BrookieP said:

johnnyp said:

Just bought a Casper Mattress.  Let's hope it lives up to the hype

It came today! It's hard to believe that is a king sized bed. 

Hopefully you don't have to put it back in there if a return is necessary

Nice wangs.   Stevie like Wingy!!!

YukonRon said:

I am thinking about going to the doctor to get a sleep study done. I have 6 hours sleep since Sunday. I have cut out all caffeine, and sugar, am taking sleep enhancement meds, and can not shut down. Typical night's sleep for me is 4.5 hours/night. Not even getting close to that now.

Really sorry to hear that Ron.  Duke has a top notch sleep clinic if you want to pay a visit.

YukonRon said:

I am thinking about going to the doctor to get a sleep study done. I have 6 hours sleep since Sunday. I have cut out all caffeine, and sugar, am taking sleep enhancement meds, and can not shut down. Typical night's sleep for me is 4.5 hours/night. Not even getting close to that now.

I feel you Ron.  My sleep machine tracks my sleep.  Over the last 30 days my rolling average is 2.7 hours per night.

@YukonRon - you need to get checked out.  No need to be wondering why the no-sleep pattern.  There is no good outcome from the continuing behavior.  Good luck.  

YukonRon said:

I am thinking about going to the doctor to get a sleep study done. I have 6 hours sleep since Sunday. I have cut out all caffeine, and sugar, am taking sleep enhancement meds, and can not shut down. Typical night's sleep for me is 4.5 hours/night. Not even getting close to that now.

I have heard there is a take home version that may be worth doing prior to the full blown hospital version. My experience with the hospital test was negative. Having said that, if you have apnea, it is paramount to get it treated prior to suffering potentially severe consequences. Good luck, don’t wait too long. 

kl8ton said:

BrookieP said:

johnnyp said:

Just bought a Casper Mattress.  Let's hope it lives up to the hype

It came today! It's hard to believe that is a king sized bed. 

Hopefully you don't have to put it back in there if a return is necessary

Nah.  They actually have a pretty cool model.  

Apparently it's impractical to ship mattresses everywhere. As a return, they arrange for a charity to come up the mattress.  They refund your money and then write it off as a charitable contribution.  One of the reasons we picked Casper is that they arrange the pickup if need be. 

It wasn't on my "bucket list", but today I had half a cup of Luwak coffee, courtesy a gift from a Sri Lankan Foreign Military Sales (FMS) representative. Fallen coffee beans are eaten by the palm civet, a half-cat/half-weasel-looking critter, which pass through the civet's digestive tract (civets don't sleep well, I'm told) and are "harvested" by the locals (huh, guess I only have the SECOND-worst job in the world), cleaned, "sanitized", roasted and ground for coffee. 

It tasted like ****, but I'm not a coffee drinker so what do I know? It's the world's most expensive coffee at $300/lb, but like an iPhone X, I'll pass.

kl8ton said:

Just ordered 100 of these.

I will be feeding them all natural, non GMO feed.  They will enjoy some pasture area.  They will be ready for my large big green egg in 8 weeks.

@kl8ton Amazing how fast they grow, isn't it.  Just a few questions if you do not mind:
1) Do you sell on the side and is that why you bought so many? 100 birds, even factoring in a high mortality rate (which I hope you do not have), is a lot of chicken.
2) I have done the raising, but had to get someone else to slaughter/butcher. Also did the slaughter and butchering of another persons birds, but not on that scale. Do you slaughter and butcher all yourself? Or do you have someone come to your place and do it? Or do you take them somewhere? I just could not kill my own birds after taking care of them, raising them and protecting them from other predators. Ironic, but true...

Regardless of any answers, kudos to you. Very few people out there ever experience raising an animal from days old to having them on the plate. I think anyone who eats meat should do that in some form and some way  at some point in their life to understand any and all meat was an animal with a life and even personality at one point. Tip of the hat to you....

