can't get a picture, sorry don't have a camera. but I did some research after I posted and I'm pretty sure its prolapse. it doesn't look like an open sore and the other chickens( we only have three others) don't pick on her she is the Alpha S. Its not bloody or anything and she doesn't seem to be sore from it. She seems to be really healthy other then all this poop on her hindend and the smell. she is eating fine, forageing laying fine right up until yesterday, when she dropped that egg like she couldn't hold it in before she got to a nest and then laying the shelless egg later on that same evening. We have some new baby bunnies, and have been spending a lot of time outside with all the animals so I think I would have noticed if she were acting sick. She is a very large bird. but since this is my first time having chickens I have nothing to compare her with so I just thought that her breed must get that big. I can't believe she has a calcium deficiency she gets the best scratch and laying mash and I feed all of them treats from the house like bread, tomatoes, fruit, and sometimes buy them worms and minnows. she also free ranges with only three other mates, in an enclosure over 140ft long and just about 100 ft wide. she should have plenty to nutrients. I can only guess that she is too fat and that has caused this prolapse. Do you suggest I take her off feed for a few days. I put her in her sleeping quarters today. with some bedding and some water. I won't be home today but plan on cleaning her every nite and when I am home from my various jobs doing that through out the day with warm water. The research suggested I use some prepperation H to take down the swelling. ???? open to any suggestions at this point. Thanks all CI

Sheila, I'm so sorry! Your chicken reminds me of my little Troy that recently got killed by a raccoon. Do you remember Troy? I know I've written about her tons of times, but don't know if you ever read about her. She had trouble getting around her whole life. I had to carry food to her each day. I always kept water available, but fed her several times a day. I had her for 4 years until the coon killed her. I miss her every day. You are the only one who really knows the right thing to do and if your little girl is in too much pain to have to keep going on. But if you'd like my opinion--I'd probably try keeping her. If she's different from the rest of the flock it won't matter as long as she's not hurting and in pain. You must really love your animals a lot too :) LittleDog : if she is a hen, the rooster will be on her constantly, as from his POV she is in that submissive posture a hen takes for the rooster to breed. (What you said could be true, but just because she's lower to the ground/etc doesn't necessarily mean that the males will bother her. I had a duck (I mentioned above) and she had problems getting around. For some reason none of my boys ever bothered her at all. I think they could sense something was wrong with her and that she was different.

Alexis, I have grown tomatoes in all kinds of containers, from 3 gallons to 200 gallons, and the larger the container, the happier the plants will be and the better they will produce. There are a handful of varieties that will tolerate 5-gallon containers, but pretty much any plant that will tolerate a 5-gallon container will be much, much happier in a 10-gallon or larger container, and will be blissfully content in a 20 or 25 gallon container. When I grew tomato plants in smaller containers, I had to water them as often as 4 times a day in our brutally hot summer weather, so found it easier to put them on a drip irrigation system set on a timer. That way, if I wasn't at home, they were getting water when they needed it. Using a well-draining soil-less mix is imperative. I merely adapted Al's 5-1-1 mix to suit my needs and used it for ages and ages. Every spring I'd pour it out onto a big tarp and mix all of it up together and add new compost and other ingredients to help revitalize it and allow me to use it for another year. Eventually, after a few years, I'd dump all of it into a raised bed in the big garden and start over with a new mix. You have to pay very close attention to the water needs and nutrition needs of tomato plants in containers. The smaller the container, the more closely you need to monitor their moisture and fertilizer. Every single time it rains and every single time you water a tomato plant (or anything else) in a container, the water is washing nutrients out of the soil via the drainage holes at the bottom of the container. You have to feed the plants constantly to make up for the leaching. You have to strive to keep the soil-less mix evenly moist at all times. The worst thing for the plants is for the soil to fluctuate from being very wet to very dry and then back to being very wet and then back to being very dry. That sort of uneven moisture contributes greatly to Blossom End Rot in tomatoes grown in containers. While BER is often portrayed, somewhat inaccurately, as merely being caused by a lack of calcium in the growing medium, the reality of it all is far more complicated. BER develops when uneven moisture levels in the soil affect the manner that calcium is used within the plant itself. So, if you let your growing medium