Slacker

I know, it seems to have been ages since I have posted. There has been lots going on...

11 baby ducks arrived February 23rd. Three went to another family (we had arranged that in advance to get better shipping rates) Of the remaining 8, one didn't make it. Just never really caught on to the eating thing. That kinda thing makes you wonder if you were cut out for this farming thing (clearly I am not since my "farm" animals are all pets). Then one of the ducklings developed a limp. Probably from being stepped on by one of its flock mates. We moved them from the rubbermaid tub they were in to the larger dog crate in the basement. Which made our living quarters smell a lot better. The limp resolved. They are growing like weeds. The SB refers to them as the demon babies as they are growing at an otherworldly rate. They are going outside soon as we can't keep up with their water and food needs much longer in the crate that they are in. Well, I guess we could. We did it with 11 ducks for a lot longer 3 years ago, but.....

The integration of flocks will be the next major step. Our alpha duck Sampson is very interested. It is impossible to say if it is benevolent, aggressive or some combination. There is one male duck in our current 7, and I do fear for that little one most. Despite their crazy growth, the babies are tiny and fragile compared with the older ducks. I think we are going to divide the duck pen and house. Have a sort of separate but equal situation where they can get tired of looking at each other through the fence before we actually let them co mingle. I imagine we will wear Sampson out. He is very serious about his job.

In other news, I went to Dragon Hill Farm to see the new goatlings and pick the brain of my goat's farm mama about goat birthing. It will be our turn next year so I wanted some real info from a real human rather than just a book or YouTube video. One of Heidi's goats had given birth earlier in the day. Three tiny goatlings were snug in the stall with their mama. Did I mention that they were TINY? O.M.G. On our way back to the house, the other goat that was close had apparently gone on with having her babies right in the paddock with the other goats. We saw a tiny wet thing commando crawling in the pasture and Heidi grabbed the birthing kit and went to it. Two more were born within the hour. All healthy and strong. Wow. A LOT of slime in birthing. I got some good if brief experience. And I smelled very much of goat when I got home.

Today I am hosting a seed swap at the chapel next door. I have no idea how many people are going to show up. Over the years, I have learned that many gardeners, myself included, are absolutely INSANE. So it wouldn't surprise me to see a lot of people here at 10AM on a beautiful Saturday morning.

Millions of things to do in house, garden, farm and school work. Blogging probably the least important, but the most fun and I can do it while I drink my (much needed) coffee. Yay.

Season of Song

I have noticed the song birds are back. Or at least our paths are crossing more frequently now. My wake up and feeding time doesn't change much, but the light is creeping back into the mornings and I have caught a sunrise or two on the weekends when I round just a few minutes later. I love the peachy purple sky. Tonight it will be COLD. One of maybe two nights in the teens this winter. I look forward to the morning. There will be ice on the animals' water. They will be extra happy to see me. Hopefully I get done with the rounds before the cold seeps into my clothes and I can get back into the house before the teeth start chattering. I will have the luxury of going back to bed once everyone has what they need. I almost never do that, but it has been a long week and some extra sleep would be most welcome.

Ducklings arrive the week of the 20th. We have much to do to prepare for the onslaught of tiny peepers. A water management system is critical. The last time the basement practically flooded with the splashing. And the stink. Oi. I have been hearing horror stories of combining flocks, but we are just going to have to go slowly and carefully. We can divide the duck house and the pen in half so each flock has their own space until they get used to one another. I can only imagine the drama.

Follow up

The trauma of Tuesday was followed (WAY TOO) closely with the trauma of Thursday, which was less traumatic but still darned upsetting. My neighbor, a different one this time, called and said there was a dog near the goat pen. She called a few minutes later to say that the dog had gone over the (4 ft) fence and had attacked Ella. Luckily, the neighbor yelled and ran into the pen and the dog lept out the other side and was off. Ella wasn't harmed but again, everyone was freaked out. We are very thankful to our wee neighbors H and C for alerting their Mama to the fact that there was a dog in the yard. They were ON IT after the duck incident. Thanks guys and thanks to our fabulous neighbor S who make the rescue.

Another morning spent with the Animal Control Guy. We are not yet on a first name basis and I hope we don't get there. The description of the dog is markedly close to the dog who broke into the duck pen. The time of day was exactly the same. The guy whose dog killed the ducks swears his dog was at home. I don't believe him. He also tells me he is sending his dog to the country to live with his parents. I really hope I can believe that.

The goats have recovered well. The ducks are coming more slowly. Josephine was the last duck standing in the pen, the two other survivors managed to flee though I have no idea how. Josephine is the one who is only now coming back. Since Tuesday she has been sliding into the thousand yard stare for very long periods. None of them have been eating much. Today though, things seemed a little better. They ate some food. The squawked at me when I went outside and they made more in the way of general duck noises. The sounds are what we really miss. The SB most of all, as he is here more to listen. He is pushing for ducklings sooner rather than later so we can rebuild the flock. Three is just too few ducks. I can't say I am thrilled about stinky ducklings in my basement again, but it will be nice to be on the road to normal. Ducks are what pass for normal now.

