I assume by your post that the egg was at the full 21 days--not hatching early? Also, what breed is it? Some are more prone to leg problems than others... My chicken info page is now here: http://home.earthlink.net/~velvetsparrow/VSChick.htm I have a link there to the United Peafowl Association's site, they have a chick shoe model to help chicks with Spraddle Leg. If you do this right away and leave it on, you can great great results. It's certainly worth a try since you have invested time in the chick already. If your chick has two problems--Spraddle Leg AND inability to stand, you've got an uphill climb ahead of you. Meanwhile, give the chick flooring with loads of traction--I'd suggest hardware cloth wire or something of that nature. Even shavings, if placed on a non-slick surface, work. No newspaper or slick paper towels--get the rough ones. If you DO have to euthanize the chick, you can use the starter fluid method if you can't bring yourself to break it's neck. How to's are here: http://www.purplemartin.org/forumarchives/archive/Humane.htm and here: http://www.longshadowfarms.com/FAQ.html Euthanasia isn't a pleasant thing to have to think about, but when you need the informaiton it's important to have it right away. Good luck to you! Velvet ~:>

> I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but will trees ever be able > to grow there again? > > Seeing the fire day after day, and thinking of all those trees, > and the animals living in them, dying, is heartbreaking. I'm going to do a little ranting now. The American educational system fails in many respects, the natural processes of the earth being one of them. Fire is absolutely 100% natural in the forest, ESPECIALLY in the western United States. They run those Smokey Bear commercials over and over, but in the West many, in some areas the vast MAJORITY, of fires are naturally caused by lightning. That's just a climatic reality of the West: Summers are hot and dry in many areas, with storms that often produce meager amounts of rain but can be very efficient at producing lightning. This means you get fire. Its been this way for thousands if not millions of years. Trees grow back. As mentioned by others above, human involvement has only helped fires get BIGGER because of suppression. Granted at this point, with so many people stupidly moving into the middle of wooded natural areas, there is little choice but to suppress or risk large scale property destruction, but it just makes things worse. I live in the Great Basin, an area which sees hundreds if not thousands of natural fires in any given year. In the past, most of these would burn naturally, but now they are heavily suppressed in almost all cases. This has caused Nevada to go from a grassland-dominated state to a sagebrush-dominated state. And, BTW, do you think bushes burn hotter and larger than grass? You betchya! But now that Nevada is a big rangeland, full of cattle, there is little choice... cattle are slow and are often killed or injured by wildfire, and the ranchers make a stink about it every time.

We had our whole house re floored in LVP In June 2021. Within a few months a portion of the kitchen started bubbling up and splitting at the seems. The flooring guy originally came and said that he believed it was sun damage coming from our glass sliding door. We ended up replacing the door with uv protection glass and the flooring guy replaced the whole kitchen floor with a moisture barrier paper underneath. During the demo they said there was possible moisture on the floor. We had a plumber out and he determined we did not have a leak. Just a few months later it started to happen again in a different area of the kitchen. When they installed the lvp originally they went right over tile, so this time he took up the tile as well so we could see what was happening. There was no obvious water or leak. We then had all our pipes looked at. Our drain pipes scooped. Inside and outside, pool, etc. Spent a ton of $ on tests. There was no leak to be found. We think we must have a foundation slab that has a high moisture content or the soil below has a lot of moisture? That’s all we could come up with. This time for the 3rd installation they put down a moisture barrier epoxy, a wood plank sub floor, and glued the lvp down to that. It made it a year after that, but we have the same problem happening again. So they have replaced the flooring in the kitchen 3 times in less than 3 years and it needs to be replaced again now. We had the manufacturer out and they of course blamed the installation. It is mind boggling. We have had so many plumbers, and flooring companies out and no one has ever agreed on what the problem is. So, I have to replace the kitchen floors again and this time need to do something other than the LVP that matches the rest of the house. I have heard about epoxy/ painted concrete flooring and thought that might flow better than tile. Do you have a knowledge as to if it would hold up to moisture fumes as that is our best guess as to the moisture problem we have? Tile is the other option and that is what was originally in the house and there didn’t seem to be any issues with tile. any ideas?

He probably is being unreasonable. Washing a kid's hair at such an old age is unreasonable....but... I tell my DD that we're both learning. She has never been a kid before, and I have never been a parent before. Sometimes we will make bad choices. On another thread we were talking about the three "hats" we must wear. 1. Parent 2. Person 3. Partner Two of the three are going to be neglected at any given point. If I am reading a story to my child (parent hat) my partner is not getting attention and neither am I, personally. If I am paying attention to my partner my parenting hat is on the shelf, as is my personal hat. If I am in a bath reading my book getting "me time" my partner and parent hats are neglected.... uh-oh. It's really really really really really hard to juggle three balls and not have something drop. And that's in a stable relationship with no real pressing issues. IMO, you need to be supportive of him as a parent. That will let him relax enough to be comfortable with you as a co-parent, which will give him room to allow more partner time. You are both responsible for setting the boundaries that allow personal me-time. Have you asked for any daughter-potential SM time? Have you taken the time to make her feel included and wanted and an important part of the family? Maybe dad needs some me-time and you can provide that by having girl-time. Then he'll be less on defensive mode and more willing to share. Kids are independent when they feel secure. Provide security for this little girl, and she will want to branch out. Take it away, and she will turn inward. Honestly, you have the 4-6 hardest years in a child's life coming up. 14-20. I don't envy you. She will be the center of attention the whole time. Be prepared, go in with open eyes. Work on being a family, not on getting partner time only. Your man will thank you for it, and want partner time more if he feels his parent hat is being used responsibly. And the reason the answers are different here is that we are different people here, with different experiences :)