Very few people out there ever experience raising an animal from days old to having them on the plate. I think anyone who eats meat should do that in some form and some way  at some point in their life to understand any and all meat was an animal with a life and even personality at one point. Tip of the hat to you....

If anything could destroy a barbeque forum quicker than multiple "anus" posts, I think you just won it.  
  

Just read about the newest, hottest pepper that is rated at 3.18 million Scoville units.It is called Pepper X, grown here in the USA. You can not buy it in its pure form, as it is only available in a sauce. When introduced, the first 1000 5oz bottles sold out in less than 90 seconds, at $20.00 each, limit two. The sauce is called "The Last Dab".
When does it become too hot?

Sea2Ski said:

kl8ton said:

Just ordered 100 of these.

I will be feeding them all natural, non GMO feed.  They will enjoy some pasture area.  They will be ready for my large big green egg in 8 weeks.

@kl8ton Amazing how fast they grow, isn't it.  Just a few questions if you do not mind:
1) Do you sell on the side and is that why you bought so many? 100 birds, even factoring in a high mortality rate (which I hope you do not have), is a lot of chicken.
2) I have done the raising, but had to get someone else to slaughter/butcher. Also did the slaughter and butchering of another persons birds, but not on that scale. Do you slaughter and butcher all yourself? Or do you have someone come to your place and do it? Or do you take them somewhere? I just could not kill my own birds after taking care of them, raising them and protecting them from other predators. Ironic, but true...

Regardless of any answers, kudos to you. Very few people out there ever experience raising an animal from days old to having them on the plate. I think anyone who eats meat should do that in some form and some way  at some point in their life to understand any and all meat was an animal with a life and even personality at one point. Tip of the hat to you....

@Sea2Ski

Yes, it is crazy how fast they grow.  The cornish rock is bred that way.  This is the breed you are seeing 99% of the time in the grocery store and at your butcher.  This breed is set up to grow slower the first 4 weeks to allow their legs to develop enough to carry the huge amount of weight they put on in the last 4 weeks.  I personally don't feel good about how fast they grow.  They are set up to maximize profit.  The less you have to feed them and the quicker they are ready to eat, the more money you make.   If this breed works out, I want to try the freedom ranger breed.  They are a mix between these commercial broilers and the heritage breeds and are ready in 9-11 weeks.  The freedom rangers are foragers and are great for raising in a pasture environment. This is my first go-round with meat birds in my adulthood. My grandfather helped us raise chickens when I was a kid.  I remember them barely able to walk when it came time to butcher them.

To answer your questions:
1) I will sell them on the side.  If I don't count labor or electricity, I estimate I need to sell about 60 birds to break even.  I can put the rest in my freezer.  People around here go crazy for non GMO, organic chicken that was allowed to see the light of day.  I can sell for $3.50 per pound (averaging $21 per bird). Another reason I bought so many is, I am already doing the work, feeding 30 takes the same amount of time and effort as feeding 100.  (I haven't counted lately but I think i have roughly 70 in the hen house that I am taking care of every day.)

2)Eventually I want to be set up to butcher my own, but I am not there yet.  We used to do it when I was a kid, but it is a pretty big production.  There is a place about 30 minutes from me that you make an appointment a couple weeks in advance.  They do it for $3.50 per bird and they weigh, vacuum seal, and label them.  The night before the appointment, you go and get cages to put them in.  5 birds go in a cage.  You bring the birds to the processor the morning of your appointment and by the afternoon you can pick them up.

Eventually as I get our property set up, I would like to raise pigs, steers, sheep, etc.  Not on a huge scale, just a few at a time.

Eoin said:

@kl8ton are you allowed to kill / butcher your own and sell them? Plenty round here do, but it's not officially allowed. For larger animals we are not officially allowed to kill and butcher for our own consumption, must be done at an abatoir.

To my knowledge, yes.  I am sure I can't sell directly to restaurants and grocery stores.  I will have to look into where the line is drawn.