fluctuate between being wet and dry, sort of like a kid playing on a teeter-totter, your tomato fruit will be very susceptible to BER and will be unusable. I had the best success with tomatoes in containers when I sited them in a location where they only got 6 hours a day of full, direct sunlight. At that level, they produced great and didn't suffer unduly from our intense heat. It took me years of trial and error to figure out how much sun and heat is enough versus too much for container-grown tomatoes in our climate. If I had the containes in places where they were in full sun all day long, the plants didn't stay happy and didn't produce as well. I liked to put them in a place where they got full sun from about 10 a.m. to about 4 p.m. and then had shade or dappled shade the rest of the time. That really helped prevent the roots from cooking. If you don't have a place to put them in part shade, you still can shade and insulate the containers by surrounding the containers with mulch, bales of hay, etc. In 2007 we had massively heavy rains at times that kept my garden so soggy from standing water that I couldn't put pepper plants and tomato plants in the ground. I think that in May and June combined we had almost 24" of rainfall, and we had massive flooding in our area (as well as in most of the state). That year, I put tomatoes in any container that would hold soil-less mix. A lot of them were smaller than I liked, but it was beter to use them than to put tomatoes in the ground where I knew their roots would rot. There are a few varieties that will produce well in 5-gallon containers, but most won't. Some varieties will be okay with being in 10-gallon containers, but you'll get a substantially smaller harvest from them than from those same varieties grown in a container more to their liking. New Big Dwarf is one that produced well for me in 7-gallon and 10-gallon containers, but not nearly as well in 5-gallon ones. Nowadays, except for dwarf tomato varieties bred for containers (Red Robin, Canary Yellow, Mini Orange, Terenzo, Lizzano, the entire Sweet 'N Neat series, Totem, etc.), I prefer to grow tomato plants in nothing smaller than molasses feed tubs. While molasses feed tubs vary somewhat in size from one brand to another, all of them probably hold at least 20-25 gallons. With indeterminate tomatoes, I put one in each molasses feed tub. If you haven't seen molasses feed tubs sitting out in cow pastures, they usually are black (though I have had some that were orange, blue, pink and tan) and are about the size of a whiskey half-barrel planter. Even in molasses feed tubs, I often have to water twice a day in July and August. Keep in mind that our high temperatures often are well over 100 degrees here in July and August and soil-less mix dries out fast in those conditions. I've grown everything on your list except Country Taste and Silvery Fir Tree. Mortgage Lifter will produce tolerably in a large container, but will be less happy and much less productive in a small one. As tomatoes go, it is a pretty late producer in our climate most years, so it is setting fruit and ripening them in our hottest weather. That's why it does so much better in a big container. I usually grow it in the ground because the plants get so big that even in a molasses feed tub, I find they are far less happy than they are when grown in the ground. Rosella Purple produced fine here in a very bad year (2011) and showed great heat-tolerance and disease-tolerance. The flavor, however, was nothing special. New Big Dwarf was my favorite container tomato for years, although it is erratic. Some years it produces loads of fruit here and others it barely produces any. It likes the cooler part of the year much more than the hotter part, so I think of it as a May-June tomato, because it does not produce much after June. That means you have the best success with it if you start seed early, plant it in a container early, and either cover it with heavy blankets on cold nights or carry it inside. Tiffen Mennonite did not do well for me. I tried it for three consecutive years and got immensely poor production so stopped growing it. I was growing it during some really challenging weather years where it either rained all the time in spring, which meant excessively wet clay soil kept the roots too wet and the plant growth was stunted, or in drought years when it never rained. It just doesn't seem to like our heat. I think it might do well here in an abnormally mild and rainy summer, but not if there's so much spring rain that the roots cannot develop. Heidi is only so-so in a container. It produces tons and tons of fruit per plant, so it needs lots of moisture. It is hard to give it all the moisture it needs in containers in our climate. You normally won't see an issue until it is carrying a huge load of fruit and they all start getting BER. I only grow Heidi in the ground because of the BER it gets in containers. When Heidi is happy and can spread its roots out in all directions and soak up lots of moisture from the ground, it will produce tons of fruit even when the high temperatures are in the 105-108 degree range. Once we are having high temps over 108, its production stalls until cooler temperatures return. In a container, it produces significantly less fruit. One