff when it breaks, how to grow food for the family, fix cars and install wall niches. Stuff that, as dads, we come across every week in our lives and wonder "How am I going to do that?"

By the time I got to the second result, I noticed the last two entries were 2011 and 2009. Not much activity out there! I went through link after link to dad blogs listed in the top ten results on my google search. If it was updated regularly, most of the time there were enough curse words in the posts that I wouldn't let MY kid read it. If I had a dad blog, I would want it clean enough that my kids could read it.

So here I am. Let's see if I can add something worthwhile to the anals of Dad-dom. Wait, that didn't sound right...