The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

LydiaJ

Pyxis wrote: »

Have you been able to wear your lovely green dress again, Lydia?

Yes thanks, Pyxis. I've worn it twice so far - the wedding I bought it for, and the end of year dinner at school, the one with speeches about and by everyone who's leaving. One of my friends went to that dinner with a not quite identical but very very similar design, but in shocking pink. I really enjoyed feeling that I'd pitched my outfit just right. I used to find it very difficult 10 years ago or so when practically all the other women were wearing florals. I just don't feel clothes with pictures on are "me" somehow, so florals aren't my thing. I'm not a neutrals person either. Solid blocks of colour feel right on me whether it's for a posh frock or a casual top to wear with jeans. My house is the same - my walls are colours not neutrals or patterns.

silvercar wrote: »

Are they frozen dead or alive? Feathered or plucked?

240 of them for a fiver!!! Not much meat on the bone?

Don't know how they kill them, but they're definitely feathered. That's how owls etc like them. Businesses that breed chickens want to allow all the females but only a tiny percentage of the males to grow up. There's no point in wasting food and space on birds that won't ever lay eggs. So the male chicks go to feed whatever likes eating that kind of thing.

PS I am 48. Today. So if anybody wants to say "happy birthday" then today would be a good day for it.

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've got non-contiguous paving slabs in my garden, to the gate... inevitably, grass has grown across the edges, so when I saw a lawn edger for about £3, I saw it and thought "I could do that .... round those slabs"

I put the edger where I thought the edge was and tried to get it to go into the ground and failed.

I've not tried since.... I expect there's some method/technique you need ..... not just put it where it looks right and tread on it so it goes in .... or maybe I just don't weigh enough.

They may originally have had some pointing between the slabs?
Are you able to sink the lawn edging into the ground somewhere else in the garden?
Maybe you could provide a photo?

GDB2222

Happy birthday, Lydia!

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

They may originally have had some pointing between the slabs?
Are you able to sink the lawn edging into the ground somewhere else in the garden?
Maybe you could provide a photo?

No concrete round them. It was a grass area and the first owner just put slabs down randomly spaced to get to the rear gate.

Looks like I was doing it right ... but look at the size of this fella! I'm 5'1" and weigh about 115 lbs. So I'd probably need to strap a sack of spuds to my shoulders before giving it a go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYHCR7Oyff0

GDB2222

PasturesNew wrote: »

No concrete round them. It was a grass area and the first owner just put slabs down randomly spaced to get to the rear gate.

Looks like I was doing it right ... but look at the size of this fella! I'm 5'1" and weigh about 115 lbs. So I'd probably need to strap a sack of spuds to my shoulders before giving it a go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYHCR7Oyff0

Put both feet on and jump up and down like on a pogo stick!

ivyleaf

Pyxis wrote: »

Do you have a TKMax near you?
I was in there yesterday, and noticed they had quite a few jumpers, although I didn't look at them.

I do....though I've never found anything I wanted to buy clothes-wise in there, apart from some socks and a hat last winter I might have a look though, thank you.

ETA Happy Birthday Lydia :beer: :bdaycake: I hope you're treating yourself! xx

chris_m

silvercar wrote: »

Are they frozen dead or alive? Feathered or plucked?

Dead hopefully. Just "as is", feathers, insides and all.

240 of them for a fiver!!! Not much meat on the bone?

Well, they won't be much bigger than a hen's egg coz they only came out of one a day or so ago..

GDB2222 wrote: »

Do owls have very very strong beaks, or do the chicks have to be thawed before use?

Thawed methinks

These will be mostly male chicks which are of no use to the egg trade. They are a day or so old because all the clutches need to be sexed to identify the males from the females. The latter get fed and brought up to become laying hens or hens for the food trade, unless there are obvious defects.
Some of the males, the best as far as can be judged at that age, will be kept for breeding, some may be kept, fattened up and castrated for the palates that prefer capon and the rest are killed - it's from the latter that falconers and zoos source food for their birds of prey.

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

Yes, the drawback of the one I linked to is that it is a printer only, no scanner. Still, full colour prints at 4p a page from a cheapish printer is not to be sniffed at. And that drops dramatically if you refill the ink.

From the Sheringham Independent small ads:
"Frozen boxed day old chicks. 240 £5. Due to the loss of my 22 year old barn owl."

Weirder than weird!

Yes, further to Chris's post, there is a reptile place near me, and they sell frozen chicks, snakes for the feeding of.

Also, for a landmark birthday, I treated myself to a day at a local falconry place, and the package included talks on keeping the birds, getting up close and personal, and also flying them.
We had to feed them for the flying, but luckily the chicks were already dismembered, so only really looked like downy bits of meat, apart from the odd footlet. They had removed the heads, seeing as how the small group of us were snowflake hoi-polloi! :rotfl:

To be honest, I'm not sure whether they were frozen dead or alive. I think the question was asked, but I can't remember what the answer was.

However, whichever it was, that would have been preferable to feeding them alive to the birds, as is what would happen in the wild, of course.

It was fantastic to have a peregrine land on your arm!

We weren't allowed to interact too much with the eagle, though we could get quite close, when it was on the keepr's arm. but not allowed to touch. Awesome bird.

Snakes of course, only need feeding once in a blue moon.

Pyxis

You whispered that so quietly, I almost didn't hear it! :rotfl:

So............... I shall shout it! .............

silvercar

Happy Birthday Lydia, hope you are having fun!