of the varieties that has produced tons of fruit in a container even in very hot years is Chocolate Stripes. I have no idea why. this particular variety is so incredibly happy in containers, but it is. In 2008 and 2009 when we were mostly drought-challenged and had far too much heat, and lots of disease issues as well, Chocolate Stripes sat there in its container and produced big yummy fruit all summer long. It produced so well, I finally had to wire the tomato cage to the fence behind it because the heavy fruit load was making the cage lean over sideways., and the whole container would blow over in strong wind since it was holding such am immensely huge plant. Chocolate Stripes is one of the few tomatoes I've grown that consistently produces better for me in a molasses feed tub than in the ground. That sort of defies logic, but it is what it is. I'd never attempt to grow it in our climate in a container that is smaller than a molasses feed tub because it is a rampant grower and a heavy producer, both of which require tons of water. Ildi, which is my favorite yellow-fruited bite-sized tomato, is one of the few tomato varieties that produced heavily in a 5-gallon bucket, but it produces at least twice as many fruit when in the ground as it produces when grown in a smallish sized container. You'll never know how any given variety will produce in a container until you try it for yourself. Sadly, some of the plants I have tried that have produced very well in containers just didn't produce fruit with the flavor and texture we prefer. The whole ISI line from Totally Tomatoes (Husky Red, Husky Pink, Husky Gold, Husky Red Cherry, etc.) produced great in containers, but the fruit was thick-skinned and pretty much had the taste and texture of grocery-store tomatoes. Obviously, I grow my own tomatoes so I will get fruit that has better flavor and texture than grocery store tomatoes, so I rarely grow the Husky series any more. Occasionally I'll see Husky Red Cherry in 5 or 6" pots when the very first transplants arrive in the stores here in late January or early February and I'll buy it....generally because it is the only cherry type they have at that time. It grows great in containers and it is an okay tomato when you don't have anything better, but it isn't one I deliberately choose because it tastes so good. Nowadays I mostly confine myself to growing tomatoes in containers merely to get the earliest possible harvest in spring from a handful of plants I transplant into containers in early February. Once my regular tomato plants in the ground are producing fruit, I usually yank out the container plants and put something more heat tolerant than tomatoes in those containers. The best production, other than that of Chocolate Stripes, that I've ever gotten from tomato plants in containers is from 4 plants (pretty much any 4 varieties) planted in a 200-gallon galvanized metal stock tank. I often put those 4 plants in that container in February and cover up the plants with row cover on cold nights and days. Sometimes if bitterly cold weather threatens, I put heavy moving blankets over the tomato cages to keep those plants warm and alive. I usually plant whatever I find in the store in the 200-gallon container, so that generally means a combination of plants that includes Early Girl, Better Boy, Sweet 100 and Red Beefsteak (which seems to me to be more or less identical to Red Ponderosa). Sometimes if they don't have Sweet 100, I'd put a Better Bush, Big Boy or Husky Red in that container instead of Sweet 100. While the four plants look crowded in the 200 gallon container, they still produce well....most likely because each of them essentially has 50 gallons of soil in which to grow. When those plants are through for the year and I am removing them from the stock tank, they have incredibly massive root systems. I could be happy with tomatoes growing in nothing but molasses feed tubs if I had to grow only in containers instead of growing plants in the ground. For a while I was perfectly happy with the way tomatoes produced in 5 and 10 gallon containers, but as I increasingly grew them in larger and larger containers, I became less happy with their production in 5 or 10 gallon containers. Keep in mind that my weather in my county has leaned more and more towards extreme heat and drought since 2005, and that has affected how I feel about growing tomatoes in smallish sized containers. If someone had told me when we first moved here that I would have to deal with temperatures in the 108-110-112 degree range (and in the worst of summers, as high as 115-116), I likely would have decided that I wouldn't even attempt a garden here. Your high temperatures may not ever get as high as mine do if you are in central OK and northward or eastward, but you likely will have to deal with higher relative humidity which tends to encourage fungal diseases. With tomatoes in containers, disease control and prevention is important, and the main way to achieve disease-free plants is to mulch the top couple of inches of the container and to make sure that when you water, you are putting water on the soil-less mix, but keeping it off the plant foliage. Growing in containers is fun, but in some ways managing plants in containers is much harder than managing plants in the ground, particularly from June through August. Dawn