It has been a very hard week. I was having significant anxiety at work this morning. I was waiting for the phone to ring with more bad news. I made the SB go check on the animals as soon as he got up. They were, and are fine. It is me that is the wreck.

And then there were three

Yesterday an off leash dog broke into the duck pen and killed seven of our flock. We were lucky that a neighbor found the dog in the act and pulled him out of the pen. Otherwise we would be completely flockless.

It was a grim day. We were interviewing at work so I had to maintain the happy face all day with the candidates, despite having run home for 90 minutes to collect the bodies, find the the missing ducks and talk with the animal control guy. Everyone was traumatized. Our neighbor, the SB, the remainder ducks.

I am still uncertain if one of them will make it. She is moving slowly today, whether from injury or shock I don't know.

Thanks to our neighbor, we have identified the dog and hopefully will work something out with the owner.

I try to comfort myself with the good life they led up until Tuesday morning.

The neighbors, friends and family have been amazing. It has been nice to hear from folks how much they like having these critters here in the hood.

Where does the time go?

Between the milking cottage project, the closet project, my recent OMG WILL IT NEVER END cold that I have had since effing Xmas eve, the regular recirculating list of cooking, cleaning, laundry, groceries and of course, the day job and the side work one begins to wonder if I will ever get back to the blog. Winter is usually a good time for this, but the addition of the closet project, (wherein we add two fabulously gorgeous cedar lined closets with vintage doors to a room and thereby double the number of closets in our house) has really taken up a lot of my free time. And I am starting a couple of on line graduate level courses through UVA. The busy just don't stop around here.

But, the animals are all well if tired of the damp. The goats are miserable and the ducks even seem tired of the mud and rain. A few days of warm and dry will turn things around for us all I think.

Onward.

It's darker with the light on

The SB and I were working on our porch a month or so ago and took down the security lights while replacing some of the porch boards. We haven't put the lights back up yet. Since then, I have been enjoying the dark-ish evenings and mornings. We are in the city, so it isn't really ever DARK. It is just less light. And I have found it is much easier to see if I am not straining to see around the shadows. I have been taking the goats out in the dark-ish. Closing up the ducks in their house or doing the morning feeding. I actually prefer to have the porch light off, if the porch and house lights are off it is even better.

Today I stopped by a neighbor's house on my way home from work to pick up some leftover straw that was in her garden. She apologized "It's dark out there...." Not a problem.

Seasonal Employment

Because we have been doing nothing other than working on the milking cottage since this time last year (if you include the design/siting and the harvesting and collecting of materials in addition to the more obvious fabrication) I decided to take a bit of a break this fall on the garden. I did make a feeble attempt to get things going this summer, but it was so hot and dry that things really didn't germinate. I do have a small patch of carrots, some arugula and a few beets, but that is it. Because there is currently nothing in the garden that I am too worked up a bit, I have decided to put the ducks to work at their intended tasks...

We got the ducks as garden helpers.... do you remember? They were supposed to take care of bugs and not scratch things up like chickens. Actually, I have not had a slug problem since I got the ducks, even though we don't have them in the garden that much. The reason we don't have them in the garden as expected is because of the leafy greens. Wow, those ducks can put a hurtin' on the spinach and the chard. But since I have neither spinach nor chard this fall, thanks to Mother Nature, who knew I needed a break, I have set the ducks to task. The past year I have been plagued by these very annoying bugs that have ruined the greens and some of the brassicas. I also have a squash bug problem. All this is probably due to intensive cultivation and being a wee bit lazy about cleaning up in the fall.

I am hoping that the ducks take to the task. My plan is to leave them in the garden in the mornings with only a light breakfast. In the afternoon we will let them out into the bigger yard and let them swim in the creek. It is a good deal for them, because it means more forage time, and they do live to forage. The bad thing is that they are going to get spoiled rotten and think that they deserve to be out of the pen ALL the time. I guess we deal with that when the time comes.

I have also started to consider a flock of chickens. We have a section of the garden where we have been growing corn/beans/squash together. Unfortunately, this makes it pretty much impossible to weed. I need some good working chickens in a movable pen who can take that section down to dirt and eat every seed and growing thing in the top two inches of soil. I think some chickens are the birds for the job. While we don't need more eggs, there do seem to be folks in the hood who would be interested. I bet I could get rid of as much as we could produce in that department as people aren't as squeamish about chicken eggs as they are duck... And I don't have any trouble getting rid of the duck eggs.

Now it is all about fencing and a movable pen. And some warm weather. The first frost came in solid last night. Everything was crunchy this morning and the duck and goat water had a skim of ice across the top. Welcome to the Season of Frost.