SRSeedBurners

The other neat thing about this place: we are 1.5 miles from the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Lots of migratory birds and other wildlife at the refuge. Great blue heron hunting GreycieMae goat wrangling in the cattle barn GreycieMae helping feed the pond fishes

Just my luck. The one time I post in 6-months, it gets zapped by the restore from backup 😆 Anyhow, here' s another try - GreycieMae and friends have all filed their change of address and moved. Thanks to the mess that was 2020 (housing market stalled, interest rates tanked, etc) there was a small window where we could actually make an offer on something my wife had her eye on and actually got it under contract. She has been real estate hunting for 10-15 years. She has always wanted some land and we found a diamond in the rough. The place is a 22-acre ranch complete with a 12-stall horse barn with drive-through breezeway, built-in apartment, tack room, feed room and an office. Then there is a complete enclosed riding arena/shop whatever you want to call it. Then a 9 stall stud barn, which I've turned into a cattle barn. The house isn't bad either, it's bigger than we wanted and is an open-concept instead of the cramped little ranch house we used to live in. There is a 1-acre pond just behind our house that is viewable through the living/dining rooms. It even has a weird little room that is only accessible by going out the back door and enter through the enclosed patio. The power panel indicates this room was a jacuzzi room but all I saw was bird room when I looked at it 🤣. The patio is about to get windows and a door to make it a bird patio! Then all I have to do is get my outdoor aviary moved up from the old house and I'll nearly have as nice a setup as the old place. The cool part about the patio, it's concrete and has drain holes in the patio wall. I've already hit it with the power washer and the water and junk flows right out - so easy to clean it's ridiculous. So back to how we got into the place: as mentioned the 2020 fiasco created a perfect storm where rates and housing prices fell dramatically for a few months. This place was on the market in late 2019 and was snatched up under contract before we could even drive up for a look like we do with all the places wifey is interested in. Apparently the former contract/buyers had a clause contingent on selling their home. By the time early march 2020 and covid rolled around they still could not sell and were on the end of a 45 day extension trying to get a new extension. The owner ended the contract and put it back on the market at a HUGE drop in price. Wifey couldn't believe her eyes and we dropped everything to come see. We saw and the place was a DUMP! Trash everywhere, trees and brush growing up all around the structures, the grass and weeds were waist high, fences down all over the place, even in the dang pond. The house was full of bugs and mice. The main horse barn full of wasps, mice, the apartment smelled of cat pee to the 3rd degree. BUT... the structures are rock solid, the barns are made from massive steel I-beams and in perfect shape. The house is in pretty good shape but everything needs updating - we don't care about that. Brand new, the original owners spent well over 1.5 million building the place in 1996. They were a famous aviator couple, her having set some female around the world record (I can't recall their names). They ran over 40 head of horses on this place for several years and then apparently got in over their heads and had to foreclose on the place. Several people we've ran into said the place sat vacant for several years while the banks held onto it attempting to liquidate it. Our direct neighbor said it completely dilapidated during that time. Then some lady down the road bought it and rented it out for a few years. She sold to a California couple which were the previous owners to us. They didn't make much of an attempt to bring it back and finally vacated in 2018. Once again the place sat vacant and continued to deteriorate. The condition the place was in was the only reason we could get in. The value fell dramatically due to neglect. Oh, one other interesting note: there is no normal internet out here. We are rural, very rural. The only way we get internet is via direct line of sight to a tower located at an airport way off in the distance. There is a tower on the side of our house with a dish at the top that send directly the airport. It actually works really well and is the only way I can work from my house - too far to drive to work anywhere. Anyway - enough text, time for pics! Pond barely visible These bloomed shortly after we closed. A good omen I believe. A couple of pond pics

Happy birthday Sukei. Don't eat all the cake in one sitting and try to keep it off the floor walls and ceiling please 😆

That is sad. I remember when CeasersDad briefly came back on the boards. I can't seem to get the video to play even after stripping off the extra tags.

Haven't been on much in a few months. Had some crazy changes here. Will post an update soon.

Huey is a Grey. Came to us flying like a brick. Flys like a champ now.

You didn't mention what pellet you are using but I noticed Harrisons high-potency (not sure about the lifetime as I've never used it) will pack on the weight if they have free access to them. Our former cockatiel really ballooned out on them. GreycieMae will pack on the pudge as she loves to eat. My birds have no choice but to fly. They get tossed regularly in the living room and have to circle around and back into the dining area where we have their cages. I'll usually fly Greycie until she starts to want to take a short-cut and just land on me. Maybe a couple more tosses. It gets her breathing and I feel like it keeps her somewhat active. She will bust out flying on her own which usually starts our flying episodes. Huey came to us as a non-flyer. I started him on the bed. Just short tosses. He know flys all over the place.

The pandemic has been tough on everyone. Has she been dating the fridge (my wife told one of her school friends that on the phone the other day) 🤣

We do a large heavy throw on the leather chairs too. GreycieMae is constantly chewing on it but it is what it is.