First a HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU. Omg I can not imagine my life with GW. Everyone here is beyond kind helpful supportive and understanding. NO one has ever judged me on GW. And this was hard for me to post images of my home. Insecurity is my middle name. I wish I could change this room this second. Like betwitched. Nose twitch done!!! I have no magic. I am going to really study all your suggestions and implement them. Stir the pot and see what works and does not. Truly GW is full of amazing minds, voices, ideas, inspiration and supportive people. Les917, Only in the heat of the summer do we like those windows covered. We have electric controlled blinds. Right now they are closed but I love them open. Everything you describe is exactly as I have been thinking I plan to paint the rest of the built ins White. I have thought about moving the cornice all the way up. It should have been done years ago. But the red sofa may be going to another room along with the chair. My DH has suggested we either buy new leather pieces for this room or we move brown leather from the basement up to this room. We use the red in the kids media room and figure out that space later. We could move the TV to one of those adjustable wall mounts. My best friend said I need to reconfigure the fireplace mantle and mount the tv there. I need to convince DH on this one. Loribee, YES, I love stripes too. Kiko, Yes, I do like the drama in those drapes. And I love the cute pooch on the porch. Vampiressrn, Wow, I feel so honored to have you respond to me. I think your style is amazing. I read all your posts like a groupie. I love your posts. I do like brown. I used to have my kitchen painted this medium brown color called Camel coat. The slight problem with the brown walls is do I paint everything? Or only the brown on the wall with the built ins or maybe three walls, all the walls move open to other areas. Something to consider. Paintergirl, Great ideas. I do need to embrace the space. I need to frame more art. I rarely paint my dogs. Too Hallmarky. I love those images you suggested. Especially the paint color. Notice how much in the image above. Gwbr54, Thank you for your sweeet words. I get very confused with the terms modern and contemporary. I wish the term Modern did not connote the style in the 70s with plastic, metal and clean lines. Or maybe I am a complete idiot and the term is Modernism and I am getting that confused. Send me back to class. And is it possible that we change our style as we grow up? Which means some of this rubbish about me was bought with the understanding I was a French provincial girl. I could flush that style. It is not me at all. But the table in the kitchen so French, I like it painted white. Organic modern or contemporary look? I like it. I have never been a fan of Bamboo or even natural fibers but the images you posted could work for me. I love the chunky candle sticks the rich rug and the drapes over shades. It is ironic you have the Ethan Allen image, years ago my DH and I got into a huge fight because I wanted EA sofa and chairs for the same room. He felt is was too fussy, This coming from a guy who would be happy eating off a dog crate. SandyP, I agree more in the fireplace area. Definitely need to hone in on that space with drama My budget is maybe a few $1000, yes I am limited in this frail economy. I have sentimental only to the vases and the vase picture. I could toss out everything. Including the floors. But that would be a $100,000 budget. Gosh, I wish I were a Rockerfeller or Kennedy or even Gates. I do not like black rod iron, never did and never will. I am searching today for some better tables. As for Naked windows. I love naked veggies, never thought about the windows. I think for this room to come together the windows will be a key to pulling the room together. Ideas so far and feel free to add any more... Option 1: Sell the red and repaint the kitchen. Buy something in brown leather, bag the hideous end tables and put up drapes from ceiling to floor. Repaint the built Ins too. Option 2: Keep the red sofa, paint the walls, , bag the hideous end tables and put up drapes from ceiling to floor. Repaint the built In. Option 3: Get lazy and hire someone which in turn angers the DH as he thinks I should be able to do this. It would anger my oldest daughter as she says I am constantly changing all the rooms in the house I would need to hire a designer on retainer. And that could only happen if my last name were Rockefeller. Rooms I love and maybe I could make my own, but how? Yes, Plants, Trees that is it I can see this could help along with repainting the walls to a possible white color... The rug helps too but I have a similar rug. I think I even saw chairs like these at Marshalls I like what they did with making a corner conversation area. I like the drama on the wall. I might be able to borrow these ideas.. Why does this room work? Could I paint one wall like this? Or is this a bad, bad decor plan? I like these colors but the wing back chair is not me, I wonder if I use more crisp white with navy blue could that be a direction. And the kitchen could be painted the navy blue... would this work with the dark floors?