I sure hope so: GreycieMae has pounded down plenty of bamboo shoots 🤣 Bamboo is safe, I make chew sticks from it.

I probably missed it but what's the story with her previous caregiver? We have a re-home, Huey, that came from a guy who married one of my wife's "friends" (she an idiot really). He still keeps in contact, I send him videos, he'll come and visit etc. Btw...Huey adores my wife and doesn't much care for me. I can't get away with anything around Huey. It's kind of weird, if I'm not in the same room as them, he gets all loud and does this super-annoying chirp. We believe he thinks I'm his wait staff and he wants to make sure his staff is around while he enjoys time with Mommy.

Haa....I use a similar tactic except I won't give them any and try to keep it away. Works every time.

Did they remove her head too? 🤣

Ahhh....what a good lookin Alfie.

A birds happiness is directly tied to their ability to fly, forage and socialize. Clipping takes away one of those aspects. Not every clipped bird plucks but you are increasing your chances. People usually clip to prevent a fly-away, keep the bird out of stuff or some other reason. Whatever your reason for wanting to clip, I would find an alternative around it. I put up chain curtains on our doorways to prevent an accidental escape and I built aviaries to give them lots of stuff to do and be free of their cages. I took in a couple of birds that had been clipped and caged and not allowed to fly. It took about a year for them to learn how to fly and get past the clumsy stage. Neither are as good as the birds I have which have never been clipped. I have one bird which plucks and we can't figure out why. She didn't before she came to us. She was a 100% cage bird before coming here and I think her sudden freedom to roam and find nesting holes has probably led to her pulling her feathers. However I couldn't go back to watching her perch potato in a cage all the time. There's lots of ways around clipping and I love having a bird that can come to you on their own power. I guess in the interest of your survey: I bought my Grey as a baby at the same time as my manager at work. I've had previous experience with a Grey in my early 20s. He had zero experience. I was hell-bent against clipping and tried to steer him away from it as well. He clipped his bird and within the first year, his Grey was plucking. They have struggled with it ever since. They have gotten a handle on it now that they are both working from home (socialize!) but I think they could have prevented it maybe if they chose not to clip.

Guys/girls, when it's hot outside, like 106 in the shade hot, remember to stay cool. Get that fluffs indoors under a fan, makes a world of difference. GreycieStayCool.mp4

The aviator is probably the most used and recommended harness. I have 6 of them, one for each bird. Our Grey will constantly chew on hers unless I keep her very distracted, so I've had to buy a few of them for her.

Omg....she's a cutie.

Be careful with clicker training. It can have negative affects. I clicker-trained GreycieMae to turn around and now she turns-around whenever she wants me to go get her a treat. I'm still trying to figure out how I was the one that got trained in this deal. 🤣

Ouch. I won't have Huey on my shoulder for that reason. He's too damn unpredictable. Greycie has never show that kind of aggression ever and I don't even think twice about packing her around on my shoulder. I guess you have to know your birdy.

Smartest one out there. For sure.

Don't tell anyone but GreycieMae and Huey are closet cheese connoisseurs.

Love that little baby face!

Huey butchers his feet every spring. We have to put him on haliperidol to get him to stop otherwise it will drag on all year. He refuses to sleep on his perch, goes round and round in his cage in the dark. It stresses us all the F out. But after 3-6 weeks of the meds, he settles down and it's back to Huey normal. So far I haven't had issues with GreycieMae (female). Not sure if they suffer from it as much.

Huey here. What's going on out there is a severe plucking and biting issue. We've seen them all wearing masks so we know this is what's going on. Plus most of them have been sent home to timeout. Apparently yours is in timeout which can be stressful on you. Instead of letting this get to you, you can use this time to train your hooman, they make great kitchen and wait staff and can do all sorts of tasks to make your day easier. They are trainable albeit some train better than others and you need to use different tactics. I have two hoomans: a male and a female. This is my male. He's a blockhead and very hard-headed. He needs stern training methods. I can't let my guard down with this one or he wants to get all touchy-feely and gets in my stuff. He loses sight of his main tasks: cooking and cleaning, getting and taking. I have him trained to do stuff through whistles and verbal commands, I can even control the pace by using a 'RAWRRRR' and shows him that I am a The TyrannosaurusHueyRex and not to mess. He responds to hard bites as well. Occasionally, and this is when he's in my stuff or I want some alone time with my female hooman, I have to resort to flying biting attacks. Those are rare though and you can really injure them so use sparingly. This is my female. She's my pet. She is trained but she is not part of my waitstaff. I love on her, give her kisses, cuddle with her, feed her (she doesn't realize she needs this). She has recently been confined to the house in timeout but we are adjusting. I have had to have a couple of stern moments with her when she gets a little rough but I let things slide with this one, she's definitely my favorite. Sometimes I do get tired of too much time with my hoomans and in that case, I have my male, the slave, take us out to the outdoor aviary if the weathers nice, or to the indoor aviary in inclement weather. I make sure that he has prepared a nice 'lunches with the ladies' so that I can dine with GreycieMae. You can make this work, just don't let it get you down.